Dragon Ball: Piccolo Is Not As Old As You May Think

When Dragon Ball fans look at Piccolo, they see one strong warrior who rarely puts up with Gohan’s nonsense. Audiences first met the character during Dragon Ball, and Piccolo was not a particularly nice guy. Created to be the reincarnation of King Piccolo, the young Namekian was seemingly destined to be an undying enemy of Goku’s forever. However, the staunch villain eventually yielded and became an ally of the Saiyan’s after Earth was threatened by Freeza. Ever before the two men patched up their relationship, Piccolo (kind of) helped Goku out by taking his son Gohan out to train before the space tyrant could reach the planet following Vegeta and Nappa’s appearance.

However, if you thought Piccolo was a cruel old man for forcing Gohan to train, you may want to reassess that opinion. After all, the former villain was anything but a geezer when the Saiyan Saga went down.

While Piccolo may have looked like an old man, the character was only a few years older than Gohan when he forced the half-Saiyan to train in the wilderness. Namekians grow at a much faster rate than humans or even Saiyans do. So, after Piccolo was created, the fighter only needed to train for three years before he fought Goku at the World Martial Arts tournament. When the Saiyan Saga got underway, Piccolo was just four years older than Gohan!

That’s right; At 5-years-old, Gohan was taken away from his mother and forced into training by one terrifying alien who was just 9 at the time.

Clearly, Piccolo never thought it was prudent from him to take a nannying class or two. He was more than content with leaving Gohan on his own – well, for the most part. The alien did come around to check on Gohan’s progress as the training went on. So, rather than seeing Piccolo as an elderly uncle, Gohan may be better off seeing his mentor as a whacked-out older brother.

Dragon Ball Super‘s “Universal Survival” saga is part of the recent simulcast agreement that sites like Crunchyroll and Funimation have scored. Dragon Ball Super airs on Crunchyroll Saturdays at 7:15 p.m. CST. Toonami will begin airing the English dub on Adult Swim Saturdays at 11:30 p.m.