Kuririn
Encyclopedia
is a fictional character
in the Dragon Ball manga
, authored by Akira Toriyama
, and later adapted to anime
.
Krillin is introduced in Dragon Ball as a rival of the main character, Son Goku
. Later in the series, he can also be seen having a close relationship with Goku, as well as his child, Son Gohan
. Krillin eventually settles down and marries Android #18 after the Cell Games to have a child named Marron.
burns on his forehead, a reference to the practice of Shaolin monks. After the end of the Cell Games Saga Krillin stops shaving his head, and grows his hair out. His outfit also changes as the series progress. When he first appears in Dragon Ball, he wears the yellow-and-orange garb of a monk. Later, he wears the orange gi uniform that is presented to both himself and Goku by Master Roshi in honor of their first martial arts competition. Occasionally he is seen in casual clothes, but for the most part continues to dress for training or fighting at all times. During the Frieza Saga, he wears Saiyan armor provided by Vegeta
, but during the Cell Saga he returns to wearing the orange gi, accompanied by a blue short-sleeved undershirt and boots. Prior to the Great Saiyaman Saga, Krillin opted to settle down with his new family, and allows his black hair to finally grow out. From this point on he is shown wearing a workout outfit consisting of a red short-sleeved shirt and brown drawstring pants. Finally, he is shown in DBGT sporting a moustache, wearing grey pants, shirt and tie with a cardigan in his few appearances. As an exclusive in Broly Second Coming, he is seen in Piccolo's casual attire.
.
Several years later, Krillin confronts the Saiyan invaders Vegeta
and Nappa along with his friends and is one of the few survivors from the fight, aside from Goku and Gohan. He then travels with Gohan and Bulma to Planet Namek to use the Namekian Dragon Balls to revive their dead friends, since the Earth's Dragon Balls vanished due to Piccolo's death. Once there, they save a young Namekian called Dende from death at the hands of Frieza's henchmen, though Gohan did most of the work. After a few close encounters with Vegeta, Krillin and Gohan are forced to team up with him in order to fight Frieza's strongest warriors, the Ginyu Force. They are overpowered by them until Goku arrives and defeats the Force. After Krillin and Gohan collect the seven Dragon Balls, Frieza battles them until Goku appears. After a long fight between Goku and Frieza, the latter detonates Krillin from the inside, killing him instantly, which triggers Goku's transformation into a Super Saiyan. After Frieza's defeat Krillin is revived by the Namekian Dragon Balls.
Krillin trains for the three years to confront Dr. Gero who wanted to use his androids to kill Goku. When the Androids, #16, #17 and #18 are released, he becomes infatuated with the female #18 which causes him to resist deactivating her with a controller Bulma created. Because of this, regardless of his efforts, the android Cell
absorbs her and achieves his perfect form. He later participates in the Cell Games, a martial arts tournament created by Cell for entertainment, and fights one of the Cell Juniors who attack him and his friends, but is saved by Gohan. After Cell's death, Krillin uses the second wish from the Dragon Balls to remove the bomb from #17 and #18.
Seven years later, Krillin has quit fighting, married #18, and has a daughter named Marron. However, after learning of Goku's return from the Afterlife to compete in the 25th World Tournament, he decides to also participate, after being encouraged to do so by #18. After the Supreme Kai enlists them to help him defeat the wizard Babidi, Krillin joins them, but he later evacuates Earth after the demon Majin Buu's awakening. When Buu has transformed, he finds Krillin's groups and kills them. During Goku and Vegeta's fight against Buu, Krillin is brought back to life by the Namekian Dragon Balls and gives his energy to Goku's Super Spirit Bomb, which is used to destroy Buu. In Dragon Ball GT, he is killed by Android #17. He is revived by Shenron after the defeat of Omega Shenron and has a match with Goku, who decided to leave Earth.
in the original Japanese anime and in all related media. Toriyama chose Tanaka after hearing her portrayal of the protagonist Giovanni in the film Night on the Galactic Railroad
.
When Dragon Ball received a second dub by Ocean Productions in the mid 1990s, Krillin would be voiced by Terry Klassen
. He would reprise his role in the international Ocean dub of the series. When the series was taken over by Funimation
in the U.S., Krillin would be voiced by Laurie Steele
as a child in Dragon Ball and Sonny Strait
as an adult in both anime and video games.
energy, also known as . His main techniques include the , an attack he learned from Roshi, which enables him to emit a powerful ki energy blast from his hands. , another chi attack, involves firing two blasts, one from each hand, and merging them before directing the blast above an opponent where it will break up and rain down on them, he was only seen using this twice—the first time was very successful as he managed to wipe out three Saibamen with it. He has also been known to use the . From Tien, he obtained the , an attack Krillin is capable of using to blind his opponents, sometimes used to make a quick escape. A technique he uses is the , which he does by putting his hand in the air and creating an electric floating disc, using it to slice through his enemies: this technique is his own invention.
Lacking the other protagonists' "advantage" of getting better every time he is injured, Krillin is however recognized as having great technique by Vegeta (a rather impressive fact considering how the said character respects none but himself
) and of being the strongest human on Earth by Yamcha, though he does say this to Krillin's daughter Marron.
. Krillin also appears in the crossover game Jump Superstars. In the 1992 Videkko game Dragon Ball Z: Get Together! Goku World, Krillin along with Goku, Trunks, Bulma, and Gohan travels back in time to examine event in the past.
In June 1988, Krillin along with other Dragon Ball characters were featured in two PSA shorts. The first short was entitled , and the second called where he along with Master Roshi, Yamcha, and later Goku become volunteer fire fighters.
Krillin would be featured in the crossover manga Cross Epoch where he and Tony Tony Chopper run the Kuri-Chopa Marine Train Coster.
In 2003 Krillin would appear in the interactive feature entitled . Where he and Gohan attempt to save visitors of at Fuji Television's orb section from drowning, while Goku battles Frieza. In the 2004 followup , Krillin is one of the seven Dragon Ball characters who delivers the Dragon Balls to restore the aqua city of Odaiba
after Goku and Monkey D. Luffy
's battle with Enel.
Krillin has performed many songs throughout the years. These songs feature Mayumi Tanaka in character singing cheerfully about certain thing pertaining to Krillin. First with the song "Asa - Hiru - Yoru - Kimi - Boku" from the album Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection IV: Character Special released in 1990. Then with "Ichido wa Kekkon Shitai Manbo" from Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection 8: Character Special 2 released in 1991. Where he happily sings about the desire to get married. And the title track from Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection 17: Hippy Hoppy Shake!! released in 1995.
comments that Krillin and #18's relationship really help make the storyline more interesting. Additionally, he liked Krillin's appearances in the fight against Cell as he has more screen time than the main character, Goku. Tim Jones from Themanime.org liked Krillin's development in the series as, initially, he was not a friend from when they first met. Anime News Network
writer Carl Kimlinger also liked Krillin and Goku's childhood, noting it to be the warmth that Dragon Ball Z does not have. Although Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment thought that Krillin had a drastic change in Dragon Ball GT, he mentioned that fans from the prequels would like some of its episodes due to the appearance of Krillin and other older characters. During January from 2007, Oricon
made a poll in which they asked Japanese fans of manga and anime which characters from any series they would most like to see in spin-off series. Krillin ranked third in the men's poll and sixth in the overall poll. He was also voted as the most loved Supporting Character in Anime ever.
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Dragon Ball manga
Dragon Ball
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995; later the 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Dragon Ball was inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the...
, authored by Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama
is a Japanese manga artist and game artist known mostly for his creation of Dragon Ball in 1984. Toriyama admires Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy and was impressed by Walt Disney's One Hundred and One Dalmatians, which he remembers for the great art...
, and later adapted to anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
.
Krillin is introduced in Dragon Ball as a rival of the main character, Son Goku
Son Goku (Dragon Ball)
Goku, known as in the English-language manga and original Japanese-language version, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Dragon Ball franchise created by Akira Toriyama. He is loosely based on Sun Wukong, a central character in Journey to the West...
. Later in the series, he can also be seen having a close relationship with Goku, as well as his child, Son Gohan
Son Gohan
is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball universe created by Akira Toriyama as a protagonist for the media franchise, which consists of a series of manga, anime, soundtracks, movies, television specials, video games, and other collectibles...
. Krillin eventually settles down and marries Android #18 after the Cell Games to have a child named Marron.
Development
Toriyama originally created Krillin along with the Tenkaichi Budokai as a method to help add depth to the story, as his publicist Torishima had stated that the series' main protagonist, Son Goku, was too plain.Appearance
Krillin's appearance stays relatively the same for the majority of the series. He is first introduced at the age of thirteen, with a shaved head and still dressed in the clothing worn at the monastery at which he had been training. He does not possess a nose, and has six spots of moxibustionMoxibustion
Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy using moxa, or mugwort herb. It plays an important role in the traditional medical systems of China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and Mongolia. Suppliers usually age the mugwort and grind it up to a fluff; practitioners burn the fluff or...
burns on his forehead, a reference to the practice of Shaolin monks. After the end of the Cell Games Saga Krillin stops shaving his head, and grows his hair out. His outfit also changes as the series progress. When he first appears in Dragon Ball, he wears the yellow-and-orange garb of a monk. Later, he wears the orange gi uniform that is presented to both himself and Goku by Master Roshi in honor of their first martial arts competition. Occasionally he is seen in casual clothes, but for the most part continues to dress for training or fighting at all times. During the Frieza Saga, he wears Saiyan armor provided by Vegeta
Vegeta
is a fictional character and antihero in the Dragon Ball franchise created by Akira Toriyama. Vegeta first appeared in the manga chapter #204 first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on December 19, 1988, and in episode 5 of its anime adaptation Dragon Ball Z...
, but during the Cell Saga he returns to wearing the orange gi, accompanied by a blue short-sleeved undershirt and boots. Prior to the Great Saiyaman Saga, Krillin opted to settle down with his new family, and allows his black hair to finally grow out. From this point on he is shown wearing a workout outfit consisting of a red short-sleeved shirt and brown drawstring pants. Finally, he is shown in DBGT sporting a moustache, wearing grey pants, shirt and tie with a cardigan in his few appearances. As an exclusive in Broly Second Coming, he is seen in Piccolo's casual attire.
Plot overview
Krillin makes his very first appearance in chapter #25 first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on June 3, 1985. Here, he arrives at Master Roshi's island to become his apprentice. It is here that he meets Goku, and the two become rivals. However, after doing the hardships that Master Roshi assigns, the two become friends. After finishing their training, Roshi has Krillin and his Goku compete in the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament. Krillin beats the odored fighter Bacterian, who uses his stench as a weapon, and makes it to the semi-finals. However, he is defeated by Jackie Chun, who is really Roshi in disguise, preventing his students from becoming arrogant with too many victories. Krillin continues to train with Roshi and helps Goku to collect the Dragon Balls by fighting against General Blue participating in Baba's tournament. However, he is quickly defeated by Count Dracula, who bites down on his head, causing blood to pour out. Three years later, Krillin enters the 22nd World Tournament. Again, he makes it to the semi-finals by defeating Chiaotzu, but loses to Goku. Soon after, Krillin is killed by a henchman of Piccolo Daimao, who wanted to steal Goku's Dragon Ball. After Goku defeats Piccolo, Krillin is revived by the Dragon Balls. Another 3 years later, Krillin enters the 23rd World Tournament. This time however, he only makes it to the quarter-finals, losing to Piccolo JuniorPiccolo (Dragon Ball)
is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball manga, authored by Akira Toriyama. Piccolo was first introduced as the reincarnation of the evil Piccolo Daimao in chapter #167 first published in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on April 4, 1988, making him a demon and archrival of the primary...
.
Several years later, Krillin confronts the Saiyan invaders Vegeta
Vegeta
is a fictional character and antihero in the Dragon Ball franchise created by Akira Toriyama. Vegeta first appeared in the manga chapter #204 first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on December 19, 1988, and in episode 5 of its anime adaptation Dragon Ball Z...
and Nappa along with his friends and is one of the few survivors from the fight, aside from Goku and Gohan. He then travels with Gohan and Bulma to Planet Namek to use the Namekian Dragon Balls to revive their dead friends, since the Earth's Dragon Balls vanished due to Piccolo's death. Once there, they save a young Namekian called Dende from death at the hands of Frieza's henchmen, though Gohan did most of the work. After a few close encounters with Vegeta, Krillin and Gohan are forced to team up with him in order to fight Frieza's strongest warriors, the Ginyu Force. They are overpowered by them until Goku arrives and defeats the Force. After Krillin and Gohan collect the seven Dragon Balls, Frieza battles them until Goku appears. After a long fight between Goku and Frieza, the latter detonates Krillin from the inside, killing him instantly, which triggers Goku's transformation into a Super Saiyan. After Frieza's defeat Krillin is revived by the Namekian Dragon Balls.
Krillin trains for the three years to confront Dr. Gero who wanted to use his androids to kill Goku. When the Androids, #16, #17 and #18 are released, he becomes infatuated with the female #18 which causes him to resist deactivating her with a controller Bulma created. Because of this, regardless of his efforts, the android Cell
Cell (Dragon Ball)
is a fictional character and villain in the Dragon Ball universe created by Akira Toriyama. The character was created as a main antagonist in the series, after the studio responsible for the publication of the material he wrote was dissatisfied with Toriyamas previous concepts for enemies to the...
absorbs her and achieves his perfect form. He later participates in the Cell Games, a martial arts tournament created by Cell for entertainment, and fights one of the Cell Juniors who attack him and his friends, but is saved by Gohan. After Cell's death, Krillin uses the second wish from the Dragon Balls to remove the bomb from #17 and #18.
Seven years later, Krillin has quit fighting, married #18, and has a daughter named Marron. However, after learning of Goku's return from the Afterlife to compete in the 25th World Tournament, he decides to also participate, after being encouraged to do so by #18. After the Supreme Kai enlists them to help him defeat the wizard Babidi, Krillin joins them, but he later evacuates Earth after the demon Majin Buu's awakening. When Buu has transformed, he finds Krillin's groups and kills them. During Goku and Vegeta's fight against Buu, Krillin is brought back to life by the Namekian Dragon Balls and gives his energy to Goku's Super Spirit Bomb, which is used to destroy Buu. In Dragon Ball GT, he is killed by Android #17. He is revived by Shenron after the defeat of Omega Shenron and has a match with Goku, who decided to leave Earth.
Voice actors
Krillin is voiced by Mayumi TanakaMayumi Tanaka
is a Japanese voice actress from Tokyo currently affiliated with Aoni Production.She is best known for the roles of Ryuunosuke Fujinami in Urusei Yatsura, Pazu in Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece, Krillin, Yajirobe and Uranai Baba in Dragon Ball...
in the original Japanese anime and in all related media. Toriyama chose Tanaka after hearing her portrayal of the protagonist Giovanni in the film Night on the Galactic Railroad
Night on the Galactic Railroad
, sometimes translated as Milky Way Railroad, Night Train to the Stars, or Fantasy Railroad In The Stars, is a classic Japanese novel by Kenji Miyazawa written around 1927. The nine-chapter novel was posthumously published in 1934 as part of published by...
.
When Dragon Ball received a second dub by Ocean Productions in the mid 1990s, Krillin would be voiced by Terry Klassen
Terry Klassen
Terry Klassen is a Canadian voice actor and voice director in Vancouver, British Columbia. He co-created Yvon of the Yukon. He is the voice director for shows including Martha Speaks, "Johnny Test", "George of the Jungle", "Ed, Edd n Eddy", several "Barbie" movies, "Transformers", "CardCaptors",...
. He would reprise his role in the international Ocean dub of the series. When the series was taken over by Funimation
Funimation Entertainment
Funimation is an American entertainment company. Originally founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga, the company became a subsidiary of Navarre Corporation on May 11, 2005...
in the U.S., Krillin would be voiced by Laurie Steele
Laurie Steele
Laurie Steele is a FUNimation Productions voice actress who lives in the Fort Worth- Dallas region of Texas. Her most notable role is as Young Krillin in the first four seasons of Dragon Ball , Alvida in One Piece, and Vivian Kudo in Case Closed, among other roles.-Roles:*Basilisk - Oeyo*Burst...
as a child in Dragon Ball and Sonny Strait
Sonny Strait
Don "Sonny" Strait is an American voice actor who works for anime series of Funimation Entertainment. He has provided voices for a number of characters in English language versions of Japanese anime films....
as an adult in both anime and video games.
Abilities
Krillin has many abilities including, super-strength, super-speed, and the ability to fly using his kiKI
Ki or KI may refer to:* .ki, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code top level domain for Kiribati*Ki., an abbreviation for the Book of Kings in Judaeo-Christian religious texts* Ki * Ki , a Japanese syllabic character...
energy, also known as . His main techniques include the , an attack he learned from Roshi, which enables him to emit a powerful ki energy blast from his hands. , another chi attack, involves firing two blasts, one from each hand, and merging them before directing the blast above an opponent where it will break up and rain down on them, he was only seen using this twice—the first time was very successful as he managed to wipe out three Saibamen with it. He has also been known to use the . From Tien, he obtained the , an attack Krillin is capable of using to blind his opponents, sometimes used to make a quick escape. A technique he uses is the , which he does by putting his hand in the air and creating an electric floating disc, using it to slice through his enemies: this technique is his own invention.
Lacking the other protagonists' "advantage" of getting better every time he is injured, Krillin is however recognized as having great technique by Vegeta (a rather impressive fact considering how the said character respects none but himself
Egotism
Egotism is "characterized by an exaggerated estimate of one's intellect, ability, importance, appearance, wit, or other valued personal characteristics" – the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself....
) and of being the strongest human on Earth by Yamcha, though he does say this to Krillin's daughter Marron.
Appearances in other media
Krillin appears in multiple Dragon Ball-related video games, sometimes as a playable characterPlayer character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
. Krillin also appears in the crossover game Jump Superstars. In the 1992 Videkko game Dragon Ball Z: Get Together! Goku World, Krillin along with Goku, Trunks, Bulma, and Gohan travels back in time to examine event in the past.
In June 1988, Krillin along with other Dragon Ball characters were featured in two PSA shorts. The first short was entitled , and the second called where he along with Master Roshi, Yamcha, and later Goku become volunteer fire fighters.
Krillin would be featured in the crossover manga Cross Epoch where he and Tony Tony Chopper run the Kuri-Chopa Marine Train Coster.
In 2003 Krillin would appear in the interactive feature entitled . Where he and Gohan attempt to save visitors of at Fuji Television's orb section from drowning, while Goku battles Frieza. In the 2004 followup , Krillin is one of the seven Dragon Ball characters who delivers the Dragon Balls to restore the aqua city of Odaiba
Odaiba
is a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay, Japan, across the Rainbow Bridge from central Tokyo. It was initially built for defensive purposes in the 1850s, dramatically expanded during the late 20th century as a seaport district, and has developed since the 1990s as a major commercial, residential...
after Goku and Monkey D. Luffy
Monkey D. Luffy
, often addressed as , is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the One Piece franchise created by Eiichiro Oda. He is introduced as a boy who possesses elasticity powers from eating a devil fruit called the Gum-Gum Fruit and superhuman strength....
's battle with Enel.
Krillin has performed many songs throughout the years. These songs feature Mayumi Tanaka in character singing cheerfully about certain thing pertaining to Krillin. First with the song "Asa - Hiru - Yoru - Kimi - Boku" from the album Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection IV: Character Special released in 1990. Then with "Ichido wa Kekkon Shitai Manbo" from Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection 8: Character Special 2 released in 1991. Where he happily sings about the desire to get married. And the title track from Dragon Ball Z Hit Song Collection 17: Hippy Hoppy Shake!! released in 1995.
Reception
Various publications for anime, manga and other media have commented on Krillin's character, adding praise and criticism to his traits and development in the series. David F. Smith of IGNIGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
comments that Krillin and #18's relationship really help make the storyline more interesting. Additionally, he liked Krillin's appearances in the fight against Cell as he has more screen time than the main character, Goku. Tim Jones from Themanime.org liked Krillin's development in the series as, initially, he was not a friend from when they first met. Anime News Network
Anime News Network
Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...
writer Carl Kimlinger also liked Krillin and Goku's childhood, noting it to be the warmth that Dragon Ball Z does not have. Although Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment thought that Krillin had a drastic change in Dragon Ball GT, he mentioned that fans from the prequels would like some of its episodes due to the appearance of Krillin and other older characters. During January from 2007, Oricon
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
made a poll in which they asked Japanese fans of manga and anime which characters from any series they would most like to see in spin-off series. Krillin ranked third in the men's poll and sixth in the overall poll. He was also voted as the most loved Supporting Character in Anime ever.