Yajirobe - Wait, What?

[B]

After the events of the 22nd Strongest Under the Heavens Tournament, Toriyama pulled no punches and dove right into the next arc, killing a central character, no less. Goku, in his rush for vengeance the likes of which never before seen from his character, has a run-in with a mountain man after eating his meal. The story progresses from there with this Yajirobe person aiding Goku.

What was the point of Yajirobe's existence in the series? His only worthwhile contribution in his introductory arc was carrying Goku up Karin Tower, which while adding to the silly atmosphere of DB, with he only doing it for the promise of food, could've easily been done by Goku if Toriyama had made it play out that way. Goku could have also taken down Cymbal. There isn't much Yajirobe was really needed for in his own debut. Perhaps comic relief is a good enough answer?

The real question I propose, and why I made this topic, was that a mere two storylines later, the character is all but thrown away with the serious nature of the Freeza arc, and effectively replaced in the next arc through the end of the series with Mr. Satan. While it's true most of the human characters were demoted to a lower tier thanks to the Saiyans, Yajirobe being introduced so close to his retirement just begs the question "what was the point?" Was it Toriyama's editor? Was there simply no room for the comedic character in the darkest saga DB had to offer? Did he just forget the character, since he was introducing a slew of aliens at that point?

It's been a while since a matter in Dragon Ball made me ponder beyond, "it's a kids' comic book, stop thinking so much." Thoughts and speculation are of course welcome.

[NeptuneKai]

I think it's typical Toriyama "Oh shit...I wrote myself into a corner...erm....what now!?"

Come to think of it that's exactly what Yajirobe is, Mr.Dues Ex Machina.
Someone's dying, Yajirobe comes with a senzu. All hope is lost Yajirobe is there for a quick sneak attack. This role was later given to Mr.Satan in the Cell and Buu arcs rendering his character pointless.

That's my theory anyway.

(By the way what do those percentages represent in your sig?)

[Amigo Ten]

Probably to keep the theme of "There's always other strong people out there" going. Goku had surpassed Roshi by that point, and even though he lost his fight with Tien, it was only due to chance. Tien admitted Goku was the better fighter.

Obviously Piccolo was massively strong, but he's a weird demon guy, and it was a big part of the series that there were always random people out there on par with Goku, so he couldn't just sit back and relax as the strongest.

[Rod]

Because Toriyama wanted to show Yajirobe picking his nose and showing his ass.

In other words, comic relief.

At least that's the way I see it

[B]

I'm leaning towards Amigo Ten's camp, the more I mull over it. Yeah, he was obviously comic relief, but Toriyama likes those kind of characters, so you'd think he would have stayed around longer. Plus, there's the fact we're coming off of Ten's arc, where "'Champion' is just a title! Keep training!" is a heavy message, so that definately puts some meat on that theory.

[Amigo Ten]

Oh, and obviously for a bit of comedy too. And to have someone be there to help Goku. His beating from Piccolo probably wouldn't seem as severe if he could trek all the way to Korin's tower afterwards.

[Herms]

I think he's there in the Daimao arc so that Goku has someone to interact with while he's away from the main group, and there needed to be somehow to take Goku to Karin after Goku was beaten to an immobile pulp by Piccolo. It'd also be a bit boring for Goku to kill both Cymbal and Tambourine. Basically, I think Yajirobe was a replacement for all the characters who were dead, wounded, or just couldn't be with Goku for plot reasons (I also can't help wonder if he was introduced so that Mayumi Tanaka would have someone to voice during Kuririn's absence). After the Daimao arc he wasn't needed for this anymore, so he got relegated to Karin's gopher.

Come to think of it that's exactly what Yajirobe is, Mr.Dues Ex Machina.
Someone's dying, Yajirobe comes with a senzu. All hope is lost Yajirobe is there for a quick sneak attack. This role was later given to Mr.Satan in the Cell and Buu arcs rendering his character pointless.

He's really never a deus ex machina. Toriyama clearly showed that Yajirobe was around during Goku's fight with Vegeta, so he hardly comes out of nowhere. And Yajirobe only ever comes around with senzu before the fight even starts.

[Raki]

Yajirobe saved everyone from being killed....twice. I think he has his purpose like everybody in the series.

[Bussani]

It's unrealistic in a story to have characters only appear if they're going to become really important. If a writer just does that non-stop then it's like...you start to see 'fate' pulling everything together too neatly, if that makes sense.

And damn, if you think about it in the long run, Yajirobe's way more useful than, say, Chaozu.

[Herms]

It's unrealistic in a story to have characters only appear if they're going to become really important. If a writer just does that non-stop then it's like...you start to see 'fate' pulling everything together too neatly, if that makes sense.

I think that's one of the problems with One Piece actually.

[Amigo Ten]

I love that about One Piece. It's nice to fully operating world of characters and a sense that the whole story has a definite direction, as opposed to Dragonball where, beyond the main characters, each story arc is pretty much self contained.

[B]

It's unrealistic in a story to have characters only appear if they're going to become really important. If a writer just does that non-stop then it's like...you start to see 'fate' pulling everything together too neatly, if that makes sense.

And damn, if you think about it in the long run, Yajirobe's way more useful than, say, Chaozu.

It's just the timing and the build-up of the character that gets me. It's why this topic isn't "Yamcha - Wait, What?" or "Tenshinhan - Wait, What?" Before Toriyama put those two on the bench, they already had a nice amount of panel time and development. They showed up, and their personailties clashed with Goku's in order to provide an interesting narrative, so much so that they were pretty much ready to go by the time they became underpowered and irrelevant. But Yajirobe, a guy with strength to match Goku and ended up being a driving force in the defeat of a major threat, he just seems... rushed, for the amount of panel he actually did get. He had enough spotlight to at least be considered a main character for his tenure in the Piccolo arc, as opposed to actual minor characters who helped out when the situation was specifically affecting them, like Snow or 8-chan or Arale or Upa.

[Raki]

I love that about One Piece. It's nice to fully operating world of characters and a sense that the whole story has a definite direction, as opposed to Dragonball where, beyond the main characters, each story arc is pretty much self contained.

That's because Oda probably knew long before hand what he wanted to do with One Piece.

[Amigo Ten]

I love that about One Piece. It's nice to fully operating world of characters and a sense that the whole story has a definite direction, as opposed to Dragonball where, beyond the main characters, each story arc is pretty much self contained.

That's because Oda probably knew long before hand what he wanted to do with One Piece.

I know. I've heard he spent two years planning everything out before it started in publication. Although apparently he'd planned it to last about 5 years, and he's expanded it because he loves it so much. Looks like it'll last about 20 years now.

[The Time Traveller]

I think Toriyama was told to keep Kuririn alive or something so Mayumi Tanaka wouldn't have been taken out for a while in the anime, but there's a moment where Goku says to Yajirobe "Your voice reminds me of Kuririn" or something like that, right?

Is a conspiracy!

Yajirobe was basically a replacement Kuririn for a while then he was put out of the way, but he was still useful like cutting off Vegeta's tail and such...

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

The point of the samurai tubby's existence was to serve his purpose in the series. More specifically, he wounded Vegeta's pride and his precious tail.

[Bussani]

It's unrealistic in a story to have characters only appear if they're going to become really important. If a writer just does that non-stop then it's like...you start to see 'fate' pulling everything together too neatly, if that makes sense.

I think that's one of the problems with One Piece actually.

I kind of know what you mean, but One Piece is a weird one. If it was only the main characters just happening to show up (which admittedly they do, "we need a cook! *cook shows up*" "we could do with a shipwright about now. *shipwright shows up*", that much is hand-of-fateish) then I'd flat out agree, but practically everyone in their world is 'important', and there are so many characters that it tends not to stand out as much when it happens.

[rereboy]

The story is richer with Yajirobe in it. And that`s good enough for me.

[Wojak]

It's unrealistic in a story to have characters only appear if they're going to become really important. If a writer just does that non-stop then it's like...you start to see 'fate' pulling everything together too neatly, if that makes sense.

I think that's one of the problems with One Piece actually.

I kind of know what you mean, but One Piece is a weird one. If it was only the main characters just happening to show up (which admittedly they do, "we need a cook! *cook shows up*" "we could do with a shipwright about now. *shipwright shows up*", that much is hand-of-fateish) then I'd flat out agree, but practically everyone in their world is 'important', and there are so many characters that it tends not to stand out as much when it happens.

Not always. I was almost certain that they would pick out a ship carpenter when they had the Davy game with the Foxy clan.
But, yes, you almost always know when a character will follow the clan.

On topic: I like that Yajirobe went to live with Karin, and they are a comic relief together.
Other than being a temporary character, I would love to see an estimate of his battle power.
I would like to add that he got quite some panel-time as the "senzu-daddy", and also fought in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, although his loss wasn't as embarassing as Yamcha's. He was seen as a fighter until the arrival of the Androids, where he didn't want to fight anymore.
Other characters that I would like to see get at least that much screen-time don't.
Examples are Android 8 (cybernetically enhanced by Bulma to help in the fights, ends up with being the one to defeat the androids) and Radditz (joins Goku and they together become the Super Bros., with Vegeta killed in the Saiya-jin saga. Really, if we compare Vegeta and Radditz, Vegeta seems like an awkward choice as Goku's rival).

[Vaeran]

Yajirobe is also sort of a comic foil to Goku. Here's another superstrong midget who lives by himself in the wilderness and eats gigantic animals, but he's somehow even less civilized than Goku is.