Naruto vs. Harry Potter

Naruto is the hottest manga/cartoon in China now. It has been the No.1 most searched manga keyword on Yahoo China ever since this blog started.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naruto)

Naruto is a Japanese manga about a bunch of teenage ninjas and their lives in a ninja academy. Is it just me or it sounds a lot like Harry Potter? Naruto, the main character, is also an orphan, just like Harry. When Naruto was a baby, the leader of his village sacrificed his own life to seal the nine-tailed demon fox inside Naruto. Therefore, Naruto has become the containment vessel for the demon fox. Doesn't this remind you of the business between Harry and Voldemort?

(http://www.buzzparadise.com/en_article.php3?id_article=358)

Harry has a girl best friend, Hermione, and a boy best friend, Ron; Naruto has Sakura Haruno (the girl with pink hair) and Sasuki Uchiha (the dark-haired one). Naruto and these two friends form a learning team together with the assigned leader, Kakashi Sensei. There are other three-people teams as well, and different teams compete and interact with each other much like the different Houses at Hogwarts.

Personally, I think the degree of similarity exits that can be achieved through random coincidence, but then again, how does that matter? In the world of business, Japan's Naruto and U.K.'s Harry Potter are both big winners. Geez, I wish I could come up with a story like that.