Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto anime/manga is easily one of the best stories ever released. One of the biggest reasons why Naruto is so popular is because of its massive cast of supporting characters. Without Naruto's supporting characters, the series would definitely not be as popular.
There are even some characters that have become so popular with fans that even Kishimoto himself doesn't understand why fans love them so much.
Rock Lee and Jiraiya surprised the Naruto creator because they achieved unexpected popularity
In the Naruto story, Kishimoto wrote quite a few extraordinary characters and they are very popular with fans. Among these, there are famous people beyond the author's expectations and Kishimoto has talked about this before.
Reporter: Both Naruto and Boruto are works with attractive characters in addition to the main characters.
Kishimoto: In the Gaiden short story series, ChouChou is loved by his superiors, assistants, and people around him. For the scenes where Sarada carries a burden, I thought I would make it brighter, so I made her (ChouChou) appear, but everyone spoke very well of her. I didn't think she would be so loved, so I was surprised. In Naruto, it was Rock Lee, along with Jiraiya, I didn't mean to try, but they became famous. Creating characters is quite difficult, so I don't really understand when characters that authors create with the intention of becoming famous are not popular, but characters that I create without any intention Realizing that, he became famous.
Apparently, the two characters in Naruto that surprised Kishimoto with their popularity were Rock Lee and Jiraiya. The reason for their popularity is not surprising, but the author of the series cannot understand it.
As for Rock Lee, it's easy to see how fans would sympathize with him. After all, he's one of the most humanized characters on a show full of ninjas with immense power. Rock Lee cannot use any ninjutsu, but still strives to achieve glory. He trained his body to the extreme and experienced terrible hardship and pain.
He was rewarded for that and became one of the most physically powerful warriors in the Naruto series. Lee continues to work hard despite enduring major setbacks, and that's one of the biggest reasons why the character is so beloved by fans.
Likewise, the character Jiraiya is also loved by many people. Jiraiya serves as Naruto's mentor excellently. He became Naruto's teacher and ensured that the fledgling boy became a very strong ninja with immense power. More than that, Jiraiya put Naruto on the path to achieving true peace and understanding people's pain.
Without him, the character Naruto would definitely not be as great as he is today. What's more, the character Jiraiya himself is filled with his own interesting storylines that fans are sure to love. While Kishimoto may not have thought much about it when writing, it clearly had a huge impact on fans.
