Piccolo's Real Age throughout Dragon Ball

[Yasai9001]

In the community, some people have brought up the topic that Piccolo and Son Gohan are four years apart in age, which is true—in a way. This "way", though, is only counting Earth years, not Namekian years, which is by far much different than Earth’s.



In contrast to Planet Earth, which typically holds 365 days in a year, Planet Namek itself has 130 days in a year. For us to say Piccolo is just a few years older than Gohan is like saying your 6 month old puppy is exactly the same age as your baby. Piccolo, like a dog, is of a different species to us Humans, so it’s a given that he’ll age completely different to us. It is apparent that he grows at a much quicker rate than Earthlings or Saiyans, though I'll go over this as I continue to unravel Piccolo’s real age throughout the Dragon Ball Franchise.



In the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai



At this time, it’s been said to be just over three years since Piccolo Daimao’s defeat. On the very same day that the Namekian Demon had died, he spat out an egg that carried Majunior.

We’re not given the exact amount of days since Piccolo was conceived as all we have is three years. And we know that bare minimum, 365 days is required to be an entire year on Earth.

Knowing the difference between the amount of days on Earth and Namek, we can easily deduct Piccolo’s age at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai.

365 days= a year

Three years=1,095 days

So it’s been over a thousand days on Planet Earth, though due to still being connected to his Namekian bloodline, Piccolo is bound to age by Planet Namek’s cycle.

130 days= a year for Piccolo

260=2 years

390= three years

520=four years

520X2=1,040=eight years

With 55 days left over remaining, it’ll be over a month and a half (Earth’s time) until Piccolo would be able to reach age nine at this point in time in Dragon Ball

If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m not counting leap years just to maintain all simplicity in this post. In addition, I won't be adding the left over days either. Simplicity is best policy here.

Piccolo is eight years old at the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai

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Piccolo’s Age during Raditz’s arrival

By the time Raditz makes his very first appearance in Dragon Ball, it had been five years since the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai was held. Goku and Chi-Chi married and had their first born child together, Son Gohan, who wanted to focus on becoming a scholar. Everything was looking find until this very moment.

So here, I will be deducting how old Piccolo Junior was whenever he caught his first bodies (Goku and Piccolo).

365 days in a year

Five years have passed

365X5=1,825

So it has been just over 1,800 days since Piccolo and Son Goku fought one another in the Tenkaichi Budokai.

1,300 days is ten times 130, already making Piccolo ten years older than what he was in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, meaning he’s well over eighteen here.

1,430 Days= 19 years

1,560 Days=20 years

1,690 Days=21 years

1,820Days=22 years

Piccolo is 22 Years Old When Raditz Arrives.

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A Year Later, Vegeta and Nappa arrive

So here, it’s merely just one year until Nappa and Vegeta make their arrival.

Only 365 days here pass, although Piccolo would require 390 days in order to age yet another three years.

However, Piccolo only ages two more years, so we bump him up two.

Piccolo is 24 years old when Vegeta and Nappa arrive

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During his absence

Piccolo is killed at this point in time, dead by the age of 24. And despite weeks and weeks having passed because everyone is in preparation for Namek, Piccolo doesn’t age at all one bit because he is in the otherworld. So despite the time having passed, Piccolo remains at 24 years old and only starts aging again when he is wished back on Planet Namek.

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Goku Arrives Back From Yardrat after a Year

So here, another year until Son Goku arrives. Already knowing that 390 days is required for Piccolo to at least age up three years, he only edges out two yet again.

Piccolo is 26 years old when Son Goku arrives on Earth from Yardrat

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Three years of training for the Androids

1,095 days pass in three years and just like I’ve already established, Piccolo can only get in 1,040 days before another 130 days, which means he only ages another eight years.

Piccolo is 34 years old when the Androids attack Planet Earth

Now afterwhile, Piccolo does decide to merge back with Kami, though only absorbing the old man’s power and his memories. Apart from that, nothing physical changes about Piccolo at all in regards to his appearance. However, he did enter the Room of Spirit and Time, which is one entire year spent in one simple day.

Still, going by the correct numbers, Piccolo ages yet another two years due to spending one entire day in the RoSaT chamber.

Piccolo is 36 years old at the Cell Games. (If you believe he’s just 34 and 36 physically, then that’s fine).

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Piccolo’s Age During the Buu Arc

Now here is the biggest gap we’ve seen yet in the original Dragon Ball Manga apart from the end of Z skip: 7 years, which translates to basically a shit ton of days.

7 years=2,555 days.

Piccolo requires solely 130 days to age up one year.

130X19=2,470.

Multiplying by twenty would result in a total of 2,600 days, though only 2,555 have passed.

With that said, Piccolo has aged another 19 years throughout this time in Dragon Ball.

Piccolo is 55 years old at the time and events of the Boo Arc. (53 and 55 physically if you go by that instead).

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Piccolo’s Age when Uub is first introduced

Here, I am moving directly over Super and toward the end of Z where Uub was first introduced. Since it’s a ten year jump from the events of Boo, a lot of time has passed, which now makes this the biggest jump in Dragon Ball apart from the 7 year skip.

Let’s do the math.

365 times ten equals 3,650, which makes it ten years exactly.

130 days is required for Piccolo to age up a year.

130X28=3,640 days

With said math done, Piccolo ages 28 years.

Piccolo is 73 years old at the end of Z during Uub’s arrival (73 physically, 71)

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Piccolo’s age in GT

Just before Piccolo dies in GT, said Series was to be five years after the end of Z. While the English Dub of GT places the events ten years after, the original japanese dub has it as 5 years. And since the Japanese version is the exact original version of GT, we shall go ahead with five years.

Like before, we already five years is required to be a fourteen age jump for Piccolo. So continuing with what we already have, this makes Piccolo

87 years old when he dies in GT (87 physically, 85).

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How long can Piccolo really live for?

To see how long Piccolo could really live if he weren’t to be killed off Early, we’d have to use Saichoro (Guru) as an example to see how long Piccolo would really be able to last.

Apparently, from what I have found, Guru is aged just about five hundred years old (going by Earth years) and at this time, he is on death’s doorstep, hurting extremely because of the loss of all his children.

Given that he’s just about five hundred years old, we have to do the math and transfer this into Namekian years.

500 years= 182,500 days

130 days times that of 1400 equals 182,000.

Given that there are still just five hundred days remaining, then that means three years can be added on for aging, which results to 390 days. Another Namekian year would be 130 days, which surpasses 500 days by 20 days precisely.

With that said, Piccolo is capable of living well over 1,400 years (in Namekian years). I would honestly be inclined to say over 2,000 simply because Piccolo Daimao himself brought up in Dragon Ball that the effort of birthing his own demon spawns increased his aging. Saichoro, after the tragedy that happened on Namek, popped out a myriad of children, well over 100 of them.

Even though birthing children increases a Namekian’s aging process, Guru still managed to live well over 1,000 years (in Namekian years). In addition, the death of his children accelerated the aging process. Our Piccolo doesn't have to worry about his aging being accelerated in any way at all due to the fact that he hasn't reproduced and probably never will. This gives him potentially an even greater lifespan than Saichoro. Asides Muten Roshi, Piccolo would be capable of being one of the last protagonists of Dragon Ball standing after many other die due to natural causes.

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To Conclude, Here’s a Recap

23rd Tenkaichi Budokai: Piccolo is 8 years old

Raditz’s Arrival: Piccolo is 22 years old

Nappa and Vegeta’s Arrival: Piccolo is 24

Goku’s Arrival From Yardrat: Piccolo is 26

After three years of training for the androids: Piccolo is 34

After one day in the RoSaT chamber: Piccolo is 36

After seven years pass for the events of Boo: Piccolo is 55

At the end of Z: Piccolo is 73

(Counting GT {Non canon}) Right before Piccolo dies: The Namekian is 87 years old.

All of this is solely going by Piccolo’s age in Namekian Years, not Earth years. People love to say that he is not much older than Gohan but you couldn’t be much farther from the truth when you get technical. When Gohan was first introduced in Z, Piccolo was already in his twenties.

I hope you all enjoyed the read and that some of y'all learned something new. This is something I posted in the Dragon Ball Z Amino app as well as reddit, but I just feel like sharing info in other places of the Dragon Ball Community as well.

[Grimlock]

Can you calculate how old is Piccolo in Dragon Ball Online? He is still alive and it is AGE 1000.

[Yasai9001]

Age 1,000? Well, Piccolo was born in Age 755 if I am not mistaken.

This would make him 245 years old, regarding Earth's cycle of Dragon ball.

Putting this into Namekian years, given their 130 day yearly cycle, this would make Piccolo over 680 years old regarding Namekian years.

[Yasai9001]

Of course, this is regarding Piccolo, who was reincarnated by his father. I'm not adding Piccolo Daimao's years onto his for the record, lol

[Grimlock]

Piccolo was born in AGE 753. There is no reason to take Piccolo Daimaoh into account, he is another person. You don't see people taking Bardock's years and putting in Goku.

Anyway, thanks for the Namekuseijin years. We often use human parameters but it's interesting to see stuff using other ones.

[Yasai9001]

Thanks for the correction, fam.

[Grand Marshal 1]

A worthy post to read! Congratulations, I love it!

[Michsi]

Great find!

I still think Namekian aging process seems to be more confusing than that though. Namek's year may be shorter than Earth's, but Namekians themselves seem to age slower than Earthlings, even by Earth year standards. Dende in the Cell Saga looks identical to how he did in the Namek arc even though more than 3 years had passed (8 Namekian years) and he looks only a little older in the Buu Saga.

Piccolo's jump to adulthood has probably more to do with his father conditioning his creations like that.

[Yasai9001]

Yeah, they definitely age differently speaking from a physical standpoint.