Son Gokuu (Aka: Kakarot- his Saiya-jin name) or Son Gokou

He's the main character for most of the series (Gohan "takes over" the series when his father dies the second time). He starts the manga as a young and innocent boy with black spiky hair, a strange monkey tail and an expanding stick (nyoibo).

Incredibly strong for his age (which he claims to be of 14 years but later we find out that he can´t count), he has one of the Dragonballs which he refers to as his Grandfather (it was the only thing that his Grandfather left before dying, so he considers it to posses his soul). Gokuu while carrying his lunch home (a giant fish that he killed with one kick) literally bumps into Bulma. After a brief discussion, and Bulma explaining the power that lies in the Dragonball, both leave to search for the Dragonball. It is in this way that the series of adventures begin. Soon after, both meet Kamessenin who then gives him his "first" magic cloud ( he frequently has it destroyed, but later we find out there's a bunch of them), also known as Kintoen.

After some 17 mangas, Gokuu has had many adventures and friends and is already an adult, married (with ChiChi) and has a child (Songohan, he was given the same name as Gokuu's Grandfather). - On the TV series the name is changed to Dragonball Z- . By this time, with the coming of Gokuu's brother: Raditz, we find out that Gokuu isn't human. He was found by his "Grandfather"(SonGohan isn´t his real grandfather, but an adoptive one) inside a space capsule; Gokuu had been sent to Earth in order to conquer it, but due to a big fall he lost his memory thus, becoming the innocent boy that we meet at the beginning of the manga; we are told that Gokuu is really a Saiya-jín (-jin is used in Japanese to say that a person is part of the people that the "-jin" follows, therefore, Gokuu is part of the Saiya people; living the Saiya in planet Vejiita (they are not originally from this planet-this we find out in one of the films).

Later Gokuu finds out that he can turn into Super Saiya-jin when he gets really angry (this occurs the first time when Freeza, one of the most dangerous enemies during the series, kills Kulilin, during the quest for the Namekian Balls). This transformation increases greatly Gokuu's power and gives him physical transformations (his hair becomes blond and more spiky, his eyes green, his face linear and an aura forms around him); afterwards, he finds that he can also turn into Super saiya-jin 2 and 3, which means an increase of all the caracteristics of the first stage.

Note: Songokuu is inspired in the monkey god of the Shinto religion (SonGokuu really looked like a monkey in the first Toriyama sketchs for Dragonball).

Son Gohan (in japanese Gohan means meal or rice, if this is a pun, I don't know !!!)

Son of Songokuu and ChiChi, he appears the first time at the age of 4, about the same time that Raditz appears (beginning of the anime series Dragonball Z). Having been given the same name as SonGokuu's "Step-Grandfather", SonGohan can become more powerful than his father (because he is half-saiya-jín -->hybrids are stronger). However, ChiChi is always telling him to study, therefore, he never really explores his fighting capabilities or gains the taste for a good fight. Gohan has his first fight training with Piccolo, after Gokuu's death. During the fight against Raditz, Piccolo decides to train Gohan and sort of allie with Gokuu against Vejiita and Nappa. Though Piccolo is very harsh with him during the training, Songohan and Piccolo become friends, being Piccolo an idol to Gohan (Piccolo finnaly got killed by Nappa in an atempt to protect Gohan). This motivates the participation of Gohan in the Quest for the Namekian Dragonballs in a chance to revive Piccolo. Songohan is often seen during part of the series using clothes much like those worn by Piccolo.

Gohan becomes the main character after the Cell Saga (during this time Gokuu is "dead"), assuming a diferent identity with which he fights against Crime (he was first known as The Golden-Haired Warrior - he gets his "instant" costume from Bulma (when pressing a button on his watch an instant costume appears), using his transformation into Super Saiyan and sunglasses as a facial disguise, but because the disguise isn't very good he finally decides to turn into: The Great Saiya-man, using this time a helmet; he spends most of the time praticing poses instead of fighting crime...

At the end of the series Gohan becomes a scholar in a local college (he looks a little nerdy). He joins (I don't really know if they marry) with Videl (also known as Beederu). This union results in a daughter, Pan.

Raditz

Saiya-jin with hair about his waist length. He is the first enemy to appear in the Dragonball Z series. Songokuu's older brother comes to Earth in the belief that his brother has conquered the planet. After knowing that Gokuu has lost his memory, he kidnaps Gohan demanding that Gokuu presents, the next day, 100 dead humans on the beach in front of the Kame House, or else, he will kill his son (Gohan is 4 at the time). Gokuu and Piccolo (Piccolo wanted to be the only one to get to kill Gokuu) join forces and fight Raditz. Raditz is much stronger than any of the them, so Gokuu has to grab him, while Piccolo performs his "Screw" Attack, this attack goes through both Raditz and Gokuu body, which causes the death of both.

Vegeta

Prince of the Saiya-jin, appears after the death of Raditz. He comes with Nappa to Earth in an attempt to gain immortality by wishing it to Shen-long. He appears first with brown hair (in the anime) and slightly different looks, but after a year, when he comes to earth, his looks are already the same as those that we see for the rest of the series(Vejiita seems to be about 10 years old in his 1 year space journey). Vejiita finally joins Gokuu and friends but never gets to be a real allie; he's only purpose in life is to defeat Gokuu and prove that he is stronger.

During the series he slightly settles down with Bulma having with her two kids: Trunks and Bura

Nappa,

Tall and bald Saiya-jin comes to Earth with Vegita seeking immortality (he became aware of the existence of the Dragonballs when Raditz came to earth, in search of his brother -Kakarot- knowned as SonGokuu). While on Earth he kills Chaoz (he actually "self-explodes" in an attempt to kill Nappa). In addition, he also kills Tenshinhan and Piccolo (Nappa was going to kill Songohan but Piccolo stood in the way of the blow) before Gokuu could help. Gokuu finally appears and he is defeated. Vejiita didn't like the weakness of his partner so he kills Nappa.

Nappa had with him the Saibaimen seeds that when planted give "birth" to 6 humanoids,one of these killed Yamcha, but were then all killed by Krilin, except one that when atacking Gohan was stoped and then killed by Piccolo (the saibamen have the special capability to split their head in two and throw acid out of it..

note: Nappa was, in past times Vegeta's caretaker.

Bardock

Gokuu's and Raditz's father (we know nothing about their mother). Many years aho about the same time that SonGokuu was send to Earth, his father and other Saiya-jin fought against Freeza (Freeza was afraid of the power of the Saiyans ), like most of the Saiyans he was killed by Freeza (this fight motivated the destruction of the Saiyan-jin planet: Vejiita)- so after this, the only remaining pure Saiyans are: SonGokuu, Raditz (now dead), Nappa (also dead) and Vegeta.

Trunks

Vegeta's and Bulma's son. Appears the first time when coming from the future to warn Gokuu and friends about the coming of Cell and the androids in 3 years (and save Gokuu from dying, who because of the use of teleport has aquired a heart disease. He first appears, when Cyborg Freeza and Great King Cold appear, killing both. He often during the series carries a sword and uses a capsule corp. jacket.

We can say that there are two Trunks:

Future Trunks, who because of his tough life is a lot stronger (in his time he lives in constant fighting so this gives him a lot more training, making him one of the strongest of the series) and also makes him more polite;

In his future all of the earth population (including the Z warriors) had been killed by the androids (except for Gokuu who had died of heart disease provoked by his teleporting tecnique). Hence, Trunks travels 20 years back in time to give medicine to Gokuu and warns the Z warriors about the coming of the androids (he comes back from the future at the same time that Cyborg Freeza and great King Cold appear, killing them both; Trunks knew that by this time, Gokuu would have returned to Earth. Afterwards, Trunks goes back to his own time, but returns again three years later to help the Z fighters battle the Artificial humans. During his stay in the present, he becomes extremely strong, being stronger than any of the Z warriors (excluding Gohan and maybe Gokuu). After Cell is killed by Gohan, Trunks returns to the future and kills the cyborgs #17, #18 and Cell (in his future #17 and #18 seemed to be stronger), that terrorized his future.

The "present" Trunks is not so strong or polite as his future self,- thus always gets himself (and his friend Goten) in trouble. During the Z warriors fight against Buu, Trunks fuses with Goten becoming Gotenks, a very powerful character.

Son Goten

Gokuu's second son, born while Gokuu was dead (he is even a little afraid of his father when he first sees him). With 7 years of age he is much stronger and faster in comparison to his father and older brother at the same age. In appearance he's very similar to Gokuu (though at the end of the series he doesn't look anything like his father). He first becomes Super Saiya-jin when practicing with his mother. He is slightly weaker and slower than his friend Trunks (Trunks is one year older) to which he fuses to become Gotenks.

At the end of the series Goten had become really lazy, so his fighting tecniques have not improved much.

Pan

Gohan's and Videl's daugter. Appears for the first time in the last two chapters of the series, at the age of 4. She looks a bit like her mother when she was younger. Pan is really strong for her age and size, and surely capable of becoming a lot better (she can fly around the world in half an hour). She's a 1/4 of a Saiyajin, so she surely has some fighting potential, however she's only seen in one fight ( in the Tenkaichi - Budoukai). Before the series ends, she fights against Moukeko, winning due to Ring Out and Knock Out at the same time. She is one of the heros of Dragonball GT.

Fusion (this is a little introdution for the following characters)

Tecnique learned by Son Gokuu, in the other world, originally conceived in Metamoru. It allows two people to "fuse" into one, giving the fused person a much higher power level. Fusion can be done by anyone but it's necessary that the two individuals have the same power level. To achieve fusion some special moves are required, therefore the two individuals need to learn the correct pose in which to stay to originate fusion. Mistakes can be done during the fusion dance, being the consequences the transformation into something much weaker (and strange looking). The Fusion lasts for 30 minutes before the fused person becomes two again.

Later we find out that fusion can also be achieved without the special moves, but only when using 15-dai-mae kaioshin's special earings (the two individuals have to use an earing each, on opposite ears), but this special kind of fusion has a downside: it never "wears off", meaning that the two individuals are fused forever. It's called Potara.

Gotenks, being the fusion (done with the special moves) between SonGoten and Trunks, Gotenks, is incredibly strong: being one of the most powerful characters of the series. Besides Gokuu, he is the only character able to change into Super Saiyajin 3. Gotenks has also one of the biggest egos in the series, meaning trouble most of the time! In order to transform into Gotenks, Trunks and Goten, go trough some errors, generating some strange forms (last two images). Though Gotenks is very powerful he is still no match for Majin Buu.

Vegito When Gokuu and Vegita fuse, using Potara, they become Vegito, problably the most powerful character in the DBZ world. Like Gotenks, Vegito has a very huge ego (it seems to be a "side-effect" of fusion). Vejiit completly overpowers Majin Buu, but due to his ego and distraction he finally gets absorbed by Buu. Once inside Buu's body, the hero "unfuses" into Gokuu and Vegita. Vegita considers this a lucky break, and destroys his earring to prevent a second merge from ever happening. In this way the fusion between Son Gokuu and Vegita ends.

Freeza

He is one of the major villains who appears after the epic battle between Son Goku and Vegeta. The battle against Freeza was the longest segment of the entire series.

He was the villain who destroyed Goku’s home planet. Even though Freeza would not openly admit, his greatest nightmare is the Saiyajin, that is why their home planet must be destroyed.

Shortly after Vegeta finished his battle with Goku, we encounter Freeza in the planet of the Namek. Both the Dragon Ball Warriors and Freeza and his minions arrived at the planet to acquire the more powerful Dragon Balls. Although both arrived with the same purpose, their motives were quite different. The Dragon Ball Warriors wanted to revive Piccolo and his other half, Tenshin, while Freeza, with his insatiable appetite for power, wanted eternal life.

He did not begin to demonstrate his capabilities until he started the battle against Vegeta when he took his first transformation. Freeza is capable of three transformations, becoming more powerful each time, during which, Vegeta was killed and Piccolo met nearly the same fate. Then, Son Goku joined the battle.

This is the battle where first saw the Super Saiyajin. Freeza served as the catalyst for that when he killed Kuririn out of his frustration. The angry Son Goku became Super Saiyajin and eventually overcame Freeza. Goku, being a good sportsman like always spares Freeza's life so he could challege Freeza again. But Freeza's uncontainable pride and unwillingless to accept defeat sealed his fate. Miracalously, he still managed to survive until recued by his father.

After being rescued by his Father, Freeza decided to go to earth for his revenge, but only to seal his fate by the arrival of Future Trunks.

Ginyu Force

The Ginyu are made up of four people. They are Guldo, a frog like character with the ability to freeze time, Recoome, a hulking behemoth with an interesting sense of humor,Burda, A tall fish looking guy who is known for his extreme speed,Jaice, a punk rocker type guy who is known as the "red magma" of the ginyu force, And Captain Ginyu the leader who is not only strong, but has the ability to change bodies with people. He does change bodies with Goku and is eventually defeated in that body by Krillin and Gohan when Ginyu in Goku's body is not used to the strange body and can not get up to the power level goku did. Then he tries to shift into Vegeta's Body but is turned into a frog when Goku throws one in the way.

Kurillin

He is perhaps one of Son Goku's longest and best friends in the entire series. They have been through the thick and thin from Kamesennin's rigorous training to the Budokai. His significance has also faded as the story moved deeper into the Z series in a Super Saiyajin dominated world.

Bulma

Bulma was the second character to appear in Dragon Ball after Son Goku. When the series started out she was a young girl, 16 years of age, who was out on her own spending her summer break from school searching for magical spheres called the Dragon Balls. Her wish was originally to have all the strawberries she could eat, but she later changed her mind and wanted a perfect boyfriend. When she first met Goku, she wasn't very nice. She wanted to take his Dragon Ball from him, but he refused because he believed his grandfather's soul was in it. She then tried to bribe him by letting him touch her panties, but Goku had no desire to touch her "dirty butt.". Finally she asked if he could come with her and bring along his Dragon Ball. He liked the idea, but Bulma was going to use his Dragon Ball when she got all of them, and use him as a bodyguard. She was pretty sly for a kid her age.

Later on, Bulma met Yamcha. The two became girlfriend and boyfriend, and Yamcha lived with her at her parent's house, the Capsule Corporation. As time went by, Bulma grew up, and became very, uh, touchy. Much more so than when she was a kid. She breaks up with Yamcha because he fools around with other women, but when he's killed by the Saibaman, she realized she truly loved him. She tagged along with the guys on Nameck because she suffers from a great deal of self pride, and didn't think anyone else could use the Nameckian ship, and partly because she wanted to help get Yamcha back. After the Nameck ordeal, Bulma and Yamcha got back together, and seemed happy, (with an occasional slip-up on Yamcha's part). However, when Vegeta trains at the Capsule Corp. in her father's gravity room, she seems to gain some affection for him.

After the three years pass when everyone was training for their confrontation with the Artificial Humans, Bulma shows up with a kid in her arms. His name is Trunks, and he's Vegeta and Bulma's son. Sometime later, after the death of Cell, Bulma and Vegeta get hitched, and Vegeta learns to actually care for his family, although he doesn't let his emotions truly show until a while later. But Bulma really loves him, and shows it as well. During the Buu saga, Bulma is pretty much a useless character. She doesn't invent anything, or assist in a fight; she's just there as drama. She dearly loves her son Trunks, but she's pretty stern with him sometimes, a la Chi Chi. At the very end of Z after the death of Buu, she's twice as "touchy" as before, and she really looks as if she's aged. Once again, she's not important at the end, but just a nice face to see at the end of the series. However, GT pulls a 180 degree turn, and she becomes fairly important again. First she helps to get Goku a ship to fly around the universe in, and later in the series, she becomes VERY important when Bebi takes over her body. He makes her his assistant, and she figures out weaknesses of Son, and how to turn Bebi into a Golden Ozaru. During the Evil Shenlon saga she's not important, and hardly seen until the end, where Goku and Vegeta face off against Ii Shenlon. She invents the Brute Ray, a special tank that shoots off high amounts of Brute Waves, causing Vegeta to turn Super Saiyan 4. She and Vegeta disappear at the end, and lose contact with the Sons, but in the last episode, you can tell Bulma's grand daughter, and Vegeta's great grandson. And that's about it for Bulma.

Broli

The one and only "The Legendary Super Saiyan". Broli is the son of a low level Saiyajin, Paragus. Broli is part of a legacy that happens every 10,000 years. An extremely powerful Saiyan is born. We only see Broli appear during the movies and never actually enters the Manga or Anime storyline. During his time in the movies, he is always in Super Sayain level 2 and a half.

Taurus

Taurus, has only appeared in one Dragon Ball Z-Movie #3, where he was also killed. He arrived on earth with the intentions of destroying it by growing a "Tree of Might". The purpose of a "Tree of Might" is to drain all the energy of the planet in order to form this neat little fruit. When someone eats it there energy goes way up! Taurus was almost successful, and nearly succeeded in defeating Son Goku with the power gained by eating this fruit, but he was quickly finished after Goku used the remaining energy of the Tree to create a Genki Dama (or spirit bomb) which was used for Taurus' destruction.

Bra

Bra is one of the two female Sayain. She does have some Sayain power because she is Vegeta's daughter but she is never trained to use it well. She has probably had the easiest life out of all of her family and friends because, Vegeta and her older brother, Trunks, do all the fighting.

Yamcha

The longhaired male teenager who wants the Dragon Balls to wish for a girlfriend. Strong and fast, with a wolf-style martial arts attack, but is very shy around women. Starts out as one of Goku's enemies.

Kamesennin Mutenroushi

The dirty old man with the turtle shell on his back. Wise, powerful, and subject to severe nose bleeds. NOTE: Sennin means "master", so the old man is "turtle master."

Gyuu Maou

Magical Cow King. Chi Chi's dad. Massive man with extended goggles over his eyes. Well-known leader in this land, and highly respected.

Chi Chi

Gyuu Maou's(Ox King's) young daughter. An attractive airhead with a throwing fin attached to her helmet. Appears frequently in later volumes.

Tenshinhan

3-eyed student of Tsurusennin. Tall, muscular, very strong fast, and nasty. In the TV series, he is shown, with Chao-zu, to be a thief and fraud (he brings a certain monster into town, the monster causes damage, and Tenshinhan then gets paid money for chasing the monster away.)

Piccolo

AKA The Great Demon King Piccolo, or Devil Piccolo. A huge, shrivelled green dude with 2 antenna. Becomes good and helps Goku.

Dodoria

Freeza's fat, ugly assistant. Very strong, but rather dumb.

Zarbon

Freeza's beautiful alien co-assistant. Stronger than Dodoria. Also faster, and more vain. Gets killed be Vegeta.

Dende

The young Namek-jin that Gohan saves from Freeza. Has the ability to heal people.

#19

Dr. Gero's android. Comes from the alternate future. Fat, with a pointy head, looks vaguely Chinese. Steals people's energy through the contacts in his hands.

#20

AKA -- Dr. Gero. Works for Red Ribbon. Came back in time with #19 to destroy the planet. Gets his energy the same way #19 does. Old, mean-looking, with very long silver hair.

#17

The young male android created by Dr. Gero. In Trunk's future, #17 and 18 both terrorize Earth, and destroy everyone before travelling to the past to kill Vegeta and the rest of the heroes. Wears a Red Ribbon jersey, torn jeans, and a yellow scarf. Has earrings and shoulder-length black hair. VERY strong. Is consumed by Cell in a later volume.

#18

Female android companion to #17. Is also consumed by Cell, but later gets spit back out, and becomes slightly more normal. Settles down with Krillin and has his baby.

#16

The big, good-looking hulk with red eyes. Originally fights alongside #17 and #18. Gets repaired by Bulma and becomes a good guy. Gentle by nature, he dies in the fight against Cell.

Cell

The biological weapon creation made by Dr. Gero. Stole Trunks' time machine to arrive in the past. Contains some of the cell samples from most of the heroes. Just needs to consume #17 and #18 to become complete. First-Stage: He looks like a cross between a lizard, a scorpion, and a human. Second-Stage: He's consumed #17, and now looks less lizard-like, more human, and more cockroach-like. Is now much more powerful. Third-Stage: After consuming #18, he's now a gleaming white, sleak humanoid, with a touch of lizard. He is virtually undefeatable, can destroy the universe, and has all of the abilities that all of the heroes have, including Kamehame-ha.

Majin Buu

A great, magical creature that Babi Dee wants to reactivate. He needs lots of combat energy (with a twist of evil) to wake up. Kaiou-shin is terrified of him, and with Kibit, has been trying to locate Buu for a very long time. Buu is first shown in a large nutshell, located in the bottom level of a rocket that's buried out in the countryside. When released, Buu resembles the Marshmellow Man from the Ghost Busters movie. Buu is like a spoiled baby, with awesome magical powers. His favorite pastime is to turn his victims into snack foods, and then eat them. (AKA: Buu, or Magical Creature Buu.)