Character Guide: A 

Aerobics Woman - “Earobi no Onna no Hito”  She appears on TV during the early Cell Saga.  While the others are struggling against first form Cell, Master Roshi and Oolong watch from the Kame House as she teaches an aerobics class with a little spice and a whole lot of bust.  Not surprisingly, the two perverts get quite a bit of enjoyment from watching her vigorous workout. 

Afterlife Martial Arts Tournament Announcer - “Annoyoichi Budoukai Anaunsa” The mushroom-headed man with the microphone in the Afterlife Martial Arts Tournament.  You can never tell if the mushroom is hiding his face or if it IS his face.  This guy has a big booming voice for such a shrimp, as he has to speak loud enough on the microphone for the entire afterlife audience to hear.

Alligator-   An alligator who likes to sunbathe in a hammock on Kami Island.  In Dragonball, he points out Master Roshi to Mai and Shao when they show up looking for the Kamesennin. 

Almond - “Almondo”**   The fattest villain in DBZ Movie 3 “Tree of Might.”  He is killed by Goku. 

Android Number 8 - “Jinzouningen Hachi Gou AKA Hachan” Dr. Gero’s first “successful” creation, (although there was a huge plot hole in the anime that said Dr. Frappe invented him).  Android Number 8 is ordered to kill Goku after he takes on the Red Ribbon Army, but he refuses because he does not like to fight.  Number 8 is quite powerful, but he also possesses a conscience.  He befriends Goku who gives him a new name, Hachan.  After the Red Ribbon Army is defeated, Hachan goes to live a peaceful life with Snow. 

Android Number 13 - “Jinzouningen Juusan Gou”*  The tall leader of the Androids and main villain in DBZ Movie 7,  “The Three Super Saiyajin”.  You could almost say he was a rip-off of Cell.  By himself he is fairly powerful, but when he absorbs two components from Androids 14 and 15, he turns into a big monster with dark blue skin and bright red hair, called Super 13.  Goku finishes him in a complicated way of forming a spirit bomb, and absorbing it into his body as he goes Super Saiyajin, so that he can “fire” it. 

Android Number 14 - “Jinzouningen Juuyon Gou”*  A big purple-gray guy with few words and plenty of muscle.  One of the three androids in DBZ Movie 7, he eventually faces off one on one against Trunks, who kills him with his sword. 

Android Number 15 - “Jinzouningen Juugo Gou”*  One of the three androids in DBZ Movie 7, he is basically a purple, alcoholic midget in a funky green hat and yellow sunglasses.  Also an android of few words, he says nothing but “Kakarotto” and takes a swig from his whiskey can every few minutes.  He faces off with Vegeta, and has an interesting demise. 

Android Number 16 - “Jinzouningen Juuroku Gou”  Android 16 doesn’t battle any of the Z Senshi, due to the incomplete programming that identifies Goku as his only enemy.  He loves the Earth and nature, and wishes no harm to come to it or the plants and animals that thrive there.  At first he speaks very little, and is assumed weaker by the other androids (which are actually cyborgs by definition, while 16 is a true android), but later he proves himself to be stronger than either 17 or 18, and even imperfect Cell.  He is shattered by Cell, but Bulma and Dr. Briefs rebuilt him, in doing so also removing his self-destruction device.  Android 16 suppresses his goal to destroy Goku long enough to join the Cell Game, but he eventually sacrifices himself while fighting Cell.  His last words to Gohan offer a final encouragement, which becomes the trigger event ultimately causing Gohan’s anger to explode, releasing his hidden powers that allow him to achieve Super Saiyajin 2. 

Android Number 17 - “Jinzouningen Juunana Gou”  An enhanced human, Number 17 is technically a cyborg, rather than an android.  Both he and his sister, Number 18, were once gang members who were captured by Dr. Gero and forced to undergo the mad scientist’s numerous experiments, in which he wiped their past memories of everything, including their names, and gave them great power by combining machine and man, creating two magnificently powerful cyborgs.  Number 17’s last real battle in Dragonball Z takes place with Piccolo, a fight that ends in a draw (though it can be argued that the fight was never finished).  The android is later absorbed by Cell and dies with him, but he is resurrected with the dragonballs.  He lives alone in the forest for the remainder of Dragonball Z, until later in GT, when he returns to fuse with his clone (which Dr. Gero and Dr. Myuu built in Hell) and become Super 17, a being so powerful that he gives even Super Saiyajin 4 Goku a run for his money. 

Android Number 17 (Future) - “Mirai no Jinzouningen Juunana Gou”  Similar to his counterpart of the past (the present dimension, for the while), he has the same adventure-seeking attitude of present day Android 17, yet he seems to have more of a lust for blood.  He enjoys destroying city buildings and likes to drag race air cars over pedestrians for fun.  He is killed by Future Trunks, upon the boy’s return from the future. 

Android Number 17 (New)*  Created by Dr. Gero and Dr. Myuu in Hell, the new Android 17 is not human, but purely android, rather than cyborg like the original “androids”.  He is pure evil and can control the original Android 17 to some degree by a psychic link. 

Android Number 18 - “Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou”  Though referred to as androids, both she and her brother Number 17 are humans enhanced by machines, or cyborgs.  A bit calmer and more thoughtful than her brother, Number 18 takes a much larger role in the series.  She marries Krillin later in Dragonball Z, and their daughter is named Marron (not to be confused with Maron, Krillin’s ex girlfriend from the Garlic Jr. Saga).  Number 18 goes on to fight alongside Goku in GT and some of the movies as well. 

Android Number 18 (Future) - “Mirai no Jinzouningen Juuhachi Gou”  Much like Number 18 of the present dimension, she has the same vain attitude and apathy for her brother’s reckless habits.  And then, she has her violent side, one far worse than that of her past counterpart. 

Android Number 19 - “Jinzouningen Juukyu Gou”  Unlike 17 and 18, Number 19 is a true android, with no human parts to him, although he is man-like in appearance.  He has a white face and a strange yellow hat with one sharp point on the top.  He is somewhat chubby, and in the dub version, his voice is quite high-pitched to the point of annoyance.  Number 19 has the ability to absorb another’s energy by sucking it into each red ball on his palms whenever a ki blast is fired at him, thus making him stronger and weakening the opponent in one move.  He nearly kills Goku, who is weakened by his heart disease, until Vegeta steps in, saving Goku on the claim that only he has the right to kill Kakarotto.  Android 19 tries to absorb all of Vegeta’s ki by grabbing his wrists and refusing to let go.  Vegeta takes care of this by ripping off his hands, then finishes him off with his new lethal move, the Big Bang Attack. 

Android Number 20 - “Jinzouningen Nijuu Gou” (Dr. Gero)  This android shell serves as a new body for Dr. Gero in order for him to carry on his life.  After finishing Androids 17 and 18, the doctor created a robotic version of himself, which he calls Number 20, removed his brain from his own frail, aging human body and placed it in the powerful, immortal body of an android.  Like 19 he can also absorb energy in through his palms, and is eventually killed by his own creation, Android 17, who kicks Dr. Gero’s head off and stomps on it. 

Angela - “Enjira”*  A girl who develops a quick, though fickle crush on Gohan.  He agrees to go on a date with her, when she claims she knows his “secret” and threatens to tell everyone, a secret that Gohan mistakenly believes is his secret identity as the superhero the Great Saiyaman.  Gohan later discovers that the secret was actually only the fact that Gohan wears teddy bear underwear. 

Aoi Kimidori  Akane Kimidori’s older sister, both of whom appear in Dr. Slump, an earlier work of Akira Toriyama’s, and later in Dragonball.  Aoi runs the Coffee Pot café in Penguin Village. 

Appule - “Apuuru”  One of Frieza’s henchmen on planet Namek, he has purple skin with orange spots over his enlarged bald head.  He is killed by Vegeta when the Saiyajin escapes from the rejuvenation tank on Frieza’s ship. 

Arale Norimaki  The main character in Dr. Slump, Arale-chan is a hyperactive, fun-loving little robot built by Senbe.  Even though she is only a young child, (she was born in the year 745 AD), she is brilliant and is already in high school.  Goku meets her in the manga in Dragonball, and they travel around together for a bit on the Nimbus.  She later rescues Goku by beating up Blue Shogun. 

Arqua - “Aqua”  An odd little competitor in the Annoyoichi Budoukai, also called the Afterlife Martial Arts Tournament.  He resembles a man crossed with a fish, and while he’s a terrible fighter on land, even Goku finds that Arqua is virtually peerless and practically unbeatable under water. 

Atla - “Atora”*  An inhabitant of the planet Arlia, where Vegeta and Nappa stop to stretch their legs on their way to Earth.  Imprisoned by the tyrant King of Arlia, he thinks only of the love of his life, Lemlia, who has been taken against her will to be the bride of the King.  When Vegeta and Nappa break out of the prison, Atla escapes along with them to rescue his love.  Just as the two lovers are about to embrace, Vegeta fires a huge, fatal beam toward the planet Arlia, utterly blasting it into oblivion.

Character Guide:  B

Baba - “Uranai Baba”  Sister of Master Roshi, she is an old witch with the unique ability to see the future in her crystal ball.  She’s about 500 years old in Dragonball, and her home address is FS199644CC.  She reads fortunes for a price, or you can face her spooky competitors to win your fortune.  Later in Dragonball Z, it is made known that she has the ability to grant special leave for the dead to return for approximately one day, as long as there is a good reason, such as the world being torn apart by an evil, unstoppable demon.  She convinces King Yama to allow Goku to return to Earth for a day to participate in the Tenkaichi Budoukai and to meet his young son Goten.  Later she talks King Yama into allowing Vegeta to return from the dead as well in order to aid Goku in defeating Buu. 

Babidi  The son of Bibidi (creator of Buu), he is an ancient sorcerer who comes to Earth with Darbura to resurrect Majin Buu, in hopes of ruling the universe with his power.  He may look weak but has a powerful barrier and good defenses.  Buu kills him by grabbing him in a stranglehold, thus preventing Babidi from uttering the chant that would re-contain him, and then punching Babidi’s head off and vaporizing his body. 

Baby - “Bebi”*  Baby was a robotic creature created long ago by the Tuffles, or the Tsufurujin, to defend against the Saiyajin race, but they were unable to activate their creation as the Saiyajins advanced on their armies and took over the planet.  After somehow escaping the destruction of the planet Vegeta (once known as planet Tuffle, or planet Plant in Japanese), many years passed before the ancient secret weapon of the Tuffles drifted to Earth.  Dr. Myuu, the last living member of the Tuffle race, found and repaired Baby, and finally activated the robot.  A parasitic robot, Baby infests beings by entering through a wound or other body opening.  Baby then began to assimilate the most powerful beings on planet Earth, including Goten, Gohan and Bulma, all of whom he controls even after he leaves their body for another.  After assimilating all of humanity except for Mr. Satan and Mr. Buu, he finally embodies himself in Vegeta, the most powerful being on Earth.  Upon his return to Earth, Goku duels the robot, but with Baby in Vegeta’s body, the creature proves to be too much for Goku to handle and Baby easily defeats him.  Later, in the heated battle between Oozaru Baby and Super Saiyajin 4 Goku, Baby is indeed stronger, but Goku is faster, and manages to defeat the creature after a lengthy battle.  Baby finally aborts Vegeta’s body and attempts to escape in a Capsule Corp space ship, but Goku fires a kamehameha at the ship as it leaves the orbit, sending both the ship and its robotic occupant into the sun. 

Bacterian - “Bakuterian”  A huge filthy competitor in the 21^st Tenkaichi Budoukai who has not washed or brushed his teeth since the day he was born.  He isn’t particularly strong physically, but uses his stench as a weapon.  And since his opponents need to hold their noses closed, he can attack them more easily.  Bacterian is 6’8” tall and weighs 435 and ½ lbs.  He is defeated by Krillin after Goku reminds him that he doesn’t have a nose. 

Bardock - “Baadack”  Bardock is Goku and Radditz’s father and the only Saiyajin who knew what was going to become of planet Vegeta and his people.  While on planet Karnassa, he was cursed with the ability to see the future, and saw glimpses of his planet being destroyed, as well as several visions of his son’s life on Earth.  He survives a surprise attack from Dodoria and his men who were sent by Frieza to take them out before he made his way to planet Vegeta. Dodoria’s men killed Bardock’s 4 crewmates, and just before he dies, Toma tells Bardock everything that happened.  Bardock makes quick work of Dodoria’s men, slaughtering all of them but Dodoria himself, who thinks he has killed Bardock and heads back to Frieza’s ship.  Bardock survives and returns to planet Vegeta at top speed, but when he gets there no one believes his story or his visions.  Alone, the brave warrior Bardock makes a last stand against Frieza and tries to kill him, but his attempt is fruitless and he is destroyed by the biggest Death Ball Frieza ever created.  As Bardock dies, he finally realizes that it was not him who is destined to defeat Frieza, but his son.  In the dub, he speaks to his son from the after-life while little Kakarot is on his way to Earth, and charges him with the task of killing Frieza to avenge his father, and all Saiyajin. 

Bear Thief – “San zoku Guma”  A huge sword-wielding bear who has a taste for sea turtle.  Goku’s first true battle is with this bear, who refuses to back down after Goku threatens to fight him if he won’t let them pass. 

Bee  The little puppy that Buu finds and befriends along with Mr. Satan, or Hercule.  Bee becomes a crucial part of Buu’s eventual reformation.  The puppy stays with Mr. Satan during the entire Buu saga and even saves Gohan in an aerial battle.  At the end of Dragonball Z, Bee lives with Mr. Satan and Buu. 

Bibidi  Bibidi is Babidi’s father and the creator of the great magical device of destruction known as Majin Buu, millions of years before Goku was born.  He was forced to seal his creation by freezing Majin Buu in a chamber when Bibidi realized that he could not control him.  Bibidi was killed by Kaioshin of the East to avenge his evil deeds. 

Bido*  The tall, massive crony of Bojack’s team in DBZ Movie 9.  He looks similar to Android 13 but with facial hair.  Bido is punched in half by Super Saiyajin 2 Gohan. 

Big Ghetti Star - “Bigu Gete Suta”*  A planet-devouring mass of intelligent machinery in DBZ Movie 6, it is actually a planet-sized spaceship.  At the core of the ship is Cooler’s severely disfigured head, which is the only part of Cooler that survived being shot into the sun (Movie 5).  His brain was saved by the Ghetti Star itself, which recognized him as a valuable tool to gaining data and power.  Eventually Cooler learned to control the Ghetti Star to a point with his mind. 

Big Person - “Kyo Jin”  Krillin faces this massive warrior in the elimination round of the 22^nd Tenkaichi Budoukai. 

Biisu*  In GT, one of the four special robots in the Machine Mutant Army that can combine into the powerful Super Sigma 1/2/3. 

Bio Warriors - “Baio Senshi tachi”*  An odd-looking group of biological warriors created by Jyaga’s scientists in DBZ Movie 11.  These warriors are quite formidable by human standards, but their power amounts to nothing compared to Android 18, Trunks and Goten, who defeat them effortlessly. 

Bio Brolli - “Baio Burori”*  A clone of Brolli that becomes disfigured by containment slime and wreaks havoc in an island laboratory in DBZ Movie 11.  Bio Brolli is eventually defeated when the ocean water causes him to solidify and turn to stone by chemical compounds, after which Goten and Trunks blow him up. 

Black Servant - “Buraku Hosa” (Assistant Black or General Black)  Black Hosa is Commander Red’s servant/assistant.  As the Commander’s right hand man, he basically stood around repeating that whatever Red did was right.  He obeys just about every command given him, although he really hates his job.  He is a very tall black man, which tends to get Red angry every time he stands next to him, because Red is quite short of stature.  When Black discovers Red’s true ambition, or the real reason he is collecting the Dragonballs, he shoots Red in the head, killing him, and takes over the Red Ribbon Army, renaming it to the Black Ribbon Army.  He later battles Goku using the Army’s top secret weapon, the Battle Jacket.  Goku kills Black by propelling himself straight through the robotic armor, causing it to explode. In the movie version of this story, Black Servant is more often referred to as General Black, although essentially it is the same person.  Dragonball Movie 4 is a short recap of the Red Ribbon Army Saga in which a few changes are made to the story, including the way Black is killed.  In the movie, Goku charges a huge Kamehameha wave and simply blows him away, after General Black supposedly destroys Hatchan by crushing him to death in the Battle Jacket. 

Blind Boy - “Moumoku no Shonen”  A blind little boy who becomes Buu’s first friend.  Buu is intrigued by the fact that the boy isn’t terrified of him.  Buu heals the boy’s eyes so that he can see him, assuming that when he can see, he will be frightened.  Instead, the boy is overjoyed and graciously thanks Buu for curing his blindness.  A while later, the boy asks for some milk, and so Buu happily goes off to find a human, turns him into a carton of milk, then brings it back to the boy.  They talk a little while longer before they part. The entire scene sets you up for a gag because of its design to make the reader think that Buu is somewhat reformed after meeting the boy, because in the final panel of the manga, Buu happily blows up a nearby city. 

Blueberry - “Buruberi”  The gator/dog-like henchman of Frieza, he and his partner Raspberry set out on a mission to find the Namek Dragonballs. On their quest they meet the crafty Bulma who, although intimidated by the two at first, ultimately outsmarts them both.  She tells them that the remaining Dragonballs are hidden in the sea, tricking the two into believing that hundreds of giant crab eggs are actually Dragonballs, and then leaves them to deal with the angry mother. 

Blue Shogun - “Buru Shogun”  The top-ranking officer in the Red Ribbon Army, Blue is an incredibly powerful, handsome, vicious, gay man who hates women and is deathly afraid of mice.  He proves to be a worthy adversary when he follows Goku through the Pirate’s cave and tails him to the Kame House, where he ties everyone up and sets a time-bomb next to them.  They are all saved by Lunch.  Goku chases after him and they have an aerial battle.  Both Blue and Goku crash in the mountains near Penguin Village.  It is there that Blue is beaten up by Arale-chan.  After returning to the Red Ribbon Headquarters, he is killed by Tao Pai Pai at Red’s orders.  Blue was born in 722 AD and joined the Red Ribbon Army in 750 AD at the age of 28.  He is 5’9” tall and weighs 153 lbs. 

Bojack - “Bojakku”*  An incredibly strong warrior who long ago, was sealed within a star by the Kaios.  After Goku destroyed King Kai’s planet in late Cell Saga, he was freed from his celestial prison and came to Earth to take over the World Martial Arts Tournament in DBZ Movie 9.  He looks more or less like a big blue gypsy-pirate.  With a little help from the deceased Goku, Gohan kills him and some of his minions by becoming Super Saiyajin 2. 

Bongo*  The humongous, high-ranking officer of King Gurumes’ army in Dragonball Movie 1, Curse of the Blood Rubies.  He faces off with Goku in an aerial battle. 

Bora  The mighty Indian chief who lives at the base of Korin Tower.  He guards the tower with the aid of his son Upa. 

Borgos -   see Totepo   

Boss Rabbit - “Toninjinka” (Monster Carrot)  A giant rabbit also known as Monster Carrot who runs a small group of gangsters that terrorize a small town.  All of his gang members wear fake rabbit ears and are very much feared by the townspeople.  The main reason that Boss Rabbit is feared so much is because of his ability to turn any person he touches into a carrot.  He turns Bulma into a carrot and nearly eats her before Goku tricks Boss Rabbit and his men, and makes him turn her back into a girl.  Goku sends Monster Carrot and his gangsters to the moon, where their punishment is to make rabbit-shaped candy for children.  (This is a play on an ancient Japanese folktale, which tells of rabbits that live on the moon and make treats for children).  Monster Carrot is 5’7” tall and weighs 177 lbs, and his address is XS89001JB. 

Bra - “Bura”  Vegeta and Bulma’s second child, born in 778 AD.  Her father doesn’t appear to make a point of encouraging her to train (like he does to her brother Trunks), but the two are quite close, as it becomes apparent in GT, where Vegeta proves to be very protective of his daughter.  Bra loves her father very much and has a strong sense of pride in him. 

Brolli - “Burori”*  One of the strongest villains in DBZ, he is the Legendary Super Saiyajin, and the only opponent who completely dwarfs Goku in power.  Even Goku’s strongest attacks hardly faze him.  Appearing in Movies 8, 10 and 11, he is driven insane by the desire to defeat and finish Goku.  As the story goes in Movie 8, the two Saiyajin were born on the same day, and were set next to each other in the infirmary.  While Goku’s power level was at about 2, Brolli was born with a power level of 10,000! (a power strong enough to take out Nappa).  Despite his weaker power level, Goku’s will makes Brolli cry, an event that creates a deep instinctive hatred within Brolli.  In the movies, Brolli achieves Ultimate Super Saiyajin, and even Super Saiyajin 2, while Goku and the others can only reach Super Saiyajin.  He isn’t much for conversation, and his favorite word appears to be “Kakarotto,” which he repeats and screams quite often throughout every movie in which he appears. 

Bubbles - “Baburusu”  King Kai’s “pet” sidekick monkey.  He is used to the gravity on King Kai’s planet, and so can easily outrun Goku when he first arrives.  It takes Goku 11 days to catch Bubbles on Planet Kaio.  The name Bubbles is a word play after Michael Jackson’s pet monkey. 

Bulma - “Buruma”  The first person from outside Mount Paozu to meet Goku.  She is the second character introduced in the story, and appears from the very first episode of Dragonball.  She befriends Goku and he tags along with her as a bodyguard while she searches for the Dragonballs.  She is the daughter of Dr. Briefs and is a genius when it comes to mechanics and inventing new contraptions.  She invents the Dragon Radar, the Micro Band, and Fighting Jackets, just to name a few.  In Dragonball and early DBZ, Bulma is smitten with Yamcha.  As the story progresses, she loses interest in him because he is too fickle.  About the end of the Frieza Saga, she finds herself beginning to fall in love with Vegeta, who she realizes is lonely.  By the Trunks Saga it becomes apparent there is something between them, and although Vegeta generally denies his feelings, deep down he truly loves Bulma.  They have two children, Trunks and Bra.  Bulma was born in the year 733 AD and her home address at Capsule Corp is WST3338926K.  Her ID number is SSC41453, and her bust size is 85 cm. 

Bulma’s mom - “Buruma no mama”  A certified ditz, she is always interested in flirting with Goku and Vegeta.  In the anime, she makes a suggestive comment that she would like to go on a date with Vegeta (o.O).  Probably the most disturbing feature of this woman is the fact that, as far as physical appearances go, she looks AT LEAST as young as her daughter, and unlike Bulma, she doesn’t appear to age at all throughout DBZ. 

Burter - “Baata”  Burter is the tall blue-purple member of The Ginyu Force, or Ginyu Tokusentai, who possesses incredible speed.  When in battle, he prefers to fight alongside his teammate Jeice.  He believes that he is the fastest warrior in the universe.  However, he is easily defeated by Goku upon his arrival on Namek after his training in 100x gravity.  Burter is killed by Vegeta. 

Buu  Originally created by the evil sorcerer Bibidi at about 5 million BC, Majin Buu was intended to be a magical weapon.  He destroyed entire planets one by one in a distant galaxy, and killed every Kaioshin but one, the Kaioshin of the East.  Soon he became so powerful that Bibidi could not control him, and so the wizard sealed Buu in a magical chamber.  Millions of years later, Bibidi’s son Babidi locates the sphere in which Buu is sealed, and after years of searching for a power strong enough to break the seal, he eventually resurrects Buu in 774 AD.  At first, Buu obeys Babidi’s orders, mainly because he is aware that Babidi knows the password to re-seal him in the chamber again, and so he does his bidding until he can absorb enough power to the point that he no longer fears Babidi, and finally kills him.  Buu later befriends Mr. Satan and reforms himself somewhat, but it is only a matter of time before the evil within Buu is released.  When a few robbers try to kill Mr. Satan, the enraged Buu finally explodes in anger and splits into two different personalities, his good and evil halves.  His evil half undergoes many transformations as he continues to absorb more fighters and their special powers, and eventually he kills almost every living being on Earth.  Goku and Vegeta fuse into Vegetto, the only single character in DBZ that is stronger than Buu.  He allows Evil Buu to absorb him, and once inside of Buu, Vegetto splits back into Vegeta and Goku, who rescue the fighters that Buu had absorbed and fly back out of Evil Buu’s body, an act which rips away all of Buu’s new powers.  Evil Buu is so angered at this that he fires a tremendous blast at the Earth that destroys the planet!  Just before the planet is destroyed, Goku teleports Vegeta and a few others to Namek II, where they continue the battle with Evil Buu while Dende reawakens Porunga and wishes Earth to be restored.  Goku is almost equal to Evil Buu at Super Saiyajin 3, but the form doesn’t last, and so Goku, Vegeta and Mr. Buu (Buu’s good half) must fight to keep Evil Buu busy while Dende wishes that all who had been killed by Buu back to life.  Vegeta must distract Buu for as long as he can while Goku forms a Genki Dama (spirit bomb) using the powers of every single living being on the Earth combined.  After Goku finishes the Genki Dama, Dende’s final wish is for Goku to have the power to go Super Saiyajin again, so that Goku can fire the huge Genki Dama at Evil Buu full-force.  The planet-sized blast completely takes Buu by surprise, and it completely destroys Evil Buu once and for all.  At first Vegeta wants to finish Mr. Buu as well, but the others convince him that Buu is reformed, and so Mr. Buu is allowed to live in peace, which he does with his friend Mr. Satan and his dog Bee, both of which somehow survived the entire ordeal.  Much later, at the end of DBZ, Mr. Buu is living with Mr. Satan, and Evil Buu has been reincarnated as a human named Ubuu. 

Buujin*  The turban-wearing, smallest member of Bojack’s team in DBZ Movie 9.  Even though he’s little compared to the rest of his team, he’s surprisingly strong and has incredible psychic powers.  His ability to hold an opponent in midair with a sort of wire-trap spell like a puppeteer is particularly commendable. 

Buyon  The guardian of the fifth floor of Muscle Tower (White’s base), Buyon is a blubbery creature with the ability to repel attacks by allowing the attacks to bounce off of him and back at his opponent.  In order to defeat him, Goku punches a hole in the wall of the tower, allowing the freezing cold air from outside to enter the room, which freezes Buyon solid.

Character Guide: C

Captain Chicken - “Kyaputen Chikin”  One of the many goofy (though muscle-bound) competitors in the 28^th Tenkaichi Budoukai.  Basically he’s a man in a chicken suit. 

Cashew - “Gashyu”*  One of Garlic Junior’s minions in the anime.  He is powerful, and one of the last characters to die in the Saga.  Like Garlic Jr., he receives a big dose of power when the Makyo-sei, or Devil Star Planet (Makyo Star) nears Earth. 

Caterpi - “Kiyatapi”  A competitor in the Annoyoichi Budoukai who faces off with Goku.  As Goku’s first opponent, he underestimates Goku’s power and attempts to tickle Goku into submission with his many hands, but it doesn’t quite work.  Without warning, in the middle of the match he goes into a pupa state.  As South Kai tells Goku and the crowd, Caterpi would later hatch out as a much more powerful adversary.  The only problem is, the incubation period in the cocoon lasts for 1,200 years!  Thus, without much argument, the match is forfeited to Goku. (Is it just me, or does this guy have the same name as a Pokemon…? 

Celipa*  The female member of Bardock’s team.  She is cool and casual, and seems to have known Bardock for longer than the others.  In the Bardock Special, she teases Bardock about his habits and asks him more personal questions than the other members, such as why doesn’t he visit his newborn son.  Celipa is killed by Frieza’s henchmen, who were sent specifically to assassinate Bardock and his team. 

Cell - “Seru”  The greatest biological warrior ever created.  Dr. Gero originally brought forth the general concept of Cell, although it is not Dr. Gero who directly creates Cell, but rather his computer.  Over a period of about a year, Dr. Gero collected blood samples from the greatest fighters who had ever walked the Earth, including Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Nappa, Frieza, and King Cold.  Gero accomplishes this feat by using a tiny robot drone disguised to look like a typical bee to collect each blood sample.  Gero then combined the DNA of all these fighters to create the ultimate biological weapon, which began as a small life form in its larva stage sealed within Gero’s secret laboratory, and would continue to grow in a tank monitored by the computer until it reached its hatching stage, a process which takes about 24 years.  However, when Cell first emerges as “complete,” he is far from the biological weapon Gero had dreamed Cell would become.  His first form as Imperfect Cell resembles that of a giant cockroach.  In order for Cell to become “perfect,” he must absorb two components built by Dr. Gero, which are Androids 17 and 18.  Cell is actually from the future, as the time of his hatching is several years too late to absorb the Androids, who were killed by Trunks.  Cell solves this problem by killing Trunks and stealing his time machine, then traveling back in time to 4 years before the appearance of the Androids, during which time he absorbs nutrients underground until he can emerge once again.  He searches long and hard for the two Androids, absorbing entire towns full of people along his way.  Vegeta, Piccolo and the crew are hardly a match for him as he grows stronger.  He finally succeeds in absorbing both androids, and as Perfect Cell, his power is just short of invincible.  To prove his superiority to every single fighter on the planet, he organizes the Cell Game, his own World Tournament, which turns out to be more like a battle to save the planet.  Cell proves that he is stronger than even Goku, and later manages to kill both him and Trunks.  An enraged Gohan then takes on Cell, who continues to pick at the boy’s anger by releasing his asexually-produced children called Cell Juniors upon the rest of the fighters there.  When Cell destroys Android 16 and crushes his head with his foot, the act ultimately causes Gohan to reach SSJ2.  Gohan finally destroys Cell once and for all with a huge, one-handed Kamehameha (due to his broken arm), with the help of Vegeta who distracts Cell by firing a Final Flash at the monster from behind just as Gohan adds more energy to his blast.  Because Cell’s body completely disintegrates in the blast, he cannot regenerate himself and so is truly dead.  Cell dies on May 26^th, 767 AD. 

Cell Junior  Another trait Cell has acquired through his Namekian genes (or at least, its assumed that’s where he got this) is the ability to asexually reproduce.  He produces 7 small versions of himself, called Cell Juniors, from a tube in his back (once the end of his tail).  The Cell Juniors are feisty midgets who resemble Seibamen, except much more powerful.  They wield a good fraction of Cell’s strength, and seem to match the strength of every fighter they face, even that of a Super Saiyajin.  Cell creates 7 Cell Juniors in order to have one for each of the warriors present, and he commands them to severely beat each fighter in attempts to raise Gohan’s anger.  All of the Cell Juniors are violently killed by Gohan when he reaches Super Saiyajin 2. 

Chaozu - “Chiaotsu”  Chaozu is Tien’s midget telepathic friend.  Tien and Chaozu’s pasts are never completely revealed, but Tien makes it clear that he will protect Chaozu no matter what.  Chaozu is apparently human, with a few different traits than most characters in the series.  He looks more like a doll than a human, and never seems to grow or age physically.  He weighs 73 lbs and stands 4’5” tall.  Chaozu can fight well, although most of his special abilities center on telepathy.  He can halt a person’s movement if he is able to hold his concentration, and he can speak to Tien telepathically. 

Chi Chi  The wife of Goku and mother of Gohan and Goten.  She is the daughter of Gyuu Maou, or Ox-King, who promises her hand in marriage to Goku when they are only little kids.  Chi Chi later meets Goku again at the 23^rd Tenkaichi Budoukai, where the two must face off in a match.  She loses to Goku, but reminds him when the match is over who she is, and asks if he wants to marry her.  The naïve Goku answers with a simple “Sure,” although he doesn’t know what marriage is.  Chi Chi is set on making her son Gohan a scholar, and so she is very hard on his academic life.  Although it is more over-pronounced in the anime than in the manga, Chi Chi often goes ballistic over her son’s less-than-perfect study habits, and Goku’s influence upon them.  Though it may not always be particularly noticeable, she really loves her husband dearly, and in the anime there are some sweet scenes between the two. 

Chico*  A little orphan girl who, along with her brother, discovers young Gohan washed up on a beach.  She is the youngest of all the orphans in the clan led by Pigero. 

Chinshyou Ken*  He attempts to prevent Goku from participating in a martial arts tournament by pouring a laxative in Goku’s miso soup. 

Chyapu Chyai*  A vertically challenged competitor in the Annoyoichi Budoukai who has the special ability to create many duplicates of himself in order to confuse and overwhelm the opponent. 

Clothing Store Man - “Fuku Ya no Oyaji”  The manager of the clothing store in which Android 18 steals some clothes from the store display. 

Cooler - “Kuura” (read as Koola)*  Brother of Frieza, son of King Cold.  One common alternate spelling of his name is Koola.  Cooler appears only in DBZ Movies 5 and 6.  Like his brother, Cooler has the ability to transform in order to increase his power level.  However, he is in his 4^th form when he first appears in Movie 5, and later he evolves into a menacing 5^th form.  He cares nothing about his brother, and goes to Earth only because he finds it interesting that a single Saiyajin could defeat him, rather than to seek revenge for his brother’s death (despite the dubbed movie title “Cooler’s Revenge”).  In Movie 5, Goku defeats Cooler by blasting him and his Death Ball into the sun with a Kamehameha, supposedly incinerating him.  However, Cooler returns in Movie 6 as a cyborg.  A planet-devouring mass of intelligent machinery, called the Big Ghetti Star saved Cooler’s brain, recognizing Cooler as a powerful fighter and a valuable tool to gaining power and data.  Cooler’s disfigured head remains at the core of the ship, as it was the only part of Cooler that survived being shot into the sun.  Eventually Cooler learned to control the Ghetti Star to a point with his mind, and he travels about from planet to planet, robbing each of its energy to feed the Ghetti Star.  He attempts to take over a nearby planet, which happens to be Namek II, or New Namek, the planet that the Namekians migrate to after the destruction of their first planet.  Cooler enslaves the people of Namek and forces them to work and bring valuable energy to the Ghetti Star, which is his power source.  Goku, Vegeta and a few of the Z Senshi arrive not a moment too soon, only to discover that Cooler is far more powerful than he had been the first time Goku faces him, because of his new cyborg form.  Cooler has great advantages over the Super Saiyajin because of the fact that he can create hundreds or even thousands of clones of himself using the Ghetti Star’s power.  Cooler easily captures Goku and Vegeta, and contains them in a holding room, where they are held by special wires attached to all parts of their bodies.  These wires drain their Super Saiyajin energy to feed the Ghetti Star whenever Cooler so chooses.  What Cooler did not guess was that the sheer immensity of the Saiyajins’ willpower could give them incredible energy even when all hope was lost.  The two Super Saiyajin literally defy logic, and manage to raise so much energy that they overload the entire system.  In a final all-out battle, Cooler attempts to finish Goku and Vegeta before he loses his power source, but it is only in vain, as the Ghetti Star is ultimately destroyed, along with the last remains of Cooler. 

Crane Elder (Shin) – “Tsuru Sennin”  Tsuru Sennin means “Crane Hermit,” as opposed to Kame Sennin, or “Turtle Hermit” (Master Roshi).  The Crane Elder trained alongside Master Roshi at Mutaito’s martial arts school.  The two were born rivals, and their rivalry carries through to Crane Elder’s pupils Tien and Chaozu.  Tsuru Sennin’s younger brother is the infamous assassin Tao Pai Pai (General Tao in the dub). 

Crop Farmer  At the opening scene of the first episode of DBZ, Radditz’s space pod crashes on a farmer’s property.  The frightened farmer quickly rushes to investigate.  He tries to intimidate Radditz away from his property with his shotgun, but fails miserably.  In desperation he fires his gun at the approaching Saiyajin, but Radditz merely catches the bullet in his fingertips and casually flicks it back at the farmer, killing him instantly. 

Cymbal – “Shinbaru”  The 3^rd son of Piccolo Daimaou, he resembles a humanoid plump dragon.  He is killed by Yajirobe, who slices him in half, then roasts him over a fire and eats him (mmm, roast Namek).  He stands 5’9” tall and weighs 255.5 lbs.  He was born and killed in the year 753 AD.

Character Guide: E - F

East Kai - “Higashi no Kaio”*  One of the four Kaios of the universe, she is the only female Kaio.  She looks similar to King Kai, but with a pink complexion.  She is somewhat haughty when it comes to the strength of her fighters, and she is very bossy.  Before the Annoyoichi Budoukai begins, she teases King Kai because he’s dead, and later challenges Goku to a race to the other side of the “room” (a special room of the Grand Kai’s which appears to hold the entire universe inside it, though it actually does have limits).  The Grand Kai intervenes by appearing at the end of the room and claiming himself to be the winner.  At the Annoyoichi Budoukai, the last of her fighters to fall out of the tournament is Arqua, who loses to Goku.  She punishes her students for losing so early in the tournament by promptly ordering them to run a million laps around the stadium (which has to be enormous, considering the crowd consists of practically all the non-evil fighters in the Afterlife). 

East Kaioshin -   see Kaioshin 

Ebifuriya*  One of Dr. Willow’s experimental creations from DBZ Movie 2, “The World’s Strongest Man,” who can freeze victims in a huge ball of ice with one blast from his hand.  He is killed by Goku. 

Erasa - “Ireeza” (read as Eraser)  A ditzy, blonde girl in Gohan’s high school class, she sits right next to him.  She has a bit of a crush on Gohan, but never directly confronts him about it.  She introduces Gohan to Sharpener and Videl.  Erasa later goes to the Tenkaichi Budoukai with Sharpener, and proves that not all blondes are dumb when she is the first to figure out that Mr. Satan might actually be wrong, and the fighters in the tournament might actually be truly flying instead of using special ropes or tricks. 

Faschia -   see Celipa 

Frieza - “Furiza” (reads as Freezer)  An evil tyrant, one of the greatest threats to the entire universe.  He and his armies purge planets of life, and sell them to the highest bidder.  Or if he’s so inclined and the mood is right, he may simply wipe out a planet for fun.  Frieza sees himself as the most powerful being in the universe, with no equal (although his father King Cold and brother Cooler are both stronger).  However, Frieza’s greatest fear was the Saiyajin race, not only because they were the strongest species he had ever encountered by far in all the universe, he also feared them because of an ancient legend among their people.  It was said that every few thousand years or so, a super-powerful Saiyajin was born to their people, the legendary Super Saiyajin.  Because the Saiyajin race was already so powerful and great in number, Frieza could not fathom how powerful a Super Saiyajin might be, and so he decided to employ them.  Fearing for his people and his throne, King Vegeta went along with Frieza’s wishes for several years until he could form a plan to gather all the Saiyajin forces to fight as one against Frieza and defeat him once and for all. Before this can be accomplished in full, however, Frieza acts first.  When he feels that the Saiyajin are getting too strong, he simply destroys their home planet, Vegetasei, to prevent any more super powers that might possibly rival his own from being born.  Frieza has 3 transformations, each one more powerful than the last.  Every time he transforms, he has access to a greater portion of his core power level, until his final transformation, in which he can reach his maximum.  Frieza is supposedly finished by Goku on Namek.  However, his “remains” are found by his father King Cold, who orders his men to work to rebuild him into an ultimate cyborg.  Frieza and King Cold go to Earth seeking revenge, and it is there that Frieza finally meets his end by the blade of Trunk’s sword.  Trunks literally slices and dices the monster, and Frieza goes to Hell (or HFIL, as all dubbies should well know it). 

Frog - “Fuuragu”*  A humanoid frog-like creature who competes in the Annoyoichi Budoukai.  He is not particularly strong, but he has acquired the ability to expand his body to huge proportions, thus he wins a match simply by pushing his opponent out of the ring.

Character Guide: G

Garlic - “Gariku”*  Father of Garlic Jr., he competed with the original Piccolo for the throne of Kami.  The original Piccolo was chosen over Garlic because unlike Piccolo, Garlic held evil ambitions that soon became apparent to the previous Kami.  Garlic resented the decision, and created an army of evil demons that he led right to Kami’s tower in order to overthrow him.  However, Kami, who had by now split away from his evil half, defeated him and, according to Kami in DBZ Movie 1, Garlic was cast into the realm of darkness, a negative space from which he would never return.  However, in the Garlic Junior Saga, a flashback recaps the scene of Garlic forcefully trying to take the throne, revealing that Garlic was sealed in an orb similar to the type of bottle that Garlic used to capture and contain Kami and Mr. Popo with, except that the orb is in a 3-dimensional Star-of-David shape, and instead of clear, the orb is opaque and pitch black.  One may infer that Garlic was kept in that orb for the remainder of his life.   After taking over Kami’s Palace, Garlic appears to “pray” to the orb, assumed to contain his father’s remains, considering the orb was never broken from the time that Garlic was first sealed inside it several hundred years ago.  Because Garlic Junior makes no attempts to crack or break the orb and release his father, one may presume that his father, a mere mortal, is long dead inside the orb.  The strange part is, in the series, Garlic Junior verbalizes his desire to wish his father back to life.  One has to wonder at the logic in obtaining the dragonballs to wish someone back who has been dead far longer than the allotted year’s limit.  But then, how could Garlic Junior have known?  No big surprise, because after all, it is only a filler saga. 

Garlic Junior - “Gariku Jyuniya”*  The son of Garlic, he desires revenge on the present Kami for taking the throne of Kami, or Guardian of Earth (basically God), from his father and then, according to DBZ Movie 1, sealing his father in a “Deadzone”.  As the main villain of the movie, Garlic Junior gathers all the dragonballs, including the four-star dragonball on Gohan’s hat.  His henchman decide to nab the kid too while they’re at it, hence the name of the movie, “Return My Gohan!”.  Goku goes to Garlic Junior’s castle to retrieve his son, only to find that Garlic Junior has already made the wish for eternal life, and is about to finish Kami when Goku interrupts him and takes him on instead.  Piccolo joins with Goku (just this once, according to Piccolo), but when Garlic Junior transforms, even the two combined aren’t strong enough to stop the immortal Garlic Junior.  Then to everyone’s surprise, the young Gohan, who is about 4, powers up in a terrible rage and with a tremendous burst of power, he blows Garlic Junior into the deadzone that he had stupidly created.  Garlic Junior returns in the anime after the Frieza Saga with a plot to take over the world using a magic potion called the Black-water Mist, which causes anyone who comes into contact with it to become a minion of darkness and do Garlic Junior’s evil bidding.  Gohan, Piccolo, and Krillin all take him on as Garlic opens up yet another Deadzone, but this time, he uses it to bring the Makyo Star, a small planet which gives off evil power, closer to Earth, an act which makes Garlic Junior and his minions even stronger.  Gohan appears to barely defeat him as he fires a great blast that hurls Garlic Junior into the Deadzone again.  (Does anyone see a pattern here?) 

Gettoo*  In the GT movie starring Goku Jr., Gettoo is a great sword-wielding lizard monster that does the bidding of Panba, an evil witch. 

Ghastel - “Gasuteru”*  A giant red demon in Dragonball Movie 2, “The Dreaming Princess in Devil’s Castle,” he rides a cloud and attacks ribbons. 

Gill*  A robot that Trunks discovers during his travels with Goku and Pan in GT.  The robot’s true name is G2006, and he befriends the gang quickly.  At one point early on, he eats the Dragonball Radar that the three had brought along to absorb energy, and consequently, Gill acquires the ability to locate dragonballs.  The little robot watches out for the safety of the group, especially Pan, to whom his favorite phrases are “be careful” and “watch out!”. 

Ginger - “Jinjya”*  Piccolo’s driving instructor, she is cutesy and somewhat flirtatious when Piccolo first meets her, but when he starts the car and gets on the road, she turns into a crazed, road-raging maniac.  She’s only satisfied when, after he is taunted by Goku, Piccolo drives like a maniac himself to catch up with Goku and pass him.  She even compliments Piccolo’s driving skills, until he steers off the road after Goku and crashes. 

Ginger - “Jinjyaa”*  One of Garlic Junior’s minions in DBZ Movie 1, he is the leader of the Ginger Three.  His battle cry is “Gingerbread!”.  Ginger is killed by Goku with a large Kamehameha wave. 

Ginyu The leader of the Ginyu Force, the elite squad of fighters that serve directly under Frieza.  Ginyu is by far the strongest, with a power level of 120,000, but he is no match for Goku.  Ginyu realizes this early on, and plays his cards well, as he fools Goku into thinking he will give up soon.  Then as Goku watches in horror, Ginyu inflicts a terrible wound upon his own body, then uses his only special ability (besides interpretive dance, anyway) which is the power to switch bodies with anyone of his choosing, by calling out the words “Change now!”.  He successfully trades bodies with Goku and flies off in search of the dragonballs.  Ginyu’s trick fools Gohan and Kryllan at first, who do not realize what happened.  Vegeta is the first to figure it out, and watches as Gohan and Kryllan fight Ginyu in Goku’s body.  Later a weakened Goku arrives on the scene to announce that Ginyu has not mastered his fighting technique inside Goku’s body, and so he is still vulnerable.  The others gang up on him, until he is forced to attempt the body switch on Vegeta, though Goku jumps in the way right before the beam hits Vegeta, and Ginyu is stuck in his old body again.  Vegeta takes advantage of this and proceeds to beat Ginyu to a bloody pulp.  Ginyu tries the body switch on Vegeta one last time, but at the last second, a still-weakened Goku throws a frog right in the path of the beam, and Ginyu instead changes bodies with a Namekian frog.  For the remainder of the Frieza saga, Ginyu becomes more of a comedy-relief character.  He meets up with Bulma and changes bodies with her for a brief while, until Gohan figures out what happened and uses the same trick Goku used earlier with Bulma in the frog’s body, and Ginyu is a frog once more.  He somehow survives the entire ordeal because Dende’s wish for everyone to be transported to Earth counts him in as well, and he lives on to rule a nearby pond within the Capsule Corp. grounds. 

Giran  A pteranodon monster that competes with Goku in the 21^st Tenkaichi Budoukai.  Giran is strong, with many techniques, all of which Goku eventually counters until Giran finally forfeits the match to Goku.  In the anime, there is an earlier scene before the tournament where Giran goes to a bar and orders milk.  When some drunks make fun of him, Giran beats them all up.  He was born in the year 717 AD.  He is 6’4” tall and weighs 466 lbs, and his address is XBC44735BB. 

Gogeta - “Gojiita”*  One of the most powerful characters in all of Dragonball/Z/GT, Gogeta is the result of the fusion of Goku and Vegeta.  Gogeta appears only in DBZ Movie 12, “Rebirth of Fusion!  Goku and Vegeta!!”, and in GT.  Goku and Vegeta must perform the fusion dance, a technique taught to Goku by Kami, in order to become a warrior many times more powerful than either Goku or Vegeta alone.  Gogeta is a totally different person, and so his personality is completely different than either of the two Saiyajin that fused to become him.  Gogeta’s power is simply enormous as he takes out Janemba effortlessly in DBZ Movie 12 after reaching Super Saiyajin 2.  By GT, his power is almost beyond comprehension as Super Saiyajin 4 Goku and Vegeta fuse to create Super Saiyajin 4 Gogeta, probably the most powerful character in the entire history of the series.  His special attack is Big Bang Kamehameha.  The only reason that Gogeta does not completely obliterate Ii Shenlong (the one-star Shenlong) is because of his own cockiness.  Gogeta toys with the Dragon and wastes time until he defuses (after the set half-hour fusion limit) before he can finish One-star Shenlong. 

Fat Gogeta*  The first attempt of Goku and Vegeta to fuse fails, as Vegeta uses his fists instead of pointing his fingers at the end.  This incident is really Goku’s fault, because when he teaches Vegeta the fusion dance, he tells him to concentrate on the position of his legs and feet, and forgets to tell Vegeta to point his fingers).  The result of the fusion dance when performed incorrectly is actually quite hilarious, though tragic for the two who fused.  He calls himself Gogeta, but his personality is different when the fusion is performed correctly.  He looks kind of like Gogeta, except that he is grossly obese, and his only sort of “techniques” are farting and running away (o.O;).  Goku and Vegeta are only stuck in this form for half an hour, after which Fat Gogeta defuses back into the two Saiyajin. 

Gohan - “Son Gohan”  Goku and Chi Chi’s first son, named after Goku’s adoptive grandfather Gohan.  The name Gohan means rice, which is of course one of Goku’s favorite things (food).  Gohan was born in the year 757 AD, and at the start of DBZ, he is 4 years old (contrary to the dub version, which says he is 5).  Gohan is raised mainly by his mother during the first four years of his life, and she tutors him in hopes that he would be a great scholar one day.  In early DBZ, Gohan is put through events that would traumatize any little kid.  In one day, he’s kidnapped by his uncle Radditz, and watches as a furious battle ensues between Goku, Piccolo and Radditz.  When things look grim for Goku as Radditz proves his superiority in power, Gohan’s anger explodes and he manages to seriously injure Radditz, which neither Goku nor Piccolo had been able to do.  After Goku’s death, Piccolo leaves Gohan in the wilderness to survive on his own for six months to become stronger so that he can stand up to the approaching Saiyajin.  Gohan is forced to grow up quickly, and by the age of 5 he’s battling to save the Earth.  He becomes attached to Piccolo, his teacher, and idolizes him.  Gohan is different from all other characters in the first half of DBZ, because he is the only half-human, half-Saiyajin.  When his Saiyajin power becomes mixed with his human emotions, he is able to summon an unbelievable amount of power.  This power is released when Gohan becomes extremely angry, and he calls upon his Saiyajin rage when battling Radditz, Nappa, Vegeta, the Ginyu Force, Frieza, and Cell.  Gohan is the first Saiyajin to achieve Super Saiyajin 2, which he reaches because he is provoked by Cell repeatedly in order to tap into his power.  Finally, when Cell destroys Android 16 and steps on his head, the act becomes a trigger that releases Gohan’s immense Saiyajin rage and he goes Super Saiyajin 2.  With a broken arm, Gohan kills Cell using a one-handed Kamehameha.  In the early Buu Saga (Saiyaman Saga), Gohan becomes the main character and the story revolves around him as he goes through high school, and later fights crime and becomes a sort of superhero complete with costume and mask, known as The Great Saiyaman.  Gohan is the only Saiyajin to become Mystic, which is a special ability granted by Revered Kaioshin that allows Gohan access to his highest power level without having to go Super Saiyajin at all.  Gohan meets Videl in high school, who suspects that something is fishy about the Great Saiyaman.  They become good friends after she catches him in costume without the mask, and he teaches her how to fly.  They fall in love, and at the end of DBZ, they have a daughter named Pan.  Akira Toriyama originally wanted Gohan to become the main character, of the series, but the fans wanted Goku back, so Toriyama drifted away from Gohan to focus more on his father again.  After the Buu Saga, Gohan gives up fighting and finally achieves his mother’s dream for him to become a scholar.  Throughout GT, he fights from time to time, but he generally remains a glasses-wearing nerd. 

Grandpa Gohan - “Son Gohan Ojisan”  Gohan is a martial arts master who lives the life of a hermit in the wilds of Mount Paozu.  Gohan was trained by Kamesennin at the same time as Ox-King.  The two became good friends while they were training together.  Gohan is the wielder of the legendary Nyoi Bo, or Power Pole, a powerful staff that can extend magically to a great length.  It is about the year 737 AD that Gohan stumbles upon a strange, naked baby with a tail in the middle of the wilderness.  Seeing no one else around, Gohan decides to adopt the baby, whom he names Goku (which, in short, means sky).  He raises Goku from infancy, and somehow tolerates the boy’s horrible behavior until baby Goku bonks his head on a rock and forgets his instinctive Saiyajin heritage.  Gohan teaches the young Goku martial arts, and how to use the Power Pole, and he gives Goku the four-star dragonball.  After Gohan’s death, Goku keeps the four-star dragonball close, as it reminds him of his Grandpa, whom he had cared for very much.  The four-star later becomes a symbol of Goku and Grandpa Gohan.  Gohan was born in the year 658 AD and is killed around 742 AD by a Great Giant Monkey on the night of a full moon.  The monster destroys Gohan’s house and then steps on him.  It is later discovered that the Giant Monkey was really Goku in Oozaru form, although Goku himself never figures it out, and even accuses Vegeta of killing his father when he sees him go Oozaru and recognizes the form from somewhere.   

Goku - “Son Gokou”  Goku is the main character of Dragonball/Z/GT.  He is a member of the warrior race known as the Saiyajin.  Goku is born on the Planet Vegeta in 737 AD and is sent to Earth as an infant to destroy all life on the planet in order to prepare it for sale by Frieza.  He is the son of Bardock and the brother of Radditz, and his real name is Kakarotto (Kakarot in the dub).  A martial arts master, Gohan, finds baby Goku in the middle of the woods and decides to adopt the child, naming him Goku, which roughly means “sky”.  Being a Saiyajin, Goku is at first a disagreeable baby prone to throw tantrums frequently.  One day when Gohan takes a walk with baby Goku near the edge of a waterfall, Goku falls from the cliff and hits his head on the rocks below.  Any human infant would have been instantly killed, but Goku manages to survive with a serious head wound.  When Goku recovers, he is a completely different baby, as a serious head injury often causes a baby Saiyajin to forget their mission and forsake their Saiyajin heritage.  Goku learns the art of fighting from his grandfather, who later is killed by a Great giant Monkey (later discovered to be Goku in Oozaru form) when the monster steps on him.  Only 5 years old, Goku is left with no choice but to strike out on his own for a time, carrying the four-star dragonball which his Grandpa had given him along with him.  The four-star dragonball is Goku’s favorite because it reminds him of his grandfather.  Later the four-star dragonball becomes a symbol of Goku and is almost always associated with Goku or his Grandpa.  In the first episode of Dragonball, Goku meets an adventurous young girl named Bulma who is searching for the seven dragonballs.  She invites Goku to help her in her search, and the two travel about the countryside making many new friends and enemies such as Yamcha the desert bandit, Oolong the shape-shifting pig, Krillin the warrior monk, and Piccolo Daimaou, Goku’s greatest adversary yet.  Goku receives training from Master Roshi, Korin the cat deity, and even the guardian of Earth, Kami himself.  In 756 AD, Goku marries his childhood sweetheart Chi Chi at the age of 19, and in May of 757 AD, Chi Chi gives birth to their first child Gohan (named after Goku’s grandpa of course). 

  Goku dies twice during the series.  The first time is by Piccolo’s Makankosappo (Special Beam Cannon in the dub) while Goku is restraining his brother Radditz.  During that year he travels Snake Way and trained under King Kai, who teaches him special moves such as Kaio Ken and the Genki Dama (Spirit Bomb).  The second time Goku dies is when he teleports himself and Cell to King Kai’s planet so that Cell (who is about to self-destruct) would detonate without destroying the Earth.  Of course, King Kai’s planet is destroyed, and Kaio-sama himself is killed along with Goku.  Not long after this, Goku and Chi Chi’s second child Goten is born in the year 767 AD.  About 7 or 8 years later, Revered Kaioshin gives his life to Goku, restoring Goku to his physical body permanently again. 

Goku is the first to reach Super Saiyajin, which he does in the Frieza Saga after watching Krillin die by Frieza’s hand, and he eventually “kills” Frieza (who is later discovered to still be alive).  Goku is also the first character to reach Super Saiyajin 3, a level that has only been achieved by one other character, Gotenks.  In GT, Emperor Pilaf returns with all seven Black-star dragonballs, and accidentally wishes that Goku were a little kid again so he could beat him up.  Goku is transformed into a little boy again, and goes on a long journey throughout the universe along with Trunks and Goku’s teenage granddaughter Pan to find all the Black-star dragonballs.  Their ultimate goal is to wish Goku back to an adult, and to save the Earth from a curse brought by the Black-star dragonballs.  Goku is also the first Saiyajin to reach Super Saiyajin 4.  Goku trades in his life to the Shenlong to save the Earth and everyone he loves, and he leaves with the dragon.  Their destination remains a secret, and it is left to the viewer’s imagination to decide where they went and why.  In the very last episode of GT, Pan, who is a grandmother by this time, sees Goku in a crowd, and he waves to her and walks out of sight. 

At the end of Dragonball Z, Goku is 48 years old.  As an adult he is 5’7” and weighs 137 lbs., and his home address on Mount Paozu is 439 East District. 

Goku Junior - “Son Gokou Jyuniya”  The great great grandson of Goku.  In the GT movie, he resides with his grandmother Pan who tells him stories of the legend of Goku, but to Goku Jr., they are nothing but stories.  Goku Jr. is klutzy and a bit of a wuss.  He is constantly tormented at school, especially by the bully Pakku.  Goku Jr. looks almost exactly like Goku, but he doesn't have nearly the strength of his Saiyajin ancestor.  But like Goku, he has a heart of gold.  He goes on a journey to Paozu Mountain, where is great-great-grandfather Goku was raised and later made a home (and strangely enough, the same place Goku crash-landed on Earth when he was an infant).  Thus, this mountain has special meaning to Goku and his family, including his descendants.  Goku Jr. travels to Paozu Mountain along with the school bully Pakku who later befriends him, to track down the dragonballs so that he can wish his sick grandmother Pan to be well again.  The GT movie appears to totally disregard the final scene in the last episode of GT, where Pan, as an old grandmother, watches her grandson Goku Jr. fight in a World Tournament against Vegeta Jr. (whose direct ancestors are never specified, although he is a descendant of Vegeta).  Contrary to the movie, both of the boys appear to be fantastic fighters, and they both turn Super Saiyajin as they fight.  They look about 5-7 years old, which is the youngest age known for any character to turn Super Saiyajin.  The two represent the spirits of the greatest warriors of all, Goku and Vegeta, who continue to live on in their ancestors and in the hearts of the viewers. 

Gokuya*  A member of Bojack’s team in Movie 9, he uses a combination of weapons, wielding both a sword and a machine gun.  He is killed by his own leader Bojack. 

Goten - “Son Goten”  The second child of Goku and Chi Chi, Goten is born in 767 AD.  Goten resembles his father very much, and their facial features are almost identical.  By the time Goten is born, his father has already died in the Cell Saga, and so Goten never gets to know his father until about the age of 7 or 8 when Goku returns to Earth for a day, which is the day that the two first meet in a brief but touching scene.  Goten turns Super Saiyajin at a much younger age than his brother Gohan or his father.  Goten is famous for his mispronunciation of his father’s move, as “KameHAmeHA!”.  Aside from that, Goten has only one other attack which he calls “Totsugeki”, which translates literally to “Attack!”. 

Gotenks  One of the most powerful characters in all of DBZ, Gotenks is the fusion result of Trunks and Goten.  Goku and Piccolo teach Goten and Trunks the fusion dance, a technique taught by Kami used to become a warrior many times more powerful than either Trunks or Goten alone.  Gotenks is a completely different person, and so his personality is totally different than either boy who fused to create him.  Gotenks’ power is fantastic, and he is one of only two characters that have ever achieved Super Saiyajin 3.  He fights Majin Buu twice.  The first time is after the boys figure out how to fuse correctly, but Gotenks loses the battle pitifully.  This fight is shown in the anime only.  The second time they face off is the famous battle which begins in the Room of Spirit and Time, then expands to Kami’s Palace (which is completely demolished) and finally ends on Earth.  Gotenks makes up the names of his attacks as he fights, such as “Miracle Super Punch”, and “Great Kick Special”, and “Galactic Donut”.  While some of his attacks seem a waste of time, others appear more successful, such as the Kamikaze Ghost attack.  When Gotenks reaches Super Saiyajin 3, he can easily defeat Buu, and he knows it.  But instead of taking him out, Gotenks’ cockiness gets the better of him and he toys with Buu.  Unfortunately, he defuses after the set half-hour time limit before he can destroy Buu. 

Fat Gotenks  The first attempt of Trunks and Goten to fuse fails, as the boys point their fingers but miss touching each other’s fingers at the end of the dance.  The result of the fusion dance when performed improperly is really quite a riot, though a tragedy for the two who fused.  He refers to himself as Gotenks, but his personality is different when the fusion is performed properly.  He looks similar to Gotenks, except that he is extremely fat, and he breathes hard after running only a few feet.  The boys are stuck in this form for half an hour, until Fat Gotenks can finally defuse back into Trunks and Goten. 

Thin Gotenks  The second attempt of Trunks and Goten to fuse also fails when Goten’s leg is in the wrong position.  The result of this fusion also looks kind of like Gotenks, but this time he is so thin and emaciated that his ribs stick way out from his skin, and he looks like a very old man, especially in the facial features.  Whenever he tries to run or form an attack of any sort, he coughs heavily, until he sounds like he’s about to hack up his own lungs.  Fortunately for Goten and Trunks, this fusion only lasts for half an hour, after which Thin Gotenks defuses back into the two boys again. 

Goz - “Gozu”*  A blue ogre who resides in Hell and keeps watch over the dead souls.  When Goku falls off Snake Way, Goz is the first ogre to greet him.  He wears a shirt with the word HELL spelled out on it (conveniently spelled HFIL in the dub).  Goku asks Goz for the quickest way out of Hell, and Goz jokingly tells him that if he can prove that he is stronger than the ogre himself, that Goz will show him a secret passageway back to Snake Way.  Of course, Goku easily outperforms Goz at every turn. 

Grand Kai - “Dai Kaio” (Great Kai)  The ruler of the Kaios, he is mentioned in the manga, but only portrayed in the series.  In the first scene he appears, the Grand Kai steps out of his mansion in a T-shirt and jeans, with a long white beard, listening to rock music from a boom box he carries on one shoulder.  Although he looks and acts like a spunky old geezer, he is treated with the utmost respect by the Kaios and all the people at the Afterlife Martial Arts Tournament, as he is much stronger than the other Kaios.  In fact, he’s one of the few people that the Kaios show any sort of respect to at all.  When Goku and Paikuhan are proclaimed the champions of the Annoyoichi Budoukai, and the Grand Kai is reminded of his promise to give the winner a martial arts lesson, he cringes and quickly changes the subject, assuring the two that he will give them each a lesson whenever he has the time to get around to it …in a few thousand years.  The Grand Kai avoids this at all costs because he knows that both fighters have by far surpassed him in power. 

Great Saiyaman - “Gureto Saiyaman”  Gohan’s superhero identity during his high school life.  Bulma designs his high-tech costume, which consists of a helmet, a green jump suit and a white mantle with a red cape, complete with special watch that helps Gohan change into and out of his costume.  Later, he replaces the helmet with a white bandanna and sunglasses so that he can participate in the Tenkaichi Budoukai, where no armor of any type is allowed.  A friend of Gohan’s in his class, Sharpener, tries to figure out the true identity of the Great Saiyaman by taking a picture while his sunglasses are off, but Piccolo sees this and puts an end to it by breaking every single camera and video camera of nosy reporters in the surrounding area with his ki.  In the manga, the Great Saiyaman performs a few good deeds, but in the anime, he is elevated to Superman status and does all sorts of great things for Satan City.  Aside from simply being a hero, the Great Saiyaman is also famous for his “cool” poses, which seem to bring to mind an immediate flashback to the Ginyu Force.  His flips and poses are actually meant to poke fun at Sailor Moon.  He makes a series of what some might call ridiculous movements while spouting off superhero phrases. 

Great Saiyaman Number 2 - “Gureto Saiyaman Ni Gou”*  In the anime and in DBZ Movie 13, “Dragon Fist Assault!!  If Goku Can’t Do It, Who Can??”, Videl teams up with Gohan on his crusade of justice, to become The Great Saiyaman 2.  The design of her outfit is similar to his, but the jump suit is blue instead of green, with a white cape, and it is visibly made for a woman.  (Why she didn’t just go with “Saiyawoman” instead, we ladies may never know). 

Gregory - “Guregori”*  Portrayed only in the anime, he is a pupil of King Kai’s who lives with him along with Bubbles.  He looks like a little flying cricket.  Gregory is respectful of his master and always speaks highly of him, but Gregory will talk trash to anybody he doesn’t believe is faster or stronger than him. 

Guidance Robot - “Yuudou Roboto”*  A spunky little robot in DBZ Movie 6 who helps guide those taken captive by Cooler’s Special Forces, and informs them of their present situation.  He cheerfully tells them, “You are all going to die now!”  When Yajirobe threatens the robot, he takes him for a volunteer to die first, and they struggle for a while as the little robot happily carries Yajirobe to a giant buzz saw.  But just before the saw is about to slice Yajirobe in half, he and the others are saved by Goku and Vegeta, who disrupt Cooler’s circuitry by overloading it with Super Saiyajin energy. 

Guldo - “Gurudo”  The smallest and weakest member of the Ginyu Force, Guldo is short, squat, and green with four eyes.  While he may seem a pushover strength-wise, he possesses some unusual techniques, such as the Time Freeze, which stops time for everyone in the surrounding area but himself for as long as he can hold his breath.  He can also read minds, and his ultimate move is his ability to telepathically freeze his opponents in place, which he uses on both Gohan and Kryllan at once.  Just as Guldo is about to kill them, Vegeta makes a saving throw and sends a small beam right through Guldo’s neck, cutting off his head, and finishes him with a large hand-blast. 

Gunman - “Ningen o Utsu Otoko”  A very sick person who goes around killing people for fun.  He and his partner actually gun down an elderly couple.  This moron and his partner are virtually responsible for the creation of Super Buu (when evil Buu splits from Majin Buu).  The two of them chance upon Buu while he’s playing catch with his dog Bee, and the Gunman shoots the puppy.  Mr. Satan somehow finds the two and beats them up, then quickly returns to Buu, who heals Bee instantly.  The Gunman stupidly returns and shoots Mr. Satan through the chest.  Buu heals Satan, but his violent rage explodes and Evil Buu is released from his anger.  Buu blasts the Gunman into oblivion with a point-blank ki blast. 

Gunman’s Associate - “Ningen o Utsu Otoko no Tsukibito”  A fat, British-looking man who is the Gunman’s partner in crime.  He occasionally picks off people with his partner during their killing spree.  This man has one of the most horrifying deaths in DBZ.  In the first few pages of the last manga, Evil Buu liquefies and flies down the man’s throat, then instantly expands inside of him, turning the man into human confetti in a graphic set of panels. 

Guru - “Saichourou” (Great Elder)  The eldest Namek, Guru is actually the father of every Namekian alive in the present with the exceptions of Piccolo, Kami and Slug.  He is one of the only survivors of a great famine (a drought really) that devastated the planet long ago.  Since only Nameks who have reached a very old age can asexually reproduce, Guru does what he can to restore his people over the planet once more.  He has a great number of children, who eventually spread out over the continents to fill Namek with life and abundance once again.  The only other Namek old enough to have gained the ability to reproduce asexually is Piccolo Daimaou, who spawns 5 children in Dragonball, including a direct clone of himself.  Guru is thousands of years old, and very wise.  He can read minds, awaken hidden powers, and create dragonballs.  Long ago, Guru created the Namek Dragonballs and modeled the Namek dragon, Porunga, after an image he saw in a dream.  Because he is the creator of the Dragonballs, when Guru dies, the Namek Dragonballs become useless and turn into large round stones.  Just as Guru is dying (for the second and last time), he proclaims Muuri, his first son and the second eldest Namek besides Guru, to be his successor as the Ultimate Elder. 

Gyoshyu*  A cloaked, midget scientist who works for Slug in DBZ Movie 4, “Super Saiyajin Son Goku”.  Early in the movie, Slug asks him how long it will take to realign the Earth’s orbit.  When Gyoshyu answers that it will take 10 days, Slug angrily fires a beam at the poor creature, killing him instantly.

Character Guide: H - J

Haiya Dragon*  A little purple dragon that first appears in DBZ Movie 3, where he befriends Gohan after the boy rescues him from a forest fire.  In the Japanese and original Pioneer dub of the movie, the dragon is simply called Haiya Dragon, but later the FUNimation dub changes the name to Icarus for some reason.  The dragon also appears in Movies 4 and 5, and even in the anime series during the Garlic Junior Saga.  Commonly associated with Gohan, Haiya Dragon is usually portrayed with Gohan riding his back. 

Hatchan -   see Android Number 8 

Hercule -   see Mr. Satan 

High King Niko-chan  A creature resembling a green butt with a face and antenna who is stranded in Penguin Village along with his servant.  In his spare time he either attempts to conquer the Earth, or simply builds a spaceship in order to get back to his home planet.  Though his servant is bright, Niko-chan himself is a bumbling idiot.  In the Dragonball manga, he appears briefly giving the victory sign, although his part is bigger in the anime series. 

Hildegarn - “Hirudegaan”*  A gigantic monster in DBZ Movie 13, he was created by evil sorcerers who cast a spell of negative energy on a menacing stone statue and brought it to life more than 1,000 years ago on the planet Konatsu.  Hildegarn was never defeated, for killing him was almost impossible, but a spell was cast upon the monster that caused him to be split in half so that his power would be dismantled.  With the same spell, the top half was sealed inside the body of the planet’s legendary warrior Tapion, while the bottom half was hidden inside his little brother Minosha.  Hildegarn’s lower half manages to get loose and steps on Minosha, killing the boy in the beginning of the movie.  Hoi convinces Goku and the others to help him find the dragonballs to rescue Tapion from his prison, but in reality the wish opens the Oracle that sealed the warrior, and starts the process of Hildegarn’s restoration.  After undergoing a metamorphosis, Hildegarn emerges as a more powerful creature with the ability to fly.  This monster is tangible only when attacking, otherwise Hildegarn can instantly teleport away.  He is defeated by Goku with his most powerful physical move in the anime/movie storyline, Ryu Ken or Dragon Fist. 

Icarus -   see Haiya Dragon 

Ilikemen - “Otosuki”  A competitor in the 28^th Tenkaichi Budoukai, he is built like an ox and dressed in black leather. 

Illusion Saiyans*  The two Saiyajin who battle Tien, Chaozu, Krillin and Yamcha in the Pendulum Room, or the Dream Chamber.  One is short and bald with light skin, while the other is taller, has hair and is darker skinned; both are ugly.  They are simulated in order for Earth’s warriors to test their skills and see how well they can actually do against the estimated strength of a Saiyajin in the field. 

Janemba - “Janenba”*  The main villain of DBZ Movie 12, he is created when a young ogre guarding the Soul Cleansing Machine in the Afterlife fails to keep his watch and doesn’t notice when the machine begins to overflow, until it explodes and spews out pure evil everywhere.  The evil is of such great magnitude that it possesses the boy and causes him to transform into a huge monster, becoming the embodiment of evil who calls himself Janemba.  In his first form, he resembles a gigantic, fat yellow baby.  Fans often refer to him as “The God of Pokemon” for one reason - he only says a single word in the entire movie, which he repeats over and over: his name.  He doesn’t appear all that powerful or menacing, but he manages to seal King Yama’s Palace in a strong force field that can only be broken by cursing and violent threats.  Janemba also breaks the barrier between the Afterlife and Earth, releasing every villain and restless spirit who has been defeated or killed in the past upon the world, including Frieza and the Ginyu Force.

            When Goku and Vegeta face him in Hell, they appear to nearly defeat him, until they realize in horror that Janemba has only transformed.  He becomes a red and purple devil-like creature and wields an impressive katana and a menacing countenance.   Janemba shrinks a bit when he transforms, although he is still much taller than Goku and Vegeta.  Unlike his first form, he doesn’t speak at all, but only laughs at the Saiyajin who think they can defeat him.  Janemba holds a wide variety of techniques for a movie villain, including a form of Instant Transmission, or teleportation, where he phases out in block-like particles, giving the scene a video game-like effect, and travels through a hole in space and time to reappear nearby.  Vegeta and Goku defeat him by fusing into Gogeta, who whips Janemba around until he explodes, leaving only a dazed young ogre where he once stood. 

Jeice - “Jiisu”  A member of the Ginyu Force, he has long, wild white hair and bright orange skin.  He resembles a punk rocker with a low intelligence and a bad Australian accent.  Jeice’s specialty is his combination of speed and powerful energy attacks.  He lasts longer in the series than the other members of the Ginyu Force (except Ginyu), and is finally killed by a hand-blast from Vegeta.

Character Guide: K - L 

Kaioshin  (East Kaioshin)  Kaioshin first appears in DBZ in the Buu Saga, where he enters the 25^th Tenkaichi Budoukai under the name Shin (which he continues to use in the dub).  He is soft-spoken and short of stature with elf-like ears, a white mohawk, and a purple complexion.  Kaioshin is the last surviving deity of his kind, after Buu massacred the other Kaioshins and absorbed the Great Kaioshin.  Kaioshin’s first objective is to stop Babidi before he releases Buu from the ancient sphere in which Bibidi had sealed him millions of years ago.  Kaioshin is very strong, but his power is limited when compared to fighters such as Goku, Vegeta and Gohan.  Kaioshin aids the Z Senshi any way he can, mostly by teleporting people to different places and thus minimizing travel time.  Later, Kaioshin fuses permanently with Kibit by way of the Potara earrings, an act which upgrades his power immensely.  He then acquires Kibit’s ability to heal a person near death, and with it aids the Z Senshi in battle.

Kami - “Kami Sama” (see Piccolo (Original), Piccolo Daimaou, Piccolo)  Kami is actually a title for the guardian of a particular planet, and the word literally translates to “God”.  The Kami of Earth is the pure half of the original Piccolo.  Hundreds of years before Dragonball began, the Namek who had forgotten his origins was chosen to succeed the old Kami as the new God of Planet Earth.  However, this Namek who called himself Piccolo was impure, and could not rise to the throne until he could cleanse his soul.  The process of purifying Piccolo’s soul actually caused him to literally split into two separate beings equal in wit and power:  his dark half, who came to be called Piccolo Daimaou, or the Great Demon King Piccolo, and his pure side, who refers to himself only as Kami Sama.  The pure half of Piccolo ascended the throne of Kami in 431 AD and watched over the Earth, protecting it from evil powers.  His first objective as Kami was to stop his evil half, which was no simple task.  After his creation, Piccolo Daimaou wreaked havoc across the Earth, and was virtually unstoppable even to Kami.  Although Kami was perhaps the strongest being on the planet at the time, even he could only equal Piccolo Daimaou in power, but never overcome him.  Despite their separation, the two halves remained bound in spirit, and so they were still technically the same entity.  This fact also meant that if Piccolo Daimaou were destroyed, then Kami would also die with him.  It made for no easy solution, until finally in 461 AD, Daimaou was contained inside the magic Denshi Jar, where he was held captive for several hundred years.  

Kami retains some special powers as Kami Sama, including certain powers over the spirit world, and can speak psychically with anyone he so chooses.  He can sense whenever there is a disturbance on Earth, great or small.  In the year 470, Kami creates Shenlong, the Dragon God of Earth, and the seven magical dragonballs that are scattered across the Earth.  When all seven dragonballs are gathered in one place, they give off an eerie glow of power.  When the one who collected them utters the words “Come out, Shenlong!”, the great Dragon God appears before him or her, and grants that person a single wish.  The person may wish for anything he or she desires within the limits of Kami’s power, because Kami was the creator of Shenlong and the dragonballs.  

Kami lives in a beautiful, ancient palace on top of an incredibly high tower that defies logic, because it is balanced on a single thin pole (about the thickness of an oak tree).  The palace itself is referred to as Kami’s Lookout.  Not far off from Kami’s Tower is Korin’s Tower, with Korin’s house balanced on a similar thin pole and a few hundred meters lower.  With the care of his faithful servant Mr. Popo, Kami resides atop the tower during his reign as Kami Sama, which lasts over 300 years.  In Dragonball, Kami trains Goku and teaches him everything he knows until Goku surpasses him in power.  When Goku dies in the beginning of DBZ, Kami assists him by persuading King Yamma to allow Goku to travel on Snake Way and train with King Kai.  Kami dies when Piccolo is killed by Nappa.  However, instead of simply dying, Kami fades into the spirit world, probably because of his spiritual powers as God of Earth.  When Kami dies, Shenlong perishes with him, and the Earth Dragonballs turn to stone and become useless.  However, Gohan uses the Namek Dragonballs to wish Piccolo back to life, thereby returning Kami to life as well, and restoring the power of the Earth Dragonballs.     

Much later in 767 AD, during the Android Saga, Piccolo and Kami both make the decision to fuse permanently in order to stand a greater chance against the androids and Cell.  Kami consequently must give up his throne, and he is succeeded by the young Dende as the new Guardian of Earth.  Kami and Piccolo rejoin their spirits into one body as the Namek without a name, the original Piccolo.  The fusion creates a power increase so great that Piccolo is referred to as a “Super Namek”.  Although the original Piccolo takes on the appearance of the younger half, internally he retains the memories and experiences of both Kami and Piccolo (along with Nail).  After rejoining with Kami, Piccolo becomes more philosophical, and takes even more “heroic” actions that endanger his own life.  For example, he seals himself, Gotenks and Buu in the Room of Spirit and Time.  Later in GT, when the Blackstar Dragonballs are about to cause the planet to explode, he offers to stay on Earth and die with his own planet, rather than being teleported away with the rest of Earth’s inhabitants.  He does this primarily because of Kami’s influence concerning his attachment to the planet.  Like the captain who goes down with the ship, as Kami remains a part of Piccolo, he feels inclined to perish with the loss of his planet.  Of course, he dies, and because he was once God, his soul rises to Heaven.  However, with Goku later trapped in Hell, neither his ex-God half nor his ex-Demon King half can sit around and do nothing.  Piccolo’s more violent side kicks in, and he goes on a frenzy wreaking total havoc in Heaven until he is literally thrown out, at which point he willingly changes places with Goku in Hell.  Piccolo remains in Hell until the end of GT.  Whether or not he is ever wished back (or if he wants to be) is left for the viewer to decide.

Karin -   see Korin 

Kibit - “Kibito”  The tall, muscular guardian of Kaioshin (East Kaioshin).  Little is known about him or his past, except that his one purpose is to protect Kaioshin at all costs.  Kibit is fairly powerful, and has the ability to teleport and to heal someone near death.  About mid-Buu Saga, he uses the Potara earrings to fuse permanently with Kaioshin.  

King Chyapa - “Chyapa Ou”  A well-known fighter famous for his strength, he competes in the 21^st and 23^rd Tenkaichi Budoukais, both times losing to Goku in the preliminary rounds.  He stands 6 feet tall and weighs 182 lbs.  His home address is SSR249905C.

King Cold - “Korudo Ou” (King Kold)  Father of Frieza and Cooler.  The common alternate spelling of his name is King Kold.  He is much larger in size than Frieza or Cooler, and he stays in his second form for the entire duration of the saga.  King Cold salvages Frieza’s living remains from space and makes his scientists rebuild his son as a cyborg.  The two venture to Earth with plans to destroy Goku’s home planet, but their scheme is foiled by the appearance of Trunks.  After watching Trunks kill his son and cut him to pieces, King Cold offers the Saiyajin an opportunity to replace Frieza and conquer the galaxy with him.  This statement is almost certainly a lie, considering King Cold had asked to see Trunks’ sword moments before.  He does this under the assumption that all of Trunks’ power lies in his sword, and that he is weak without it.  Trunks gladly hands him the sword, and fires a ki blast right through his chest.  Although in the dub version, King Cold pleads for mercy, in the original Japanese dialogue, he furthers his attempts to persuade Trunks to join him and achieve ultimate glory by conquering entire galaxies.  Trunks flatly refuses and kills King Cold with a finishing blast. 

King Kai - “Kaio Sama” (North Kai, or “Kita no Kaio”)  Lord of Worlds, King Kai is the Kai of the “North” quadrant of the galaxy.  He is a powerful deity who lives on his own tiny planet at the end of Snake Way, a path that stretches over a million kilometers from King Yamma’s palace to King Kai’s planet.  Every few generations, a dead warrior who is found to be strong enough is permitted to travel to King Kai’s planet in order to train under the mighty God King.  King Kai has the appearance of a short, plump blue catfish with antenna and wearing sunglasses.  In fact, all of the Kais wear sunglasses for some reason not clarified.  He also has an annoying voice with a particular lisp that makes it difficult to understand his words.  His tiny planet seems to defy logic, as does almost everything in the Underworld.  The sky is pink, but the sun is nowhere to be seen.  The gravitational pull of the planet is about 10 times Earth’s gravity, and causes everything to feel much heavier.  There are a few trees scattered around King Kai’s house, and a small garage beside the house with the Lord of World’s prized classic red sports car parked in the drive.  The driveway is actually a narrow strip of pavement that goes in a complete circle around the planet (where else is he going to drive it?).  In fact, all of the Kais appear to have a taste for wearing sunglasses (perhaps they have sensitive eyes) and a love of sports cars, including the Grand Kai, who has a gorgeous sports car parked in front of his palace. 

As a deity King Kai also has a few unique abilities, such as sensing ki frequencies from all parts of his end of the galaxy and telepathy with anyone he so chooses.  He uses his long antenna to pick up frequencies of ki, planets, and people, and he is especially keen at sensing disturbances in the natural balance of the galaxy, just as Kami Sama somehow knows something is not right with the Earth. 

King Kai trains his pupils in a peculiar fashion.  He begins by telling them to make him laugh with a joke, on the threat of no training.  Fortunately this is no difficult task, considering King Kai has not heard a decent joke for thousands of years.  His terrible attempts to be funny are only more proof that his long periods of solitude have given him a bizarre, lousy sense of humor.  King Kai also uses the strong gravitational pull of his planet, about 10 times Earth’s gravity, to train his students, and he orders them to complete silly tasks such as catching his “pet” monkey Bubbles, who resides on the planet with him.  In the animated series, he also has a pupil named Gregory who lives with him and helps to train his new students.  When his students have completed these tasks, King Kai trains only those he deems worthy to use his two special techniques, the Kaio Ken and the Genki Dama.   

King Kai trains Goku in this way, and quickly discovers Goku’s potential.  In all his thousands, perhaps millions of years training students, the God King had never found a student he felt was strong in mind and pure in heart enough to learn the Genki Dama until he met Goku.  The young Saiyajin eventually surpasses King Kai and accomplishes what he could not by mastering the Genki Dama.  Much later, King Kai also trains Tien, Yamcha and Chaozu, all of whom had perished at the hands of the invading Saiyajin. 

In the Cell Saga, Goku saves the Earth when he teleports himself and Cell, who is self-destructing, to the only place he can think of where the fewest people will be hurt – King Kai’s planet.  King Kai has hardly a moment of protest before Cell explodes, destroying the planet and all life on it.  Although few things change, King Kai acquires a halo and must build himself a new home.  King Kai later enters Goku in the Annoyoichi Budoukai, the “Heaven’s Martial Arts Tournament”, where the two meet the Kais of the other quadrants of the galaxy.  His fellow Kais severely tease King Kai because he is “dead” and falsely proclaim that the Annoyoichi Budoukai is being held in honor of his death.  King Kai’s biggest rival is South Kai, who makes a bet with him that his best warrior can lift more weight than King Kai’s best warrior.  Of course, King Kai wins the bet when Goku lifts 20 tons.

King Vegeta - “Bejiita Ou”  Father of Vegeta and the ruler of Planet Vegeta.  King Vegeta is one of the strongest Saiyajin of his race, and perhaps the strongest adult Saiyajin of his time.  He is only mentioned in the manga, but King Vegeta plays an important part in the anime and the Bardock Special.  Although the Saiyajin had hailed him and proudly served their king, he allowed Frieza to command his armies and give his people assignments to purge planets in return for pay and glory.   However, secretly the great ruler feared for his throne, his son and his people, and thus he was pressured to go along with Frieza’s wishes for several years.   As the years passed and the pressure grew, King Vegeta nurtured his growing resentment and anger at what had become of his people and of his son Vegeta, of whom Frieza was taking greater and greater control.  And so the king plotted to create a large revolt, in which he would gather the Saiyajin forces to fight together against Frieza and defeat him.  Before this can be accomplished in full, however, Frieza acts first.  This scene is described in the anime, and portrayed with more detail in the Bardock Special.  Although it is never apparent, King Vegeta deeply cares for his son.  Before commanding the attack on Frieza, he makes certain that the prince Vegeta is safe on the opposite wing of the ship.  When he is assured of the prince’s safety, King Vegeta boldly leads his Elite Army through Frieza’s ship, destroying everything in his path as he storms into the tyrant’s parlor.  The king lunges at Frieza to attack him, but Frieza merely counters and with a single blow, he takes the life of the king Vegeta.

King Yamma - “Enma Daio”  The lord and judge of the dead in Japanese folklore.  Enma Daio is a big red demon-looking guy with a thick, dark beard.  He wears a business suit with a tie and a Viking-style hat with horns.  He resides in his palace at the gates of the Underworld, where he sits at his desk and judges the souls of those who have died as they enter his palace in a line one by one.  Because death never sleeps, neither does Enma Daio.  He constantly sits at his desk judging dead souls without ceasing.  He holds a large book in one hand that he uses to look up the life story of each soul that comes before him.  The cover of this book apparently translates to “Who’s Who”.  Among the items on his desk are a giant coffee mug, name-plate which reads “The Hon. Enma” (Hon. meaning honorable) and, oddly enough, a giant-size rotary telephone complete with long cord stretching across one side of the palace floor.  At one time in the past hundred million years, he traveled Snake Way to Kaio Sama’s planet and trained under the Lord of Worlds (though where he found the vacation time is never specified).  Before Goku, Enma Daio is the only one that anyone can remember who successfully reached the end of Snake Way.  All lesser demons in the Underworld work for Enma Daio and answer to him.  Enma Daio is a bit short-tempered, which is quite believable considering his occupation.  This makes him all the more intimidating, even to Kami Sama.  

Enma Daio gives special permission for Goku to take the million-mile Serpent Road to Kaio Sama’s planet.  His desk drawer contains a secret passageway that leads to and from Hell.  This comes in handy to Goku after the Saiyajin falls off of Snake Way in the anime.  The only problem is, Goku has to start his journey over from Enma’s Palace again.  Much later in DBZ, Goku receives special permission from Enma Daio to return to Earth in body for a little while so that he can enter the 25^th Tenkaichi Budoukai, as well as visit his family and friends.  Near the end of the Buu Saga, Baba convinces the reluctant (but desperate) Enma Daio to allow Vegeta to return to life, so that he can aid Goku in his battle against Buu and help save the Earth.  

Koola -   see Cooler

Korin -“Karin”  A white cat deity who lives at the top of Korin Tower, an impossibly high tower built thousands of years ago, supported only by a thin pole about the thickness of an oak tree.  The tower is located right beside Kami’s Tower, which is a few hundred meters higher than Korin’s Tower.  It is a popular misconception to assume the towers are connected, as they are rarely shown together from a distance as separate towers.  The 800-year-old cat deity is just below the rank of Kami, and is a master of martial arts.  Although he is a minor character in DBZ, he plays a much more important role in Dragonball.  Goku comes to Korin seeking the Super Holy Water, which according to legend makes the drinker stronger and faster than ever before.  Korin tells the boy that he will give him the Holy Water when he can defeat Korin in combat and snatch the bottle from his paws.  Goku attacks Korin again and again, each time getting knocked off the Tower and being forced to climb it one more time.  The tower is so high that it takes Goku just over a day to climb it.  After 3 days of this, Goku finally manages to beat Korin and take the bottle of Holy Water from him, only to find that the water is nothing special at all.  Korin informs him that he is already much stronger and faster than before, because of the intense work he put into the process of taking the water from him in the first place.  Korin does in fact have special water, a kind that greatly increases the drinker’s powers, called Super God Water.  The catch is simply surviving it.  Drinking a single drop of the Super God Water nearly kills Yajirobe.  The God Water gives Goku the power to defeat Piccolo Daimaou.         

High up in his tower dwelling, Korin grows special magic beans called senzu beans, which heal wounds and are equivalent to eating 10 days of food.  Korin’s Tower is the only place in the world they are grown, and so these magic beans are quite valuable.  The senzu beans are used frequently in DBZ to restore energy in battle, and many a time they save the lives of the Z Senshi.  The beans are limited in number and are difficult to grow, and so Korin only gives them to the Z Senshi in time of need or before a battle.  Usually no more than 5 are carried at a time.    

In Dragonball, Yajirobe moves in with Korin and lives with him in his tower dwelling, doing favors for him and running errands that usually require leaving the tower.  Korin’s address is FFA44195SQ (one must wonder how the mailman handles the obvious difficulties).

Koui - “Kiwi”  A powerful fighter among Frieza’s henchman, Koui is an arrogant, purple fish-faced braggart who enjoys rubbing in his high rank by taunting other officers.  He dislikes Vegeta because the prince is ranked higher than him, and believes himself to be much stronger than the Saiyajin.  However, with a power level of 18,000, he is no match for Vegeta in the early Frieza Saga.  Vegeta easily overpowers him, and from a single hand blast, Koui is the first to die by Vegeta’s hand on Namek.

Krillin - “Kuririn” (many variants on the spelling exist, including Kryllan, Kulilin and Klylin)  A short, bald human lacking a nose, and Goku’s best friend. Krillin was born in the year 736 AD, and is a year older than Goku.  He received the 6 dots on his forehead when he joined the monks of the Orinji Temple.  Small scars are burned into the foreheads of each member in a pattern of two vertical rows of three dots.  Krillin first meets Goku in Dragonball, where they are rivals who both seek the training of Master Roshi.  They eventually learn to work together to accomplish particular tasks given them, and become best friends.  Krillin is a smart-aleck and often very sarcastic.  He is considered by many to be the most comical character of DBZ (although some argue for Buu) because of his wise-cracks and usually terrible luck.  Krillin is also arguably the strongest human in DBZ.  At one time, he is proven to be the strongest human during the Saiyajin and Frieza Sagas, but Tien trains with King Kai for almost a year and is much more confident.  However, there is no proof either way of one being stronger than the other.   

Krillin tends to have bad luck in fights, and usually winds up with many broken bones and kicks to the head.  His special attacks are the Kienzan (Destructo Disk), Tri-form, and Taiyoken (Solar Flare).  In Dragonball, one of Piccolo Daimaou’s spawn ambushes Krillin and kills him for his dragonball.  He is later brought back to life with a wish using the dragonballs.  In DBZ, Krillin ventures with Bulma and Gohan to Namek in order to search for the dragonballs there so that they can revive their friends.  Once there, the nose-less monk receives a power-up from Guru, and manages to survive a few close calls until late Frieza Saga.  With a few gestures, Frieza causes him to explode.  Krillin’s death triggers Goku to finally achieve the Super Saiyajin level he was destined for.  At the end of the Frieza Saga, he is again wished back to life, this time with the Namekian Dragonballs.  In the Android and Cell Sagas, Krillin begins to fall for the “evil” Android Number 18.  Bulma gives him a remote control with which to deactivate the androids, but Krillin destroys the device in hopes of saving the android from Cell, and because he has a huge crush on her and can’t bear to go through with it.  When the dragonballs are collected after the Cell Saga, Krillin tries to wish for the androids to become human, but it is beyond the dragon’s power.  Instead, he wishes for the bombs to be removed from Androids 17 and 18.  Years later, Krillin marries Number 18, and together they have a daughter named Marron.  During the years between the Cell Saga and the Buu Saga, Krillin also manages to finally grow a full head of brown hair.  He is turned to stone by Dabura for several episodes, but at the death of Dabura, Krillin is restored.  He dies along with the entire human race when Buu destroys Earth, and is brought back with a wish on the Namek Dragonballs.  In GT, his characters importance wanes even further.  However, Krillin dies for the fourth time when Android 17 attacks him while he and Number 18 are out shopping.  Again, he brought back later with a wish.  Because he dies and receives severe bodily injuries many more times than any other character in the series, Krillin is indubitably the unluckiest character in Dragonball.

Launch - “Ranchi” (read as Lunch)  Master Roshi’s housemaid in Dragonball.  Goku and Krillin’s first task as Master Roshi’s pupils is to fetch a beautiful woman for him.  They rescue Lunch from an angry motorcycle gang and bring her to the Kame House, where she agrees to work for Roshi as his maid.  Lunch has a peculiar trait that quickly becomes obvious to Master Roshi whenever he tries to sneak a peek at her undressing.  When Lunch sneezes, her entire personality flips and she turns into an aggressive, criminal-type blonde who enjoys shootouts and robbing banks for fun.  Usually, a machine gun somehow materializes in her hands, and things become downright dangerous for everyone in the vicinity.  Neither of Lunch’s personalities remembers what the other says or does, and Lunch appears to know absolutely nothing of her violent side.  In early DBZ episodes, Lunch develops a crush on Tien, but her character quickly loses importance as the storyline shifts focus to the Saiyajin.  It is highly probable that Lunch’s ability to shift form led to the idea of Saiyajin that could transform.  So, in a sense, Lunch is the first “Super Saiyajin”, in regards to her transformation into a blonde with super abilities and a dominating personality.  During her last brief appearance in the series, Lunch gives her energy to Goku for his Ultimate Genki Dama (Spirit Bomb).

Character Guide: M 

Mai - The beautiful Asian woman who works for Emperor Pilaf.  Together, Mai and her partner Shao carry out the work of their ambitious Emperor, who is both short of stature and temper.  Mai is definitely the brighter of the two, but even she manages to bungle things, particularly when Goku and crew become involved.

Majin Buu -   see Buu

Maron* Krillin’s ditzy girlfriend in the Garlic Junior Saga, she appears only in the anime.  Not to be confused with Marron, Krillin’s daughter later in DBZ.  Maron resembles Bulma, but the two are quite different as far as intelligence is concerned.  Krillin’s girlfriend has the sex appeal of a super model and the brainpower of an orange.  She’s also anything but loyal, and proves it time and again.  At the end of the Garlic Junior Saga, Krillin is about to propose to Maron when she suddenly leaves him for a guy in a red sports car.  Maron returns later in the Android Saga looking for Krillin at the Kame House.  However, she doesn’t last more than a handful of episodes before Maron gets lonely and calls a few of her boyfriends to pick her up.   “A few” becomes more like 20 when a fleet of boats and hovercrafts arrive at the fickle girl’s service, and she rides away from Kame Island for good.

Marron  Daughter of Krillin and Android 18.  Not to be confused with Maron, Krillin’s girlfriend earlier in the anime.  As a child, Marron resembles her father more.  She has his big eyes and nose, or rather lack of nose.  However, she does indeed have a nose, though small, and as she grows older, Marron begins to look more like her mother.  Marron first appears in the early Buu Saga as a toddler.  She cheers on her mommy at the 25^th Tenkaichi Budoukai, and proves to be one of the only people who can make 18 smile.  Their heartwarming relationship lasts through GT, when Marron is a teenager.  Apparently, she doesn’t fight or train at all, but she loves both of her parents very much.

Master Roshi - “Mutenroshi” (also Kame Sennin)   Master Roshi is the bald old man seen from time to time with a pair of sunglasses and a long beard.  He is Goku’s old Sensei in Dragonball, and is several hundred years old at the beginning of the series.  He is also called Kame Sennin, or the Turtle Hermit.  He lives on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean called Kame Island with his “pet” turtle, named Turtle in the dub.  Master Roshi was born in 430 AD, and once drank from the fountain of youth.  However, instead of keeping him young-looking, it only extended his life span.  He trains under the great master of martial arts, Mutaito, alongside his rival Crane Elder.  Master Roshi becomes the strongest man in the world after the death of his sensei, and he participates in many Tenkaichi Budoukai’s in his years, winning every single one he enters up to the 22^nd Tenkaichi Budoukai.  Roshi becomes a pervert at the age of 123, and over his hundreds of years spent on Kame Island, he builds the world’s largest collection of dirty magazines.  Roshi constantly tries to grab the boobs and poke the butt of any remotely sexy woman he can get close enough to; this list includes, but is not limited to: Bulma, Lunch, Chi Chi and Maron.  He meets Goku in the early episodes of Dragonball in the year 749 AD.  In September of that same year, Roshi begins training Goku and Krillin.  As the years pass, Roshi is surpassed by all of the Z Senshi, though he never loses his fighting spirit.  He appears in most of the DB and DBZ Movies, usually as comic relief in the DBZ films.  Master Roshi weighs only 97lbs, and is 5’4” tall.  His home address at Kame Island is NBI8250012B (I’d like to see the mailman who delivers HIS mail every day… perhaps the same one who delivers Korin’s mail).

Mez - “Mezu”*   A red ogre who keeps watch over the dead souls in Hell.  Mez is the second ogre to greet Goku after he falls off Snake Way.  He wears glasses and a shirt with the word HELL spelled out on it (which Pioneer conveniently changes to HFIL).  Mez boasts to be the fastest ogre in Hell, and announces that if Goku can beat him in a race, the ogres will show him a secret passageway back to Snake Way.  Goku easily outruns Mez, a feat that stuns the ogres who must keep their word.

Monster Carrot -   see Boss Rabbit

Mr. Popo - “Misuta Popo”   Kame’s faithful servant.  Mr. Popo is very old, and he has served every Kami of the past.  His job consists of tending to Kami’s Palace, keeping the lookout clean, and most importantly, taking care of Kami. He also tends to the ancient butterfly garden that he planted thousands of years ago, and enjoys the more simple things in life.  While FUNi’s Mr. Popo speaks using complete, highly intelligent sentences, the Japanese version proves him to be a slightly more primitive figure.  His grasp of the common tongue is somewhat less than the dubbed version makes it out to be.  Though it is not obvious, Mr. Popo is an excellent martial arts master.  In Dragonball, Mr. Popo is far stronger than Goku when he first arrives at Kami’s Palace.  He trains Goku for 3 years until the boy learns everything he knows.  Some of the techniques he teaches Goku later prove invaluable, for example the ability to sense ki.

Mr. Satan - “Misuta Satan”   Father of Videl and grandfather of Pan.  While the Japanese version never reveals his first name, the dub gives him one – Hercule.  Mr. Satan is the winner of the 24^th Tenkaichi Budoukai, which takes place around the Trunks Saga.  None of the Z Senshi happen to participate in the tournament that year, and so Mr. Satan becomes the famous champion of the world.  Although he is quite strong for a human, he is nothing compared to the Z Senshi.  However, hardly a single Earthling realizes this.  Almost everyone on Earth believes that Mr. Satan is the strongest man in the world, and can defeat anyone or anything.  Thus, with TV appearances, books written and movies made after him, Mr. Satan becomes immortalized in the minds of every man, woman and child on the planet as the World Champion.  As a renowned master of the martial arts, he performs amazing feats live on television for all the world to see, such as breaking 22 bricks with a single karate chop.  He has a city named after him, and the town he lives in becomes Satan City overnight.  Eventually he lets all the fame and popularity go to his head, until Mr. Satan is little more than an egomaniac who happens to be extremely lucky.  In 756 AD he has a daughter named Videl.  His wife dies young, before Videl can remember her very well.  While Mr. Satan enjoys his fame, he loved his wife and probably misses her very much, although it is never mentioned directly.  Although cowardly compared to the Z Senshi, Mr. Satan is neither a complete coward nor a fool, and manages to keep at least a general appearance of confidence and calm through much of the strange events, no easy task for the average human.  (add name of moves?)   Mr. Satan first appears in DBZ in the Cell Saga, where he appears at the Cell Game to take out Cell alone.  Of course, he is only fooling himself, but even when he begins to realize that Cell is too much for him, he cannot let his confidence drop for a second, because the ZTV camera is on him the majority of the time.  Millions of people watch him, and with each one’s hopes lying on him, Mr. Satan cannot show fear.  Cell handles the egomaniac quite well, considering just about everyone at the tournament sweats terribly at the sight of Mr. Satan on the tournament floor except him.  Mr. Satan takes up several episodes with his bragging and jeering, and his lackeys cheering him on, but Cell simply knocks him far away with one swipe.  In the anime, Mr. Satan is shown cowering behind boulders for several scenes and trying to convince the audience watching that he is still the strongest, and that all the other fighters are simply using light tricks.  He helps Gohan turn Super Saiyajin 2 when he reluctantly carries Android 16’s severed head to where Gohan is standing.  After the Cell Game, Mr. Satan returns home crowing that it was he who defeated and destroyed Cell, although Gohan is the real champion.  Almost everyone on Earth believes Mr. Satan, and he is praised internationally for saving the world.    In the Buu Saga, Mr. Satan returns in the 25^th Tenkaichi Budoukai, but he hasn’t forgotten the Z Senshi, whom he knows to be far stronger than he.  He tries everything to get out of fighting, but after the Z Senshi take off in search of Babidi, and a few disqualifications are made, he ends up making it to the finals with Android 18.  He convinces her to let him win, and in return Mr. Satan agrees to give her the prize money.  And so the great Mr. Satan is again crowned World Champion.  He later takes on Majin Buu, and uses many tactics in effort to kill the magical creature.  However, Buu only thinks of it as a game, and the two become friends.  Mr. Satan tries to reform Buu, and nearly succeeds.  The two even get a little dog, named Bee.  However, two sick gunmen arrive in town and shoot first the puppy, then Mr. Satan.  Buu heals them both instantly and releases his evil half.  Throughout the Buu Saga, Mr. Satan attempts to help out where he can.  He is lucky enough to survive the destruction of Earth when Goku grabs him just before teleporting to Namek II.  When the planet is wished back, Vegeta uses a special psychic link to speak to the people of Earth, and tries to convince the planet’s population to give their energy to Goku for the Genki Dama (Spirit Bomb).  But, after all, Vegeta isn’t exactly the sociable type.  Where Vegeta fails, Mr. Satan is perfect for the job.  He tells everyone on Earth to give their energy to Goku, and ends up causing a huge chant all over the planet of “SATAN! SATAN!”  Mr. Satan and Buu remain best friends and live together for the rest of the series.  He becomes a grandfather when his daughter Videl has a baby girl named Pan.  Mr. Satan has a few minor roles in Movies 9-12, but just as in the series, throughout all of them he somehow manages to defend and keep his title of World Champion.

Character Guide: N - O 

Nail - “Neiru” The strongest Namekian warrior on the planet Namek, he is the personal guardian of the Great Elder (Guru).  His maximum power level is 42,000, much higher than most of Frieza’s henchman.  When Frieza threatens the Great Elder, Nail offers a challenge to Frieza in order to distract him away from Guru, and Frieza unwittingly accepts.  Although he fights honorably and with great courage, Frieza beats Nail horribly, defeating him almost effortlessly.   When he senses that his death his near, Nail laughs in Frieza’s face as the changeling realizes the eternal dragon has been summoned, telling him that the boy had the password to the dragonballs all along.  Frieza instantly takes off, leaving the Namekian warrior to die.  However, Piccolo comes across the fallen Nail while flying toward Gohan and Krillin.  Nail offers to give his strength to Piccolo by merging their energies.  Piccolo is reluctant to merge, but he also knows that times are desperate and he needs the energy.  He finally agrees, on the terms that they keep his body, and the two Namekians fuse permanently, joining their energies to create a new Namekian more powerful than ever before.  Piccolo’s strength is more than doubled, and he blasts off to find Frieza.  Although the two have fused, Nail’s spirit remains alive within Piccolo’s and can separate itself at will.  Nail shows face twice more in the series, once when he looks at Dende, and the last time when Piccolo is fighting Frieza. Nail’s features take over for several seconds as he taunts the befuddled Frieza that he is still alive and back for vengeance.  Nail remains a part of Piccolo for the rest of the series, although his personality never surfaces separately from Piccolo’s again after the Frieza Saga.

Nappa  A big, hulking Elite Saiyajin who accompanies Vegeta to Earth in the Saiyajin Saga.  Nappa considers himself and Vegeta to be “partners”, although Nappa is much the weaker of the two.  While the manga only shows them as fellow soldiers, in the anime Nappa is portrayed as a sort of personal bodyguard for Vegeta when he was a child.  Since childhood Vegeta had already been stronger than his own father, and Nappa, who was about 30 years old, feared the prince’s power from early on.  As Vegeta grew in age and strength, it became more obvious that the idea of Nappa being a “bodyguard” was really only Vegeta’s tolerance of his presence.  Nappa carried out most of the work that did not require a great amount of intelligence, and Vegeta did the rest.  Nappa is about 50 years old when he first appears in the manga.  He is bald and has a thick mustache, and is considered ugly by most standards.  In the Bardock Special, Nappa is shown with a small tuft of hair, but this is obviously many years earlier.  Although he is not stupid, Nappa is not particularly brainy, and when his temper flares, he loses control of himself, particularly when an opponent proves to be stronger than he in combat.   Upon arriving on Earth, Nappa promptly destroys the entire city he and Vegeta have landed in, wiping out all signs of life in a radius of at least 20 miles.  He chops off Tien’s arm with a single blow, and destroys several helicopters of idiotic news crews who pull in too close.  Chaozu latches onto his back and blows himself up in attempts to take the life of the Saiyajin, but Nappa is practically untouchable at a power level of 4,000, leagues ahead of most of the Z Senshi at the time.  In the anime, when Vegeta forces him to wait for 3 hours, Nappa decides to have a little fun, and flies out to the coast to meet Earth’s military forces.  The Saiyajin blasts his way through fighter planes, ripping and tearing as he goes, and destroys entire navy and air force fleets that attack him.  As an Elite Saiyajin, Nappa has evolved a bit, and so minor problems that lower Saiyajin like Radditz experience are beyond him, such as intense pain when the tail is pulled.  Not knowing this, Piccolo attempts to restrain him by yanking his tail, but Nappa only punches his lights out.  The Saiyajin nearly kills Gohan with a huge ki blast, but Piccolo leaps in the way of the beam and takes the shot instead, sacrificing himself.  When battling Goku, Nappa begins to lose his cool as he starts to realize that the 3^rd class Saiyajin could possibly be stronger than he.        Nappa has the worst potty mouth in the entire series, next to Vegeta only because the prince lasts as a major character for much longer.  He constantly curses at Goku as the 3^rd class warrior defeats him at every turn.  Vegeta forces Nappa to stop fighting when he loses all control during combat.  Nappa obeys, but instead of resting, he mistakenly chooses to release his rage upon Gohan and Krillin.  Goku must use Kaio Ken to stop him, and ultimately breaks Nappa’s back in doing so.  To everyone’s surprise, Vegeta turns on Nappa and kills his own “partner” for his insolence by blasting him into oblivion. Nappa returns near the end of GT when Hell breaks loose upon the Earth.  He appears to want revenge on Vegeta for killing him, but his power level is still nothing compared to Vegeta’s, and it is unclear whether or not he actually thinks he has a chance against the prince.  Either way, with a smile, Vegeta simply blows him away again.

North Kai -   see King Kai

Oolong - “Oorongu”  A perverted, greedy shape-shifting pig, he meets Goku and Bulma in one of the first few episodes of Dragonball.  He terrorizes a village and is known there as “Oolong the Terrible”.  He kidnaps three young women in the form of a huge scary monster.  Oolong has the ability to change his shape into any form, even inanimate objects, but he can only hold that form for 5 minutes.  His strength is not increased by the change, and he can’t turn into something that can be used up, like fuel or food.  Goku and Bulma are offered a dragonball as a reward for the safe return of the girls to the villagers, and so they search out Oolong, only to find that the monster doesn’t wish to fight Goku.  Naturally Bulma and Goku follow him to his lair, only to discover that the girls have been living like queens in his cave, which is actually more of a palace.  Oolong willingly returns the girls, who have been eating him out of house and home, and agrees to help Bulma and Goku on their quest for the dragonballs.  He has a fair amount of money and a huge collection of women’s underwear.  Oolong was born in the year 740 AD, and went to shape-shifting school with Puar.  Although she made straight A’s, Oolong flunked out, explaining why Puar can hold any form as long as she chooses, while he has a limit of only 5 minutes.  He is 3’9” tall and weighs 71 lbs.  At first Oolong tries to take the dragonballs for himself, but he eats some cursed candy that causes him to have to pee anytime someone says the word “piggy”, which Bulma often uses against him in the first saga.  Eventually he becomes good friends with Goku and the others, and helps them to find more dragonballs.  When Pilaf steals the dragonballs from them and is about to make his wish to rule the world, Oolong heroically dives in the way and interrupts him, shouting that he wishes for the panties off a hot babe.  Almost immediately, a pair of panties with a pink bow on them come down from the sky and smack Oolong in the forehead.  The perverted pig appears every so often in Dragonball, helping out the gang when he can.  In DBZ, his character dwindles to little importance, although in the anime and several movies, he appears quite often as comic relief.

Ox-king - “Gyuu Maou”  Chi Chi’s father and Gohan’s grandfather, he is an over-sized warrior with a thick beard, wears glasses and dons a Viking-style hat with horns.  Many years ago, he trained under Master Roshi alongside Grandpa Gohan under Master Roshi.  Ox-king once lived with his daughter in their mansion atop Mt. Frypan, and killed anyone who came after his treasure.  He still feared that thieves would steal his treasure, so he hired a sorcerer to conjure a spell that would barricade his fortress with a wall of fire.  The only problem was, the sorcerer cast the spell before Ox-king or his daughter had gotten back inside the castle, and so the two could not return to their own fortress through the wall of fire that was supposed to protect them.  Ox-king and the young Chi Chi are forced to live at the bottom of the mountain until they can find a way to break the barrier that keeps them from their castle.  Bulma, Goku and the gang stumble upon Ox-king and Chi Chi on their quest for the dragonballs.  They agree to help him, and Goku brings back Mutenroshi, the only one strong enough to break the barrier.  Roshi fires a large Kamehameha at the wall of fire, and destroys it.  However, the Kamehameha is so big that it takes the entire mountain with it.  Although his castle is gone, Ox-king and Chi Chi build another home on Mt. Paozu.  After Goku finds Chi Chi, who had been missing, and returns her to her father, Ox-king offers her to Goku as a wife in gratitude of her safe return.  Not know what a wife is, Goku shrugs it off.  Many years later, Chi Chi is a teenager and Ox-king wants to make sure that she will get a good husband who can take care of her, so he makes a fighting contest with Chi Chi as the prize.  Goku loses the contest on purpose, but Chi Chi beats up his opponent so that he still wins the prize – Chi Chi.  Ox-king may seem fierce at first glance, but he is really a nice guy.  After losing his mansion and treasure on Mt. Frypan, he gives up being a warrior and, although he is still huge, is more visibly friendly.  In DBZ, he appears in the anime more frequently throughout the sagas, usually seen at home trying to calm Chi Chi down.

Character Guide: P - R 

Paikuhan*  A tall, green fighter in the Annoyoichi Budoukai, he is very similar to Piccolo in looks and personality, although he is not Namekian.  He wears clothing similar to Piccolo’s, including a turban, and is very quiet and serious.  Goku even comments on the likeness between the two as he watches Paikuhan fight.  Paikuhan also takes Piccolo’s previous position as a rival to Goku in the tournament.  They battle each other in the finals of the Annoyoichi Budoukai, and have a very close match (mostly because Goku doesn’t go Super Saiyajin).  Although Goku ultimately wins, for Paikuhan to nearly equal Goku even in normal form is very impressive.  When his character is first introduced in the anime, Paikuhan breaks up a riot in Hell, and without Goku’s aid he beats the living crap out of Frieza, King Cold and Cell.            Paikuhan also has a significant role in DBZ Movie 12.  The movie begins with Paikuhan and Goku duking it out in the finals of the Annoyoichi Budoukai.  Their battle is interrupted by the explosion of the Soul Cleansing Machine and the havoc wreaked across the Afterlife by Janemba in his first form.  While Goku and Vegeta go to fight Janemba himself, Paikuhan is responsible for breaking the force field over King Yama’s Palace created by Janemba.  While his kicks and punches do next to nothing, he discovers by accident that the only thing capable of breaking the force field is cursing and violent threats, something which the Stoic Paikuhan quickly finds quite challenging.  After only cracking the force field slightly with minor curses, Paikuhan grows impatient and finally in a rage he screams several of the nastiest things one might reserve for their worst enemy, and the force field instantly cracks to pieces.  Near the end of the movie, Paikuhan tries to help Goku and Vegeta, and ends up distracting Janemba long enough for the two Saiyajin to fuse into Gogeta.  Although Janemba appears to “kill” Paikuhan right before Gogeta arrives on the scene (as Paikuhan is not shown again for the rest of the movie), the fact that Paikuhan is already dead and that he is in the Afterlife during the battle brings one to assume that he is merely knocked out by Janemba, and not truly killed.  However, it is never proven either way, but left to the viewer to decide.

Pan  Daughter of Gohan and Videl, granddaughter of Goku.  Born in the year 779 AD, she competes in the 28^th Tenkaichi Budoukai when she is only 5 years old.  She proves her Saiyajin bloodline by completely wrecking her opponents, including Goten, her 17-year-old uncle.  Pan plays a larger role in GT, where as a teenager she embarks on a long journey in space with Trunks and Goku to find all of the Black-star Dragonballs scattered across the galaxy.  Originally, it was Goten who was supposed to travel with Trunks and Goku, but while Goten sleeps late, Pan sneaks onboard the ship and takes his place.  She develops quite an attitude, and gets into a lot of trouble on different planets.  Gill, the helpful little robot who travels with them, tries to protect Pan, but usually ends up getting yelled at by the independent teenager.  However, deep down Pan really has feelings for the little guy.  With the exception of Android 18, Pan is the most powerful female fighter in the anime series.

Panboukin*  The chunky, quick-tempered member of Bardock’s crew.  He obtains a scar in Oozaru form during the battle on planet Karnassa in the beginning of the Bardock Special.  In the dub, Panboukin is made to look like a smart-mouthed idiot that says stupid things like “the bomb”, but in the true Japanese version he is not all-mouth and no-brain, but he is actually rather sharp.

Piccolo - “Pikoro” (see Piccolo (Original), Piccolo Daimaou, Kami)  One of the most powerful fighters in DB/Z/GT, Piccolo is a green-skinned, slug-like alien from the planet Namek.  Piccolo is the reincarnation of Piccolo Daimaou, his father.  Just as he is dying (from a fatal blow by Goku), Daimaou spits out an egg containing an unborn clone that is to become the embodiment in which Daimaou reincarnates himself – Piccolo.  Because Daimaou’s spirit is reincarnated in the clone, he retains all of Daimaou’s memories and abilities.  Although the final “spawn” of Piccolo Daimaou refers to himself only as Piccolo, rather than using his full title, he continues to hold the same dark powers over the spirit world, and so Piccolo is still considered the Great Demon King.  Piccolo holds many special natural abilities due to his Namekian ancestry.  He does not eat food, but needs only water for sustenance.  The Nameks are a slug-like species, and thus Piccolo inherits multiple talents such as the regeneration of limbs, and, after a time, asexual reproduction.  He has fangs, super hearing, purple blood, and he even speaks some of the ancient Namekian tongue.  Piccolo is a warrior-class Namek, and one of the only Namekians on Earth.  From the very day he is hatched, Piccolo vows to take revenge on the one who killed his original body - Goku.  All during his youth, Piccolo continues to train in order to defeat and destroy Goku.  The young Namek first appears in Dragonball at the 23^rd Tenkaichi Budoukai, where he faces off with Goku in an extremely close match.  Goku barely defeats Piccolo with a huge Kamehameha that knocks the Namek out cold.   Piccolo appears again in the first episode of DBZ as the second person Radditz encounters on Earth.  Piccolo makes a temporary alliance with Goku in order to take out the intruding Saiyajin.  Though they are overpowered by the massive warrior, Piccolo uses his new special technique, the Makankosappo (Special Beam Cannon), which generally means “Screw Attack of the Devil”, to finish Radditz.  While Goku restrains his brother, Piccolo fires a beam so powerful that it literally drives a hole right through Radditz and Goku, killing them both. His revenge on Goku and Radditz now complete, Piccolo gloats over the dying Radditz that Goku’s friends will revive him with a wish from the magic Dragonballs.  With a sneer Radditz informs Piccolo that he sent every word the Namek had spoken to his compatriots Vegeta and Nappa using the scouter as a relay device, and that they are coming to Earth in one year.  In a burst of rage, Piccolo fires a beam at Radditz, finishing him.  Kami immediately observes that, unlike every being killed by Piccolo before him, Radditz’s spirit rises to the Afterlife.  In Dragonball, Piccolo Daimaou’s dark powers include the effect that any creature killed by the Demon King would be cursed to wander the Earth as a spirit for all time.  Kami concludes that because of this strange occurrence, Piccolo must be changing internally, even developing a conscience.            Piccolo decides to train the young son of Goku, Gohan, in hopes of making him a young warrior who can help defend the Earth from the Saiyajin.  Out of thin air he conjures clothing and a sword for Gohan, then leaves him alone in the wilderness for 6 months to learn how to survive on his own.  After 6 months pass, Piccolo takes the boy in and trains him directly, teaching him martial arts and how to focus his ki.  Gohan begins to think of Piccolo not only as a teacher, but a best friend, and as time goes on, Piccolo himself grows quite fond of the boy.  When the Saiyajin arrive, Nappa fires a beam at Gohan that would certainly kill him.  However, Piccolo jumps in the path of the beam to take the blast instead, sacrificing himself to save Gohan’s life.  Since Kami and Piccolo are still attached in spirit, if one dies they both perish.  Just before Kami fades, he remarks that Piccolo has a soul, because of what he has done for Gohan.  This fact alone may be what motivates King Yama to let Piccolo pass to Snake Way.  Piccolo makes the long journey to King Kai’s planet and trains there a while, although he detests King Kai’s style of teaching.  Later in the Frieza Saga, Piccolo is wished back to life and on the planet Namek.  On his way to fight Frieza, he fuses with another dying Namek, Nail, and becomes more than twice as strong as he had been, with a power level of over 1,000,000, allowing him to face Frieza in his second transformation alone.  Piccolo is nearly killed in the lengthy battle with Frieza, and again when fighting Garlic Junior.   Later in the Android Saga, Piccolo and Kami make the decision to fuse permanently in order to stand a greater chance against the androids and Cell.  The two rejoin their spirits into one body as the Namek without a name, the original Piccolo.  The fusion creates a power increase so great that Piccolo is referred to as a “Super Namek”.  Although his mergings don’t appear to change Piccolo physically, internally he retains the memories and experiences of both Nail and Kami. After rejoining with Kami, Piccolo becomes more philosophical, and takes even more “heroic” actions that endanger his own life.  For example, he seals himself, Gotenks and Buu in the Room of Spirit and Time.  Later in GT, when the Black-star Dragonballs are about to cause the planet to explode, he offers to stay on Earth and die with his own planet. Rather than be teleported away with the rest of Earth’s inhabitants.  He does this primarily because of Kami’s influence concerning his attachment to the planet.  Like the captain who goes down with the ship, as Kami, or God, remains a part of Piccolo, he feels inclined to perish with the loss of his planet.  Of course, he dies, and his soul overall is clean enough to rise to Heaven.  However, with Goku later trapped in Hell, no ex-Demon King can simply sit around and do nothing.  Piccolo goes on a frenzy and wreaks total havoc in Heaven until he is literally thrown out, at which point he willingly changes places with Goku in Hell.  Piccolo remains in Hell until the end of GT.  Whether or not he is ever wished back (or if he even WANTS to be) is left for the viewer to decide. (What a way to end a series).

Piccolo  (Original) - “Pikoro” (see Piccolo Daimaou, Kami, Piccolo)   The original Namek without a name, he was born on Planet Namek in 250 AD and journeyed to Earth hundreds of years ago.  He came in a strange-looking Namekian ship that requires at least a basic knowledge of the ancient Namekian language to pilot.  Piccolo is one of the only Nameks in the series who is not directly related to Guru.  Instead, Piccolo is of Guru’s generation, and his father’s name is Katastu.  Although he forgot his origins after landing on Earth, Piccolo probably left Planet Namek to escape the violent storms and the terrible drought that followed.  These catastrophes, which nearly wiped out all life on Namek, occurred almost 500 years before the beginning of Dragonball.  Guru was the sole Namekian survivor, and so once he became old enough to gain the power, he procreated asexually to populate the planet again.  However, at least one other Namek survived the drought; this Namek was the young Piccolo, who had escaped in the Namekian ship to another planet he could survive on – Earth.  Although he retained his grasp on the Namekian tongue, he could not remember who he was or where he had come from.  He could have lost his memory in an instant by hitting his head either in the landing of his ship or afterward, or he may have simply forgotten his origins over the passage of time as he lived alone with little or no human (or otherwise) contact for hundreds of years.  The latter is more likely, although it is never specified how he came to forget his origins, and thus the events of Piccolo’s youth during that span of several hundred years remains unclear.   As time passed and the young Namekian grew, he witnessed many violent acts and watched as entire wars were waged before his eyes.  Later he participated in many of these wars, and became a great warrior.  However, he had made friends and contacts along the journey to find himself, and he was recognized by the Kami during that period as a being worthy of taking his place one day.  When the time came for a new Kami to be chosen, those few in line for the throne gathered together, and the contenders were narrowed down to two: Garlic and Piccolo.  While both were quite able to rule, only Piccolo had honest and pure ambitions for the throne, while Garlic’s ambitions were impure and selfish at best.  With this knowledge, the old Kami chose Piccolo as the next Kami.  But Piccolo could not yet rise to the throne, for although his intentions were pure, his heart had been corrupted by his troubled youth.  Because he was yet impure, Piccolo had to be cleansed of his dark side.  The cleansing process ultimately caused the original Piccolo to split into two separate beings equal in power.  One was pure, while the other half was evil incarnate.  The purified Piccolo rose to the throne and from that point on, became known as Kami.  The evil half came to be called Piccolo Daimaou, or the Great Demon King Piccolo.  The original Piccolo remains split into these two, Kami and Daimaou who later reincarnates himself in his asexually-cloned spawn Piccolo, for quite some time.  It is not until the beginning of the Cell Saga that he is seen again.  At this point the two halves Kami and Piccolo solemnly and a bit reluctantly decide to fuse in order to become a being more than twice as powerful as either of them combined.  It is a necessity that they must undergo to become strong enough to defeat the androids and save Earth.  When they re-fuse, they once again become the original Namek who had no name (although he later named himself Piccolo, supposedly, though how he received his name is not specified.  This portion remains unclear).  Piccolo never again splits into two beings, as the personalities of the two Kami and Piccolo become infused as well.  Thus he also surrenders his position as Kami to a younger, pure Namek named Dende.  Piccolo remains in his original form for the rest of the series.

Piccolo Daimaou - “Pikoro Daimaou”  (Piccolo the Great Demon King) (see Piccolo, Piccolo (Original), Kami)  The dark half of the original Piccolo.  Hundreds of years before Dragonball began, the Namek who had forgotten his origins was chosen to succeed the old Kami as the new God of Planet Earth.  However, this Namek who called himself Piccolo was impure, and could not rise to the throne until he could cleanse his soul.  The process of purifying Piccolo’s soul actually caused him to literally split into two separate beings equal in wit and power:  his pure half, who refers to himself only as Kami, and his dark side, who came to be called Piccolo Daimaou, or the Great Demon King Piccolo.  As the incarnation of evil, he has dark powers and holds some control over the spirit world.  For example, whosoever Piccolo Daimaou deliberately kills by his own hand, their soul cannot rise to the spirit world, but will be cursed to wander the Earth as a spirit forever.  After his creation, Piccolo Daimaou wreaked havoc all across the Earth, and was virtually unstoppable.  Even Kami, perhaps the strongest being on the planet, could only equal him in power, but never overcome him.  The reason for this was because the two halves of Piccolo remained bound in spirit, and so they were still technically the same person.  This fact also meant that if Piccolo Daimaou were destroyed, Kami would perish with him.  No solution to this could be found, until finally in the year 461 AD, when Master Roshi’s sensei the great Mutaito stood up to the Demon King.  The two faced off and Mutaito induced the suicidal Mafuba sealing attack.  Although Mutaito lost his life performing the move, his attack succeeded in sealing Daimaou inside the Denshi Jar, where he remains imprisoned for several hundred years.  Much later in 753 AD, Emperor Pilaf manages to find the Denshi Jar and sets Daimaou free, plotting to conquer the world with the Demon King’s power.  However, while Pilaf believes he is using Piccolo Daimaou for his own wicked purposes, it is really the other way around.  Pilaf nearly succeeds in taking over the planet, while Daimaou battles Tien and Goku.  Piccolo Daimaou, like all Nameks once they reach a certain age, inherits the ability to asexually reproduce.  He begets a total of four children by spitting them out of his mouth.  Some of them are quite clever, and they are all feisty and vicious.  Goku destroys all of them but one (whom Yajirobe kills) and overpowers Daimaou.  Finally, Goku fatally wounds the Demon King by propelling himself through Daimaou’s torso, leaving a gaping hole in his chest the size of a beach ball.  Before he dies, Piccolo Daimaou spits out a final egg.  However, the egg s not his spawn, but rather contains the embodiment in which Daimaou reincarnates himself.  In other words, he spits out an unborn clone that is the reincarnation of his own spirit, and retains all of his memories and abilities, including his martial arts skills.  Although Piccolo Daimaou dies, his spirit continues to live on in his unborn “son”, or his clone, and so Kami remains alive as well.

Pikkon -   see Paikuhan

Pilaf - “Pirafu”  A little blue imp who appears many times during Dragonball.  His ambition is to one day take over the world, and he nearly succeeds until Goku arrives to thwart his plans, usually at the last minute, often by accident.  He has two assistants, Shao and Mai, who do most of the work for him.  He appears almost twice as much in the anime as compared to the manga.  At one point in Dragonball, he collects all of the Dragonballs and is about to make his wish when Oolong jumps in the way and screams a different wish than anyone had planned on.  Pilaf is never seen during DBZ, but in the first episode of GT he makes a final appearance as an old man (or imp).  He finds Kami’s Tower along with the now elderly Shao and Mai, and they manage to recover the seven Black-star Dragonballs hidden in the Tower.  Right as Pilaf is about to make his wish to rule the world, Goku teleports in front of them.  Pilaf screams in rage and exclaims that he wishes Goku were a little kid again so he could beat him up.  Unfortunately, the Black-star Dragon overhears this and grants his wish.

Pizza - “Piiza”*  The hot, redheaded promotional agent of Mr. Satan, she appears in the anime only during the Cell Saga.

Porunga  The dragon of the Namek Dragonballs, created thousands of years ago by Guru.  The name Porunga is a Namekian word, but its meaning is unclear.  This dragon appears when all seven Namek Dragonballs are gathered in one place and his name is uttered.  However, since this dragon was created by a Namekian, a wish can only be granted if it is spoken in Namekian tongue.  This dragon is much bigger than the Earth Dragon, about 5 times larger in size.  He has the power to grant three wishes to any person that successfully calls upon him.  Porunga is stronger than Shenlong in some ways, in that he can grant the same wish as many times as someone can wish it, but he is not strong enough to bring more than one person back from the dead in one wish, while Shenlong can bring the entire population of Earth back to life if needed.  The dragon cannot grant a wish that goes beyond the power of his creator.  After the three wishes are made and granted, Porunga leaves once again, and the dragonballs scatter all across the planet.  The dragonballs also turn to stone, as they cannot be used for a year after a wish is granted.  However, since the planet Namek has three suns, a Namekian year is really only about 4 months on the planet Earth, which becomes helpful to the Namekians later.  When the Namekian year has passed, the dragonballs become active again, ready to be gathered and wished upon.  When his creator dies, the dragon “dies” with him, and so Porunga and the Namek Dragonballs disappear when Guru dies unexpectedly right before Vegeta wishes to be granted immortality.  But when Guru and many others that died because of Frieza were brought back by the Earth Dragonballs, Porunga returns as well, ready to grant a final wish.  Although Guru dies after arriving on Earth, before he passes away he appoints Muuri, the second eldest Namek and his first son, the new Namek Elder.  Thus, Muuri takes his place as the Great Namek Elder and Porunga can live on.  Unlike the Earth Dragonballs, which are relatively small and can be held in the palm, the Namek Dragonballs are much bigger and heavier, each about the size of a large basketball.

Pteranodon - “Puteranodon”  The large pteranodon who kidnaps Bulma in the first issue of Dragonball, planning to make her his lunch.  Goku promptly attacks the monster, smacking it with his Power Pole, and kills it.

Puar  The shape-shifting little friend of Yamcha, she resembles a blue cat without a nose.  She and Yamcha met in the year 747 AD and became inseparable.  In Dragonball, they work as a team to rob anyone traveling through the desert in which they lived.  Puar has the ability to change her shape into any form, even inanimate objects, and hold that form as long as she likes, although her strength is not increased by the change, and she can’t turn into something that can be used up, like fuel or food.  She went to shape-shifting school with Oolong, and she always made straight A’s.  Although she is relatively weak, she also has the ability to levitate and fly.  Puar was born in the year 740 AD.

Pui Pui  The guardian of the first floor of Babidi’s ship.  He informs Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Kaioshin that he comes from the planet Zun, just as Babidi creates the arena in which they will fight to resemble his home planet, thus giving Pui Pui the greater advantage.  Grinning, he tells his opponent, Vegeta, that the gravity on his home planet is ten times that of Earth, but Vegeta only laughs and sneers in his face.  Babidi had expected Goku, Vegeta and the others to be strong, but he did not anticipate that they would train under gravity several hundred times Earth’s (Vegeta had trained in the most, 400x gravity).  Vegeta disposes of Pui Pui effortlessly.

Punta  A large, Turkish competitor in the 25^th Tenkaichi Budoukai, his opponent is Krillin.  Before the match, Punta repeatedly insults Krillin, who is much smaller and shorter of stature than he.  Punta tells Krillin about how badly he’s going to defeat him.  Krillin, on the other hand, is embarrassed about having to fight such a weak competitor, and he knocks out Punta with a single punch to the stomach with his eyes closed.

Rabbit Gang Members – “Usagi Dan Danin”  The two members of the Rabbit Gang who wear bunny ears and terrorize a town.  They are armed with machine guns and strike fear in the hearts of the townspeople.  Goku beats them up, then ties them up with the Boss Rabbit and sends them all to the moon to make treats for children as punishment.

Radditz - “Raditsu”  First son of Bardock and older brother of Goku, he is one of the four survivors of the destruction of planet Vegeta.  He is a tall Saiyajin with long black hair who searches for his brother Goku in order to recruit him as a warrior for Frieza to work with the remaining Saiyajin.  He tells Goku of his past, and tries to persuade him to wipe out the life on Earth and come back to space with him.  When Goku flatly refuses and asks him to leave, Radditz kidnaps his nephew Gohan and tells Goku if he does not destroy all intelligent life on Earth in 3 days, he will never see his son again.  Instead of complying, Goku takes off on Kintoun and, accompanied by Piccolo, follows Radditz to his pod.  Radditz locks young Gohan in the space pod and prepares to battle the two challengers after detecting their approach with his scouter.  Radditz is more than a match for the two, easily beating them down, until Goku gets the idea to grab his brother’s tail, which he knows to be a weakness among his kind.  Desperately Radditz begs him to stop and promises to leave Earth if he lets go, but Piccolo detects that the Saiyajin is lying through his teeth.  Goku lets him go despite Piccolo’s warning, and Radditz simply kicks Goku down and continues to beat him up until Gohan’s anger finally explodes, and the boy bursts out of the space pod.  Gohan attacks Radditz and spears him in the chest, breaking his Saiyajin armor and seriously injuring his uncle.  Radditz seriously underestimates the potential power of both Piccolo and Gohan, but especially Gohan.  In a rage Radditz punches Gohan and knocks him out, but Goku grabs Radditz in a bear hug around the shoulders and holds him there, allowing Piccolo to charge a second Makankosappo.  Because he is weakened from Gohan’s attack, Radditz cannot escape from Goku’s hold, and the deadly Makankosappo goes through both of the Saiyajin entirely.  Before Radditz dies, Piccolo jeers at him that they can wish Goku back with the Dragonballs, and he proceeds to tell him about the seven magic balls that can grant any wish desired.  Unfortunately for Piccolo, Radditz wisely records every event and every word spoken with his scouter, and he sends the information directly to his Saiyajin allies Vegeta and Nappa.  When the two Saiyajin hear of the seven magic balls, they will come searching for them and eventually kill all life on Earth.  Radditz tells Piccolo this and laughs in his face, and in a rage Piccolo blasts him for a final time and kills the Saiyajin shortly before he would have died anyway.

Raisin “Rezun”*  One of the two purple twins, he is a minion of Turles in DBZ Movie 3.  The two of them attack the same opponent together at once, thus overwhelming the opponent.  His twin brother is Rakasei.  He is killed by Goku.

Rakasei*  One of the short purple twins in DBZ Movie 3, he is a crony of Turles who is later killed by Goku.  His twin brother’s name is Raisin.

Ranfan  A female competitor in the 21^st Tenkaichi Budoukai, she uses the “defenseless woman” ploy to get the better of her opponents.  When a male opponent is about to hit her, Ranfan shrieks in a false fright, causing them to pause.  During that moment she quickly delivers a crushing punch or kick.  If this technique fails, she begins to strip and tries to shock or embarrass her opponent.  Namu is only able to defeat her by attacking her with his eyes closed.  Ranfan was born is 726 AD, she is 5’5” tall and weighs 111 lbs, and her home address is WWB131348C.

Recoome - “Rikuumu”   The second strongest member of the Ginyu Force.  He is a huge, somewhat ugly guy with bulging muscles, and a small tuft of orange hair on his head that grows thinner as he gets repeatedly blasted by Gohan, Kryllan and Vegeta.  As he battles on, he also loses teeth and continues to get even uglier.  Recoome has a number of attacks to his credit, most of them with simplistic, often silly names such as “Recoome Punch” or “Recoome Body Attack!”  The anime takes it a bit further, but the Pioneer dubbed version takes it so far as to even give Recoome a battle quote that is in reality a haiku: “My name is Recoome / It rhymes with doom, and you’ll be / Hurting all too soon!”  Recoome breaks every bone in Krillin’s body, and beats on Gohan a while.  Vegeta takes on the behemoth, but even the Saiyajin prince cannot match the strength of the brute.  Just before Recoome fires what could have been a fatal blow to Vegeta, Gohan dives in at the last moment and saves him.  Later when Goku arrives, he knocks out Recoome with a single punch to the gut.  Not long after, Vegeta finishes the unconscious brute with a large handblast.

Red Leader - “Redo Sousei”  (Commander Red)   The leader of the Red Ribbon Army.  He is a midget and strongly dislikes this fact, especially when General Black, his right-hand man and the tallest member of the Army, stands beside him.  He controls the entire Army and oversees every action and step his army takes to conquer the world.  Red desires the Dragonballs to grant his greatest wish.  He pulls thousands upon thousands of men to his cause with the image of world domination, and creates the Red Ribbon Army with the ambitions to take over the world.  In the final episodes of the Red Ribbon Army Saga, Red reveals his secret true wish to General Black, which is to be taller.  Black is totally shocked and horrified by this discovery, and out of pure contempt he shoots Red in the forehead and quickly takes over the Red Ribbon Army himself, re-naming it the Black Ribbon Army.

Character Guide: S 

Salt - “Zorudo”* A short, red crony of Garlic Junior.  He wears Mongolian style clothing, and is a little shorter than Gohan.  Salt is fairly weak, and is one of the first to die in the saga. 

Sanshyo* Garlic Junior’s muscle-bound minion in DBZ Movie 1, “Return My Gohan!” or, as the dubbed version goes, “Deadzone”.  His battle cry is “Pepperoni!” in the dub, and he is killed by Piccolo, who takes his revenge on Garlic Junior’s men for attacking him in the wilderness at the opening scene of the movie. 

Sauza* The leader of Cooler’s Special Forces team in DBZ Movie 5, “Battle of the Strongest”.  He is knocked out early on in the movie, but he manages to survive up until the end.  He is killed by Piccolo with a Makankosappo. 

Seibamen - “Saibai Men” (Cultivars) Little green foot soldiers that the Saiyajin and/or Frieza’s men utilize whenever they don’t want to get their hands dirty, so to speak.  In the manga, their name translates literally to cultivars.  When warriors do not consider their opponents worthy enough to fight them, they often use seibamen to take them out instead.  These creatures are more like biological weapons.  They are plant-like, and stored in seed-form in a small vial.  When the seeds are planted, and a special solution poured over the seeds, it takes only a few seconds before they pop out of the ground as wild little green monsters. Seibamen are brutal and random, but not very intelligent.  They don’t speak, only screech and utter their own throaty cries, yet they understand speech, and are capable of following simple instruction.  Each seibaman is fairly strong, with a power level of 1,200 (about the same power level as Radditz), but probably their best technique is their kamikaze explosion tactic.  Nappa and Vegeta use the seibamen, six in all, to fight Krillin, Gohan and the crew first instead of fighting Earth’s forces themselves to show the Earthlings how weak they are in comparison to their own Saiyajin power.  When one of the seibamen shows the slightest sign of weakness, Vegeta kills it for its incompetence. Yamcha nearly kills one, but unfortunately fails to finish it off.  It grabs him from behind and uses its kamikaze attack to kill them both.  Piccolo and Krillin finish off the remaining seibamen.

Senbe Norimaki  (Dr. Slump) A main character of Toriyama’s manga “Dr Slump,” he lives in Penguin Village with Arale-chan (Arale Norimaki).  He is a self-proclaimed genius and created Arale-chan (an android) and many wacky inventions such as a Time Stop watch and several vehicles.  He was born in 722 AD. 

Shao The dog-ninja crony of Emperor Pilaf.  He and Mai usually work together to carry out the work of their ambitious Emperor, who is both short of stature and temper.  Shao and Mai don’t accomplish a whole lot whenever Goku and crew get involved, however.  Shao is not particularly smart, but his original dub voice sounds kind of cute. 

Sharpener - “Shyapuna” One of Gohan’s classmates at Orange Star High School.  He is a tall jock with long blonde hair, and he participates in many sports and clubs.  He tries to torment Gohan for a while in school, but Gohan hardly notices.  Later he befriends Gohan when he realizes that Gohan is capable of catching baseballs 20 feet in the air and taking a fast-ball directly to the face without so much as flinching.  In the anime, Sharpener embarks on a “quest” to unmask the Great Saiyaman during the 25th Tenkaichi Budoukai, and he tries all sorts of wacky things to get the Great Saiyaman to take off his sunglasses.  He finally does get a picture of him without the sunglasses, though it was too quick for him to see with his eyes.  However, Piccolo sees this, and deliberately raises his ki to bust all the cameras and video cameras in the vicinity, including all news reporters’ cameras.

Shen The alias that Kami enters the 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai under.  He possesses the body of a typical nerdy-looking guy to disguise himself so that he can defeat Piccolo under the public eye.  His name is a pun on the first part of the Earth dragon’s name, Shenlong, and it means “God” (the second part means “dragon”). 

Shenlong - “Shenrongu” The dragon of the Earth Dragonballs, created in the year 470 AD by Kami.  The name Shenlong literally means “dragon god”.  This dragon appears when all seven Dragonballs are gathered in one place and someone utters “Come out, Shenlong!”. He has the power to grant one wish to any person that calls upon him once he has arrived.  However, he can never grant the same wish twice, and he cannot grant a wish that goes beyond the power of his creator, Kami.  When the wish is made and after it is granted, Shenlong leaves once again, and the Dragonballs scatter all across the Earth.  The Dragonballs also turn to stone, as they cannot be used for a year after a wish is granted.  When the year has passed, the Dragonballs become active again, ready to be gathered and wished upon.  When his creator dies, the dragon “dies” with him, and so Shenlong and the Earth Dragonballs disappears for a while when Piccolo and Kami die.  However, when Dende is appointed the new Kami, he takes the place of the old Kami and the Shenlong can live on, even if the old Kami (who had fused with Piccolo) were to die.  The Earth Dragon and Dragonballs return when Piccolo is wished back (and Kami returns also).  The Earth Dragonballs are relatively small, each about the size of a large orange. 

Shin -   see East Kaioshin Shougesh -   see Panboukin 

General Silver - “Shiruba Taisa” The very first member of the Red Ribbon Army who encounters and battles Goku. He is strong by normal human standards, but Goku defeats him easily and knocks him out. 

Slug - “Suraga”* An old Namekian, and the only other Namek alive besides Piccolo/Kami that is not an offspring of Guru.  Also like Piccolo/Kami, he did not know of his Namekian origins, although it is never made clear if he only forgot them somehow after the passage of so much time, or he lost his memory, just as Piccolo/Kami had. He appears in DBZ Movie 4 as the emperor of a frozen, sunless mobile planet.  At the beginning of the movie, Slug’s planet nearly collides with the Earth.  In order to save Earth, Goku and Kryllan fly out to the planet and destroy it. However, Slug made it off the frozen planet in his ship, along with most of his army, and he lands on Earth planning to take over the planet.  He is not weak, but he is very old, and when he hears of the dragonballs from Bulma, he reads her mind for information about the dragonballs, and sends his men off to search for them.  An unknown length of time later, perhaps only days, they manage to collect all of the dragonballs and bring them back to Slug, who wishes to be young again.  With that accomplished, his power has greatly increased, and he continues his conquest of Earth.  Piccolo and Goku do most of the fighting in the movie, and manage to destroy most of his minions.  Slug powers up so high that he turns into a “Super Namek,” and uses an ability that has only been seen once before, when Piccolo Daimaou increased his size and strength by many times. It seems that he will defeat Goku, until Piccolo remembers that Gohan’s whistling nearly incapacitated him at the beginning of the movie.  After ripping off his own ears, he screams at Gohan to whistle that song, which the boy does, and throws Slug into a screaming fit on the ground.  Namek ears are so huge that their hearing is acute far beyond even that of a Saiyajin.  When Slug increases his size to that of a giant, his ears grow several hundred times larger as well, making the whistling hurt all the more.  Goku finishes Slug with a Genki Dama. 

Snow - “Suno” A little girl about nine years old who lives in Jingle Village.  She rescues Goku from the freezing cold weather, which he is unaccustomed to and poorly equipped for, when his plane crashes in the cold northern region. 

Soybean - “Daizu”* The shorthaired, necklace-wearing crony of Turles in DBZ Movie 3.  He is killed by Goku. 

Spopovitch - “Supopobitchi” Spopovitch was once a normal, though strong human who fought well in the previous Tenkaichi Budoukai.  Babidi took control of his mind during the Buu Saga, and he was turned into an evil, maniacal powerhouse.  With Yamuu as his assistant, Spopovitch is sent by Babidi to collect energy for his master at the 25th Tenkaichi Budoukai.  He fights Videl in the first round, and he nearly beats her to death before Gohan steps in.  Yamuu and Spopovitch team up on Gohan, who goes Super Saiyajin, and using a special device, they rob him of his energy.  After completely draining him, they return to their master Babidi to deliver the energy to him.  Babidi soon decides they have outlived their usefulness and causes both Spopovitch and Yamuu to explode. 

Supa Man - An inhabitant of Penguin Village.  He is a short, pudgy Clark Kent look-alike who can change into his alter ego “Supa Man” by running into a telephone booth and putting on a classic Superman garb.  The Japanese lettering on his chest is the kana “su”, as opposed to an “S” on his shirt.  He is really just an average human with average strength, but he claims to have super powers which he gains by eating pickled plums.  While parked on the street he meets Blue Shogun, who orders him to step out of his car and let him drive off in it.  The man refuses and promptly runs into a nearby telephone booth and changes into “Supa Man”.  He then steps out and declares that he will not give up his car to any source of evil.  Blue Shogun calmly goes to the telephone booth, picks it up and crushes it in his hands.  After that, “Supa Man” gladly gives Blue his car and even gives him directions to the nearest airport.  As Blue drives away, “Supa Man” stands triumphant, declaring that he has made that particular place of ground that he’s standing on a safer place.

Character Guide T-U

General Tao - “Tao Pai Pai” Brother of Crane Elder, he is a world-renowned assassin who works for the Red Ribbon Army.  His main job is to locate Dragonballs and take out Goku.  Having never been defeated, he at first assumes that stopping the antics of a small child is a simple task, until he realizes that Goku is more than what he seems. At one point, he throws a grenade at Goku and leaps high into the air, thinking he’s won.  But Goku instead uses his Power Pole like a baseball bat and smacks it away.  Unfortunately for Tao Pai Pai, the grenade goes flying into the air right for him, and detonates in his face.  Tao manages to survive, but is forced to recreate some parts of his body as a cyborg.  The next time Tao Pai Pai appears is in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budoukai where he faces off with Tien.  As Tien was once Crane Elder’s student, Tao Pai Pai proclaims Tien to be a traitor to his brother and himself.  During the match, Tao pulls a dagger from his robotic arm and slashes Tien across the chest, leaving a permanent scar.  Tien still defeats him, knocking him out with a swift powerful punch.  Tao Pai Pai returns again much later in the anime midway through the Cell Saga and meets Goku’s son Gohan.  His pink shirt with the words “kill you” on the back is a nice touch to his wickedness.  He tries to trick Goku out of the Dragonballs he’s gathered, but fails despite Goku’s total naiveté concerning Tao’s intent.  Tao finally gives up and lets him walk away without a fight, which Tao knows would be suicide.  Tao Pai Pai stands 5’8” tall and weighs 155 ½ lbs, and he of course declines to disclose his home address at the Tenkaichi Budoukai, due to the fact that he is a world famous assassin.

Tien - “Tienshinhan” One of the few humans to ever master his ki and perhaps the strongest human ever to exist.  Tien is considered human despite the third eye in the middle of his forehead, which never blinks, but usually looks in the same direction that his two normal eyes are looking.  Tienshinhan trained under Crane Elder when he was young.  Dedicated and strong-willed, he was the perfect student, and thus he learned quickly from his master.  Tien trained hard until he became an incredibly powerful warrior not to be reckoned with by any on Earth.  His past is never fully revealed, but through the course of several adventures he becomes best friends with Chaozu the young emperor, and gives up his dedication to his master as an assassin when he discovers a plot against the emperor.  He faces off against Goku in the finals of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budoukai, and it seems that he is about to win until Piccolo Daimaou’s spawn Tambourine enters the scene and disrupts the match.  The match is never finished, and so the winner of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budoukai is never determined, except to a draw between Goku and Tien. Tien stays loyally by the side of Chaozu, his travel companion and sparring partner, and his closest friend.  He has many moves that the others picked up from him and used in battle.  Some examples of these are Taiyoken (Solar Flare) and the Tri-Form technique.  However, unlike the others, Tien masters the Tri-Form technique and expands on it until he creates multiple forms of himself, sometimes 4 or more.   He also masters a move called the Kikoho, or the Triangle beam, the same used to stall Imperfect Cell, an act that nearly kills Tien.  He weighs 166 lbs. and is 6’1” tall, making him the second tallest member of the Z crew.

“Toma”* A tall, muscular member of Bardock’s crew in the Bardock Special, he is second in command of the team and Bardock’s best friend.  He is the last of Bardock’s team to die, except for Bardock himself.  When Bardock travels to planet Meet, he finds his entire crew slaughtered.  The only one left alive is Toma, who is fatally wounded.  Toma tells Bardock how Frieza’s Elite Forces and Dodoria killed them because Frieza feared the Saiyajin were becoming too strong, especially Bardock’s team.  The red band that Bardock wears is actually the same white band that Toma has wrapped about his arm, soaked with Toma’s own blood that Bardock wipes from his friend’s face as Toma makes his last request – to stop Frieza.

Torah -   see Toma

Totepo* The big, burly member of Bardock’s team in the Bardock Special.  He is another one of the strong, silent type.  In fact, he never speaks a word in the entire movie!  However, in the dubbed version, FUNi gives him one or two phrases for some odd reason.

Chibi Trunks - “Chibi Torankusu”  (Young Trunks) Son of Vegeta and Bulma, Trunks is only an infant when he first appears in DBZ during the Android Saga.  He has purple hair like his grandfather Dr. Briefs, but his facial features, stance and strong Saiyajin pride clearly show that he is a descendant of the Saiyajin royal line.  He has a sister named Bra who is about 12 years younger than he.  His role becomes much larger by the Buu Saga, at which point Trunks is 8 years old and fantastically strong for his age.  He goes Super Saiyajin while training with Vegeta in the gravity room, an event that comes as a shock to all considering his young age.  Filled with pride, Chibi Trunks is adventurous and constantly looks for stronger opponents to challenge, much like his father.  During the final episodes of DBZ, Trunks, who is now 18, appears to be developing the same personality as Future Trunks.  This can be seen in adult Trunks throughout GT as well.  Trunks is born in the year 766 AD, and is 29 years old by the end of GT.

Future Trunks - “Torankusu no Mirai”  (Mirai Trunks) Son of Vegeta and Bulma, he is a purple-haired, blue-eyed teenage sex symbol, and probably the biggest heartthrob for the lady fans of DBZ, which is what his character was meant for (especially considering he’s the most powerful, and considered by many the sexiest unmarried male character in DBZ).  He also carries a sword, which seems unnecessary considering the circumstances of ki in DBZ.  It is popularly believed that Trunks was drawn with the sword mostly for the looks, because of a possible assumption of Toriyama that guys are into weapons and girls would think it sexy.  Trunks is about 18 years old when he first appears in DBZ.  He arrives just in time to kill Frieza and King Cold, and to warn the Z fighters of the android attack that will occur 3 years in their future.  He is from an alternate future in which Goku dies of a viral heart disease not long after defeating Frieza and King Cold.  With Goku gone, there is no Super Saiyajin to stop the evil androids of Dr. Gero from wreaking havoc across the Earth.  The two androids defeat and destroy every last Z fighter but Gohan, who loses an arm in the onslaught.  Born in the year 766 AD, Trunks was only an infant when the androids attacked and killed the crew, leaving him fatherless.  Gohan trains Trunks in martial arts as he grows older, while in the meantime the androids continue to destroy cities without mercy and kill crowds of people for fun.  When Trunks is about 10 or 11, Gohan is killed in a battle with the androids.  In the anime (and the movie), it is this event that triggers the great emotion within Trunks to be released, causing him to turn into a Super Saiyajin.  In the manga, he already has the ability to turn Super Saiyajin by the time Gohan dies.  With a few years of work, his mother Bulma invents a time machine that allows Trunks to travel back through time to the year 764 AD, two years before he is born, and give Goku the heart medicine to cure his disease. Because the cure was not discovered until several years after Goku’s death, this step is imperative to Goku’s survival.  With this accomplished, Trunks returns to his own time.  Normally this would create a paradox, with the argument that because of his actions, his present time no longer exists.  This is not true in this case, however, because by traveling back in time, Trunks creates two separate dimensions altogether, so that no matter how many changes he makes in the previous dimension, his will remain the same.  Trunks returns to his own time and waits 6 months for the time machine to recharge.  It is assumed that he trains during this period, although it is never directly stated.  Trunks returns to the past in 767 AD, only to find that the new dimension is already much changed from his own.  He stays to fight and help the crew to overcome the androids.  He also stays in order to learn more about the father he never knew.  He trains with Vegeta in the Room of Spirit and Time for the equivalent of a year, where both reach Ultimate Super Saiyajin.  He is killed by Cell near the end of the Saga, but brought back with a wish using the Dragonballs.  After Cell is defeated, he waits a few days to give his final goodbyes to his young mother Bulma and his father Vegeta, who finally admits his acceptance of him as a worthy son.  Trunks returns to his dimension once more, this time much stronger than before, and with his great new power destroys the androids and Cell from his own time period easily.  He wields a powerful sword of unknown origin (although the writers of Movie 13 attempt to explain it using Tapion’s sword as a gift, which makes little sense considering there were no Z fighters left in Future Trunk’s dimension to defeat Hildegarn except Gohan).  He uses his sword to slice Frieza to pieces in the Trunks Saga, but upon his arrival 3 years later, he hardly ever draws it.  Upon chipping it in a battle with Android 18, Trunks learns that the sword will no longer do him any good in battle.  After this incident, Trunks does not try to fight with his sword again until he returns home, when he battles the Cell of his dimension.

Turles - “Taresu”* The main villain of DBZ Movie 3, “The Ultimate Decisive Battle for Earth” (“The Tree of Might” in dub).  He is a pure-blooded Saiyajin, a survivor of the destruction of planet Vegeta.  He looks very similar to Goku, but despite the popular belief that they are brothers, distant cousins or even clones, the two are in no way related whatsoever.  The similarities in their features are most likely due to lack of creativity by the anime artists during the making of the movie.  Turles has darker skin tones than most Saiyajin, and wears dark purple armor.  With a small group of followers, he travels the universe searching for a planet with enough resources to plant a legendary magic seed of the Shinseju Tree.  According to legend, the tree absorbs all the planet’s resources to grow, and once the tree grows to its fullest, it bears fruit of the Gods, which contain all the energy retrieved from the planet’s resources.  If the fruit is eaten, that person will gain all the energy stored in the fruit.  With a great lust for power, Turles lands on Earth and plants his seed.  In a matter of hours the tree grows for several miles around until it reaches hundreds of miles across the Earth, destroying all cities and signs of life in its path.  Goku and his friends fly to the scene and battle his crew, only to find that they are overpowered except for Goku.  Turles does not participate in battle but instead kidnaps Gohan and takes off for the trunk of the massive tree.  Once he realizes that Gohan is part Saiyajin, he gleefully turns the boy’s eyes up to the full moon (while he takes care to look away), at which point Gohan transforms into Oozaru and wreaks havoc.  Piccolo challenges Turles, but the Saiyajin is far stronger, and simply knocks him away.  Although he has to work a little harder, Turles defeats even Goku with ease.  Once the tree grows to it’s fullest, and bears fruit, Turles snatches up the fruit and consumes not one, but several pieces.  Turles returns to finish Goku, and they face off within the trunk of the colossal tree.  Goku fires a Genki Dama, or Spirit Bomb (which was created from the energy stored in the fruit), at Turles and the tree, destroying both with the enormous ball of Earth’s energy.

Upa The son of Bora, the Indian chief, he helps his father guard the base of Kami’s Tower.  When his father is tragically killed, Upa accompanies Goku for a while and helps him recover all of the dragonballs so that they can wish his father back to life.

Character Guide: V - Z

Vegeta - “Bejiita” The Prince of the Saiyajin race, he is the son of King Vegeta and one of the only Saiyajin to survive the destruction of the planet Vegeta.  He has peculiar hair that grows almost straight up and a large widow’s peak.  Vegeta’s most recognizable feature is almost certainly his hair, because it is so different from any other character in the series and makes him easy to identify.  Vegeta’s attitude is generally one of great confidence.  He is somewhat cocky, very proud and self-righteous.  He has a mocking, crooked, left-sided smirk, which he uses quite often in the Saiyan and Frieza Sagas.  Another peculiar thing about Vegeta is that he never once calls Goku by his Earth-given name, but only his Saiyajin name – Kakarotto (Kakarot).  At first Goku dislikes this, but he grows used to it as time passes and he learns more about Vegeta’s reasoning.  For most of the series, Vegeta is bent on becoming stronger than Goku.  He becomes obsessed with the idea of one day defeating Kakarotto in battle, and this remains his one desire for a very long while.  Vegeta was born in 732 AD, and from the start, all knew he was destined for greatness.  As a child, his power level exceeded that of even his father’s. After planet Vegeta is destroyed, Vegeta works under Frieza wiping planets of life and destroying rebellious armies.  Vegeta starts out as a major villain of DBZ, as he comes to Earth seeking possession of the dragonballs.  He battles Goku for several episodes in the Saiyan Saga, but despite the close calls, the fight ends in a tie and the two Saiyajin separate to recover.  Vegeta heads for planet Namek to collect the Namek Dragonballs, only to find that Frieza has already obtained most of them.  He temporarily allies himself with Krillin and Gohan when the group comes up against the Ginyu Force.  Goku surprises everyone by giving the Saiyajin prince a senzu bean, but even more surprising are Vegeta’s actions during the Frieza Saga.  He saves Gohan’s life a total of 4 times, and Krillin’s life twice.  He helps Goku by giving him access to the rejuvenation tank in Frieza’s ship.  Vegeta nearly achieves Super Saiyajin while fighting Frieza, but never quite reaches it.  Frieza beats him to a bloody pulp until Goku arrives, but Frieza fires one last fatal shot at Vegeta, killing him. As he is dying, Vegeta reveals the secrets of his past and what Frieza has done to his family, the royal line, and the Saiyajin race.  Because of this speech, Goku changes and becomes extremely angry with Frieza.  A few episodes later, Vegeta appears to Goku in a vision…naked…(he wears pants in the dub, unfortunately for the lady fans) and retells the tragic tale of the Saiyajin race and their great loss all because of Frieza.  This speech inspires Goku to take revenge on Frieza for all the pain and suffering he has caused.  Vegeta is revived with the Earth Dragonballs, and just before he is transported to Earth with a wish from the Namek Dragonballs, he manages to find Goku and Frieza.  He commends Goku on his transformation as a Super Saiyajin and causes Frieza to totally freak out when he sees Vegeta, as Frieza knows full well that he had killed the Saiyajin prince several hours before.  Vegeta comes to accept his situation on Earth and lives at Capsule Corporation for the time being while waiting for Goku to come back.  It is at this point he becomes more acquainted with Bulma and her family.  About this time, it has become clear to most that Vegeta is more a neutral ally to the general cause. When Goku does not return, Vegeta angrily takes a Capsule Corp. ship and leaves Earth to search for him.  He returns in time for the Trunks Saga, and a few years later leaves again to train out in space alone, where he eventually turns Super Saiyajin in a rage during a heavy meteor shower on a small planet which could have killed him at any time.  His total frustration that two Super Saiyajins can exist where it was previously thought that there was only one legendary Super Saiyajin throws Vegeta into a rage and he trains furiously at the thought that he is a failure to his father and the Saiyajin race because of his weakness.  During these three years of peace, Vegeta and Bulma have a son named Trunks.  Vegeta trains alone with Future Trunks for a year inside the Room of Spirit and Time, where both reach Ultimate Super Saiyajin.  Vegeta is full of pride and expects a lot of his son, and does not seem to care very much about him.  However, when Cell kills Trunks near the end of the Cell Saga, Vegeta loses all control and flies at Cell, attacking him with a furious barrage of punches and kicks with such energy as he never had before.  While Gohan and Cell are wrestling with the two biggest Kamehamehas ever formed in a final bout of power, Vegeta tactfully positions himself behind Cell and fires a Final Flash at his back, surprising Cell and causing him to lose his concentration so that Gohan’s Kamehameha overwhelms him and literally destroys Cell down to every last particle.  Vegeta and Bulma do in fact get married, apparently sometime between the Cell Saga and the Buu Saga, and although it is never shown nor the exact date revealed, the event is mentioned in the Japanese version later in the series.  Vegeta is tough on his son, but he really cares about him and Bulma.  In the Buu Saga, Vegeta appears to have calmed down some, but in reality he only looks that way because Goku has been away training in the Afterlife for about 7 years.  When Goku returns, tempers flare, and Vegeta’s jealous anger rises so high that Darbura senses this weakness and instructs Babidi to possess Vegeta and take over his mind, which he does, causing Vegeta to go Majin, an evil form of a person with their mind usually possessed by Babidi and their power level increased greatly.  Vegeta reaches Super Saiyajin 2 in this form and resists most of Babidi’s attempts to control his mind, although he does allow the evil to control his actions.  To get Goku to fight him, he blows up an entire section of the stadium at the 25th Tenkaichi Budoukai (conveniently cleared of people in the dub).  Although battle between Goku and Vegeta appears to be another tie, Vegeta is probably slightly stronger, and while Goku is distracted, Vegeta knocks him out and puts off their fight to face Buu.  While Vegeta appears to have returned to his evil ways, he is really not so hardened deep down.  Vegeta proves this when he meets Buu for the first time, and immediately vows to avenge Gohan’s “death” at Buu’s hands (although he is actually quite alive, his power level drops so low that he is assumed dead).  He fights with Buu for a while, only to find that he is overpowered at every turn. Knowing full well that Buu is capable of killing his son, his wife, and everyone he cares about, he makes the grim but courageous decision to act as a kamikaze force in attempt to destroy Buu once and for all.  Piccolo informs Vegeta that despite the manner of his death and any of his recent accomplishments in life, the millions and perhaps billions of deaths he caused in his youth during his planet-clearing days working for Frieza would override everything, and he would almost certainly go to Hell.  Even with this knowledge, Vegeta makes up his mind to do whatever it takes to save his family and those he cares for.  Trunks tries to stop him, and Vegeta hugs him one last time before he knocks him out and uses Ultimate Final Skill to explode all of his life energy into one great bomb, making the ultimate sacrifice for Earth.  Despite his attempts, Buu survives, and Vegeta apparently (according to Piccolo) goes to Hell.  He returns later in the Buu Saga with the aid of Baba and special permission granted from King Yama to help Goku save Earth.  Vegeta makes the difficult decision to fuse permanently with Goku into Vegetto to defeat Buu (though they defuse a bit later anyway due to special circumstances).  At this point Vegeta is finally coming to terms with the fact that Goku is indeed more powerful than he, and during the fight between Super Saiyajin 3 Goku and Buu, Vegeta admits that Goku is the strongest Saiyajin in the universe.  He is resurrected by the Namek II Dragonballs along with everyone else destroyed by Buu, including the entire population of Earth.  Vegeta even tries to talk the people of Earth into giving up their energy for Goku’s Genki Dama, but Mr. Satan proves to be much better at it, due to his supreme popularity.  After the Buu Saga, Vegeta and Bulma have another child, this time a daughter named Bra.  He becomes quite fond of his daughter and is extremely protective of her.  Bitter enemies from the very beginning of DBZ, Goku and Vegeta prove to be practically best friends by the end of the series.  In GT, Vegeta cuts his trademark hair to make it short and all one length.  He even grows a mustache, although most agree that it is hideous, and should all be very relieved that it only lasts for one episode before he shaves it off.  Because Goku is trapped in a child’s body, Vegeta is actually generally stronger than Goku for most of GT, but Vegeta elects to stay on Earth with his family and guard the planet.  Goku and Vegeta are finally, truly equal in power once they both reach Super Saiyajin level 4, and during GT there is an entire episode completely devoted to Vegeta, an honor that no other character in the series is lucky enough to receive.  At the very end of GT, Vegeta is one of the only characters that actually know where Goku is going and what he will do there.  Although it is never made obvious, Vegeta eventually becomes and remains one of Goku’s closest friends.

Vegetto - “Bejiitto” Considered the single most powerful character in DBZ, Vegetto is the result of the fusion of Goku and Vegeta.  Vegetto appears only in the late Buu Saga.  Goku and Vegeta must put on the Potara earrings given them by Revered Kaioshin in order to become a warrior many times more powerful than either Saiyajin alone. Vegetto is a totally different person, and so his personality is completely different than either of the two Saiyajin who fuse to become him.  A Saiyajin of magnificent power, Vegetto appears to handle Buu with great ease after going Super Saiyajin 2.  However, Vegetto, like all fusions, is extremely cocky, and merely plays with Buu rather than getting to the point and destroying him.  In the manga, Vegetto is only in the storyline for a very short period, but in the anime he lasts for quite a few episodes.  Unlike most fusions during this saga, Vegetto does not have a set time limit in his fused state, but rather is a permanent fusion.  At one point Buu manages to turn Vegetto into a piece of coffee candy, but the Saiyajin maintains his power level even in such a form. His speed in so small a form is incredible, and the coffee candy Vegetto beats the crap out of Buu until he finally changes Vegetto back into his original form.  However, Vegetto continues to waste time toying with Buu until he manages to absorb the fused Saiyajin.  Although the fusion is supposed to be permanent, Buu’s magical enzymes cause Vegetto to break down into his components in order for Buu to gain power from him, and thus Vegetto defuses back into Goku and Vegeta.  Once they are separated, the satisfied Vegeta removes his earring and crushes it in his fist, to which Goku at first objects, but later agrees and does the same.  They both vow never again to fuse in such a manner.

Videl - “Bideru” Daughter of Mr. Satan, Videl is perhaps the strongest female human.  She was born in 756 AD and for the most part grew up with only her father, as her mother died when she was young.  In her spare time Videl fights crime in Satan City. She becomes suspicious of Gohan after meeting him at Orange Star High School, and she even follows him for a brief time to learn more about him.  Videl eventually discovers Gohan’s secret identity as the Great Saiyaman when she catches him changing out of his costume, and using a blackmail-type of threat she gets him to teach her how to fly.  In a matter of days, she learns how to fly, and develops a liking for Gohan.  She even cuts her hair because he had told her the day before that long hair will only get in the way during a fight. Despite the relentless teasing from friends, Videl and Gohan develop a sweet kind of relationship.  Videl becomes very strong for a human, and enters the 25th Tenkaichi Budoukai, only to be beaten nearly to death by Spopovitch in a slanted match.  After the Buu Saga, Videl marries Gohan and has a daughter named Pan.

Yajirobe A sword-wielding, somewhat short, fat warrior monk.  He first meets Goku in Dragonball during the Piccolo Daimaou Saga, where he befriends the boy under a strange set of circumstances.  Cymbal, one of the spawn of Piccolo Daimaou, sneaks up on the two of them while they are in the middle of a conversation. Because both are eager to fight the creature, they play a game of rock-paper-scissors to determine who gets to attack first.  Yajirobe wins and promptly slices the creature in two, cooks his limbs over a fire and eats him. Yajirobe comes to Goku’s rescue in the Saiyan Saga when he bravely slices off Vegeta’s tail while he’s in Oozaru (Great Monkey) form, causing him to transform back to his normal form.  However, after Vegeta is forced to escape the planet, Yajirobe goes straight to the press with his outrageous story of “space fighters”, and takes all (or most) of the credit.  After a while, Yajirobe spends most of his time at Korin’s Tower.  Whether it is to train or simply eat his cooking is uncertain, but he does manage to run errands for the cat-deity between snacks.  During the Garlic Junior Saga, they receive a visit from Maron, Krillin’s girlfriend at the time, and the perfect example of a dumb blonde (if you overlook the fact that her hair is green). Maron nearly drives Yajirobe and Korin up the wall, as either is quite prepared to handle a helpless, sexy woman in their household.  (And who would be prepared?  You don’t exactly meet many women when your home is an impossibly high tower.)  In the Android Saga, Yajirobe finally meets his match – baby Trunks. Apparently, Trunks doesn’t think too highly of the overweight warrior monk, and just about every time Yajirobe holds him, baby Trunks manages to pee on him. Like many early characters, Yajirobe loses a lot of importance later in the series.  By the end of DBZ, he grows a mustache and looks like a fat Mexican. Yajirobe is 5’4” tall, and doesn’t disclose his actual weight to anyone.

Yamcha - “Yamucha” Yamcha begins the series as a teenage desert bandit.  Along with his best friend Puar, he robs wandering travelers in the desert and steals their Capsules.  One of his signature moves is Wolf’s Fang Fist, basically a swift super punch.  His little-known weakness is a terrible fear of women.  Although he attempts to steal the Dragonballs from Goku and his friends many times, he becomes frozen with fear the instant he catches sight of Bulma.  Later Yamcha befriends the gang and helps them in their quest to find the Dragonballs in hopes of wishing for a girlfriend.  After traveling with the group for a while, he gradually learns to deal with females and eventually faces his fear head on when he saves Bulma’s life by carrying her out of Pilaf’s castle.  Although his dreams are dashed after Oolong makes a wish, he finds out Bulma had planned to wish for a boyfriend.  At this point she sees something different in Yamcha, and they decide to date each other.  However, after Yamcha overcomes his phobia, by DBZ he becomes quite the ladies’ man, and as Bulma discovers, he is not the most faithful of boyfriends.  Yamcha dies in the Saiyajin Saga when a kamikaze Seibaman latches onto his back and never lets go.  He travels along Snake Way to train under King Kai along with Tien and Chaozu until the end of the Frieza Saga.  Bulma eventually leaves Yamcha for good, and the desert bandit is once again single.  He changes his hair almost as often as Bulma in the series, except that it seems to get shorter and shorter.  Yamcha seems to be almost a coward in comparison to the major characters of DBZ.  Although he is not as applied when it comes to training, as he would rather goof off, he is quite brave considering he is one of the weakest fighters on the field, and still he continues to help in any way he can.  By the end of DBZ, Yamcha returns to his vagabond life roaming the desert with Puar. Yamcha is 6 feet tall, weighs 151 lbs, and was born in 733 AD, the same year as Bulma.

Yamuu Once a normal human who fought in the previous Tenkaichi Budoukai, Yamuu’s mind is controlled by Babidi during the Buu Saga.  As Spopovitch’s assistant, Yamuu is sent by Babidi to collect energy for his master at the 25th Tenkaichi Budoukai.  After stealing energy from Gohan, Yamuu and Spopovitch return to their master Babidi to deliver the energy to him.  Babidi soon decides they have outlived their usefulness and causes them both to explode.

Zarbon - “Zaabon” Tall, green and handsome, Zarbon is a pretty-boy who works as Frieza’s right hand man.  With a normal power level of 23,000, he is a formidable opponent early in the Frieza Saga.  Little known to anyone is Zarbon’s remarkable ability to transform into an ugly alligator-like creature in order to increase his power level about 5,000.  Few know of this ability that are still alive, because Zarbon almost never transforms unless he has to.  The reason he hates transforming is because the process distorts his handsome features and his smooth voice to those of a repulsive alligator-like monster with a raspy voice.  He is forced to transform to defeat Vegeta, and although Vegeta has known Zarbon for most of his life, the Saiyajin prince had absolutely no knowledge of this ability, and so is well unprepared in their first battle.  The second time Zarbon faces Vegeta, he again must transform to keep up with him.  Bulma, who stands nearby to watch the entire fight, undergoes the typical chain of reactions that Zarbon expects of an onlooker especially a female one.  She goes gaga over him for the first several minutes of the battle, and then screams in horror upon seeing him change from his beautiful figure into a hideous monster. Although he transforms, this time it’s Zarbon who underestimates Vegeta.  The Saiyajin prince fires a blast point blank into his chest that blows a huge hole right through Zarbon’s armor and him, and Vegeta blows him into the water.