| “ | I'm neither Kami nor Piccolo now. I'm only a Namekian who has long since forgotten his true name. | „ |
| ~ Piccolo after he and Kami reunited as one. |
| “ | Well, I might join them someday. But, for now, I feel like my mission is here on Earth. Sometimes, connections between people run deeper than where they're from or what color skin they have. | „ |
| ~ Piccolo to Gohan on the Namekians. |
| “ | Gohan, you're the only real friend I've ever had. Thank you... I'm proud of you. Wish me back, okay?... Get 'em... Gohan... | „ |
| ~ Piccolo after saving Gohan. |
Piccolo Jr., commonly known as Piccolo, is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Bulma Briefs) of the Dragon Ball franchise.
He is the son and reincarnation of King Piccolo, with two being revealed to be a Namekian, a race from Planet Namek. In the original series, he was a villain who was one of Son Goku's major adversaries and wanted to seek power in order to destroy Goku to avenge his father and conquer the world.
Eventually, he turns to the good side as he becomes Son Gohan's best friend and mentor, playing a parental role in his life as well as one of Goku's close friends and a core member of the Z-Fighters. He's also the mentor of Gohan and Videl's daughter, Pan.
Portrayals
In Japanese, he is voiced by Toshio Furukawa, who also voiced Ataru Moroboshi in Urusei Yatsura, Portgas D. Ace in One Piece, Minoru Kawai and the late Hiromi Tsuru as a child.
In English, he is voiced by legendary voice actor Christopher R. Sabat, who also voiced Vegeta, and Yamcha in same franchise, Roronoa Zoro in the One Piece franchise, All Might in My Hero Academia, Mondo Owada in Dangronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Ayame Sohma in Fruits Basket (2019), Alex Louis Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist, Elfman Strauss in Fairy Tail, Kero-chan (true form) in Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card, William Rush in Time Crisis 4, Giroro in Sgt. Frog, Ddraig in Highschool DxD, Kurogane in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Batou in Ghost in the Shell, and Shep in Lumberjack Man. He also voiced by Paul Wesley, Ethan Cole, Paul Bandey, Scott McNeil, David Gasman, Daniel Woren, Raymond Buyco, and Ray Chase.
In Dragon Ball DAIMA as a mini, he was voiced by Nasim Benelkour in English.
Appearance
As a Namekian, Piccolo has a green skin, pointy ears and antennas. He usual worn a purple Gi with a pair of orange shoes and a red belt (sky blue in the anime). He also worn a heavy hat and cape for his training in weight.
Personality
Piccolo used to be much like his father, having no mercy or regard for his opponents, but he slowly began to change. After the battle with Raditz, he showed a more honorable side, commemorating Son Goku for sacrificing himself. Piccolo really began to change after training with Son Gohan, and when he fused with Nail, he started to fight in the name of the Namekians and to protect the innocent. However, Piccolo was still somewhat arrogant and ruthless, but his fusion with Kami allowed him to lose all traces of evil he once had. He has always been a loner, not talking much except if it's about fighting, and has no understanding of romance, since all Namekians are male identifying and reproduce asexually. No matter if he is evil or good, he is a very adept teacher able to turn a barely trained four year old into a capable warrior in a year's time.
While originally selfish and arrogant, he became extremely selfless and merely confident. Piccolo befriended Goku and all Z Fighters, but was especially close to Gohan as the boy was the first person to show him unconditional kindness, which began Piccolo's redemption; while initially brutal in his training methods, Piccolo eventually became highly protective of Gohan, even risking and sacrificing his own life to save him. When Gohan lost his warrior's edge at adulthood, Piccolo was disappointed, but respected his decision, even filling in as surrogate grandfather for Gohan's daughter, Pan; however, when a dangerous enough threat arose, Piccolo allowed Gohan to suffer significant emotional trauma by letting him believe Pan was in danger - even so, it was not out of pettiness, rather strategic and it was done with the certainty that Gohan needed to experience the ordeal to recover and surpass his prior power.
Powers
Piccolo has a very high power level, due in part to his fusions with Nail and Kami. He possesses superhuman strength, speed, endurance, and durability, as well as the ability to manipulate energy in the form of blasts and flight. As a Namekian, Piccolo can regenerate himself as long as his head is intact, grow to giant size, and stretch his arms and has superhuman hearing. He can also use telekinesis and telepathy and can magically create objects out of thin air. Piccolo trained in weighted clothing just so he could move faster by removing the clothing. He can become a giant, although this size increase doesn't his overall strength, mostly serving as an intimidation tactic.
He can fuse with Namekians to get their energy, wisdom and power when he fuse with Nail and later Kami. He knows the Universe 6 Namekians fused with the other Namekians.
Piccolo using his Explosive Demon Wave
Piccolo has a number of signature techniques, such as the Explosive Demon Wave, where he holds out one arm with the other supporting it and fires a powerful energy blast. Another is the Makankosappo (Special Beam Cannon), where Piccolo holds his index and middle fingers up to his forehead, charging energy into them, then holds his fingers out in front of him. Two energy beams fire from Piccolo’s fingers, one spiraling around the other and the attack is powerful to drill through almost anything, exploding against everything else. Originally, it took Piccolo five minutes to charge this attack, but as time went by, he became able to use it faster.
Piccolo using his Scatter Shot
Another of his techniques is Scatter Shot, where he swings his arms out to his sides, charging energy spheres into each hand. Piccolo then cries out the attack’s name, firing numerous energy spheres at his opponent. Another technique he uses is Light Grenade, where he brings his hands together in front of him. Piccolo then forms a yellow energy sphere in his hands, before bringing his hands forward and firing the sphere. He is extremely intelligent, with tremendous amounts of skill in strategy and high amounts of wisdom. Indeed, his high intellect and great wisdom has been relied on heavily by the Z-fighters on more than one occasion. He is also felt Goku is not fighting Android 19 normally due to the Heart Virus.
In Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, Piccolo gained a new form named Orange Piccolo after used the Dragon Balls to gained him power from Potential Unleashed. Realizing Namekians can grow into giants, he gigantified when fighting against Cell Max.
Equipment
Weighted Clothing: Piccolo always wears a heavy hat and cape as part of his training. When removing his weighted clothing, he became much lighter.
Weakness
Sound of Whistling: Like other Namekians who have acute hearing, whistling sounds are painful to Piccolo. As a Super Namekian, the sounds raise up a hundredfold, making his eardrums the size of trash cans.
Quotes
| “ | It's ironic isn't it? after all my years of training to defeat your Father, I'd go outline this trying to save you, his son. | „ |
| ~ Piccolo realising the Irony and redemption upon saving Gohan from Raditz's blast. |
| “ | Gohan, you're the only person I've ever known who didn't treat me like a Monster. | „ |
| ~ Piccolo admitting that Gohan gave him hope upon training him. |
| “ | Gohan: No fair, you promised you wouldn't use your eye-beams thing. Piccolo: And what if I did, you can never trust your enemy especially in a fight! Gohan: Yeah! W-Well, you're not the enemy. |
„ |
| ~ Piccolo recalling a flashback while securing Gohan in Dragon Ball Z Kai. |
| “ | Truth be told, this year wasn't that bad. Gohan: Piccolo! Please! Piccolo: Thank you Gohan... |
„ |
| ~ Piccolo's last dying words to Gohan before his first death at the hands of Raditz. |
| “ | You were small, helpless, you changed much since then. The harder things got, the more determined you became, the more dangers you faced, the stronger you grew as a warrior... I know I was hard on you, but it was for your own good. | „ |
| ~ A Dying Piccolo lamenting on Gohan's long year journey on becoming a Super Saiyan during his final moments. |
| “ | Only, it doesn't make a bit of difference guys, Dende's gone remember? The Balls are inert. | „ |
| ~ Piccolo telling his allies of having lost the dragon radar in "Search for Survivors" - also his most famous and memetic quote. |
| “ | Ha. Now I get it. Yes. I was wondering why you fought Cell first when you knew you couldn't win. You went first because you want Gohan to see how Cell fought, didn't you? | „ |
| ~ Piccolo realizing why Goku chose Gohan to fight Cell. |
| “ | More to the point, Gohan. This is why you need to keep up with your training. | „ |
| ~ Piccolo to Gohan that he must keep training after destroying Cell Max. |
Trivia
- At one point, the Dragon Ball series creator Akira Toriyama, stated that Piccolo was his favorite character.
- Around the time of the Namek Saga, it was revealed that his name in Namekian means "another world."
- Since Piccolo Daimao and Kami were once one being, Kami could be considered Piccolo's father and has even referred to him as "son" on some occasion. If one died, the other would also perish; although, this weakness was lost when they reunited as a single entity.
- Piccolo and Roronoa Zoro once appeared together in Cross Epoch, a collaboration between Akira Toriyama and Eiichiro Oda as a pair of hopelessly lost swordsmen. They also had the same Funimation dub actor and appeared together in a promo for Dragon Ball Kai.
- Each time Piccolo fused with a Namekian, he became the strongest of the Z Warriors at the time, but was soon surpassed.
- However, after achieving his Orange Piccolo form, he had power comparable to Super Saiyan God and possibly Blue.
- Early on in the series, anyone Piccolo killed would be unable to rest in peace, same as his father, but Raditz did not suffer this fate, which Kami noted was an indication he was becoming less evil.
- Like Goku, Piccolo wears weighted clothing to make his training harder, namely his turban and his cape. The weights in his cape can be seen occasionally when it was damaged in fights.
- Piccolo originally had four fingers in the manga, but was given five in the anime.
- His name is based on the woodwind instrument of the same name, which is a half-sized flute.
- In Dragon Ball and during his fight with Raditz, Piccolo bled red blood, but it was changed to purple later on in the series.
- Often in the movies, Piccolo saves Gohan's life just before he is killed by the villain. In Broly - Second Coming, Gohan is saved by Krillin wearing Piccolo's outfit.
- In some translations he is called Satan.
- Sometimes, fans have referred to him as "pickle" as a joke due to his name and green color scheme.
- Piccolo's Gi as a teenager and as an adult resembles his father's Gi, except with the colors reversed.
External Links
- Piccolo on the Villains Wiki
- Piccolo on the Dragon Ball Wiki
- Piccolo on the VS Battles Wiki
- Piccolo on the Near Pure Good Wiki
- Piccolo on the Magnificent Baddie Wiki
- Piccolo on the Wikipedia
 Fighting Game Heroes
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| Dragon Ball: Goku | Vegeta | Piccolo Jr. | Future Trunks | Gotenks | Majin Buu Naruto: Bleach: One Piece: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Yu-Gi-Oh!: Fist of the North Star: Hunter x Hunter: Yu Yu Hakusho: Assassination Classroom: Rurouni Kenshin: Saint Seiya: Shaman King: Gintama: Dr. Slump: Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: My Hero Academia: Black Clover: Dr. Stone: BoBobo-bo Bo-Bobo: Kinnikuman: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: Toriko: Medaka Box: Katekyō Hitman Reborn!: Beelzebub: KochiKame:Tokyo Beat Cops: City Hunter: Hell Teacher Nube: Sakigake!! Otokojoku: Original characters: See Also: | ||
 Heroes
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Fist of the North Star Dragon Ball City Hunter Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Yu Yu Hakusho Rurouni Kenshin Yu-Gi-Oh! One Piece Hunter x Hunter Naruto Bleach My Hero Academia Black Clover Boruto: Naruto Next Generations | ||
