Hero

Template:Character Hero, called Shen in the Dragon Ball manga, Japanese anime, and Blue Water dub, is the person whose body Kami borrowed to enter the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament

Name

His original name is a pun on the first part of the Earth dragon's name, "Shen Long", which means "God" (the second part means "dragon"); this also makes his name a play on Kami's name, which is also the Japanese for "God". In the FUNimation Dub, the name "Hero" is used instead of Shen likely to avoid confusion with the Crane Hermit Master Shen. The Canadian and UK dub, the Blue Water dub refers to him by his original name, Shen.

Biography

Dragon Ball

Hero is a typically nerdy father. Without Goku's knowledge, Kami borrows Hero's body and enter the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament to disguise himself so that he could defeat Piccolo under the public's eye and trap him with the Evil Containment Wave.

KamiAsHero — Hero (Kami) during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament

The possessed Hero defeats Yajirobe in the preliminaries, and Yamcha in the quarter-finals. The possessed Hero soon faces Piccolo Jr. and tries to seal him with the Evil Containment Wave, but Piccolo Jr. reverses the technique. Not wanting an innocent man to suffer for his failure, Kami frees Hero as he is being sucked into the Evil Containment Wave container and sealed. Hero is rendered unconscious, losing the match via 10 count. He then awakes up in the ring confused, having no memory of what happened while he was under Kami's control. He is praised by the crowd, who enjoyed watching him fight, unaware of Kami's involvement, and, to his confusion, is commended for his martial arts prowess even though he lost.

Hero then goes in the crowd, where he is congratulated by his young, awe-struck son who had been rooting for him during his fights in the tournament. Hero himself is dumbfounded by the whole ordeal at first, but rationalizes it, thinking either that he must have been sleepwalking or drunk. He takes it in stride and resumes his regular life.

Other appearance

Hero briefly appears in a flashback in Dragon Ball Z, in the episode "Plans for Departure", when Bulma recalls how Kami (inside Hero) and Piccolo spoke Namekian to each other during the tournament.

Special abilities

While possessed by Kami, Hero is able to use various ki-based techniques:

Flight – The ability to fly with the use of ki.

Mafuba — Hero (Kami) using the Evil Containment Wave

Afterimage Technique – Used against Piccolo Jr. during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament.
Exploding Wave – An invisible ki blast of a sudden wind attack that can be launched theoretically from any part of the body. It is slightly similar to Kiai.
Evil Containment Wave – Hero attempts this technique to seal Piccolo Jr. in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, but ended up sealing himself by Piccolo Jr.'s Evil Containment Wave Counter.
Telepathy – The ability to channel one's thoughts to another being. It was used by Kami while possessing Hero to speak to Piccolo in Namekian language.

Video game appearances

Shen appears in Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen, Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans, and was added in the WonderSwan Color version of Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden.

Voice actors

Japanese: Takeshi Aono
FUNimation Dub: Christopher R. Sabat
Latin American Dub: Ricardo Hill

Trivia

Shen/Hero (or merely someone who looked like him) was shown in Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks during the Android's attack.
One of the truckers that the Androids steal the Lucky Foods shipping vehicle from in the Androids Saga is nearly identical to Shen/Hero, except with brown hair.

Hero

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