Character Guide: K - L 

Kaioshin  (East Kaioshin)   Kaioshin first appears in DBZ in the Buu Saga, where he enters the 25^th Tenkaichi Budoukai under the name Shin (which he continues to use in the dub).  He is soft-spoken and short of stature with elf-like ears, a white mohawk, and a purple complexion.  Kaioshin is the last surviving deity of his kind, after Buu massacred the other Kaioshins and absorbed the Great Kaioshin.  Kaioshin’s first objective is to stop Babidi before he releases Buu from the ancient sphere in which Bibidi had sealed him millions of years ago.  Kaioshin is very strong, but his power is limited when compared to fighters such as Goku, Vegeta and Gohan.  Kaioshin aids the Z Senshi any way he can, mostly by teleporting people to different places and thus minimizing travel time.  Later, Kaioshin fuses permanently with Kibit by way of the Potara earrings, an act which upgrades his power immensely.  He then acquires Kibit’s ability to heal a person near death, and with it aids the Z Senshi in battle.   

Kami - “Kami Sama” (see Piccolo (Original), Piccolo Daimaou, Piccolo)   Kami is actually a title for the guardian of a particular planet, and the word literally translates to “God”.  The Kami of Earth is the pure 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 dark half, who came to be called Piccolo Daimaou, or the Great Demon King Piccolo, and his pure side, who refers to himself only as Kami Sama.  The pure half of Piccolo ascended the throne of Kami in 431 AD and watched over the Earth, protecting it from evil powers.  His first objective as Kami was to stop his evil half, which was no simple task.  After his creation, Piccolo Daimaou wreaked havoc across the Earth, and was virtually unstoppable even to Kami.  Although Kami was perhaps the strongest being on the planet at the time, even he could only equal Piccolo Daimaou in power, but never overcome him.  Despite their separation, the two halves remained bound in spirit, and so they were still technically the same entity.  This fact also meant that if Piccolo Daimaou were destroyed, then Kami would also die with him.  It made for no easy solution, until finally in 461 AD, Daimaou was contained inside the magic Denshi Jar, where he was held captive for several hundred years.

                Kami retains some special powers as Kami Sama, including certain powers over the spirit world, and can speak psychically with anyone he so chooses.  He can sense whenever there is a disturbance on Earth, great or small.  In the year 470, Kami creates Shenlong, the Dragon God of Earth, and the seven magical dragonballs that are scattered across the Earth.  When all seven dragonballs are gathered in one place, they give off an eerie glow of power.  When the one who collected them utters the words “Come out, Shenlong!”, the great Dragon God appears before him or her, and grants that person a single wish.  The person may wish for anything he or she desires within the limits of Kami’s power, because Kami was the creator of Shenlong and the dragonballs.

Kami lives in a beautiful, ancient palace on top of an incredibly high tower that defies logic, because it is balanced on a single thin pole (about the thickness of an oak tree).  The palace itself is referred to as Kami’s Lookout.  Not far off from Kami’s Tower is Korin’s Tower, with Korin’s house balanced on a similar thin pole and a few hundred meters lower.  With the care of his faithful servant Mr. Popo, Kami resides atop the tower during his reign as Kami Sama, which lasts over 300 years.  In Dragonball, Kami trains Goku and teaches him everything he knows until Goku surpasses him in power.  When Goku dies in the beginning of DBZ, Kami assists him by persuading King Yamma to allow Goku to travel on Snake Way and train with King Kai.  Kami dies when Piccolo is killed by Nappa.  However, instead of simply dying, Kami fades into the spirit world, probably because of his spiritual powers as God of Earth.  When Kami dies, Shenlong perishes with him, and the Earth Dragonballs turn to stone and become useless.  However, Gohan uses the Namek Dragonballs to wish Piccolo back to life, thereby returning Kami to life as well, and restoring the power of the Earth Dragonballs.

                Much later in 767 AD, during the Android Saga, Piccolo and Kami both make the decision to fuse permanently in order to stand a greater chance against the androids and Cell.  Kami consequently must give up his throne, and he is succeeded by the young Dende as the new Guardian of Earth.  Kami and Piccolo 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 the original Piccolo takes on the appearance of the younger half, internally he retains the memories and experiences of both Kami and Piccolo (along with Nail).  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 Blackstar Dragonballs are about to cause the planet to explode, he offers to stay on Earth and die with his own planet, rather than being 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 remains a part of Piccolo, he feels inclined to perish with the loss of his planet.  Of course, he dies, and because he was once God, his soul rises to Heaven.  However, with Goku later trapped in Hell, neither his ex-God half nor his ex-Demon King half can sit around and do nothing.  Piccolo’s more violent side kicks in, and he goes on a frenzy wreaking 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 wants to be) is left for the viewer to decide.

Karin -   see Korin

Kibit - “Kibito”   The tall, muscular guardian of Kaioshin (East Kaioshin).  Little is known about him or his past, except that his one purpose is to protect Kaioshin at all costs.  Kibit is fairly powerful, and has the ability to teleport and to heal someone near death.  About mid-Buu Saga, he uses the Potara earrings to fuse permanently with Kaioshin.

King Chyapa - “Chyapa Ou”   A well-known fighter famous for his strength, he competes in the 21^st and 23^rd Tenkaichi Budoukais, both times losing to Goku in the preliminary rounds.  He stands 6 feet tall and weighs 182 lbs.  His home address is SSR249905C.

King Cold - “Korudo Ou” (King Kold)   Father of Frieza and Cooler.  The common alternate spelling of his name is King Kold.  He is much larger in size than Frieza or Cooler, and he stays in his second form for the entire duration of the saga.  King Cold salvages Frieza’s living remains from space and makes his scientists rebuild his son as a cyborg.  The two venture to Earth with plans to destroy Goku’s home planet, but their scheme is foiled by the appearance of Trunks.  After watching Trunks kill his son and cut him to pieces, King Cold offers the Saiyajin an opportunity to replace Frieza and conquer the galaxy with him.  This statement is almost certainly a lie, considering King Cold had asked to see Trunks’ sword moments before.  He does this under the assumption that all of Trunks’ power lies in his sword, and that he is weak without it.  Trunks gladly hands him the sword, and fires a ki blast right through his chest.  Although in the dub version, King Cold pleads for mercy, in the original Japanese dialogue, he furthers his attempts to persuade Trunks to join him and achieve ultimate glory by conquering entire galaxies.  Trunks flatly refuses and kills King Cold with a finishing blast.

King Kai - “Kaio Sama” (North Kai, or “Kita no Kaio”)   Lord of Worlds, King Kai is the Kai of the “North” quadrant of the galaxy.  He is a powerful deity who lives on his own tiny planet at the end of Snake Way, a path that stretches over a million kilometers from King Yamma’s palace to King Kai’s planet.  Every few generations, a dead warrior who is found to be strong enough is permitted to travel to King Kai’s planet in order to train under the mighty God King.  King Kai has the appearance of a short, plump blue catfish with antenna and wearing sunglasses.  In fact, all of the Kais wear sunglasses for some reason not clarified.  He also has an annoying voice with a particular lisp that makes it difficult to understand his words.  His tiny planet seems to defy logic, as does almost everything in the Underworld.  The sky is pink, but the sun is nowhere to be seen.  The gravitational pull of the planet is about 10 times Earth’s gravity, and causes everything to feel much heavier.  There are a few trees scattered around King Kai’s house, and a small garage beside the house with the Lord of World’s prized classic red sports car parked in the drive.  The driveway is actually a narrow strip of pavement that goes in a complete circle around the planet (where else is he going to drive it?).  In fact, all of the Kais appear to have a taste for wearing sunglasses (perhaps they have sensitive eyes) and a love of sports cars, including the Grand Kai, who has a gorgeous sports car parked in front of his palace.

As a deity King Kai also has a few unique abilities, such as sensing ki frequencies from all parts of his end of the galaxy and telepathy with anyone he so chooses.  He uses his long antenna to pick up frequencies of ki, planets, and people, and he is especially keen at sensing disturbances in the natural balance of the galaxy, just as Kami Sama somehow knows something is not right with the Earth.

King Kai trains his pupils in a peculiar fashion.  He begins by telling them to make him laugh with a joke, on the threat of no training.  Fortunately this is no difficult task, considering King Kai has not heard a decent joke for thousands of years.  His terrible attempts to be funny are only more proof that his long periods of solitude have given him a bizarre, lousy sense of humor.  King Kai also uses the strong gravitational pull of his planet, about 10 times Earth’s gravity, to train his students, and he orders them to complete silly tasks such as catching his “pet” monkey Bubbles, who resides on the planet with him.  In the animated series, he also has a pupil named Gregory who lives with him and helps to train his new students.  When his students have completed these tasks, King Kai trains only those he deems worthy to use his two special techniques, the Kaio Ken and the Genki Dama. 

King Kai trains Goku in this way, and quickly discovers Goku’s potential.  In all his thousands, perhaps millions of years training students, the God King had never found a student he felt was strong in mind and pure in heart enough to learn the Genki Dama until he met Goku.  The young Saiyajin eventually surpasses King Kai and accomplishes what he could not by mastering the Genki Dama.  Much later, King Kai also trains Tien, Yamcha and Chaozu, all of whom had perished at the hands of the invading Saiyajin.

In the Cell Saga, Goku saves the Earth when he teleports himself and Cell, who is self-destructing, to the only place he can think of where the fewest people will be hurt – King Kai’s planet.  King Kai has hardly a moment of protest before Cell explodes, destroying the planet and all life on it.  Although few things change, King Kai acquires a halo and must build himself a new home.  King Kai later enters Goku in the Annoyoichi Budoukai, the “Heaven’s Martial Arts Tournament”, where the two meet the Kais of the other quadrants of the galaxy.  His fellow Kais severely tease King Kai because he is “dead” and falsely proclaim that the Annoyoichi Budoukai is being held in honor of his death.  King Kai’s biggest rival is South Kai, who makes a bet with him that his best warrior can lift more weight than King Kai’s best warrior.  Of course, King Kai wins the bet when Goku lifts 20 tons.

King Vegeta - “Bejiita Ou”   Father of Vegeta and the ruler of Planet Vegeta.  King Vegeta is one of the strongest Saiyajin of his race, and perhaps the strongest adult Saiyajin of his time.  He is only mentioned in the manga, but King Vegeta plays an important part in the anime and the Bardock Special.  Although the Saiyajin had hailed him and proudly served their king, he allowed Frieza to command his armies and give his people assignments to purge planets in return for pay and glory.   However, secretly the great ruler feared for his throne, his son and his people, and thus he was pressured to go along with Frieza’s wishes for several years.   As the years passed and the pressure grew, King Vegeta nurtured his growing resentment and anger at what had become of his people and of his son Vegeta, of whom Frieza was taking greater and greater control.  And so the king plotted to create a large revolt, in which he would gather the Saiyajin forces to fight together against Frieza and defeat him.  Before this can be accomplished in full, however, Frieza acts first.  This scene is described in the anime, and portrayed with more detail in the Bardock Special.  Although it is never apparent, King Vegeta deeply cares for his son.  Before commanding the attack on Frieza, he makes certain that the prince Vegeta is safe on the opposite wing of the ship.  When he is assured of the prince’s safety, King Vegeta boldly leads his Elite Army through Frieza’s ship, destroying everything in his path as he storms into the tyrant’s parlor.  The king lunges at Frieza to attack him, but Frieza merely counters and with a single blow, he takes the life of the king Vegeta.

King Yamma - “Enma Daio”   The lord and judge of the dead in Japanese folklore.  Enma Daio is a big red demon-looking guy with a thick, dark beard.  He wears a business suit with a tie and a Viking-style hat with horns.  He resides in his palace at the gates of the Underworld, where he sits at his desk and judges the souls of those who have died as they enter his palace in a line one by one.  Because death never sleeps, neither does Enma Daio.  He constantly sits at his desk judging dead souls without ceasing.  He holds a large book in one hand that he uses to look up the life story of each soul that comes before him.  The cover of this book apparently translates to “Who’s Who”.  Among the items on his desk are a giant coffee mug, name-plate which reads “The Hon. Enma” (Hon. meaning honorable) and, oddly enough, a giant-size rotary telephone complete with long cord stretching across one side of the palace floor.  At one time in the past hundred million years, he traveled Snake Way to Kaio Sama’s planet and trained under the Lord of Worlds (though where he found the vacation time is never specified).  Before Goku, Enma Daio is the only one that anyone can remember who successfully reached the end of Snake Way.  All lesser demons in the Underworld work for Enma Daio and answer to him.  Enma Daio is a bit short-tempered, which is quite believable considering his occupation.  This makes him all the more intimidating, even to Kami Sama.

                Enma Daio gives special permission for Goku to take the million-mile Serpent Road to Kaio Sama’s planet.  His desk drawer contains a secret passageway that leads to and from Hell.  This comes in handy to Goku after the Saiyajin falls off of Snake Way in the anime.  The only problem is, Goku has to start his journey over from Enma’s Palace again.  Much later in DBZ, Goku receives special permission from Enma Daio to return to Earth in body for a little while so that he can enter the 25^th Tenkaichi Budoukai, as well as visit his family and friends.  Near the end of the Buu Saga, Baba convinces the reluctant (but desperate) Enma Daio to allow Vegeta to return to life, so that he can aid Goku in his battle against Buu and help save the Earth.

Koola -   see Cooler

Korin -“Karin”   A white cat deity who lives at the top of Korin Tower, an impossibly high tower built thousands of years ago, supported only by a thin pole about the thickness of an oak tree.  The tower is located right beside Kami’s Tower, which is a few hundred meters higher than Korin’s Tower.  It is a popular misconception to assume the towers are connected, as they are rarely shown together from a distance as separate towers.  The 800-year-old cat deity is just below the rank of Kami, and is a master of martial arts.  Although he is a minor character in DBZ, he plays a much more important role in Dragonball.  Goku comes to Korin seeking the Super Holy Water, which according to legend makes the drinker stronger and faster than ever before.  Korin tells the boy that he will give him the Holy Water when he can defeat Korin in combat and snatch the bottle from his paws.  Goku attacks Korin again and again, each time getting knocked off the Tower and being forced to climb it one more time.  The tower is so high that it takes Goku just over a day to climb it.  After 3 days of this, Goku finally manages to beat Korin and take the bottle of Holy Water from him, only to find that the water is nothing special at all.  Korin informs him that he is already much stronger and faster than before, because of the intense work he put into the process of taking the water from him in the first place.  Korin does in fact have special water, a kind that greatly increases the drinker’s powers, called Super God Water.  The catch is simply surviving it.  Drinking a single drop of the Super God Water nearly kills Yajirobe.  The God Water gives Goku the power to defeat Piccolo Daimaou.

                High up in his tower dwelling, Korin grows special magic beans called senzu beans, which heal wounds and are equivalent to eating 10 days of food.  Korin’s Tower is the only place in the world they are grown, and so these magic beans are quite valuable.  The senzu beans are used frequently in DBZ to restore energy in battle, and many a time they save the lives of the Z Senshi.  The beans are limited in number and are difficult to grow, and so Korin only gives them to the Z Senshi in time of need or before a battle.  Usually no more than 5 are carried at a time.

                In Dragonball, Yajirobe moves in with Korin and lives with him in his tower dwelling, doing favors for him and running errands that usually require leaving the tower.  Korin’s address is FFA44195SQ (one must wonder how the mailman handles the obvious difficulties).

Koui - “Kiwi”   A powerful fighter among Frieza’s henchman, Koui is an arrogant, purple fish-faced braggart who enjoys rubbing in his high rank by taunting other officers.  He dislikes Vegeta because the prince is ranked higher than him, and believes himself to be much stronger than the Saiyajin.  However, with a power level of 18,000, he is no match for Vegeta in the early Frieza Saga.  Vegeta easily overpowers him, and from a single hand blast, Koui is the first to die by Vegeta’s hand on Namek.

Krillin - “Kuririn” (many variants on the spelling exist, including Kryllan, Kulilin, and Klyin)  A short, bald human lacking a nose, and Goku’s best friend. Krillin was born in the year 736 AD, and is a year older than Goku.  He received the 6 dots on his forehead when he joined the monks of the Orinji Temple.  Small scars are burned into the foreheads of each member in a pattern of two vertical rows of three dots.  Krillin first meets Goku in Dragonball, where they are rivals who both seek the training of Master Roshi.  They eventually learn to work together to accomplish particular tasks given them, and become best friends.  Krillin is a smart-aleck and often very sarcastic.  He is considered by many to be the most comical character of DBZ (although some argue for Buu) because of his wise-cracks and usually terrible luck.  Krillin is also arguably the strongest human in DBZ.  At one time, he is proven to be the strongest human during the Saiyajin and Frieza Sagas, but Tien trains with King Kai for almost a year and is much more confident.  However, there is no proof either way of one being stronger than the other.

                Krillin tends to have bad luck in fights, and usually winds up with many broken bones and kicks to the head.  His special attacks are the Kienzan (Destructo Disk), Tri-form, and Taiyoken (Solar Flare).  In Dragonball, one of Piccolo Daimaou’s spawn ambushes Krillin and kills him for his dragonball.  He is later brought back to life with a wish using the dragonballs.  In DBZ, Krillin ventures with Bulma and Gohan to Namek in order to search for the dragonballs there so that they can revive their friends.  Once there, the nose-less monk receives a power-up from Guru, and manages to survive a few close calls until late Frieza Saga.  With a few gestures, Frieza causes him to explode.  Krillin’s death triggers Goku to finally achieve the Super Saiyajin level he was destined for.  At the end of the Frieza Saga, he is again wished back to life, this time with the Namekian Dragonballs.  In the Android and Cell Sagas, Krillin begins to fall for the “evil” Android Number 18.  Bulma gives him a remote control with which to deactivate the androids, but Krillin destroys the device in hopes of saving the android from Cell, and because he has a huge crush on her and can’t bear to go through with it.  When the dragonballs are collected after the Cell Saga, Krillin tries to wish for the androids to become human, but it is beyond the dragon’s power.  Instead, he wishes for the bombs to be removed from Androids 17 and 18.  Years later, Krillin marries Number 18, and together they have a daughter named Marron.  During the years between the Cell Saga and the Buu Saga, Krillin also manages to finally grow a full head of brown hair.  He is turned to stone by Dabura for several episodes, but at the death of Dabura, Krillin is restored.  He dies along with the entire human race when Buu destroys Earth, and is brought back with a wish on the Namek Dragonballs.  In GT, his characters importance wanes even further.  However, Krillin dies for the fourth time when Android 17 attacks him while he and Number 18 are out shopping.  Again, he brought back later with a wish.  Because he dies and receives severe bodily injuries many more times than any other character in the series, Krillin is indubitably the unluckiest character in Dragonball.

Launch - “Ranchi” (read as Lunch)   Master Roshi’s housemaid in Dragonball.  Goku and Krillin’s first task as Master Roshi’s pupils is to fetch a beautiful woman for him.  They rescue Lunch from an angry motorcycle gang and bring her to the Kame House, where she agrees to work for Roshi as his maid.  Lunch has a peculiar trait that quickly becomes obvious to Master Roshi whenever he tries to sneak a peek at her undressing.  When Lunch sneezes, her entire personality flips and she turns into an aggressive, criminal-type blonde who enjoys shootouts and robbing banks for fun.  Usually, a machine gun somehow materializes in her hands, and things become downright dangerous for everyone in the vicinity.  Neither of Lunch’s personalities remembers what the other says or does, and Lunch appears to know absolutely nothing of her violent side.  In early DBZ episodes, Lunch develops a crush on Tien, but her character quickly loses importance as the storyline shifts focus to the Saiyajin.  It is highly probable that Lunch’s ability to shift form led to the idea of Saiyajin that could transform.  So, in a sense, Lunch is the first “Super Saiyajin”, in regards to her transformation into a blonde with super abilities and a dominating personality.  During her last brief appearance in the series, Lunch gives her energy to Goku for his Ultimate Genki Dama (Spirit Bomb).