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 (without Goku's knowledge). Kami possessed the typically nerdy human to disguise himself so that he could defeat Piccolo under the public's eye and trap him with the Evil Containment Wave technique.

Overview

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

Hero (possessed by Kami) defeated Yajirobe in the preliminaries and later defeated Yamcha in the quarter-finals. Kami (still disguised as Hero) soon faced Piccolo and tried to seal him with the Evil Containment Wave, but Piccolo reversed it, and Kami was sealed instead. Luckily, Kami freed Hero (not wanting an innocent man like him to suffer for his failure) as he was being sucked into the Evil Containment Wave Container (small bottle). Hero was rendered unconscious, losing the match via 10 count (Knock Out) and woke up in the ring confused, having no memory of what happened while he was under Kami's control. He was praised by the crowd (who enjoyed watching him fight and were unaware of Kami's involvement) and, to his confusion, was commended for his martial arts prowess, even though he lost.

He was later seen being congratulated by his young, awe-struck son, who had been rooting for him during his fights in the tournament. Shen himself was dumbfounded by the whole ordeal at first, but rationalized it, thinking either that he must have been sleepwalking or drunk. He took it in stride and resumed his happy (hum drum) life.

In Dragon Ball Z, he briefly appears in "Plans for Departure" during Bulma's flashback, when she recalls how Kami (inside Hero) and Piccolo spoke Namekian to each other at the Tournament.

Name

His name is a pun on the first part of the Earth dragon's name, Shen Long, and it means "God" (the second part means "dragon"), which also make a play on Kami's name.

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.

Special abilities

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

Mafuba — Hero(Kami) using the Evil Containment Wave

Levitate – The ability to fly with the use of ki.
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 Dub: 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.