Orochimaru (Naruto)

Creation and conception

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."

In Naruto

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, using them in summoning to battle multiple opponents while 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. Desiring immortality to learn every jutsu, Orochimaru developed a forbidden jutsu to steal his victim's body. Though essentially immortal, Orochimaru learns the process can not be done more than once every three years.

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 Rogue 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 who mostly serve as test subjects in his experimentation to become an ultimate being and as pawns to do his dirty work.

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. To that end, Orochimaru infiltrated the Chunin Exam's Forest of Death round by killing a Grass ninja named Shiore and assuming his identity to personally test Sasuke before branding him with a Curse Mark once satisfied with the youth's abilities. For the duration of the Exams, Orochimaru laid in wait and secretly murdered the Fourth Kazekage to assume his identity and get close to his mentor as the invasion begins. However, Orochimaru is forced to retreat when Hiruzen sacrifices himself through the Reaper Death Seal to take away Orochimaru's ability to perform jutsu with his forces pulling back while 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, still unable to use ninjutsu despite having functional arms again, 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 as he reveals the mass of white snakes that he became as the result of his self experimentation. Sasuke, unwilling to give himself up to a weakened Orochimaru, uses his Sharingan to void Orochimaru's technique and retains control of his body while trapping Orochimaru's soul within him. The suppression, in turn, gives Sasuke 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 exposes Orochimaru's survival as the Cursed Seals are revealed to hold a copy of Orochimaru's consciousness in it along with the cells of Orochimaru that Kabuto injected into himself and subjugated. 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. Despite expressing no interest in the ongoing war and still desiring to claim Sasuke's body, Orochimaru then joins Sasuke in his quest for answers over the nature of ninja, taking him and Taka to the Nara Shrine where he undoes the Reaper Death Seal and regains the use of ninjutsu before transferring his being into one of the White Zetsu clones placed on Sasuke. In his new body, Orochimaru then brings the first four Hokage back to life with the Reanimation Jutsu to give Sasuke the answers he wants. Once Sasuke got his answer from Hashirama, out of curiosity to see his former apprentice's new path while the actions of Madara and Obito jeopardize his laboratories, Orochimaru offers to help the Allied Shinobi Forces by first coming to the aid of Tsunade and the Kage and assist in subduing the Shinju. After the Fourth Great Ninja War ended, among those caught under Madara's Infinite Tsukiyomi before being freed, Orochimaru resumes his experiments with Team Taka (minus Sasuke who returns to Konoha) supporting him as lab assistants, though Konoha remains suspicious of him and keeps tabs on him in case he resumes his former human experimentation activities. Over the next several years, Orochimaru creates an artificial human, whom he names Mitsuki, and refers to him as his son. At some point, he sends Mitsuki to live in Konoha after helping Mitsuki decide what path in life he prefers. In Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring, Orochimaru was approached by Sasuke regarding a boy with the Sharingan, and Orochimaru revealed that most of his Sharingan research is tied to his highly adaptive test subject: A Uchiha-fanatic named Shin. In Boruto: Naruto the Movie, Orochimaru is seen watching his son with his teammates.

Appearances in other media

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, had a small part in fifth OVA "The Cross Roads", and is mentioned and makes a cameo appearance in the post-credit scene of Boruto: Naruto the Movie. Orochimaru 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.

Reception

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 Sidious, 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 actress, 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 during the fight between the two a flashback showed Orochimaru's backstory in Konoha, which helped in expanding his character. His apparent redemption to follow Sasuke in later parts of the story was criticized by writer Jason Thompson.