What is so great about Jiraiya?
09.06.2025 02:09
But you can’t take the pervert out of Jiraiya and still end up with Jiraiya.
This was probably one of the most pivotal moments in Naruto’s history. Okay, session over.
Given Naruto does not possess a Sharingan, Naruto literally couldn’t use the Chidori effectively even if learnt it.
Funnily enough, I would argue that his greatest strength is often his biggest vice. Curiosity.
It is the reason that people will always remember Naruto Shippuden OP 6 as one of the strongest openings in the series and why the Fated Battle Between Brothers and Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant are considered as two of the best arcs in the series. But most importantly…
Jiraiya has always been willing to trust that the next generation has better answers to peace than he does. Though he never finds an answer in his lifetime, Jiraiya is ready to die with a smile on his face because he knows that his legacy, though not complete, will be solidified by those who go after him. As soon as he trained Minato, he let him make his own path and thus led him to becoming the Fourth Hokage, and the most celebrated one at that. As soon as he trained the Amegakure siblings, he left them to make their own path and while theirs was initially of peace like him, they instead found Pain and the Akatsuki shaped the world like no other. And finally as soon as he trained Naruto, he knew he had to let him find his own path.
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Since Naruto wasn’t even aware of Nature Transformations until midway through Part 2, Jiraiya was literally saving Naruto from disappointment should he have stubbornly chosen this path [and the fact that he doesn’t know Lightning Release anyway is double the pain.]
Jiraiya’s desire to find Tsunade to have her be the Fifth Hokage instead of him leads the two to locating her, teaching Naruto the Rasengan, which in turn gains Tsunade’s respect and gets her to overcome her fear of blood and choose to become the Fifth.
It just happens to be the most famous example of loss that comes without preparation.
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Jiraiya’s curiosity is also what leads him to protect Naruto from the Akatsuki and later on desire to learn more about their plans, which becomes a major point in Part 2.
It is his way of life, the way he earns a buck, and it is also centered on the one person he’s always cared for the most. More on that in just a little bit. What is absolutely clear is that being a pervert is central to Jiraiya, as far as his introduction is concerned…
For a series that gets constantly clowned on about not respecting the dead, Naruto sure knows how to kill central figures. There is always a constant theme of regret, feeling like more time should have been given and maybe these people would have done greater things. Hiruzen, Minato, Danzo, Itachi, Shisui, most of the Uchiha clan, Yahiko, Asuma, Chiyo, The Jinchuuriki, Tobirama, Rin, Neji, Mu, Yagura, Shikaku, Dan, even Obito near the end, the list goes on and on. No matter how young or old they are, everyone always seems to die before their legacy is complete. Everyone always has to be comfortable with their untimely deaths and few shinobi ever feel like they have done all they should have.
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Second side note but this is also pretty interesting and I’m not sure when I’ll get to talking about it again. So when Jiraiya was telling Naruto that he’s not ‘cut out for that move…’ and that he knows ‘this real cool jutsu that so much mightier than the Chidori…’ there is so much to unpack here…
Now I don’t want to make this post too long but we obviously know what came of Jiraiya once his curiosity for information about the Akatsuki led him to Pain. But we also know his curiosity influenced a lot of his past decisions, chief among them being the Amegakure orphans. But what I also like about Jiraiya is that his greatest failures are things he never lived long enough to resolve.
Incidentally, I think Jiraiya was least prepared to let Naruto go and become his own man the most, and only his death freed him from that responsibility. Up until that point, he’d always dealt with people smart enough to find their way once they got the basics and while Naruto isn’t completely dumb, he has a lot more to prove. So for Jiraiya, that trust couldn’t come while he was alive, but once he was dying he understood Naruto had to be on his own. And because of that Naruto’s legacy led him to world peace and the Seventh Hokage status, the most celebrated not only in Konoha but in the world.
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But his death isn’t just sad because it’s tragic. It is bittersweet also because it considers one final aspect of Jiraiya’s character and what ultimately makes him a great teacher.
On the next page, he correctly identifies that it might have been Orochimaru’s doing. This does let us know one of two things. Either it’s a signature move from Oro’s part, or that the knowledge of Fuinjutsu that Orochimaru and Jiraiya have is limited to select shinobi that it’s easy to single out suspects. I lean towards the later being true.
Because of the incomplete nature of the Rasengan, Naruto was able to create the Rasenshuriken in Part 2, arguably one of the most broken techniques in the series considering what it ended up doing in base form and its variants.
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They are absolute denegerates and being a pervert is expected of them.
Following this, he correctly releases the seal and Naruto is able to perform the walking on water technique.
He correctly identifies the type of seal Naruto has for the Kyuubi, showing his knowledge of Fuinjutsu.
But by far, the biggest failure he could not live down was dying before he ever got the chance to resolve his feelings for Tsunade, despite her knowing about it.
Jiraiya died as he lived, curious. Curious for the one thing that would give his team a chance at avoiding a world where Pain won. He was introduced as a curious person who didn’t give up on his pursuits no matter what and that is also how he died. Full circle. I usually have problems with how sudden deaths come about but I can say that without a doubt Jiraiya’s death was one of those moments where a mangaka wanted to kill a character and anyone who read this arc was completely on board with it. Jiriaya’s end being tragic the way it was means that people will never truly forget what this man lived for. If it was peaceful, it would have been one of many bittersweet moments. But to have him die when both Naruto and Tsunade may have needed him the most…that was a mighty pen that will be remembered for years to come.
He had met Naruto for all of 15–30 minutes at this point and was able to gather the following information and each new information he states, reveals something about him…
Jiraiya’s introduction to Naruto is Chapters 90 and 91, where we get to see an interesting variation of the pervy character. It probably never gets discussed as much because of how the trope exemplifies something rotten, but normally whath occurs is that a character happens to go one of two ways…
It is his pervert nature that got him the book deal he currently has.
They are otherwise cool characters, with a surprising level of depth…but they are also perverts so eww. Extra points if they happen to be old men with white hair.
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Jiraiya is no different.
Jiraiya’s desire to let Naruto know about him possessing two chakra natures leads Naruto to learning how to use Summoning Jutsu, as well as using Kurama’s chakra to summon Chief Gamabunta.
He raised Naruto for nearly 3 years but placed a lot of emphasis towards him learning how to tame the 9 Tails, something that he never got to see the resolution of either.
He correctly identifies that a new odd seal is placed on top to mess with the original and thus Naruto cannot do his exercise properly. He had two Jounins prior to this point, one of them being Kakashi of the Sharingan, and they didn’t notice this discrepancy. This subtly lets us know he’s no mere Jounin level shinobi. [Of course, ragdolling a Jounin earlier does the trick too.]
But Jiraiya is an interesting example of pervert in the sense that Kishimoto did not just make him interested in being a peeper, but a peeper with a specific reason; research. Jiraiya states it himself that his behavior is mostly so he can have the right material to write his erotic bestseller books. In other words, he’s a pervert that takes advantage of the fact that there are other perverts willing to read raunchy material, and banks on it. You probably could take the pervert aspect out of a lot of characters and still end up with decent characterization, which is often why this trope is despised for making otherwise good characters slightly indecent.
But for anyone who has read the entire series, you notice that it is not just some love for steamy content that gets him to where he is. This is part of what makes Jiraiya interesting. His base gimmick is given depth by slowly revealing that he’s not just perverted, he’s curious for little details. This is immediately revealed in Chapter 91 in his introduction when he asks Naruto to perform the same walking on water technique he was attempting earlier.
We get to find out that Kakashi ended up with the Chidori while trying to add a Nature variant to Rasengan, but considering the raw output of the Rasengan, Naruto basically got the better end of the deal thanks to Jiraiya’s persuasion.
The question of peace, or rather the burden of it, was a question Pain never gave him the chance to find resolution on, despite him spending years towards finding something.
Side note, it is incredibly cool that Naruto basically had his chakra emission warped and was still able to do the technique long enough to gain Ebisu’s respect. From this point onwards, Jiraiya’s curiosity shapes Naruto’s journey in Part 1.
It is his pervert nature that gets him to accept Naruto as his student in the first place, if you recall.
That is what makes Jiraiya a great character. Cheers.
It is the book deal that needed him to get more research, thus ending up in Konoha [at least as per the first half of Part 1]