"I'm King Kai you now know the Kaio-Ken and the Spirit Bomb. F**k off. Shut up, Bojack." |
King Kai (界王, Kaiō-sama) is a blue-colored deity in the Dragon Ball Z universe who lives on a small planet at the end of snake way, he trains those who reach the end.
In The Anime
King Kai or North Kai is a deity, the ruler of the North Galaxy, and Goku's martial arts teacher before Whis, and later mentor. He also taught Yamcha, Tien Shinhan , Piccolo and Chiaotzu. His planet is at the end of a long winding road known as Snake Way, where he teaches powerful, new techniques such as the Spirit Bomb and Kaio-ken. Despite the fact that his planet is around 100 feet in diameter, its gravity is ten times greater than Earth's. He has a monkey named Bubbles and a motor-mouth grasshopper named Gregory. He wears Teashade sunglasses, and owns a red 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Hardtop. He has a "strong sense of humor" and tells very bad jokes, although he possesses great wisdom and knowledge about the universe. He specializes in universal telepathic links.
In The Abridged Series
The series makes a joke out of how King Kai's planet has the space pirate leader Bojack sealed inside of it, making him a sort of third companion to King Kai. King Kai seems not too fond of his only companions, especially Bojack, constantly demanding they shut up even when they try to console him once Goku leaves. He's extremely touchy about the proper pronunciation of "Kaio-Ken" and what the Spirit Bomb should be called (He calls it the Genki Dama). This is shown when Yamcha asked when they were going to learn the Kaio-ken and he pronounced it with the original Funimation "Kayo-ken" used in earlier dubs. He also takes light of serious moments, such as when he was taking bets just before Goku was going to fight Vegeta.
To compound his problems his telepathic calls frequently end up getting intercepted by homosexual Star Trek actor George Takei who is very much amused by half the entendres he hears from King Kai or anyone talking to King Kai. Naturally, King Kai isn't appreciative of this at all.
He's also tougher and stronger than his original counterpart, beating up the entire Ginyu Force by himself when they reach his planet.
Role in the Plot
Saiyan Saga
King Kai first appeared when Goku managed to make his way through Snake Way and to his planet. After meeting him, Goku asked if King Kai could train him for the Saiyans heading to Earth, and King Kai agreed if only because he has been living with Bubbles, Gregory, and Bojack all his life and he hates them. While training Goku, he revealed how Planet Vegeta got blown up. After Goku got revived by the DragonBalls, King Kai rudely told Goku to leave, only to realize he was all alone again with the people he hates.
Later on, when he saw Goku and Vegeta fight, he decided to place bets on who would win only to lose out to the narrator.
Freeza Saga
Later on, he would welcome the recently deceased Tien, Chiaotzu, Piccolo, and Yamcha to his planet and decided the train them. However, after Yamcha incorrectly pronounced the Kaio-Ken (calling it Kayo-ken) he refused to teach the four any of his moves. He later contacted Goku to warn him about Freeza, but Goku outsmarted him and he accidentally called George Takei.
After Goku's fight against the Ginyu Force, he contacted him in order to get caught up to speed only to have a three way call with Takei. He later contacted Krillin so he could wish one of the four back. Sometime later, four of deceased Ginyu Force members came to his planet in order to take it, but King Kai single handily sent them all to Hell. He later saw Goku fight against Freeza and contacted the living Z-Fighters about Namek's destruction.
Cell Saga
King Kai would not appear for sometime until the Cell Games Tournament when he threatened Goku not to take credit for the Spirit Bomb and Kaio-Ken. He commended Goku for his selfless sacrifice to teleport Cell away from Earth, though was completely blindsided when he realized Goku had chosen to use Instant Transmission to go to King Kai's planet, freaking him, Bubbles and Gregory out. They were all killed by Cell's explosion, which demolished King Kai's planet and destroyed the link restraining Bojack was released, freeing the space pirate.
Abilities
Telepathy
King Kai has the ability to communicate with people from his planet no matter what distance the person is. He can also allow someone to talk to someone through this by letting that person touch him. However, more aggressive and/or malevolent entities like Mr. Popo can cause psychic feedback, causing King Kai incredible pain.
Appearances
| Appearances of King Kai in DragonBall Z Abridged | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Season 2 | |||||||||
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Season 3 | |||||||||
| 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 |
| No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 |
| No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Epilogue | |||||||||
| No | |||||||||
| Movies | |||||||||
| M1 | M2 | M3 | M4 | M5 | M6 | M7 | M8 | ||
| No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | ||
| Specials | |||||||||
| SP1 | SP2 | SP3 | SP4 | ||||||
| No | No | No | Yes | ||||||
| Kai Abridged | |||||||||
| Kai1 | Kai2 | Kai2.9 | Kai3 | Kai3.5 | |||||
| Yes | Yes | No | No | No | |||||
- Note 1: Only appears in Part 1 and Part 3 of Episode 10.
- Note 2: Only appears in the stingers in Episode 13 and 16.
- Note 3: Only appears in Part 2 and Part 3 of Episode 60.
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