Kishimoto Reveals Why He Didn’t Bring Back Jiraiya In The War

Kishimoto has never been one to shy away from killing off characters in the Naruto series. In fact, one of the many reasons why fans were as invested in this story as they were was simply down to the fact that no character was truly safe, and even the main characters, such as Naruto and Sasuke, had death scares in the story. Naruto saw many significant characters die that fans never imagined would go on to lose their lives and one such character is Jiraiya.

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Jiraiya was influential in Naruto’s life, and without him, he certainly would not have been the man that he is today. As fans know, Jiraiya lost to Pain, and this loss was absolutely tremendous for not just Naruto, but the entirety of Konoha. In the Fourth Great Ninja War, Kishimoto brought back quite a lot of former ninjas using the power of Edo Tensei, but, surprisingly, Jiraiya wasn’t one of them. That said, Kishimoto has previously revealed the reasoning behind not bringing him back.

Jiraiya’s Death In Naruto Was A Shocking One

• Jiraiya Infiltrated Amegakure
• The Six Paths Of Pain Combined To Take His Life

Jiraiya’s death in Naruto was incredibly significant. Not only was it one of the best moments in the entire series, despite being incredibly sad, but it was also the turning point for Naruto Uzumaki himself. Jiraiya essentially built a network for him in a way where he set up ways to get key intel on various individuals. At one point, when the Akatsuki were actively hunting for the Nine-Tails, Jiraiya started gathering intel on them, with the aim of identifying the leader and taking them out from the top. This was Jiraiya’s master plan, and, if successful, he would have essentially succeeded in defeating the Akatsuki and possibly leading the other members to scatter. This was a high-risk high-reward move, and one challenge that Jiraiya was certainly willing to take.

To accomplish this task, he infiltrated the Hidden Rain Village, and was immediately found out by Konan and Nagato. Here, Jiraiya ended up confronting the Six Paths of Pain, and at this point, he gave it his all. Despite tapping into the power of Sage Mode, Jiraiya couldn’t win. In fact, he took down three of the six Pains, yet he ended up losing. This was simply down to the fact that Jiraiya did not know the secret of Pain himself, and that was his biggest undoing. Despite having all the intel that he did, he did not know the functioning and the ins and outs of the Rinnegan, and paid a massive price for it.

In the end, despite having the power of the Sage Mode and the two sages from Mount Myoboku on his side, he ended up losing his life. That said, he could easily have escaped if he wanted to. But, he did not run and chose to die a hero’s death, because he knew that for a Shinobi, the way they die is what truly matters. He left behind a message for Naruto Uzumaki to discover, and then, passed on, finally realizing that the boy he had been searching for all his life, that is, the Child of Prophecy, was Naruto all along.

Why Kishimoto Didn’t Bring Back Jiraiya

Kishimoto Did Not Want To Ruin Jiraiya’s Ending

When Kikimoto started bringing back shinobi one after the other during the Fourth Great Ninja War, fans were wondering whether Jiraiya would show up at some point. After all, he was one of the most powerful ninjas to ever exist, and at the same time, one of the most significant ones in the history of Konoha. Kabuto addressed this in the story itself, and according to him, his body was on the ocean floor, and getting it out from under tremendous pressure would have been impossible. Of course, that was certainly only the explanation within the Naruto world. If Kishimoto wanted to, he could’ve had Jiraiya appear in the war too, but he certainly didn’t. There is a reason for that and Kishimoto spoke of it in an interview once.

According to Kishimoto, the reason why he did not bring back Jiraiya was quite simple. He simply did not know how he could write his return in a good way. This essentially means that Kishimoto considers Jiraiya’s character arc absolutely perfect and acknowledges his importance in the grand scheme of things. Bringing him back would then force him to write a new ending for Jiraiya, something that he clearly was not willing to do. Jiraiya’s life and death had a massive impact on Naruto Uzumaki, among other characters.

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It was because of Jiraiya that Naruto was able to grow significantly both in terms of power and maturity, eventually leading him to understand what the cycle of hatred was, and how to break free of it. Without Jiraiya, Naruto would never have been the person that he is today, and bringing him back would undo all of that. It would set up complicated scenarios with Naruto and the war, and that was certainly something that the author didn’t want.

According to Kishimoto, Jiraiya’s death also brought Naruto closer to understanding Sasuke’s feelings in a way. Once again, bringing him back would undo all of that, and there simply wouldn’t have been a good way the story could have concluded this character arc if he returned. The best way that Kishimoto could have taken the story forward was to simply let Jiraiya be and that is what he did.

Should Kishimoto Have Reanimated Jiraiya As Well?

Jiraiya Staying Dead Was The Perfect Decision

Kishimoto could easily have reanimated Jiraiya if he truly wanted to. But, the fact that he didn’t prove that he knew in his heart that after the conclusion he gave to Jiraiya, bringing him back was not going to be a good idea. When an author kills a character permanently in the story, then, they should not bring them back. Of course, there are many ways in which resurrection can actually aid the story and, in the case of the main characters, this works to quite an extent. For instance, both Naruto and Sasuke had a death scare in the Fourth Great Ninja War, where they could easily have died, but ended up coming back to life, stronger than ever before. Other series have done similar things with main characters, but, for some characters who affect the main plot of the story in significant ways and turn the tides with their deaths, a return through resurrection of some sort is never a good idea.

If an author is unsure about a death of massive magnitude and wants to bring the character back for one reason or another, then they should not have killed them off in the first place. Kishimoto truly made a fantastic decision by not bringing back Jiraiya, and had he brought him back, the Fourth Great Ninja War would have been worse than fans know it to be.

Naruto is available to read on the MangaPlus and the Shonen Jump app. Fans can read the official release and support the author by doing so.

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Naruto

Release Date

October 3, 2002

Creator

Masashi Kishimoto

Number of Episodes

220

Streaming Service(s)

Netflix
, Crunchyroll
, Amazon Prime Video
, Peacock
, The Roku Channel
, Amazon Freevee
, Hulu
, Hoopla
, Pluto TV
, Tubi