WDragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The franchise features an ensemble cast of characters and takes place in the same fictional universe as Toriyama's other work, Dr. Slump. While many of the characters are humans with superhuman strengths or supernatural abilities, the cast also includes anthropomorphic animals, extraterrestrial lifeforms, and deities who govern the world and the universe.
WAndroid 17 , born as Lapis is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama, initially introduced as a villain alongside his sister and compatriot Android 18, but after being consumed by Cell and then expelled, later appearing as a supporting character in the sequel series Dragon Ball Super, prominently in the Universal Survival arc. Android 17 makes his debut in chapter #349 The Androids Awake!, first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on November 12, 1991.
WAndroid 18 , born as Lazuli , is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. Android 18 makes her debut in chapter #349 The Androids Awake! , first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on November 12, 1991.
WAndroid 21 is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball media franchise. Created as part of a collaborative process between Arc System Works and Akira Toriyama, Android 21 makes her debut appearance in the 2018 fighting game Dragon Ball FighterZ published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, where she serves as a main villainess. The character has received a very positive reception, and has since appeared in other licensed Dragon Ball video games.
WBardock , Burdock in Viz Media's English manga translation, is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball media franchise. Created by Toei Animation based on series protagonist Goku's visual design by franchise creator Akira Toriyama, he first appears in the animated television special Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku as its morally ambiguous protagonist. Bardock has few overall manga and anime appearances within the series, though he plays a pivotal part as Goku's biological father in setting up the backstory of his son, originally known by the name Kakarot, as one of the last survivors of the Saiyan genocide by the intergalactic tyrant Frieza.
WBeerus, God of Destruction is a character in the Dragon Ball franchise created by Akira Toriyama. Beerus made his first appearance in the 2013 feature film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods as the main antagonist and returned as a supporting character in Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F', as well as one of the main characters in Dragon Ball Super. He is a God resembling a purple cat wearing traditional Egyptian clothing and ornaments, whose occupation is to maintain balance by destroying planets, in contrast to the Supreme Kais who create and preserve them.
WBroly is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball series.
WBulma is a character featured in the Dragon Ball franchise, first appearing in the manga series created by Akira Toriyama. She debuted in the first chapter Bulma and Son Goku , published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on June 19, 1984 issue 51, meeting Goku and recruiting him as her bodyguard to travel and find the wish-granting Dragon Balls. Bulma is the daughter of Dr. Brief, the founder of the Capsule Corporation, a company that creates special small capsules that shrink and hold objects of various sizes for easy storage. Being the daughter of a brilliant scientist, Bulma is also a scientific genius, as well as an inventor and engineer. Along with creating the Dragon Radar, a device that detects the energy signal emitted by a Dragon Ball, Bulma's role as an inventor becomes important at several points in the series; including the time machine that brings her future son Trunks to the past.
WCaulifla and Kale are two interconnected fictional characters from the Dragon Ball media franchise. Created as part of a collaborative effort between franchise creator Akira Toriyama and Toei Animation, the characters first appeared in the Universal Saga arc of Dragon Ball Super as antagonistic characters from an alternate universe to the setting of the Dragon Ball series: Kale was originally conceived as a derivative character of popular Dragon Ball villain Broly by Toei Animation staff, and Caulifla was personally designed by Toriyama as a companion and counterpoint to Kale.
WCell is a fictional character and a major villain in the Dragon Ball Z manga and anime created by Akira Toriyama. He makes his debut in chapter #361 The Mysterious Monster, Finally Appears!! , first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on 16 February 1992. Cell is an evil artificial life form created using cell samples from several major characters in the series. He travels back in time so he can become the perfect being. In order to reach this goal, he must absorb Androids 17 and 18.
WChi-Chi, sometimes written as Chi Chi, is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball media franchise. Created by Akira Toriyama, she first appears in Chapter #11 of the Dragon Ball manga entitled "...And into the Fire!". Typically portrayed as the shrewish wife of series protagonist Son Goku and the overprotective mother of Son Gohan and Son Goten, Chi-Chi is considered to be one of the most prominent female characters in the franchise, and is featured consistently in merchandise and in cosplay by Dragon Ball fandom.
WFrieza , also known as Freeza in Funimation's English subtitles and Viz Media's release of the manga, is a supervillain in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He makes his debut in Chapter #247: Dark Clouds Swirl Over Planet Namek , first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on October 24, 1989, as a galactic tyrant feared as the most powerful being in the universe.
WSon Gohan is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series, created by Akira Toriyama. Gohan is introduced as the first son of the protagonist Goku, and his wife Chi-Chi, in chapter #196 Kakarrot , published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on October 8, 1988.
WSon Goku is a fictional character and the star of the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. Serving as the main protagonist of the series, he is based on Sun Wukong, a main character in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, combined with influences from the Hong Kong martial arts films of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Goku first made his debut in the first Dragon Ball chapter, Bulma and Son Goku, originally published in Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on December 3, 1984. Son Goku was named by Grandpa Son Gohan, who brought him up on Earth, and that is the name everyone else knows him by. Grandpa Son Gohan became the adoptive grandfather of Son Goku when he found him in a crashed spaceship when he was a baby.[ch. 197] Son Goku being a Saiyan, who are known to be very aggressive and short-tempered, was very uncooperative at first. But after falling into a ravine, Son Goku hit his head, causing him to lose his memory, and became a regular happy, loving boy. Grandpa Son Gohan was taught martial arts by Master Roshi and passed on his knowledge to Son Goku. Goku was the cause of Gohan's death, however, Gohan showed no aggression and did not seek to take revenge.[ch. 21, 233]
WJiren (ジレン), also known as Jiren the Gray , is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball media franchise by Akira Toriyama. Within the series, Jiren hails from Universe 11, a parallel universe to Universe 2. He is a member of the Pride Troopers, a heroic organization who are organized around defending their universe from evildoers. Jiren is the primary antagonist and anti-villain of the Universal Survival Saga of Dragon Ball Super, where eight 10-person teams compete in the multiverse-oriented Tournament of Power to ensure the survival of their respective universes. Jiren is considered to be the strongest among the participating competitors, as his power is said to rival or even surpass those of the universes' deities; his goal is to be given access to the Super Dragon Balls by winning the tournament. He quickly establishes a rivalry with series protagonist Goku, the two of them engaging in a series of intense battles that eventually leads to Goku developing a new ability. Jiren first appears in Episode 85 of the Dragon Ball Super anime, whereas his debut appearance for the Dragon Ball Super manga is in Chapter 30. Jiren is voiced by Eiji Hanawa in Japanese, and by Patrick Seitz in the English localization by Funimation.
WKrillin is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is introduced in chapter #25 A Rival? Arrival!! , first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on May 21, 1985, as Goku's fellow martial arts student under Kame-Sen'nin. As the series progresses, Krillin becomes Goku's closest ally and best friend as he fights every villain along with Goku or before him and is often depicted as the comic relief.
WMajin Buu , generally spelled Majin Boo in subtitles of the Japanese anime, and rendered as Djinn-Boo in the Viz Media manga, is the final antagonist in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama, before the release of Dragon Ball Super. He is introduced in chapter #460 Majin Boo Appears?! first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on March 1, 1994. Majin Buu is a genie-like magical life form awoken by the evil warlock Bibidi that terrorized galaxies by destroying entire planets, millions of years before the events of Dragon Ball take place. He was temporarily sealed away and brought to Earth; however, Bibidi was killed and Buu remained hidden. During the events of Dragon Ball Z, he is revived by Bibidi's son Babidi in order to carry on his father's plan to conquer the entire universe.
WMr. Popo is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. Within the series, he is a genie who serves as the assistant to Earth's guardian deity and the caretaker of their residence located high above the sky. He first appears in the one hundred sixty-third chapter of the Dragon Ball manga, published in 1988. In the Japanese anime adaptations, his seiyū was Toku Nishio, before Kawazu Yasuhiko took over the role for Dragon Ball Kai. For English language media, he was voiced by Chris Cason from 1997 to 1998. The character is voiced by Christopher Sabat for all media post-2000.
WMr. Satan , known as Hercule in certain edited versions of the English dub and in Viz's English manga, is a character from the Dragon Ball media franchise. Created by Akira Toriyama, he first appears in Chapter 393 of the Dragon Ball manga entitled "The New Kami-sama", originally published in Issue 44 of Weekly Shōnen Jump on October 6, 1992. Within the series, he is a flamboyant and incompetent martial artist who becomes a world-renowned hero after he fallaciously claimed credit for the defeat of the villainous Cell. Years later, he befriends the primordial being Majin Buu and convinces him of the error of his murderous way, leading Buu to expel his evil tendencies which become a different lifeform altogether. After aiding series protagonist Goku in vanquishing the evil incarnation of Buu, the benevolent incarnation moves in with Mr. Satan, and both characters continue to make recurring appearances as supporting characters in the series.
WArale Norimaki is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Dr. Slump manga series, created by Akira Toriyama. She is a robot built by Senbei Norimaki who looks like a young girl. She is known for her naïveté, energetic personality, lack of common sense, and amazing strength. Senbei tries to convince the other citizens of Penguin Village that she is just a normal human girl, and it seems to work, despite her superhuman athletic ability. Among her strengths, she can use abilities that range from the terrain splitting Chikyūwari to the beam-like N'chahō . However, she is nearsighted and needs to wear glasses. The character also makes appearances in various other media, most notably in the Dragon Ball media franchise.
WPiccolo is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball media franchise created by Akira Toriyama. He is first seen in chapter #161 Son Goku Wins!! , published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on February 9, 1988, as the reincarnation of the evil Piccolo Daimaō, who was positioned as a demonic antagonist of the series. However, it is later revealed that he is in fact a member of an extraterrestrial humanoid species called Namekians, those able to create the series' eponymous wish-granting Dragon Balls. After losing to Son Goku, Piccolo decides to team up with him and his friends in order to defeat newer, more dangerous threats, such as Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Majin Buu, Beerus, Zamasu, Jiren, Broly, and Moro. He also trains Goku's eldest child Gohan in martial arts, with the two forming a strong bond.
WThe Red Ribbon Army is a fictional group of characters featured in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball anime and manga series. The many operatives of the Red Ribbon Army, led by Commander Red , serve as opponents for series protagonist Goku during his second quest for the Dragon Balls. In the aftermath of the Red Ribbon Army's defeat by Goku, a surviving member known as Doctor Gero continues the group's legacy and creates a series of powerful artificial humanoids known as Androids as part of his vendetta against Goku.
WMaster Roshi, known in the original Japanese as Kame Sennin as well as Muten Rōshi , is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball series created by Akira Toriyama.
WTien Shinhan , known as Tenshinhan in Japanese media and Viz Media's release of the manga, is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is introduced in chapter #113 The 22nd Tenka'ichi Budōkai , first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on February 24, 1987, entering the martial arts tournament to kill Son Goku and his fellow-students. However, he later teams up with them to defeat Piccolo Daimaō, accompanied by his friend Chaozu. Tien becomes Goku's rival for a period and is notable for being the first person in the series to fly using Bukū-jutsu and to use the Taiyōken technique.
WTrunks is a character in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. Within the series, he is the half-Saiyan half-Human son of Vegeta and Bulma and has at least two noteworthy incarnations. Trunks makes his debut appearance in chapter #331 The Young Boy of Mystery , first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on July 2, 1991, as an unidentified young man who traveled back in time to warn series protagonist Goku and his allies of a deadly new enemy, the Androids of the Red Ribbon Army. This alternate future timeline incarnation of Trunks, who is usually referred to as "Future Trunks" in media to distinguish him from his present-timeline counterpart, is one of the Dragon Ball series' most popular characters and has been praised for his unique role within the series.
WVegeta , also known as Prince Vegeta or alternatively styled as Vegeta IV is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball franchise created by Akira Toriyama. Vegeta first appears in chapter #204 Sayonara, Son Goku , published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on November 7, 1988, seeking the wish-granting Dragon Balls to gain immortality.
WVidel is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball media franchise. Created by Akira Toriyama, she first appears in Chapter 421 of the Dragon Ball manga originally published in Issue 23 of Weekly Shōnen Jump on May 11, 1993. Her name is a play on words with her father's name Mr. Satan. Within the series, she is adept in martial arts like her father and using her abilities to fight crime in the city. She is the love interest of Gohan and plays an important role during the story arc where he is the lead character of Dragon Ball. When Gohan appears as a costumed vigilante known as the Great Saiyaman, she quickly figures out his identity, and blackmails him into teaching her new techniques using her ki. After the main antagonist of the story arc Majin Buu is defeated, the two establish a settled lifestyle and later have a daughter named Pan.
WYamcha is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is first introduced as a desert bandit and an antagonist of Son Goku in chapter #7 Yamcha and Pu'ar , published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on September 11, 1984, alongside his constant companion Pu'ar. He is eventually depicted as being reformed, becoming an ally of Goku's.
WZamasu (ザマス), spelled Zamas in Viz Media's English localization of the Dragon Ball Super manga, is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball series. He is introduced as Goku Black in the forty-seventh episode of Toei Animation's Dragon Ball Super anime series which first aired on June 12, 2016 and in chapter #14 An SOS from the Future!! from the manga.