Naruto is not just a tale of shinobi battles and the next big villain. The most attractive part of the franchise is the well-developed characters, their backgrounds, and motives. Masashi Kishimoto has carefully crafted each character, and the unrequited love between Jiraiya and Tsunade is one of the heart-wrenching aspects of the series.
Jiraiya, the perverted sensei and father figure of Naruto, has won the hearts of almost every Naruto fan. However, there’s more to his creepiness than what meets the eye. In fact, his obsession with the female form might stem from his complicated relationship with Tsunade.
Jiraiya Intentionally Acted Like a Pervert in Naruto to Hide His Love for Tsunade
Almost everyone around Jiraiya knew about his love for Tsunade. In fact, his feelings weren’t a secret to Tsunade either. But the biggest problem was that she never considered him to be more than a friend and could do anything to avoid hurting their friendship. She would rather knock him out than hear him confess to her.
It is possible that at some point in his life, Jiraiya realized it was necessary to hide his emotions for Tsunade lest it make her uncomfortable. So he found the best way to make her stay away, that is, his perverted tendencies towards women. Tsunade hated Jiraiya’s creepy behavior with her whole soul, and thus, Jiraiya’s chances diminished even more, but this time, intentionally.
Tsunade was also deeply in love with Dan Kato, and Jiraiya would not want to become a barrier to their happiness. He promptly left town to search for his own destiny and on his way, had many escapades with strong enemies as well as beautiful women. Jiraiya respected Tsunade and Dan’s love, but it would have been equally painful to see Dan fawning over Tsunade when that’s all he ever wanted to do.
Jiraiya’s descent into his perverted tendencies thus served as a perfect barrier and he made sure that Tsunade was disgusted enough with him never to acknowledge him as a potential partner.
Jiraiya Might Have Wanted to Blend in the Crowd
Another possibility is that Jiraiya acted like a pervert to mix in with the crowd wherever he went. If someone were looking for Jiraiya, surely they would not expect a drunk and perverted guy to be one of the strongest shinobi to exist. He does not raise a sudden flag in the eyes of someone looking for a spy.
Many Naruto fans want to love Jiraiya because of his role in Naruto’s life. But his habits of peeking on women as well as other unethical habits, deters fans. But that might be exactly why Jiraiya cultivated his bad habits, to deter people from him. He is a skilled and experienced shinobi who gathers intelligence. He is also powerful enough to hold his own against enemies.
At the end of the day, Jiraiya’s character is supposed to be funny and endearing, providing comic relief to the story. Rather than a super powerful mentor, he is a relatable character who offers plenty of laughs. Rather than making him a straight-forward hero, Masashi Kishimoto gave him more depth, and ultimately, all of this was done to make fans feel his loss as well and Naruto’s mental state once he lost his sensei.
You can read Naruto on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
