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Kami's Palace & Karin's Tower

Shenron/Shenlong

**Shenron (神龍, Shén Lóng)**

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shenlong.png

Voiced by: Kenji Utsumi (DB, Z eps. 21-100, DB Movies 1 and 3, Z Movies 1-4, The Path to Power, Kai eps. 8-51, Battle of Gods, video games up to Raging Blast 2), Masaharu Sato (Z eps. 192-193), Shin Aomori (Z ep. 240, Z Movie 13), Tesshō Genda (Z Movie 12), Daisuke Gōri (GT), Koji Yada (Dr. Slump; 1997 series), Ryūzaburō Ōtomo (Kai eps. 97-123, Super, Resurrection 'F', Broly, video games from 2015 onward)
Voiced by (English): Christopher Sabat (Funimation dub); Doug Parker (DB 1995, DB Movie 1), Don Brown (Z), Dave Pettit (DB 2004, GT) (Ocean/Blue Water dub); Steve Kramer (Harmony Gold dub); Ed Marcus (AB Groupe/"Big Green" dub); Patrick Seitz (Bang Zoom!/Toonami Asia dub in Super)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Abel Rocha (DB, Z, GT, Movies, Kai and Super), Óscar Gómez (DBS: Super Hero)
Voiced by (French): Georges Atlas (DBZ), Antoine Nouel (Kai, Super)
Voiced by (Italian): Giovanni Battezzato

The dragon of the Earth's Dragon Balls, Shenron always comes out to grant wishes to whoever summons him. He was created as a small statue by Mr. Popo, then given life by Kami. After Kami merges with Piccolo, Shenron is given life anew by Dende.

Achilles' Heel: Like other dragons, he'll die (and his balls will become inert) if his creator passes.
Back from the Dead: He actually got killed by King Piccolo after granting his wish, but was later resurrected when Kami and Mr. Popo revealed that he was connected to a small statue version of him, which had broken when he died. Gluing the pieces back together subsequently revived him.
Benevolent Genie: The wish he grants is always exactly what the wisher wants, subject to the limitations of his power. On top of that, if there are legitimate problems with him granting the wish (like how Frieza will come back in pieces when resurrected in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F'), he'll voice his critique without wasting a wish.
- He was also nice enough to give Mai her ice cream in a bucket with ice rather than just dumping it on the ground, even though he technically wasn't supposed to because it wasn't part of the wish. This is also the only case where Shenron was not a Literal Genie.
Shenron: No extra charge for the ice. Your wishes have been granted.
Butt-Monkey: Ever since Beerus' addition to the cast, he's been present at nearly all of Shenron's summonings. And since the normally imposing and awe-inspiring Eternal Dragon is scared out of his mind of the God of Destruction, this has led to Shenron being subject to a previously unheard-of amount of comedy at his expense.
Can't Live Without You: Shenron dies if his creator dies. When Piccolo dies in the battle against the Saiyans, Kami, being Piccolo's good half, and Shenron die with him, forcing the heroes to go to Namek in order to revive their fallen allies. Interestingly enough, when Kami and Piccolo remerge back into the nameless Namekian they originally were, Shenron vanishes again, since it was Kami, not the Namekian he and Piccolo split from, that created Shenron, again forcing the heroes to go to Namek and use their set of Dragon Balls, later bringing Dende as the new guardian.
Catchphrase: "Your wish has been granted. Until the next summoning..."
Deadpan Snarker: He gets very sarcastic when made to hang around for too long.
Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: He does not take kindly to mortals getting uppity with him, suggesting that he has killed people for copping an attitude with him, or simply taking too long to make a wish.
Dragons Are Divine: Shenron is a benevolent, powerful lung dragon who grants wishes to those that summon him. Also, "divine dragon" is the literal meaning of "Shen Long."
Expy:
- The Shenron made by Earth's Kami (and later sustained by Dende) is one of Namek's Porunga. Pretty much every aspect of them is otherwise quite different, though it still comes as a bit of a surprise when the latter turns out to be a bit more personable(Fitting considering Porunga is the god of love for the Namekians).
- Both Shenron and Porunga are this to Super Shenron, from which all other Eternal Dragons are derived.
Exact Words: This is one of the small dilemmas when dealing with him. You have to word your wish very carefully, or else risk some unforeseen side effects. One of the biggest is that while Shenron can basically rewind everything to just before the recent disaster happened (if they needed to restore something AND revive people in one wish) if they don't specify who they want to leave out, it literally puts them back to where they were at the beginning of the whole mess. It doesn't help that sometimes just saying "except the bad guys" won't always work, considering there's a good number of Token Evil Teammates on the Z-Fighters' side.
Flat Character: For a time, Shenron was more of a stoic plot device than an actual character, largely owing to the fact he literally is the dragon balls given form. Super has decided to give him some personality, however, namely in his fear of Beerus.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: When he grants a wish, his eyes glow brighter.
Hour of Power: Shenron has a limit to how long he can maintain his physical form without making a wish, which is why he gets annoyed with people who waste his time and may just leave of his own accord if they take too long. In Super, he ends up pushing himself to the limit thanks to Bulma threatening him with retaliation from Beerus.
Informed Attribute: Shenron's described as a dragon that one does not want to anger, lest he retaliate. This is never shown at any point, even when characters start to disrespect him and ask impossible things for him. The worst he ever does is swat at Icarus when he tries to attack him and even then that was quickly overlooked.
It Only Works Once: Shenron can't grant the same wish twice. This means he can only revive a specific person once. Fortunately, Porunga can revive people Shenron has already revived once.
Literal Genie: While he's not a jackass about it, he sticks to the parameters of the wish; the people Vegeta killed on Namek weren't revived when "everyone killed by Freeza or his minions" was. This is viciously lampshaded by Vegeta.
Vegeta: The missing ones must be from the village I slaughtered. The conditions were "killed by Freeza's men", correct? Well, since Freeza "discharged" me from his employment, I no longer qualify as one of "Freeza's men", yes? (Chuckles)
Magic A Is Magic A: There are rules regarding what kind of wishes Shenron can and can't grant and those rules are usually followed. It becomes a Running Gag post Z that people keep asking Shenron to grant impossible wishes.
Meaningful Name: Shenlong is Chinese for "God/Divine Dragon".
Not So Stoic:
- In Fusion Reborn, he gets annoyed when nobody makes a wish — which is carried over into Kai and Super, as when they keep him waiting even for a few minutes, he's similarly affected. You can see a few sweat droplets appear when Icarus attacks him in The Tree of Might (feeling awkward rather than afraid).
- In Movie 14 when he learns he's in the presence of Beerus the God of Destruction he freaks out, and even politely apologizes before he leaves.
  Goku: Well, this wish isn't for me, it's actually for Lord Beerus, so...
  Shenron: What!? He's here? (sees Beerus) Ah... g-good day, Lord Beerus.
- The first time he showed a trait like that was in manga itself. After the battle with Cell he's summoned so everyone killed by Cell is resurrected, and when Goku doesn't come back, the characters start to wonder what they'll do to bring him back, only for Goku to contact them via Kaio, telling them he's okay with being dead, and after the conversation is over, Shenlong is confused why no one asked about the second wish.
Shenlong: *ahem*. I'm still waiting for that second wish. Hello...?
Our Dragons Are Different:
- He grants wishes. Not many dragons do that.
- This applies to the difference between Shenron and Porunga as well as there are different rules.
Reality Warper: Naturally, being a wish-granter and all.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted; he's got an intimidating presence, limited patience, and would prefer that his summonings be brief but other than that he's a benevolent deity.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: In Resurrection 'F', when Sorbet first wishes for Frieza's revival, Shenron says that it's pointless to bring him back since he would return in pieces. After talking with Tagoma, Sorbet demands that his wish be granted. Shenron calls it a foolish wish but grants it anyway. Turns out, Shenron was right, although for the wrong reason. Freeza being in pieces wasn't the problem, because healing tank technology had progressed to be able to bring him back from that. The wish was extremely foolish since Frieza chose to get revenge on Goku instead of returning to his empire. That decision led to his entire army and what is left of the empire being destroyed, the very thing Sorbet originally brought Frieza back to prevent.
Seen It All: Shenron is remarkably unflappable, and odd wishes (like Oolong’s wish for panties) don’t even make him blink. The only thing that makes him crack is Beerus.
Series Mascot: A chibified version of Shenron serves as one of the main mascots for the franchise, alongside Goku himself.
Spell My Name With An S:
- The name Shenron comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese reading of Shenlong (the actual on'yomi rendering would be Shinryuu). In the English dub, it's been often mispronounced as "Sheh-n-rah-n" instead of as "Sheh-n-roh-n".
- Some European versions were weirder by calling him Sheron, pronounced basically as Sharon.
Strong as They Need to Be: The amount of wishes he can grant isn't consistent since Dragon Ball's revival. Originally, it was one wish per use when they were linked to Kami. In Cell saga, Dende's Shenlong can grant two wishes, but later in Buu saga it became three^note. In Battle of Gods he can only grant one wish in the movie and anime. In Resurrection F he can grant one wish in the manga, two wishes in the movie, and three in the anime. In Broly he can grant only one. In Super Hero he can grant three. While a few of these can be justified (For example, two wishes were used up in the anime before Broly's movie), they generally can't be.
Took a Level in Badass: Once Kami and Piccolo re-merge and Shenron disappears, the heroes recruit Dende to make a new set of Dragon Balls for them, and the new Shenron comes with a whole range of improvements. Around the time of the Cell arc, he gains the ability to grant two wishes, and later in Buu saga he can grant three, which's a huge improvement since Dende in Cell saga said Shenron would have to grant only two wishes to be able to do mass revivals, and in Buu saga Shenron can grant three while still being able to do mass revivals. He then gets another during Super Hero, allowing him to unlock hidden potential just like Guru plus a bit extra.

Kami

Kami (神)

Voiced by (Japanese): Takeshi Aono (Most media), Bin Shimada (Kai ep. 66 onward)
Voiced by (English): Christopher Sabat (Most media including remastered Z eps. 76-77), Chris Forbis (Z eps. 76-77 only; 1999) (Funimation dub); Dale Wilson (Z Seasons 1 and 4), Ward Perry (Z Season 2, Z Movie 1), Scott McNeil (Z ep. 54 in a flashback), Mike Shepherd (DB) (Ocean/Blue Water dub); Ed Marcus (AB Groupe/"Big Green" dub)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Carlos Segundo (DB and Z), César Árias (Kai)
Voiced by (Italian): Mario Zucca

"There's a good reason you mistook me for Piccolo, my boy. Ages ago, we two beings were one. A single coin with two opposing sides. My name is Kami, and I am indeed the guardian of this planet."

Goku's third mentor, and literally the God of Earth, Guardian of Earth in the English dub. An alien who was sent from Namek during a climate disaster, Kami, in his eagerness to earn this title, hastily expelled the evil within him to be worthy of it; this gave rise to the tyrant known as the Demon King Piccolo, and the guilt of being responsible for his existence has haunted Kami for centuries. He is also the creator of Earth's Dragon Balls and the Eternal Dragon Shenron.

The Ace: The Nameless Namekian, aka Piccolo and Kami. The Elder Namek called him a prodigy among the Namekians and Dragon Clan, which was why they sent him to Earth when the weather changed on Namek. When Krillin tells the Grand Elder that Piccolo was killed by a Saiyan, he asks if it was a Super Saiyan who did it. After reading Krillin's mind and learning that the Nameless Namekian split into Piccolo and Kami, he says that if they were whole no ordinary Saiyan would have been able to kill him. Nail echoes these thoughts, telling Piccolo that if he had come back whole he would have been stronger than Frieza. It is not until the Cell Saga that we finally see the power of Nameless Namek, and he doesn't disappoint. He's stronger than a Super Saiyan at the time and Imperfect Cell and is an even match for Androids 17 and 18. He also combines the battle experience and wit of Piccolo, and the godly knowledge and wisdom of Kami.
Achilles' Heel: Pre-fusion, he's Piccolo's walking, talking Achilles' Heel. He's not as powerful as Piccolo, and both die if one does.
The Atoner: For creating Demon King Piccolo. He feels so much guilt that he begs Tien to kill him to save Goku from Piccolo Jr.
Big Good: Until Z. He was the Guardian of the Earth and looked over the planet for centuries. After returning to life, he shares the role with King Kai, helping him revive the Namekians and bringing everyone safely to Earth using the Earth and Namek's Dragon Balls. He officially steps down once he merges with Piccolo.
Bilingual Bonus:
- In the third tournament arc he possesses a person named Shen ("Hero" in the English dub). "Shen" is Chinese for "God".
- Also "Kami" means God as well.
Born Winner: Much like the Saiyans, the Namekians are born winners with their larger-than-average battle power along with their mystical talents like some being able to heal, awakening others' hidden powers, and creating Dragon Balls. However, the Nameless Namekian is a winner even among them. He's called a prodigy among his race and is said to be strong enough to challenge a Super Saiyan and beat Frieza, according to the Elder Namek and Nail.
Can't Live Without You: If he dies, then Piccolo will die and vice versa.
Cessation of Existence: By re-fusing with Piccolo, Kami sacrifices his entire being; body, mind, and soul to allow Piccolo to gain not only his knowledge but the power they once had as the Nameless Namekian. Kami is one of the few characters to essentially no longer exist within the series.
Combat Pragmatist: Used and abused Obfuscating Stupidity to win easier during the 23rd Tenkaichi, and infamously headbutted Yamcha in the crotch. The latter should have gotten him disqualified, but his act made it look like an accident.
Cool Old Guy: He is the least eccentric and/or perverted mentor in the entire series.
Demonic Possession: Inverted—he ends up possessing a person named Hero ("Shen" in the Japanese original) to fight Piccolo Jr. before being sealed away. Fortunately, he exits his host before being sealed off so the poor man doesn't share Kami's fate.
Didn't See That Coming: During the Piccolo Jr. Saga, he tried to use the Evil Containment Wave to trap Piccolo just as Mutaito had trapped King Piccolo. He's completely caught by surprise when Piccolo Jr. reverses the wave back on him, gloating about how foolish Kami was to try it in the first place:
Piccolo: If you thought this incarnation would be beaten like the last, then you have not thought!
Dreaming of Things to Come: He has a premonition about a monster stronger than the androids ending all life, and wonders if it has anything to do with that thing that came crawling out of the time machine. After finishing the series and looking back, it seems he was getting visions of two different monsters.
Driven to Suicide: When the situation with Piccolo gets bad enough, he tries to get Tien to kill him to put an end to it. After the battle when he confirms none of the heroes will finish Piccolo off, Kami attempts to do so to atone for his mistakes and stop Piccolo permanently. He's talked out of it by Roshi, who points out all the good he and the Dragon Balls have done.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Kami is his title rather than his actual name. His real name is never mentioned, and he doesn't know what it is since he has long forgotten it.
Face Death with Dignity: Sort of, when he fuses with Piccolo he basically ceases to exist and doesn't mind.
For Your Own Good: He permanently removed Goku's tail on the grounds it was limiting his progress (and people wanted the moon back).
God Job: "Kami" is a title given to the God of Earth, an individual who works as Earth's spokesperson to the divine, in a manner of speaking. Kami, unlike the other gods introduced in the series, was not born a god on the Planet of the Kais, and he is in fact a mortal. He inherited the title of Kami after succeeding on a number of trials that proved his worth to the previous Kami, who then made him his successor.
Godzilla Threshold: When Piccolo comes to the Lookout wanting to merge with him, Kami wants to watch things unfold more, since merging meant his personality would be assimilated into Piccolo, ending his existence. When he sees Cell and what he did to Ginger Town, along with the Saiyans being powerless against the Androids and Goku being sick, he decides to once again become the Nameless Namekian.
Good Counterpart: To Demon King Piccolo, whom he inadvertently created. He is the good half of the Nameless Namekian.
I Cannot Self-Terminate: The biggest problem he has with dealing with Piccolo is his insistence that God cannot kill himself. This isn't out of any fear of dying, since he is more than willing to train Goku to the point he can kill Piccolo, and when Goku refuses tries to get Tien to kill him to stop Piccolo Jr.
Literal Split Personality: When he first meets Goku, he explains that the Demon King Piccolo is his evil half that he willingly expelled centuries ago to become Earth's guardian.
The Load: Piccolo's life is linked to Kami so any pain one feels the other feels as well. This means that if Piccolo dies, so does Kami and the Dragon Balls, by relation, will vanish. Piccolo even lampshades it, saying the only reason they even keep Kami around anymore is because of the Dragon Balls, which comes off as ironic since Piccolo is the one most likely to die given how he throws himself into dangerous battles like the Saiyans, Frieza, and the Androids. This is also why he immediately agrees to let Piccolo's body be the basis for their remerged self. Piccolo's body is young and strong while Kami's only value is in his wisdom which the new self will inherit anyways.
Long-Lived: Lived for over 300 years before the events of Dragon Ball.
Made of Good: He's the physical incarnation of Piccolo's good half.
Master-Apprentice Chain: Mr. Popo and he trained Goku during the three-year time-skip for the 23rd Martial Arts Tournament: Kami > Son Goku > Son Gohan, Pan, and Uub
Moses in the Bulrushes: He was sent away from Namek when a cataclysm struck the planet and killed all but one of his kind, the Grand Elder. Unlike most examples of this trope he had no parental figures to raise him, so he spent his entire childhood alone in a frozen wasteland waiting for someone to come for him. Eventually, he realized this wasn't going to happen and left to explore the world.
My Greatest Failure: Creating Demon King Piccolo in his haste to become Kami; he was quite willing to die for this sin.
Obfuscating Stupidity: In the 23rd Tenkaichi he puts on this. It's awesome... And incredibly funny. He wins all his matches by making it look like it's an accident and makes utter fools out of the people fighting him.
Obsolete Mentor: By the time Vegeta and Nappa invaded Earth, the only meaning to Kami's existence is to keep the Dragon Balls working. Something he is very aware of.
Obstructive Code of Conduct: Part of his role of Guardian of Earth means that he must not interfere with human history, leaving mortals to decide their own fates. The only exception is King Piccolo, who he can't directly fight since his life is linked with him, and Mr. Popo refuses to fight Piccolo since he doesn't want to cause Kami any harm.
Physical God: Mostly in the title, but he is the God of Earth.
- Until Z. He was the strongest character in the series until Goku and Piccolo Jr surpasses him during the 23rd Martial Arts Tournament and even then he easily beat Yamcha and Yajirobe without really trying. He remained stronger than most of the cast until the beginning of the Saiyan Saga in which he trained the Z-Fighters to surpass him.
- To bring this home, he actually possesses a human as to not cause alarm in the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budokai, and even after easily defeating Yamcha, and fighting Piccolo, he explicitly states that using a human body made him weaker. Though, he still claims that even if he'd fought Piccolo without doing that, he'd still be no match for him.
Renowned Selective Mentor: Being the Guardian of the Earth, aka god, he rarely takes students and when he does it's under abnormal circumstances. He trains Goku because he is the only person able to beat Piccolo outside of himself and Mr. Popo. He can't kill Piccolo without killing himself and Mr. Popo won't do anything that will bring harm to Kami. He then trains the other Z-Fighters because the Saiyans were coming to wipe out all life on Earth and they needed every strong fighter that they could get their hands on.
Restored My Faith in Humanity: As stated in the King Piccolo Saga, he had originally created the Dragon Balls to serve as a symbol of hope for humanity, but the exact opposite happened as humans only wanted to use the Dragon Balls for their own selfish purposes; thus, after King Piccolo destroyed Shenron, Kami initially chose to just let Shenron stay dead. It is seeing Goku's love for his friends, as well as his valiant efforts against Piccolo, that convinces Kami there are still good people in the world.
Screams Like a Little Girl: In the Ocean-dubbed version, he does it when getting fused by Piccolo.
Supernatural Sealing: In the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, Kami attempts to use the Mafuba against Piccolo Jr., who uses a "reverse Mafuba" in response. Being the stronger of the two, Piccolo Jr. wins the resulting Beam-O-War and captures Kami in a bottle. Goku manages to retrieve the bottle and free Kami. No one dies as a result of using the technique.
Telepathy: He can talk to people through his mind. He uses this to communicate with King Kai during the Frieza Saga.
Troll: His entire fighting style as Hero is this along with being Obfuscating Stupidity. He defeats his opponents in the most ungraceful and humiliating way possible, including allowing Yamcha to slam his nuts into his head. He only drops the act when fighting Yamcha since he saw him as too talented to let him lose in embarrassment.

Dende

Dende (デンデ)

^{Click here to see Kid Dende}

Voiced by (Japanese): Tomiko Suzuki (Kid, Teen; Z), Hiromi Tsuru (Kid; video games up to 2008), Hiro Yuki (Adult; Z), Aya Hirano (Kai, Super)
Kid Dende voiced by (English): Ceyli Delgadillo (Z; originally), Laura Bailey (Z; remastered, Movie 6, and video games up to 2008), Maxey Whitehead (Kai and video games from 2011 onward) (Funimation dub); Andrew Francis (Z Season 2 and Z ep. 159), Dillon Moen (Most of Z Season 4), Peter Kelamis (Z ep. 166 in a flashback) (Ocean dub); Paul Bandey (AB Groupe/"Big Green" dub)
Teen/Adult Dende voiced by (English): Justin Cook (Funimation dub); Dillon Moen (Z), Jeffrey Watson (GT) (Ocean/Blue Water dub); Michelle Ruff (Bang Zoom!/Toonami Asia dub of Super)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Irwin Daayán (Z, GT and Kai), Javier Olguín (Battle of Gods ownwards)

A Namekian child who befriends Gohan and Krillin during their quest for the Dragon Balls of his planet. Later, after Kami merges with Piccolo, he becomes the new Kami of Earth to make sure the Dragon Balls stay active on the planet.

The Ace:
- Grand Elder Moori calls him "A true scion of the dragon clan" when explaining to Goku Dende's ability to create dragon balls and it shows. His dragon balls are stronger than Kami's since he initially could make Shenlong grant two wishes instead of just one, and could make it three if Shenlong were to resurrect only one person per wish instead of many, so he's overall better than Kami at making dragon balls. Eventually in Buu saga his Shenlong could grant three wishes while also being able to resurrect more plenty of people with a wish, essentially making Shenlong be a better version of Namek saga's Porunga.
- In Super's manga, other Namekians with healing powers show up, and they're all much worse at healing than Dende. Esca from Moro's arc couldn't get Goku and Vegeta to tip top conditions even after three days of healing them. Monaito from Granola's arc initially had to use up all of his power just to heal a small cut^note, and he mentions really gifted ones can heal in the blink of an eye, so Dende's healing is particularly powerful for Namekians.
Action Survivor: Although he dies (briefly) by Frieza's hand, Dende is notable for being one of the handful of characters to survive the entirety of the Buu saga (thanks to Popo throwing him off of the Lookout during Buu's rampage there, and Goku and Kibitoshin saving him via Instant Transmission just before the Earth was destroyed). Of those who regularly appeared throughout the saga, the only others to match him were Hercule and Supreme Kai. Fortuneteller Baba is another case, though she appeared far less frequently.
Angsty Surviving Twin: While his brother Cargo is never explicitly stated as his twin, he still had to witness Cargo being murdered and was unsurprisingly shocked with this.
Big Brother Worship: To Nail, and later Piccolo after Piccolo fused with the former.
Big Good: He tries to become this after he takes the position as Guardian of the Earth. But he's hindered by his lack of experience and doesn't have the power to fight on the front lines with the rest of the heroes. He often defers to Piccolo or Goku when trying to make a tough decision.
Big "NO!": Upon seeing why Super Buu's Human Extinction Attack is titled as such. When all is said and done, he collapses in anguish.
The Bus Came Back: He returns to replace Kami and restore the Earth's Dragon Balls.
The Cameo: He appears in a filler scene on New Namek during the Perfect Cell Saga consorting with Grand Elder Moori about sensing the titular villain's power and how it poses a threat to the entire universe.
Chekhov's Gunman: The fact that he and Mr. Satan are the only other survivors of Earth's destruction by Kid Buu's hand aside from Goku and Vegeta becomes significant when he (with some convincing from Goku) makes the final compassionate decision that would reshape the course of the franchise: using his powers to heal a barely living Majin Buu.
Deadpan Snarker: Dende is one of the nicest characters in the Dragon Ball multiverse and he didn't have a single snarky bone in his body... until he met Mr. Satan and had to put up with his antics. It helps that at this point his dub voice actor was Justin Cook.
Mr. Satan: Hey! How come Boo’s still alive?! I’m out of ammo!! I can’t finish him off!
Dende: … Such a pity…
Early-Bird Cameo: We see Dende in his position as Kami in Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler. The kicker? That movie came out months before Dende became Kami in the manga.
Family Theme Naming: Dende, Nail, Cargo, Moori, are all named after snails and are siblings since they are all children of the Eldest Namek.
God Job: Dende doesn't have the fighting skills to protect the Earth but he does have the knowledge to create dragons, so he got the job.
Good Is Not Soft: If he wasn't pressured by Krillin and reminded that Vegeta was their best hope of standing up to Frieza, he would have left the mortally wounded Vegeta to bleed out.
Healing Hands: The reason why the Z Warriors heal up and why he's killed in the Frieza Saga.
Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Gohan and Krillin during and after their adventures on Namek.
Incompletely Trained: While his version of Shenron is stronger than Kami's, he does not have the centuries of knowledge and experience that the latter has and basically has to learn how to be Kami while on the job.
Kill the Cutie: During the Frieza arc. He is mercilessly killed by Frieza once he learns that Dende can heal.
Last of His Kind: Very briefly, but still.
The Medic: During the Frieza Saga, due to his healing powers. Unfortunately, Frieza eventually notices this and reacts appropriately.
Moe Couplet: With Gohan. Dende's the only kid Gohan is seen interacting with, and they are so cuuuute. Especially watching Dende go from very timid and shy to looking up to Gohan as a lifelong friend throughout the show.
Morality Pet: Very close to Piccolo. It makes sense in that Piccolo fused with Nail, who was a sort of Big Brother Mentor to Dende.
Murder by Inaction: After Vegeta takes a mortal wound from Krillin as part of a plan to have Dende heal him and receive a Zenkai boost, Dende initially refuses to do so and is fully prepared to let Vegeta die since Vegeta was just as evil as Frieza and had killed numerous Namekians himself. Ultimately averted when Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo persuade him to do so since they need Vegeta to stand a chance against Frieza.
Nice Guy: Even after becoming Guardian of Earth, he sometimes lets others call him by name instead of his title (Kami-sama). Piccolo sometimes disagrees with this, such as seen in Battle of Gods.
Non-Action Guy: One of the only main ones in the series.
Physical God: He's only this in name, but he is, effectively, Earth's God.
Put on a Bus: After the Frieza Saga ended, he left with his fellow Namekians to find a new planet after Frieza destroyed Namek.
Refuse to Rescue the Disliked: Since Vegeta was just as evil and cruel as Frieza, and just as responsible for the Namekians' genocide, Dende initially refuses to help him and is fully prepared to walk away and let him bleed out when he pulls off his Deliberate Injury Gambit. He ultimately gives in and does so when Piccolo, Krillin, and Gohan point out that they need Vegeta's help if they expect to have any chance at beating Frieza.
Shoot the Medic First: And holy crap, Frieza did.
- Super Buu attempted the same too, fortunately, Tenshinhan showed up at the last second.
Sole Survivor: He was the sole survivor of the Namekian genocide until Frieza killed him.
Squishy Wizard: Despite his magical abilities, he's implied to be physically weaker than Mr. Satan, as Goku considers fusing with the latter to be a better option.
- Well, if he had fused with Dende, then the dragon balls would have disappeared again.
Story-Breaker Power: His healing is as good as senzus, and despite using it a lot he never seems to get tired from it, and this was crucial for everyone to survive long enough against Freeza for Goku to arrive. His Shenlong is stronger than Kami's and in Super Hero Dende is capable of upgrading Shenlong further, allowing him to draw out Piccolo's inner potential and throw in "a little extra" bonus, which was crucial in giving Piccolo the much needed power to surpass Gamma#2 long enough to talk things out, and fight Cell Max long for Gohan to kill him with Special Beam Cannon. So while Dende himself isn't strong, his support with healing whenever he can use it, and capacity to create and upgrade dragon balls beyond their previous limits are incredibly powerful.
Superior Successor: Dende zig zags this compared to Kami. Dende's Shenron is a lot stronger than Kami's Shenron. Especially so when Dende reveals he can power up Shenron with water, which Kami never hinted to be possible, however as Earth's guardian he's still worse because of inexperience, so he isn't as wise as Kami used to be.
What the Hell, Hero?: He did this twice toward Piccolo;
- When Piccolo orders him to heal a dying Vegeta during the final battle with Frieza, Dende angrily reminds him that Vegeta is just as responsible for their people's genocide as Frieza is. He calms down when Piccolo points out how outclassed they are, but he's still pretty pissed.
- He gives Piccolo another one after he tells Buu to kill everyone on the planet before he could fight Gotenks.
You Should Have Died Instead: More of an indirect example than most, but after Buu destroys the Earth, Vegeta calls Goku out on making an effort to save Dende and Hercule, as it resulted in them leaving behind their sons (and Piccolo), who were all subsequently killed in the explosion. Granted, it's hard to blame Goku for that specifically, as Hercule and Dende were on the way to the drop-off point, and Vegeta (who hadn't stopped to grab them) likely wouldn't have been able to make it to the boys anyway. However, given the circumstances, it's also hard to call Vegeta out on this, as shown when Dende can do nothing but offer a meek "sorry" as an apology.

Mr. Popo

**Mr. Popo (ミスター・ポポ, Misutaa Popo)**

Voiced by (Japanese): Toku Nishio (DB, Z, GT, Z Movie 6), Dai Matsumoto (Budokai 3, Budokai Tenkaichi), Yasuhiko Kawazu (Kai, DBS)
Voiced by (English): Chris Cason (Z Season 3; 1999, Kai, Super), Christopher Sabat (All other media) (Funimation dub); Alvin Sanders (Z)^note, Dave Pettit (DB, GT) (Ocean/Blue Water dub); Doug Rand (AB Groupe/"Big Green" dub)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Carlos Segundo (current voice), Jorge Palafox (Kai)
Voiced by (Italian): Flavio Arras, Graziano Paloforo (Super)

Kami's (and later Dende's) assistant and caretaker of his floating palace, Mr. Popo is a black (really black) genie person. Mr. Popo has apparently been around even longer than Kami has. Daizenshuu 7 clarifies that he's an attendant sent from Heaven to advise Earth's god. Mr. Popo helps train a young Goku for his fight against Piccolo in the 3rd Tournament arc, and in Z, shows the heroes Kami's old spaceship and teaches Bulma how to use it. Shortly after Kami's resurrection, Mr. Popo quickly gathers all the Earth's Dragon Balls in no time and assists in King Kai's plan to revive Freeza and his men's victims on Planet Namek.

Adaptational Badass: The animated Buu Saga added a brief filler scene of him fighting Goten and Trunks as Super Saiyans, and he manages to defend himself rather successfully.
The Ageless: Biologically, Mr. Popo is immortal — in fact, if Kami (later Dende) should die, it's Mr. Popo's job to find a replacement for him. However, he can be killed in other ways, like being turned into chocolate by Buu.
Almighty Janitor: Kami's assistant who actually oversaw much of Goku's (and later the other Z-Fighter's) training, a task he proved qualified for by making a complete fool of Goku when they fought. He's the only one to really get under Goku's skin by taunting him for being weak. He also took on two Super Saiyans and in the initial fight with Goku, he literally ate the Kamehameha and didn't feel a thing.
Always Someone Better: Says this almost word-for-word to Goku who had grown arrogant from defeating King Piccolo.
Ambiguously Human: It's not explained what exactly he is. His design takes inspirations of genies, his skin color is literally black and he doesn't resemble any of the dark-skinned characters of the series, he seems to possess some form of magic powers and he can literally swallow a Kamehameha. He's The Ageless who has lived long before the good half of the Nameless Namekian became God, but it's not exactly clear if he counts as a divine being or a human/mortal. He does seem to count as an Earthling, though, albeit, not in the realm of mortal humans.
Ascended Meme: In Dragon Ball Super, his Memetic Badass/Memetic Psychopath status from Dragon Ball Z Abridged is referenced as we get to see a close-up of his eyes while he speaks to Vegeta in a threatening tone.
Badass Teacher: Taught Goku while he was on the lookout and (at least in an anime filler) held his own against Goten and Trunks as Super Saiyans.
Bowdlerization:
- The US manga removed his large lips so Popo wouldn't be perceived as a racist caricature.
- In the 4Kids TV airing of Kai, they recolored him blue.
Deadpan Snarker: Had shades of this while fighting Goku (Well, not really fight, more like ruthlessly tease him).
Dub Name Change: To Momo in some European countries, where "popo" means "butt".
Eye Pop: His eyes are the size of grapefruits when he sees Super Buu's Human Extinction Attack (almost) literally destroy all life on the Earth.
Killed Offscreen: Played straight in the manga when Buu turns everyone on the Lookout into chocolate and eats them. The anime gives a brief flashback to Popo pushing Dende off the temple so that the dragon balls will still exist, but we still never see his "conversion".
Magic Carpet: Can go to the other side of the world in seconds.
Number Two: To Kami and Dende, and every god before them.
Oh, Crap!: The look on his face as Buu destroys nearly all of humanity is priceless.
Really 700 Years Old: He's been around longer than Kami has.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: In the Funimation dub, he talks like a college professor or wise old mentor instead of the Third-Person Person from the Japanese anime and Viz version of the manga.
Third-Person Person: In the Japanese version, Latin American version, German version and Viz releases. He does this in the anime's dub once in the Garlic Jr. Saga when the titular villain accuses him of lying about not knowing Kami's whereabouts.
Troll: He comes across as just a humble garden keeper that Goku doesn't take seriously. He then proceeds to beat Goku in increasingly humiliating ways, including letting Goku literally run into his fist.

Karin/Korin

**Korin (カリン, Karin)**

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/karin_db.png

Voiced by (Japanese): Ichirō Nagai (DB, Z ep 34-193, Kai), Naoki Tatsuta (Z ep. 217-241, True Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, Budokai), Ken Uo (Super)
Voiced by (English): Mark Britten (Z ep. 110-193, Mystical Adventure, Budokai), Christopher Sabat (Most media), Eric Vale (Cooler's Revenge, remastered for one line only) (Funimation dub); Paul Dobson (Z Season 1-2), Ted Cole (Z, Season 4-6), Roger Rhodes (DB) (Ocean/Blue Water dub); Ted Lehmann (Harmony Gold dub); Paul Bandey (AB Groupe/"Big Green" dub); Raymond Buyco (Creative Products Corp., Philippines)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Arturo Mercado (current voice)

Goku's second mentor, Korin^noteKarin in the original Japanese is an 800-year-old talking cat who lives in a tower directly under Kami's lookout. Korin's Senzu Beans, which cause full healing from physical injury after being eaten, play a big part in the series. Korin was also Master Roshi's mentor 300 years earlier.

Adaptation Dye-Job: He is portrayed with blue fur in the color pages of the manga and the video games Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiyan Legend and Dragon Ball Online. The anime and most other media give him white fur.
Badass Adorable: A mere cat, yet as a martial arts master and deity he could easily defeat any human martial artist when he's introduced, including the likes of Roshi and Tao. Goku doesn't surpass him until the three-year time skip after they met.
Brutal Honesty:
- He tells Goku point-blank that if he faced King Piccolo again he will die for sure this time.
- He straight up tells Goku that even after his stint in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber that Cell is still stronger than him.
Cats Are Snarkers: He's got a playful sense of humor and gets a kick out of pranking others regardless of whether the recipient finds it funny themselves.
Cute Kitten: He's smaller than Kid Goku.
Deadpan Snarker: Mostly to Yajirobe who he loves teasing for his laziness and eating habits. He also teases Goku when they first met about how easy his mind was to read since 'there weren't too many chapters'.
Dub Name Change: Funimation renamed him "Korin", probably because "Karin" sounds like a girl's name ("Karen") in English.
Expecting Someone Taller: Goku at first is dumbfounded that the Wiseman spoken of in Bora's story is a diminutive cat even shorter than him. Bulma has the same reaction to him in the Saiyan Saga, much to Master Roshi's dismay.
Eyes Always Shut: Never seen with his eyes open. Goku lifts his lids once to reveal an entire sea complete with swimming fish!
Funny Animal: He’s a talking cat holding a stick, how could he not be one?
God Job: An Earth deity just like Popo and Kami, though his actual position isn't very well defined.
It Amused Me: According to Kami, this is basically why Korin didn't bother to tell Goku that Kami is Piccolo's other half; because he thought it'd be funny.
Kaleidoscope Hair: In the color chapters of the manga, his fur is never the same color twice. This is never commented upon. (For what it's worth, he was based on a black cat).
Killed Offscreen: He and Yajirobe were killed by Super Buu's Human Extinction Attack, but like with so many other characters, it's not depicted even in the anime.
Master-Apprentice Chain: He trained Goku who went on to train his own students. He also trained Master Roshi who has a very long chain:
- Master Korin > Master Roshi > Gohan, Sr and Ox-King > Son Goku, Yamcha, Krillin, and Chi-Chi > Son Gohan, Son Goten, Pan, and Uub
- Master Korin > Son Goku > Son Gohan, Pan, and Uub
- Master Korin > Son Goku > Son Gohan > Son Goten
Obsolete Mentor: His martial arts teachings become outclassed once Kami enters the picture. However, Korin is still an invaluable source of wisdom and experience, not to mention the only source of the priceless healing resource of senzu beans.
Odd Friendship: With Yajirobe. He lives with Korin after the events of the King Piccolo Saga.
Old Master: Trained Master Roshi and most of the original cast. He's 800 years old, making him even older than Kami.
Poor Communication Kills: When sending Goku up to Kami's Lookout for the first time, he doesn't bother informing Goku that Kami is King Piccolo's Literal Split Personality. Thus, when Goku first sees Kami, he immediately assumes he's Piccolo Back from the Dead and attacks him. Kami lampshades it:
Kami: I should have known Korin wouldn't explain it to you. He thinks he's very funny.
Power-Up Food: His senzu beans. They fill a person up for 10 days and heal any wound.
Psychic Powers: He can read minds. Goku's was especially easy because there hadn't been many chapters of the manga yet.
Punny Name:
- On Karintou, a Japanese snack food. It's more obvious with the tower itself, which is just Karin-tou ("Karin Tower") in Japanese.
- The English dub changed his name to Korin, which is a pun on corn.
Renowned Selective Mentor: He only teaches those who can climb Korin Tower, which is a very, very long climb. Even then, he is more of a Trickster Mentor since people climb to drink the Sacred Water to become stronger, not to specifically train.
She's a Man in Japan: He's a female cat in the British dub of the 3rd movie and throughout the Hungarian dub of Z.
Telepathy: He has the ability to read minds, as shown when he reads Goku's thoughts when he wanted the Sacred Water.
Trickster Mentor:
- The Sacred Water that would supposedly multiply Goku's power was actually just ordinary water. The training Goku underwent to steal the water from Korin was what really improved his skills.
- Subverted with the Ultra Divine Water, where the water itself brings out the person's power... if they survive drinking it.
Troll: Comes with being a Trickster Mentor. When he first meets Goku he gives him the run around for several minutes about whether he knew about the Sacred Water before allowing him to have it… before hitting him with his staff and taking the Sacred Water. He also throws Goku's Dragon Ball off the tower, forcing him to climb down and climb back up again. There's also that not mentioning that Kami would have the same appearance as the evil King Piccolo that Goku almost attacked him for.
Vitriolic Best Buds: Korin often chastises Yajirobe for being lazy and rude, but he has yet to kick the latter out of his tower. The future version of him even gives Yajirobe the very last Senzu before dying.

Yajirobe

Yajirobe (ヤジロベー)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/yayirobe_render_6.png

Voiced by (Japanese): Mayumi Tanaka
Voiced by (English): Mike McFarland (Funimation dub); Brian Drummond (Z), Lucas Gilbertson (DB) (Ocean/Blue Water dub); Ed Marcus (AB Groupe/"Big Green" dub); Ethel Lizano (Creative Products Corp., Philippines)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Araceli de León (DB until chapter 60 of Z), Luis Daniel Ramírez (Z, Kai, Kai The Final Chapters and Super), José Arenas (Arc Majin Buu and Movie 4-6) Mariana Ortiz (Kai until chapter 58), Ricardo Rocha (DBS: Super Hero)

Voiced by (French): Gilbert Levy (Super)

Voiced by (Italian): Paolo Sesana (Z), Federico Zanandrea (Super)

Yajirobe is a fat samurai vagabond who eventually started living with Korin. He usually acts as a Senzu Bean delivery man, but also helped fight off King Piccolo's henchmen and Vegeta himself.

Absurdly Sharp Blade: His katana can not only cut off Vegeta's tail, it can slice through Vegeta's armor, which required a Spirit Bomb from Goku to break.
Accent Adaptation: Yajirobe speaks in a nasally and obnoxious Nagoya-ben dialect, which is Akira Toriyama's native prefecture (so unlike other dialects you hear in anime, this one's accurate). Toriyama-sensei likes to play up the stereotype and make fun of himself for not being from the Big City. This was adapted in English as sort of a husky-voiced thuggish bully who smokes cigarettes after school (think Dr. Girlfriend) to play up the idea that he's "uncivilized". Nagoya-ben speakers are considered like the Beverly Hillbillies, which makes sense since Yajirobe spent most of his life in the mountains (Nagoya has lots of people living at the feet of mountains) isolated from people. Whenever he saw people, he would attack them. But since Defeat Means Friendship, Goku introduced him to Capsule Corp and helped him adapt to civilization.
Acrofatic: Surprisingly fast for someone his weight.
Action Survivor: A rather surprising example. He was shown to be among the victims of Androids 17 and 18's massacre in Future Trunks' Bad Future in a flashback in Dragon Ball Z (18 fired a blast through his torso). However, it is revealed in Dragon Ball Super that he actually survived after being given the last Senzu Bean in existence by Korin.
Arbitrary Skepticism: He met the devil but didn't believe in God. He could be a practitioner of an atheistic religion such as Theravada Buddhism but there were no hints of it prior.
Badass Normal: He can't use ki attacks nor can he fly, but he single-handedly killed one of King Piccolo's minions, climbed Korin's Tower with Goku on his back, and launched two surprise attacks on Vegeta and lived. He also fought evenly with an enraged Goku when they first met.
Balloon Belly: After eating a handful of Senzu Beans at once.
Big Damn Heroes: Despite being outclassed in power by both the heroes and villains, he always manages to arrive in a critical moment to save the heroes. The remainder of the cast is alive due to him and he has saved Goku from certain death twice.
Big Eater: It's pretty much one of his defining characteristics. He ate Cymbal, a dragon-like monster several times his size, and planned to do the same with every member of the Demon Clan that tried to avenge him (at least until he learned they were King Piccolo's minions, as he knew his story), and is repeatedly shown eating multiple Senzu Beans in a single sitting. And just one Senzu Bean contains about a week's worth of nourishment, so Yajirobe is literally eating enough calories to nourish a person for a couple of months in a single sitting. It might also explain how Senzu became scarce from Z onward.
Brilliant, but Lazy: He can be described as this. During the training at Kami's lookout, he sits it out most of the time, but when the training began, he had shown that he was more than a match for the others, and according to Toriyama, his power level was quite close to the other Z-Fighters after their training despite barely training himself, and also considering the fact that he was Goku's equal originally, lends credibility to the idea he might've been on the same level as the big guys if he had tried.
Can't Catch Up: He retires from fighting early on, after the Saiyan Saga, and mostly just hangs out with Korin after that.
Cowardly Lion: One minute he's hiding somewhere scared out of his wits, the next he's doing a sneak attack on the Big Bad and rescuing his friends.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: As stated above against Vegeta. It is a CMOA as Vegeta never saw it coming despite Krillin trying and failing to do the same just seconds ago.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He eventually convinces Korin to let him grow senzu beans down at the base of the tower, some 40 years after End of Z, in the Xeno/Online timeline.
Deadpan Snarker: He snarks, sneers, and taunts people all the time. Despite the fact he's well-aware he's outclassed by the real fighters in the series and so he's pretty much a coward
Demoted to Extra: Yajirobe was actually the Tritagonist of the King Piccolo Saga. Despite this, his role becomes more and more trivial as the show goes on to the point where he gets reduced to a minor character after the Saiyan Saga.
The Drag-Along: Yajirobe hates training and getting into dangerous situations. During the Saiyan Saga, he flat out told Krillin that he did not want to go to the Lookout to train with Kami alongside the other Z fighters, but Korin wouldn't let him sit this one out. He is still a valuable ally that has too much of a conscience to just stand idly by while his friends give their lives to protect the Earth.
Extreme Omnivore: Yajirobe kills and then eats one of Piccolo's minions.
Yajirobe: You're not gettin' any!
Goku: I don't want any.
Flat-Earth Atheist: Doesn't believe in the existence of Kami-sama (literally "God" in Japanese), despite having witnessed the embodiment of Satan wreak havoc on Earth and saying this while he's on top of a tower owned by a talking cat who's given his friend the "Divine Water" so he could defeat said incarnation of the devil and restore the wish-granting magical balls said to have been created by God himself.
Foil: He's basically a human counterpart of Goku. He has Spiky Hair, is a Big Eater, not exactly bright, is incredibly strong and fast, and he was raised in the wilderness, much like Goku. He also carries with him a Dragon Ball, which he received as a gift from his loved ones. The difference between them, however, is that Yajirobe is cowardly and believes in self-preservation while Goku is fearless in the face of death.
Gut Feeling: Yajirobe loses in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament against Hero (who was Kami in disguise), and while he is mocked for it, he constantly thinks that Hero is much more than he lets on. When Yamcha is paired up with Hero he actually pities Yamcha, stating he has no chance against Hero. After Yamcha gets swatted like a fly by Hero, he is the only one not surprised by this outcome.
Hidden Depths: Other than his surprising strength and observation skills, Yajirobe is one of the few persons, other than Roshi and Shen, on Earth who knows about King Piccolo and his terrifying power and reputation when the demon king returns, and quickly panics when he hears that King Piccolo is here. This implies that he's far more knowledgeable and cultured that he looks like.
Iaijutsu Practitioner: He shows this ability in his fight with Cymbal, one of Piccolo's minions.
I'm a Humanitarian: Yajirobe contemplated eating Goku after he was seemingly killed by Piccolo. Granted, Goku isn't exactly human, but he looks it enough to count and at the time no one knew he was an alien.
Jerkass Has a Point
- After tasting the Ultra Divine Water, he argues with Korin that it's a simple poison with no magical properties. When Goku's strength greatly increases and his senses sharpen, Yajirobe seems to be proven wrong. However, given what we later learn about Saiyans becoming stronger through near-death experiences, it seems Yajirobe was correct, if Wrong for the Right Reasons.
- He invokes this after the fight against Vegeta, calling out Chi-Chi for focusing entirely on Gohan, who was merely unconscious while ignoring Goku, who didn't have a single unbroken bone in his body.
- His adamant refusal to let Bulma fly them to the Android battle while it is still in progress where he threatens to throw infant Trunks out the sky plane's window. Throwing a baby out of a plane is certainly going too far, even if Bulma casually talks him out of it when she mentions that it's Vegeta's child he's holding, but Yajirobe's logic isn't without merit. Once Dr. Gero spots them, he immediately capitalizes on the distraction and shoots the plane down, almost killing the occupants (if not for Future Trunks) and keeping the team occupied while the wily old Android flees the scene. Yajirobe is grumbling under a pile of debris afterward, likely annoyed that Bulma disregarded his warnings on top of no one bothering to save him.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He might be seen mostly as a selfish guy, but is still willing to help his friends, even if it's just transporting Senzu Beans to other fighters, and immediately leaves afterward.
Katanas Are Better: It's not just for show. He uses it to one-shot Cymbal and severely injured Vegeta by cutting off his tail.
Killed Offscreen: Either he died when Super Buu used the Human Extinction Attack or when Kid Buu blew up the Earth, but either way, after a brief filler scene following Vegeta's sacrifice, he isn't heard from again until Goku asks for energy for his Spirit Bomb.
Know When to Fold 'Em: He knows King Piccolo's legend and when Piccolo arrives in person to deal with him and Goku, Yajirobe quickly retreats to avoid the devil's wrath. He's proven to be right as Piccolo easily trounces Goku.
Let's Get Dangerous!: Almost every time he takes out his sword he either kills or greatly wounds his opponent.
Let's You and Him Fight: In his first encounter with Goku, they fight due to a misunderstanding (Goku annoyed him by eating his fish without thinking and, seeing his dragon ball, assumed he was in league with Piccolo). They reach a draw and each is astonished by the strength of the other.
Master Swordsman: He appears to be a pure physical fighter and is almost never seen using ki-based attacks. So, he mostly depends on his katana.
Meaningful Name: Yajirobe roughly translates as "taunting noodle spine", which is very fitting for a trash-talking coward like himself.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Him yelling at Krillin to throw the Spirit Bomb already allowed Vegeta to notice its presence and dodge it.
No Name Given: The French dub of Z and its many European derivatives don't give him a name until the Android Saga. Even when other characters sharing a scene with him are named, he's still called "you" or "him", or at best, "the tower's guard".
Only One Name: Like many people in the series.
Overshadowed by Awesome: This guy was equal to Goku in his first appearance. However, Goku unlocked more of his hidden potential, and it quickly went downhill by the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, where he didn't even become a finalist (granted he was going against a disguised Kami). This is in part self-inflected, as he has absurd amounts of potential and is shown to casually catch up with the Z-Fighters without really trying, but has zero real interest in actually applying himself.
Randomly Gifted: A downplayed example compared to others in the franchise, but Yajirobe at the time of his introduction was on the same level as Goku and Tien Shinhan, despite having no formal training. Despite barely training in the lead up to the Saiyans, he still catches up with the rest of the Z-Fighters without even trying.
Skintone Sclerae: His eyes are colored in peach in both the manga and the anime, which causes Goku to compare him to Krillin when they meet in the anime (along with their shared voice actress).
Small Role, Big Impact: Yajirobe's screentime in the Saiyan Saga is negligible at best, but he has the most important role in earning the victory on Earth, slicing off Vegeta's tail and denying him access to his Oozaru form, which turns the tables completely against Vegeta for the rest of the fight.
Spanner in the Works: Vegeta had Goku dead to rights as he crushed him in front of Gohan and he successfully dodged Krillin's Destructo Disc since he correctly guessed that Gohan wouldn't return alone. He didn't see Yajirobe coming at all and it cost him his tail. He also keeps Vegeta from killing Gohan when he discovers that Gohan's tail had regrown.
Stealth Expert: Played for Laughs. Yajirobe was hiding for nearly the entire duration of Nappa and Vegeta's invasion of the Earth, he remains out of sight from Vegeta for so long he doesn't even know the man exists until he cuts off his tail.
Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Korin act like they hate each other, but they continue to live together at Korin Tower.
World's Strongest Man: The most powerful flesh and blood human who can neither fly, nor fire energy waves.

Otherworld

King Kai/Kaiō-sama

King Kai (界王, Kaiō-sama)/North Kai (北の界王, Kita no Kaiō, "North King of the World")

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kai_0.png

Voiced by (Japanese): Joji Yanami (most media), Naoki Tatsuta (Super episode 12 onward)
Voiced by (English): Sean Schemmel (Funimation dub); Don Brown (Z)^note, Dean Galloway (GT) (Ocean/Blue Water dub); Paul Bandey (The Tree of Might and Lord Slug), Ed Marcus (Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan and Bojack Unbound) (AB Groupe/"Big Green" dub); Michael McConnohie (Bang Zoom!/Toonami Asia dub in Super)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Ricardo Hill (current voice), José Luis McConnell (Arc Majin Buu, Movie 4-12 and GT), Leonardo García (Kai until chapter 58), Eduardo Fonseca (Kai), Héctor Lee (Battle of Gods)

Goku's fourth mentor in the series (after Master Roshi, Korin, and Kami). A small cricket-like man with a penchant for bad jokes. Helps train Goku to fight Nappa and Vegeta while Goku is in the afterlife. Also provides much information on the races in the series. He's actually the North Kai—one of four gods who rule over the four galaxies of the universe (and who act like bickering siblings).

Actually, That's My Assistant: He's a bit bemused to find Goku imitating his pet monkey Bubbles when they first meet.
Beyond the Impossible: Downplayed. Several times he lays down "safety rules" about his technique or procedures, occasionally just as Goku is about to exceed them. A good example is his rule about never going higher than Kaio-ken x2, higher than which you might explode. Goku's max is Kaio-ken x10 (x20 in the anime); against Lord Slug he even hit Kaio-ken x100.
Big Fun: He can be amusing, but comes across as an Only Sane Man when Goku is around.
Big Good: Shares this role with Kami during the first part of the Saiyan Saga and the last leg of the Frieza Saga. He remains the primary big good until the Cell Games.
Butt-Monkey: Becomes this to the other Kais after he dies. Is nearly resurrected by Goku at the end of the "Future" Trunks saga of Dragon Ball Super, but the latter is interrupted one too many times, leading Shenron to disintegrate before the wish can even be made.
The Chessmaster: He came up with the plan to use the Earth's Dragon Balls to revive everyone that was killed on Namek. He gambled that the Grand Elder would also be revived since his life was shortened by Frieza killing his children. With the Grand Elder alive, the Dragon Balls on Namek were revived, and he used the last wish to wish everyone except Frieza and Goku (upon the latter's request) to Earth. His plan all but saved the Namekian people from extinction.
Cool Car: He owns a red 1950s Chevrolet sedan that he drives around his planet when he gets bored. He's jealous of the Grand Kai's car, a blue Cadillac convertible, that he considers much cooler than his Chevy.
Cool Shades: He wears round glasses. ALL the kais at his tier have them.
Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: True of almost every character, but lampshaded and Played for Laughs when Goku transports a self-destructing Cell to his planet, annihilating him (and Goku... once again.) But since this is the afterlife, they both pop back instantly with halos. King Kai is very annoyed and has to put up with ribbing from the other Kais for a while.
Didn't Think This Through: While training Goku for his fight against Vegeta and Nappa, he realizes on the day before the Saiyans arrive on Earth that he forgot to take into account that Goku would have to travel back down the Snake Way before returning to the living world. Luckily, Goku's improved speed meant he would only be a day late...which was enough time for Nappa to mercilessly kill the other Z-Fighters except for Krillin and Gohan.
Dub Name Change:
- To Kaito in some European dubs. This even got carried over to his Kaio-ken technique.
- The name King Kai itself is also a name change. It's Kaiō in the original Japanese version (with "ō" meaning "king"), making Kaio-ken Lost in Translation in the English dub.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite being a god and overseeing the entire northern galaxy, he gets little respect from Goku or the other lower Kais. Goku treats King Kai like an old buddy. He eats all his food and often uses his planet for training without any regard for him. To the other lower Kais, he's the Butt-Monkey because he's dead.
Eccentric Mentor: His methods are very unorthodox and he comes across as very silly.
Great Gazoo: Subverted. He's got incredible power and abilities that bely his funny-looking appearance and personality, but it's established very early on that he's outclassed by Nappa and Vegeta at his weakest.
Horrible Judge of Character: Played for laughs when Piccolo promises not to use Kaioh's training to fight Freeza.
Kaioh: Hmm... Alright, you have an honest face.
Piccolo: (thinking) You have terrible eyesight.
Killed Off for Real: When he and his friends die in the Cell Saga, they are never revived. Kai adds some lines about him coming back, but retains scenes of him with his halo. It's really a moot point given he already lives in the afterlife. Even so, he wants to be revived, and it's a Running Gag in Super that the heroes keep forgetting to wish him back whenever they summon Shenron. In the manga, it's said that he was revived by the wish about Cell's victims but later panels have him and Bubbles keep halos anyway...though the halos are gone in the Buu arc's panels.
Loser Deity: Played with. King Kai for the most does his job quite well, but he became a joke among his fellow Kais due to being the only one who died thanks to Goku, necessitating a halo above his head.
Master-Apprentice Chain: He is Goku's third teacher and he went on to teach his own students: King Kai > Son Goku > Son Gohan, Pan, and Uub.
Mentor Occupational Hazard: Ironically his cause of death wasn't to get Goku as a student but because Goku teleported the exploding Cell to his house.
Obsolete Mentor: Subverted. Even though he was already weaker than Vegeta before he taught Goku, King Kai is still a veritable library of skills, techniques and literally centuries of wisdom.
Once Done, Never Forgotten: King Kai (as well as Gregory and Bubbles) are all to eager to remind Goku that they are still dead every time he visits them.
Only Sane Man: He's the wisest and most serious of the four lower Kais. He's also kept up to date on current events in the living world.
Parental Substitute: When King Kai starts berating Piccolo for his decision to fight Frieza alongside Krillin and Gohan (worried that he'll just get himself killed again), Piccolo jokes that this must be what it's like to have a mom.
- He definitely has this relationship with Goku. When Goku wants to stay on a soon-to-explode Namek to fight Frieza, King Kai is VERY reluctant to leave Goku there.
Physical God: The status, not the power that the fighters wield. It should be noted however that his power level is given in Weekly Jump and Daizenshuu 7 as 3,500. This makes him far stronger than the likes of Raditz and in the same league as Nappa (stronger if he can do even a basic version of the Kaio-Ken which he invented, which would boost him to 7,000). So he's actually quite strong (far stronger than anyone from Dragon Ball), he's just far outclassed by most fighters in Z. However, his telepathy is much better than that of East Supreme Kai, despite the latter being his superior. While East Supreme Kai couldn't let Vegeta communicate with the Earth's entire population as Babidi did, North Kai had that ability.
Promoted to Playable: Dragon Ball Kai: Ultimate Butouden marks his debut as a playable character.
Pungeon Master: In addition to being a martial arts master. Before he agrees to train you, you have to make him laugh, and he only likes really lame jokes.
Psychic Powers: Can use his "cricket antennae" to have psychic conversations with others. He uses this to communicate with Goku and the others, coordinate plans (the wishes to revive everyone who died on Namek and send them to Earth while Goku was fighting Frieza, and later convince everyone on Earth to contribute to Goku's Spirit Bomb while fighting Buu), and warn Goku of potential danger to Earth (several of the movies). And anyone touching his back can piggyback on his telepathy.
Renowned Selective Mentor: He is one of the lower gods of the Dragon Ball universe and only trains those who can make it to the end of Snake Way, which is several times longer than the circumference of the Earth. Although he trains Tien, Yamcha, and Chiaotzu, Goku is the only one he teaches the Spirit Bomb and Kaio-ken to. Goku is also the only one he keeps a personal relationship with.
Sense Loss Sadness: His main point of contention when it comes to being dead. When pressed on why he wants so badly to be brought back to life, he explains that just because he's still got a physical form in the afterlife, that doesn't mean he still feels the same as how he did when alive. Nobody especially believes him or cares however.
Signature Move: He invented the Kaio-Ken and Spirit Bomb, although we only see Goku using them.
Telepathy: He has possibly the strongest form of telepathy in the series since he can communicate with an entire planet and allow others to do the same. Notably, despite being far lower on the totem pole of divinity than the East Supreme Kai and the Elder Supreme Kai, his skill with this far surpasses theirs as he is able to broadcast a message to the entire population of Earth, something both Supreme Kais admitted to being unable to do.
Top God: He was introduced as the highest godly authority in the Saiyan arc, with other gods such as Kami and Yemma being deferential to him. Retcons rendered him increasingly irrelevant as higher gods were introduced, though he's still supposed to be the highest god of North Galaxy at least. First the other Kais, then the Grand Kai, then the Supreme Kais, then the Grand Supreme Kai (currently deceased), then the God of Destruction, then the other Gods of Destruction, then the Grand Minister, and finally the Omni-King (Zeno).
Took a Level in Jerkass: Downplayed and justified towards Goku in Super, where King Kai is noticeably bitter towards him. Given Goku keeps forgetting to wish him back to life and constantly uses his planet as training grounds (thrashing King Kai's planet as a result), it's not surprising that Goku's attitude has become too much to handle for King Kai. Even Goku himself noticed this change in behavior multiple times... although he keeps forgetting why it's the case.
Uniqueness Decay: He's initially introduced as the highest-ranking deity in the universe, and a figure of unparalleled wisdom and power. As the series goes on, however, this is gradually dialed back: it turns out that he isn't the only Kai, and there are wiser and more powerful Kais who outrank him.
Unreliable Expositor: Unintentionally, but King Kai makes a lot of assumptions that flat out aren't true. Some notable examples include: When he assumes Goku reached Super Saiyan in the Slug movie, when he claims Frieza was defeated by the Spirit Bomb, and when he states Goku was killed on the explosion of Planet Namek.
Wax On, Wax Off: First task: catch a monkey. Second task: hit a bug with a hammer (though the second task is anime only).
Weak, but Skilled: When he debuted he was already weaker than Vegeta. He also happens to be an awesome martial arts master, training Goku from being weaker than Raditz to be able to mop the floor with Nappa without the Kaio-ken... that he also invented alongside the Spirit Bomb. To say nothing of Goku just taking his training a little further in insanely high gravity, and getting strong enough that Ginyu got a major freakout. Then his next power-up from coming back from death's door would put Goku on Frieza's final form's tier.
What the Hell, Hero?: He gets on Goku for fighting Beerus despite warning him several times that he stood no chance against him. And also for getting him, Gregory and Bubbles killed.
Yank the Dog's Chain: Goku finally intends to have him and his friends wished back to life at the end of the "Future" Trunks saga... but the rest of the gang on earth has other ideas, interrupting him until Shenron disappears again.

Shin/(East) Supreme Kai/(East) Kaiōshin

Shin (シン)/(East) Supreme Kai ((東の)界王神, (Higashi no) Kaiōshin, "(East) World King God")

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaio_shin_del_este_artwork.png

^{Click here to see Kibito Kai}

Voiced by (Japanese): Yūji Mitsuya (Z and Kai), Shin'ichiro Ota (GT and Super)
Voiced by (English): Kent Williams (Funimation dub); Michael Dobson (Ocean dub); David Vincent (Bang Zoom!/Toonami Asia dub in Super)
Voiced by (Latin American Spanish): Genaro Vásquez (Current Voice), José Gilberto Vilchis (Battle of Gods)

The Top God (until Old Kai is released) who appears to be a short, purple alien with a white mohawk. He is assisted by his servant Kibito. He is the last surviving Supreme Kai since Majin Buu came to his world and killed/absorbed the others. However, he managed to avenge them by killing the monster's creator, the wizard Bibidi and leaving Buu's cocoon on Earth. Millions of years later, he returned to Earth when Bibidi's son, Babidi, sought to revive Majin Buu and enlisted Goku's, Gohan's, Vegeta's, Krillin's and Piccolo's help to stop him. While they failed to prevent the release of Majin Buu, he was generally surprised by the incredible powers of Super Saiyans and assisted Gohan. One fusion later, he resumes his role as the second Supreme Kai.

Achilles' Heel: He's Beerus' walking, talking Achilles' Heel. He's the Kami to Beerus' Piccolo in that he's a much weaker being than Beerus that, through a life link, will take Beerus to the grave with him if he's killed.
All for Nothing: Played With. Almost all of Shin's efforts go to waste: He fails to prevent Buu from waking up, and fails to defeat him afterward, his wayward attendant Kibito is murdered, he fails to get a meaningful powerup from his fusion, and he fails to convince Goku and Vegeta to fuse again. Luckily, Buu is still killed thanks to Goku, Vegeta, and the planet Earth.
Ascended Extra: He has a far more active role in Super than he was in GT, since Super heavily surrounds the plotlines of Top Gods in each universe, his life being linked with Beerus, and the Future Trunks Saga, which surrounded the plot of a renegade Supreme Kai in training. This is especially true in the manga adaptation of the Future Trunks Saga, where he takes a time ring to confirm Zamasu's evil deeds, and he personally fights him to avenge Gowasu being stabbed despite being outclassed.
Big Damn Heroes: He arrives at the very last minute as Kibito Kai to save Goku and Vegeta (along with Hercule, Bee and Dende) from being blown up along with Earth.
Big Good: Takes over from King Kai for the first half of the Buu Saga. He tells the heroes about Buu and the need to stop him. After failing to stop Buu's revival, he takes Gohan back to the World of the Kais to release the Z Sword and train. He eventually shares this role with Old Kai for the rest of the series.
Break the Cutie: In the past, when Bibidi had Buu kill his True Companions and the other Supreme Kais at the time, right before his eyes.
Butt-Monkey: In the Super manga, at least, Beerus has no respect for him and the amount of crap he gets from him is quite pitiful. Z has a bit of this as well, where part of the Buu saga's comedy comes from his (and Kibito's) reaction to how he never expects things to go the way they do.
Can't Live Without You: Similar to Piccolo and Kami, Old Kai and his life are tied with Beerus, meaning if he dies, so will Beerus. He happens to be lucky that the Grand Supreme Kai sacrificed himself so he can live. Humorously, this pretty much makes him capable of mouthing off to Beerus despite being several orders of magnitude weaker, as the God of Destruction wouldn't dare harm him.
Characterization Marches On: When first introduced, Shin is a mix between a Smug Smiler and The Stoic and seemingly a morally grey character in the world of Dragonball, unphased by the brutality of Spopovich's beatdown on Videl unlike everyone else watching and actively allowing Gohan to get attacked and have his energy drained by Babidi's minions so that they could be pursued to their master's hideout. But as the saga goes on, he is shown to be much nicer, have a much wider range of emotions, and his moral compass is far stronger than it first seemed.
Cowardly Lion: He's constantly freaking out, even in the face of threats weaker than he is, but when the chips are down he can be trusted to fight with all his might, even if he has no chance. He gave it his best against Buu and saved Gohan's life during that battle despite getting hammered himself, and pulled an effective Heroic Sacrifice in Trunks' timeline to help him defeat Dabura. He was also very willing to potentially take on Super Buu once he fused, who had a status as The Dreaded. And in the Super manga, he was willing to take on Black after the latter nearly killed Gowasu. He had no chance and got a beating from Future Zamasu for his trouble, but give him points for his guts. GT unfortunately Flanderizes his cowardice as he outright tries to run and hide when he hears what the Shadow Dragons' negative energy would do to the universe.
Did Not Think This Through:
- He never once thought about how strong the fighters of Earth would be, and by allowing Spopovich and Yamu to take Gohan's energy while powered up, they provide Babidi with most of the energy needed to be revived, much to his concern.
- After killing Bibidi, he manages to seal Buu and leaves him on Earth with the assumption no one would ever be able to revive him, so no other precautions were taken. Justified as Bibidi would be the only person who could manage to wake and control Buu. However, he never considered that one of Bibidi's clones would survive to continue the original's work, as he manages to recover the sealed Buu easily enough.
- Played for Laughs. He decides the best way to test the Z-sword is to throw the hardest material in the universe at it: Katchin Steel. This, unsurprisingly, ends up turning the Z-sword into the Z-dagger. Fortunately, this ended up helping Gohan significantly.
Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: He harshly critiques Beerus's work ethic during the Universe Survival Arc. Luckily, since he's life-linked to Beerus, he can get away with it. That said, as he probably didn't know that killing him would kill Beerus himself, it took some serious moxie to say so to a Destroyer who is far stronger than Goku.
(Beerus is blaming him for U7's low mortal level because of his merely watching events.)
Shin: What about you? What have you done besides spend most of your time sleeping?
A Dog Named "Dog": He's a Physical God whose name means god.
Dub Name Change:
- To Neptune in the French dub and all the dubs derived from it (the translators got his title, Kaioushin, mixed up with the Japanese name for the planet Neptune, Kaiousei).
- The name Supreme Kai itself is also a name change. It's Kaiōshin in the original Japanese version. The Viz English manga translation goes with "Lord of Lords", a somewhat liberal translation of his title (God of the Kings of the Worlds).
Foil: His intended role with Beerus in-universe. Shin is the God of Creation while Beerus is the God of Destruction. Dialogue in Super states it is his role to create new planets and nurture newer lifeforms while Beerus is supposed to destroy planets to fill in new ones. While he is weaker than Beerus, one another cannot live without each other, and Shin and Old Kai are the only two Supreme Kais left who are linked to Beerus.
Fusion Dance: Played for Laughs with his servant Kibito, which results in his more elf-like appearance and little else. Until they use the Namekian Dragon Balls and separate in Super.
Go Through Me: Prior to Goku and Majin Vegeta's fight, Shin steps in-between the two, stating that Goku will have to get around him if he truly believes this is the right decision. Goku shocks everyone present when he charges a Ki Blast and makes it clear he will blast Shin if he doesn't get out of the way, and ultimately, Shin is forced to give in.
God Is Good: Regardless of his level of competence, Shin really cares for all living beings, and is willing to put his life on the line to stop monsters like Babidi and Zamasu.
God Is Inept: While he means well, he's unsuccessful at preventing Buu's revival and spends most of the saga in Oh, Crap! mode. In the end, he's completely reliant on Earth's fighters and Old Kai to stop Buu. Justified by him being young and Incompletely Trained, along with the Saiyans not listening to him when he warns how powerful Buu is.
The Gods Must Be Lazy: Zig-Zagged. He takes no direct action against beings like Frieza, most likely seeing Frieza as being orderly and not destroying planets willy-nilly despite being evil. However, he takes personal action to stop Buu's revival. It doesn't work and he's helpless to stop Buu once he's released. Dialogue in Super suggests that the Kais aren't allowed to interfere on the mortal plane (only the God of Destruction is allowed to do that); he and his fellows only went after Buu because Buu attacked the Kais first. However, other universes show the two are supposed to work together, and Shin didn't know who Beerus was to allow that, justifying it on some level.
Good Is Not Soft: While certainly polite, Shin is not above doing dirty things to get results. Notably, he actually forces Gohan to be drained of his energy so that they could track down Babidi's ship.
Greater-Scope Paragon: He's the highest-level Universe 7 Kai after the Grand Supreme Kai got absorbed by Buu.
Hero-Worshipper: He appears to be this to Gohan in Z, while Goku and Vegeta critique Gohan's rustiness resulting in his battles taking longer than they should, Shin never once has his faith falter in Gohan. He verbally puts his belief in Gohan multiple times during their time together and is eager to have him try what the kais could not, even ribbing Kibito for his insensitive comments when doing so.
His Name Really Is "Barkeep": He was introduced using the name "Shin", which turned out to be shorthand for his title of "Kaiōshin". Super later revealed that his actual name was indeed Shin, making his use of it as an alias during the World Tournament a case of Real Name as an Alias.
Humble Hero: As the last Supreme Kai ruling over at least 6 other lesser Kai, Shin had every right to declare himself the Grand Supreme Kai. For whatever reason, he never did but it had to with being Incompletely Trained.
Incompletely Trained: Old Kai's assessment of him when he appears. The Supreme Kai is trying his best, but he missed out on a lot of instruction when Buu killed all of his superiors, forcing him to take on the role before he was ready. This is expanded in Super where he is shown to be even more ignorant by not knowing who Beerus was except for rumors, which stands out since he's supposed to work with Beerus. He didn't even know who Zeno was, much to Old Kai's annoyance.
Informed Ability: Piccolo regards Shin to be much stronger than he was, which was why he threw the fight upon discovering Shin's identity. However, Shin's combat record doesn't really back up those claims. It doesn't help that surpassing Piccolo (who was as strong as a regular Super Saiyan at least) was So Last Season now that Super Saiyan 2s and 3s have made an appearance.
I Sense a Disturbance in the Force: Being a Kai, he would have some degree of omniscience, and doesn't need antennae for it.
It's Personal: Not only does Shin judge Buu to be a threat on a universal scale out of his general knowledge, he also attempts to interfere because the Majin had been responsible for taking four people from him that he held dearly.
Loser Deity: While he seems like a proper God at first, the more time there is spent in his company the more it becomes clear he's terrible at his job. He's practically a child with little experience and prone to making mistakes, which is especially prevalent when his ancestor Old Kai is released and shows him how it's done. Old Kai has called him out on being an idiot, while even Goku teases Shin for being less useful than Old Kai.
Meaningful Name: Shin is part of Kaioshin, emphasizing his position as the Supreme Kai. This is how Piccolo was able to figure out his true identity when he was using his name as a mysterious alias.
Nice Guy: He's polite and hardly gets mad at the good guys.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He deliberately let Spopovich and Yamu absorb Gohan's energy, and explicitly forbade the Z-Fighters from interfering, for the purpose of following them back to Babidi's hideout; said energy gave Babidi half of what he needed to revive Majin Buu in one shot, something he wasn't expecting. On top of that, his plan for stopping Babidi from gathering enough energy to resurrect Buu involves... bringing individuals with a lot of energy right to him. Though Babidi's plan has a few hitches, it succeeds without sacrificing anything Babidi cares about. Babidi takes great pleasure in rubbing in the Supreme Kai's face how he pretty much handed him victory on a silver platter.
No Indoor Voice: In the Westwood dub, as Kibitoshin, he more often than not shouts his dialogue, even when the situation doesn't require it.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: He's extremely powerful compared to nearly all mortal lifeforms and even the gods — he could have felled Frieza (the strongest mortal in the universe at the time) as he was on Namek in a single blow, and was considered stronger than Piccolo at the time they faced each other, and probably could have given Cell a decent fight even if he couldn't win. However, he's fairly weak for a Supreme Kai since his fellow Supreme Kais (his teachers) were killed by Buu before his training could be completed, coupled with his (for a god) young age. As of Super, he's outclassed by most if not all of the Z-Fighters, despite being in a position that normally means he would hopelessly dwarf most of their powers.
Not Quite the Almighty: As the only Supreme Kai to survive Buu's onslaught, Shin was introduced as the strongest and highest-ranked god in the series. Battle of Gods and Super would reveal that he's not only surpassed in strength by Beerus (though they share the same place in the pecking order) but that both are only the top gods in one of twelve universes, with the Omni-King being their superior.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: At some point, Shin was able to track down and kill Bibidi and sealed Fat Buu after the latter killed four of his fellow kais and nearly him as well.
Oh, Crap!:
- His reaction to discovering the power of the Saiyans on Earth. To really understand his surprise, imagine that you thought you were the ultimate lifeform in the universe…until you went to a backwater planet and found a group of beings who were so powerful as to render you utterly insignificant engaged in what amounts to a pissing match.
  Supreme Kai: Who are you people?!?
- Goes From Bad to Worse when his plan to let Spopovich and Yamu absorb Gohan's energy in order to get them to lead him to Babidi backfires. He wasn't expecting Gohan's energy to supply half of what Babidi needed to revive Majin Buu.
- His reaction when he realizes that Vegeta is the new fighter Dabura mentioned.
- He, along with Kibito, has a comical version when the Z-Sword broke on accident (they were expecting it to be much sturdier). Luckily it released Old Kai from it.
- When he fused with Kibito, he has this reaction about its permanent effects.
- He is absolutely terrified when he realizes that Super Buu is changing back into the mindlessly destructive Kid Buu.
- In Super, he has a massive freak-out when Zeno wanted to meet Goku. It nearly took a toll on him due to how casual Goku was being towards Zeno.
- Has an even bigger one after Universe 9 is erased. The look on his face is of pure despair.
- He has his biggest one yet after his gushing over how romantic 18 and Krillin's relationship is, which angers 18 so much that she shoots a ki blast at his head from inside the arena.
Physical God: He is strong enough to make Z-era Piccolo piss himself, which makes him many times stronger than most of the cast outside of the adult Saiyans, Dabura, and Majin Buu. He becomes even stronger after merging with Kibito and gains the ability to teleport to any of the lower worlds, whether they have life or not. He can also materialize objects with a mere thought. Despite his powers, he is the weakest and least experienced of all the Supreme Kais in Universe 7. His superiors were murdered by Buu.
Poor Communication Kills: He has a bad habit of only mentioning important information after it's needed such as Dabura's spit turning people into stone or details on Babadi's fighters. The worst part may be he never bothered to mention Buu's absorption abilities. Because of this, no one expects Buu to absorb them.
Power Up Let Down: After fusing with Kibito he says he is ready to fight alongside Goku but Old Kai stops him, saying that he's still no match for Buu.
Pragmatic Hero: Tries to be this, but is less than effective due to constantly underestimating how strong the Saiyans are and how much they love fighting. His counterpart from Future Trunks' timeline succeeds (if at the cost of his own life) specifically because Future Trunks' relative weakness and much greater pragmatism allow him to not underestimate the situation.
Purple Is Powerful: He is still a Physical God, even though the Saiyans have long eclipsed him in power.
Real Name as an Alias: Originally subverted, later played straight. The name "Shin" was introduced as a stealth shorthand for his title of "Kaiōshin", which Piccolo was able to figure out alongside his attire and aura in order to identify him as the Supreme Kai. Once his Kai status was out and the adventure left the tournament he was never simply called "Shin" again since there was no more need to be coy about his identity. When the newer material introduced the concept of the Kais having names outside their titles, Toriyama decided to go ahead and make Shin his real name. It wasn't much of a stretch to do so — his assistant Kibito was using his own real name, their fusion was called Kibitoshin ("Kibito Kai" in the dub, but Sabat as Vegeta has occasionally slipped up and called him Kibitoshin as well), and if it helps any, Universe 11's Supreme Kai, Shin's foil among the Kaiōshins, also a name that's also Shaped Like Itself — Khai.
Really 700 Years Old: Even though he's millions, or maybe even billions of years old, he's still seen as the "junior" Supreme Kai and looks much younger than the other Kais.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite some actions of Did Not Think This Through, Shin is a rather reasonable person who knows how to set his priorities straight, he makes it clear that rushing ahead without a plan, or getting distracted by age-old rivalries, are all lower than stopping Buu from being revived. He's only actively hindered because the only people strong enough to help are the Challenge Seeker Saiyans, as the more pragmatic Piccolo and Krillin are taken out of the fight before it began, along with Kibito.
Red Herring: His first appearance at the tournament seems to imply that he'll be the arc's Big Bad, and the Latin American Spanish dub even gave him the same voice actor as Android 17, another young-looking guy who spelled trouble in his first appearance, but it turns out he's a good guy. Spopovich and Yamu were the ones you should've watched out for.
Retcon: Kibito Kai still existing in GT is retconned by Super, who have them using the Dragon Balls to defuse.
She's a Man in Japan: The Catalan dub and the European Spanish edition of the manga (Planeta-Deagostini Comics) turned him into a woman.
Skewed Priorities: During the end of the Buu arc, when Goku and Vegeta are fighting Kid Buu on the World of the Kais, Shin is more worried about the damage the Saiyans are doing to the planet then defeating Buu. Old Kai calls him out on this since it is more important they defeat Buu then worry about the damage done to "some old rock." On the flip side, Shin has numerous panic attacks as Babidi reveals his enslaved fighters, while the Z-Fighters themselves are playing rock-paper-scissors to determine who gets to fight first. He's less than amused.
Small Role, Big Impact:
- It was he who killed Bibidi and stopped Buu's initial rampage 5 million years ago. Had he failed and been killed, Universe 7 (or at least the sapient life within) would probably have ceased to exist.
- His future counterpart only appears for one chapter in the Super manga, yet it is only by his intervention that Trunks is able to defeat Dabra and Babidi. Not only would he have been much weaker and unaware of their coming if not for Shin, but he would not have been able to best Dabura in combat without Shin first distracting and then paralyzing him. Finally, Shin is the one who grants him his Healing Hands powers, which come in handy to ensure victory during the fight against Fused Zamasu.
The Stoic: He manages to pull this off at the tournament in the Buu Saga, with his emotive range and expression being calm cool, and collected, if not a bit smug no matter what happens. However, as time goes on we see that this is thoroughly subverted.
So Last Season: He's apparently stronger than Piccolo was at the time of the 25th world tournament, while Piccolo was as strong as a Super Saiyan during the Cell Games and might have been training since then. That would've been considered amazing seven years ago; not so much in the Buu Saga. Still, he's far stronger than many of the heroes outside of Gohan, Vegeta, and Goku. Piccolo gave up his match instead of even trying to fight him.
Squishy Wizard: While he is extremely powerful by regular standards, his magical abilities are more impressive than his raw power. He can completely paralyze Super Saiyan 2 level fighters with his psychic powers, teleport anywhere in the universe at will, materialize any desired object from thin air, read minds, heal people from the brink of death, and so on.
Teleportation: After fusing with Kibito, he can do something akin to Instant Transmission called Kai Kai or Instant Movement, although, unlike Instant Transmission, he doesn't need to sense ki and can go anywhere he wants in the lower realm. In Super, he can still perform the Instant Movement even after being defused from Kibito, suggesting that he always knew it even before fusing. He has teleported in at the last minute to save Goku from deadly predicaments in Z, GT and Heroes.
Top God: Shares this title with Beerus for Universe 7; he's the Creator Deity that opposes, and compliments, Beerus' Destroyer Deity.
A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: His future self in Super had tried to rush Babidi out of impulsiveness when Trunks couldn't compete with Dabura in a straight fight anymore (due to Dabura's strength significantly surpassing the former's outside of a duel between swords). Unfortunately, Dabura managed to shoot him down before he can try anything. This results in Kibito's guard being lowered and getting killed, and Shin sustaining injuries that led to his death. Granted, his efforts do get Trunks the win by helping trigger a Super Saiyan 2 transformation but still counts. Even worse, his death leads to the death of his timeline's Beerus due to them sharing one life force, allowing Goku Black to come and lay waste to the timeline without opposition.
Underestimating Badassery: He doesn't quite seem to realize just what Vegeta, Goku, and Gohan are capable of, and when he sees their true power he is outright flabbergasted at how such fighters could exist in the lower realms. He also doesn't recognize the power of the Saiyans' ego and pride. For that matter, Super retroactively makes his judgement on Frieza a lot more iffy; While Shin wasn't wrong in his assessment that he could beat Frieza with ease he seemed to believe this was all Frieza was capable of, when in reality Frieza wasn't rven scratching the surface of his potential.
What the Hell, Hero?: In the Universal Survival Arc of Dragon Ball Super, when it's revealed that Universe 7 is the second weakest universe and all universes who lose the Tournament of Power will be eradicated, Beerus calls out the Supreme Kai for deciding to take a back seat and let the mortals of that universe grow stronger on their own. He shoots back that Beerus is at fault too since all he does is sleep.
White Hair, Black Heart: Completely averted. It only looks like he's being set up to be the Big Bad of the arc when we first see him entering the tournament.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Anything related to Majin Buu, in particular, his Fat and Kid forms. He freaks out about those forms more than the much stronger and smarter Super Buu. Justified by his background; those two Buus are the ones who rampaged across the galaxy and murdered his fellow Kais (and de facto family) millions of years ago, and the former in particular is a twisted caricature of the old Grand Supreme Kai created when Buu absorbed him. Going by the flashback in the manga, the fat form is also the one who beat him nearly to death (in the anime, it's South Supreme Kai-Buu).
Wild Hair: While it isn't that noticeable, in Super, he apparently grew out his hair as he has more fringes on his head.
The Worf Effect: He has raw power strength and ki far surpassing Piccolo's level and Psychic Powers strong enough to incapacitate SS2 Gohan with little effort, yet even when teaming up with Gohan, neither can do anything against Fat Buu.
You Are in Command Now: After Majin Buu's attack on the Supreme Kai's, he was left as the functional Grand Supreme Kai of Universe 7. Both Z and Super reveal he's ignorant of several things an acting grand supreme Kai should be aware of, like that he can order Beerus to destroy dangerous mortals.
You Killed My Father: Babidi's reason for hating him.

Old Kai

**Old Kai (老界王神, Rō Kaiōshin)**

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kaio_shin_anciano_artwork.png

^{Click here to see his younger self}

Voiced by (Japanese): Reizou Nomoto (Z), Tetsuya Iwanaga (Z, Young), Isamu Tanonaka (Budokai 3), Ryouichi Tanaka (Battle of Gods onwards)
Voiced by (English): Kent Williams (Funimation dub); Scott McNeil (Ocean dub); Steve Kramer (Creator/Bang Zoom!/Toonami Asia dub of Super)
Voiced by (Latin American): Enrique Mederos (Z and GT), Ernesto Lezama (Battle of Gods and Super), Pedro D'Aguillón Jr (Kai: The Final Chapters)

A Kai from 15 generations in the past, he was sealed inside the Z Sword by Beerus (at the time described only as "a terrible monster"). When it is broken, he is released and aids the heroes in their fight against Majin Buu. Being more experienced and knowledgeable than the current Supreme Kai, it is implied that he takes that position, or that the two rule jointly.

Ambiguous Situation: It is currently unknown if his life is still severed from Beerus. Super makes it clear that the Supreme Kais and Gods of Destruction are linked with each other, and Shin is currently active in his role. Before restoring Goku back to life, he willingly gave up his own to resurrect Goku, and immediately came back with a halo. However, he was restored back to life via Vegeta's wish. Whether or not his link with Beerus still holds is up to Toriyama.
Back from the Dead: He was brought back to life with the Namekian Dragon Balls by Vegeta's request to bring back good people prior to the Tenkaichi Budokai tournament.
Big Good:
- For the remainder of the series he shares this role with the Supreme Kai. Although not physically strong, he's by far the most knowledgeable character in the series. In Dragon Ball GT, he is the one Goku asks for advice more than anyone since he knew about the Super Saiyan 4 transformation.
- He also serves this role in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, serving as half of the Mission Control role with the Supreme Kai of Time.
Boring, but Practical: His ability to power up a being to beyond its full potential: It takes hours, but the returns are very good.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He often acts like a fool and an old pervert. He's also a lot more competent than Shin and has abilities that no other Supreme Kai has.
Bus Crash: His Alternate Self in Future Trunks' timeline, apparently, was a victim of this, courtesy of Dabura's Stone Spit destroying the Z Sword before he could be freed. This is on top of Future Zeno destroying the Future Timeline, and making him, along with everyone else in that timeline, Deader than Dead.
Can't Live Without You: It's left ambiguous if his life is still tied Beerus' own but if it is, that means if him and Shin die so will Beerus.
Characterization Marches On: In the original manga and anime, he acts a bit looney and chipper, prone to cackling hysterically (such as when reading funny manga), acting like a Troll and being a Dirty Old Man like Master Roshi. Later appearances in the franchise downplay these traits in favor of playing up his Grumpy Old Man attitude and status as a Big Good Reasonable Authority Figure.
Clipped-Wing Angel: He regrets fusing with the witch, as though it gave him all sorts of nifty abilities, it also made him an ugly old geezer. It's also implied that it made him a lot weaker in terms of raw strength.
Deus ex Machina: Quite literally. He is introduced into the story after being released from the Z-Sword, but the build-up to his first appearance is nonexistent since none of the characters even knew who he was. However, his role in unlocking Gohan's full potential makes him quite vital to the plot.
Dirty Old Man: Uses his "omniscient vision" to peep on girls across the universe. During the Tournament of Power, he felt interested in the fighters of Universe 2 and was openly excited when Universe 4 fighter, Caway, was trying to trick Roshi by taking her clothes off, much to Shin's annoyance.
Old Kai: That's right! Take it off!
Dub Name Change: Like his successor, he is also called Kaiōshin in the original Japanese version, being called the one from "15 generations in the past" (１５代前の東の界王神; Jūgo-daimae no Higashi no Kaiōshin) when needing to distinguish him from Shin. In English, most characters just call him "Old Kai", while Shin refers to him as "ancestor".
Foreshadowing: Beerus simply sealed him away after a dispute rather than killing him outright as would be more typical for him because a Destroyer's life is tied to their Supreme Kais.
Fusion Dance: The reason he looks so wizened is that he accidentally fused with an old witch a long time ago. On the other hand, this also added to his already considerable magic powers.
Grumpy Old Man: Despite his goofiness, he has a bit of a temper.
Hermaphrodite: In a technical sense, since he's the fusion of a male Kai and a witch. In practice, the Kai is always the dominant personality and form of a fusion with a non-Kai, meaning the witch's power and wrinkles were likely all that was added to him.
Honour Before Reason: While Old Kai is usually pretty good at inverting this (such as trading in his life for Goku's or allowing the Saiyan's to destroy the empty world of the Kai's to fight Kid Buu) he is adamant against using the Dragon Balls since they upset the natural balance of the Universe even though the Universe is at stake against Buu. As GT shows though he had a damn good reason to be nervous.
Hypocrite: He berates the defused Goku and Vegeta for allowing Vegito to toy with Buu instead of finishing him off, despite having waited five minutes himself to tell Gohan he was powered-up for the sake of drama.
Immortal Immaturity: While waiting to unlock Gohan's hidden powers, he spends the time reading manga. He also threw a tantrum when the crystal ball couldn't see the action inside Super Buu's head.
Irony: He boasts about his knowledge over the current Supreme Kai by telling the heroes about the Potara fusion, but seems to also have significant details not known to him when he fails to mention that the fusion is permanent when a Supreme Kai is a factor, otherwise it is temporary. Goku and Vegeta not knowing this almost costs them their victory against Super Buu.
I Was Quite a Looker: His younger self prior to his permanent fusion with the witch looked like a purpler, slightly more mature Shin.
Magic Feather: Played with, since the Z-Sword, a regular, if heavy, sword is given billing as a legendary weapon of great power, whereas, in actuality, he's the real source of the legend, and he's trapped inside it.
No Name Given: Since Super has introduced more Supreme Kais with their own names, including revealing U7 Supreme Kai name was really Shin, Old Kai's name hasn't been revealed yet.
Now You Tell Me: He introduces Potara fusion and guides Shin and Kibito through it as a demonstration, but he doesn't mention until after they've fused that it's permanent. Luckily, the two are able to unfuse in Super with the Namekian Dragon Balls.
Oh, Crap!: He had a startling reaction when he realized Beerus had awakened and had already destroyed several planets in the process in Super.
- Back in the early days, he had this reaction moments before he and the witch merged into one.
Properly Paranoid: In the Buu arc, Old Kai is adamantly against using the Dragon Balls since they disrupt the natural balance of the Universe. This seems overly paranoid until GT wherein the Dragon Balls' constant abuse leads to the creation of the Shadow Dragons, which threaten all of reality.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Outside of his reluctance with using Dragon Balls (Dragon Ball GT justifies it, but outside of that it's largely just paranoia) and some of his loopiness, he's largely this, being fully aware in the Buu saga of just how far the Godzilla Threshold has been crossed. He gives away his life to revive Goku and allows Goku to use the world of the Kais as a battleground to prevent collateral damage.
Sealed Good in a Can: Many generations ago, a powerful monster (Beerus) sealed him inside the Z Sword, out of fear of his abilities (or, as Toriyama suggests, as a short-tempered response during a petty argument).
Skewed Priorities: He only agrees to help out the heroes (by making Gohan stronger and helping them use the Namekian Dragon Balls) when Goku offers to send him naked pictures of Bulma (to Vegeta's anger). Also, when Gohan offers to have his powers unlocked, he spends five hours on a traditional 'ceremonial dance' to presumably celebrate the unlocking of his potential, despite knowing that for someone like Gohan, the process would take around twenty hours, while Majin Buu was nearly done wiping out Earth's inhabitants.
Squishy Wizard: He acts pretty frail and fails to deflect even a very weak blast from base Goku. He Lampshades this himself, stating that it's his mystical abilities that make him powerful, not his physical strength.
Strong Family Resemblance: He's Shin's ancestor, and looked a lot like him prior to fusing with the old witch.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Dirty old man who, while lacking in physical power, holds a vast amount of wisdom and is able to teach the heroes something new. When Goku meets him, he immediately thinks of Roshi. When Caway tries to seduce Roshi in Super, they both have the same reaction.
Time Abyss: He claims to be the Supreme Kai from 15 generations prior to Shin's. Considering that Shin is a several million-year-old deity himself, this can only make Old Kai unfathomably ancient.
Time to Unlock More True Potential: One of his abilities is to power up a person to above the absolute maximum of their potential. It takes over 24 hours and involves a strange dance and lots of meditation, but it also made Gohan the single most powerful fighter in the universe (for a time, anyway. Goku's immediately speculating on how the state can be surpassed).
Troll: As stated before, he likes acting ridiculous and seemingly enjoys ticking people off. This may also be a kind of Secret Test of Character since he tries to teach Gohan patience and focus (Old Kai doesn't need to even focus on the unlocking ceremony since he is so good at multi-tasking and keeping his mind clear). Unfortunately, it doesn't stick, as Super Buu uses mind games to slowly break Gohan down.
What the Hell, Hero?: In GT, when the heroes' constant use of the Dragon Balls leads to the creation of the Shadow Dragons, he tells everyone that he warned them about constantly abusing their power and singles out Bulma in particular for creating the Dragon Radar.

Characters / Dragon Ball Allies

Major Martial Artists

Kami's Palace & Karin's Tower

**Shenron (神龍, Shén Lóng)**

Kami (神)

Dende (デンデ)

**Mr. Popo (ミスター・ポポ, Misutaa Popo)**

**Korin (カリン, Karin)**

Yajirobe (ヤジロベー)

Otherworld

King Kai (界王, Kaiō-sama)/North Kai (北の界王, Kita no Kaiō, "North King of the World")

Shin (シン)/(East) Supreme Kai ((東の)界王神, (Higashi no) Kaiōshin, "(East) World King God")

**Old Kai (老界王神, Rō Kaiōshin)**

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Index

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Characters / Dragon Ball Allies

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Major Martial Artists

Kami's Palace & Karin's Tower

Shenron (神龍, Shén Lóng)

Kami (神)

Dende (デンデ)

Mr. Popo (ミスター・ポポ, Misutaa Popo)

Korin (カリン, Karin)

Yajirobe (ヤジロベー)

Otherworld

King Kai (界王, Kaiō-sama)/North Kai (北の界王, Kita no Kaiō, "North King of the World")

Shin (シン)/(East) Supreme Kai ((東の)界王神, (Higashi no) Kaiōshin, "(East) World King God")

Old Kai (老界王神, Rō Kaiōshin)

Previous

Index

Next

**Shenron (神龍, Shén Lóng)**

**Mr. Popo (ミスター・ポポ, Misutaa Popo)**

**Korin (カリン, Karin)**

**Old Kai (老界王神, Rō Kaiōshin)**