Krillin

Krillin (クリリン, Kuririn) is a major protagonist in the Dragon Ball series.

He's one of the most powerful and talented martial artists on Earth. He is courageous, faithful, and good-natured. Krillin had a brief rivalry with Goku when they first trained under Master Roshi, but they quickly became lifelong best friends,^[19] to the point that Goku cares for him as much as his family and closest ones. He is a prominent Z Fighter, despite usually being overpowered by the major enemies. His short stature and baldness (with the exception of when he grows out his hair in the Buu Saga onwards, although he occasionally shaves his head in several sagas in Dragon Ball Super) aid him in his ability to provide comic relief during tense moments.

During the latter half of Dragon Ball Z, he largely retires from fighting, opting to settle down with his family instead, becoming the husband of Android 18 and the father of Marron. However, because of all things that occur during the Golden Frieza Saga, he returns to his lifestyle as a warrior later on in Dragon Ball Super.

Appearance

Krillin does not have a visible nose, however, in a fourth wall breaking manner he seems to be able to smell until someone mentions it (like Goku during the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament): he smells the diamond Bulma took from the Pirate Cave, and he smells the enticing trap meal in the Mirror Spaceship. In the Dragon Ball: Adventure Special magazine, when asked why Krillin does not have a nose, Akira Toriyama responded "Krillin has a physical idiosyncrasy that allows him to breathe through his skin." Earlier on in the series, and throughout the entire manga, Krillin had white eyes that were often squinty looking, giving off a bored expression. However, later on, his eyes are more open, and the color of them seem to have disappeared completely, making the inside of his eyes the same color as his skin.

Krillin is not naturally bald. Due to his original monastic training, he merely shaves his head. During his training with Goku under Master Roshi, Krillin comments that "All who aspire to master the martial arts shave their heads in order to unfetter their ki" and is both surprised and disappointed to find out Master Roshi is naturally bald. He also mentions that he waxes his head to keep himself bald. After settling down with his new family, his hair grows out, although his original smooth crowned look is the most familiar to fans. The six dots on his forehead are scars from moxibustion burns,^[20] similar to the pattern that appear on the forehead of a Shaolin monk.

His first appearance of Dragon Ball and in Fortuneteller Baba saga, he wears a yellow short sleeved Chinese garb with the sleeves are folded to make it sleeveless adorned with purple straps in each side, orange Chinese pants with a purple belt on his waist, white shins and ochre Chinese toe shoes. During the 21st and 23rd Martial Arts Tournament, Krillin wears a red turtle gi like Goku's and became his signature outfit in Dragon Ball Z through both Vegeta Saga and in the Namek Saga.

During the Namek Saga, Krillin wears a red, white, and blue cap which features the words "KAMESEN" and his name spelled "KULILIN" with a yellow and green jacket that features the "Turtle" mark when boarding the Nameless Namekian's Spaceship. After landing on Namek, Krillin briefly wears his hat with his Turtle School Uniform. During the Frieza Saga, Krillin wears Litt Battle Armor obtained from Frieza's Spaceship. However, the armor gains a hole in the torso created by Second Form Frieza's horn.

In the Androids Saga and throughout the Cell Saga, Krillin wears an outfit identical to Goku's first outfit in both Vegeta Saga and throughout the Frieza Saga as the tie of his boots are light blue.

In the Buu Saga, Krillin has his black hair grow out and wears various casual outfits. When he was married with Android 18, he wears an orange short sleeved loose button shirt, white shorts and red sandals. In the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament, he first appears wearing an orange vest with a white short sleeve undershirt, green denim shorts with a brown belt on his waist, white socks and brown shoes. In the movie, Bio-Broly, his vest appears to be black. During the tournament and onwards, he wears a short sleeve red shirt, khaki jogging pants with a white tie at the center and black sneakers. In Dragon Ball Super, when Krillin still had black hair, it is noticeably shorter than how it is in the Buu Saga. Krillin retained his shaved head in Shin Budokai despite it taking place after the Majin Buu Saga, with it being implied in the beginning that such had been the result of 18 and Marron playing with his head while he was asleep.

During Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and the earlier episodes of Dragon Ball Super, Krillin wears his black hair in a short, fairly spikey style and dons a green changshan (Chinese men's coat) with a Turtle School crest on the left breast as a mark of respect for Master Roshi, in addition to dark blue-gray pants and charcoal-gray kung fu shoes. Strangely, in the manga, his head remains shaven.

By the time of Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’, Krillin has taken up the job of a police officer, he wears a uniform with a yellow polo shirt and purple formal shorts, a badge, and a helmet. When getting prepared to battle Frieza, Krillin asks Android 18 to shave his head for "old times sake". When he is off-duty, Krillin wears a red short sleeved shirt with a sign "Tacos" at the center, jeans and blue sneakers. In preparation for the Tournament of Power, Krillin once again wears his orange turtle school gi, minus the weighted clothing he previously wore during the Android Saga through the Cell Games Saga, although his gi has become visibly faded with time, leaving it a paler orange compared to Goku and Gohan's versions of the outfit.

In the end of Dragon Ball Z, Krillin wears a business attire like his wife, Android 18 and has a fedora hat on his head.

In the events of Dragon Ball GT, Krillin's hair is now streaked with gray, and he has grown a prominent bushy mustache that has grown completely over his upper lip. He retains wearing the business attire at the end of Dragon Ball Z; a teal formal vest with a white long sleeved button shirt with the sleeves are folded into cuffs and a light purple long necktie on the collar, brown pants and black shoes.

Personality

Originally a jealous and selfish person, Krillin did not respect rules when confronted with Roshi's training. After a short arch-rivalry between the two (years later, Krillin even admits that he hated Goku at first), he becomes Goku's best friend, and his selfish and jealous personality becomes more kind-hearted and generous (although he still has slight selfish and jealous traits after his reform). Krillin is often used as comic relief or cannon fodder by the author. As the most prominent full-blooded human character in the Dragon Ball series, Krillin also represents a sense of normalcy to Goku and Gohan, as well as often being the most identifiable. Often when things in the Dragon World turn bizarre, it is left to Krillin to shake his head in disbelief and crack a joke.

Despite his reputation as being a weakling compared to his Saiyan comrades, he is considered to be one of the stronger pure-blooded humans in the Dragon Ball series, being thousands of times stronger than the average person, in fact he is well into the superhuman league (although this is largely due to the fact that he was afforded much greater opportunities to increase his strength, such as gaining the ability to use ki, training under the Guardian of the Earth, and having his potential unlocked by Grand Elder Guru, things that no other human, such as Mr. Satan, ever had). Although he is not as strong as Goku or Gohan, his determination in helping his friends is a key asset. Furthermore, Krillin's ingenuity and talent for ki-manipulation is far superior to that of most warriors, even those stronger than himself, and he has an ability to sense hidden powers. Krillin had his dormant ki awakened by the Namek Elder, Guru, during the events of the Namek Saga (although it is possible that not all of his power was freed, due to the fact that Gohan still had more hidden power and that they both grew to be much stronger), and this helped keep him among the same level as his more naturally powerful friends, at least for a little while. Krillin has trained hard most of his life, becoming extremely powerful and proving it in combat with many foes. Unfortunately, he is quickly outclassed by many of the other characters in the series, such as Piccolo and the Saiyans; though among all the full-blooded humans he faces in combat he is one of the strongest. On one occasion, during the course of the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament, Yamcha says to Krillin's daughter that Krillin is "the strongest human being in the world." Some fans feel that the mangaka, Akira Toriyama, uses Yamcha to state a fact on this scene, as he also says that Krillin is the "strongest Earthling male" in an interview.^[21] As it is spoken in the context of Krillin being married to 18, it implies that Krillin is the strongest Earthling at least by that point in the series (this claim gets support in the video game Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors in which the final part of Krillin's story, which focus on the Majin Buu Saga, is titled as "The Strongest Earthling"). Many fans immediately will connect Krillin with his signature move, Destructo Disc, a spinning razor-sharp disk of energy that has the power to cut through just about anything. Despite its immense power, it is extremely unwieldy and hard to control.

At any rate, Krillin is brave and resourceful, and the audience identifies him as a good-natured underdog. Along with Yamcha, Krillin has also, arguably, adjusted to a relatively normal life better than many of his friends by seeking women in his life. He is among the more "normal" human of his friends, as he can be seen wearing normal clothes on days where he's not fighting, other than his typical martial arts dōgi, as well as engaging in other normal every-day activities such as watching TV, going to the beach, etc. In his role as Goku's best friend, Krillin was among the only humans to remain a main character for the majority of the series, even as Master Roshi, Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu, Yajirobe, Chi-Chi and others faded into the background. Overall, Krillin is a highly valued character in the Dragon Ball series: powerful, loyal, and brave. He is second only to Goku in the most appearances in the manga. In some more recent movies however, Krillin has been since demoted to a comic relief character. This is most prominent in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Super Android 13!, when he was beaten up by Chi-Chi, clonked his head twice, had hot coffee spilled on his head, had his face fried by a stray energy bolt, had a large pile of snow dumped on him, had Vegeta sent flying into him, slipped and skidded past the main villain when he was about to attack him, and was humiliated in the hospital (he even remarks during the Vegeta incident that "Why do these things always happen to me?").

Consistent with the theme of redemption in the series, he allows Vegeta to live rather than killing him, albeit reluctantly at the insistence of Goku (as he promised Krillin, he would defeat Vegeta and Krillin put his faith in Goku's strength), during the Vegeta Saga, a decision that later proves righteous as Vegeta goes on to become one of the most beneficial warriors of the Z Fighters. It should be noted that during the Trunks Saga, Krillin points out to Bulma that most of the Z Fighters used to be enemies and admits that he himself once hated Goku but once there was a common enemy they started working together and eventually became friends while trying to persuade her that it was better to let the Z Fighters deal with the Androids when they appeared as he noted that without a common enemy, Vegeta might go return to his evil ways which was a possibility given the Saiyan Prince's rivalry with Goku. Also, he spares Android 18's life when presented with the chance to activate her self-destruct sequence because he had a huge crush on her (though this put the whole planet at risk because she was later absorbed by Cell, which helped him complete his evolution). In a bit of ironic fortune, he later marries the beautiful android and later has a daughter named Marron with her. He also convinced Vegeta and Future Trunks to allow Android 16 be repaired and join them in combatting Cell during the Cell Games despite the Android's mission to destroy Goku, which proved fortunate as Android 16 was instrumental in convincing Gohan to let go of his anger and defeat Cell.

Like his mentor Master Roshi, Krillin is known to be perverted even bribing Master Roshi with a Dirty Magazine when he was first introduced at the age of 12. He was also already considered "impure" of heart due to his perverted tendencies and was unable to ride the Flying Nimbus without clinging to Goku. He also came up with an elaborate and unnecessarily perverted plan during the Fortuneteller Baba Saga to expose Bulma's breasts to Master Roshi in order to have Master Roshi produce a massive nosebleed to cover See-Through the Invisible Man in order to aid Yamcha in defeating him. However, he is shown to have become less perverted as an adult and is more interested in genuine romance as he notes his desire to get married several times in Dragon Ball Z. In the anime filler he even contemplates marrying Maron though ultimately decides to break up with her only to reconsider when she reveals she would have said yes, but she ran off with some guy who promised her ice cream. In Super Android 13!, he waits in line for a beauty pageant with Roshi, Oolong, and Future Trunks though he admonishes Oolong and Roshi as setting a bad example for a young man like Trunks, though Master Roshi points out Krillin might be able to find himself a wife which causes him to get excited by the idea. Before meeting Android 18, Krillin began to wonder if he would ever find love, at one point in Super Android 13! even lamenting he would probably die alone. He is also taken with Zangya's beauty when he mistakes her for the opponent, he is supposed to fight in Bojack Unbound. While Krillin loves his wife, he has been shown to retain some of his perversion as while saving Nain in Bio-Broly she hugs onto him tightly causing him to blush, though this ends up causing his wife to angrily push both of them. Additionally, in Xenoverse 2, he notes that the Launch Costume is a pretty daring look and that while he never really looked at her clothes back in his youth, they do show a lot of skin and wishes he had watched more closely when he had the chance, before nervously stating he is totally committed to Android 18. In Dragon Ball FighterZ, he agrees with Yamcha's opinion that Android 21 is cute, though this causes Yamcha to think that Krillin has a thing for female Androids which Krillin denies, though unfortunately their conversation is overheard by Android 18 who glares at them both, terrifying them to the point they are unable to turn around.

However, Krillin can be just as jealous as his wife can be as he tells the Future Warrior in Xenoverse 2 not to try anything funny with his wife, when they are training under her, which he says regardless of their selected gender or race. He is also fiercely protective of her and their daughter as he wanted her to stay to take care of Marron while he confronted Frieza after his resurrection and willingly confronts villains stronger than himself to protect her such as Cell, Super Buu, and Bio-Broly.

References

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