Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-5085906-20180414195155

Naruto has plenty of cool characters (and a dozen shitty ones, might I add). So, I wonder which one is your favorite? Pick one and explain why you picked them. I'll also allow characters from Boruto, if there are any you want to pick.

Mine is Jiraiya. I'll be honest, he wasn't always my favorite. Part I of Naruto began airing in our local TVs when I was pretty young, so I was more or less drawn to characters that were more..conventionally cool. Like Kakashi and the sorts, you know - mask, dark clothing, ladies love him. So characters like Jiraiya and Gai didn't really do it for me back then. But as I grew up, learned a tad more about storytelling and got to watch Jiraiya develop as a character and even get his definitive chance to shine (before dying, sadly), I looked back on his character and I realized - holy shit, this guy was cool as hell all along! From that time he undid Orochimaru's seal to that time he summoned a large toad in the middle of Konoha to that one time ITACHI himself warned Kisame of his strength, I realized that Kishimoto was setting him up to be way more than a comic relief character. In a sense, I was also impressed by Kishi's ability to turn such a sleazy, borderline sexual offender character into one you find yourself rooting for. Naruto and DBZ marked my foray into anime, so understandably up until that point I hadn't seen many cartoons that were able to do that. I also remember being pleasantly surprised at his quote regarding peace, how we would achieve peace if only we spared time to talk to and understand others. Such a simple solution, but presented in such a beautiful way that befits Jiraiya. For all I care, bits like these was Naruto writing at its finest.

I also liked his fighting style and it's really sad that Kishimoto didn't introduce more fighters like him or Hiruzen. He was one of the few fighters capable of rivaling Kage-level shinobi that didn't have some bullshit kekkei genkai or some chakra gift given to him by a primordial god. In my opinion, he embodied what it means to be a hard-working genius and deserved the title more than Naruto. He had a wide repertoire of jutsu, but he also had limitations to those jutsu and he had to use less than perfect means to barely overcome those limitations. I was honestly excited for Konohamaru in Boruto because I believed he was being set up to be the next Hiruzen, but so far I am not impressed by his abilities.  