Jiraiya was one of the Legendary Sannin of Konohagakure and one of the most influential characters in Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto series. As the master of Naruto Uzumaki, he played a major role in his development and the achievement of his goals as a shinobi.
Although Jiraiya ended up dying at the hands of his own student, Nagato Uzumaki, he appears to be back, although as a clone created by Amado using Scientific Ninja Technology. While some are very happy with his return, it has also raised quite a few eyebrows in the fandom already. Here are 5 reasons why Jiraiya's return in Boruto is good and 5 why it is bad.
10 Good: Naruto And Jiraiya Reunion
Naruto Uzumaki lived most of his life without having a family to look after him. After meeting Jiraiya, he found his home and someone who would eventually go on to look after him until his moment of death.
Losing him all of a sudden definitely broke Naruto, and what filled him with regret was that he didn't get to show Jiraiya any of his accomplishments. With Jiraiya's return as Kashin Koji, that reunion is now possible again and fans can't wait to see the two meet.
9 Bad: Jiraiya's Legacy
Jiraiya was one of the most prominent shinobi throughout the Naruto series and his own journey as a ninja was perfectly handled from start to finish.
Although Jiraiya never got to do things that he wanted, he did pass on the Will of Fire to his student, Naruto Uzumaki, which, in a way, is the embodiment of the series. With his return, the legacy that he created with the fans is now called into question because nobody knows where the character is headed anymore.
8 Good: The Legendary Sannin
Jiraiya was one of the Legendary Sannin, along with Orochimaru and Tsunade Senju. Out of all three, he was the only one to fall in the series, which left a bitter taste in the mouths of some fans.
With his return, the Legendary Sannin can once again stand proud and that's always a fantastic thing to witness.
7 Bad: Death Fakeout
Jiraiya's death was unarguably one of the most game-changing events in the entire Naruto series. Not only did it finally clarify who the child of prophecy was, but it made Naruto grow as a shinobi and even helped him develop his own way of handling problems, that is, choose a path without hatred and violence.
While that worked perfectly with the Naruto series, his return in Boruto makes the previous events seem like a death fakeout just to make Naruto stronger forcefully.
6 Good: Koji's Handling
As a character, Kashin Koji has been handled pretty well in the Boruto series so far. Although he is technically the same as Jiraiya, it is also likely that he is his own person to an extent.
To put that into perspective, fans can look at Mitsuki and Log. Although both of them are essentially the same person, they've got their own will and separate identities.
5 Bad: Boruto's Story
Throughout the Boruto series, it's been established that this isn't Naruto Uzumaki's story anymore. Times have changed and Naruto has already done what he wanted to do. This is Boruto's story and his own era.
However, time and again, the Boruto series takes elements from Naruto and uses them to gain the attention of the fans. This was first seen with Ao, who was randomly brought back, and now with Jiraiya. It makes one question how much of this truly is going to be Boruto's own story.
4 Good: Scientific Ninja Technology
Whether you like the decision to bring back Jiraiya or not, something that's always been outlined in the Boruto series is the importance of Scientific Ninja Tools.
The technology has been thoroughly developed over the course of the last few years and at this point, fans know that creating a synthetic human isn't impossible anymore. With that, Boruto is sticking to its roots and promoting the idea that technology will always heavily influence the series.
3 Bad: Changing The Feel Of The Story
With Jiraiya's return, a change in how Naruto's story feels is inevitable. Knowing that the Toad Sage returns, later on, fans may no longer be able to look at his death and be hit by the same emotion anymore.
While it worked well with Naruto as a stand-alone series, knowing that he returns later on definitely diminishes the impact that it had on the fans at first.
2 Good: Boruto's Popularity
Although not the best thing out there, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations is doing pretty well as a series. To boost its popularity even further, plot devices such as Ao and Jiraiya have been used. While some may not like it, they will definitely get more people interested in the series because of the nostalgia factor.
Regardless of what people feel about the decision to bring him back, Boruto, as a series, will be the center of attention for quite a while now.
1 Bad: Jiraiya's Future
Jiraiya's return as Kashin Koji is definitely something that will raise more questions as we go forward in the story and one of the biggest ones would be regarding his future.
In Naruto, Jiraiya got a perfect ending that couldn't have been handled any better. With his return, another death seems to be highly unlikely, so then what exactly is his future going to be? Unfortunately, Jiraiya's fate will remain up in the air for quite a while until we finally get to see the story wrap up.