Rock Lee

Rock Lee
Naruto character
Rock Lee Rock Lee by Masashi Kishimoto
First appearance	Manga Chapter 36 Naruto Episode 21

Rock Lee (ロック・リー, Rokku Rī) is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto. He is a member of Might Guy's Team Guy, consisting of himself, Neji Hyuga, and Tenten. He is also considered part of the Konoha 11.

According to an interview with Masashi Kishimoto in Shonen Jump's Naruto Anime Profiles Episodes 1-37, Rock Lee is his most fun character to draw. He also has stated that Sakura Haruno and Rock Lee were meant to symbolize human weakness (at least in the beginning). Like Guy, Lee is modeled after the martial artist Bruce Lee and even has the same birthday.

In Shonen Jump's character popularity polls, Lee consistently ranked in the Top 10 in the first four polls, even making the Top 5 once. In the more current polls, however, Lee has fallen out of the Top 10 due to his lack of recent appearances. Despite this, he still ranks at a relatively high position.

Background

Lee is unable to use any type of ninjutsu or genjutsu. His fellow students teased him for this handicap while he was in the Academy (calling him a 'hot blooded dropout'), though Lee ignored their words and began specializing in taijutsu, hoping to become a powerful ninja despite his inability to use standard ninja techniques. Upon being assigned to Team Guy, Might Guy took a personal interest in Lee's attempts to prove himself and began to help him in his dream of excelling in taijutsu. With Guy's assistance Lee learned many advanced taijutsu abilities, bringing him ever closer to achieving his goal of becoming a splendid ninja.

Personality

File:Team Guy.png

Tenten, Lee, and Neji in Part II

Lee is known for speaking respectfully to others, being very proper in both English and Japanese language versions, and never using contractions. He also uses formal Japanese, applying proper titles ("-san", "-kun", etc.) to anyone he meets. His relationship with Guy has also caused him to acquire many of Guy's traits. Lee's green jumpsuit and shiny bowl haircut, having already had Guy's distinctive thick eyebrows (leading to the nickname of "Bushy Brow"), are direct results of his modeling himself in his sensei's image. In Part II he even begins wearing a tactical vest like Guy, the only difference being that Guy leaves his unzipped. Guy's influence has also caused the reshaping of Lee's personality, and his dedication to his promises as well as his belief that one cannot dislike food are also characteristics of Guy.

Lee has a number of other odd personality traits, though whether or not they are results of Guy's mentorship is unknown. One such trait is his apparent lack of common sense, believing at times that he can get what he wants by not wanting it. At other times, he takes copious notes, but forgets that he cannot check them during a fight. He also has a keen sense of honor and respects his opponents, refusing to hold grudges against those who have defeated him and returning favors to those that have helped him. Lee feels others should show the same respect, and is disgusted whenever someone is unnecessarily cruel to their opponent.

Lee's attempts to prove and better himself are recurring themes for his actions throughout the series. He is generally optimistic and believes that with hard work and passion, he can surpass a natural genius, but can be prone to depression when faced with setbacks. His drive to succeed is initially most evident with his rivalry with Neji Hyuga, having learned from Guy that having a rival will provide incentive to succeed. Neji, a "genius," finds Lee's efforts of bettering himself to be in vain, believing Lee to be stuck as a "failure" for the rest of his life. As such, Lee resolves to prove Neji wrong, and confronts another "genius," Sasuke Uchiha in an attempt to test his worth. While Lee maintains the desire to defeat Neji in a fight throughout the Chunin Exams, after Neji's eventual defeat by Naruto Uzumaki, another "failure", he seems less interested in this goal. Neji's rejection of his previous belief in fate may also have contributed to this, as he now respects Lee, believing that he will surpass the gifted with enough work, and that he would have given up if he were in Lee's situation.

During his battle with Gaara during the Chunin Exams, Lee's attempts to prove himself have terrible consequences for him. Gaara's abilities render Lee's attempts to damage him futile, and Lee's attempts at using his more powerful techniques to defeat Gaara leave his body broken. After Gaara's attacks further damage his body, crushing his left arm and leg, Lee is left injured so badly that he can no longer pursue life as a ninja. Despite this, Lee would often sneak out of his hospital room in attempts to train. When Tsunade offers him an operation that carries a fifty percent chance of returning him to his former state, and a fifty percent chance of killing him, Lee is hesitant to accept the operation. While he can't stand the thought of not living as a ninja, he is scared by the possibility that he will die before he can fully prove himself. Through Guy's encouragement and words of dedication to him, Lee goes through with the operation and survives, causing his resolve to get stronger to only increase.

Shortly after his introduction, Lee reveals that he likes Sakura Haruno, asking her to be his girlfriend and vowing to protect her immediately after they meet. While she does not seem to share these feelings for him and considers him weird, Lee maintains these feelings throughout the Chunin Exams. At one point, he distracts himself from looking for resting Genin groups with a task of catching falling leaves, the success of which would 'prove' Sakura loves him. He purposely abandons this in order to save the life of an endangered squirrel, leading him to find Sakura, also endangered. He comes to her rescue, against three to one odds and uses forbidden techniques in an attempt to protect her, considering her someone dear to him. Sakura becomes more appreciative after this, punching Naruto whenever he insults Lee. Despite this, she does not seem to have any feelings for him, as she refers to him by the more formal "Lee-san", as opposed to "Lee-kun". The only apparent return of his feelings is when she brings him a bouquet of flowers while he is in the hospital to wish him well, catching him when he trips and falls in reaching for them, and in her gentle wishes and telling him that if he ever needs anything all he has to do is ask, which moves him nearly to the point of tears. After the Exams' conclusion, Lee's interest in Sakura goes largely unaddressed. Despite this, when Naruto fights Lee in the Lee's Dojo arc, he transforms into Sakura, causing Lee to forget about the fight long enough for Naruto to attack him, and in Part II, he is especially pleased that Sakura is doing well against Sasori. Also Lee envisions Sakura when fighting his clone, resulting in Lee figuring out how to win that battle.

Abilities

Guy's leadership has also influenced Lee's training habits, which, coupled with his hard-working resolve, has allowed Lee to rapidly improve. When making a promise, for example, Lee assigns himself arduous tasks to complete in the event that he doesn't provide. For example, he promises himself that if he cannot do a certain number of exercises in a row, he will have to do a larger number of other exercises. As he usually barely fails each goal, he usually trains for a long period of time on each promise. Since Guy began training him, Lee has worn heavy weights on his ankles, increasing his strength at the cost of inhibiting his speed to levels that his peers still consider quite fast. Upon removing the weights, Lee's speed vastly increases, making it almost impossible to see his movements with the unaided eye. As such, the removal of his weights is a huge trump card for Lee, and in most situations doing so can all but guarantee victory. Lee has trained so extensively he can run and even fight while unconscious, using nothing but pure muscle memory. Over the timeskip he becomes a Chunin, indicating his training has paid off well.

Through Guy's teachings, Lee has learned many powerful taijutsu techniques. The most basic of these is his Strong Fist style of combat, a martial art style focusing on external damage. Lee has also learned how to open the first five of eight chakra gates, a feat that is difficult for even the most talented ninja. Because of the danger to his body that gates' power presents, Lee is only permitted to open them in certain circumstances (such as life-or-death situations, protecting someone dear, or defending his way of the ninja). Lee has also learned or developed a number of taijutsu techniques that take advantage of the extreme power and speed he gains from opening chakra gates.

Lee has manifested a natural predisposition towards the Drunken Fist (酔拳, Suiken), a unique battle style that can't be learned or taught and is reminiscent of the actual Zui Quan martial art. When he drinks as little as one drop of alcohol, he becomes an unpredictable fighter. His actions while drunk are usually a combination of misguided attempts to impress Guy, regardless of whether or not Guy is around, and he drunkenly attacks any friend or foe that is near him. Guy explains that after Lee accidentally drank a small amount of sake, he proceeded to demolish the pub they were in, and it took the combined efforts of Guy and Neji to hold him down without harming him.

Other media

In the third Naruto movie, Lee acts as the third member of Team 7 for the movie's duration. During his battle with Kongou, Lee shows proficiency with nunchaku and a bo, both of which are made from his ankle weights. He is also seen using two movie-exclusive jutsu: Leaf Thunder Fist (Konoha Raiken), which delivers a spinning punch to an enemy, and Strong Thunder Lotus Chain (Gōrai Rensa), which consists of wrapping an airborne opponent in chains and then delivering a barrage of punches to them. He also stars in the Shippūden movie, where he uses the opening of the Eight Gates in tandem with his Drunken Fist-style of combat.

Lee is a common playable character in Naruto video games. As he cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu techniques, moves such as the Front and Reverse Lotuses and opening chakra gates serve as the equivalent of other characters' special ninjutsu moves. To reflect the strain on Lee's body, such moves generally take away some of his health. In the Clash of Ninja and Ultimate Ninja series, his health slowly drains after opening the gates, but his attacks become extremely strong. He also has variation of the Reverse Lotus in Naruto Ultimate ninja 3 called True Reverse Lotus (真裏蓮華, Shin Ura Renge) by opening the Gate of Happiness, that it is so fast, that makes Rock Lee look like a yellow lightning, while in a drunk state he can perform Drunken Lotus (酔蓮華, Sui Renge).

Sources

• First Official Data Book (秘伝・臨の書キャラクターオフィシャルデータBOOK, Hiden: Rin no Sho Character Official Data Book)
• Second Official Data Book (秘伝・闘の書キャラクターオフィシャルデータBOOK, Hiden: Tō no Sho Character Official Data Book)
• Jump's 2nd Great Hero Book's Mini Data Book (秘伝・翔の書オフィシャルキャラクターデータBOOK mini, Hiden: Shō no Sho Official Character Data Book mini)
• Naruto anime and manga Guidebook (秘伝・翔の書オフィシャルキャラクターデータBOOK mini, Hiden: Shō no Sho Official Character Data Book mini)
• Taken directly from the Naruto manga chapters and anime episodes.