CONTENTS:

I. Overview and Deidara's Databook Info
II. Meaning Behind Deidara's Name
III. Deidara and Okamoto Tarou
IV. Deidara's Personality
V. Deidara's Height and Possible Age
VI. Deidara's Art
A. Deidara's Art VS Sasori's Art
B. The Superflat Movement
C. Bloodline or Not?
VII. Fandom Misconceptions about Deidara

I. Overview
I am writing this essay for several reasons. The first is because Deidara is a very fascinating character, and there is so much more to him than meets the eye. I enjoy writing fandom essays and developing theories, and I couldn't think of anything more fun than analyzing and explaining my favorite character of all time.

I also want to write this essay as a resource for myself and for others. I get into a lot of pairing and character debates, and Kelley and I write our essays to "outsource" our arguments. Our main points are organized into essays, and when we get into debates, we can just copy-and-paste the arguments from any of our essays, without having to write the same stuff over and over again. Anyone else is free to use our essays in the same manner, and you don't necessarily need to give credit.

Another reason is that there are many fandom constructed fallacies pertaining to Deidara. This is one of the downsides to fandom; people depict characters OOC for a joke, and then it becomes like a rock rolling down a hill and collecting moss. More and more people depict the characters in those OOC ways, and then a majority of fandom will misconstrue fandom for canon. I intend to dispell those fandom myths about Deidara, and anyone is free to challenge my interpretation of Canon!Deidara. In fact, I encourage it, because I'm not perfect, so my interpretation won't be perfect either. The only person that can perfectly explain Canon!Deidara is Kishimoto Masashi, but I hope to get as close to Canon!Deidara as I can, but I may need help from you guys. And so, debates are welcome and encouraged here on this essay, and I will give credit to all corrections.

Also, the third databook corrected some of my theories, and I'll put a strike through that information (rather than removing it).

DEIDARA'S DATABOOK INFORMATION


Birthday: May 5, Age 19, Taurus
Height: 166cm
Weight: 50.8kg
Blood Type: AB
Personality: self-respecting (be proud?), militant
Favorite food: Bakudan (boiled egg wrapped in surimi)
Dislike food: Maze-gohan (Japanese food)
Wants to fight: Itachi
Favorite word: Art is a Bang
Hobbies: Creating art = Blowup


Picture of Deidara's favorite food.

Mission completed
D: 4
C: 27
B: 35
A: 13
S: 3

Deidara's using forbidden jutsu for detonating his clay.
Deidara used to be a well known great artist in his village (Iwagakure = Rock village).
Deidara loved to stay in the Akatsuki, because he thought all of the Akatsuki members are kind of artistic and is easy to get a chance to fight against a strong enemy by catching Biju.

His last jutsu is called "CO" (not zero, O)

Deidara's Ninja Stats
-Ninjutsu 5/5
-Taijutsu 3.5/5
-Genjutsu 3.5/5
-Intelligence 4.5/5 (he's smarter than Sasuke by one whole point )
-(Physical) Strength 3.5/5
-Speed 4.5/5 (just as fast as Sasuke too)
-Stamina 4/5
-Seals 3.5/5


II. Meaning Behind Deidara's Name
Deidara's name could possibly have mulitple meanings. I've heard many of these over the web, but Kishimoto hasn't confirmed any as his inspiration. However, they all do fit (that is, if I got them right).

The first and obvious one is "Dei," meaning "mud" (referring to the clay he uses). The "dara" part likely comes from the mythical Japanese giant "Daidarabochi," which explains why the Garuda was a giant version of Deidara, rather than a bird like how most people expected (the name was selected merely because the Garuda/Karuda was the "enemy of snakes"). I'm not too sure about this one, but "Teidan," which means "three man talk," could also been an influence in Deidara's name (which is why some people translated Deidara's name as "Teidara" when Sasori first used his name).

III. Deidara and Okamoto Tarou
A vast majority of Deidara fans are aware of Deidara's connection to the Japanese surrealist and avant-garde artist Okamoto Tarou (1911-1996). He is the one that coined Deidara's catchphrase "Art is a bang!" ("Geijutsu-wa bakahatsu-da") in a Maxell video cassette commercial. In the commercial, a couple of Okamoto's works are featured, including the "Tower of the Sun," which may look familiar.

Okamoto Tarou studied art in France and worked with French artists for a portion of his art career, so he is relatively well-known there as well. There are very few websites about Okamoto in English, but there were several in French. Most of the information I collected were from French sites (I studied French for four years in high school, and although I don't speak it fluently, I read it quite well). However, I may have mistranslated something, so feel free to point out anything that is incorrect.


The above photograph is a portrait of Okamoto Tarou with a symbol painted on his hand. This is very likely to be one of the inspirations for Deidara's handmouths. Also, many of Okamoto's works influenced the style of Deidara's own sculptures.



Okamoto Tarou's greatest and most famous artwork Tower of the Sun (pictured below) was a direct influence on Deidara's final explosion. The explosion takes the same shape as the colossal sculpture, and every panel depicting the explosion includes the sun at the tip of the explosion. Tower of the Sun was completed in 1970, and it still stands in the center of the Expo Memorial Park in Osaka (though the Okamoto Memorial Museum in Aoyama, Tokyo has a miniature model as well).



Two major events in Deidara's life were also influenced by Okamoto's works. As we all know, Deidara had lost both of his arms in battle. This has a direct connection to a famous Okamoto painting aptly titled The Wounded Arm. Notice how there are black threads wrapped around the arm in the painting (makes you think of Kakuzu's stitchings, ne?).



Deidara's suicidal self-explosion mirrors another famous artwork by Okamoto Tarou, his mural Tomorrow's Myth. In the center of the mural is a figure commonly referred to as "Human Implosion" ("explosion" seems to be a better word, but that's what the French site said ). Both the full mural and the "Human Implosion" are pictured below. According to my sources, the painting was influenced by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.



IV. Deidara's Personality
As cheesy as it may sound, the best word to describe Deidara is explosive. Every emotion that Deidara exhibits is extreme and sudden, and he has shown to switch rather quickly from one to the other. Deidara's personality fits in quite well with his philosophy on art and life, that everything should be explosive and fleeting.


From his interaction with Naruto, we can see that Deidara likes to see emotion from others, and he is more than happy to rile Naruto up to see him "explode" as well. He goaded Naruto, waiting for something exciting to happen. He even decided to challenge Naruto (even though Sasori told him not to, but Deidara could've been trying to anger Sasori for a similar reason here) saying that "if an artist doesn't get high levels of inspiration, his sentiments are dulled." In his fight against Sasuke, he also tried the same technique again, wanting to see fear and anger from Sasuke.


On the other hand, Deidara doesn't seem to like people who are bland and stoic. Near the end of his fight with Gaara, he stated "I'm tired of seeing your expressionless face." Deidara, when speaking to Sasuke, says that he hates the Uchiha brothers because of their "eyes that show no wonder. . . no appreciation. Eyes that ignore my creations," though he liked the "malice in his eyes" earlier in that match.

Deidara is very cocky (to the degree of being overconfident) and arrogant. His severe overconfidence was his downfall, in a sense. If he had taken Sasuke seriously and begun the fight with the C4 Garuda, he would've won. However, he is not as narcissistic as fandom makes him out to be. There is little in the manga that suggests that Deidara is a narcissist. He talks about his art being perfect, but he never refers to his own appearance and other traits as perfect.

Throughout his appearances in Shippuuden, Deidara has shown to be on the borderline of insanity. The causes of such mental instability were not expressed in the manga. At the end of his life, Deidara finally cracked completely, his insanity leading him to become a human bomb or "the greatest masterpiece."


Kishimoto himself describes Deidara's personality as "militant," which is very evident in the manga. Deidara is a very aggressive person.

V. Deidara's Height and Possible Age
As explained in another journal of mine, Deidara's height has been confirmed to be 5'5.4" by the Shippuuden Artbook. This is also the same height as Naruto, and both of them are 1/2 inch shorter than Sasuke.



Although there isn't a confirmation on Deidara's age, his height does give us clues towards it. Since Deidara is the same height as Naruto, it is very likely that Deidara falls into the 15-17 years old range. I was wrong there; Deidara is 19 and quite short. Either way, one thing that's certain is that Deidara is the youngest Akatsuki member. In the flashback scene, Deidara is shown to be younger and shorter than Itachi, who is 20 in Part II.

Hidan, in one scene, referred to Deidara as "Deidara-chan," and he called him "an amateur." -Chan is only used for very young boys when used for a male. Of course, Hidan is disrespectful in general, but he certainly hasn't used that honorific for anyone else in the manga.

VI. Deidara's Art
This will be the bulk of the essay, which is rather relevant to Deidara's character. Deidara devoted his life to art, so a large portion of the essay should be dedicated to his art as well. I will be breaking this down into smaller subcategories.

A. Deidara's Art VS Sasori's Art
The polar differences between Deidara's and Sasori's art is one of the most fascinating aspects of Shippuuden, in my opinion. To me, it seemed as if Kishimoto used Deidara as means of expressing his own views on art. He first established this Akatsuki parternship of two artists, and he gave them opposing views on art. Sasori saw art as something of beauty that was to last forever. Art was eternal, and it was supposed to be admired by every generation to come. He believed that anything that didn't last was useless and pointless. Deidara, however, saw beauty in the fleeting. Life was fleeting, inspiration is fleeting, and anything worth anything was fleeting. He believed that beauty was treasured and valueable because it only lasted a short period, and that there was no point in revering and admiring something that would be there forever.

Kishimoto further emphasized these perspectives on art through the artists' fighting styles and their personalities. Sasori used his human puppets for battle, and these puppets served the purpose of preserving the techniques of the particular ninja that used them before their deaths. Sasori then made a human puppet out of himself, to preserve himself in a similar fashion. Deidara's jutsu consisted of explosive, living sculptures, which would spring to life momentarily and then explode. Deidara, at the end of his life, turned himself into the "ultimate work of art," very much like how Sasori did. Sasori had the personality of a puppet: he was lifeless, impassive, and deadly. Deidara, like his art, was emotionally explosive and chaotic. Sasori was also much older than the very young Deidara, at least 20 years older, which seems to reflect their art styles as well.

As I said earlier, I think Kishimoto used Deidara and Sasori to express his own opinion on art. After laying out these two different views on art, Kishimoto killed off Sasori. Deidara's comment, "like anything left for the future as a thing of eternal beauty, he got killed straight off," seems to indicate that Kishimoto views art as fleeting just like Deidara. Sasori's presence in the manga was rather fleeting in general, wasn't it? Even though he believed in the eternal, he was the first to go in Shippuuden (which did sadden me, because I liked him too). The next section on the Superflat Movement will further explain why Kishimoto might have developed Deidara's character to reflect his own views on art.

B. The Superflat Movement
I'm sure everyone remembers when Deidara said "Pop is dead. My style is Superflat." Deidara is actually refering to two art movements. The Pop Art Movement is pro-consumerism and celebrates modern society. The Superflat Art Movement (which is currently only in Japan), on the other hand, opposes Pop art. Superflat is a postmodern art movement, founded by the artist Takashi Murakami, which is influenced by manga and anime. The term is used by Murakami to refer to various flattened forms in Japanese graphic art, animation, pop culture and fine arts, as well as the shallow emptiness of Japanese consumer culture. It focuses on being critical to the modernization, Westernization, and commercialization of Japan since WWII. It is also critical of the sexual fetishism (which INCLUDES homosexuality, lolicon, shotacon, and otaku sexuality) of postwar Japan.

Naruto isn't a Superflat manga, but it does seem to reflect some of the Superflat values. Although some aspects of the Naruto world have a modern feel, it doesn't have much of the advanced technology and militaries of today. From what we've seen, there doesn't seem to be even telephones; hawks are used instead for long-distance messages. Feudalism is the main political/economical system in the Naruto world. The nations of Naruto are quite reactionary in comparison to our own developed countries, including post-modern Japan. In fact, Kishimoto revealed in an interview that he was rather unhappy with the use of gunpowder in the first Naruto movie (so, the anime producers apparently don't check with Kishimoto over everything they do ).

C. Bloodline or Not?
Another topic I wish to discuss is that Deidara's handmouths are mostly likely not a bloodline. As shown through Kakashi's reaction to Haku's bloodline, bloodlines are supposed to be rare, and yet fandom has built up this idea that every unique ability is a genetically inherited jutsu. I believe that jutsu can be divided into four categories:

1. Basic ninjutsu- the jutsu that are taught to Academy students go here. Techniques like Buushin no jutsu and Kawarimi no jutsu are used and understood by all ninja.

2. Acquired techniques/Experiment induced abilities- these are techniques that are developed through training, ingenuity, and experimentation. Sakura and Tsunade's super strength is aquired through specialized training. Minato's Rasengan was developed through innovative manipulations of chakra (and Naruto is doing the same for Fuuton Rasengan). Orochimaru's techniques (at least, a good portion of them if not all) have resulted from experimentation with chakra and the human body. Deidara's jutsu falls in this category, and I'll explain why in just a bit.

3. Clan techniques- these are techniques passed down in a clan from generation to generation, but they have little to do with genetics. Shikamaru wasn't born with the ability to control shadows; it's a technique that he was taught by his father and other elder Nara clansmen. Another example is the Aburame: the blood contract with the kikai is made after birth. Other clan techniques include that of the Inuzuka, the Akimichi, and the Yamanaka.

4. Bloodlines- these techniques are given to individuals through their genes. Only ninja with these genes can perform the techniques. Aside from filler characters, the only bloodlines explicitly revealed in Naruto are the Sharigan, the Byakugan, the Rinnegan, Haku's Ice Mirrors, the Shodai's Wood jutsu, and Kimmimaro's bone regeneration and manipulation.

Deidara's techniques appear to belong in the Aquired/Experiment category for several reasons. The first and most obvious reason is that Deidara had completely lost his left arm (whereas, we see him find his right hand). However, Deidara still manages to have a handmouth on his new left arm. How would that be possible if it was a bloodline? Where would Deidara find another arm with a mouth? On the other hand, if Deidara truly crafted and invented his own technique, including the handmouths, then he could have easily added the mouth to his new hand.

Another reason is that Deidara's lineage and techniques haven't received the same kind of attention that Itachi's and Pein's have recieved (both of which have confirmed bloodlines). Deidara hasn't been given a family name either, which seems to indicate that Deidara doesn't come from any prestigious ninja clan. The caption of the Ch 263 says "Originally a genius from the Stone, Deidara is now with Akatsuki," giving no mention of him being a member of a proud Iwa clan.

The last main reason is that Deidara places a huge amount of pride in his art. I doubt that he would be proud of a technique that he was born with. Deidara is an artist, after all. Deidara loves his art because he has spent years developing and perfecting his art. This is probably one of the reasons why Deidara hates the Sharigan, too. While he had to work hard and be innovative to create his techniques, the Uchiha were simply born with a trump card ability. He even referred to Sasuke as "a pathetic loser mistaking the gifts of his heredity for his own power."

I've seen people argue that if Deidara has a bloodline, his blood streaming through the new arm would cause the arm to develop a handmouth. However, we already know that the reverse is false. Kakashi does not have any Uchiha blood, but his blood is running through Obitio's eye. If Kakashi's non-Uchiha blood doesn't reverse the Sharigan and cause it to stop working, then why would Deidara's blood create handmouths in a new arm? If it was the blood, than Gashir (the Cloud Nin who tried to kidnap Hinata for the Byakugan) could've just taken a blood sample from Hinata and gotten away more quickly and safely.

Update: The databook confirms my theory; Deidara's technique is a forbidden jutsu and NOT a bloodline. Hey, I may have been wrong about Deidara's age, but I got this right (and this topic was more important to me).

VII. Fandom Misconceptions about Deidara
Well, fandom can do some rather odd things with a character, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, some fans see these new "quirks" as canon. This isn't unique to Deidara or Naruto characters in general. And trust me, it's not just one part of fandom either (both het!Deidara and yaoi!Deidara fans have taken Deidara OOC).

1. Deidara is NOT a nice guy.
Deidara may be my favorite character, but I would definitely be among the first to admit that he is quite an a**h***. True, Deidara isn't the typical stereotypical villain that is sinister, conniving, and vile in every way, but he most definitely isn't a benevolent person. Deidara has been shown to be inconsiderate towards Sasori, an overbearing jerk to Tobi, and apathetically mean to Naruto.

2. Deidara does NOT cry, blush, or whine.
Never once has he done either of those actions, nor is it really part of his character. Seriously, he doesn't blush in a single panel. He hasn't even complained, let alone whined. Deidara didn't even cry when he experienced immense pain or when his comrades died. In fact, Deidara reacted to the death of others with apathy and an interest in other aspects of the situation. For example, Deidara was more concerned with how Sasori died rather than the fact that he was dead, and he was rather pleased that Sasori's death proved that art was fleeting.

3. Deidara is NOT gay.
Naruto is a shounen manga, for starters. There is no canon yaoi in shounen manga (but there's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying noncanon ).

I already discussed the Superflat movement, and that homosexuality and otaku desires/sexuality are amoung the things that the proponents are critical of. Why would Deidara be critical of homosexuality and be gay at the same time? Not only that, but the World Health Organization estimates that only 2-5% of the world's population is homosexual. Considering that there are more women than men, an even smaller proportion of that is homosexual men. Considering that the odds are 98-2, wouldn't it be wiser to assume that Deidara is heterosexual?

Besides, nothing in Deidara's character suggests that he is gay. Deidara actually has one of the most masculine personalities in the manga. In fact, Deidara's personality is more masculine than the emotional Naruto and the polite, submissive Kisame combined.

Finally, Kishimoto shot down Akatsuki yaoi in the Databook 3 interview:

Q. Do members of Akatsuki pairs sleep somewhere at night?
A. They get two single rooms.

4. Deidara is NOT currently interested in love, nor is he the romantic type.
It's pretty obvious that Deidara's only "love" is the love for art. He was still very young, so he's more interested in other aspects of life than a significant other or dating.

5. Deidara does NOT use the honorific "-danna" to show affection.
-Danna is not an affectionate title. In the anime, Deidara used -danna for both Kisame and Itachi. Deidara has made it EXPLICILY clear that he hates Itachi's guts and wants to kill him, and yet he called him Itachi-danna. Remember, Deidara is the youngest Akatsuki member, and the title is used to show that he recognizes the others as his seniors in Akatsuki. He doesn't use -danna for Tobi, however, because he views himself as superior to Tobi.

6. Deidara does NOT say "un" to be cute, nor is it cutesy in any way.
I've seen many fancomics and fanarts depicting Deidara using "un" as a "cute" quirk or sound, and it isn't so. Quite honestly, it's like a grunt or some kind of noncommittal sound. Every language has its own way of spelling sounds. For example, "meow" is spelt "miaou" in French, even though it is essentially the same sound. "Un" is the way the Japanese spell "hm." Katsuhiko Kawamoto, in my opinion, does a great job dictating the "un" appropriately.