Gaara is the Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand and the former host of Shukaku the One-Tail beast. If most Naruto fans can agree on one thing, they can all say that Gaara is an amazing character and deserves all the love. He’s this great mixture of an insanely powerful ninja combined with a fairly young teenager who’s still healing from a traumatic past and learning to connect with others. He’s endlessly fascinating and wonderfully awesome.
But how much do you actually know about our favorite sand ninja? He’s not exactly the most open of people, and his whole culture isn’t all that trusting. But over the years, we have learned some interesting things about Gaara. So here are some awesome facts about Gaara you probably didn’t know.
Updated on October 18, 2022 by Gabrielle Huston: Are you a Gaara fan? You're in luck! We've spruced up this article to give this character the love that he deserves.
13 Quite The Double Meaning
Gaara has a bit of an unusual name; do you know what it actually means? The name Gaara can have two meanings: it can mean “self-loving demon” or “self-loving silk.” This is actually really interesting, considering Gaara’s origins and nature.
Gaara has the One-Tail beast sealed away inside his body, so he technically could be considered a type of demon. And in the beginning, Gaara has such a hatred of people and he only looks out for himself, not caring what happens to others. It makes the name rather interesting.
The story behind the name, however, is a bit more mundane. Kishimoto had the name suggested to him by his editor, who got it from a ski resort.
12 Young And Filled With Leadership
Each village has a leader also known as a Kage. For example, Konoha has a Hokage, and Sunakagure has a Kazekage. The ages of the different Kages often differ, but the average age for them tends to be a bit older. It makes sense; the older you are, the more mature and wiser you are (in theory), so for a village to have a young Kage is a bit rare.
And then Gaara came along. He became the Kazekage of Sunakagure (The Village Hidden in the Sand) at the age of fifteen. This actually makes him the youngest Kage ever recorded. While some people were initially leery of Gaara becoming a Kage, he proved to be quite the popular leader. He eventually earned the respect of the other Kages and the other villages and was instrumental in winning the Fourth Great Ninja War.
11 The Meaning Of This Symbol
One of the iconic elements of Gaara’s image was the character etched into his forehead. He apparently etched this symbol into his own skin using his sand, after he found out his own uncle tried to kill him. So what does the character mean? Well, it actually means “love.”
Before he snapped, Gaara tried to win the love of the village, but they turned him away, fearing him. Eventually, he realized that since no one would love him, he would have to love himself, so he would only look out for himself and hate anyone else. As a result, he became a bit of a sociopath, not caring about others and killing people mercilessly. After his fight with Naruto, he grows to realize that he must try to love others again. It’s a beautiful irony that the word love is etched into the skin of a teen who was once the embodiment of hatred.
10 His Father Is Kind Of Terrible
Gaara certainly didn’t have a very happy childhood, and part of that is actually due to his father, Rasa. Seriously, his father may have been acting for good of his village, but as a result, Gaara got pretty screwed over (and screwed up). Not only did his father seal Shukaku the One-Tail in Gaara, but he then tried to have him killed.
Apparently, his father considered him pretty dangerous, and he was trying to draw out Gaara’s powers. He deceived Gaara into thinking that no one loved him, hoping that would help him to draw on his power, and then he arranged to have Gaara killed. There was a total of six assassination attempts on him, all of which obviously proved ineffective. Eventually, Rasa stopped trying to kill him and tried to use him instead. It’s all incredibly messed up.
9 A Planned Addict
Did you know that Gaara was originally going to be an addict? In fact, Gaara’s whole character was going to be pretty different, according to Kishimoto. Even his name went through a few changes since he was going to be called Kumomaru, then Kotaru, before they settled on Gaara. But they were originally going to make him much younger too.
Initially, Kishimoto was going to introduce Kumomaro as an elite seven-year-old ninja who abused substances in order to push himself beyond his physical limitations. Yikes, a seven-year-old substance addict. That’s a little dark, even for Naruto. But Kishimoto decided to go in a different direction. And then Gaara was created. Personally, I rather like his current backstory than the one Kishimoto was going to do. This is why we rewrite, people!
8 The First To Hit Him
Thanks to Gaara’s unique abilities, he didn’t really experience much pain or injury until he was a teenager. The sand acted as a natural protector, keeping him from any type of physical injury. As a result, it was incredibly difficult for someone to even land a hit on Gaara. Well, two people managed to do it during the Chunin exams.
Rock Lee was actually the first person to land a hit on Gaara during their fight. Thanks to Lee’s powerful taijutsu and speed, he managed to punch Gaara, surprising him. This wasn’t enough to defeat him though, and Lee ended up losing. Then Sasuke became the first person to actually injure Gaara. During their battle, Sasuke used his Chidori technique to break through Gaara’s barrier and cause him to bleed. Understandably, Gaara freaked out a bit.
7 A Unique Secret Ability
Even Gaara has a few tricks up his sleeves. Those that are familiar with Gaara just through the anime likely don’t know that he has a rather special ability that he doesn’t use very often. This ability is called the Magnet Release Kekkei Genkai, and it allows him to control iron sand.
This ability was first revealed in the manga story Gaara Hiden. So why doesn’t he use it very often? It’s actually for a pretty good reason. Gaara doesn’t like people knowing about this ability since it helps ensure he stays one step ahead of his enemies. It’s basically a secret weapon. It also makes sense that if he doesn’t have to use it, he won’t, and his enemies won’t know everything about him. Still, it’s a pretty awesome power.
6 Interesting Tastes
While Gaara is shown to eat occasionally on the show, it wasn’t very often. We're pretty sure people believe that the guy lives on air. But Gaara does eat food, and he does have his likes and dislikes... though they may not be what you expected.
According to the databook that you can find on Gaara, his favorite foods are salted tongue and gizzard. A little strange, but hey, you do you Gaara. On the flip side, his least favorite foods are yokan and marron glace, which are types of sweet confections. So basically, he doesn’t really like sweets at all, and he prefers more savory foods. We can respect that.
5 His Hobby May Surprise You
For someone as powerful and rather emotionally unattached as Gaara, it’s hard to imagine him with doing everyday things or even having simple hobbies. But there are things that Gaara likes to do besides fight, and you’d be surprised what one of his favorite hobbies is. It's cultivating cacti!
Yep, Gaara actually likes to care for cacti. We think this is adorable, and can see why he likes cacti. He even talks about his hobby and why he likes it to other people, which is also amazing. To see this character that was introduced as a rather psychotic killer share his interest in cultivating live plants is a bit surreal. But it shows just how far Gaara has come, too!
4 He Has An Interesting Tie To The Matrix
Kishimoto talked about Gaara’s look, saying how his first outfit was actually a little hard to draw often and keep consistent. So, he changed it up toward the end of Part I, and we have to say that Gaara looks pretty good! It definitely makes him look a bit older and more mature. But did you know this outfit had a rather interesting inspiration?
Apparently, Kishimoto said he took from the movie The Matrix for Gaara’s new look. And looking at the two, we can see the similarities. There’s the high collar, the solid colors and the almost trench coat feel to it. It’s kind of cool that action movies like The Matrix can even influence anime shows.
3 He Almost Got Married
Did you know that Gaara almost got married? Well, it was a bit of an arranged marriage, introduced in Gaara Hiden: A Sandstorm Mirage. The council of Sunakagure was worried that if Gaara never got married and had kids, the next heir to the Kage role would be from Konoha since Temari married Shikamaru. So, they arranged for him to meet the woman they chose for him, Hakuto.
Gaara was actually okay with most of this since he saw the logic in it, and when he met Hakuto, he genuinely liked her. But things didn’t work out. Well, meaning that Hakuto was planning to leave Suna with her lover and elope. It was complicated, but in the end, Gaara let them go. We guess he won’t be finding love anytime soon, but we also think he’s okay with that.
2 Intense Missions
The way the missions go in Naruto is that S-rank missions are the highest and most dangerous, followed by A-rank, B-rank, C-rank, and D-rank. Most Genins would complete D-rank and a few C-rank missions. But most genin aren’t Gaara. Since he was a young kid, he had to fight to survive and was often forced to become stronger out of necessity. So, he proved to be quite capable at tougher missions.
When he was only a genin, which is one of the lower rankings in the ninja military, he completed many B-Rank missions. In fact, throughout his career, Gaara has completed 0 D-rank, 9 C-rank, 8 B-rank, 14 A-rank, and 3 S-rank missions. Basically, Gaara is someone you really don’t want to fight, because he will mess you up and make it look like it was painfully easy.
1 His Backstory Is Kishimoto's Favorite
One of the things that Naruto does really well is that it gives pretty interesting backstories even to the characters you may not like initially. As a result, you could sympathize with any character, even if they’re a villain. Gaara’s backstory in particular is really an amazing one.
When we first meet Gaara, he seems pretty sociopathic and has this deep hatred for all people, but also this cold indifference to them. Combined with his amazing power, he’s genuinely scary, and makes for a good “villain.” Then we get to his backstory, and we learn about his terrible childhood and how he was twisted and in so much pain. It’s heartbreaking. We’ve never changed our mind about a character so fast. Kishimoto himself has said that Gaara’s backstory is his favorite from Part I. We don’t blame him; it’s truly incredible.