In fact, you probably imagined “that scene” right now after opening this article! And I say “good”. Because we’re really going to beat a dead horse here by getting into some fictional battles with characters spanning all of anime – specifically battles that Jiraiya would lose in. It’s time to cut some onions!
10. Sinbad
Anime: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic What makes Jiraiya such a formidable opponent is his versatile kit. Will he set you on fire, frog song you to death, hit you with a giant Rasengan? Or just kick you around for a while? Who knows! But Sinbad is one of those characters that could actually fight back against most of those issues. Jiraiya’s strongest move is the Toad Song. It’s hard to dodge or to see coming, but Sinbad actually has quite the similar ability with Zepar. And from what we’ve seen in the anime, Zepar seem to be a lot louder than the Sages’ croaking. In terms of destructive power, Sinbad also has quite the edge – because even Jiraiya’s giant Rasengan doesn’t seem all that impressive compared to Baal and his casual mountain-range level blasts. Even when it comes to straight forward hand-to-hand combat, Jiraiya’s Sage amps are kind of countered, as Valefor has the ability to slow down the enemy’s reaction and movement speed. So Jiraiya would probably still end up eating dirt. The only way I see Jiraiya winning is if Sinbad allowed him to transform into his Sage Mode, and then allowed him to croak for a bit and get him in genjutsu. But considering how cautious Sinbad usually is, I doubt it would play out like that.
9. Tooru
Anime: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid It’s time for the toad boy vs. dragon girl showdown. And let’s pretend like Jiraiya wouldn’t immediately fall in love with any of the female characters in this show… Because either way, I think he’s definitely receiving an L here. First off, let’s talk about counters. Jiraiya’s pseudo invisibility isn’t all that important, since Tooru has the exact same ability. And his Toad Stomach trap also doesn’t do much since Tooru can open portals that span across even other dimensions. And when it comes to feats, Joraiya is just kind of screwed. Tooru’s fire blasts out-scale Jiraiya’s when it comes to size – and we know they can reach some absolutely insane levels. Like, “please don’t force my hand cause I’ll blow up the entire planet” levels. Even in terms of hand-to-hand combat, a Tooru that’s just casually sparring has shown may more impressive speed and strength feats than a Jiraiya fighting for his life. So I simply can’t see any way that he wins this battle.
8. Satoru Gojou
Anime: Jujutsu Kaisen It’s the battle of the sensei – and while Naruto definitely curb-stomps Itadori, Jiraiya can’t really scale to Gojou. This is because most of Jiraiya’s power comes from rather ordinary abilities: like summons or giant blasts of fire. While Gojou is hurting your brain with his controlled infinity concept. Straight off the bat, Jiraiya is not getting a single punch in. Not only does Gojou have the infinity layer around him, but he’s also quick as hell, and probably wouldn’t get tagged anyway. I mean, the dude straight-up left a fight, had a chat with Itadori, and then brought him back to spectate the fight – all before his enemy could process what was going on. And realistically, if Jiraiya has that speed, he probably would have fetched some reinforcements. Jiraiya’s only saving grace is the Toad Song. But he would have to get quite lucky to even go into Sage Mode. Plus one could question whether this would even work on Gojou. Because if we treat it like a Domain Expansion, Gojou can overwrite it and make Jiraiya’s brain explode.
7. Ainz Ooal Gown
Anime: Overlord As we saw in Jiraiya’s fight against the Paths of Pain, information is everything in a battle. And figuring out your enemy’s skill set is essential if you want to survive. But how do you do that against someone who could write a whole book filled with his abilities? Like statistically, I think Ainz has a counter attack for anything that anyone could throw at him. We know that he has quite a bit of summons, so Jiraiya’s own summon would be rather busy. And his AoE coverage is insane, so no point in camouflaging yourself and waiting for you chance to strike. Even his resistances are way higher than one would think, since he can just hug you to death if your level is low enough. And while I don’t think he could exactly do that to Jiraiya, I also don’t think Jiraiya could simply one-tap him with a Rasengan or something like that. So we once again reach the Toad Song win condition here. And while I can’t think of any abilities in particular that would counter this genjutsu, I feel like it’s just a given that Ainz would think of something. Plus, he’s literally a skeleton, and doesn’t even have ears. So maybe it just wouldn’t work at all.
6. Mori Jin
Anime: The God of High School This time, it’s monkey boy vs. toad boy. And once again, toads get slapped by an objectively way cooler animal. However, this fight is one of the few cases where I don’t think Jin actually has any specific abilities that counter Jiraiya – but rather that he would merely whoop his butt because of stat differences. I like clowning the pacing of this show, but there’s no denying that Jin knows how to fight 1v1. And after getting his stretchy stick of death, he quite literally becomes god tier. So this is how I see their battle going down: Jin uses his superior mobility and keeps slapping Jiraiya around in the air, and simply doesn’t give him the time to actually cast any of his ninjutsu – or god forbid get into Sage Mode.
5. Yami Sukehiro
Anime: Black Clover Yep, another battle of the shounen sensei, and another L for our boy Jiraiya. Although I will say that this fight would be extremely entertaining to watch. When it comes to similarities, both of these dudes have sharp senses and years of experience on the battlefield. So would probably couldn’t manage to pull any simple tricks on one another. They’re also both good at fighting, including close combat and long-range. However, Yami wins when it comes to one-shot potential. Both his thrust attack and his dimension slash are basically one hit kill abilities. And we’ve seen in his fight with Dante that when Yami is serious, he can use these abilities multiple times in a row. Dimension Slash also cuts through the Toad Stomach. And given how weary Yami is in battle, he would either never allow Jiraiya to enter Sage Mode, or he would start spamming him with long-range attacks the second he sees two other frogs pop up and start croaking. Overall, it would be an amazing fight. But Jiraiya’s win conditions (the Rasengan and the Toad Song) are a bit more difficult to pull off than Yami’s multiple instant long-range AoE one-shot attacks.
4. Tatsumaki
Anime: One Punch Man When it comes to versus battles, nothing is quite as exciting as telekinetic supremacy – at least when it’s at a high level like with Tatsumaki. You summon a toad? I yeet it away. Your hair wants to strangle me? I yeet you away. There’s a mix of oil and fire heading right at me? I yeet myself away. The power of the yeet is just too broken. And I honestly can’t think of any ways that Jiraiya gets out of this one alive. Especially since Tatsumaki would probably keep her distance and wouldn’t allow for any Toad Song shenanigans. And my head canon is that she wouldn’t keep her distance solely because she’s weary of Pervy Sage or because she knows it’s the optimal tactic – but rather because Jiraiya’s Sage Mode would probably creep her out and she would want nothing to do with it. Plus if that isn’t convincing enough, just remember that Tatsumaki shares a feat with “should my clones have Susanoo” Madara. By the mere fact that both are able to drop asteroids onto the planet to flex on their enemy, Tatsumaki scales with the highest echelon of the Naruto verse.
3. Diane
Anime: The Seven Deadly Sins If you rewatch Jiraiya’s fight with Pain, you’ll see that he actually struggles against the Animal Path quite a bit. This is because Jiraiya doesn’t have that many great answers when it comes to giant enemies. Sure, he has his Giant Rasengan. But when you think about it, that would severely damage one limb at best – unless he pulls some Goku tactics and somehow makes it 20x bigger than the one we’ve already seen. This is where Diane comes in. Not only does her size make it very difficult for Jiraiya to land any significant damage (especially if she also hardens her skin), but it also makes evading her attacks quite a meddlesome task. Once she starts swinging her hammer around and controlling the Earth, I don’t think even Jiraiya’s summons would do him a lot of good. And since she can be quite unrelenting in this attack, I don’t think Jiraiya will exactly have the time to transform and activate the Toad Song.
2. Itachi Uchiha
Anime: Naruto: Shippuden I have to include Itachi on here as well, because some of you actually believe that Itachi ran away from Jiraiya out of fear. And I have to point out how absolutely ridiculous that notion is. Yes, he and Kisame did escape. But that was because Itachi was out here playing 5-D chess and wanted to ward off any kind of Akatsuki invasion on the village. But trust me: if he wanted to throw down, Jiraiya would not have lasted long. Look at it this way: The Sannin are all somewhat comparable in strength. And Itachi literally just pointed at Orochimaru and made him question every decision he had ever made. No Susanoo, no Totsuka blade, and no killing intent. Just a single point. And honestly, Jiraiya would not fair that much better either. Even in his weakened state, we know that Itachi could have killed Sasuke if he really wanted to. So to say that he would have enough power to get rid of Jiraiya as well would be an understatement.
1. Ryuuko Matoi
Anime: Kill la Kill This battle would be the only way to truly honor the memory of the Pervy Sage. Let’s be honest, the dude would have died due to blood-loss within a few seconds of Ryuuko transforming. And I don’t think Jiraiya would want to go out any other way. But if that isn’t a good enough reason for you, there’s the feat gap as well. A base Ryuuko can cause mountain-level destruction, while with Sanketsu she can survive having her heart torn out and fly to space in the matter of minutes. Her scissor can cut through anything, so she might just give Jiraiya a very unwanted haircut. And because of how genjutsu typically works in Naruto, there’s a solid chance that Sanketsu could snap her out of it before any major damage had been done. But overall, it’s the stamina and endurance difference that would kind of seal this battle. While Jiraiya is extremely clever and powerful, he can’t really go days on end fighting like Ryuuko can. And he most definitely cannot survive getting completely impaled, as we unfortunately already know.
