Dragon Ball Official Worldwide Character Popularity Poll

[JulieYBM]

Women in their 30s love Cell!

As a 36-year-old woman who loves Cell, I couldn't agree more!

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

It's a pleasure to be in such excellent company.

[Captain Awesome]

38 year old man doing my part for Kuririn

I identify with his fear of death and desire for a wife

[LoganForkHands73]

I don’t mind that it’s purely focused on the original manga, it’s actually cool that the website is very aesthetically focused on it. But yeah, with the proliferation of spear-carriers and other meme picks (Farmer with Shotgun is not in that category however, he is 100% valid), the results seem kinda sus. Obviously, Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo and some Fusion are always going to be in the top 5, but to see the likes of Fat Buu, Pan and King Piccolo languishing in the lower echelons… Even if this is purely based on Pan’s two chapters of pagetime in the manga, I would’ve thought her dark horse popularity from GT and Super Hero would’ve covered for it, but I guess not.

Freeza and Cell, as you’d expect, are really close, but the global audience always seems to lean towards Cell, whereas Freeza soundly dominates in the Japanese fandom.

[LightBing]

People will start voting for their favorites once the contest is further along.

So far surprised by Cell above Freeza and Kuririn outside the top 10. Bulma should be way higher.

I imagine a lot of fans voting are also fans who grew up with the old Funimation dub. Despite a lot of revisionist “I always loved Linda Young as Frieza how dare they recast” comments Funimation’s Frieza was a very unpopular villain, mostly for femmephobia reasons.

That's an interesting regional aspect. It would be informative to see the regional voting.

People will start voting for their favorites once the contest is further along.

Indeed, I can't imagine a universe in which Goku and Vegeta aren't going to be at the top two places, in this order.

You can probably add Gohan in third. From 4th downwards is where it gets interesting.

[Majin Buu]

None of these results are surprising to me, considering this is a literal popularity contest.

[M16U3L2015]

Freeza and Cell, as you’d expect, are really close, but the global audience always seems to lean towards Cell, whereas Freeza soundly dominates in the Japanese fandom.

I would say that it is more the English-speaking audience that prefers Cell, which I attribute mainly to the characterization given to Frieza in the dub, which I don't think appealed to many viewers.

In other places, such as Latin America, Frieza is a much more iconic villain than Cell.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, making Freeza even gayer and having those episodes air in the 1990s and early 2000s—when homophobia and transphobia were even more socially acceptable—was not a good mix for making Freeza liked lol

[M16U3L2015]

Yeah, making Freeza even gayer and having those episodes air in the 1990s and early 2000s—when homophobia and transphobia were even more socially acceptable—was not a good mix for making Freeza liked lol

In addition, Linda Young's performance lacks the charisma achieved by Ryusei Nakao's portrayal, which contributed greatly to the character.

[DestructoDisc]

Here are the 1st stage results: https://x.com/DB_official_en/status/1993152854455206359

[bahhma]

According to the official website:

SNS icons of the characters who survived the 1st stage and smartphone wallpapers of the characters who survived the 2nd stage are now available!

But I have no idea where to find them. I checked the website and their official twitter (which I regrettably reopened an account for) Where are they?

[Yuji]

Surprised Dr. Gero fell through this round. Will be voting him in for the revival round.

[Salt-sensei]

I feel bad for Shuu, both Pilaf and Mai made it in and he got left behind...

[nineko]

I can't believe that the nameless cute girl I voted for barely made the cut as 80th, that's great!

[LightBing]

Surprised Dr. Gero fell through this round. Will be voting him in for the revival round.

Such an underrated villain. Shame his arc was cut short, his gimmick had a lot of potential.

[Yuji]

Surprised Dr. Gero fell through this round. Will be voting him in for the revival round.

Such an underrated villain. Shame his arc was cut short, his gimmick had a lot of potential.

I'm surprised he isn't more popular considering how much his backstory and family tree were fleshed out in the revival era.

I loved his introduction and cat and mouse chase later.

[Mr Baggins]

I generally don't care for popularity contests, but it'd be cool if I could vote for my top 10 or something instead of only being allowed a single vote per day.

Otherwise I'd just pick Goku and not remember to go back, lmao.

[Extreme_kai]

Yeah, making Freeza even gayer and having those episodes air in the 1990s and early 2000s—when homophobia and transphobia were even more socially acceptable—was not a good mix for making Freeza liked lol

The reception of Freeza (in the West specifically) has always fascinated me. Growing up with Linda Young's Freeza, I always accepted that Freeza used male pronouns. I always thought he was androgynous, but he's an alien, so I didn't want to assume just off of looks or voice. My younger brother, despite growing up with the early dub of DBZ, fairly recently called Freeza a girl after I showed him a clip from DBS Broly with Ayre's performance. He doesn't keep up with DBS, but he still insists he was a girl despite having a male voice actor. One of my gaming buddies also would repeatedly call Freeza "she" when we played DBFZ together. This, in spite of the fact that we both used Japanese audio in our gameplay.

So I certainly agree there is a degree of Homophobia, transphobia, and femmphobia going on with his character, in the West at least. I even saw a guy in a YouTube comment on the Funimation dub of Goku vs Freeza call Freeza "A representation of female evil." lol. A even argued with a guy on here who didn't like Freeza because in his words: Freeza is "femmine-femmine" and that's not as acceptable as Vegitos "Masculine-femmine" lol. Unfortunately, to get the most respect, you have to be the biggest, macho character without a single hint of femininity. smh.

Anyway, I'm just happy that Freeza and Cell are in the top 10. They are my favorite Dragon Ball ship. They're so close they could make out at any moment.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, making Freeza even gayer and having those episodes air in the 1990s and early 2000s—when homophobia and transphobia were even more socially acceptable—was not a good mix for making Freeza liked lol

The reception of Freeza (in the West specifically) has always fascinated me. Growing up with Linda Young's Freeza, I always accepted that Freeza used male pronouns. I always thought he was androgynous, but he's an alien, so I didn't want to assume just off of looks or voice. My younger brother, despite growing up with the early dub of DBZ, fairly recently called Freeza a girl after I showed him a clip from DBS Broly with Ayre's performance. He doesn't keep up with DBS, but he still insists he was a girl despite having a male voice actor. One of my gaming buddies also would repeatedly call Freeza "she" when we played DBFZ together. This, in spite of the fact that we both used Japanese audio in our gameplay.

So I certainly agree there is a degree of Homophobia, transphobia, and femmphobia going on with his character, in the West at least. I even saw a guy in a YouTube comment on the Funimation dub of Goku vs Freeza call Freeza "A representation of female evil." lol. A even argued with a guy on here who didn't like Freeza because in his words: Freeza is "femmine-femmine" and that's not as acceptable as Vegitos "Masculine-femmine" lol. Unfortunately, to get the most respect, you have to be the biggest, macho character without a single hint of femininity. smh.

Anyway, I'm just happy that Freeza and Cell are in the top 10. They are my favorite Dragon Ball ship. They're so close they could make out at any moment.

Oh gosh, that is some wild nostalgia. I wish my memory was a bit clearer than just the general vibes of people hating Freeza for being feminine.

Femphobia is such a wild thing, but it's also so, so ingrained into our society, so that the hating/mocking of Freeza and even the memory-holing of him as a woman tracks under that line of thinking.

Vegetto as 'masculine-feminine' is definitely a new one, though. Is it because of how well his hair is drawn in most episodes of Dragon Ball Z?

[Extreme_kai]

Yeah, making Freeza even gayer and having those episodes air in the 1990s and early 2000s—when homophobia and transphobia were even more socially acceptable—was not a good mix for making Freeza liked lol

The reception of Freeza (in the West specifically) has always fascinated me. Growing up with Linda Young's Freeza, I always accepted that Freeza used male pronouns. I always thought he was androgynous, but he's an alien, so I didn't want to assume just off of looks or voice. My younger brother, despite growing up with the early dub of DBZ, fairly recently called Freeza a girl after I showed him a clip from DBS Broly with Ayre's performance. He doesn't keep up with DBS, but he still insists he was a girl despite having a male voice actor. One of my gaming buddies also would repeatedly call Freeza "she" when we played DBFZ together. This, in spite of the fact that we both used Japanese audio in our gameplay.

So I certainly agree there is a degree of Homophobia, transphobia, and femmphobia going on with his character, in the West at least. I even saw a guy in a YouTube comment on the Funimation dub of Goku vs Freeza call Freeza "A representation of female evil." lol. A even argued with a guy on here who didn't like Freeza because in his words: Freeza is "femmine-femmine" and that's not as acceptable as Vegitos "Masculine-femmine" lol. Unfortunately, to get the most respect, you have to be the biggest, macho character without a single hint of femininity. smh.

Anyway, I'm just happy that Freeza and Cell are in the top 10. They are my favorite Dragon Ball ship. They're so close they could make out at any moment.

Oh gosh, that is some wild nostalgia. I wish my memory was a bit clearer than just the general vibes of people hating Freeza for being feminine.

Femphobia is such a wild thing, but it's also so, so ingrained into our society, so that the hating/mocking of Freeza and even the memory-holing of him as a woman tracks under that line of thinking.

Vegetto as 'masculine-feminine' is definitely a new one, though. Is it because of how well his hair is drawn in most episodes of Dragon Ball Z?

To this day, I have no clue what that guy was on about Vegito being "masculine-feminine." What does that even mean? I also remember him saying Cell was "masculine-feminine," and therefore a better villain than Freeza. He said characters like Vegito, Cell, and Black are elegant, but in a masculine way. Sleek and refined but not too feminine in a matronly way like Freeza is. I remember him comparing Freeza to a grandma a lot, most likely the Linda Young influence, be he also said he visually resembled an old lady. I guess too feminine for him would be like lipstick, a high-pitched voice, etc, lol. They will make up any BS to hate on fems. It's sad, really.
Freeza's feminine side is why I like him as a character. He can do both very well, and to see people hate or refuse to accept that side of him pisses me off. You can't like a character fully and not accept them for all their traits imo. I think Freeza's feminine traits were intended by Toriyama, and some of them were added by Toei, like the "noblewoman laugh," which is nearly exclusively done by female characters. There might be some other male characters that do it, but it's very rare. I can't even name another one. His speech patterns in Japanese are pretty androgynous and gay, switching from almost a patronizing motherly tone to a violent killer. He does a lot of hand on face, chin postures, which are stereotypically fem. In English, he does a lot of "Oh my" type of speech patterns, and I noticed a lot of his dialogue in the games can come off as oddly flirty and sexual. Like in the Breakers, he says things like " If you're finished, I'll make the next move" I'll be gentle," and "Oh, now there's an interesting thought. We could make this moment so much more delectable". Yeah, I could make a whole topic on Freeza's game dialogue alone. lol

[LightBing]

Surprised Dr. Gero fell through this round. Will be voting him in for the revival round.

Such an underrated villain. Shame his arc was cut short, his gimmick had a lot of potential.

I'm surprised he isn't more popular considering how much his backstory and family tree were fleshed out in the revival era.

I loved his introduction and cat and mouse chase later.

The new and old characters from his family tree likely received all the benefit from this connection. He wasn't even a character in FighterZ.