Jiraiya
Jiraiya (児雷也 - literally "Young Thunder"), the title character of the Japanese folktale Jiraiya Gōketsu Monogatari (児雷也豪傑物語, "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya"), is a ninja who uses shapeshifting magic to morph into a gigantic toad. The heir of a powerful clan in Kyūshū of the same name, Jiraiya fell in love with Tsunade, a beautiful young princess who masters snail magic. His arch-enemy was his one-time follower, Orochimaru, who mastered snake magic.
In popular culture
- In the tokusatsu superhero series Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya, Jiraiya is the protagonist of the series.
- Jiraiya (also known as Ikazuchi-Maru) is the protagonist in the tokusatsu movie Kairyū Daikessen (The Magic Serpent). He and his arch-nemesis Orochimaru transform into two daikaiju, a toad and dragon, respectively, and have a duel to the death.
- In the first game of the Tengai Makyō series, T'engai Makyō: Ziria, Jiraiya's name is spelled Ziria. He's a ninja from the Fire Clan who fights with a kodachi sword and has a pet frog which grows several times its size when Ziria summons it in combat. Tsunade is a ninja girl from the Roots Clan (the arch-enemies of the Fire Clan) who uses snails and a huge axe in her attacks and is in love with Orochimaru, a wandering warrior and poet who wields a naginata and snake magic. These characters all returned in a spin-off fighting game Kabuki Klash.
- In Final Fantasy XI, players can unlock a visual emote for their character(s) through a quest which requires the in-game job Ninja to be leveled to thirty. With it unlocked (and accessed by typing /jobemote nin), the player's character [regardless of current job] abruptly makes a gigantic toad appear (which clearly pays tribute to Jiraiya due to the Ninja requirement) below them as they stand on top of it, with each in-game race making a specific pose during the emote's duration.
- In Naruto, a popular manga and anime television series, Jiraiya appears in the series as a ninja with the ability to summon giant toads. Along with the series' versions of Tsunade and Orochimaru, he is part of a trio of legendary ninja known as the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja). Furthermore, the anime episode depicting his demise is called "The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya."
- Jiraiya the Ninja Boy is the title of a manga by Shigeru Sugiura.
- One of the five characters in the Super Sentai series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger is named Jiraiya. Fittingly, as each Kakuranger is associated with an animal, Jiraiya uses toad-based mecha.
- Akimitsu Takagi's detective novel The Tattoo Murder Case uses the character representations in tattoos worn by three of the main characters: Kinue Nomura (Orochimaru, the snake), her brother Tsunetaro (Jiraiya, the frog) and sister Tamae (Tsunade, the slug; translated as Tsunade-hime), all set within a series of murders that takes all three's lives.
- In the video game Persona 4, Yōsuke Hanamura's Persona is a cartoony Jiraiya in a disco costume.
- Jiraiya Byakko is a character in the manga and anime series Karasu Tengu Kabuto.
- Australian horror and fantasy author Shane Jiraiya Cummings is named after Jiraiya.
- There are also films Jiraiya (1914), Nidaime Jiraiya (1917), Jiraiya Gōketsu Tan (1918), Gōketsu Jiraiya (Jiraiya the Hero, 1921), Jiraiya (also known as Ninjutsu Sanyō Den, 1937), Hibari Torimonochō: Jiraiya Koban (1958), World Ninja War Jiraiya (1988) and Kunoichi Ninpō Chō: Jiraiya Hishō (1995).