The Super Beast Imitating Drawing is a technique that allows the user to bring ink drawings to "life" and act accordingly to the user's will.
Usage
The ninja uses chakra-infused ink to quickly draw objects onto his scroll. The moment the brush is removed, the images leap from the paper, grow to life-size, and act according to the user's will. Because they are made of ink, a single blow is usually enough to dispel them. For discreet communiques while undercover, Sai is able to turn the words he writes into small animals, allowing them to travel unnoticed to the intended target, after which the ink animal requires a scroll to revert back into written information.[2] Few techniques rival it in terms of versatility.
List of Drawings
The strongest feature of this ninja art is its ability to create various effects based solely on the user's ingenuity. In addition to the animals it is normally used to create, Sai can produce explosive tags.[3]
Influences
Two different aesthetic designs used for the technique.
This technique is in reference to the Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga (lit. Animal-person Charicatures), or Chōjū-giga for short, a set of four picture scrolls belonging to the Kōzan-ji Temple in Kyōto, Japan and sometimes credited as the first manga. The scrolls depict various anthropomorphic animals dancing and playing about in a lively ceremony, which seems to be the basis for Sai being able to animate his own drawings for various purposes.
Inojin Yamanaka's usage of the technique differs from his father's in terms of the aesthetic design. Unlike Sai's round drawings, Inojin's have sharp, straight lines. Inoji remarked that his father's sense of style appears to be "old-fashioned" compared to his own.[4]
Trivia
- According to Sai, this technique does not work as well in rain.[5] In the anime, however, Sai can use this technique as an umbrella, possibly using a water-resistant ink.[6]
- In Rock Lee's Springtime of Youth Full Power Ninja Chronicles, Rock Lee was able to paint mice with the head of Might Guy. Tenten painted a large, "cute", humanoid bunny and panda bear. Sai still had to perform the technique to animate their drawings.
