It’s rare to hear someone talk about Dragon Ball without paying tribute to their favorite character! They are the ones who save the planet and are our focus for hundreds of episodes, as well as being the main actors of some of the most exciting moments of the series. It’s true that if Goku or Vegeta disappeared, it would be hard for the franchise to grow to the size it is today.
But, guys, without rivals, these heroes would be much less interesting. What would Harry Potter be without Voldemort? Without the Joker, Batman isn’t quite the same. Sherlock Holmes wouldn’t exist without Moriarty? Every great hero needs an opponent!
Fortunately, the Dragon Ball franchise is prepared with villains. In this post, Muten Roshi will examine the original Dragon Ball, DBZ, GT, Super and even the movies to determine which characters are the most villainous. From time to time, he will pay more attention to their personalities than their abilities. Which Dragon Ball villains do viewers fear the most? Let’s take a look at the TOP 15 worst Dragon Ball villains!
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15. KID BUU
As we said earlier, personality trumps power for these villains; otherwise, this list could include many godlike characters who have no more personality than a cabbage leaf (by the way, you’ll be shocked at how many characters are influenced by… vegetables!).
Although their conversational skills are sometimes sorely lacking, villains who use their power creatively can still make things interesting. Kid Buu was one of them. He was the most direct antagonist in the franchise, never wasting a second on unnecessary arguments. What he liked best was to wield his power! If you are as crazy as Kid Buu, don’t hesitate to buy this fantastic T-shirt!
All the villains who threatened to destroy the planet were known for their restraint and their ability not to blow up the entire planet. But Kid Buu was not one of them. Although he was probably weaker than previous versions of Buu, he instantly demonstrated his threat by unleashing havoc on the cosmos, slaughtering millions.
He made a deeper impression because he did it so carelessly. The audience got the impression that he was the reincarnation of evil, someone who was not afraid of hell itself because of his casualness. His style made him memorable, even though he had no address or sympathetic story.
14. BABY
Dragon Ball GT (most are negative…), on the other hand, is a polarizing topic among fans. The series has seen some truly creative ideas emerge, and one of the benefits is Baby, the oldest antagonist in the franchise. At this point in the series, the Saiyans have become so strong that nothing can compete with them. So it was only natural to choose as a villain someone who could use their strength against them by possessing them.
Many people thought that the power of Super Android C-17 was absurd, and dragons were a good concept. Omega Shenron had a nice generic personality, but Baby was the best villain in the series because of his personal grudge against the Saiyans (remember, they murdered his entire race…). And then there’s this: Baby is responsible for one of the biggest achievements of Dragon Ball GT: the Super Saiyan 4 form!
13. CAPTAIN GINYU
The members of the Ginyu Force have spent far more time acting than posing a threat to anyone. But that’s what makes them so entertaining and popular with fans. After all, when bullies want to destroy the planet, it quickly becomes a yawn-inducing experience… Let’s not forget that Ginyu and his troops were still quite powerful, but they were far more concerned with honing their poses than conquering humanity. This made them the most endearing villains in the franchise.
Captain Ginyu was a formidable combination of strength and humor. On the one hand, he had the ability to totally destroy an entire regiment of soldiers for not posing in battle. But on the other hand, he also demonstrated what might be one of the most useful skills in the series with his mastery of multiple bodies. All of which results in the transformation of a frog… What a waste! Despite this, we now have a better idea of why he became Bulma, and it was good to be able to see him again in Dragon Ball Super, even if his role in the new series was cut short by Vegeta’s interference.
12. ANDROIDS C-17 AND C-18
The Ginyu Force has always teamed up as the only villains in the franchise. Sure, the Ginyu Force fought together, but once they started dying, Captain Ginyu immediately set out to supplant his followers. The androids C-17 and C-18, on the other hand, not only presented a danger as a team, but also demonstrated that they were quite powerful when on their own.
These new characters will be more notable in the future rather than during the main timeline of the series. For if they were present in the main timeline, it seemed logical from the start that these androids would be defeated, based on Vegeta’s strength, Goku’s power and the intergalactic warrior in the hyperbolic time chamber. But they almost caused an apocalypse in an alternative future. In the Trunks of the Future timeline, which is also known as “Future”, the androids wiped out almost everyone and left only a handful of survivors in terror. C-17 and Lazuli didn’t appear as much as the other villains, but they accomplished far more than some who were later destroyed or rehabilitated.
11. BLACK GOKU
Everyone was excited about the return of Dragon Ball with the Super Saga, but it seems that expectations were a little too high for things to go as planned. The series had just started and fans were already judging the other characters who were overshadowed by Goku and Vegeta, as well as the animation style… But the introduction of Black Goku finally satisfied the loyal fans.
Goku Black, Goku’s evil doppelganger, instantly caught the eye as the franchise’s Trunks returned from the future. After defeating the Androids, Lapis Lazuli and Cell, Trunks’ future looked bright. But Goku Black turns out to be more evil than all his predecessors combined. With his metamorphosis into the Pink Super Saiyan, he has revealed new depths of power, and the mystery of his true identity has left fans in suspense for months. Goku Black’s impact at this point is hard to gauge, but he has already made a significant impression by giving fans a reason to continue this new saga by challenging the Z Fighters again.
10. COOLER
This is true for the entire Dragon Ball series, to which I would add that the antagonists are rarely very convincing. There have been major disappointments like Bio-Broly, and many disappointing personalities like Android 13. It’s hard work to convince an audience to care about a completely new character in the space of a movie, but on rare occasions the writers succeed.
Cooler’s brother is a freezer. Cooler is one of those famous antagonists who was successful. He considered Freezer a rival, it seems. When the Saiyans didn’t intervene, he claimed that he probably would have murdered his brother himself. If you want to know more about Cooler’s backstory, click here.
Learning more about Cooler’s family history is already appealing, but the fact that he appears in his metallic form in his evolution makes him even more distinct. Had he been in the TV series, he would most likely have been destroyed like his brother and father, but we can’t help but wish he could face Freezer on camera!
9. SUPER BUU
You will probably disagree with the idea of having multiple versions of the same character in this essay. However, their personalities are so distinct that it seems justifiable. Yes, Big Buu, Super Buu, and Little Buu are all the same person, but can a fan really claim to feel the same way about all three variations of Buu? Big Buu was one of a kind, but he didn’t seem mature enough to be taken seriously as a danger to the characters. So when Super Buu finally succumbed to his self-centered nature and became Big Buu, it was like seeing a new person!
The wild, leaner, more vicious variant of Buu immediately showed his darker side by committing one of the most horrific murders in the series. Don’t you remember? He liquefied his body and shoved it down the throat of a viewer until it exploded… Also, unlike his child form, Super Buu had a personality. When he was waiting for an opponent to confront him, he could show rationality as well as cruelty, as when he turned Chi-Chi into an egg just to break it.
Yet underneath this insulting rudeness, Super Buu was still juvenile enough not to realize that he had been locked in a hyperbolic time chamber.
8. MAJIN VEGETA
What happens when a person’s greatest fear comes true? The Great Old One, who was possessed by Majin Buu in the manga, appears here as one of the seven deadly sins. Was he just another Vegeta character or did Babidi’s mental domination radically change them? When Majin Spopovich appeared at the martial arts tournament, people recognized how different he was from the character they knew before. This is something Vegeta realized when he saw that he had been taken not only to increase his strength, but also to allow him to harness his wilder nature through Babidi’s magic. Thus, in a way, Majin Vegeta appears as a separate personality.
Although this version of Vegeta was brief, it had a great impact with his desire to kill innocent people. His overweening pride, desire for power, and jealousy of Goku was reinforced, resulting in the formation of his new personality. This led to the long-awaited rematch between these two characters, one of the many highlights of Dragon Ball Z. In addition, it allowed Vegeta to show a more compassionate side when he realized that his family and friends were more important than his pride and was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect them.
7. BEERUS
It takes a long time for a new character to capture the audience’s attention after so many years of Dragon Ball episodes. After Majin Buu in DBZ, there have been several villains in GT, but what could the series do to make an antagonist scarier than before? The last movie, released in 2011, had even resolved to make Abo and Cado, the supposed villains, into joke figures. The Team Z fighters were unstoppable, so who could stop them?
With Goku’s willingness to stand up to Beerus, the Battle of the Gods quickly made things clear. The Destroyer God proved he was worthy of his name by effortlessly brushing aside a visibly superior Goku Super Saiyan 3, demonstrating that he was far beyond the strength of any of the heroes. And at the end of the movie, there was still no one to compete with him. Beerus retained his strength even against Goku Super Saiyan God. He was the first opponent to fully win, showing good judgment in sparing Earth after learning how much he loved food.
6. PERFECT CELL
Most fans pick Frieza as the biggest villain in the franchise, but some might argue that Cell was not saved in the end. Most fans would agree that among the many enemies that appeared after Freezer, Cell is one of the best. Androids 19 and 20 did not seem to be very dangerous. We noticed that C-17 and C-18 were powerful and had an intriguing backstory, but they didn’t offer much content beyond Goku’s uninteresting motivation to kill him.
Cell was the answer, of course! He discovered his roots in time travel and has abilities that place him among the most powerful fighters in the series. Finally, someone who looked like a real opponent! His perfect form attracted a lot of attention and led to some fantastic moments. We got to see Gohan finally unleash his hidden potential, while Goku finally faced an opponent he couldn’t beat because of it. Cell Perfect Form, which was the last in the series, had probably the best death of the franchise, with a spectacular fight between two Kamehamehas in which all the Z Fighters had one last moment of glory to assist the Intergalactic Warrior. By the way, you can buy Cell Perfect Form directly on Goku Shop. The latter is emblematic and faithfully represents the malevolent antagonist of this legendary tale.
5. KING PICCOLO
The reason we don’t talk about the original Dragon Ball saga as often is that, by today’s standards, the series did not feature very powerful personalities. However, in a way, this increased the effectiveness of the action: the characters were forced to outdo each other and develop counter-strategies. King Piccolo was one of those antagonists who could be scary without relying on characters with sometimes borderline cheating abilities in their fights.
Satan Little Heart was by far the best of all the Dragon Ball villains in terms of quality. His rivals were Yamcha, Oolong, Boss Rabbit and Emperor Pilaf, who all became friends in the end. King Daemon Jr, who was dangerous enough to conquer the world, was one of the first to be truly trusted at the beginning of his saga, when Tambourin, his own son, had killed Krillin.
