Jiraiya (Naruto)

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Jiraiya
Naruto character
Jiraiya by Masashi Kishimoto
First appearance	Naruto manga chapter 90 Naruto anime episode 52
Voiced by	Japanese Hōchū Ōtsuka[1] Toru Nara (as a child) English David Lodge[2] Brad MacDonald (as a child)[3] Richard Cansino[4] (Naruto: Ultimate Ninja)
Profile
Age	50[5]-51[6] in Part I
Date of birth	November 11[6]

Jiraiya (自来也, Jiraiya^?) is a fictional character in the Naruto universe created by Masashi Kishimoto.

Contents 1 Creation and conception 2 Character outline 2.1 Background 2.2 Personality 2.3 Abilities 3 Plot overview 4 Appearances in other media 5 Reception 6 References

[edit] Creation and conception

Jiraiya is named after the character of the same name from Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (児雷也豪傑物語, "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya").^[7] The Jiraiya in this story excelled in summoning a giant toad (the toad itself was sometimes called "Jiraiya") and toad magic. In that story, Jiraiya and Tsunade were a married couple. There, his name is written as "児雷也" meaning "Young Thunder" which in turn comes from the name Garaiya (我来也, "I came") from the Chinese story Kaishi (諧史).

Masashi Kishimoto originally planned to draw Jiraiya with a different design and with a different style of hair. He also intended for Jiraiya to summon Toads that were of a similar size to humans. However, this idea was deemed a failure.^[8] During an interview, he comments that, of the student-teacher relationships in Naruto, Jiraiya and Naruto's is the one he likes the most.^[9]

[edit] Character outline

[edit] Background

As a child, Jiraiya and his former teammates, Orochimaru and Tsunade, were students of the Third Hokage. After leaving the Third's tutelage, he traveled the world and discovered the residence of the toads, who trained him to call upon them in battle. During this time a prophecy concerning Jiraiya was told, dictating that he would travel the world while writing a book and meet a child who might bring either great peace or great chaos to the world. During his travels, Jiraiya and his former teammates fought with Hanzo, who rewarded their ability to survive his attacks through the title of "Legendary Three Ninja" (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin^?). Soon after this Jiraiya met Nagato, a boy he believed to be the child from the prophecy.^[10]Jiraiya trained Nagato and his friends, hoping to steer the boy down the path of good before returning to Konoha.^[11]

Upon his return, Jiraiya became the sensei of Minato Namikaze and two other unknown Genin. Years later, when Orochimaru betrayed Konoha and fled the village, Jiraiya pursued him, trying to convince his friend to come back. He failed in his attempt and resumed his travels of the world, wanting to follow Orochimaru's movements as well as the organization Orochimaru eventually joined, Akatsuki. Sometime around this time, Jiraiya was made the godfather of Naruto Uzumaki by Minato and Kushina Uzumaki because they decided to name him after the lead character in Jiraiya's first book.

[edit] Personality

Despite the fact that he periodically leaves Konoha, Jiraiya has maintained a strong allegiance with his hometown. He will also often come back to Konoha, even if it was to just spy on women in the bathing house. During Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha, he helps fend off the invading forces in order to protect the village. When Konoha finds itself in need of a new Hokage after the Third Hokage's death, Jiraiya volunteers to look for Tsunade so that she can become the Third's successor. He turns down the position himself, believing he isn't qualified for the title due to his inability to have saved the Third or Fourth from death. After he finds Tsunade and begins to suspect that she may be assisting Orochimaru, he makes it clear that he will kill her if she betrays the village. Tsunade ultimately turns out to be loyal to Konoha, and Jiraiya joins her in attempting to defeat Orochimaru.

Jiraiya is a self-proclaimed super-pervert with no equal and a frequent voyeur, going so far as to create the Transparent Escape Technique (透遁術, Tōton Jutsu^?, English TV "Transparency Jutsu") to allow him to spy on naked women without being caught (doing "research" as he calls it). He never actually hides his perversion and even seems proud of it, as seen when he told the Third Hokage about it when he was still a child.^[12] Despite this, Jiraiya doesn't like being called Ero-sennin (エロ仙人, Ero-sennin^? literally "Perverted hermit", English TV "Pervy Sage") by Naruto in front of others. His perversion has been used against him on occasion, as seen when two Akatsuki members use a hypnotized woman to draw him away from Naruto. While their effort initially succeeds, Jiraiya eventually sees through their plot due solely to the fact that women do not typically express interest in him. His peeping habits have also caused him great injury on one occasion; when caught spying on Tsunade in his younger years, she proceeded to break both of his arms, six of his ribs, and ruptured a number of organs in fury.

During his travels, Jiraiya began to write a number of books. His first book, a sort of autobiography about a character named "Naruto," found little success. To improve the sales, he wrote a book based on his experiences in love, which came to be known as "Come Come Paradise" (イチャイチャパラダイス, Icha Icha Paradaisu^?, English "Make-Out Paradise"). The book proved an instant success and has since spawned a number of sequels. The popularity of the Icha Icha series seems to have paid off well, as Jiraiya's checkbook reveals that he is fairly wealthy (Naruto exclaims that there are quite a few zeros at the end). Despite his wealth, Jiraiya is not above taking Naruto's money and spending it on sake and women.^[13]

[edit] Abilities

Jiraiya is known as the "Toad Sage" (蝦蟇仙人, Gama Sennin^?, English TV: "Toad Mountain Sage") due to his utilization of a number of toad-related jutsu. Many typically deal with summoning toads, and he has risen to a level of ability that allows him to summon Gamabunta. He can even summon the nearly indestructible esophagus of a great, fire-breathing toad with Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind (口寄せ・蝦蟇口縛り, Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari^?, English TV "Toad Mouth Trap"). Once the jutsu has been used to cover the area, Jiraiya can control it as he pleases and uses it to trap most ninja.^[14]In desperate situations, Jiraiya is able to switch into a "Sage Mode" (仙人モード, "Sage Mode"^?). Because he has not yet learned how to utilize the mode by himself, he must summon two elder toads to assist him, who further aid him by contributing their own techniques to a battle. Despite the advantages the form allows him, it gives him webbed-hands, a large nose, and a number of warts, and thus he dislikes using the form since his new look scares away girls.^[15]

In addition to calling upon toads for aid in battle, Jiraiya has a number of jutsu he can use independently. He uses Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld (土遁・黄泉沼, Doton: Yomi Numa^?, English TV "Earth Style: Dark Swamp") to create a large swampland under a target that is capable of completely engulfing them.^[16] He can spit either fire or oil from his mouth, allowing him to burn or drench opponents as he pleases.^[15] Jiraiya has also been shown to use his hair for jutsu, and can grow and sharpen it to surround him as a shield, protecting him from harm and injuring attackers, or use it to bind and impale opponents.^[15] His Toad-Silhouette Control Technique (蝦蟇平影操りの術, Gama Daira Kage Ayatsuri no Jutsu^?) allows him to merge with the shadows of others, and through this he is able to take complete control of their body.^[17] Jiraiya was taught how to use the Rasengan by Minato, and has since developed a variant called Super Great Ball Rasengan (超大玉螺旋丸, Chō Ōdama Rasengan^?), though its capabilities are currently unknown.^[15] He is, however, not well suited for genjutsu, and thus cannot effectively utilize it in battle.^[18]

Jiraiya has been shown to be very knowledgeable with sealing jutsu, and has used a number of them throughout the series. When first meeting Naruto, he quickly deduces that the seal on Naruto's stomach keeps the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox sealed within him though also allows its chakra to mix with his own.^[19] He later creates a method of suppressing the demon fox's influence over Naruto through the Subdue Seal (押封印, Ō Fūin^?), which activates by simply coming into contact with Naruto's body.^[20] In addition, he can utilize the Fire Sealing Method (封火法印, Fūka Hōin^?, English TV "Fire Seal") to contain a fire within a scroll for future study.^[14]

[edit] Plot overview

Jiraiya's initial usage of his title as Naruto's godfather consists of instructing him on how to better utilize the demon fox's chakra and teaching him a number of his father's techniques. Jiraiya later takes Naruto with him at the end of Part I for two-and-a-half years of training to help him better face the challenges that await him in Part II. During this time he tries to give Naruto more access to the demon fox's chakra by using the key to the seal left to him by Minato, though only injures himself and weakens the seal in the process.

The appearances of Jiraiya that are not a result of his time with Naruto are when he reports to Konoha about the information he has gained on Akatsuki and Orochimaru. After finding a lead on the Akatsuki leader, Pain, Jiraiya goes to Amegakure to investigate. Upon meeting Pain he recognizes him as his former student Nagato. Disappointed that the child in the prophecy took the path to the world's destruction, Jiraiya battles with him. Once Pain is revealed to have six bodies in total, each of which once belonged to a ninja Jiraiya met in his travels, Jiraiya realizes the truth behind Pain. Outnumbered, the six bring Jiraiya to the verge of death, leaving him unable to move or speak. Doing what little he can, he transfers the secret of Pain to one of the elder toads, realizing that Naruto is the child foretold in the prophecy, not Nagato. As the toad flees, Jiraiya sinks into the lake surrounding their battlefield, which Pain notes to be his death.

[edit] Appearances in other media

Jiraiya is a playable character in most Naruto video games, including the Clash of Ninja series and the Ultimate Ninja series.^[21][22] In the first game of the Ultimate Ninja series he only appears as a support to Naruto during his special techniques. Since Ultimate Ninja 2 he is an available character and has been given variations of the Rasengan, fire techniques and toads summoning techniques. Naruto Shippūden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX marks the first appearance of Jiraiya in a video game set in Part II, with the second one being Naruto Shippūden: Narutimate Accel.^[23] Jiraiya only appears in the third original video animation but he does not take a big role.^[24]

[edit] Reception

Jiraiya has appeared in several of the main Shonen Jump popularity polls. In the second and third he ranked in the top ten. In the fourth poll he ranked at 11th.^[25] Merchandise based on Jiraiya has also been released, including key chains, action figures and his headband.^[26][27][28]

Several publications for manga, anime, video games, and other related media have provided praise and criticism on Jiraiya's character. DVDTimes praised the character as the greatest character Masashi Kishimoto has ever created in this series. They note that besides the fact he fills the comical pervert archetype he is one of the strongest characters in the series and just about everything about him is rough and unpredictable.^[29] Activeanime remarked Jiraiya’s training with Naruto as a good comedy relief and noted how similar are both of these characters.^[30] Animeondvd also praises Jiraiya’s introduction in the series noting him to be a very funny character.^[31]

[edit] References

v • d • e Naruto by Masashi Kishimoto Franchise Volumes (Part I & II) • Naruto episodes (Seasons 1-2 · 3-4 · 5-6 · 7-9) • Naruto: Shippūden episodes • OVAs • CCG Characters Naruto Uzumaki • Sasuke Uchiha • Sakura Haruno • Kakashi Hatake • Jiraiya • Orochimaru • Tsunade • Shikamaru Nara • Gaara • Antagonists Movies Naruto the Movie 1 • 2 • 3 • Naruto: Shippūden the Movie 1 • 2 Video games Clash of Ninja (series) • Ninja Council series • Ultimate Ninja series (Storm) • Rise of a Ninja • Path of the Ninja Other Jutsu • World of Naruto