How many Earthlings are aware of ki?

[Mr. Piccolo]

Among Earthlings, how widespread do you think the knowledge of ki is? I don’t necessarily mean ki manipulation, as it is clear that only the best martial artists have that skill, I am just thinking of a general awareness of ki as a force or power.

Any thoughts?

[Saiyan007]

I believe in DBO everyone knew about it becuase of trunks and goten i believe

But if you mean in the manga everyone should definitely know becuase of them giving thier energy to goku during the kid buu fight

[Gyt Kaliba]

I believe in DBO everyone knew about it becuase of trunks and goten i believe

But if you mean in the manga everyone should definitely know becuase of them giving thier energy to goku during the kid buu fight

Because of Gohan, actually. He wrote a book about ki and ki control, Goten and Trunks were just inspired by that to start up a Swordsman class. Kinda random, especially for Goten, but still pretty cool. And as for them knowing about it because of the Kid Boo fight...hmm...I dunno. I want to say that would fall under the wish to make them forget Boo. Even if it wasn't, I doubt most of them really understood what it meant, not enough to understand ki anyway.

That said though, I almost want to say that early on in Dragon Ball, the populace did seem a little more knowledgeable about it...or at least less dismissive. Putting aside Yamcha's knowledge of the Kamehameha's reputation and it's fundamentals (cuz as a fighting bandit, he's not exactly 'general populace'), the audience at the Budokais always seemed to at least accept the energy attacks. They might not have really understood it, but they definitely thought it was awesome and wanted to see more of it. Then Mr. Satan happened, and the collective populace lost a few (hundred) IQ points...

...Though really, maybe it was just how long it had been since they saw fights like the older Budokais had, cuz surely no matter how big Mr. Satan was, he couldn't have covered the entire thing up with his ignorance, right?

[Polyphase Avatron]

I would guess a few hundred people.