GAARA of the desert

GAARA of the desert

Gaara is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto. He is the youngest child of the Fourth Kazekage, making him the younger brother of Kankuro and Temari.

He is known as "Gaara of the Sand" in the Viz translation, "Gaara of the Desert" in the English anime, and "Sabaku no Gaara" (Gaara of the Sand Waterfall) in the original Japanese (Sabaku means "sand waterfall", but sabaku means "desert", thus the more common "Gaara of the Desert").

In the annual Shonen Jump polls for the most popular character, Gaara consistently ranks in the top ten, usually between seventh and tenth spot.

Background

Prior to Gaara's birth, Sunagakure saw a series of budget cuts that made it difficult for the village to operate. As a result, Gaara's father ordered Chiyo to seal the One-Tailed Shukaku within Gaara during his birth in the hopes that he would become the ultimate weapon for the village. Because a sacrifice was needed, Gaara's mother, Karura, was used. Before she died, Karura cursed Sunagakure, hoping Gaara would avenge her death. As with the other demon hosts, Gaara acquired a physical trait of the tailed beast inside him - in his case, dark rings around his eyes resembling those of the Shukaku. These rings are also indicative of his insomnia--he cannot sleep, or else the Shukaku will consume his personality.

Gaara was trained by his father, but raised mainly by his maternal uncle, Yashamaru. Because of the power of Shukaku, the villagers of Sunagakure hated and feared Gaara, seeing him only as the monster sealed within him. For a time, Yashamaru seemed to be the only person who cared about him; when he would mistakenly harm others due to the subconscious abilities granted to him by Shukaku, Yashamaru would be the only one who understood that Gaara hadn't intended to harm anyone. Gaara's father, however, did not see him in the same light, and viewed his frequent attacks upon villagers as a result of a failed experiment that was a threat to the village.

Because of the danger Gaara represented, his father asked Yashamaru to kill Gaara. As a result, Yashamaru tried to assassinate Gaara, though Gaara's abilities defeated him with ease. Although Gaara tried to dismiss this attack as an order of the Kazekage, Yashamaru corrected him by saying that he had willingly accepted the mission. Having never truly loved Gaara, Yashamaru hoped that killing him would avenge the death of his sister, who had named Gaara after the phrase "a self-loving carnage" (Ware wo ai suru shura), a sign of her hate for Gaara. In a last effort to kill him, Yashamaru detonated a number of explosive tags covering his body, asking Gaara to "please die". Gaara survived the blast without injury and lost the only person he thought had cared for him. From the ages of six to twelve years old, Gaara would encounter many assassins sent by his father.

Personality

Shukaku, the one-tailed beast.

While Gaara had initially tried to be friendly towards others despite their fear of him, Yashamaru's actions and words changed him. Realizing that nobody loved him, Gaara used his sand to create the kanji on his forehead ("Love") as a symbol of a "demon loving only himself". He became emotionally withdrawn, all but silent, and consumed with a bitter loathing for everyone but himself. He learned to find pleasure and eventually a reason to live in annihilating the numerous assassins sent to kill him - and by extension, anyone who threatened his existence. Gaara's insomnia, forced upon him by the fear that the demon inside him would eat away at his personality if he were to fall asleep, only furthered his instability and desire to kill. In time, Gaara's father came to appreciate Gaara and the uses he could serve, and canceled all assassination orders in the hopes that Gaara would become an effective tool for Sunagakure.

For his first assignment as the village's weapon, Gaara is entered into the Chunin Exams taking place in Konoha to play a key role in the village's eventual invasion. While he enjoys the opportunity to kill others for much of the exam's early stages, he is eventually pitted against Rock Lee during the preliminaries. With his strength and speed, Lee is able to overcome many of Gaara's defenses, becoming the first person to ever hit Gaara. While Lee is able to deliver a number of ordinarily debilitating blows, Gaara's sand allows him to survive each attack and eventually gain the upperhand on Lee. While the match is stopped before further harm can come to Lee, their match allows Gaara a change in ideals; rather than determine his own existence by killing anyone he meets, Gaara finds a drive to kill those strong enough to defeat him, and begins to long to find a formidable opponent.

Gaara's wishes are soon realized and he is matched against Sasuke Uchiha during the exam's finals. With his Chidori, Sasuke is able to badly injure Gaara near his shoulder, so much so that Gaara is unable to participate in Konoha's invasion as planned. Despite this setback, Gaara's wound magnifies his desire to kill Sasuke and the two soon resume their battle. With Gaara's encouragement Sasuke is able to give additional injuries to Gaara, though his rapidly progressing Shukaku transformation leaves him unfazed by the attacks. When Sasuke is no longer able to battle and Gaara goes in for the kill, Naruto Uzumaki arrives to save him. With the desire to save his friends from Gaara, Naruto meets him in battle and is eventually able to defeat him despite being in full Shukaku form. Realizing that Naruto's strength stems from his desire to protect others, Gaara abandons his prior ideals and decides to acquire strength by caring for others.

Gaara's new disposition is first seen when he comes to Rock Lee's aid during the Sasuke Retrieval arc. Upon seeing that the injuries Lee received during their last battle have yet to fully heal, Gaara repeatedly stops him from fighting, concerned that Lee will only harm himself further. These new ideals are seen again during the anime's filler arcs, where Gaara acquires a student named Matsuri. As the two begin training, Gaara worries that all of the potential training weapons might cause Matsuri injury, so he has her train with the least harmful weapon present. When she is later kidnapped, Gaara and his siblings go out to rescue her, and with the help of the Konoha ninjas they succeed in their task.

Temari, Gaara, and Kankuro in Part II

Over the timeskip, Gaara's personality changes a great deal. While in the past he was fairly hostile to his siblings (to a point which they were both scared of him), he has since come to hold them in a higher regard, and talks to Kankuro about his problems and dreams. As a result of becoming the Fifth Kazekage ( Godaime Kazekage), Gaara now acts as the villager's source of protection and values their lives over his own. The villagers, in turn, have also begun to hold Gaara in a more admirable regard, especially amongst the younger females of the village. However, much of the Elder population, especially with the higher ranks, still holds malice towards him and call the younger generation fools for believing in him.

Abilities

As the host of Shukaku, Gaara possesses the ability to manipulate sand at will, typically moving it through the air to serve various purposes. The amount of sand he can control at one time is fairly immense, as in Part II he is able to gather enough sand to cover Sunagakure as a shield. If sand is lacking in abundance, Gaara can use what little sand there is to break apart minerals in the ground to create more sand. While he can control any sand (assuming it isn't wet), ordinary sand requires that he exert more chakra to manipulate it, tiring him at a rapid rate. As a result, Gaara keeps his own chakra-enhanced sand with him at all times in a calabash gourd he carries on his back, though this gourd is itself made of sand. Because this sand is already infused with his chakra, Gaara has a great deal more control over it, enabling stronger and faster attacks with it.

During battle, Gaara rarely moves, attacking with his sand from a single location and rarely using taijutsu. When first introduced his basic means of attacks is to first use Desert Coffin ( Sabaku Kyū, English TV "Sand Coffin") to capture, immobilize, and potentially suffocate an opponent with sand. Once the opponent is subdued, he uses Desert Funeral ( Sabaku Sōsō, English TV "Sand Burial") to cause the sand to crush the opponent with varying intensities. In time he is able to increase the scale of these attacks; by first using Quicksand in the Style of a Waterfall ( Ryūsa Bakuryū), Gaara covers a large area in an ocean of sand, and then uses Desert Imperial Funeral ( Sabaku Taisō) to compress the sand and crush all that it covers. If Desert Imperial Funeral fails to kill an opponent, he can use Prison Sand Burial ( Gokusamaisō) to loosen the ground beneath an opponent and allow them to sink hundreds of feet underground, where the sand compresses to such an extent that the opponent is no longer able to move. A variation on this theme of "capture and crush" is Flowing Desert Dragon (Ryū Sabakuryū) which creates a wave of sand that collapses in a sphere over the opponent.

As the second element of his stationary combat style, Gaara has a number of sand-based defenses to be used in case an opponent gets too close. His primary defense is his Shield of Sand ( Suna no Tate), an automatic sand shield that surrounds and protects him from damage whether he wants it to or not. Gaara can control the shield to some degree, strengthening it to steel-like quality or calling upon it to completely encase himself. While an effective defense, the shield can be overcome with high speed attacks or simply be broken through with incredibly forceful strikes. Should this happen, Gaara has a layer of sand covering his body called the Armor of Sand (Suna no Yoroi). Although it's a useful secondary defense, the armor requires large amounts of chakra to remain active and also has the side-effect of weighing Gaara down. If need be, Gaara can protect himself before being put into danger by using Desert Prison ( Sabaku Rō), which dedicates a desert's worth of sand to containing a single opponent.

In addition to these basic methods of offensive and defense, Gaara also has a number of miscellaneous attacks that, while capable of being an attack or a shield, are not limited to such purposes. By making a Sand Clone ( Suna Bunshin) of himself, Gaara can have an ally to be used in battle or a mere distraction to be used to buy him time. Unlike most other clone-jutsu in the series, the Sand Clone can retain its shape after more than one attack, and can even reform itself or capture an opponent upon being dispersed. Sand Drizzle ( Suna Shigure) allows him to collect sand in the air that rains down on the opponent at high speeds in potentially harmful shapes. With Desert Suspension ( Sabaku Fuyū) Gaara can use sand as a platform to allow himself and others to float in the air. His Third Eye ( Daisan no Me) also allows him to create a floating eyeball of sand in any location that he can see through as a means of spying.

At some point in time Gaara begins to be able to form weapons in Shukaku's likeness. The first that is seen is Ultimate Absolute Defense: Shield of Shukaku ( Saikō Zettai Bōgyo: Shukaku no Tatte), which creates a toy-like replica of Shukaku that is roughly twice the size of Gaara. Because the replica is formed under extreme pressure and is built of the strongest minerals it is virtually indestructible, having yet to be penetrated by any force. The anime expands on the idea of having an "ultimate defense" by creating an "ultimate attack": Ultimate Absolute Attack: Shukaku's Halberd ( Saikō Zettai Hōgeki, Shukaku no Hōkō). The attack creates a spear under the same conditions as the replica, only the blade resembles one of Shukaku's claws. Like the shield, this attack has yet to meet a defense it can't break.

Gaara in his half Shukaku form

In desperate situations, Gaara can take on the form of Shukaku by layering sand on his body, making him many times more powerful than he already is. Shukaku's personality grows more dominant during this transformation, increasing Gaara's homicidal tendencies. Once finished, Gaara assumes a human-sized version of Shukaku wherein he relies on his brute strength to destroy everything around him. While in this form Gaara can use Sand Shuriken ( Suna Shuriken) or Sand Halberd ( Suna Hōkō) to hurl sand-based forms of the weapons at an opponent. Shukaku also gives him the ability to utilize wind-based attacks such as Wind Release: Infinite Sand Cloud Great Breakthrough ( Fūton: Mugen Sajin Daitoppa, English "Wind Style: Sandstorm Devastation"), which spews large amounts of sand from his mouth, devastating both the enemy and a large area around him.

If need be, Gaara can almost instantly create a life-sized version of Shukaku should the human-sized form fail. In this form, he remains deep within the Shukaku copy safe from harm though unable to move. Gaara can also unleash the spirit of Shukaku through his Feigning Sleep Technique (Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu, English TV "Play Possum Jutsu"), which forces him to sleep to allow the Shukaku copy to operate at its full potential. To do so, however, Gaara must emerge from within the copy, leaving him open to attack for the duration of the jutsu. While Gaara is initially dependent on waking independently or through someone else's intervention to regain control of his body, he begins to be able to suppress Shukaku by himself towards the end of the anime's filler arcs. By the time Part II begins, Gaara is even capable of using numerous Shukaku arms for attack without losing control of himself.

In Part II, Gaara is captured by Akatsuki and the Shukaku is extracted from his body, causing his death. Chiyo, regretting the life she gave Gaara when she sealed Shukaku in his body years earlier, gives up her life to revive him. While he no longer possesses the Shukaku, Gaara is still able to manipulate sand, though to what degree has yet to be seen.

Other media

In the second Naruto movie, Gaara helps defend Sunagakure from an onslaught of mysterious knights, killing many of them with his sand until a ship launches projectiles at the battlefield and forces them to retreat. Later, in one of the wrecks of the invading ships, he fights Ranke, one of Haido's henchmen that uses electricity to fight. Once she transforms into a Frankenstein's-monster-like state, she gains the upper hand and becomes virtually immune to Gaara's attacks, as her lightning disrupts his control over sand. He eventually uses Thunder God of Sand ( Suna Raishin), a technique that neutralized her electrical powers through the creation of lightning rods in the sand. Defenseless, she is finally defeated and killed by Gaara's Desert Imperial Funeral.

In the Ultimate Ninja/ Narutimate hero series of video games, he is a playable character and has several new moves. He can use True Desert Funeral (Shin Sabaku Soso) to create a giant sand clone of himself which holds down the opponent then detonates. Sand Blade Double Attack (Sajin S¨­geki) is a technique where he has a two pillars of sand rise in front of himself and under his opponent, which smash into each other. In Shukaku form, he is also able to use Hot Sand Waterfall Burial (Nesa Bakuso) to cause sand to throw his opponent into the air, where a large amount of sand implodes around them, killing them. However, he is a somewhat slow character with a few moves that leave him open.

Sources

• First Official Data Book (BOOK Hiden:Rin no Sho Character Official Data Book)
• Second Official Data Book (BOOK Hiden: Tō no Sho Character Official Data Book)
• Jump's 2nd Great Hero Book's Mini Data Book (BOOK mini Hiden: Shō no Sho Official Character Data Book mini)
• Naruto anime and manga Guidebook (BOOK mini Hiden: Shō no Sho Official Character Data Book mini)
• Taken directly from the Naruto manga chapters and anime episodes.

Notes and references