| “ | Art is an explosion! | „ |
| ~ Deidara's favorite catchphrase. |
| “ | That's what pisses me off about you! Both of you brothers! Don't pretend to be so cool! Those eyes! That overconfident eye irritates me! As if it denies my art! It's unforgivable! Those eyes which show absolutely no respect for my art... Those eyes that ignore my art... are unforgivable! | „ |
| ~ Deidara expressing his hatred for Sasuke and Itachi. |
| “ | This is my ultimate art...! Now I will detonate myself! With death, I will become art. This never-before-seen explosion will leave a never-before-seen scar on this land. And...! My art will win never-before-seen admiration! In the midst of my admiration, you will definitely die! An explosion that will cover a ten-kilometer radius... You won't be able to get away! Now, tremble with fear! Be in awe! Despair! Scream! My art is... an explosion!! | „ |
| ~ Deidara's last words before committing suicide. |
Deidara is a major antagonist in the manga/anime series Naruto. He was a rogue ninja from the Village Hidden in the Stones and the youngest member of the Akatsuki. He is initially Sasori's partner, but following his death, Deidara became partners with newcomer Tobi (who is actually the leader himself).
He was voiced by Katsuhiko Kawamoto in the Japanese version, and Roger Craig Smith in the English version.
Appearance[]
Deidara is a 19-year-old young man. He has long blonde hair, with some of it covering one of his eye, because he has an eye scope on his left eye to see long distances. But the most notable things about Deidara is that he has a mouth on each of his palms and one giant one on his chest. Like all members of the Akatsuki, Deidara wears a black robe with red cloud markings on the robe. He also carries two pouches on each side that are filled with clay.
Personality[]
Like most members of the Akatsuki, Deidara had his own extreme eccentricities. Partnered with Sasori, they were the "artists" of the group, although had a fundamental disagreement about the parameters of art - Sasori believing art should be something that lasts eternally, hence his puppets made from bodies, while Deidara believing that art should be brief moments of beauty, which ties into his Explosion Release kekkai genkai. While Deidara considers explosions to be his actual art, he also molds the explosive clay into variety of shapes and figures, from small birds to large dragons.
While typically aloof and cool-headed, even in combat, he starts becoming more excitable the more dramatic the explosion he decides to implement. When his explosions fail to defeat or kill a target, he becomes frustrated, and the more times it happens, the more enraged he becomes, until losing his cool demeanour entirely to fury. Although, what angers him the most is when he feels his art isn't being appreciated; the most mild being slightly heated debates with Sasori, to the most extreme being frothing rage in his fight against Sasuke.
As a self-declared artist, he has an immense sense of pride in his work, and feels other artwork as beneath his own. However, upon meeting Itachi Uchiha, he found himself thinking that Itachi's Sharingan were beautiful, which he quickly denied (in his own head), thus showing how seeing someone else's "art" as awe-inspiring is considered a failing in his artistic pride, filling him with rage, before rejecting he ever made the opinion. Deidara's anger at Itachi's eyes seeming beautiful, but also Itachi's effortless indifferent defeat of him, pushed Deidara into dedicating his life to one day killing Itachi, even at the expense of his own life. While Deidara was annoyed at turning to his final kamikaze explosive just to kill Sasuke, he was too enraged at the younger Uchiha for surviving his other attacks, and seeming similar to his older brother; Deidara found deranged consolation that killing Sasuke would be a strike against Itachi, too.
Powers and Abilities[]
As an S-rank shinobi, he is easily above the average jonin and is able to destroy an entire platoon of shinobi by himself. His sheer talent in the shinobi arts, led to Nagato (the figure head leader and second most powerful member of the Akatsuki) call him a major loss to their organization. He's defeated Gaara the current Kazekage (he did lose an arm in the process though), and managed to avoid capture by Team Gai with no arms, although only by faking his death was he able to escape. He fought evenly with Sasuke Uchiha for an extended amount of time despite Sasuke's abilities countering his own. After being resurrected, he fought the Third Tsuchikage on even grounds and would have continued if not for the fact that he was called back.
One of Deidara's strong points was his high intelligence, often using tricks, misdirection, and calculated gambles to get his explosives in range of an opponent (while calculating the distance, each action functioning as learning two things at the same time). He demonstrated these skills in his fight with Gaara, putting clay into Gaara's sand as it destroyed his arm. During his battle against Sasuke, he managed to trick him on a few occasions, such as trapping him between his C2 dragon in the sky and the landmines buried underneath the ground by Tobi, and again when he lured him into his C4 attack at point-blank. In the anime, Deidara managed to deduce a workaround to his weakness to Lightning Release by using a sword as a makeshift ground rod to siphon off the lightning-based attacks his explosive clay was weak against. Notably he is said to be a 4.5 in the databooks, surpassing several prodigies such as Sasuke (which makes somewhat sense as despite losing to the latter, his pride in his art was predominately the reason for his downfall in this case).
Deidara had shown some skill with the Shadow Clone Technique, incorporating it into some of his techniques, such as the Suicide Bombing Clone. Deidara was also able to weave one-hand signs (something said to be rare among shinobi).
Deidara possessed the Explosion Release kekkei genkai. This allowed him, by simultaneously using earth and lightning chakra natures, to give his chakra explosive qualities. Deidara also possessed a special mouth on each palm and on the left side of his chest as a result of stealing and using a powerful kinjutsu from his village on himself. By commonly using these two special abilities in unison, he could create explosive clay: clay infused with his explosive chakra that detonated with the command Katsu (喝) and the seal of confrontation. This clay could be molded into a wide variety of shapes and forms, growing to large sizes when infused with chakra (with Deidara performing the necessary hand seals), and could be controlled at will. This allowed him to create living explosives to attack opponents at long-range.
Deidara could even create clones from the clay and can detonate them, which is will make for a deadly surprise attack, and if need be, create clay minions to control with a cord from a distance. Deidara's clay creations range from microscopic to gigantic in size, allowing him to adapt to any situation from creating dragons to shoot smaller clay bombs, to working in conjunction with Tobi to lay explosive clay landmines under ground to limit the opponent's movements. As an ultimate last resort, Deidara could turn himself into a bomb by devouring explosive clay that has a large blast radius in which he calls his "Ultimate Art". Deidara could also use the clay for other purposes, as he was frequently seen creating birds to be used for transportation, which also functioned as a way to easily infiltrate villages on missions. It seemed he also knew standard earth-based techniques, as shown from his Earth Release: Hiding Like a Mole Technique, which he used to avoid damage from one of his mass-scale bombs. Since all of his explosives were earth-based, they were vulnerable to lightning, and most could thereby be defused with lightning-based attacks.
Deidara wore a scope on his left eye for long-range observation, and he had trained the eye itself to counter genjutsu, allowing him to see through and negate them. When he did this, his pupil would contract. This training was done in order to counter Itachi's powerful genjutsu skills, of which he had a considerable loathing for, and wished to defeat him when he got the chance. Deidara also seems to be able to see long distances without his scope as after being reincarnated, he found enemy shinobi lurking near Tobi's hideout; he still needed to close his right eye in order to use his left eye for long distance vision.
Deidara's stealth skills were rather proficient, able to sneak up on two of Konoha's Anbu members as they were scouting with no apparent effort. He possesses high reaction speed, able to avoid a high-speed blitz by Sasuke. He also fought long-range on par with Onoki for a brief period of time. He had enough strength to dislodge the Fūma Shuriken that pierced and pinned his arms using his legs.
He had an extremely high pain tolerance, as he could lose an arm to being crushed in Gaara's Sand Coffin, then not too long later, lose the other arm in Kakashi's Kamui; yet neither dismemberment slowed him down, nor did he display distress more than annoyance.
Biography[]
Past[]
Deidara was a ninja from Iwagakure and who was both a pupil of the Third Tsuchikage Onoki and a member of the village's Explosion Corps. Though praised highly for his clay sculptures, Deidara's desire to reach even greater heights in his art resulted with him stealing forbidden jutsu that enables him to infuse chakra into an item. Using clay explosives created by that method to take out his pursuers, and Iwagakure, Deidara found the art he had desired: the Art of a Single Moment. Remembering the first moment whenever he detonated his Explosive Clay since then, Deidara became a rogue ninja and offered his services as a bomber to insurgents in various countries.
Eventually, Deidara was visited by the Akatsuki who wanted his services as they needed a replacement member after Orochimaru defected. Deidara refused at first until he accepts a challenge from Itachi Uchiha on the condition that the Akatsuki let him be if he won. However, Deidara was easily defeated by Itachi's Sharingan and joined the Akatsuki as part of the deal. His ego crushed since then, Deidara carried a murderous loathing for Itachi and the Sharingan for the rest of his life. Partner to Sasori, who followed a polar opposite view on art, Deidara eventually came to enjoy being in Akatsuki despite his reluctance to join the organization, since he gained an opportunity to test his art against strong opponents.
Naruto[]
Deidara uses C4
Accompanied by Sasori, Deidara was to capture the One-Tailed Jinchuriki Gaara. Deidara, although nearly overpowered by Gaara's tremendous power, managed to outsmart him to defeat him by leveraging the lives of the citizens of Sunagakure and then forcing him to use his instant defense, which he had trapped but at the cost of his right arm. By the time he and the other Akatsuki members sealed Shukaku into the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, Deidara and Sasori waited for Team Kakashi and Chiyo to see their reactions to find them with Gaara's dead body, as Itachi had said that Naruto would be the first to react. Luring Naruto away with Kakashi in pursuit, Deidara ended up losing his other arm and faked his death with a clay clone. After his arms was re-attached by Kakuzu, Deidara was partnered to Tobi whose childish behavior annoyed him to no end as he helped the new member capture Isobu the Three Tails. When Deidara learned that Sasuke Uchiha defeated Orochimaru, Deidara tracked down Sasuke and fought him. Deidara and Sasuke clashed but although Deidara managed to blow off one of Sasuke's wings and nearly kill him more than once, Sasuke ultimately proved to be the superior ninja, using his lightning techniques and Sharingan to neutralize most of Deidara's attacks, even harming his own body but still succeeding in defeating Deidara by rendering his last attempt to hit him with his C4 useless. As Sasuke cornered Deidara only to briefly fall on his knees, Deidara became utterly maddened by Sasuke's utter disregard and underestimation of his art and turned himself into a suicide bomb to take Sasuke out with him. However, Sasuke survived using Manda as a shield and teleporting Manda and himself out, with the attack only injuring but not killing Sasuke.
Deidara was later reanimated by Kabuto Yakushi, aiding him in his attack on s Tonika Village and later going after Naruto and Killer B before Deidara ends up fighting his former mentor and his bodyguards. He was later paired up with Sasori on the Surprise Attack and Diversion Platoon as the Fourth Great Ninja War commences as he can Sasori combine their talents to carry living puppet bombs out of Allied ninja they captured and even some on their own. Eventually, Deidara is captured and taken into the custody of the Fifth Division. While held captive, Deidara is livid to learn of Sasuke's survival before managing to escape thanks to the White Zetsu Army infiltrating the Fifth Division. With the entire Fifth Division in pursuit, with only a sword that he uses as makeshift ground rod, Deidara is forced to use guerrilla tactics to evade them while gathering clay. Eventually, Deidara is recaptured within Black Ant after falling prey to Kurotsuchi posing as Sasuke to lure him into a trap. Still demanding that they release him before he exploded, he told Kankurō that in art there was no such things as duds before being taken by surprise by the release of Reanimation Jutsu, Deidara returns to the afterlife.
Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals[]
Deidara as he appears in Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals.
Deidara appeared in the chibi spin-off Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals alongside with Tobi as his partner (possibly a reference to the original series since the duo became a lot more popular).
He first appeared in Episode 30 alongside with Tobi planning to infiltrate Konoha in the first half of the episode. While they were about to get near the target, he ends up getting caught by Team Guy (who were posing as cops) for overspeeding. Lee asked him where is his license (a ninja parody of driver's license) which Tobi manages to distract them while juggling kunai while balancing on a ball. Deidara was given a sobriety test in which he failed for being "drunk with his talent", in which he kicks Tobi for siding with Team Guy. He and Tobi were later given a "break test" in which they will tell a story. In Tobi's story, Deidara is known as Mr. Daraday. After Tobi's story, Deidara then tells the story of two racecar drivers named Dean and Toby. Tired of this foolishness, Deidara pulled a clay bomb in his pouch only to be interrupted by Shizune who mistook him and Tobi as actors for Tsunade's safety show. When he was about to bomb the audience, Tsunade punches him and Tobi out of the village claiming that is what will happen if they don't follow the ninja speed limit. Later in the second half of the episode, Deidara and Tobi returned, planning to bomb Konoha using a giant clay pumpkin during the Fall Festival. Team Guy was put in charge of putting the festival on and didn't know what to do. Deidara decided to help them create a Halloween-themed festival, thus making Lee call him Mr. Artist creating a bond with them. Later, Tobi arrived with the clay bomb. Due to developing bonds with Team Guy, he created a giant clay bird and takes off with Tobi and the clay bomb away from Konoha thus exploding in the sky. They are later shown with full body cast, with Deidara believing Konoha played his emotions.
He reappeared again in Episode 38, alongside with Sasori (who is possibly his new partner as opposed to the original series), arguing about art. Upon seeing Lee and Tenten (who was hiding under Lee's Akatsuki cloak), he easily recognizes them as the people who were responsible for his failure in infiltrating Konoha and even bribed Tobi to prevent anybody from knowing what happened in the previous episode as seen in a flashback. He lied to Lee by saying that Akatsuki is nothing but a circus group who have a morbid fear of spies. He tried to help them escape to prevent any of his fellow teammates from finding out about the previous episode only to be spotted by Sasori who mistook Lee as a newbie. Sasori tried to make Lee agree about his beliefs on art to oppose Deidara but made the two argue about their art. Deidara tried to help Lee & Tenten escape only to end up getting spotted by other Akatsuki members who also mistook Lee as a newbie. Pain decided to test Lee's abilities by fighting him, Deidara volunteered to fight him but was planning to help him escape using his clay bomb only to be interrupted by a disguised Guy and Neji (who was hiding under Guy's Akatsuki cloak) who is also mistaken as newbie who wishes to fight him. Pain decided to test both of them wherein they use a same-styled fighting technique. While fighting, Deidara secretly helps them by throwing one of his clay beetles to help them escape but unfortunately, he got hit by Lee and Guy's "fight" thus ending throwing the clay beetle right at Sasori's face thus starting a fight in Akatsuki, which ends up destroying the hideout. After Tobi and Zetsu arrived, Tobi admits the truth to Akatsuki were they end up beating Deidara for not telling Lee is a spy.
Trivia[]
- Deidara became a lot more popular when Tobi becomes his partner especially with their funny moments thus inspiring many Akatsuki-based fanfiction and some Internet memes. When Tobi become the serious Madara Uchiha, some fans blamed his death for turning Tobi serious, while others blamed Sasuke for killing him although Tobi just created this fake goofy personality of his to cover his true identity.
- In Rock Lee & His Ninja Pals, Deidara is portrayed as an ally of a hero more than a enemy.
See Also[]
- Deidara on the Naruto Wiki
