S.H. Figuarts - Jiraiya

An old man mentor figure is exactly what the Naruto show needed, and he was brought in at just the right time. Every Shonen anime has several teachers that help the main character progress to their next level of power in order to overcome their obstacles in battle. Jiraiya is no different! By the time he meets Naruto, he is in his early 50s. He is funny, if a somewhat perverted character who travels the world doing research for his romantic novels, and spies for the Village Hidden in the Leaves to gather intel about threats. As an aside, his name translates to "Young Thunder".

He meets a young Naruto and teaches him how to summon battle toads, unlock Sage mode, and control the Nine-tailed fox inside. It is implied for a long while that he is a very powerful ninja, one of the legendary Sanin who defeated the warlord Hanzo. It is not until his final battle that you see how incredible his ability is using summons and Sage mode is. The character of Jiraiya is inspired by a Japanese tale called "The Tale of Jiraiya the Gallant". In the original tale, he is a shapeshifter who takes the form of a giant toad who falls in love with the Slug princess, Tsunade. He is rivalled by the snake shifter, Orochimaru, all of whom are powerful shinobi in the show. He was also the sensei to Naruto's father, Minato!

This figure does quite a few things very well. For one, likeness, paint and sculpt is totally spot on. Though it would've been cool to get a deluxe figure where he has the Sage mode face and his the two elder summon frogs on his shoulders, he's pretty great for his standard version. They used their formula in making baggy pant knee joints from the DB figures and it works well here. They include the vest and scroll at his back, and his hair does have some articulation at the ponytail, which is quite in keeping with how he'd toss his hair when going for a dramatic, over-the-top stance.
He's got the usual hands and faces as well as a few other nice accessories.



Sculpt&Paint: 4/5 Super well-done paint and sculpt. The likeness is fantastic, and the paint is cleanly supplied throughout. SH Figuarts made a good choice for the softer flexible materials and ways the baggy clothes worked into the sculpt. The scroll on his back is great added value and the feet are probably the best sculpted and painted out of the line (they tend to look mushy and ill-defined in most of the figures). No shading as usual, though the hair due to the sculpt creates some natural shadows.

Articulation: 5/5: (39): He has amazing articulation as per usual for SH Figuarts, but somehow, despite being very top heavy and sculpted with lots of clothing, has an AWESOME range in his diaphragm and waist. I love that the hairpiece at the ponytail is articulated to allow his iconic hair swooshing! It's a thing, people. His vest is flexible enough to be barely hindering any movement.

Price/Availability: 4/5 It's not like he's cheap...I believe he was a web exclusive like Madara Uchiha, so the average price was and still is around 90 CAD. You can get that on Amazon and with prime makes t worth your while! He's still readily available.

Accessories: 5/5 This rating is a tougher call. He's got the iconic popsicles he shared with Naruto, the hands, extra faces (I love the cocky yelling expression) and the Rasengan. He does have a ton of accessories, but using my criteria...nearly EVERYTHING? It would have been nice to have a face swap for his sage mode, along with his ma and pa frogs that rested on his shoulder during the Pain fight. That said, if they do continue to make more figures, I'm sure they will release a Sage Mode variant like they have (TWICE) with Naruto in order to get our hard earned collector money. Curses...because I know I'll probably end up buying it...

Fun Factor: 4/5 This is an AMAZING figure. I love it in almost every way, but I probably wouldn't make it top 5 because of the sheer weight. It's got fairly good balance, but the ankles are small compared to the sheer bulk higher up, so he tends to fall a bit. I may put some polish in the joints to get them a bit tighter. Aside from that, it's got great shelf look, and he's pretty tall, plus I can't get over how neat it is to pose the hair around.

Verdict: 22/25 Great! He's an all-around cool figure, and one of my favourite characters in the anime. He's got a funny personality, and you never really see exactly how powerful he can be until a big final confrontation. I'm glad they made a figure of him because of how the engineering, sculpt and paint worked so well here.

It was a double thick box due to his large flared vest

Back view: Note the super long hair.
He turns this into a spiked weapon at one point! 

Them's some noice accessories! 

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Close up: Really nice paint on the eyes and red shadow bits. His headband, rather than having the Konoha leaf
says "Oil" as a homage to how he trained at Mount Myoboku at the Fountain of Oil to become a Toad sage.
This also helps since his headband has no political affiliations on it for his spy gig. 

Really good butterfly joints! 

His face gets a little overshadowed by the hair
but still a good striking pose of his intro to the show
when he meets Naruto. 

The summon sigil on his hand is so tiny. *Claps for the painter*

Not the most flexible of kicks, but the softer clothing does
somewhat impede range. 

Not bad for sitting, though the vest
raises him up a bit too high. 

That's right. Every teacher of Naruto and
student and his son pretty much know the
Rasengan. 

In the show, he also creates a massive version that is bigger
than most rooms. 

Naruto's is still the biggest. He's hella short compared to
Jiraiaya though, which is in keeping with the show. 

Who Rasengan'ed it best?!

Knights of the Rasenga table. 

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Want some? 

Writers gonna read. 

Seriously, that print is impressive.
It's from this book "Tale of a Gutsy Shinobi" that
Minato took the name Naruto from. 

He's mad now!

He's gonna lose his sandal! 

Even the detail here is pretty good.