Character Guide: P - R 

Paikuhan*  A tall, green fighter in the Annoyoichi Budoukai, he is very similar to Piccolo in looks and personality, although he is not Namekian.  He wears clothing similar to Piccolo’s, including a turban, and is very quiet and serious.  Goku even comments on the likeness between the two as he watches Paikuhan fight.  Paikuhan also takes Piccolo’s previous position as a rival to Goku in the tournament.  They battle each other in the finals of the Annoyoichi Budoukai, and have a very close match (mostly because Goku doesn’t go Super Saiyajin).  Although Goku ultimately wins, for Paikuhan to nearly equal Goku even in normal form is very impressive.  When his character is first introduced in the anime, Paikuhan breaks up a riot in Hell, and without Goku’s aid he beats the living crap out of Frieza, King Cold and Cell.  Paikuhan also has a significant role in DBZ Movie 12.  The movie begins with Paikuhan and Goku duking it out in the finals of the Annoyoichi Budoukai.  Their battle is interrupted by the explosion of the Soul Cleansing Machine and the havoc wreaked across the Afterlife by Janemba in his first form.  While Goku and Vegeta go to fight Janemba himself, Paikuhan is responsible for breaking the force field over King Yama’s Palace created by Janemba.  While his kicks and punches do next to nothing, he discovers by accident that the only thing capable of breaking the force field is cursing and violent threats, something which the Stoic Paikuhan quickly finds quite challenging.  After only cracking the force field slightly with minor curses, Paikuhan grows impatient and finally in a rage he screams several of the nastiest things one might reserve for their worst enemy, and the force field instantly cracks to pieces.  Near the end of the movie, Paikuhan tries to help Goku and Vegeta, and ends up distracting Janemba long enough for the two Saiyajin to fuse into Gogeta.  Although Janemba appears to “kill” Paikuhan right before Gogeta arrives on the scene (as Paikuhan is not shown again for the rest of the movie), the fact that Paikuhan is already dead and that he is in the Afterlife during the battle brings one to assume that he is merely knocked out by Janemba, and not truly killed.  However, it is never proven either way, but left to the viewer to decide.

Pan  Daughter of Gohan and Videl, granddaughter of Goku.  Born in the year 779 AD, she competes in the 28^th Tenkaichi Budoukai when she is only 5 years old.  She proves her Saiyajin bloodline by completely wrecking her opponents, including Goten, her 17-year-old uncle.  Pan plays a larger role in GT, where as a teenager she embarks on a long journey in space with Trunks and Goku to find all of the Black-star Dragonballs scattered across the galaxy.  Originally, it was Goten who was supposed to travel with Trunks and Goku, but while Goten sleeps late, Pan sneaks onboard the ship and takes his place.  She develops quite an attitude, and gets into a lot of trouble on different planets.  Gill, the helpful little robot who travels with them, tries to protect Pan, but usually ends up getting yelled at by the independent teenager.  However, deep down Pan really has feelings for the little guy.  With the exception of Android 18, Pan is the most powerful female fighter in the anime series.

Panboukin*  The chunky, quick-tempered member of Bardock’s crew.  He obtains a scar in Oozaru form during the battle on planet Karnassa in the beginning of the Bardock Special.  In the dub, Panboukin is made to look like a smart-mouthed idiot that says stupid things like “the bomb”, but in the true Japanese version he is not all-mouth and no-brain, but he is actually rather sharp.

Piccolo - “Pikoro” (see Piccolo (Original), Piccolo Daimaou, Kami)  One of the most powerful fighters in DB/Z/GT, Piccolo is a green-skinned, slug-like alien from the planet Namek.  Piccolo is the reincarnation of Piccolo Daimaou, his father.  Just as he is dying (from a fatal blow by Goku), Daimaou spits out an egg containing an unborn clone that is to become the embodiment in which Daimaou reincarnates himself – Piccolo.  Because Daimaou’s spirit is reincarnated in the clone, he retains all of Daimaou’s memories and abilities.  Although the final “spawn” of Piccolo Daimaou refers to himself only as Piccolo, rather than using his full title, he continues to hold the same dark powers over the spirit world, and so Piccolo is still considered the Great Demon King.  Piccolo holds many special natural abilities due to his Namekian ancestry.  He does not eat food, but needs only water for sustenance.  The Nameks are a slug-like species, and thus Piccolo inherits multiple talents such as the regeneration of limbs, and, after a time, asexual reproduction.  He has fangs, super hearing, purple blood, and he even speaks some of the ancient Namekian tongue.  Piccolo is a warrior-class Namek, and one of the only Namekians on Earth.  From the very day he is hatched, Piccolo vows to take revenge on the one who killed his original body - Goku.  All during his youth, Piccolo continues to train in order to defeat and destroy Goku.  The young Namek first appears in Dragonball at the 23^rd Tenkaichi Budoukai, where he faces off with Goku in an extremely close match.  Goku barely defeats Piccolo with a huge Kamehameha that knocks the Namek out cold.   Piccolo appears again in the first episode of DBZ as the second person Radditz encounters on Earth.  Piccolo makes a temporary alliance with Goku in order to take out the intruding Saiyajin.  Though they are overpowered by the massive warrior, Piccolo uses his new special technique, the Makankosappo (Special Beam Cannon), which generally means “Screw Attack of the Devil”, to finish Radditz.  While Goku restrains his brother, Piccolo fires a beam so powerful that it literally drives a hole right through Radditz and Goku, killing them both. His revenge on Goku and Radditz now complete, Piccolo gloats over the dying Radditz that Goku’s friends will revive him with a wish from the magic Dragonballs.  With a sneer Radditz informs Piccolo that he sent every word the Namek had spoken to his compatriots Vegeta and Nappa using the scouter as a relay device, and that they are coming to Earth in one year.  In a burst of rage, Piccolo fires a beam at Radditz, finishing him.  Kami immediately observes that, unlike every being killed by Piccolo before him, Radditz’s spirit rises to the Afterlife.  In Dragonball, Piccolo Daimaou’s dark powers include the effect that any creature killed by the Demon King would be cursed to wander the Earth as a spirit for all time.  Kami concludes that because of this strange occurrence, Piccolo must be changing internally, even developing a conscience.  Piccolo decides to train the young son of Goku, Gohan, in hopes of making him a young warrior who can help defend the Earth from the Saiyajin.  Out of thin air he conjures clothing and a sword for Gohan, then leaves him alone in the wilderness for 6 months to learn how to survive on his own.  After 6 months pass, Piccolo takes the boy in and trains him directly, teaching him martial arts and how to focus his ki.  Gohan begins to think of Piccolo not only as a teacher, but a best friend, and as time goes on, Piccolo himself grows quite fond of the boy.  When the Saiyajin arrive, Nappa fires a beam at Gohan that would certainly kill him.  However, Piccolo jumps in the path of the beam to take the blast instead, sacrificing himself to save Gohan’s life.  Since Kami and Piccolo are still attached in spirit, if one dies they both perish.  Just before Kami fades, he remarks that Piccolo has a soul, because of what he has done for Gohan.  This fact alone may be what motivates King Yama to let Piccolo pass to Snake Way.  Piccolo makes the long journey to King Kai’s planet and trains there a while, although he detests King Kai’s style of teaching.  Later in the Frieza Saga, Piccolo is wished back to life and on the planet Namek.  On his way to fight Frieza, he fuses with another dying Namek, Nail, and becomes more than twice as strong as he had been, with a power level of over 1,000,000, allowing him to face Frieza in his second transformation alone.  Piccolo is nearly killed in the lengthy battle with Frieza, and again when fighting Garlic Junior.  Later in the Android Saga, Piccolo and Kami make the decision to fuse permanently in order to stand a greater chance against the androids and Cell.  The two rejoin their spirits into one body as the Namek without a name, the original Piccolo.  The fusion creates a power increase so great that Piccolo is referred to as a “Super Namek”.  Although his mergings don’t appear to change Piccolo physically, internally he retains the memories and experiences of both Nail and Kami. After rejoining with Kami, Piccolo becomes more philosophical, and takes even more “heroic” actions that endanger his own life.  For example, he seals himself, Gotenks and Buu in the Room of Spirit and Time.  Later in GT, when the Black-star Dragonballs are about to cause the planet to explode, he offers to stay on Earth and die with his own planet. Rather than be teleported away with the rest of Earth’s inhabitants.  He does this primarily because of Kami’s influence concerning his attachment to the planet.  Like the captain who goes down with the ship, as Kami, or God, remains a part of Piccolo, he feels inclined to perish with the loss of his planet.  Of course, he dies, and his soul overall is clean enough to rise to Heaven.  However, with Goku later trapped in Hell, no ex-Demon King can simply sit around and do nothing.  Piccolo goes on a frenzy and wreaks total havoc in Heaven until he is literally thrown out, at which point he willingly changes places with Goku in Hell.  Piccolo remains in Hell until the end of GT.  Whether or not he is ever wished back (or if he even WANTS to be) is left for the viewer to decide. (What a way to end a series).

Piccolo  (Original) - “Pikoro” (see Piccolo Daimaou, Kami, Piccolo)   The original Namek without a name, he was born on Planet Namek in 250 AD and journeyed to Earth hundreds of years ago.  He came in a strange-looking Namekian ship that requires at least a basic knowledge of the ancient Namekian language to pilot.  Piccolo is one of the only Nameks in the series who is not directly related to Guru.  Instead, Piccolo is of Guru’s generation, and his father’s name is Katastu.  Although he forgot his origins after landing on Earth, Piccolo probably left Planet Namek to escape the violent storms and the terrible drought that followed.  These catastrophes, which nearly wiped out all life on Namek, occurred almost 500 years before the beginning of Dragonball.  Guru was the sole Namekian survivor, and so once he became old enough to gain the power, he procreated asexually to populate the planet again.  However, at least one other Namek survived the drought; this Namek was the young Piccolo, who had escaped in the Namekian ship to another planet he could survive on – Earth.  Although he retained his grasp on the Namekian tongue, he could not remember who he was or where he had come from.  He could have lost his memory in an instant by hitting his head either in the landing of his ship or afterward, or he may have simply forgotten his origins over the passage of time as he lived alone with little or no human (or otherwise) contact for hundreds of years.  The latter is more likely, although it is never specified how he came to forget his origins, and thus the events of Piccolo’s youth during that span of several hundred years remains unclear.   As time passed and the young Namekian grew, he witnessed many violent acts and watched as entire wars were waged before his eyes.  Later he participated in many of these wars, and became a great warrior.  However, he had made friends and contacts along the journey to find himself, and he was recognized by the Kami during that period as a being worthy of taking his place one day.  When the time came for a new Kami to be chosen, those few in line for the throne gathered together, and the contenders were narrowed down to two: Garlic and Piccolo.  While both were quite able to rule, only Piccolo had honest and pure ambitions for the throne, while Garlic’s ambitions were impure and selfish at best.  With this knowledge, the old Kami chose Piccolo as the next Kami.  But Piccolo could not yet rise to the throne, for although his intentions were pure, his heart had been corrupted by his troubled youth.  Because he was yet impure, Piccolo had to be cleansed of his dark side.  The cleansing process ultimately caused the original Piccolo to split into two separate beings equal in power.  One was pure, while the other half was evil incarnate.  The purified Piccolo rose to the throne and from that point on, became known as Kami.  The evil half came to be called Piccolo Daimaou, or the Great Demon King Piccolo.  The original Piccolo remains split into these two, Kami and Daimaou who later reincarnates himself in his asexually-cloned spawn Piccolo, for quite some time.  It is not until the beginning of the Cell Saga that he is seen again.  At this point the two halves Kami and Piccolo solemnly and a bit reluctantly decide to fuse in order to become a being more than twice as powerful as either of them combined.  It is a necessity that they must undergo to become strong enough to defeat the androids and save Earth.  When they re-fuse, they once again become the original Namek who had no name (although he later named himself Piccolo, supposedly, though how he received his name is not specified.  This portion remains unclear).  Piccolo never again splits into two beings, as the personalities of the two Kami and Piccolo become infused as well.  Thus he also surrenders his position as Kami to a younger, pure Namek named Dende.  Piccolo remains in his original form for the rest of the series.

Piccolo Daimaou - “Pikoro Daimaou”  (Piccolo the Great Demon King) (see Piccolo, Piccolo (Original), Kami)  The dark half of the original Piccolo.  Hundreds of years before Dragonball began, the Namek who had forgotten his origins was chosen to succeed the old Kami as the new God of Planet Earth.  However, this Namek who called himself Piccolo was impure, and could not rise to the throne until he could cleanse his soul.  The process of purifying Piccolo’s soul actually caused him to literally split into two separate beings equal in wit and power:  his pure half, who refers to himself only as Kami, and his dark side, who came to be called Piccolo Daimaou, or the Great Demon King Piccolo.  As the incarnation of evil, he has dark powers and holds some control over the spirit world.  For example, whosoever Piccolo Daimaou deliberately kills by his own hand, their soul cannot rise to the spirit world, but will be cursed to wander the Earth as a spirit forever.  After his creation, Piccolo Daimaou wreaked havoc all across the Earth, and was virtually unstoppable.  Even Kami, perhaps the strongest being on the planet, could only equal him in power, but never overcome him.  The reason for this was because the two halves of Piccolo remained bound in spirit, and so they were still technically the same person.  This fact also meant that if Piccolo Daimaou were destroyed, Kami would perish with him.  No solution to this could be found, until finally in the year 461 AD, when Master Roshi’s sensei the great Mutaito stood up to the Demon King.  The two faced off and Mutaito induced the suicidal Mafuba sealing attack.  Although Mutaito lost his life performing the move, his attack succeeded in sealing Daimaou inside the Denshi Jar, where he remains imprisoned for several hundred years.  Much later in 753 AD, Emperor Pilaf manages to find the Denshi Jar and sets Daimaou free, plotting to conquer the world with the Demon King’s power.  However, while Pilaf believes he is using Piccolo Daimaou for his own wicked purposes, it is really the other way around.  Pilaf nearly succeeds in taking over the planet, while Daimaou battles Tien and Goku.  Piccolo Daimaou, like all Nameks once they reach a certain age, inherits the ability to asexually reproduce.  He begets a total of four children by spitting them out of his mouth.  Some of them are quite clever, and they are all feisty and vicious.  Goku destroys all of them but one (whom Yajirobe kills) and overpowers Daimaou.  Finally, Goku fatally wounds the Demon King by propelling himself through Daimaou’s torso, leaving a gaping hole in his chest the size of a beach ball.  Before he dies, Piccolo Daimaou spits out a final egg.  However, the egg s not his spawn, but rather contains the embodiment in which Daimaou reincarnates himself.  In other words, he spits out an unborn clone that is the reincarnation of his own spirit, and retains all of his memories and abilities, including his martial arts skills.  Although Piccolo Daimaou dies, his spirit continues to live on in his unborn “son”, or his clone, and so Kami remains alive as well.

Pikkon -   see Paikuhan

Pilaf - “Pirafu”  A little blue imp who appears many times during Dragonball.  His ambition is to one day take over the world, and he nearly succeeds until Goku arrives to thwart his plans, usually at the last minute, often by accident.  He has two assistants, Shao and Mai, who do most of the work for him.  He appears almost twice as much in the anime as compared to the manga.  At one point in Dragonball, he collects all of the Dragonballs and is about to make his wish when Oolong jumps in the way and screams a different wish than anyone had planned on.  Pilaf is never seen during DBZ, but in the first episode of GT he makes a final appearance as an old man (or imp).  He finds Kami’s Tower along with the now elderly Shao and Mai, and they manage to recover the seven Black-star Dragonballs hidden in the Tower.  Right as Pilaf is about to make his wish to rule the world, Goku teleports in front of them.  Pilaf screams in rage and exclaims that he wishes Goku were a little kid again so he could beat him up.  Unfortunately, the Black-star Dragon overhears this and grants his wish.

Pizza - “Piiza”*  The hot, redheaded promotional agent of Mr. Satan, she appears in the anime only during the Cell Saga.

Porunga  The dragon of the Namek Dragonballs, created thousands of years ago by Guru.  The name Porunga is a Namekian word, but its meaning is unclear.  This dragon appears when all seven Namek Dragonballs are gathered in one place and his name is uttered.  However, since this dragon was created by a Namekian, a wish can only be granted if it is spoken in Namekian tongue.  This dragon is much bigger than the Earth Dragon, about 5 times larger in size.  He has the power to grant three wishes to any person that successfully calls upon him.  Porunga is stronger than Shenlong in some ways, in that he can grant the same wish as many times as someone can wish it, but he is not strong enough to bring more than one person back from the dead in one wish, while Shenlong can bring the entire population of Earth back to life if needed.  The dragon cannot grant a wish that goes beyond the power of his creator.  After the three wishes are made and granted, Porunga leaves once again, and the dragonballs scatter all across the planet.  The dragonballs also turn to stone, as they cannot be used for a year after a wish is granted.  However, since the planet Namek has three suns, a Namekian year is really only about 4 months on the planet Earth, which becomes helpful to the Namekians later.  When the Namekian year has passed, the dragonballs become active again, ready to be gathered and wished upon.  When his creator dies, the dragon “dies” with him, and so Porunga and the Namek Dragonballs disappear when Guru dies unexpectedly right before Vegeta wishes to be granted immortality.  But when Guru and many others that died because of Frieza were brought back by the Earth Dragonballs, Porunga returns as well, ready to grant a final wish.  Although Guru dies after arriving on Earth, before he passes away he appoints Muuri, the second eldest Namek and his first son, the new Namek Elder.  Thus, Muuri takes his place as the Great Namek Elder and Porunga can live on.  Unlike the Earth Dragonballs, which are relatively small and can be held in the palm, the Namek Dragonballs are much bigger and heavier, each about the size of a large basketball.

Pteranodon - “Puteranodon”  The large pteranodon who kidnaps Bulma in the first issue of Dragonball, planning to make her his lunch.  Goku promptly attacks the monster, smacking it with his Power Pole, and kills it.

Puar  The shape-shifting little friend of Yamcha, she resembles a blue cat without a nose.  She and Yamcha met in the year 747 AD and became inseparable.  In Dragonball, they work as a team to rob anyone traveling through the desert in which they lived.  Puar has the ability to change her shape into any form, even inanimate objects, and hold that form as long as she likes, although her strength is not increased by the change, and she can’t turn into something that can be used up, like fuel or food.  She went to shape-shifting school with Oolong, and she always made straight A’s.  Although she is relatively weak, she also has the ability to levitate and fly.  Puar was born in the year 740 AD.

Pui Pui  The guardian of the first floor of Babidi’s ship.  He informs Goku, Vegeta, Gohan and Kaioshin that he comes from the planet Zun, just as Babidi creates the arena in which they will fight to resemble his home planet, thus giving Pui Pui the greater advantage.  Grinning, he tells his opponent, Vegeta, that the gravity on his home planet is ten times that of Earth, but Vegeta only laughs and sneers in his face.  Babidi had expected Goku, Vegeta and the others to be strong, but he did not anticipate that they would train under gravity several hundred times Earth’s (Vegeta had trained in the most, 400x gravity).  Vegeta disposes of Pui Pui effortlessly.

Punta  A large, Turkish competitor in the 25^th Tenkaichi Budoukai, his opponent is Krillin.  Before the match, Punta repeatedly insults Krillin, who is much smaller and shorter of stature than he.  Punta tells Krillin about how badly he’s going to defeat him.  Krillin, on the other hand, is embarrassed about having to fight such a weak competitor, and he knocks out Punta with a single punch to the stomach with his eyes closed.

Rabbit Gang Members – “Usagi Dan Danin”  The two members of the Rabbit Gang who wear bunny ears and terrorize a town.  They are armed with machine guns and strike fear in the hearts of the townspeople.  Goku beats them up, then ties them up with the Boss Rabbit and sends them all to the moon to make treats for children as punishment.

Radditz - “Raditsu”  First son of Bardock and older brother of Goku, he is one of the four survivors of the destruction of planet Vegeta.  He is a tall Saiyajin with long black hair who searches for his brother Goku in order to recruit him as a warrior for Frieza to work with the remaining Saiyajin.  He tells Goku of his past, and tries to persuade him to wipe out the life on Earth and come back to space with him.  When Goku flatly refuses and asks him to leave, Radditz kidnaps his nephew Gohan and tells Goku if he does not destroy all intelligent life on Earth in 3 days, he will never see his son again.  Instead of complying, Goku takes off on Kintoun and, accompanied by Piccolo, follows Radditz to his pod.  Radditz locks young Gohan in the space pod and prepares to battle the two challengers after detecting their approach with his scouter.  Radditz is more than a match for the two, easily beating them down, until Goku gets the idea to grab his brother’s tail, which he knows to be a weakness among his kind.  Desperately Radditz begs him to stop and promises to leave Earth if he lets go, but Piccolo detects that the Saiyajin is lying through his teeth.  Goku lets him go despite Piccolo’s warning, and Radditz simply kicks Goku down and continues to beat him up until Gohan’s anger finally explodes, and the boy bursts out of the space pod.  Gohan attacks Radditz and spears him in the chest, breaking his Saiyajin armor and seriously injuring his uncle.  Radditz seriously underestimates the potential power of both Piccolo and Gohan, but especially Gohan.  In a rage Radditz punches Gohan and knocks him out, but Goku grabs Radditz in a bear hug around the shoulders and holds him there, allowing Piccolo to charge a second Makankosappo.  Because he is weakened from Gohan’s attack, Radditz cannot escape from Goku’s hold, and the deadly Makankosappo goes through both of the Saiyajin entirely.  Before Radditz dies, Piccolo jeers at him that they can wish Goku back with the Dragonballs, and he proceeds to tell him about the seven magic balls that can grant any wish desired.  Unfortunately for Piccolo, Radditz wisely records every event and every word spoken with his scouter, and he sends the information directly to his Saiyajin allies Vegeta and Nappa.  When the two Saiyajin hear of the seven magic balls, they will come searching for them and eventually kill all life on Earth.  Radditz tells Piccolo this and laughs in his face, and in a rage Piccolo blasts him for a final time and kills the Saiyajin shortly before he would have died anyway.

Raisin “Rezun”*  One of the two purple twins, he is a minion of Turles in DBZ Movie 3.  The two of them attack the same opponent together at once, thus overwhelming the opponent.  His twin brother is Rakasei.  He is killed by Goku.

Rakasei*  One of the short purple twins in DBZ Movie 3, he is a crony of Turles who is later killed by Goku.  His twin brother’s name is Raisin.

Ranfan  A female competitor in the 21^st Tenkaichi Budoukai, she uses the “defenseless woman” ploy to get the better of her opponents.  When a male opponent is about to hit her, Ranfan shrieks in a false fright, causing them to pause.  During that moment she quickly delivers a crushing punch or kick.  If this technique fails, she begins to strip and tries to shock or embarrass her opponent.  Namu is only able to defeat her by attacking her with his eyes closed.  Ranfan was born is 726 AD, she is 5’5” tall and weighs 111 lbs, and her home address is WWB131348C.

Recoome - “Rikuumu”   The second strongest member of the Ginyu Force.  He is a huge, somewhat ugly guy with bulging muscles, and a small tuft of orange hair on his head that grows thinner as he gets repeatedly blasted by Gohan, Kryllan and Vegeta.  As he battles on, he also loses teeth and continues to get even uglier.  Recoome has a number of attacks to his credit, most of them with simplistic, often silly names such as “Recoome Punch” or “Recoome Body Attack!”  The anime takes it a bit further, but the Pioneer dubbed version takes it so far as to even give Recoome a battle quote that is in reality a haiku: “My name is Recoome / It rhymes with doom, and you’ll be / Hurting all too soon!”  Recoome breaks every bone in Krillin’s body, and beats on Gohan a while.  Vegeta takes on the behemoth, but even the Saiyajin prince cannot match the strength of the brute.  Just before Recoome fires what could have been a fatal blow to Vegeta, Gohan dives in at the last moment and saves him.  Later when Goku arrives, he knocks out Recoome with a single punch to the gut.  Not long after, Vegeta finishes the unconscious brute with a large handblast.

Red Leader - “Redo Sousei”  (Commander Red)   The leader of the Red Ribbon Army.  He is a midget and strongly dislikes this fact, especially when General Black, his right-hand man and the tallest member of the Army, stands beside him.  He controls the entire Army and oversees every action and step his army takes to conquer the world.  Red desires the Dragonballs to grant his greatest wish.  He pulls thousands upon thousands of men to his cause with the image of world domination, and creates the Red Ribbon Army with the ambitions to take over the world.  In the final episodes of the Red Ribbon Army Saga, Red reveals his secret true wish to General Black, which is to be taller.  Black is totally shocked and horrified by this discovery, and out of pure contempt he shoots Red in the forehead and quickly takes over the Red Ribbon Army himself, re-naming it the Black Ribbon Army.