Who is your favorite character and why?

[Kunzait_83]

Why not? Top 10.

1) Kuririn: My original fave, stemming partly from my childhood obsession with Shaolin monks, partly from his myriad of excellent techniques and creative fight scenes and excellent characterization from the 23rd Budokai up through the Freeza arc. My personal favorite as a "leader" of the group above even Piccolo and Vegeta.

2) Tenshinhan: I'll be honest... I've always kinda liked him as a Youxia better than Goku. He gets severely shortchanged after the Saiya-jin arc (save a few fist-pumpingly great individual moments in the Cell and Boo arcs), but from the 22nd Budokai up through the moment he dies against Nappa, he's one of the all time coolest, best realized examples of most of my favorite Wuxia tropes in the series.

3) Piccolo: Everything that's awesome about Kuririn and Tenshinhan rolled into one character, plus he gets to be a teacher/mentor to boot. Also has one of my all time favorite "origin stories" in just about anything I can think of. Rivals Vegeta easily as the most developed and fleshed out character in the whole series. Incredible character design as well, arguably the very best in the whole series (and considering the series and artist in question, that's hardly anything to sneeze at).

4) Freeza:The absolute greatest villain the series has ever produced. Unquestionably.

5) Vegeta: The more I've thought about it over time, the more I realize how much I love the guy. Honestly the worst you can really say about him is the sort of aimlessness of his character in the Cell arc and the truly obnoxious fanbase he has. Otherwise? Yeah, Vegeta's pretty great. Who doesn't love everything about him throughout the Namek/Freeza arc, and his utter refusal to stay down against the Z Warriors at the climax of the Saiya-jin arc? As Rocketman once perfectly put it, he's the anti-Shonen.

6) Muten Roshi: Mostly for his run as a character from the 21st Budokai up through the Daimao arc, where he was very much the best master/teacher/mentor character in the entire series easily. His fight against Tenshinhan is without question one of my favorites in the whole series. I also tend to really love his use as a fight commentator throughout most of the series' later fights: no matter how ancillary he becomes as a character, the story never fully forgets that he was also at one time one of the best martial arts masters in the entire Dragon World and I love his (mostly spot on accurate) perceptiveness and insight whenever he's witnessing battles between characters he can no longer hope to match up against in his advancing years.

7) Son Gohan: Despite getting severely shortchanged in the latter Boo arc as well as the more recent "revival" material, everything else about Gohan from his Saiya-jin arc debut up through the early Boo stuff is pretty fantastic. One of the best internal character conflicts in the whole series, and making him such a mirror exact opposite of his father (to the point of ultimately finding more of a personal connection with Piccolo of all people) was such a smart move.

8 ) Cell: The most underrated villain the series has ever produced and in some cases maybe the most unfairly criticized by fans. Has a truly impeccable character design (well, except for that godawful terrible facial design of his 2nd form), an extremely effective horror-esque introduction and a rousing martial arts tournament send-off. Fuck the haters, Cell rules.

9) Son Goku: I think the main thing that's eroded Goku a tad bit for me in more recent years is how some fans look to him now as a Peter Pan-esque figure and glorification of wallowing in a sense of arrested development and childishness forever and ever. In spite of that though, Goku's still a great central character with many, many, many classic moments throughout all of DB. I'm also a big fan of his small mini-arc of wrestling with his barbaric Saiya-jin heritage and having to accept it as a part of who he is without either condoning or condemning it. There's some hidden depths to what's going on there that I don't think enough people really appreciate, and its probably one of the most truly mature conceits in what is otherwise generally a pretty flighty, daffy little Wuxia series. Kinda great that it belongs to a character who, for many, epitomizes everything nauseatingly immature and "Super Shonen" about this series.

10) Bardock: Let's just quietly ignore virtually everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that's been done with the character throughout the last decade or so. Going PURELY by the original Bardock TV special (and virtually NOTHING ELSE) this is one of the best characters in the whole series hands down. A true "villain protagonist" in every sense of the phrase, the Bardock TV Special may still rank for me as the single greatest piece of DB anime, shy only of the 1st Z movie (with Garlic Jr). An unrepentant mass murderer whom you're asked to root for and sympathize with... and the anime largely gets away with it. This epitomizes everything that was great about the entire Freeza era of the series.

Honorable Mentions)

Tao Pai Pai: Toriyama saw fit to essentially throw Hwang Jang Lee into the series just for the hell of it. On that basis alone, its a miracle he's not WAY higher on the actual list proper. Also he ties in pretty heavily to Tenshinhan's character arc throughout original DB, which is one of the major factors that placed him at no. 2 on this list. Nothing but love for DB's resident kung fu assassin. "Kill You" indeed.

Mirai Trunks: The most 90s character in the whole series by far. Everything about Future Trunks instantly dates the Jinzoningen/Cell arc to the early 90s. Not a bad thing in the least bit mind you. Used very effectively throughout most of the Jinzoningen/Cell arc, stars in another utterly fantastic piece of DB anime (the Trunks TV special natch) filled to the brim with some of the anime's best ever moments, and his now-iconic intro against Cyborg Freeza is still one for the ages and deservedly so.

Yamucha: Yeah, I'm a Yamucha guy. Fuck off. The Soukidan is still one of the most fun Ki techniques in the series, and he still manages to snag a decent number of legitimately badass moments despite his now legendary losing streak. The series' true underdog, but I like underdogs. Also gotta love his bandit attire.

Kaioshin: Once upon a time, long, long, LONG ago Kaioshin was one of my favorite characters. Much of it had to do with A) his design which is SO fucking cool still and B) the basic concept of using an all-powerful deity as a terrified underdog. That made much of the earlier Boo arc just incredibly unpredictable and fun to follow back in the day. Oh, and also C) being the sickest character to play as in Super Butouden 3.

#18: This series BADLY needed more female fighters in general, but nonetheless 18 was a really cool one for awhile. Great design, love her icy persona, hands Vegeta at his most insufferable one of his most humiliating defeats, and is miraculously almost never objectified in some creepy, fetishistic manner (much to the chagrin of many of the skeevier fans out there, but fuck them). Needed to be a far bigger part of the Boo arc for my money, but otherwise I've few complaints and love, love, love 18.

[ABED]

1. Goku - he's positive, constantly pushing himself to be the best, and he's different than most heroes.
2. Freeza - Love the design and his demeanor.
3. Muten Roshi - He makes me laugh, but that never seems to undercut his wisdom.
4. Piccolo - great design, he's a badass, and giving up his life to save Gohan was one of the few moments that makes me well up.
5. Kuririn - His and Goku's friendship was one of the highlights of the show for me.
6. Tenshinhan - Strong, stoic, and great character arc even if it's just one arc, but what a great one.

[Dbzfan94]

I really have a lot of favorites. That sounds so cliché but its hard for me to choose. But if I had to pick three

1) Piccolo Jr- He was a complete badass since the moment he appeared in Dragon Ball. His fight with Goku at the 23rd Tournament is my favorite in the series and he trained Gohan who is another fav of mine. Sad he got shafted in the Buu Saga but hopefully he makes a return to the front lines
2) Goku/Vegeta- goes without saying
3) Goten- he's just so cute and adorable and I really wish they did more with him. Hopefully Super will give him and Trunks their true chance to shine

[Cetra]

Broly, Vegeta, Gokuu, Piccolo, Pan.

Or something like that.

[Lord Beerus]

1. Beerus. His ambiguous characteristics has been fantastically handled, but even beyond that, he's just a brilliantly well rounded character. His design is fantastic and both his English and Japanese VA's are perfect. But the truly beautiful thing about his character is that there is still so much more than can be done with him. Not to mention his the first God in the Dragon Ball to actually have a genuinely Omnipotent significance on the structure of the universe.

2. Goku. But a very close second, though. I fell in love with the franchise originally because of Goku's character. He is just the embodiment of everything I love about Dragon Ball.

3. Vegeta. The best developed character the franchise had produced and created the mold for anti-heroic characters in shonen manga and anime.

4. Piccolo. The balancing of his aloof and distant nature and caring loving side are so wonderfully handled. He's the perfect uncle.

5. Future Trunks. Best backstory of any Dragon Ball character, along with being the most handsome. Also, sword users FTW!

[Relenanator]

Broly, Vegeta, Gokuu, Piccolo, Pan.

Or something like that.

Are you me? I would add Turles to that list though. I wanted to know more about him and he seemed to have a lot of interesting potential.

[Sandubadear]

Broly because his power is maximum.



No, really, I like side characters like Oolong, Roshi, Paikuhan, Goku's filler fox brother, four-eyed and four-armed transforming alien Leader, etc.

[GeeRod]

Seems I'm the only one that don't like Vegeta

1) Goku
2) Gohan
3) Mirai Trunks/Piccolo
4) Whis
5) Beerus.

I don't know why but since BOG I've grow to like Goku a lot more. He is just awesome right now

[Super Saiyan Swagger]

Future Trunks because the guy gets shit done. He doesn't let his Saiyan power get the better of him and fuck around with his opponents like other Saiyans. His backstory is fantastic, the guy wields a sword (which is always awesome) and he's the son of Bulma and Vegeta... That still fucks my mind. When he took out Freeza and King Cold I had so many questions. He had the best introduction for a character in the entire series. Future Trunks is fucking awesome.

[fadeddreams5]

Future Trunks because the guy gets shit done. He doesn't let his Saiyan power get the better of him and fuck around with his opponents like other Saiyans. His backstory is fantastic, the guy wields a sword (which is always awesome) and he's the son of Bulma and Vegeta... That still fucks my mind. When he took out Freeza and King Cold I had so many questions. He had the best introduction for a character in the entire series. Future Trunks is fucking awesome.

I agree with all of this. Best intro and never hesitated to kill a bad guy. In F, everyone knocked out Frieza's men. Trunks flat out slaughtered them with no shits given.

I feel they could have used him a bit better in the rest of the saga though.

[Soppa Saia People]

Seems I'm the only one that don't like Vegeta

1) Goku
2) Gohan
3) Mirai Trunks/Piccolo
4) Whis
5) Beerus.

I don't know why but since BOG I've grow to like Goku a lot more. He is just awesome right now

It's okay, I don't like him ether.

[Kuririn Fan]

Kuririn, Gohan, Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, Muten Roshi, Tenshinhan

[Tian]

Bardock. even though he is a low class warrior, at least he showed he had guts to battle Frieza

[LSSJGODSSJ4Gogeta]

My top 5 and why-


5 Perfect cell-He's refined, cool, very fun to watch

4 Omega Shenron-The strongest Villain. He's so sadistic and Brutal and just awesome! Perfect final villain!

3 Whis-Very relatable and charming and funny.

2 Broly-he's a TURE super saiyan as described by Vegeta. Ruthless and blood thirsty. No cheap tricks like buu and janemba, just good old fashion LEGITMATE strength. His reason for hating Goku I feel is mis understood.

1 Vegeta-Because he's smart, cool, strong in his conviction, honorable an has a gun made of garlic.

[TheUltimateVegito]

Vegito is my absolute favorite of course. He's the better combination of Vegeta and Goku's personalities than Gogeta was and his birth marked the peak of Goku and Vegeta's rivalry.

Cell being my second favorite since he was the perfect end game villain for the series. Not to mention how his personality in his various forms reflected those he had DNA of. The fact that he was practically Nega-Goku while in perfect form was, well, perfect.

[Xeztin]

1. Vegeta, I always find it funny now a days that he shows the "tough" guy act, and that underneath he actually cares, (like when he kept his promise to trunks in Super) It always makes for a good laugh, especially when he is forced to do something that his Pride doesn't want to when it comes to Goku or his family.

2. Beerus - He tend's to act like that he is a heart-less God of Destruction, but in the end he is just as childish as Goku especially when it comes to food!

3. Whis - Though not much is known about him, as someone said before me he is everything Dragon Ball is not, he is the most powerful character yet, and he acts completely the opposite with his Go-happy attitude.
I always found it pretty neat that he lets Beerus boss him around and only but's heads with him when Beerus gets out of control.

[gohann]

Kid Goku in Dragon Ball, he was all-around more likable.

[nickzambuto]

No love for farmer with a shotgun ITT? You sicken me Kanzenshuu.

[sintzu]

Vegeta : He has the best character arc in the franchise.
Goku : What's not to like about him ?
Beerus : The way everyone acts around him and how his personality shifts.
Majin Buu : Everything about him is funny.
Future Trunks : His story is great and he doesn't make the mistakes the other Saiyans make.

[Man-Child]

I like Piccolo a lot. He started off a villain like most, but I love that he was shown having a gradual change to good with his training of Gohan. His connection to Kami, the dragon balls, and Gohan always gave him consistent importance throughout the series, and despite being outclassed in most battles, he's always willing to fight. Even as he becomes less and less powerful, compared to the leads, his role as a rational strategist and mentor has helped give him his his own spotlight.