Out of the three legendary Sannins in Naruto, the only one who received all the love and appreciation from fans was Jiraiya. While Tsunade and Orochimaru had their own narratives, Jiraiya was the one who became the fan favorite because of his bond with the protagonist, Naruto. But not every Naruto fan liked the legendary mentor.
A faction of Naruto fans were not happy with Jiraiya’s actions in the story, as they felt that he didn’t contribute much to Naruto’s character development. They believed that Jiraiya’s role was quite selfish, and most of the time he focused more on himself rather than training Naruto to be a powerful Shinobi that could have made his journey easier.
One such fan listed eight reasons that proved Masashi Kishimoto’s creation of Jiraiya’s character was not what he envisioned it to be. These reasons explain why Jiraiya was not only a wrong influence on Naruto, but a bad character altogether.
1. Jiraiya’s Perverted Nature Took Over His Need To Train Naruto
Reddit user u/sunaesw posted a discussion thread on the social media platform where they discussed how, contrary to what other fans believed, Jiraiya was not a highly esteemed character.
Jiraiya is a very frustrating character. (Naruto rant)
byu/sunaesw inCharacterRant
He spent most of his time trying to watch women in bathhouses and claimed his actions to be part of his research. He even ignored Naruto for his “research.”
Not only that, the legendary Sannin took advantage of Naruto when he stole his money to spend it on alcohol and gambling, despite being a wealthy man himself. In fact, when Jiraiya first met Naruto, he agreed to teach him his powerful jutsus only when Naruto would show him his infamous sexy jutsu.
2. Jiraiya’s Behavior Towards Konan Was Also Inappropriate
As Naruto fans know, Naruto was not the only student that Jiraiya took under his wing. He even mentored Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan from the Amegakure village. He met them when they were ten years old, and instead of killing them, he decided to turn them into better Shinobis by teaching them and making them follow the right path.
His perverted nature was also seen during one of his interactions with Konan when he asked her to come see him when she turned eighteen.
Although the context of the narrative was something else, this is not something a teacher or mentor should say to their students.
3. He Couldn’t Live Upto His Own Teachings
When Jiraiya first started his journey with Naruto, he discussed with him the “three taboos of Shinobi,” which were the temptations that could ruin a ninja. These three taboos were alcohol, women, and money. However, just after he taught this incredible aspect of a shinobi’s life to Naruto, he was seen indulging in all three of them.
Granted, it was something that Masashi Kishimoto wrote for a comedic addition to the series, but some fans were not happy with it. Jiraiya came to be seen as a teacher who couldn’t even follow his own counsel, much less force Naruto to do so.
4. Jiraiya Did Not Contribute Much to Naruto’s Growth
In the span of Naruto’s journey with Jiraiya, the protagonist learns only two major powerful techniques. The first one was the summoning jutsu, where Jiraiya helped Naruto sign the toad contract, and the second one was Rasengan. Comparatively speaking to other characters, Naruto’s acquiring only two talents seems a bit weak given their two-year adventure together.
Although Jiraiya did help Naruto by removing the seal that was applied by Orochimaru, he mostly did it to help Naruto control and manipulate the chakra of the nine-tailed fox during the Chunnin exams. This might have helped Naruto, but it also increased the risk of Kurama taking over his body.
5. Naruto’s Growth Was Less Compared to His Other Team 7 Members
All three members took training under the three legendary Sannin. Sasuke went on to be mentored by Orochimaru; Sakura decided to learn medical ninjutsu and chakra control from Tsunade; and Naruto decided to travel with Jiraiya. Out of the three, Naruto was the one who witnessed the least amount of development in his power.
While he became more understanding of his surroundings, it was nothing compared to what Sakura and Sasuke achieved.
Sakura was the one who saw the most growth, as she not only became a strong shinobi, she also excelled in medical ninjutsu. Sasuke, on the other hand, went through something that changed him completely. He was able to stand up to his brother Itachi.
6. Jiraiya Failed Naruto Emotionally
Jiraiya’s relationship with Naruto is one of the main things that helped Naruto move forward in life. However, this relationship only formed after the Chunnin exams. Before that, Jiraiya was absent for thirteen years. He never checked on Naruto, who was his deceased student’s child and also his godson.
He never cared to see what problems Naruto faced as a jinchuriki and as a shinobi who did not excel at anything except “never giving up.” It’s understandable that he was spying on Akatsuki and Orochimaru, but he could have easily taken out a day to check on Naruto, who essentially was a member of his family.
7. Jiraiya’s Work as a Spy Was Not So Great
The whole development of Jiraiya’s character at the beginning of the series revolves around the fact that he was gathering information about the mysterious Akatsuki organization and his Sannin parallel. However, the information he collected never really reached Konoha, as Orochimaru still managed to attack the village.
As for the Akatsuki, Jiraiya’s status as a legendary Sannin felt dull when fans found out that the head of the Akatsuki organization was one of his former students, and Jiraiya could not even figure it out, despite tailing them for so long.
8. Jiraiya’s Flaws Were Covered By Comedic Elements
It is pretty evident that Jiraiya was not the perfect character that fans worshipped him to be. Although he had good intentions while mentoring Naruto, his actions involving alcohol, women, and money spoke otherwise. If it had been any other character, fans would have criticized them and called them out for their irresponsible behavior.
But in the case of Jiraiya, it felt like Masashi Kishimoto covered his flaws and mistakes using humor, which initially worked.
Also, Naruto holding him in high regard despite the way he treated him initially also hid Jiraiya’s incapabilities as a mentor for the protagonist of the series.
You can watch Naruto on Hulu.
