Directory: Characters → Villains → DB villains → Namekian
"Giran was just a job. Your father I killed for fun." |
Tambourine (タンバリン, Tanbarin) is a supporting antagonist who appears in the Dragon Ball manga, and the anime Dragon Ball. A Humanoid gargoyle-like mutated Namekian, and one of King Piccolo's children.
Appearance
Tamborine is a mutant namekian of average height, with wings and fangs.
Personality
Tambourine's favorite hobby is slaughtering humans, as he considers them inferior to his kind.[1] Tambourine is extremely cold-hearted, killing innocent people just to entertain himself, and has no remorse for any of his victims nor their loved ones. He considers all other races besides his useless, stating humans serve no purpose other than to be killed. Even on duty, he will kill people not involved in his mission, just for fun.
Biography
Dragon Ball
King Piccolo Saga
Main article: King Piccolo Saga
Tambourine after beating down Goku
Tambourine is born offscreen shortly after King Piccolo was released by Emperor Pilaf. Under orders from King Piccolo, Tambourine sets out to assassinate all the competitors of the last three World Martial Arts Tournaments who may pose a threat to Piccolo's return to power, and collect any Dragon Balls that he comes across in the process.
His first victim is Krillin, whom he confronts shortly after the end of the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, when Krillin goes back to the area to collect Goku's objects that he forgot. Krillin fights with everything he has, but proves no match for Tambourine, who kills him by kicking him on the head, crushing his frontal lobe. Tambourine then steals the Four-Star Dragon Ball and a list of all tournament contestants.
Tambourine is attacked by King Chappa's disciples
While on his way, Tambourine is confronted by Goku, who is determined to avenge Krillin's death. Tambourine gloats over Krillin's death, which only enrages Goku further. Goku and Tambourine engage each other in combat, but, as Goku was still weak from his fight with Tien Shinhan, Tambourine easily outmatches him, and destroys the Flying Nimbus, proceeding to beat Goku senseless and drop him to the ground, leaving him for dead. Tambourine subsequently attacks and murders King Chappa, Pamput, Bacterian, Man-Wolf, Giran, and a few others fighters, facing no problems. In the anime, he subsequently confronts Yamcha, but before he can kill him, he is telepathically ordered by King Piccolo to track down the one responsible for the death of Cymbal, one of Tambourine's brothers.
Tambourine killed by Goku's Kamehameha
Tambourine confronts Yajirobe, but is distracted from attacking him when Goku shows himself. Tambourine is surprised Goku is still alive, and starts off this rematch confident that he can quickly beat Goku again, but instead, Goku overpowers him and viciously beats him into the ground. After failing to destroy Goku, Tambourine realizes he cannot win and desperately attempts to escape, but Goku finishes him off once and for all with a Kamehameha. Tambourine's death gives King Piccolo the location of where Goku is, which leads to King Piccolo taking his Dragon Ball and gaining eternal youth.
Dragon Ball Super
"Future" Trunks Saga
Main article: Future Trunks Saga
Tambourine in Dragon Ball Super
An illusion of Tambourine appears in a forest Master Roshi sent Goku and Krillin to train. Krillin, remembering his first death at Tambourine's hands, notably showed more fear of this illusion than any other, even when they were surrounded by such foes as Super Buu, Cell, and Frieza.
Power
Manga and Anime
At the time of his death, Tambourine was the most powerful son of Piccolo. He is shown to effortlessly defeat several martial artists, including Krillin, Goku (albeit tired and hungry), Nam, Giran, and in the anime: King Chappa and Bacterian as well. King Piccolo also references him as being several times more powerful than his younger brother Cymbal. However, Tambourine is far inferior to a prepared and enraged Goku at full power. Goku who defeated him effortlessly when at full power, possessed a power level of around 180.
Later, King Piccolo births a son named Drum. Drum is much more powerful than Tambourine.
Statements according to authors and guidebooks
"Movie Pamphlets" state that his power level is 340.
Techniques
- Flight – Tambourine has the ability to fly using his wings.
Tambourine's Ki blast
- Ki Blast – The most basic form of energy wave. We see him use one to destroy a hay wagon and kill the horse in "Tien's Atonement".
- Lick Twister – Tambourine wraps the opponent in his tongue and then does a high speed spin.
- One-Hundred Arms – After mocking King Chappa's eight arm technique, he uses this more advanced version.
- Wah-Tah Kick – Tambourine leaps and does a stereotypical kung fu movie pose kick. Used on Pamput.
- Shocker Flatline – Tambourine channels electricity through his palm into his opponent. Used on Bacterian.
- Sidearm Flamer – His hand glows orange like fire for a second and he then impales his opponent from the side with it. Used on Giran.
Lick Twister
- Tommy Gun Tsuki – Similar to Tien's Machine Gun Tsuki, except with kicks.
- Evil Cannon – Like King Piccolo and most of his offspring, Tambourine has the ability to shoot a beam of energy from his mouth. He uses it to destroy Goku's Flying Nimbus, and later tries it on Goku during their final battle. Tambourine's version was named Evil Cannon in the Dragon Ball Collectible Card Game, and is called Chou Makouhou in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3.
- Soumasen – Also like King Piccolo, Tambourine is also capable shooting lasers from his eyes. He is never actually seen using this technique in the anime and manga, but he uses it in Budokai Tenkaichi 3.
- Super Marengeki – Tambourine's ultimate attack in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. An advanced version of the sidearm flamer (see above). Tambourine kicks his opponent into the air and attacks them with a series of punches, until using his hand to impale his victim. This attack never appears in the anime nor manga, though it is possibly the attack he was about to use on Yamcha before he was interrupted with news of Cymbal's death.
- Mystic Breath – One of Tambourine's Blast 1 in Budokai Tenkaichi 3.
- Afterimage – One of Tambourine's Blast 1 in Budokai Tenkaichi 3.
Video games
Tambourine in Budokai Tenkaichi 3
- Dragon Ball: Daimaō Fukkatsu
- Dragon Ball 3: Gokuden
- Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden: Totsugeki-Hen
- Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure (boss and playable character)
- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (playable character)
- Dragon Ball Z: Scouter Battle Taikan Kamehameha
- Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo (boss and playable character)
- Dragon Ball Online
- Dragon Ball Heroes
- Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle
Voice actors
- Japanese: Ryūsei Nakao
- FUNimation dub: Dameon Clarke
- Latin American dub: Humberto Solórzano
- German dub: Dietmar Wunder
- Italian dub: Gianluca Iacono
- Brazilian Portuguese dub: Afonso Amajones
- Portuguese dub: António Semedo(†)
Major Battles
Dragon Ball
- Tambourine vs. Krillin
- Tambourine vs. Goku
- Tambourine vs. King Chappa and his students (anime only)
- Tambourine vs Pamput (anime only)
- Tambourine vs. Bacterian (anime only)
- Tambourine vs. Man-Wolf (anime only)
- Tambourine vs. Giran
- Tambourine vs. Yamcha (anime only)
- Tambourine vs. Goku
Dragon Ball Super
- Tambourine (illusion) vs. Krillin
Trivia
- Like his siblings, Tambourine is named after a musical instrument, the "Tambourine" in this case.
- Out of all the henchmen seen in the Dragon Ball series, Tambourine has one of the highest onscreen body counts, killing 50 or more people.
- In the Japanese dub of Dragon Ball, the young bear Giran was attempting to kill in the Animal Village thought that Tambourine was actually "Kami" (meaning "god" in Japanese). Coincidentally, the guardian of Earth (Kami) and Tambourine are technically related.
- Out of all of King Piccolo's sons (with the exception of Piccolo), Tambourine is one of the few to come close to resembling a normal Namekian (with the shape of his body and head, as well as his pointy ears, making it easier to compare to a normal Namekian).
- Another offspring who closely resembles Tambourine with different colored clothes and lighter skin was seen earlier in Master Roshi's flashback, depicting him terrorizing various humans.[2]
- Nuova Shenron and Eis Shenron, who later appear in Dragon Ball GT, resemble Tambourine. This is somewhat appropriate considering Nuova was born out of King Piccolo's wish to restore his youth, and Tambourine was one of Piccolo's offspring.
- There is a what-if where Tambourine survives Goku's Kamehameha in Budokai Tenkaichi 3. This is unlocked by pressing the transformation button once in story mode when Goku fights King Piccolo but not the second time. If this happens, Tambourine appears, but Goku is too tired to beat him. Chi-Chi then appears and finishes Tambourine off.
- In the same game, if the player arranges for a match between Tambourine and Krillin, they will have a special dialogue where Tambourine expresses confusion about Krillin still being alive and then decides just to kill him again, with Krillin stating that he will not let him this time around.
- Tambourine is the final villain to be killed by Goku's Kamehameha in the original Dragon Ball.
- Tambourine is also the first villain to have killed Krillin to have been killed by Goku with a Kamehameha, the second being Frieza whom Goku killed with the Dash Kamehameha.
- Tambourine shares three similarities with Frieza, as both villains are mass murderers, have killed Krillin, and both end up being killed by Goku using a Kamehameha (SSGSS Goku's Dash Kamehameha in Frieza's case). Also they are voiced by the same VA in Japanese - Ryusei Nakao.
- Also Ryusei Nakao shares another link with Tambourine and Freeza, Tambourine killed Giran and Freeza killed King Vegeta both voiced by Banjō Ginga.
- In Dragon Ball Super, it is shown that Krillin has a post-traumatic fear of Tambourine even years after his death at the hands of the mutant Namekian and having been killed by the likes of Frieza and Super Buu. Tambourine was shown to cause Krillin more fear than even Frieza or Super Buu.
- Tambourine is technically Piccolo's older brother (as Piccolo is both King Piccolo's reincarnation and final offspring) yet Piccolo ironically becomes allies with Goku (who killed Tambourine) and Krillin (who Tambourine murdered) in Dragon Ball Z. Additionally Piccolo killed Goku's evil elder brother Raditz, meaning both Goku and Piccolo are responsible for the death of the other's elder sibling (though in the case of Raditz, Goku assisted by sacrificing his own life, while Tambourine was killed by Goku alone).
Gallery
 Tambourine steals Krillin's Dragon Ball  Tambourine killing Krillin  Tambourine followed by Goku  Tambourine flying  Tambourine facing Goku  Tambourine fires a Chou Makouhou  Tambourine  Tambourine attacks Goku  Tambourine looking below  Tambourine grabs Goku by the neck  Tambourine flies  Tambourine holding Fighter Profiles with addresses  Tambourine looks at a fighter profile of Krillin  Tambourine confronts King Chappa  Tambourine fighting King Chappa  Tambourine approaches Giran  Tambourine jumps back to kick Giran  Tambourine kicks Giran  Tambourine hits Giran with a barrage of kicks  Tambourine fighting with Giran  Tambourine breaks free from Giran's Merry-Go-Round Gum  Tambourine kills Giran with the Sidearm Flamer  Tambourine fights Yamcha  Tambourine stands prepared  Tambourine beaten by Goku  Tambourine down  Tambourine injured  Tambourine beaten by Goku  Tambourine fights Goku in Daimaō Fukkatsu  Tambourine in the Bandai CCG  Tambourine attacking Krillin in Advanced Adventure  Tambourine in Budokai Tenkaichi 3  Tambourine art with his card for Dragon Ball Heroes |
See also
References
- ↑ Dragon Ball: Bouken Special, 1987
- ↑ Dragon Ball episode 102, "Enter King Piccolo"