Might Guy

Might Guy is a fictional character in the anime and manga series Naruto. Fansubs have mistakenly dubbed his name as Maito Gai, leading to confusion, but the second official Naruto data book (Hiden: Tō no Sho) states his name as Might Guy. The English version of the anime and manga also uses Might Guy.

Personality

Template:Spoiler Might Guy is a Konoha Jonin who sports thick eyebrows, an exceedingly unconventional personality, and a very shiny haircut (the sheen reads "nin" all around his head). He is the sensei of a ninja team consisting of Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga and Tenten. Of the three, he has bonded with Lee the most, because Lee reminds Guy of himself when he was younger. Guy's guidance prompted Lee to start tapping into his potential, despite having been considered sub par in all ninja categories up until then. In his first appearance, Guy was accompanied by Ninkame, a large red tortoise (his summon). This tortoise has not been seen since then. Guy believes that "hard work without believing in yourself is worthless", and though he uses the terms "youth", "power" and "explosion" a lot, he sadly notes that his own youthful power seems to have started fading. He first mentions this during training with Lee, who he can no longer keep up with.

Guy has several odd mannerisms, the most noticable of which are:

Giving the thumbs up and smiling with teeth so white they give the proverbial "ping" (glinting in sunlight). This is translated as the "nice guy pose", often used by both Guy and Lee to indicate commitment to whatever statement they just made, the highest form of a promise.
Punching Lee for various infractions and immediately bursting into tears and hugging him. When this happens, a beach at sunset, complete with crashing waves, usually appears behind them.
Calling himself "Konoha's Prideful Green Beast" (木ノ葉の気高き碧い猛獣, Konoha no Kedakai Aoi Mōjū). Lee has a similar habit.
Generally over-reacting, even by anime character standards, to the smallest situations.

Guy is the self-proclaimed rival of Kakashi Hatake, who appears indifferent to their rivalry. This annoys Guy to no end, who can't stand Kakashi's "cool" attitude. Guy has a record of 51 wins and 49 losses against his rival, and is very proud of it. This achievement, however, is not nearly as impressive as Guy makes it seem. In a flashback, these contests are shown to include 100-meter dashes, sumo-wrestling, ramen-eating contests, and even Rock, Paper, Scissors. Guy actually objected to the last item on the list, but Kakashi convinced him that luck was a skill. Incidentally, Guy lost that contest.

Part I

Chunin Exam arc

Guy first appears in the Chunin Exam arc, where he recommended that Kakashi hold his students back for a year so they could train. Kakashi asked if Guy was afraid that his own students would lose, which annoyed him. Guy later appears to stop the fight between Lee and Sasuke, which Lee was about to finish with a forbidden technique. This is Team 7's first introduction to Guy. While Naruto and Sakura can't help but focus on his comical resemblance to Lee, Sasuke is focused on his record against Kakashi, which Guy announced during his entrance. He also notes Guy's speed, which is greater than Kakashi's.

Guy makes several more appearances beyond this point, but most are simply speaking roles. During the preliminary exams, he notes Sasuke's similarity to Kakashi after watching him copy one of Lee's Lotus techniques. During Lee's fight with Gaara, he reveals that he taught Lee how to open five of the eight chakra gates, which Kakashi thinks was rather reckless of him. Guy defends himself, saying that he did so in order to help Lee achieve his goals. When Lee is about to be killed by Gaara, he steps in to stop the fight.

Guy ends up repeating Kakashi's earlier statement when he learns that Kakashi taught Sasuke the Chidori. Kakashi merely alludes to what Guy taught Lee as a response. After the attack on Konoha begins, both he and Kakashi spend the entire time taking out the enemy ninja in the stadium.

Return of Itachi and Search for Tsunade arc

During the Search for Tsunade arc, Guy rescues Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai Yuhi from Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki, who were looking for Naruto. They retreat when Guy arrives, stating that they didn't want to start a war. After Kakashi is taken to the hospital, Itachi's arrival is accidentally revealed to Sasuke, who goes to find him. Guy ends up pursuing Sasuke, but only arrives after the fight between Jiraiya, Kisame, and Itachi. Guy ends up attacking Jiraiya, mistaking Jiraiya's reflection in his forehead protector for that of the enemy. Needless to say, he's embarrassed about the mistake. As Jiraiya and Naruto depart, he gives Naruto one of the body suits that he and Lee wear (Jiraiya convinces Naruto not to wear the suit after Guy leaves, pointing out how silly Guy looks in it).

Later on, after Tsunade gives Lee the poor odds of success for his operation, it is Guy who convinces Lee to go through with it. A short flashback explains their "My Rules" philosophy, which centers around setting goals for failure, insuring that some good will come of it, as well as some measure of karmic return for the investment. Guy tells Lee that with all of the work Lee has done so far, he will definitely survive the operation, and if by some cruel twist of fate Lee doesn't, then he will die too. As Guy puts it, they're both simply too stupid to live without their way of the ninja, which is becoming a great ninja for Lee and helping Lee become a great ninja for Guy. He also explains Lee's dangerous reaction to alcohol during Lee's fight with Kimimaro.

Filler arcs

Guy appears in several of the filler episodes. He appeared in episode 152 when Tsunade was assigning his team and Naruto to go to the village under Raiga's control. He appears at the end of episode 161, at which point both he and Lee meet the two men who had been impersonating them. They quickly send the two imposters flying.

He appears again in episode 193, where he attempts to challenge Lee in his newly-built dojo while disguised as someone else, in order to build the reputation of Lee's dojo. His disguise is poor to say the least, consisting of only a gray mustache and a gray afro wig, but Lee falls for it. While on his way to the dojo, he ends up being called away for an emergency, which gives a foreign ninja an opportunity to sneak into the village disguised as Guy. After a series of events which leaves Naruto fighting Lee while disguised as Guy, and the foreign ninja disguised as Lee, Guy arrives and challenges the disguised ninja to a fight. Guy promptly knocks him unconscious, not knowing that he's an imposter, and berates him for his easy defeat. When everyone meets up and realizes who the ninja is, they take him to Tsunade, who conveniently happens to have a warrant for his arrest. He was involved in the third Great Beast Story arc.

Part II

File:Gaikakashi.jpg

Guy helping the incapacitated Kakashi Hatake after the mission.

Guy's team follows Kakashi's team as they head off to rescue Gaara. To enter the hideout, Team Guy fights clones of themselves to break the seals closing off the area. During this, Guy and Lee put on their forehead protectors and use walkie-talkies to communicate at a distance. Guy seems to be developing a rivalry with Kisame; the two first faced off outside Konoha when Guy kicked Kisame and saved Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai. In Part II, a Kisame-controlled body substitute fought against Guy and his team; almost overwhelmed by Kisame's strength, Guy opened the sixth chakra gate and uses Morning Peacock, defeating Kisame and revealing the fact that their attacker was not actually Kisame but a body double. When Zetsu informed the other members of Akatsuki that Guy's team was approaching, Kisame has requested that he be the one to take care of them, as he wanted to repay Guy for "the kick he gave [him] earlier." However, when they faced off, Guy could not seem to recall who Kisame was, which agitated Kisame greatly. In the end, Guy carries an exhausted Kakashi to Konoha on his back. Their students stare and Sakura comments on how disturbing the scene is, while Lee takes it as training and offers to carry Neji (who promptly refuses).

Trivia

The name "Might Guy" is a joke aimed at the "hot-headed hero" archetype that appears in many movies and anime. There is even a giant robot anime named Yuusha Tokkyuu Might Gaine for the same reason. In the Might Gaine anime the "Nice Guy pose" is made by the giant robot.
Many of Guy's mannerisms and quirks are references to common clichés of seishun (青春, "youth," especially in the sense of "springtime of one's life") anime. The coach whose "tough love" and harsh training is eventually respected and loved by his charges whom he has turned from losers into champions is a staple of such sports anime, as well as US sports movies. These clichés are often viewed as hopelessly corny and commonly parodied in gag anime.
In the Shonen Jump magazine, Viz rendered Guy's name as "Mighty Guy" in some chapters; this was changed back to "Maito Gai" in most of the graphic novel stories. Later this was changed to "Might Guy" when the guidebooks were revealed.
According to the official databook, Might Guy's favorite foods are super-spicy curry rice and curry udon. As to his least favorite food, he proclaims, "There is no such thing!" His hobbies are repeatedly jumping sideways and hitting mitts, and his favorite phrase is "Bursting with youth!"
Guy has developed a taijutsu technique specifically designed for use against Sharingan users, where the user can tell what kind of technique the enemy will use just by looking at his/her feet. This prevents the Sharingan user from performing genjutsu through eye contact.
Despite his rather goofy nature, Guy is actually a very powerful Jonin, and he can be serious at the right time. When he saves Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai from Kisame during the Return of Itachi story arc, Itachi narrows his eyes at his appearance. Kisame disregards Guy with a remark; however, Itachi warns him to not underestimate him. Later on, in Part II, when Team Guy is approaching the Akatsuki hideout, Itachi warns the other members of Akatsuki again to not take Guy lightly. Considering the strength of each member of the organization (Itachi in particular), that Guy would merit such a warning is a sure indicator that he is a potent combatant.
Guy's team specializes in weapons and taijutsu techniques.
Guy only appears twice without his vest. The first is in episode 86 when he pictures Naruto standing next to him wearing the green jumpsuit he gives him, and the second is in episode 98 where it shows him feeding Lee some very bitter dumplings to heal him of his injuries.
Guy develops close relationships with all of his students (he even says that he loves them like they were his own children). However, he has a closer relationship with Rock Lee because he was a lot like Lee when he was a Genin.
Guy has completed 86 D-rank, 269 C-rank, 210 B-rank, 177 A-rank and 20 S-rank missions.
Guy graduated the Academy at age 7, and became a Chunin at age 11.
Since Guy has never used any ninjutsu or genjutsu onscreen (even going so far as to use a regular disguise instead of using a transformation jutsu) but has a ninjutsu and genjutsu score of three out of five in the databooks, one can assume that he simply doesn't like to use either. However, Guy has summoned Ninkame on one occasion, and he is capable of dispelling some forms of genjutsu (as seen during the Invasion of Konoha story arc).
Guy is usually referred to by Naruto as Gejimayu-sensei (thick eyebrows-sensei). On certain occasions, however, he is called Guy-sensei by Naruto.
During the search for Tsunade, after being attacked by Itachi and Kisame, Guy gives Naruto his own green suit identical to the ones he and Rock Lee wear. Naruto is never seen wearing it onscreen, due in part to Jiraiya convincing him it made Guy look foolish; however, in the Naruto: Narutimate Hero series, players can get a secret version of Naruto wearing the green suit that Guy gave him. This also appears in the Naruto Collectible Card Game.