In the Tarot, the Hermit card refers to one who has chosen to seclude themselves from society in an attempt to find wisdom within themselves. With that wisdom comes the occasional weird and perverted quirk, massive amounts of spiritual power tailor made for weird martial arts skills and every other trait on Earth needed to make them some of the greatest teachers to exist. These wizened old men that are set to enter the Death Battle stage next embody this to a tee; once legendary figures in their youth, they have settled down into the mischievous yet unstoppable paragons their students have pushed themselves to match and eventually surpass.
Master Roshi, the Turtle Hermit of Dragon Ball. Jiraiya, the Toad Sage from Naruto. Age matters not when dealing with these two archetypal masters in anime and manga history, considering that they are no less dangerous or formidable to face in a fight. Even long after their pupils have gone to outgrow them, they still have more than enough left in the tank to face down the gods and demons that plague their worlds and prove why they are considered legends to begin with. Their legacies and lives are on the line in a matter of days, and only one of them can leave on their own power and stand unrivaled as Shonen Jump’s most formidable mentor figure.
Background
Roshi
Before he was the famed Turtle Hermit of the Turtle School, Muten Roshi (which isn’t even his real name by the way) was a student of Master Mutaito, the younger brother of Fortuneteller Baba. An aspiring martial artist, he trained under Mutaito alongside his then-friend and rival Shen, the future Crane Hermit of the Crane School.
At some point during his training, Roshi became the first person to climb to Korin’s Tower in order to receive training from Korin, an 800-year old talking cat and martial arts master. His training was simple: catch Korin to gain access to the Sacred Water, a mystical liquid rumored to make whoever drank it incredibly stronger and can be used as a tool to undo brainwashing and mind control (as shown in the Garlic Jr. Saga and Dragon Ball GT). It took Roshi 3 years to catch Korin and finally drink the Sacred Water, but it would later be revealed that there’s nothing special about the Sacred Water. It’s simply tap water and Korin’s training is what made the drinker stronger. But as a reward for being the first person to reach his tower, Korin gave Roshi the Flying Nimbus.
Unfortunately in Roshi’s life, Earth was attacked by the Great Demon King Piccolo (the evil counterpart of Earth’s guardian Kami) and his army of demons. Roshi, Shen, and Mutaito teamed up to fight back against the evil Namekian. Unfortunately though, the three of them weren’t enough to take him down until Mutaito pulled out his ultimate technique: the Mafuba (also known as the Evil Containment Wave). With it, Mutaito was able to seal away King Piccolo into an electric rice cooker but at the cost of his own life. Roshi and Shen threw the rice cooker containing King Piccolo into the bottom of an ocean, and the former started the Turtle School to teach his master’s lessons to new students.
During his 300 year life, Roshi would have Grandpa Gohan and the Ox King as his students. However, his greatest student would come in the form of a little monkey boy by the name of Son Goku. After his pet talking turtle was saved by Goku, Roshi passed down the Flying Nimbus to the young Saiyan after he couldn’t use it anymore due to his perverted nature and would later offer to train the young boy after witnessing Goku instantly replicating one of his signature moves firsthand - the legendary Kamehameha. Goku would later accept this offer after his quest of finding the seven Dragon Balls. Roshi would also gain another student alongside Goku in the form of Krillin.
Roshi’s training consisted of delivering milk, tilling land with bare hands, construction work, and studying, but his greatest lesson was towards Goku of how there will always be someone stronger than him and that he shouldn’t think of himself as the best. The Turtle Hermit would later take part of Goku’s adventure by assisting against the Red Ribbon Army, use the help of his sister to find a Dragon Ball, swaying Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu from the corrupt teachings of his rival Shen, and sacrificing his life during the fight against the returned King Piccolo.
While the increase in power levels from DBZ and onward pushed Roshi into the background, he has shown that he’s still a person of great importance and skill. Goku would always come back to him for more lessons, and Roshi even helped the Z-Fighter in fighting members of Frieza’s army as well as participating in the Tournament of Power as a member of Team Universe 7. Despite his old age and pervertedness, it would be very unwise to underestimate the man who taught Son Goku.
Jiraiya
While his family is unknown, Jiraiya was indeed born in Konohagakure, or the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and enrolled in Konoha’s Ninja Academy to become a shinobi. He was placed in Team Hiruzen with his love interest Tsunade Senju and his rival/future villain Orochimaru as his teammates, lead by the 3rd Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi. While Jiraiya is considered the dead last of his team and usually falls behind compared to his teammates, he would make it up with his sheer determination, guts, and spy skills. This shows as he grows to be a well known and powerful ninja in adulthood.
At some point during his training with Hiruzen, Jiraiya attempted to try the Summoning Technique without having a signed contract with an animal species. This mistake caused him to be transported into Mount Myoboku, the Land of the Toads. With the teachings of the 800 year old elder toad Fukasaku, Jiraiya trained with the toads for many years which included learning the art of Senjutsu. During his training, Jiraiya is visited by the Great Toad Sage and is given a prediction: He will travel the world and meet the Child of Prophecy, a student destined to either save the world or destroy it depending on Jiraiya’s teachings. As such, Jiraiya traveled the world in an attempt to find the prophesied but had no such luck.
Later on in his life, Jiraiya would participate in the Second Shinobi World War along with his former Team Hiruzen teammates Tsunade and Orochimaru. One notable battle in the war was when the three were in a lengthy battle against Hanzo the Salamander, the then leader of Amegakure, or the Village Hidden in the Rain. Despite the three being at his mercy, Hanzo was impressed by their skills and the fact that they were able to last very long against him. In exchanged for their freedom, Hanzo bestowed Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru the title of Konoha’s “Legendary Sannin.” After the battle, the trio would come across three orphans from Amegakure. Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko.
Driven by guilt for his involvement in the war, Jiraiya stayed behind to look after the orphans. And upon discovering Nagato’s possession of the legendary Rinnegan, Jiraiya decided to take it upon himself to train the three as he believed Nagato was the Child of Prophecy foretold by the Great Toad Sage. After training them for 3 years, he bade them farewell and headed back to Konoha but not before writing his first novel The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja.
Years later, Jiraiya’s skills and status as a shinobi skyrocketed. However, he would receive news of the orphans’ apparent deaths. Later on, Jiraiya became a leader of a team of his own, and one student just so happened to be Minato Namikaze, the future Fourth Hokage and father of the true Child of Prophecy Naruto Uzumaki. Jiraiya would teach Minato numerous skills and techniques, resulting in him being declared the godfather of Minato’s and Kushina’s unborn child Naruto, named after the main character of The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja.
Unfortunately, death reared its ugly head once more as Minato and Kushina sacrificed their lives during the Nine Tails’ attack on Konoha, leaving Naruto orphaned. It didn’t help when a few years later, Orochimaru defected from the Hidden Leaf Village which ended in Jiraiya failing to save the man who he considered his friend. Afterwards, he began to track his the illegal activities of his former teammate as well as the emergence of the secret organization known as the Akatsuki. In his downtime, Jiraiya became a famous author of an erotic novel series called the Icha Icha series.
After 12 years, Jiraiya would finally meet Naruto face to face when the latter interrupted the former’s peeping on bathing women. Despite the rocky start, Jiraiya develops a bond with Naruto as he would show care and concern for his godson. He would teach the jinchuriki numerous skills such as the Rasengan, the Summoning Technique, and how to control the Nine Tails’ chakra. This would prove to be crucial as Naruto would engages in battle against Akatsuki members and Orochimaru. Knowing Naruto needed to be ready in case the Akatsuki comes after him, Jiraiya took his godson to a 3 year training trip.
After those 3 years of training, the two arrived back to the Hidden Leaf Village. Naruto continued his missions and training as a shinobi while Jiraiya continued gathering information about Orochimaru and the Akatsuki. At some point later in the series, Jiraiya learned about the supposed whereabouts of the Akatsuki’s leader in the Hidden Rain Village and decided to investigate. However, he would be unaware that this would be his final mission.
In Amegakure, Jiraiya learned the shocking discovery of Konan and Nagato revealing to be still alive and are the founding members of the Akatsuki. Despite a hard fought battle against Nagato’s Six Paths of Pain, Jiraiya was utterly defeated and killed by his former pupil. However, he sent a secret code about the Akatsuki leader before his death and trusted his goal of world peace into the hands of Naruto, whom he finally realized was the true Child of Prophecy. Despite dying, Jiraiya is hailed as one of the strongest shinobi to ever lived.
Powers and Skills
Roshi
Hand-to-Hand Combat
As a martial artist, Roshi has been trained in hand to hand combat and used it in the fights that he’s been in. Two notable styles of hand to hand combat that he possesses knowledge in are the Drunken Fist and Pressure Point.
- Drunken Fist - A type of fighting style in which the user imitates the movement of a drunk person, causing them to become unpredictable towards their opponent. It incorporates hitting, grappling, locking, dodging, feinting, ground, and aerial methods of fighting. Roshi’s good friend, Jackie Chun, uses this style of combat during his fight against Goku in the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. It is also revealed that he taught this fighting style to Grandpa Gohan.
- Pressure Point (not the Kenshiro kind) - A type of fighting style in which the user strikes areas of the human body where nerves lie close to the service and are supported by bone or muscle mass. A powerful strike to a pressure point causes extreme pain, a stunning effect or sensation, motor dysfunction, balance disruption, and reflex response while compressing pressure points would even lead to the victim experiencing involuntary muscular spasms, drooling, disorientation, and loss of consciousness. Roshi uses this style of fighting against Man-Wolf in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, paralyzing him.
Ki
Ki, also known as “latent energy” or “Fighting Power” is the life force energy used by many Dragon Ball characters. Ki is a tangible energy inside every living being, by drawing it out, a skilled individual is able to control it and use it for many different techniques or also use it to increase their strength and durability.
Ki-Based Techniques
- Ki Sense - Like many characters in Dragon Ball, Roshi is able to sense Ki, Ki Sensing is the ability to sense the location, life force, and power level of anyone. Though some Ki users have also learned to hide their power level to not get sensed by others.
- Ki Blast - Basic energy blasts Roshi can fire, in some occasions he can even use Ki to shoot powerful gusts of wind.
- Kamehameha Wave (Turtle Destruction Wave) - One of the most famous and well known techniques in all of anime, the Kamehameha Wave was created and developed by Master Roshi himself and eventually became the signature move of his pupil Goku. The Kamehameha Wave is a powerful blue beam of entire ergy with destructive capabilities, such as destroying a mountain or the goddamn Moon! There are many variations of the Kamehameha such as the One-Handed Kamehameha and the extremely powerful MAX Power Kamehameha and the even stronger Life Force Max Power Kamehameha, however, Roshi can only use the last two in his Max Power Form.
- Thunder Shock Surprise (Bankoku Bikkuri Shō) - An electric-based technique also created by Master Roshi, this move allows his Ki to become electricity (because why the hell not) and strike with what Yamcha called “20,000 volts of electricity” while lifting his opponents in the air. This move was used to temporarily stun Kid Goku and even hold him off slightly while in Ape-form. However since the technique requires a steady stream of electricity, Roshi can’t move himself while he is performing the move.
- Hypnosis - Somehow… Someway, Roshi’s ability to use Ki has given him some nifty psychic abilities, more specifically he has gained the ability to hypnotize his opponents by simple eye contact and minor hand gestures, with this he has made Kid Goku fall asleep mid-fight, and made a man-wolf think that Krillin's head was the moon (I-I don’t even…)
Mafuba (Evil Containment Wave)
And ancient and legendary technique created by Roshi’s mentor, Master Mutaito, to defeat the Demon King Piccolo. This technique consists of creating a powerful stream of green energy to overwhelm the opponent and seal them in a container (this can be anything from ceramic pots to a goddam rice-cooker) for an undefined amount of time until the seal is broken.
However, such technique comes at a price… It requires an incredible amount of energy and precision to perform correctly, which means that this move can kill the one who performs it if their body cannot withstand it or they fail to seal their opponents (in fact that's how Mutaito and later Roshi would kick the bucket respectively).
But after some good old Dragon Balls and hitting the gym, Master Roshi (and others like Tien, Trunks and Goku) have found the way to use the Mafuba several times in succession without...well...dying.
It is also important to note that even if the Mafuba was created with the idea of only being used to seal evil spirits/entities it has been since expanded to defeat almost any kind of opponent regardless of their intentions or race… As shown by Master Roshi himself when he almost manages to seal Frost, the same move when redirected was able to seal Vegeta who is considered “Pure of heart” (it is important to note that this one was directed at Magetta, a robot) Goku used it to seal Turtle (Roshi’s BFF turtle bud) and Trunk to seal a goddamn GOD.
It is also important to note that even if the Mafuba was created with the idea of only being used to seal evil spirits/entities it has been since expanded to defeat almost any kind of opponent regardless of their intentions or race… As shown by Master Roshi himself when he almost manages to seal Frost, the same move when redirected was able to seal Vegeta who is considered “Pure of heart” (it is important to note that this one was directed at Magetta, a robot) Goku used it to seal Turtle (Roshi’s BFF turtle bud) and Trunk to seal a goddamn GOD.
Afterimage Technique
The Afterimage Technique is an ability in which many Dragon Ball characters possess. While the technique can be performed theoretically in real life to some degree, characters in Dragon Ball move their bodies at an absurd amount of speed in which real life humans can’t go at.
When using the Afterimage Technique, users leave behind an image of themselves at their previous spot. While the image can’t do anything physical as it fades away right after, it is an ideal ability to use to dodge attacks from opponents and gain an opportunity to counterattack as a result. It’s also a great technique used to confused enemies, distracting them since the appearance of the image is accurate of the user.
Telepathy
Being the first Dragon Ball character to introduce the use of it, Master Roshi possesses the psychic ability known as telepathy. In short, it allows users to communicate with others through the use of their minds. Not only can it be used for communication, but telepathy can be used to read or eavesdrop people’s minds without them knowing. The only drawback is that it won’t be able to work on beings with low intelligence.
Max Power
Like many Dragon Ball characters, Roshi is able to increase his energy and reach a more powerful state. When in Max Power, Roshi not only gains a massive increase in size and muscle mass but he also, of course, becomes much more powerful and can perform his ki attacks to their maximum potentials like with the Max Power Kamehameha, or the even stronger Life Force Max Power Kamehameha.
And while the form has affected Roshi’s movement in the past, he seems to have gained better control over it in the Resurrection ‘F’ movie and Super. The Max Power form does however, have one major flaw in that it’s strongest techniques use up way too much energy. While Roshi can now use the regular Max Power Kamehameha without too much issue, The Life Force Max Power Kamehameha is a different story, while the move is EXTREMELY powerful it comes at a major cost, As the name suggests Roshi puts his own life force into the attack and hits with everything he has….unfortunately as he’s using his own life force in the attack, using the move can kill him. In fact the move would’ve killed him when he used it in the Tournament of Power, had Goku not have been there to heal him.
Ultra Instinct (Sort Of)
Of course, this had to be addressed. In Chapter 39 of the Dragon Ball Super manga, Goku was having trouble fighting Jiren and wondered why his attacks wasn’t working on his opponent. Roshi noticed this and asked his student what strength meant to him, though he was pretty disappointed when Goku said power was his answer. Afterwards, Roshi tells Goku to remember all the teachings his previous master taught him, with Whis being the last one and his teaching on Ultra Instinct: the user allowing their body to move freely without control from their mind. Roshi then decided to give Goku one more lesson: How to move well.
First, let’s provide a rundown on what Ultra Instinct is. It’s similar to real life martial art concept known as Mushin, or Empty Mind. Mushin is a mental state that can be reached by Zen and Daoist meditators as well as highly trained martial artists during combat. Essentially, the user experiences a moment in which their body reacts without the need of any specific intentions or plans in mind, refined only to their instincts and intuition up to the point where they can respond to any threat without the need for thought. Hence Mushin’s full term being Mushin No Shin, or Mind Without Mind.
In Dragon Ball, Ultra Instinct is no different than Mushin No Shin but is highly referred as a very rare and highly advanced mental state that even the gods have difficulty obtaining. Users with this mental state can automatically react to any threat without the need to acknowledge it and defend themselves. Their bodies can move and adapt on their own while in battle, allowing users to attack and defend simultaneously without thinking. There’s an offensive and defensive variant of Ultra Instinct. To truly master Ultra Instinct, both variants must be obtained and learned. While the defensive variant (dodging and moving) is easy to master, the offensive variant (attack without thinking) is much more difficult due to fighters being inclined to think about their attacks before making them, resulting in the fighters being slowed down and their attacks weakened when performing the move.
Despite being highly regarded as a divine mental state, Ultra Instinct by achieved by mortals with Son Goku being the first mortal to enter this state as well as obtain the mastered version. However, mortals do receive a high drawback when it comes to obtaining Ultra Instinct. They can only sustain the sheer power of the ability for a short amount of time before their body breaks down from being pushed far beyond its limits, including a risk of death.
Now, let’s get back to Roshi. The Turtle Hermit was able to perform a similar version when he was fighting Jiren in the Dragon Ball Super manga, dodging Jiren’s punches without thinking. However, Whis states that what Roshi did strongly resembles Ultra Instinct. After Jiren was finally able to land a couple of hits of Roshi, Whis did state that Roshi’s variant was a far outcry from Ultra Instinct but admits that Roshi’s variant still uses a similar principle due to the hermit’s age, experience, and wisdom. Despite it not actually being the true Ultra Instinct that Whis has defined, Roshi’s teachings of this variant is what allowed Goku to tap into Ultra Instinct in the Dragon Ball Super manga.
Jiraiya
Chakra
As we stated before in our Naruto vs Ichigo blog, chakra is the physical and spiritual energy located in every cell of the body and gained through exercise and experience. It’s basically putting chi and stamina together in a blender and hitting the mix button. Shinobi in the Naruto-verse mainly channel their chakra is through the use of hand seals, and they can channel it through 361 different points of the body. Ninjas can also use chakra to perform a variety of different moves such as walking on water, creating element-based attacks and even defying the laws of physics.
Nature Chakra
Also mentioned in our Naruto vs Ichigo blog, nature chakra is another type of chakra but contains the essence of nature itself. Jiraiya needs this type of chakra to access Sage Mode and use Senjutsu, but we’ll discuss that later on. It’s an extremely powerful form of energy, increasing a person's physical capabilities to many times their normal limits as well as increasing their chakra capacity. However, Jiraiya needs to be completely still to gather the required amount of nature chakra and therefore makes it difficult to accumulate during combat.
Chakra Nature/Elemental Jutsu
Let’s go through this again. In the Ninja World, shinobi are capable of controlling the elements and performed ninja techniques based off of them. This is known as nature transformation, which is an advanced form of chakra control that involves molding and refining the nature of a shinobi’s chakra, altering its properties characteristics to be used in ninjutsu. It’s a necessary component when it comes to creating and modifying a technique, with the other component being shape transformation. Nature transformation changes the properties of chakra, and shape transformation changes the actual form and movement which alters its abilities.
There are five basic chakra natures that shinobi are born with: Fire, Wind, Lightning, Earth, and Water. Just like a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors or Pokemon, each chakra nature has an advantage over the other. Fire beats Wind. Wind beats Lightning. Lightning beats Earth. Earth beats Water. Water beats Fire.
Some ninja clans are born with rare chakra natures that are basically the combination of two or three of the five basic natures. These rare natures are:
- Ice (Combo of Water & Wind)
- Wood (Combo of Earth & Water)
- Lava (Combo of Fire & Earth)
- Storm (Combo of Lightning & Water)
- Boil (Combo of Water & Fire)
- Dust (Combo of Fire, Earth & Wind)
- Explosion (Combo of Earth & Lightning)
- Scorch (Combo of Fire & Wind)
- Magnet (Combo of Wind & Earth).
There are two final nature transformations that are the source of all non-elemental techniques: Yin & Yang. Yin is based on the imagination and spiritual energy of a shinobi while Yang is based on the vitality and physical energy of a shinobi. These two together can form the Yin-Yang nature. The transformation of these two natures involves altering the balance between spiritual and physical nature in chakra.
Rasengan and Variations
As you all know, one of Naruto’s most iconic jutsus is the Rasengan. However, if you recall, Naruto wasn’t the one who created it. It was his father, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze. When young Minato first invented the jutsu, the first person he showed it too was his sensei, Jiraiya. The toad sage was impressed by the new technique, and he became one of the few people Minato would teach it to. And years later, Jiraiya would teach the Rasengan to Minato’s son Naruto.
As you recall, the Rasengan doesn’t require any additional chakra to be sustained once it’s formed. The Rasengan has no definite limit to how long it can be used and varies in size but can grow larger with more experience.
On contact, the Rasengan grinds into its target and propels them along the technique’s trajectory, which can be either away from the user or into the ground beneath them. At some point, the Rasengan will burst which causes severe damage at the point of contact.
And as you may have remembered from our Naruto vs Ichigo prediction blog, you may have remembered all the different types of Rasengan Naruto has learned. Fortunately for you guys, Jiraiya doesn’t know a lot of variants of the technique compared to Naruto. Therefore, this won’t be such a long list. Here’s what Jiraiya knows.
Rasengan: A regular Rasengan is a small orb of blue energy that’s capable of packing a powerful punch. It’s can destroy walls, create craters in the ground, and send people flying.
Big Ball Rasengan: As the name suggests, this variant is basically a bigger version of a normal Rasengan. With more chakra, this version of the Rasengan has a higher density due to the compressed energy it has. Therefore, it creates a more destructive impact due to the energy released.
Spiraling Serial Spheres: Also known as the Twin Rasengan, Jiraiya creates two Rasengans at the same time. One for each hand, the two Rasengans can be used against two targets one after another or used together simultaneously for one single target.
Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan: This variant of the Rasengan is a much larger version than the Big Ball Rasengan as it’s larger than a human being. With more chakra added and compressed into it, this variant unleashes more power than the previous variants.
Elemental Techniques
Fire Release: Flame Bullet: For this jutsu to be executed, Jiraiya must gather oil in his mouth by using chakra to create it. He then spits out the oil and ignites it, shooting a flame bullet at his opponent. If the amount of prepared oil is kept down, then there’ll be less time to activate the jutsu. This results in the oil-contained flame bullet to burn up the user completely. The technique can be shot in a series of flame bullets by partianing by oil or can be used as a continuous flamethrower. Finally, this jutsu can be combined with the Toad Oil Bullet for a combination technique with enough power to either wound or kill.
Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique: Jiraiya breathes fire along a cord or at least any other type of long object, which rushes forward in a straight line and catches opponents on fire. However, a line of enemies can be used as a preferred conductor for the fire as well. The flames are meant to target and assault a person’s upper body. The jutsu can be devastating as the flames are enough to melt a person’s skin off, rock, and giant trees.
Fire Release: Big Flame Bullet: As the name implies, this technique is a stronger version of the regular Flame Bullet jutsu. The process to activate this jutsu is similar to the previous version, except this version uses senjutsu chakra. Due to the type of chakra used, the difference in power between this technique and the regular Flame Bullet jutsu is shown as the power of this technique is equivalent to a multitude of Flame Bullets. The flames of this jutsu can either be used as a single projectile or as a continuous stream of flames. It’s strong enough to incinerate Pain’s bird summon in a single instant.
Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld: Jiraiya creates a swamp by changing the ground beneath his opponent into mud. The mud is infused with his chakra, making it sticky to ensnare the opponent and preventing their escape. The size and depth of the swamp are determined by the user’s skill and the amount of chakra used. It’s usually most effective against multiple and/or particularly large groups. It’s not restricted to the ground as it can be used to capture enemies clinging onto ceilings, causing them to sink into it.
Combination Attacks
Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet: This is a two-way combination technique Jiraiya performs with Gamabunta. When this jutsu is performed, Gamabunta spews out a jet of oil from his mouth while Jiraiya breathes out a blast of fire to ignite it which creates a giant flamethrower attack as a result.
Water Release: Water Gun: A water-based combination technique Jiraiya performs with Gamariki. For this technique, Gamariki shoots a wave of high speed water from his mouth using extreme precision and force while Jiraiya combines it with his chakra to slice the target into multiple fine-carved pieces.
Sage Art: Goemon: A three-way combination technique Jiraiya has while in Sage Mode with the Elder Toads. Jiraiya creates a large volume of oil, followed by Fukasaku using a wind-based jutsu to propel to oil, and Shima finishes it off by igniting it with a large fire-based jutsu. The entire area becomes filled with oil burning in temperatures at thousands of degrees in an instant. The superheated oil creates such a burning inferno, the target and the surrounding area would be reduced to cinders.
Toad Techniques
Due to Jiraiya's training on Mount Myobokuzan he learned various techniques based around Toads/Frogs. These very unique Jutsu’s gives Jiraiya a unpredictable edge on the battlefield since these techniques are not commonly known.
Toad Flatness: Shadow Manipulation Technique: With this technique, Jiraiya infuses his chakra into his victim’s shadow and sinks into it to become one with it. This allows the toad hermit to establish control over the person’s mind and body. The victim is temporarily stunned and serves as a human shield while the technique is in effect. However, Jiraiya has to hold his breath for this technique to remain activated to control others but can still talk through the victim. Once Jiraiya continues breathing, the technique is cancelled and their body, which became ultra-thin, expands to their original built.
Toad Oil Bullet: Jiraiya converts his chakra into an extremely sticky oil and spits it out as a huge mass of it. Those caught in the oil will find themselves having difficulty to move because of it and will have a hard time washing it away with regular water. Should Jiraiya use a fire jutsu on a person covered in that oil, they’ll be enveloped in flames in an instant.
Toad Hiding: Jiraiya hides inside a toad, which also serves as a useful mode of transportation. The toad itself can dive up to 100 meters in fresh water and contains a special barrier inside its stomach that obstructs chakra, protecting Jiraiya from any detection-type ninjutsu.
Frog Transformation: By touching the forehead of a target and forming a mental image of a frog Jiraiya is….somehow able to transform his target into one?!
Hair Manipulation
Just like Gaara with his sand and Konan with her paper, Jiraiya can use his chakra to manipulate an outside object and use it for ninjutsu. For his case, that object would be his hair. Jiraiya temporarily enhances his head’s metabolism, allowing him to grow and manipulate his hair either to bind and destroy targets or to surround him as a defense.
Hair Needle Senbon: Jiraiya hardens the hair on his head and shoots a multitude of hair senbon at his opponent, able to turn them into a human pincushion due to the sharpened points of his hair. He has an upgraded version of this technique when he’s in Sage Mode known as Sage Art: Hair Needle Senbon. With his upgraded technique, Jiraiya kneads chakra and fires the senbon while the elder toads Fukasaku and Shima activate their summoner’s hair roots. As a result, Jiraiya’s hair grows at an accelerated rate which allows limitless rapid-fire.
Needle Hell: Jiraiya extends his hair around his body and shoots a barrage of hardened hair needles toward his opponent. When using his jutsu, the hair themselves become strong enough to pierce through and destroy boulders.
Needle Jizo: Jiraiya encases himself with his hair, hardening the strands and transforming his hair into shapes of needles. This jutsu makes his hair capable of injuring others and possess the same killing capacity as that of a metallic weapon. The technique can be used as a counterattack if Jiraiya activates it in response to someone else’s attack. Finally, Jiraiya can make his hair hard enough to withstand blows from certain types of weapons such as arrows.
Wild Lion’s Mane Technique: Jiraiya manipulates his hair to grow at great lengths and become as hard as steel wire. By thickly bundling the hair, Jiraiya increases its strength and destructive power with one example being ripping apart a giant lobster. The jutsu is also capable of resembling a lion’s mouth, hence its name.
Summoning
In the Naruto World, Summoning allows the user to call upon an animal from a specific species onto the battlefield in order to fight for their side. When it comes to Summoning - Jiraiya’s main animal that he summons are the Toads. He can summon various toads in order to aid him in combat or help him perform particular tasks:
Two Great Sage Toads - Shima & Fukasaku: These two toads that are capable of gathering Nature Chakra capable of lifting and tossing larger toads such as Gamabunta despite being as large as poodles and are able to use a variety of Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. Using Sage Art: Amphibian Technique, these two elder toads can fuse onto Jiraiya’s shoulders and continuously gather nature energy for him while he’s on the move, allowing the Toad Hermit to have his nature chakra maximised to gain access to Sage Mode while still in combat.
Gamabunta: Jiraiya’s signature toad summon and a large one that towers over forests and uses a tanto to fight in combat. He’s capable of using water and fire ninjutsu and spewing oil which he can ignite. Decades of combat has turned this toad into a hardened warrior that is able to hold Kurama down for a while and fight a not-fully awakened Shukaku and win.
Gamahiro: A toad about Gamabunta’s size. He uses twin swords and a variety of kicks to fight.
Scroll Toad: A toad whose only purpose is to help Jiraiya regulate Naruto’s seal on Kurama. Completely useless in combat.
Summoning - Food Cart Destroyer: Jiraiya can summon this toad in midair to crush whatever it falls on.
Summoning - Toad Mouth Bind: The oesophagus of a giant toad from Mount Myoboku is summoned, though it’s very well disguised if summoned inside a cave or some structure. The walls of the toad’s oesophagus are sticky and pliable, making it difficult for opponents to keep their footing and fight as normal as a result.The oesophagus is usually inescapable and will contract around and digest its victims over time. Jiraiya can control the oesophagus, causing it to expand, contract, or grow in whichever direction he wishes. Due to the giant toad possessing the ability to breath fire, the oesophagus is fire resistant with Amaterasu being the only exceptional flame that can burn through it.
Summoning - Toad Shop Technique: A toad is summoned with the ability to turn into a building in which Jiraiya can use his chakra to give the toad’s building form a design of his own imagination. The toad is used to lure in victims with the promise of cheap drinks. When the victim is inside, the toad changes back to its original small form and traps the victim inside its stomach.
Summoning - Crushing Toad Stomach: While this technique does bear some similarity to the Toad Mouth Bind and Toad Gourd Prison techniques, it’s different based on how it’s used. Jiraiya reverse-summons himself and his opponents into the stomach of a giant toad, bringing them to a new battlefield. This captures and isolates the opponents, trapping them inside the toad’s stomach and cutting them off from allies. The opponents become completely immobilize as they’re being crushed to death by the stomach.
Barriers
Barrier ninjutsu is the incorporation of barriers into techniques, allowing shinobi to manipulate barriers. Barriers possess a variety of uses such as protecting the shinobi using them or to trap opponents. The strength and efficiency of barriers depends on not only the type of technique used to create the barrier itself but also the ability of others to perceive, enter, or destroy the barrier.
Barrier: Canopy Method Formation: This barrier technique allows Jiraiya to create a spherical detection barrier with him in the center. Jiraiya can command the barrier to expand, grasping everything in the surroundings. Jiraiya can also detect anything that moves inside the barrier space with their own “sense.” Whenever Jiraiya moves, the barrier will go with him.
Barrier: Toad Gourd Prison: A small, gourd-shaped toad, called the Gourd Toad, is summoned. The toad is used to capture and isolate a victim by dragging them into toad’s stomach by wrapping its tongue around them. Isolated from the outside world by a barrier, the space inside the Gourd Toad’s stomach is far larger than the surface size of the Gourd Toad itself. The environment inside the stomach is a cavernous chamber including a lake of strong corrosive gastric acid capable of dissolving anything that should fall into it, shores around the lake, and formations sticking out of the lake. Opponents that are trapped inside are cut off from their allies and are susceptible to attacks, making them easy to defeat.
Other Techniques
Shadow Clone Technique: One of the most iconic techniques from Naruto, it allows Ninja to create one or more copies of themselves. The user's chakra is evenly divided between themselves and their clones: creating one clone will give it half the user's chakra, creating two clones will give each a third of the user's chakra, and so on. This means that the technique is generally used by Ninjas is very high Chakra Reserves, however, the benefits more than outweigh the disadvantages as Jiraiya is able to have several clones fight for him while he is gathering nature chakra.
Finger Carving Seal: This was used during Jiraiya’s last moments of life - this technique allows the user to concentrate chakra around the finger and write on any surface
Fire Sealing Method: This allows the user to seal powerful flames such as the black flames of Amaterasu
Transparent Escape Technique: A stealth/spy technique used to spy on others without being noticed. This technique was invented by Jiraiya in his youth for the purpose of spying girls bathing without the risk of being caught. When using this technique, Jiraiya is rendered invisible, allowing him to either make stealthy strikes on his opponents or escape from their sights.
Sage Mode
This mode is achieved when combining nature energy with the user’s own chakra. It allows the user to enter a state where they are able to use the natural forces in the world - giving them new techniques and abilities that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to use that involve nature energy. Sage Mode also increases their strength,speed,durability,stamina,sensing capabilities (they are able to sense Chakra all around them) and reflexes. It also makes their ninjutsu attacks a lot more powerful. However it has a few distances as absorbing too much nature chakra will turn the user to stone if they have not been properly trained and in order to gather the nature energy used to activate Sage Mode they need to stand still. In the case of Jiarya - at the time of his final fight - he had not been able to fully balance his own chakra with natural energy, resulting in his appearance taking on a number of toad-like traits though some of those traits such as the web-feat do give him some advantages. Overall Sage Mode is a very powerful transformation with some significant advantages.
Frog Kata
This is the main fighting style of Shinobi who utilize Sage Mode. When using Frog Kata - nature chakra surrounds the user - this chakra can be used as an extension of the user’s body being able to extend the range and force of the user’s physical attacks. For example: strikes that would normally miss the target making contact. In terms of Frog Kata as a fighting style it mostly utilizes Sage Mode’s superior reflexes in order to dodge an enemy attack at the last possible moment and then counterattack with a strike that they can’t even see coming.
Equipment
Roshi
Sealing Bottles
Used to seal the opponents affected by the Evil Containment Wave. Although Roshi’s mentor, Mutaito, originally used an electric rice-cooker to defeat King Piccolo (long story just trust me on that one) Roshi and other characters like Kami have since used these small bottles… They became more prominent as Roshi had several of them on hand for the Tournament of Power.
Turtle Shell
Carrying on his back, Master Roshi wears his iconic turtle shell. Coming in a variety of colors, the turtle shell is often used as a training weight for Roshi and his students. Some shells weigh 50 pounds while others weigh 100 pounds.
Staff
Along with his turtle shell, Roshi carries his iconic staff around with him. Despite it being made of wood, the staff is used by Roshi to assist him in fights such as the fight against Frieza’s army being an example. However, it won’t be able to withstand powerful Ki attacks.
Jiraiya
Shuriken
Classic ninja bread and butter, these sharp four-pronged throwing stars have many uses despite their small size. They can be used for a quick ranged attack, close combat (though not very effectively), to cancel out other projectiles, to cause a distraction, or if the user is skilled enough, to kill or incapacitate an enemy.
Kunai
Also a classic ninja staple, generally used for thrusting and stabbing, but it can also be thrown as well. Similarly to shurikens, kunai can also be used to out cancel out other projectiles, or cause a distraction.
Smoke Bombs
Yet another iconic ninja tool, when detonated it creates a large cloud of...well smoke. It can be used against opponents to blind them and make them easier to attack, or one can use it on themselves to hide their actions and make a quick escape.
Wire Strings
Thin barely visible pieces of wire that can be useful for a variety of things like manipulating weapons, setting traps, rappelling, and restricting an enemy’s movements.
Explosive Tags
Chakra-infused scraps of paper inscribed with a special writing centering around the kanji for "explode". After a set amount of time, being activated remotely or being ignited, the tag will explode. The tags can also be attached to a kunai making for a powerful surprise ranged attack.
Chakra-Suppressing Seal
A special seal tag created by Jiraiya himself to suppress the Nine-Tails’ influence over Naruto Uzumaki. By applying the tag to Naruto’s forehead, the Nine-Tails’ chakra and personality recede.
Fūma Shuriken
Large, four-bladed weapons possessing pre-eminent sharpness and lethality. Fuma Shurikens make for both excellent ranged weapons and deadly melee weapons as well. The most commonly used ones can be collapsed for easy storage.
Stone Swords
Secret swords from Mount Myoboku, These swords were used by Jiraiya after the Demonic Illusion: Toad Confrontation Chant was cast to drive into his targets' body like a wedge.
Feats
Roshi
Overall
- Managed to fight back his urges against Caway
- Tried to watch Bulma poop (it didn’t work out well)
- Participated in the Tournament of Power (lasted longer then both Tien and Krillin)
- Managed to gain the respect of Beerus
- Scales to Jackie Chun
- Trained Grandpa Gohan, Ox-King, Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha
- Known as the “God of Martial Arts”
Strength
- Destroyed the moon
- Destroyed the entirety of Fire Mountain (by accident)
- When in the 21th World Martial Arts Tournament he managed to defeat all of his students, Including Yamcha (eliminated him by pushing air at him), Krillin (knocked him out with two karate chops to the neck) and even Goku (albeit the latter with some effort).
- In the same tournament he was on par with Tien Shinhan (he even deflects one of his kamehameha wave)
- Can purposefully lodge his foot into stone
- Lifted Man Wolf and flicked him across a stadium.
- When fighting with 100% of his power, easily overpowered and could’ve killed Tien Shinhan
- When fighting with 100% of his power, Roshi was also able to fight on par with Base form Goku and took a Kamehameha wave from him.
- Pushed large boulders even while nowhere near his full strength
- Fought and defeated several of Frieza’s soldiers
- Fought against Botamo, Lavender, Comfrey, Shosa, and Dercori with the help of Gohan,Tien,Krillin and Piccolo
- Was able to hold his own against Final Form Frost
- Fought and defeated many warriors in the Tournament of Power including:
Speed
- Kept up with Base Goku and Tien
- Runs 100m in 5s
- Snatches Bullets out of the air
- Fast enough to run up walls.
- Able to propel himself several feet with a Kame wave in a few seconds.
- Had a fight with Krillin in a fraction of a second
- Attacks so fast Krillin can’t see the attack.
- Able to dodge attacks from Yamcha’s Wolf Fang Fist.
- kakakaka kachi daze…(dodged attacks from Jiren in the manga)
Durability
- Tanked Krillin kicking out of the stadium and into the middle of the city without a scratch
- When using 100% of his power, survived attacks from Tien and base Goku
- Can survive machine gun fire.
- Took an attack from Tien that was mean to put him into a coma, he woke up seconds later.
- Can survive having one of Chi-Chi’s sharp, axe boomerang-thing stuck on his head.
- Can keep up with and take blows from Kid Goku.
Jiraiya
Overall
- With Tsunade and Orochimaru, fought Hanzo to a stalemate, earning the title of Sannin
- Stopped Itachi and Kisame from capturing Naruto and killing Sasuke
- Fought the leader of the Akatsuki - Pain as well as discovered the nature of his powers
- Faced Konan one of the strongest members of the Akatsuki
- Fought against Orochimaru numerous times.
- Was requested to be the Hokage due to his reputation as a skilled ninja
- Trained Minato Uzumaki, the Fourth Hokage
- Author of the best-selling series of erotic novels, Icha Icha
- Pain admitted Jiraiya could have beaten him if he knew about his powers
Strength
- Kicks a Path of Pain hard enough to send him flying.
- Sends Ashura Path’s Giant Ox Summon Flying (some Oxes can weigh 1,198lb and of course the Giant Ox Summon is much heavier then that)
- Lifted and threw several large boulders
- Flung Naruto several meters with a single finger tap
- Kicked away several of the Giant, Multi-Headed Dogs
Speed
- Evades hundreds of chakra infused paper spear attacks
- Kept up with Pain
- Managed to save Sasuke before Itachi and Kisame could see him
- Even when drugged, could keep up with Orochimaru and Tsunade
Durability
- Tsunade once broke 6 of his ribs,his arms and his lung and he survived
- Survived an attack by a Four Tailed Naruto that severely wounded him
- Gets hit by Guy’s (aka the best character in Naruto) Dynamic Kick
- Gets hit by Ashura Path’s Giant Ox Summon which breaks through a wall.
- Tanks a hit from Ashura Path (which also servers his arm)
- Get’s stabbed through the shoulder by Animal Path
- Survives getting his throat crushed
- Is able to function despite being impaled in several places by Chakra Receivers
Weaknesses
Roshi
While Roshi may have found a way to use the Mafuba more than once without it killing him, it and the more powerful versions of the Kamehameha still take a lot of energy from him and can kill him if he’s not careful. He’s also one of the few characters that hasn’t learned how to fly, despite him having a tremendous amount of control over Ki, flight was developed by his rival school and because of this and some general stubbornness he never really learned the technique.
Jiraiya
Ummm…spoilers for Naruto. Jiraiya dead. Jiraiya real dead. In all seriousness, Jiraiya has a few considerable weaknesses, the first of which are his limited Chakra reserves. While Jiraiya does have an impressive amount of Chakra, it is not an infinite pool and will eventually run out, meaning he won’t be able to perform any techniques requiring Chakra. His other big weakness is that it takes time to gather nature energy in order to activate Sage Mode, which is impractical in a fight unless he has Shima & Fukasaku to gather it for him.
Summary
Roshi
Advantages:
- Beats Jiraiya pretty handily in the stat trinity
- Longer lifespan means he has the experience advantage
- Evil Containment Wave could mean an insta-win if he manages to land it.
- Able to sense Jiraiya with his Ki Sense
- Can read Jiraiya’s mind
- Probably just as skilled
- Was given a Toriyama handjob
Disadvantages:
- Has no resistance to transmutation
- His stronger techniques can kill him or tire him out enough for Jiraiya to capitalize.
- Less varied techniques
- Has less equipment on him
- Dragon Ball Evolution (In his defense, Chow Yun Fat.)
- Still isn’t in Fighterz at the time of making this blog.
Jiraiya
Advantages:
- Transmutation could get him the win if he can pull it off
- Roshi’s stronger attacks can tire him out, possibly giving Jiraiya the opportunity to go in for the kill with his hax
- Carries more equipment
- More varied techniques
- Probably just as skilled
Disadvantages:
- Weaker, slower, and not as tough
- As of now he’s suffering a really bad case of the deads, and we still currently don’t know if he’s alive in Boruto.
- Limited Chakra reserves
- Likely won’t be able to survive long enough to pull off his haxes
- Roshi will always be able to sense where he is making stealth useless
- Roshi stole his fucking preview
Verdicts
ramonzer0
Master Roshi wins.
Strunton
....What ramonzer0 said.
Tinnie
...And that’s more or less how this goes.
Joshski
First of all I want to thank the G1 prediction blog team for giving me another chance to help out and do an actual verdict this time. Alright so Roshi vs Jiraiya, Dragonball vs Naruto, Now I’m sure literally everyone knows how these matchups usually go (not well at all for Nart) but maybe, just maybe Jiraiya might actually stand a cha-
For a number of reasons, people could probably guess this, unfortunately, isn’t really a fair fight. To start, their strength and durability, now Roshi’s most well-known strength feat is obviously his feat of blowing up the moon which is pretty strong, however with Dragon Ball Super he gets even higher. In Super, Roshi was powerful enough to take on Tien and Base Goku meaning he should almost certainly be able to scale to the small star level shit. While Jiraiya might be pretty tough, sitting at island level from harming Pain and getting to country level with his summons, it’s still nowhere near powerful enough to compare to Roshi in the strength and dura department.
It doesn't really get better for Jiraiya in speed either. Again, Roshi was able to keep up with Tien and Goku in Super, putting his speed at FTL. Meanwhile, Jiraiya's best speed feat was keeping up with Pain, putting his speed at only MHS. So not only does Roshi have a massive advantage in strength but he also beats Jiraiya in speed as well. (And this without even getting into the Jiren shit, which would make Roshi MFTL)
It’s not like Jiraiya’s equipment and techniques as varied as they are, will help him out either, at most they’d just be a minor annoyance to Roshi and only waste Jiraiya’s chakra. The only technique that could even be of any use would be Jiraiya’s ability to turn people into frogs which would actually give him a way to get past Roshi’s durability...but with Roshi’s massive speed advantage Jiraiya would never be able to pull it off.
While they may not be as varied, Roshi’s techniques just pack more power and are a lot more useful. The Ki sense, along with telepathy pretty much ruin any of Jiraiya’s surprise attacks, the Mafuba is an instant win should it land (and with Roshi’s speed it likely would), and the Kamehameha is easily powerful enough to through anything Jiraiya has. Even the Sage Mode wouldn’t be able to help, especially against the Max Power form which just increases the already massive gap in stats. And to top all of it off, Roshi’s been alive for 300+ years, much much more than Jiraiya’s 50+ years of experience.
To be completely honest there really isn’t anything stopping Roshi from just one shotting Jiraiya as soon as the fight starts. Jiraiya might be able to rival the Turtle Hermit in skill and has ways of getting past his durability, but when Roshi is just that much stronger and faster, none of it really matters. Also Turtles>Frogs.
Bye guys have fun talking about how fucked Thanos is
Malcolm Belmont
“Watches Ultron vs Sigma” Man that was a great DEATH BATTLE, the animation as well as research was top touch..i wonder what’s next. “Sees that it’s Master Roshi vs Jiraiya”
Don’t get me wrong, i do like this matchup and am happy that it’s happening but at the same time - this is nowhere near the most hyped matchups of Season 5 and well this fight is sadly a stomp for Roshi. I could simply just say these two words and that be the end of it “Moon Feat”. But that would be very boring so why not go into some detail on why i think Roshi very easily takes this.
Now let’s talk Destructive Capability - in terms of direct feats - the moon feat is an obvious one considering it’s hands done one of his most notable feats. In terms of scaling - while pre Tournament of Power it would be a difficult to say that Roshi in any way scales to the rest of the human Dragon Ball Cast (Krillin,Tien and Yamcha) but thanks to the Tournament of Power we definitely know for sure that this is the cast. Roshi scales to Tien who was able to take on Semi-Perfect Cell who was powerful enough to blow up Stars. If we scale Roshi to Tien that should easily put him at Large Star Level at the very least. So we have Moon Level for Direct Feats and Large Star Level with Scaling so what about Jiraiya? In terms of destructive capability - in the Naruto Manga there was never much of a direct showing of Jiraiya’s Destructive Capability but what we can do is scale him. Well in terms of scaling - we know that he is able to damage Pain who managed to survive an incomplete Bijuudama from six-tailed Naruto. This feat was calculated to be at the very least Mountain Level meaning that Pain has Mountain Level Durability and yet Jiraiya hurt him so that puts him at Mountain Level Destructive Capability. So Star vs Mountain...that’s not good for Jiraiya considering the big difference between the two. Even if we ignore scaling completely - Master Roshi should definitely have the edge in terms of Destructive Capability.
What about speed. Well both have kinda iffy Speed Feats but we can use scaling in order to figure out which level either of these two characters are. We know that Master Roshi is able to easily keep up and fight Tien who has kept up with characters such as Gohan who was able to keep up with FTL Characters such as Frieza and Goku. The fact that Tien kept up with Gohan who is clearly faster than light indicates that Tien should also be Faster Than Light and considering that Master Roshi also kept up and fought Tien this should put Master Roshi’s speed at FTL.As for Jiarya - well we know that Pain is capable of a Massively Hypersonic Feat and considering that Jiraiya was able to keep up him - this should put Jiarya at Massively Hypersonic. Ouch - Faster than Light Roshi vs Massively Hypersonic Jiarya. Jiraiya definitely loses in the speed category.
What about durability - well we know that Master Roshi is able to take on attacks from Tien who as a mentioned earlier was hurting Semi-Perfect Cell who was able to destroy stars. This should put Roshi’s durability at Large Star Level. As for Jiraiya - was able to take on Pain’s attacks and Pain’s attack had the Destructive Capability of destroying mountains so again like Destructive Capability - we have Large Star Level Durability vs Mountain Level Durability for Jiraiya meaning that he easily loses this category.
As i made it very clear - Roshi stomps Jiarya in terms of Stats but what about other factors - such as Experience. Well in terms of Experience, Roshi also had the edge. While Jiarya’s 50+ years of life is impressive considering that he was involved in the Second Great Ninja War as well as constantly maintained his body through training it absolutely pales in comparison to Roshi - Roshi is over 300 years old and while he hasn’t been training all the time - he is still one of the most skilled martial artists in the world so yeah - Jiraiya's 50+ years may be impressive but Roshi even more so,
What about abilities and techniques? Well Jiraiya is definitely the more versatile of the two - having way more varied techniques such as his different Jutsu that have more variety than Roshi’s moveset as he mostly relies on straight martial arts as well as a couple of techniques (mostly the move he invented - the Kamehameha). Though what Roshi’s techniques lack in versatility more than make up in destructive potential as well as being able to screw over Jiraiya. First obviously we have the Kamehameha which is easily Roshi’s trump card as it was shown to be strong enough to easily destroy the moon which obviously is more destructive than any techniques that Jiraiya has. He also has a binding attack which prevents the user from moving which would be extremely good on someone like Jiraiya who needs to move his hands in order to perform his best techniques. There’s also the Mafuba which while is debatable on if he would use on Jiraiya considering Jiraiya is a good person but it has been established that the Mafuba Wave is capable of containing good people such as Vegeta (debatable) and Master Roshi was going to use it on Magetta.So while Jiraiya definitely has the versatility in terms of techniques - several of Master Roshi’s techniques counter Jiraiya while Jiraiya doesn’t have many techniques to screw over Jiraiya with one major exception - his transformative techniques. Yes Jiraiya is able to transform Master Roshi into a toad and that would end the fight but here’s the thing - it has been established that Master Roshi is much faster than Jiraiya so he would be highly unlikely that Jiraiya would be able to catch Master Roshi and then transform him into a toad.
Finally there’s their transformations - Sage Mode vs Max Power. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages with Max Power being a lot more powerful than his base form but it requires a lot of his energy and pay kill him if it drains all of his energy. Sage Mode gives Jiraiya a significant boost in power,speed and durability but it requires time in order to active due to the amount of nature chakra needed. So which one is better - while both have their own advantages and downsides i would say Max Power is better as while Sage Mode gives Jiraiya more versatility - the sheer power of Max Power is enough to easily overwhelm Sage Mode meaning even if Jiraiya gets to pull it off - it’s highly unlikely that it will enough in order to end the fight in his favour.
Overall, as much as i love Jiraiya as a character and personally prefer him to Master Roshi - i do generally think that he is completely outclassed in most if not all categories including strength,speed,durability,techniques and super mode. While there are potentially ways that Jiraiya could win this fight - they are very few and far between and can easily be countered by the fact that Master Roshi is simply too fast and too strong for Jiraiya to do much for it. Simply put - Master Roshi is the superior Hermit and he’s going to make Jiraiya all purple.
And with that, i’m out
VampyreNVRmore
Well, well, well, look who’s back in this blog. That’s right, me. To be honest, I thought Nightwing vs Daredevil was going to be my last appearance for Season 5 until Death Battle threw this curveball at us, especially since the combatants are a Dragon Ball and Naruto character. And since I’m a big fan of both franchises as well as being very knowledgeable in them, I decided to take part in the prediction blog for Roshi vs Jiraiya. Unfortunately for Jiraiya, this matchup is indeed a stomp in favor of Roshi.
However, I noticed that there are arguments being made for Jiraiya by some very dedicated people. Thankfully, that’s why I’m here with my verdict. To prove them wrong.
Let’s do this shall we?
In terms of strength, both combatants have shown some pretty impressive strength feats. Jiraiya was able to send one of Pain’s giant animal summonings, a giant ox, flying as well as a Path of Pain and giant dog summons. Roshi, on the other hand, has been able to push large boulders without needing to be at full power, can penetrate (insert TFS Roshi laugh) solid stone with his foot, can casually send a werewolf flying, and can overpower Tien and fight on his own against Base Form Goku and Final Form Frost in Dragon Ball Super. However, let’s delve deeper on how destructive their strength can be.
Jiraiya was strong enough to damage Pain, who was later damaged by an incomplete Tailed Beast Bomb from Naruto calculated to be at Mountain-level. However, this is only through scaling but will be allowed to the toad hermit for now. Meanwhile, Roshi has actually shown a Mountain-level feat by destroying all of Fire Mountain with a max power Kamehameha despite being accidental. This leads to Roshi’s greatest destructive feat: destroying the entire moon. For some people, this is considered an outlier. Personally, I don’t think it is one and is instead an actual feat of Roshi’s. Because to me, if a character is shown performing an impressive feat, then it’s a direct feat that they possess and capable of doing. And while people have argued that it’s an outlier because Roshi hasn’t done anything else to back it up, I’d like to make a counterargument. Roshi destroyed the moon because Goku was on a wild rampage as an Oozaru (Great Ape). To revert Goku back to normal, it was either destroy the moon or cut off Goku’s tail. Obviously, Roshi went with the more epic choice. The Earth only has 1 moon, and Roshi isn’t going to constantly blow it up. Overall, Roshi is stronger and more capable of being destructive than Jiraiya.
In terms of speed, there isn’t that much for either combatant. For Jiraiya, he’s on par with Pain and Orochimaru, both are calculated to be at Massively Hypersonic. As for Master Roshi, he’s overpowered Tien at 100 percent full power going on part with Base Form Goku and Final Form Frost for a while. This puts relativistically puts him at faster than light. And even then, finding speed feats for the combatants themselves were difficult to find, Jiraiya dodged attacks from Konan while Roshi snatched bullets, ran 100m in 5 seconds, ran up on walls, and fought Krillin within a fraction of a second. As a result, Roshi has the advantage in speed.
In terms of durability, both took a lot of damaged yet still survived. Jiraiya, before the start of Shippuden, nearly died twice. The first time was back in his youth while the second took place during the timeskip. However, the first near-death encounter was done by Tsunade and took place off-screen in the past. And while we were given the type of injuries Jiraiya sustained, we weren’t told how exactly Tsunade gave him those injuries. As for the second near-death encounter, it was done by 4-Tails Naruto but done off-screen. While the fight was shown in a filler episode, only the start and aftermath was shown. The anime never showed how exactly Jiraiya nearly died from Naruto. Therefore, I would personally disregard them. However, the toad hermit has shown good durability feats by tanking a Dynamic Entry kick from Might Gai and a charging hit from Pain’s giant ox summon. His bigger feats was surviving after having his arm severed, his throat crushed, and his shoulder stabbed. While he willed his life to write a coded message after being stabbed in six different places by the Six Paths of Pain, he still succumbed to his injuries and died. Therefore, I’m iffy at using it as a durability feat for Jiraiya.
For Roshi, he survived a machine gun attack, one of Kid Chi Chi’s blades imbedded in his skull, and woke up a few seconds after being with a technique meant to put someone into a coma. While those may seem to be somewhat on par with what Jiraiya dealt with, it should be noted that Roshi has one more notable durability feat. At 100 percent in his Buff Form, Roshi took and a survived a Kamehameha from Base Form Goku in Dragon Ball Super. As a result, Roshi has the advantage in durability.
When it comes to techniques, Jiraiya is more versatile. He can turn people into toads, hide in people’s shadows, turn invisible, create barriers, summon a variety of toads to aid him in battle, and possesses numerous attacks ranging from different elements and oil to the Rasengan to even his own hair. Here’s the problem though. These techniques and abilities are useless for Jiraiya against Master Roshi. His ninjutsu can be dodged by Roshi due to his superior speed. The turtle hermit also has the power to break through Jiraiya’s barriers and escape from being trapped from inside toad stomachs. Should Jiraiya use the Transparent Technique, he can still be detected by Roshi due to the latter’s ability to sense Ki (both chakra and ki are similar in concept as life energies). We’re also unaware how much use Death Battle will have for the toad summons, but Roshi needs a good number of hits to send them back to Mount Myoboku. For toad techniques such as shadow manipulation and toad transforming, Jiraiya needs to tag Roshi and have him be still for those techniques to take effect. But as I stated before, Roshi is too fast to allow Jiraiya to land a hit. And lastly, Roshi does have experience in dealing with illusions which won’t help Jiraiya if he tries to use genjutsu.
Meanwhile, Roshi’s techniques, while short in variety, can give the turtle hermit another advantage for this fight. For one thing, Roshi’s Ki attacks such as the Kamehameha are far more destructive than Jiraiya’s ninjutsu. His Thunder Shock Surprise can stun Jiraiya. His hypnotism could also knock out the toad sage, or at least get him sleepy and confused, thus giving Roshi the easy kill. However, that’s not all in Roshi’s sleeve. His mastery over pressure point fighting style can paralyze Jiraiya, forcing him into his submission. His superior speed will allow him to create after-images to make it difficult for the toad sage to land a hit. The Mafuba, or Evil Containment Wave for you English dubbers, is an instant-win sealing technique for Roshi since all he needs is one of his sealing bottles and good accuracy. Finally, Roshi possesses an ability that’ll always allow him to be steps ahead of Jiraiya. Telepathy. He can eavesdrop Jiraiya’s mind and find out his next move and future strategies.
Now when it comes to their transformations, both forms increases the combatants’ power, energy, speed, and durability. However, Jiraiya’s Sage Mode comes with more exploitable costs. In order to activate Sage Mode, Jiraiya needs to gather nature energy and must stay still to do so. This will prove difficult as Roshi will keep on attacking him. And even if Jiraiya manages to achieve the form, it won’t last long. He’ll need Shima and Fukasaku to gather nature energy for him to maintain Sage Mode while on the move. However, that won’t help Jiraiya for long as the two elder toads can easily become extra casualties in this battle. And while Roshi’s Max Power form does take up a lot of energy and possibly kill him, the turtle hermit has shown improvements with this form in Resurrection ‘F’ and Dragon Ball Super. And while the Life Force Max Power Kamehameha can kill him, Roshi didn’t need this technique when he destroyed Fire Mountain and the Moon. Overall, Jiraiya has more versatility when it comes to techniques and abilities, but they’ll hardly work against Master Roshi.
Last but not least is experience. While Jiraiya did graduate from Konoha’s Ninja Academy at the age of 6 and became a full-fledged shinobi since then, let’s not forget that he died in the middle of Shippuden at the age of 54. Therefore, he was only a shinobi for 48 years. Roshi, on the other hand, has lived for over 300 years (344 to be exact). While we aren’t given an exact number of what age he started his martial arts training st, we do know that Roshi started his training when he was a teenager. So considering that 300 years is vastly greater than 48, there’s no doubt to say Roshi has the edge in experience as well.
Now before we end this, I have seen people using certain statements in Naruto as arguments on why Jiraiya should win. Specifically, separate statements from Itachi Uchiha and Nagato Uzumaki (a.k.a. Pain) about Jiraiya. I’m briefly going to counter those statements since people actually believe Jiraiya can win because of them. Here’s the thing. Defeating
First off, statements can and have been contradicted in Naruto as statements don’t equal feats. The first statement is from Itachi in Part 1 where he said that in a fight with him and fellow Akatsuki member Kisame Hoshigaki against Jiraiya, the best possible outcome would be all three of them dying and that Jiraiya would still be an incredibly difficult opponent even with additional Akatsuki members backing them up. However, that statement shouldn’t be accepted easily as Itachi would later display great feats and abilities in Part 2. While Tsukuyomi and Amaterasu were already shown in Part 1, they were still absurdly strong techniques. Techniques Itachi introduced in Part 2 include Izanami and the Full-Armored Susano’o, equipped with the Sword of Totsuka, the Yata Mirror, and the Yasaka Magatama. These abilities, weapons, and feats such as tanking Sasuke’s Kirin puts Itachi at least on part with Jiraiya.
The second statement is from Nagato in Part 2 where he tells Konan that Jiraiya would’ve won had he learned the secret behind the Six Paths of Pain. There’s nothing wrong with this statement as this could’ve possibly been true. The problem is that people use this statement as “evidence” of Jiraiya being more powerful than Pain. Here’s the thing. Defeating an opponent due to being naturally stronger, faster, and more durable is different than defeating an opponent due to exploiting a weakness. Exploiting a weakness doesn’t make a character naturally stronger, faster, or more durable than their opponent because all they’re doing is taking advantage of the opponent’s fatal flaw. That’s like saying Lex Luthor (or Batman) is naturally stronger, faster, and more durable than Superman because he exploited the Man of Steel’s weakness of Kryptonite. Hopefully, I was able to prove to people that those statements shouldn’t be used as legitimate arguments for Jiraiya.
Now don’t get me wrong. Jiraiya is one of the most awesome characters in Naruto, and it was sad watching him get killed by Pain. But with all that said and done, it’s obvious from my verdict that Muten Roshi is going to win. It seems that Jiraiya is going to croak a second time.
Anyway, I’ll see you all next time I’m helping out with the blog. I’ll probably not be here to do the next Death Battle should it be Darkseid vs Thanos (which it’s obviously going to be unless SA throws another curveball at us), but I’ll definitely return next season. Sayonara!
Animator3003
Here I find myself again on the stage of history, thanking the G1 blog for allowing me to hop in and help research this fight to the best of my ability, it's always a pleasure to be given the chance to work with them. And as always I have nothing but respect for the people who make this kind of stuff possible, seriously guys you all are amazing.
Anyways, first of all I would like so say a few out-of-subject things, first: that by the time of this blog’s release Super Smash Bros.Ultimate will be almost out and I’m excited to stomp on little kids with Isabelle, second: that the Death Battle before this one, Ultron vs Sigma, might just be the hypest thing to come out of this season next to Optimus vs Gundam, and finally: that Smash Ultimate is almost out… Did I already say that ? Who cares, let's just get back to the topic at hand, Roshi vs Jiraiya.
Now, this battle is actually quite good for me, I really like the characters and the animation is bound to be funny, entertaining and pretty cool, since both have a plethora of weird and interesting abilities(especially Jiraiya)… Now, since you have probably read all of these wonderful predictions you may reach mine and say “He’s gonna play devil's advocate for Jiraiya !” And to that I say:
Now, this battle is actually quite good for me, I really like the characters and the animation is bound to be funny, entertaining and pretty cool, since both have a plethora of weird and interesting abilities(especially Jiraiya)… Now, since you have probably read all of these wonderful predictions you may reach mine and say “He’s gonna play devil's advocate for Jiraiya !” And to that I say:
Sad to say but mine is kind of a repeat because to be totally honest, Roshi simply wrecks the toad man into space dust due to much more superior stats. Yes Jiraiya has some illusions, invisibility and hax that can get him the win if he lands it, which is a valid win condition since Roshi can’t survive being turned into a frog. But Roshi, being able to outpower Tien and keeping up with base Goku proves he is hundreds of times stronger and faster, so Jiraiya can’t touch him nor hurt him. Ki sense allows him to sense Jiraiya even when invisible and despite him not being immune to illusions, he has fought opponents who used them in the ToP as well as understand when he is in one. So it's not far fetched to say Roshi wouldn’t be able to at least keep up on those regards.
Simply put, Roshi can shoot a kame wave, or mafuba him easier than Jiraiya can seal him or turn him into a frog. If both get in CQC then roshi’s superior stats and experience come through. Even Jiraiya’s summons won't do much since Roshi is just that much more powerful (Country to Large Planet/ Small Star). So in the end it's just a lost fight for the poor guy.
Simply put, Roshi can shoot a kame wave, or mafuba him easier than Jiraiya can seal him or turn him into a frog. If both get in CQC then roshi’s superior stats and experience come through. Even Jiraiya’s summons won't do much since Roshi is just that much more powerful (Country to Large Planet/ Small Star). So in the end it's just a lost fight for the poor guy.
Also Roshi has a baby Gamera, and Gamera>>>>>>>>>>>>>frogs.
So yea, Roshi wins.