Kidomo

Kidomo
キドモ (Kidomo)
English Name(s)	None
Name Pun	Unknown
Manga Debut	Dragon Ball Super Chapter 104 (as a statue)
Anime Debut	Dragon Ball Z Episode 196
Japanese VA	None
Personal Data
Classification	Alien
Occupation	Martial Artist

Kidomo is a minor fictional character in the Dragon Ball universe, introduced as one of the many fighters in the Afterlife Tournament that Son Goku encounters in Age 767.

Kidomo is first introduced in episode 196 of the Dragon Ball Z television series, as scripted by Aya Matsui, which debuted 11 August 1993 on Fuji TV. At the time of this episode's original broadcast, the series did not make clear which of two possible fighters the name "Kidomo" corresponded to, a name which otherwise only appeared on a tournament bracket screen.

Decades later, Toyotarō included a reference to Kidomo — pinning down one of the two possible character designs in the process — in chapter 104 of the Dragon Ball Super manga.

Biography

Kidomo's background is unknown, with the exception that he died sometime prior to Age 767. Kidomo must have been a powerful enough martial artist that he was granted his body in the Afterlife. He likely trained with one of the Kaiō — later implied to be North Kaiō, having originated from Earth — and sought to receive training from Dai Kaiō himself.

In Age 767, Kidomo fought in the first round of the Afterlife Tournament against an unknown opponent. While the series implies that he won (due to Dai Kaiō banging the gong after showing Kidomo's attack knocking his opponent to the ground), for a reason unexplained in the series, neither he nor his opponent advanced into the next round.

Name

Kidomo's name origin/pun is unclear. It could be based on もどき (modoki, an imitation or mockery of something else), like in the tofu-vegetable melange gan-modoki ("imitation goose"), or perhaps どきも (dokimo) in the phrase 度肝を抜かれる (dokimo o nukareru, to be completely stunned in surprise).

Production

Due to the production schedule inherent in producing a weekly anime series based on a weekly comic, the writers of Dragon Ball Z interjected anime-only material both as a means of extending the runtime and to flesh out the Dragon Ball universe. Kidomo and the entire Afterlife Tournament arc was written to depict Son Goku's experience in the afterlife prior to the time-skip and the arrival of Boo.

At the time of the Afterlife Tournament's original broadcast, Kidomo is only indirectly identified in the series by his name appearing on tournament bracket/leaderboard of fighters, where his opponent's name is cut off. As the fights had otherwise been displayed in order (with known characters Olivu and Paikuhan), we could therefore surmise that Kidomo was one of two fighters depicted for the third match, but not which one.

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  Kidomo's name (right-most full text) listed in the tournament bracket
• 
  Kidomo grabbed by his opponent
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  Kidomo seemingly defeating his opponent
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  Kidomo alongside other North Galaxy competitors

• If Kidomo were the long-haired fighter depicted, he appeared to have a rapport with other fighters in the tournament and was later seen hanging out in the stands with North Galaxy fighters.

• If Kidomo were the flying-gorilla competitor, his galaxy of origin would be unknown — outside of episode 196 in which this fight took place, he does not appear again.

A similar-looking character — albeit one wearing a purple shirt versus Kidomo's seemingly-standard yellow — can later be seen training with East Kaiō and other characters (notably Chop Chai); as Kidomo was just seen watching the tournament earlier in the same episode, and due to the different colored shirt, it can fairly safely be determined that they are intended to be two different characters.

Over 30 years later after its original broadcast, Toyotarō included references to several Afterlife Tournament competitors (among other heroes such as Mr. Satan and Mutaito) in chapter 104 of the Dragon Ball Super manga by way of statues of Olivu (as "ORIBU") and Kidomo (as "KIDOMO"). By assigning a specific character design to this specific name, this marked the first official designation of Kidomo, as well as an inference that he actually originated not just in the North Galaxy, but specifically on Earth.

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  Statues of Mutaito and Kidomo at a museum exhibit of Earth's heroes

Various palette swaps (changing the hair and outfit colors) based on Kidomo were used as a variety of "FIGHTER" opponents in the afterlife map area of the 2004 Nintendo Game Boy Advance video game Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury, as developed for the North American market by Webfoot Technologies. One of these variants in particular has teal hair and a yellow shirt that most closely matches Kidomo's appearance from the television series. Each of them has the same profile when scanned ("This is a martial artist from the Other World.") and have stats of 175 HP, 10 STR, 0 POW, and 20 END:

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  Grey hair variant
• 
  Green hair variant
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  Teal hair variant
• 
  Gold hair variant
• 
  Full group takes on Goku

Notable Skills

Kidomo is a formidable martial artist.

Performance

Kidomo has no spoken lines in the television series, and therefore no voice actor assigned to him.

Notable Appearances

• Dragon Ball Z Episode 196: Kidomo's battle against an unknown opponent.
• Dragon Ball Super Chapter 104: Statue of Earth heroes.
• Dragon Ball Z: Buu's Fury: As otherwise-unnamed "FIGHTER" palette swap opponents