Immortality

Garlic Jr. becomes immortal

Immortality (不死, Fushi), also called Eternal Life (永遠の命, Eien no Inochi), is the concept of living in physical or spiritual form for an infinite length of time without dying. A subset of this is Eternal Youth (永遠の若さ, Eien no Wakasa), which allows for exemption from natural death such as from old age or disease, as well as halting age altogether. There are several outside methods in the series which can be sought after in order to become immortal, the most common being to make such a wish to the Eternal Dragons, Shenron or Porunga, using the seven Dragon Balls.

Methods of gaining immortality

• Collecting the seven Dragon Balls (or, alternatively, the Namekian Dragon Balls, Super Dragon Balls, or Black Star Dragon Balls) and having a wish for immortality granted by an Eternal Dragon.
• Having Master Roshi's pet, the Immortal Phoenix, bestow immortality. This method is rendered unavailable some time before the beginning of Dragon Ball, due to the irony that the Immortal Phoenix died from being fed "tainted bird seed".
• The grueling process of converting a human into a cyborg entails giving them freedom from a death by natural causes.
• Wishing for Eternal Youth, which halts aging and thus leaves them unable to die of natural causes. However, they can still be killed during battle, with suicide, and/or being caught in a lethal event.
• Eating Paradise Grass obtained from the Forest of Terror allows the consumer to gain many additional years of life. Roshi uses this method to retain his eternal life.

Characters who are immortal

• Master Roshi: Gained immortality via constantly eating the Paradise Grass. It does not eliminate death via unnatural causes, however, and he must eat it every 1000 years to maintain his eternal life.
• Fortuneteller Baba: It is not revealed how, but she must have gained immortality in some way, as she is over 500 years old.
• Master Shen: It is not revealed how, but he must have gained immortality in some way, as he lived to be as old as Roshi.
• Mercenary Tao: It is not revealed how, but he must have gained immortality in some way, as he lived to be over 300 years old.
• Mr. Popo: Mr. Popo is the eternal caretaker and gardener of Kami's Lookout, having long outlived all of Earth's Guardians, being essentially ageless, as he cannot die of natural causes like aging or disease; however, he can die of unnatural causes, like Buu's magic Chocolate Beam, or complete disintegration.
• Darkness: The mysterious entity which guards the Ultra Divine Water in the Cave of Darkness. Darkness tells Goku that the two of them could live together forever while fooling him with illusions, suggesting that he is immortal.
• Garlic Jr.: In the film Dragon Ball Z: Dead Zone, Garlic Jr. is successful in his campaign to wish for eternal life from Shenron. As such, he is abnormally defeated not by being slain but by being victimized by his own ploy, the Dead Zone, wherein he is trapped for several years until his escape in the filler Garlic Jr. Saga of Dragon Ball Z. It should be noted that, until Future Zamasu's debut in Dragon Ball Super, Garlic Jr. was the only character in the series to have complete and unhindered immortality. Whereas characters such as Master Roshi and the Androids are free from death by natural causes but are still susceptible to such acts as murder or suicide, Garlic Jr. seems to be literally incapable of dying.
• While not completely immortal, it is explained by Dr. Gero shortly after activating Android 17 and Android 18 that the process of configuring humans into cyborgs essentially grants them "eternal life". This only applies to aging and death by natural causes, as while their energy never drains, they are still capable of being killed in battle, as shown with Future Trunks destroying the future androids in his timeline, Super Buu turrning Android 18 into chocolate along with Marron, and eating them, and then lastly, Android 17, though offscreen, who was either killed by Super Buu's Human Extinction Attack or when Buu's pure form, Kid Buu, blows up the Earth with his Planet Burst.
• Cell states that he will live forever as long as he isn't completely annihilated.
• Majin Buu: After Garlic Jr. and Future Zamasu, Majin Buu is the closest to completely immortal as he is not only immune to aging and disease, but his body is almost indestructible. The only way to kill Majin Buu is to use an incredibly powerful force to completely destroy his body with not even a trace left behind, as he can regenerate from even the smallest particles, such as the Super Spirit Bomb.
• King Piccolo: King Piccolo gained "Eternal Youth" (永遠の若さ Eien no Wakasa), after wishing it from the Dragon Balls. This made him immune to aging, allowing him to stay on his physical prime for eternity, however, he could die or be killed by unnatural causes, such as being obliterated or pierced through the chest.
• Piccolo: Piccolo inherited his late father's eternal youth, giving him ageless immortality after reaching his physical prime, which has been proved in several video game stories, such as the Hero Mode story from Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, which takes place long after Dragon Ball GT's ending, and shows Piccolo, still alive and looking physically young. It is also stated in Daizenshuu 2 that Piccolo inherited all of his father's techniques and abilities, including "Eternal Youth". It was due to his eternal youth that Kami, when both he and Piccolo decided to fuse back to their original self, made the latter the dominant host, as the latter's eternal youth made him much stronger than Kami.
• Lord Slug: Slug wished for "eternal youth on his prime" from the Dragon Balls. This made him return to his physical prime, and he became ageless immortal. However, he could still be killed, such as being obliterated.
• Future Zamasu: Future Zamasu wished for immortality using the Super Dragon Balls. Like Garlic Jr., he seems truly incapable of dying.
  • Fused Zamasu: As the fusion of Future Zamasu and his alternate self Goku Black, Fused Zamasu inherited this immortality. However, in the anime only, as Goku Black's body is that of a mortal the fusion's body was thrown into chaos and as such Fused Zamasu's body wasn't immortal and just had an extreme tolerance to pain and was able to regenerate although his soul was immortal and unable to die, and was instead erased by Future Zeno.
    • Goku Black: In the manga, as a result of keeping Future Zamasu's cells from the fusion due to being the same person, Goku Black gained Fused Zamasu's immortality after the Potara Fusion ran out.
    • Infinite Zamasu: The surviving will/mutated form of Fused Zamasu, left over from the destruction of Fused Zamasu's body, erased by Future Zeno.

Characters who have pursued immortality

• King Piccolo: Wished for Eternal Youth to regain his physical prime. Was ultimately killed by Goku via the latter plowing through his chest.
• Vegeta: The proud Saiyan warrior seeks the Dragon Balls of Earth, where he is encountered and defeated by Goku. After recovering, Vegeta searches Namek for the Dragon Balls of that planet, which he is successful in stealing from Frieza (with the exception of one he locates himself). He loses the artifacts to the Ginyu Force, before coming to gain possession of them once again with the arrival of Goku. He nearly loses the opportunity to become immortal when Krillin, Gohan and Dende summon the Eternal Dragon of Namek, Porunga, in his absence, but he realizes with enough time to track the group down and force Dende to make the wish (as Porunga requires his summoner to speak in Namek dialect when making a request). The wish ultimately fails however, when Grand Elder Guru dies, thus killing the Eternal Dragon and crippling Vegeta's conquest for immortality. After being resurrected, he gave up on immortality despite the Earth's Dragon Balls being revived and having easy access to Bulma's Dragon Radar.
  • Gogeta: In his ending in the PSP game Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai, Gogeta considers wishing for immortality but eventually decides that a lot of delicious food would be better. It is likely that his wanting for immortality is due to Vegeta's influence inside him, and his wanting for delicious food comes from Goku.
• Nappa: A Saiyan who travels to Earth with Vegeta to seek out the Dragon Balls. Their plan ultimately fails when Goku arrives and pummels Nappa, who ends up being betrayed and killed by Vegeta.
• Zarbon: Wished for Eternal Youth in the what-if saga Beautiful Treachery in order to suppress his beast form. However, as Frieza pointed out, it was a wasted wish since such a wish won't protect him from being killed, which rang true when Planet Namek was destroyed before Zarbon could escape it.
• Frieza: The self-proclaimed "Lord of The Universe" seeks the Dragon Balls in an effort to solidify his terrifying influence by gaining true immortality. Frieza becomes increasingly desperate to fulfill this desire as more threats to his campaign begin to surface on Namek, such as Vegeta, the Earthlings Krillin and Gohan, a Namek victim's curious last words that Frieza could never make a wish even with the Dragon Balls gathered, and finally the arrival of Goku. Ultimately, Frieza loses his opportunity to wish for immortality to Vegeta, who in turn also fails to have this request granted when Porunga, the Eternal Dragon of Namek, prematurely dies. After Porunga is revived, Frieza makes a desperate attempt to wish for immortality, but it is rejected due to him not knowing he has to speak the wish in the Namekian language. Dende seizes this opportunity to wish for all living beings on Namek except for Goku and Frieza to be transported to Earth. Frieza does gain immortality in several video game what-if scenarios, such as "The True Ruler" in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and his story in Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors. When he gains immortality in the Another Age scenario "Spirit Bomb" in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z, Frieza also gains the ability to create non-immortal clones of his forms and becomes completely invulnerable to everything but the Universal Spirit Bomb.
• Vodka: An Earthling mob leader employing Mercenary Tao during the Cell Games Saga, who desires immortality so that he may escape Cell's path of destruction.
• Zamasu: In his plan to assume "justice" to the universes, Zamasu was going to wish for immortality as well as to switch bodies with Goku right after killing his master. However, his dream never came, as he was annihilated by Beerus. His alternate counterpart, however, had successfully achieved it.
• Cooler: In Piccolo's scenario in the Nintendo DS game Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2, Cooler and his armored squadron go to New Namek in order to gather the Namekian Dragon Balls so that Cooler can be immortal. They are stopped and defeated by Gohan and Piccolo.
• Future Babidi: In the PSP game Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai - Another Road, Future Babidi planned to have eternal life as one of his wishes with the Namekian Dragon Balls. He is eventually absorbed by Buu and never gets his wishes.
• Turles: In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Turles attempts to use the Namekian Dragon Balls to obtain immortality, however his cohort Lord Slug interferes as he desires the same wish. Turles hoped to gain immortality in order to defeat Goku and eventually become stronger than Frieza and Mira using the Fruit of the Tree of Might. Both he and Slug after forced to call a truce when the Future Warrior shows up to help Gohan and Krillin reclaim the Dragon Balls. He is later killed alongside Lord Slug by a combined attack from Future Trunks and the Future Warrior.
• Lord Slug: In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 like his cohort Turles, Lord Slug desired to use Namekian Dragon Balls to obtain immortality. He and Turles are forced to call a truce when the Future Warrior shows up and is later killed alongside Turles by a combined attack from Future Trunks and the Future Warrior. Lord Slug mentions wishing for Eternal Youth was a mistake while training the Future Warrior and believes he should have wished for complete immortality. As he is a Namekian who potentially knows the Namekian language, Lord Slug is possibly one of the only people capable of actually using the Namekian Dragon Balls to obtain immortality as Porunga only grants wishes spoken in the Namekian language. On a related note, he also pursued Eternal Youth in Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug.

Drawbacks

Even if one is immortal they are still susceptible to being trapped in a place where they cannot escape, be it a different time era, dimension, etc. They are also susceptible when fusing with a mortal being due to merging in a cellular level with said being. This could result in major problems, varying in each person, due to merging their cells with mortal cells. This would either overwrite the fused body's DNA, or treat the merged cell as a one single cell, both resulting in catastrophic mutations. They're also susceptible to being erased from existence by Zeno. It is also possible the Angels may be capable to do the same as well. In the case of gaining eternal youth, they also are still susceptible to the unnatural taking of life such as murder or suicide. There are examples of these drawbacks such as:

• The Hyperbolic Time Chamber, with the exit being destroyed. This was almost possible to trap Super Buu, but he was able to escape with his Vice Shout.
• The Dead Zone, which Garlic Jr. had been sealed in himself by means of Gohan's overwhelming power. He was able to escape the first time due to the Makyo star granting him a burst of power, but once Gohan destroyed the star, Garlic was trapped again with no chance of escape for all of eternity.
• An object that has been marked with a sealing ofuda, and in proper conjunction with the Evil Containment Wave. Piccolo had advised this to Goku after his second battle with Future Zamasu.
• When Goku Black and Future Zamasu fused, both in the anime and the manga, there was an additional flaw with their fusion. In the anime, it was that Black was mortal while Future Zamasu wasn't. This caused their fusion to fall apart, mutating him into a deformed being as well as making his body able to die. This was because of the regeneration process being much slower, due to the Future Zamasu's immortal cells being overwritten by Goku Black's mortal cells, as in Potara Fusion, the stronger being is more dominant. This affected Fused Zamasu both physically and psychologically.
  • In the manga, the flaw was that due to the immortality inherited from their fusion, the body's cells merged in a cellular level, thus their immortality considered the fused body as one being and due to that flaw, could not defuse. As seen in Fused Zamasu's case, he began mutating into an amalgam of his fusses Goku Black and Future Zamasu once his time fused was up, and his regeneration tried to repair the fused body as one. This was due to the cells in Future Zamasu remaining intact in the fusion process in the manga. However, once defused, Fused Zamasu's immortality treated this as cellular damage, so it tried to repair their cells back to the way it was, which was why Black and Zamasu were still half-merged.
  • In both the anime and manga, this ultimately lead to their defeat against Future Trunks, who had gained enough energy to nullify the fusion's immortality, although Zamasu himself managed to survive in a non-corporeal form/evolved state and proceeded to remake everything in existence to be in his own image, thus forcing Future Zeno, to destroy all of existence within that timeline in order to stop him.
• Even being made immortal via the Super Dragon Balls does not render them immune to Zeno's Erase ability. This was demonstrated in the anime when Infinite Zamasu, as noted above, was erased by Future Zeno. This was also implied in the manga by Future Zamasu's concern about what would happen if Future Zeno found out about their Zero Mortals Plan, and later confirmed in Chapter 26 of the manga, where Infinite Zamasu, the evolved state of Fused Zamasu, was outright erased by Future Zeno.
• After being made immortal, a person can still feel pain. Garlic Jr. was clearly hurt by attacks even if they could not kill him. Strangely, Future Zamasu appeared to be resistant or immune to pain, as he showed no discomfort after being stabbed with Future Trunks' sword, even saying "it doesn't hurt." Future Zamasu also allowed Goku Black to attack Goku by stabbing through Future Zamasu to get to him, which also didn't appear to affect him. Rather this is because Future Zamasu used the Super Dragon Balls and Garlic Jr. used the Earth's Dragon Balls, which are far weaker, or because Dead Zone and Super are in different continuities, is unknown.

In addition, since immortality as a consequence of halting age or death, puts people at the absolute peak of their power, it also leaves them unable to grow stronger through training or, in the case of Saiyans, getting stronger via surviving mortal wounds through Saiyan Power. This is implied by Goku Black's reasons for refusing to use the Super Dragon Balls to achieve immortality despite Future Zamasu's request that he do so. It should also be noted that immortality from death can make a person extremely overconfident due to no longer having to fear death and believe that they can overcome any mortal enemy as they cannot be killed, even if said enemy is stronger than them, as shown by both Garlic Jr. and Future Zamasu. In the case with Garlic Jr. his overconfidence caused him to use the Dead Zone twice against his enemies in an attempt to defeat them only for him to be defeated by Gohan both times and sealed in the very Dead Zone he created. While Future Zamasu was more cautious with dealing with potential threats to his and Goku Black's Zero Mortals Plan even with his immortality, he was still overconfident thanks to his immortality at least until he was almost sealed away by the Evil Containment Wave, which caused him to resort to Potara Fusion with Goku Black to defeat his enemies, however in the anime this would prove to be their undoing as the fusion was unstable due to Goku Black being mortal, allowing Fused Zamasu's body to be killed by Future Trunks and his immortal essence was erased by Future Zeno.

Trivia

• Daizenshuu 2 states that Majin Buu has an immortal body because he can regenerate it. It is shown however that he can be killed when he is obliterated by Goku's Super Spirit Bomb.
• While in Hell, Frieza and Cell appear to be immortal as they are immune to any and all harm, coming back every time they are defeated, however this is due to the fact that they are already dead and lack true living bodies. Throughout the series it is often mentioned that even if a strong deceased individual is allowed to keep their body, they cannot be killed again, as mentioned during the Other World Tournament, when the announcer lists the rules, he mentions that the fighters shouldn't worry about being killed because they are already dead. King Kai stated something similar during the Namek Saga, when he tells Chiaotzu after the latter's failed suicide attack on Piccolo while training on Other World, that he can't die anyways due to his being already dead. Although, this point is countered during the Buu Saga, when Goku states that when fighters that are already dead are killed, they are wiped from existence completely; however, this statement only occurs within anime filler.
  • Additionally it should be noted that in the anime, Goku could use the Super Kaio-ken while dead. In Dragon Ball Super, it was explained by Goku in the anime that using the Kaio-ken and Super Saiyan form together would be fatal as the Super Saiyan form prevents the user from maintaining the precise ki control necessary to use the Kaio-ken safely (it should be noted that Super Saiyan Blue does not have this limitation allowing Goku to use the Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken without dying), thus implying that Goku was only able to use the technique as he was already dead when he used the Super Kaio-ken and explains why Goku never used the technique during his later battles with Super Buu, Kid Buu, and Beerus in the anime and Dragon Ball GT as he had been revived and would have been killed if he had used the Super Kaio-ken. It should be noted that Goku use of the Super Kaio-ken and Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken only occur in the anime of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super.
  • However it should be noted that the ghosts and souls of the dead can still be destroyed/erased by a God of Destruction's Destruction ability (as shown when Beerus destroys the ghost of Dr. Mashirito) and Zeno/Future Zeno's Erase ability (which erased all the souls of the dead such as Future Bulma, Future Goku, and Future Gohan when he erased the Future multiverse to destroy the immortal essence of Fused Zamasu). If a dead person or ghost is destroyed by such means, they will be effectively erased from existence.
• While it is never actually stated, it is likely that Fortuneteller Baba possesses some form of immortality as she is the elder sister of Master Roshi and is shown to be still alive in Age 1000 in Dragon Ball Online. Given that she is a witch, she may have obtained immortality via means of witchcraft, the Immortal Phoenix (possible when it was still alive), Paradise Grass, or via drinking the same immortality elixir that granted her brother his immortality. Interestingly, Baba is never depicted being killed during the entire series, which can be attributed to both her ability to see the future and her ability to freely travel from the living world to Other World. This would potentially allow her to foresee events (like when Kid Buu or Frieza destroyed the Earth) that could lead to her death (should her immortality be limited to natural causes like her brother's) and flee to Other World (where she could remain alive until the danger had passed, like she did during the Fusion and Kid Buu Sagas).
• Both Master Shen and Mercenary Tao are implied to have achieved some form of immortality as well since they are around the same age as Master Roshi and have had a close history together.
• In the manga, Piccolo compares Magetta's great durability to immortality, due to the Metal Man being able to shrug off Super Saiyan Vegeta's strongest attacks - despite Vegeta being stronger than Magetta.