Akamaru (赤丸, Akamaru) is a ninja dog (忍犬, ninken) from Konohagakure's Inuzuka Clan. He is Kiba Inuzuka's partner, as well as his best friend and companion.
He is also a member of Team Kurenai, and a supporting character in the Naruto anime/manga series, and the Boruto series.
He is voiced by Junko Takeuchi in the Japanese version and Jamie Simone in the English version.
Appearance[]
In Part I, Akamaru was a small puppy with white fur, and resembles a Great Pyrenees, regularly carried on Kiba's head or inside his jacket. Akamaru's eyes are usually squinted, appearing closed, and he has a brown nose, as well as brown patches on his ears and a brown outline around his mouth. His fur on top of his head is styled to somewhat resemble a mohawk. Whenever Akamaru ingests soldier pills his fur turns red and he becomes more feral, which is why he was named Akamaru (赤丸) "Aka" meaning "red", and "maru" being a common ending for male names in Japan.
In Part II, Akamaru has grown into a full-sized adult large-breed dog. His size is such that Akamaru can now have Kiba ride on his back comfortably. Despite this, Kiba claimed he failed to notice due to the amount of time they spend together. Apart from his size, his general appearance has remained the same. Years after the Fourth Great Shinobi War, Akamaru aged a bit, with a few wrinkles appearing on his snout, though was otherwise unchanged.
Personality[]
Akamaru has been described as active and devoted. This can be seen from his interactions with people especially his best friend and companion Kiba whom he has always been with since the two met. They often spend their time going on walks, or more accurately, running through trees chasing one another. His devotion is most often seen when Kiba is hurt in battle, Akamaru will immediately run to his side.
In Rai no Sho, a story from Akamaru's point of view reveals much of his personality. Akamaru is revealed to have a humorous thought process by erroneously explaining something, but then immediately correcting himself. He has a very scientific thought process about humans, thinking they enter too late in life when they should be focusing on being shinobi instead of finding a "mate". It's also revealed Akamaru is very overprotective of Kiba as he immediately tried fruitlessly to pull his master away from Tamaki when he realized the two had a strong mutual attraction to each other, as he didn't want Kiba to shy away from his training in favor of romancing Tamaki like "the others".
In the epilogue, Akamaru had grown old and took delight in just napping most of the day and playing with his offspring. When prompted by Kiba to back him up, he mocked Kiba's notion that he turned down the Seventh Hokage's seat, giving a sly smirk.
Trivia[]
- He shares his Japanese voice actress with Naruto Uzumaki and Gumball Watterson.
- His Japanese Voice Actress, Junko Takeuchi is best known voicing as Gomamon & his digivolution from Digimon Adventure series and Takuya Kanbara from Digimon Frontier.
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