Orochimaru (Naruto)

Orochimaru
Naruto character
Orochimaru by Masashi Kishimoto
First appearance	Naruto manga chapter 45
Voiced by	Japanese Kujira Yuriko Yamaguchi (as Grass ninja) Mayumi Yamaguchi (as a child) Sachiko Kojima (as his female body) English Steven Jay Blum Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (as Grass ninja) Michelle Ruff (as his female body)
Ninja rank	Missing-nin

Orochimaru (大蛇丸) is a fictional character from the Naruto universe created by Masashi Kishimoto and developed into a media franchise, which consists of a series of manga, anime, soundtracks, OVAs, movies, video games, and other collectibles. He was created as one of the series’ main antagonists, and intended to represent the opposite of the protagonists’ morals and values.

In the anime and manga, Orochimaru is a former ninja of the village of Konohagakure, and leads his own ninja village, Otogakure, in hopes of destroying his former home. During his time in Konohagakure, Orochimaru distinguished himself as one of the village’s most powerful ninja; however, his desire for power led him to obtain a means for immortality by transferring between different host bodies. This desire for a host is one of his driving motivations throughout the series, resulting in his desire to acquire Sasuke Uchiha due to his powerful genetic heritage. Orochimaru has appeared in media outside the Naruto anime and manga, including several video games.

Several anime and manga publications have praised and criticized Orochimaru’s character. As one of the series’ premier villains, he has been praised in this regard; IGN compared his character to Darth Vader of Star Wars fame. His lack of redeeming qualities and open malevolence was also praised by reviewers, with Mania.com calling him the “first real villain” of the series. Among the Naruto reader base, Orochimaru has been popular, ranking within the top twenty characters in several polls. Numerous pieces of merchandise in Orochimaru’s likeness have also been released, including action figures and plush dolls.

As one of the villains in the story, Kishimoto created Orochimaru as an antithesis to the protagonists’ values. His snake-like appearance and related features were intended to make it easier for the reader to recognize that he is a villain. In an interview, Kishimoto asserted that making the villains “flamboyant” was one of his “guiding principles,” and attributed this to his desire to have the villains have a “powerful aura.” When asked if Orochimaru was still good, Kishimoto answered that Orochimaru is “truly good” and that he is one of the several “hopeless evil characters” that appear in the series.

Following this theme of distinguishing villains, Kishimoto attempted to make Orochimaru’s face appear “pasty and sickly,” which serves to emphasize the “scary looks” that Kishimoto frequently has Orochimaru performing in the manga. Orochimaru’s nature type is fire, earth, and wind. As these occurrences are his “trademark,” Kishimoto modifies Orochimaru’s appearance and the scene to focus on Orochimaru’s face; for instance, highlights that are normally added to Orochimaru’s hair are removed and the background is blanked out to create a “creepy atmosphere.”

Orochimaru acts as the primary antagonist for the first part of the series. After his parents were killed when he was young, Orochimaru’s only source of affection was received from his teacher, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi, and his two teammates. As they grew older Orochimaru, Jiraiya, and Tsunade collectively became known as the “Legendary Sannin” (伝説の三忍, Densetsu no Sannin) due to their exemplary ninja abilities in the Second Great Ninja War against Hanzo. Much of Orochimaru’s arsenal of abilities deals with snakes. By summoning them to his side during battle, Orochimaru can battle multiple opponents at once and simultaneously keep himself out of harm’s way. Through his experimentations he has also been able to add some snake-like characteristics to his own body.

Orochimaru, however, craved more power than could be obtained from training with his master, and began abducting villagers of Konohagakure for various experiments with Yamato among his surviving victims.Unwilling to bring himself to harm Orochimaru upon learning of his actions, Hiruzen allowed his former pupil to escape and flee the village. In time Orochimaru joined the criminal organization Akatsuki and became partners with a fellow Rouge Ninja named Sasori. However, after his attempt to steal the body of Itachi Uchiha through a forbidden jutsu so as to gain the Sharingan failed, Orochimaru is forced to leave the Akatsuki. Orochimaru then founded his own ninja village, Otogakure, populated with ninja loyal to him. From there, Orochimaru proceeds towards his goal to become the “ultimate being”. Because a human’s lifespan does not allow enough time to learn every jutsu, Orochimaru uses his forbidden jutsu to steal his victim’s body. By living throughout the ages, only needing to transfer into a new host when the current becomes unusable, Orochimaru becomes essentially immortal and able to retain all the knowledge he gains.

During the Chunin Exams, Orochimaru plans the invasion of Konoha with the ninja of Sunagakure to not only kill Hiruzen but also claim the body of Itachi’s brother Sasuke Uchiha, whom he marked with the Cursed Seal prior. In the end, having secretly murdered the Fourth Kazekage to get close to his mentor, Orochimaru is forced to retreat when Hiruzen sacrifices himself through the Reaper Death Seal to take away Orochimaru’s ability to perform jutsu. This causes his forces to pull back as Sunagakure later learns of Orochimaru’s treachery. Wanting to regain the ability to use jutsu, Orochimaru attempted to get aid from Tsunade before seeking out another way to cure himself. When all his efforts prove unsuccessful, Orochimaru sends his Sound Four to fetch Sasuke, hoping that a body-transfer will allow him to use his arms again. Though he waits as long as he can, Sasuke takes too long to arrive and Orochimaru is forced to switch to the body of one of his prisoners instead. Once Sasuke arrives, Orochimaru decides to train him instead until the day that he will be able to take the body for himself.

Two-and-a-half years later, in the second part of the series, Orochimaru confronts Naruto and his friends when they attempted to track down Sasuke. Taunting Naruto, Orochimaru manages to hold his own after the youth is being consumed by the Nine Tails chakra. Later, when Sasuke attempts to kill Naruto, Orochimaru stays his hand by pointing out the boy’s use in taking down the Akatsuki and thus lessening the number of enemies he has. Eventually, when his host body begins to fail him, Orochimaru is left with no other choice but to proceed with the body-switch sooner than expected. Sasuke, unwilling to give himself up to a weakened Orochimaru, fights the attempted body-switch. Using the Sharingan to void Orochimaru’s technique, Sasuke retains control of his body while trapping Orochimaru’s soul within him, giving him access to many of Orochimaru’s abilities in the process. During Sasuke’s later fight with Itachi, Sasuke is left too weak to continue suppressing Orochimaru’s soul, allowing Orochimaru to escape and try to take his body again. Before he can do so, Itachi, using the legendary sword of Totsuka, seals him away. In the aftermath of Kabuto’s defeat and needing answers, Sasuke reveals Orochimaru’s survival as the Cursed Seals are revealed to hold a copy of Orochimaru’s consciousness in it. Using the Cursed Seal Orochimaru placed on his former student, Anko Mitarashi, Sasuke releases Orochimaru and gives him a new body which Jugo provides with an absorbed part of Kabuto’s flesh. He then joins Sasuke and the rest of Taka in his quest to know the Uchiha’s origins. Orochimaru undoes the Reaper Death Seal and regains the use of his arms. He brings then brings the first four Hokage back to life with the Edo Tensei at Sasuke’s request. After a discussion between Sasuke and the First Hokage, the groups goes to meet up with the Allied Shinobi Forces.

Orochimaru so far has only appeared in the fifth Naruto film, Naruto Shippūden 2: Bonds. He is not present in the other four films in the series, and only in the fifth OVA “The Cross Roads” in which he has a small part; however, is a playable character in nearly all Naruto video games, including the Clash of Ninja series and the Ultimate Ninja series. In some games, he utilizes variations of his techniques not seen in the anime or manga, and in the second installment of the Ultimate Ninja series, his state after his arms were sealed by the Third Hokage is available as a separate character. Naruto Shippūden: Gekitou Ninja Taisen EX 2 marks the first appearance of Orochimaru in a video game set in Part II, with the second one being Naruto Shippūden: Narutimate Accel.

Orochimaru has been featured consistently in the Weekly Shonen Jump popularity polls, commonly placing in the top twenty characters. However in the last popularity poll, he was out of the top thirty characters. Merchandise based on Orochimaru has also been released, including action figures, plush dolls, and key chains. AnimeCentral listed him as tenth best villain in anime owing to his objectives and methods, most notably how he scares Sasuke Uchiha the first time seeing him despite Sasuke’s strength.

Several publications for manga, anime, video games, and other related media have provided praise and criticism on Orochimaru’s character. IGN compared Orochimaru’s search for power and subsequent fall into villainy to that of Darth Vader, and labeled Orochimaru as “something more than just pure evil.” Mania Entertainment considered Orochimaru the “first real villain” of the series, noting that he had no redeeming qualities, as versus Zabuza Momochi, the villain of the previous arc. DVDTalk celebrated the introduction of Orochimaru into the series, as well as the potential plot development from the curse seal Orochimaru placed on Sasuke, noting it was one of the best parts of the series. Instead, Anime News Network labeled Orochimaru to be a character that can not be killed. However, they considered Kujira, Orochimaru’s Japanese voice actor, as one of the best ones from the series. Despite the character’s small appearances in Part II, most of them were well received. The way Orochimaru angers Naruto Uzumaki in their battle as well as how he manages events ever since his reintroduction have been deemed as “near perfectly” by Mania’s Chris Beveridge. Orochimaru’s fight against Sasuke in later parts from the series was praised by Mangalife’s Park Cooper due to how it changes “the nature of things” in a short time. While agreeing with Cooper, Beveridge found that the fight did not bring a certain end to Orochimaru which he thought it would have made it more entertaining. On the other hand, Beveridge liked how the during the fight between the two a flashback showed the Orochimaru’s backstory in Konoha, which helped in expanding his character.