Jiraiya
Jiraiya (児雷也 - literally "Young Thunder"), the title character of the Japanese folktale Jiraiya Gōketsu Monogatari (児雷也豪傑物語, "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"), is a ninja who uses shapeshifting magic to morph into a gigantic toad. The heir of a powerful clan in Kyūshū of the same name, Jiraiya fell in love with Tsunade, a beautiful young princess who masters slug magic. His arch-enemy was his one-time follower, Orochimaru, who mastered snake magic.
In popular culture
- Jiraiya (also known as Ikazuchi-Maru) is the protagonist in the tokusatsu movie Kairyū Daikessen (The Magic Serpent). He and his arch-nemesis Orochimaru transform into two daikaiju, a toad and dragon, respectively, and have a duel to the death.
- In Naruto, a popular manga and anime television series, Jiraiya appears in the series as a ninja with the ability to summon giant toads. Along with the series' versions of Tsunade and Orochimaru, he is part of a trio of legendary ninja known as the Densetsu no Sannin (Translates as Legendary Three Ninja). The anime episode depicting his demise is also called "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya."
- In Gin Tama, a popular manga and anime television series, Jiraia is the strongest ninja of the Oniwanbanshu.
- In the tokusatsu superhero series Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya, the protagonists’s hero identity is named after Jiraiya.
- In the first game of the Tengai Makyō series, T'engai Makyō: Ziria, Jiraiya's name is spelled Ziria. He's a ninja from the Fire Clan who fights with a kodachi sword and has a pet frog which grows several times its size when Ziria summons it in combat. Tsunade is a ninja girl from the Roots Clan (the arch-enemies of the Fire Clan) who uses snails and a huge axe in her attacks and is in love with Orochimaru, a wandering warrior and poet who wields a naginata and snake magic. These characters all returned in a spin-off fighting game Kabuki Klash.
- In Final Fantasy XI, players can unlock a visual emote for their character(s) through a quest which requires the in-game job Ninja to be leveled to thirty. With it unlocked (and accessed by typing /jobemote nin), the player's character [regardless of current job] abruptly makes a gigantic toad appear (which clearly pays tribute to Jiraiya due to the Ninja requirement) below them as they stand on top of it, with each in-game race making a specific pose during the emote's duration.
- Jiraiya the Ninja Boy is the title of a manga by Shigeru Sugiura.
- One of the five characters in the Super Sentai series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger is descended from the title character Jiraiya the Gallant. Fittingly, as each Kakuranger is associated with an animal, Jiraiya uses toad-based mecha.
- Akimitsu Takagi's detective novel The Tattoo Murder Case uses the character representations in tattoos worn by three of the main characters: Kinue Nomura (Orochimaru, the snake), her brother Tsunetaro (Jiraiya, the frog) and sister Tamae (Tsunade, the slug; translated as Tsunade-hime), all set within a series of murders that takes all three's lives.
- In the video game Persona 4, Yōsuke Hanamura's Persona is a cartoony Jiraiya in a disco costume.
- Jiraiya Byakko is a character in the manga and anime series Karasu Tengu Kabuto.
- Australian horror and fantasy author Shane Jiraiya Cummings is named after Jiraiya.
- There are also films Jiraiya (1914), Nidaime Jiraiya (1917), Jiraiya Gōketsu Tan (1918), Gōketsu Jiraiya (Jiraiya the Hero, 1921), Jiraiya (also known as Ninjutsu Sanyō Den, 1937), Hibari Torimonochō: Jiraiya Koban (1958), and Kunoichi Ninpō Chō: Jiraiya Hishō (1995).
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