Who is Maito Gai exactly? | Page 1 | Gai for Hokage | Guild Forums

GimpyTheGreat
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Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:23 pm

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Maito Gai

Maito Gai is a Konoha Jōnin who sports thick eyebrows, an exceedingly unconventional personality, and a very shiny haircut . He is the sensei of a ninja team consisting of Rock Lee, Hyūga Neji and Tenten. Of the three, he has bonded with Lee the most, because Lee reminds Gai of himself when he was younger. Gai's guidance prompted Lee to start tapping into his potential, despite having been considered sub par in all ninja categories up until then. In his first appearance, Gai was accompanied by Ninkame, a large red tortoise (his Summon). This tortoise has not been seen since then. Gai believes that "hard work without believing in yourself is worthless", and though he uses the terms "youth", "power" and "explosion" a lot, he sadly notes that his own youthful power seems to have started fading. He first mentions this during training with Lee, who he can no longer keep up with.

Of all the characters in the series, Gai is perhaps the strangest of them all. Lee is a close second, having picked up most of these traits from Gai. Gai has several odd mannerisms, which include:

Giving the thumbs up and smiling with teeth so white they give the proverbial "ping" (glinting in sunlight). This is translated as the "nice guy pose", often used by both Gai and Lee to indicate commitment to whatever statement they just made, the highest form of a promise.

Punching Lee for various infractions and immediately bursting into tears and hugging him. When this happens, a beach at sunset, complete with crashing waves, usually appears behind them.

Calling himself "Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey". Lee has a similar habit.

Generally over-reacting, even by anime character standards, to the smallest situations.

Gai is the self-proclaimed rival of Hatake Kakashi, who appears indifferent to their rivalry. This annoys Gai to no end, who can't stand Kakashi's "cool" attitude. Gai has a record of 50 wins and 49 losses against his rival, and is very proud of it. This achievement, however, is not nearly as impressive as Gai makes it seem. In a flashback, these contests are shown to include 100-meter dashes, sumo-wrestling, ramen-eating contests, and even Rock, Paper, Scissors. Gai actually objected to the last item on the list, but Kakashi convinced him that luck was a skill. Incidentally, Guy lost that contest.

Part I

Chūnin Exam arc
Gai first appears in the Chūnin Exam arc, where he recommended that Kakashi hold his students back for a year so they could train. Kakashi asked if Gai was afraid that his own students would lose, which annoyed him. Gai later appears to stop the fight between Lee and Sasuke, which Lee was about to finish with a forbidden technique. This is Team 7's first introduction to Gai. While Naruto and Sakura can't help but focus on his comical resemblance to Lee, Sasuke is focused on his record against Kakashi, which Gai announced during his entrance. He also notes Gai's speed, which is greater than Kakashi's.

Gai makes several more appearances beyond this point, but most are simply speaking roles. During the preliminary exams, he notes Sasuke's similarity to Kakashi after watching him copy one of Lee's Lotus techniques. During Lee's fight with Gaara, he reveals that he taught Lee how to open five of the eight chakra gates, which Kakashi thinks was rather reckless of him. Gai defends himself, saying that he did so in order to help Lee achieve his goals. When Lee is about to be killed by Gaara, he steps in to stop the fight.

Gai ends up repeating Kakashi's earlier statement when he learns that Kakashi taught Sasuke the Chidori. Kakashi merely alludes to what Gai taught Lee as a response. After the attack on Konoha begins, both he and Kakashi spend the entire time taking out the enemy ninja in the stadium.

Return of Itachi and Search for Tsunade arc

During the Search for Tsunade arc, Gai rescues Kakashi, Asuma, and Yūhi Kurenai from Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame, who were looking for Naruto. They retreat when Gai arrives. After Kakashi is taken to the hospital, Itachi's arrival is accidentally revealed to Sasuke, who goes to find him. Gai ends up pursuing Sasuke, but only arrives after the fight between Jiraiya, Kisame, and Itachi. Gai ends up attacking Jiraiya, mistaking Jiraiya's reflection in his forehead protector for that of the enemy. Needless to say, he's embarrassed about the mistake. As Jiraiya and Naruto depart, he gives Naruto one of the body suits that he and Lee wear (Jiraiya convinces Naruto not to wear the suit after Gai leaves, pointing out how silly Gai looks in it).

Later on, after Tsunade gives Lee the poor odds of success for his operation, it is Gai who convinces Lee to go through with it. A short flashback explains their "My Rules" philosophy, which centers around setting goals for failure, insuring that some good will come of it, as well as some measure of karmic return for the investment. Gai tells Lee that with all of the work Lee has done so far, he will definitely survive the operation, and if by some cruel twist of fate Lee doesn't, then he will die too. As Gai puts it, they're both simply too stupid to live without their way of the ninja, which is becoming a great ninja for Lee and helping Lee become a great ninja for Gai.

Filler arcs

Gai doesn't get much attention in the filler arcs. He appears at the end of episode 161, at which point both he and Lee meet the two men who had been impersonating them. They quickly send the two imposters flying. He appears again in episode 193, where he attempts to challenge Lee in his newly-built dojo while disguised as someone else, in order to build the reputation of Lee's dojo. His disguise is poor to say the least, consisting of only a gray moustage and a gray afro wig, but Lee falls for it. While on his way to the dojo, he ends up being called away for an emergency, which gives a foreign ninja an opportunity to sneak into the village disguised as Gai. After a series of events which leaves Naruto fighting Lee while disguised as Gai, and the foreign ninja disguised as Lee, Gai arrives and challenges the disguised ninja to a fight. Gai promptly knocks him unconscious, not knowing that he's an imposter, and berates him for his easy defeat. When everyone meets up and realizes who the ninja is, they take him to Tsunade, who conveniently happens to have a warrant for his arrest.

Part II

Gai helping the incapacitated Hatake Kakashi after the mission.Gai seems to be developing a rivalry with Kisame; the two first faced off outside Konoha when Gai kicked Kisame and saved Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai. In Part II, a Kisame-controlled body substitute fought against Gai and his team; almost overwhelmed by Kisame's strength, Gai opened the sixth chakra gate and performed Morning Peacock, defeating Kisame and revealing the fact that their attacker was not actually Kisame but a body double. When Zetsu informed the other members of Akatsuki that Gai's team was approaching, Kisame has requested that he be the one to take care of them, as he wanted to repay Gai for "the kick he gave [him] earlier." However, when they faced off, Guy could not seem to recall who Kisame was, which agitated Kisame greatly.

Trivia

1. The name "Maito" comes from "might", and together with "Gai" becomes "a mighty Guy"; a joke aimed at the "hot-headed hero" archetype that appears in many movies and anime. There is even a giant robot anime named Yuusha Tokkyuu Might Gaine for the same reason.

2. Many of Gai's mannerisms and quirks are references to common clichés of seishun ("youth," especially in the sense of "springtime of one's life") anime. The coach whose "tough love" and harsh training is eventually respected and loved by his charges whom he has turned from losers into champions is a staple of such sports anime, as well as US sports movies. These clichés are often viewed as hopelessly corny and commonly parodied in gag anime.

3. In the Shonen Jump magazine, Viz rendered Gai's name as "Mighty Guy" in some chapters; this was changed back to "Maito Gai" in most of the graphic novel stories. Later this was changed to "Might Guy" when the guide books were revealed.

4. According to the official databook, Might Gai's favorite foods are super-spicy curry rice and curry udon. As to his least favorite food, he proclaims, "There is no such thing!". His hobbies are repeatedly jumping sideways and hitting mitts, and his favorite phrase is "Bursting with youth!".

5. Gai has developed a taijutsu technique specifically designed for use against Sharingan users, where the user can tell what kind of technique the enemy will use just by looking at his/her feet. This prevents the Sharingan user from performing genjutsu through eye contact.

6. Despite his rather goofy nature, Gai is actually a very powerful Jōnin, and he can be serious at the right time. When he saves Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai from Kisame during the Return of Itachi story arc, Itachi narrows his eyes at his appearance. Kisame disregards Gai with a remark; however, Itachi warns him to not underestimate him.

7. Part II, when Team Gai is approaching the Akatsuki hideout, Itachi warns the other members of Akatsuki again to not take Gai lightly. Considering the strength of each member of the organization (Itachi in particular), that Gai would merit such a warning is a sure indicator that he is a potent combatant.

8. Gai's team specializes in weapons and taijutsu techniques.

9. Gai only appears twice without his vest. The first is in episode 86 when he pictures Naruto standing next to him wearing the green jumpsuit he gives him, and the second is in episode 98 where it shows him feeding Lee some very bitter dumplings to heal him of his injuries.

10. Gai develops close relationships with all of his students (he even says that he loves them like they were his own children). However, he has a closer relationship with Rock Lee because he was a lot like Lee when he was a Genin.

11. Gai has completed 86 D-rank, 269 C-rank, 210 B-rank, 177 A-rank and 20 S-rank missions.

12. Gai graduated the Academy at age 7, and became a Chūnin at age 11.

13. Since Gai has never used any ninjutsu or genjutsu onscreen (even going so far as to use a regular disguise instead of using a transformation jutsu) but has a ninjutsu and genjutsu score of three out of five in the databooks, one can assume that he simply doesn't like to use either.

14. However, Gai has summoned Ninkame on one occasion, and he is capable of dispelling some forms of genjutsu (as seen during the Invasion of Konoha story arc).

15. Gai is usually referred to by Naruto as Geki-mayu-sensei (thick eyebrows-sensei). On certain occasions, however, he is called Gai-sensei by Naruto.

16. Gai's odd mannerisms are similar to Captain Ginyu of Dragonball Z.