The word “Earthling” in Dragon Ball refers to any being of terrestrial origin. Since the majority the series is spent on Earth, it is no surprise that this group is the largest character base. Akira Toriyama, a nature loving person himself, used many inhabitants of Earth for the basis of his characters, not just humans. Although most of these non-human Earthling characters had human characteristics (walking upright and talking), they were classified separately from ordinary humans. Overall, “Earthlings” can largely be divided into three varieties: human, animal, and monster. The following description of these three varieties are as translated from the “Racial Groups” section of Daizenshuu 4.

• Animal-type Earthling: They look like animals, but they speak, use weapons, express human emotions, and behave just like humans. Among them there also exist Animal-type Earthlings who have acquired unique powers.
• Human-type Earthling: The most numerous kind of Earthling, the general human type. They mostly have no unique powers, but there are also some who have acquired exceptional abilities. There are those like Bulma and Dr. Brief who possess brilliant intelligence, those like Yajirobe who have great battle potential, those like Uranai Baba who have mysterious powers, and the like.
• Monster-type Earthling: Earthlings who fit into neither the Animal-type nor Human-type are Monster-type. There are many who have a distinctive appearance, like Mummy-kun and Suke-san who Goku and co. fought at Uranai Baba’s palace, and they possess mysterious powers. Pilaf, whose true identity is unclear, is also included in this Monster-type.

This guide further breaks down the “Human-type Earthling” category into numerous smaller sub-categories to better classify and distinguish between smaller subsets and organizations within the human race.

Character Biographies

Since there are so many characters that belong to the “Earthling” category and its sub-categories, we have created a separate page for each sub-category. Follow the links provided below to view a specific sub-category. The majority of the Earthling sub-categories were provided by Daizenshuu 4, which also categorized many of these characters.