Might Guy

is one of the supporting characters in Naruto. Fansubs have often dubbed his name as Maito Gai, a direct and unaltered transliteration of the character's name, but the second official Naruto data book (Hiden: Tō no Sho) states his name as Might Gai. The English version of the anime and manga both use Might Gai as well.

In the Shonen Jump magazine, Viz rendered Gai's name as "Mighty Gai" in some of the earlier chapters; this was changed back to "Maito Gai" in most of the graphic novel stories and later changed to "Might Gai" when the guidebooks were released.

The name "Might Gai" is a joke aimed at the "hot-headed hero" archetype that appears in many movies and anime. Gai's appearance and mannerisms are similar to Bruce Lee's.

Background
Might Gai is the extremely zealous leader of Team Gai, consisting of Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, and Tenten. Known for his thick eyebrows, green jumpsuit, and shiny bowl haircut, Gai often refers to himself as. Gai's favorite foods are super-spicy curry rice and curry udon, though he finds it impossible to dislike food. His favorite phrase is "Bursting with youth!"

Gai is on good terms with all of his students, though seems to have a particular interest in Lee, who reminds Gai of himself when he was younger, in that they were both considered to be losers and have had to earn everything through hard work. As such, Gai puts much more interest in Lee's training than Neji's or Tenten's, continuing to train Lee long after the others have given up for the day. Because of this, and due to Lee's unyielding desire to master the art of taijutsu, Gai has taught Lee a number of dangerous and forbidden techniques, giving the stipulation that Lee can only use them under specific circumstances. Although Gai knows of the dangers that teaching the techniques to Lee entails, Gai wishes for Lee to be able to prove himself to be a splendid ninja, and as such turns a blind eye to the repercussions.

Chunin Exam arc
During the preliminary matches of the Chunin Exams, Gai takes the role of Lee's coach prior to his match with Gaara, giving him general advice on what to do. During the actual fight, Lee continually finds his fighting level to be inadequate in defeating Gaara, and each time Gai gives his consent for Lee to increase the strength of his attacks. When Lee begins to run out of options, Gai allows Lee to open the first five chakra gates in order to defeat Gaara. Although Lee does so, his efforts are unsuccessful and he is left heavily injured. When Gaara is about to kill Lee, Gai steps in to stop the match, not willing to allow anything to happen to Lee. As Lee is taken away to be healed, one of the medics informs Gai that the injuries to Lee's body are so severe that he will never be able to fight as a ninja again. Gai is crushed by this prospect, and regrets ever teaching Lee so many dangerous techniques.

A month later, Gai accompanies Lee in watching the final matches of the Chunin Exam. When the invasion of Konoha begins, Gai teams up with Kakashi in repelling the invading forces and protecting the unconscious spectators.

Return of Itachi arc
As Kakashi lies on the verge of defeat in his battle with Akatsuki members Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, Gai arrives in time to repel Kisame and save Kakashi. Itachi, not wanting to start a war, orders Kisame to flee. After getting Kakashi some medical attention, Gai follows the two and tries to sneak attack them, though ends up kicking Jiraiya in the face instead. After apologizing for his mistake, Gai learns that Jiraiya is looking for the talented medical ninja Tsunade, and asks that Jiraiya be sure to find her in the hopes that she will be able to heal Lee.

Search for Tsunade
Once Tsunade is found and returns to Konoha, she finds that the operation that will heal Lee has a 50% chance of death. Although Lee is reluctant to risk his life, Gaiconvinces Lee to go through with the operation, saying that all the work Lee has done means that he will definitely survive. In the event that Lee does die during the operation, Gai says that he will die too, as he has no point in living if he can't help Lee become a great ninja. Lee's operation is a success, and Gai visits him daily until he is ready to start training again.

Anime filler arcs
During the course of the filler arcs, Gai is the only adult to receive a considerable amount of screen time. When Lee's dojo goes unchallenged in one arc, Gai challenges Lee himself disguised as a stranger. Although the disguise is very bad, Lee never catches on that it is actually Gai. In The Third Great Beast arc, Gai begins training a visiting ninja named Yagura. Yagura traps Gai and Lee in a castle together and forces them to fight each other through artificial, mute proxies - they figure this out by communicating through Morse code, then break out by opening the first 5 gates, the stress of their high-speed attacks causing the constructs to break apart. Later, in the Konoha 11 arc, Gai leads Konoha's available Jonin to stop a suspected invasion by Takigakure, though in reality the Takigakure forces were just having a training exercise.

Rescue Gaara arc
Team Gai is assigned by Tsunade to assist Team 7 in rescuing Gaara. On their way to meet Team 7, Gai again encounters Kisame Hoshigaki, who wants revenge on Gai for hitting him during their last encounter. Gai, however, doesn't seem to remember Kisame, which greatly agitates the Akatsuki member. When Kisame succeeds in imprisoning Gai's teammates, Gai opens the sixth chakra gate and uses his Morning Peacock to defeat Kisame. As the group examines Kisame's corpse, they find that it was not Kisame, but merely a body double.

Upon reuniting with Team 7 and reaching the Akatsuki hideout, Team Gai is assigned to disable a barrier surrounding the hideout's entrance. Although they complete the task, they are forced to fight clones of themselves, though each member eventually succeeds in defeating their lookalikes. After Gaara is rescued, Gai carries Kakashi back to Konoha via a piggyback, the latter too exhausted to walk there under his own power. Their students are deeply disturbed by the sight, though Gai doesn't seem to notice and instead has a race with Lee to see who can reach Konoha first.

Personality
Gai believes that "hard work without believing in yourself is worthless", and as such trains by repeatedly jumping sideways and hitting mitts in an effort to better himself. Gai, and by extension Lee, lives his life by his own "My Rules" philosophy, which involves setting tougher goals for failure so something good comes of it. For example, he vowed to walk 500 laps around Konoha on his hands if he lost a contest with Kakashi, and proceeded to do so upon losing, even though people stopped paying attention eventually. Lee's willingness to train in the same manner as Gai seems to have caused him to surpass his master's stamina, as by the end of Part I Gai has difficulty keeping up with Lee, lamenting that he is not as youthful as he once was.

Gai is the self-proclaimed rival of Kakashi Hatake. Kakashi, however, is indifferent to their rivalry, which annoys Gai to no end. Gai randomly challenges Kakashi to contests of skill, and has a acquired a record of 50 wins and 49 losses in doing so. Given that the contests that make up this figure are so varied (ranging from Rock, Paper, Scissors to sumo-wrestling), this it is not much of an achievement on Gai's part. Nevertheless, Gai is proud of his record. In his rivalry with Kakashi, Gai has developed an effective counter against Sharingan users: by focusing on their feet, Guy can both predict the movements of the enemy and negate the Sharingan's necessity of having eye-contact. Currently, Gai is the only ninja who can use this technique.

Gai has many mannerisms unique to him in the series that are meant to be seen as corny and old fashioned, a reference to common clichés of anime. He is best known for his "nice guy pose", which consists of giving a thumbs up, winking, and smiling with teeth so white they give the proverbial "ping". This action is often used by both Gai and Lee to indicate commitment to a statement they had just made, their highest form of a promise. Gai's teacher-student relationship with Lee also carries distinct attributes, such as when Gai will punch Lee for a slight infraction of a rule. After Gai assigns Lee an arduous training task as punishment, meant to recapture Lee's focus and discipline, the two may then burst into tears and embrace, in brief regret for the strong blow Lee was given.

Abilities
Gai specializes in using taijutsu, and is able to use many powerful taijutsu techniques. While he is capable of using ninjutsu and genjutsu, he tends to choose not to, even going so far as to use regular disguises instead of the Transformation Technique. In the few instances that he has used ninjutsu, it has always been offscreen, such as when he summoned Ninkame prior to his first appearance. Despite his apparent decision to only use taijutsu, Gai is a talented ninja, graduating from the Academy at age 7 and becoming a Chunin at age 11. Itachi Uchiha has on different occasions warned others against underestimating Gai. Given that Itachi and his accomplices are extremely dangerous ninja, such a warning is an indicator that Gai is an excellent combatant.

Quotes

 * "Life treatin' ya good?!"
 * "Look deep into my eyes and accept my sincere apology, also notice my handsome manly features."
 * "That's it Lee! Run and run towards the sunset! But, remember not to undo your hairstyle!"
 * "Burst of youth"
 * "People call me the Leafs Noble Gentlemen"
 * (to Neji)"I was a failure when I was your age, but now I can even beat Kakashi, the elite genius. It's only a matter of time until Lee finally surpasses you!"

Speculation
Some fans have speculated that Lee and Gai may be related in some way because of the Naruto series' trend of making characters closely resemble their parents. However, it should also be pointed out that Lee had a different hair style and outfit before he started with Gai and that he changed to resemble Gai out of respect. Also if Gai were Lee's parent he would have had to have been 14 when he had Lee.