Zarbon

Directory: Characters → Villains → DBZ villains → Henchmen of Freeza Template:Character

Zarbon (ザーボン Zābon) is a character in the anime and manga Dragon Ball Z. His seiyu is Sho Hayami. He was originally voiced by Paul Dobson in the 1996 English dub by the Ocean Group and Christopher Sabat in the later FUNimation in-house redub.

Appearance

Zarbon is an elite warrior who values beauty and his physical appearance above all else. He is considered to be very handsome and he wears a heavily cultural garb. His long, green braided hair. He is very vain and he considers himself to be of the highest standard. His light blue skin and golden eyes indicate his reptilian alien ancestry. He also wears a very long light blue cape as well as a very cultural leg and arm-wear. Along with his choice of clothing, he wears the common armor that most of Frieza's men have, including the shoulder pads and a scouter. He dislikes his transformation due to its ugly appearance, but when he does transform, his battle power increases immensely.

Storyline

Bardock Special

Spoiler details may follow.

Within Frieza's ship, recent news states that the Saiyans strength constantly grows after each battle. Dodoria and his elite fighters were ordered to eradicate Bardock, the second strongest Saiyan alive at the time, and Bardock's teammates. He is successful in killing the team but carelessly left Bardock alive after delivering one heavily powerful mouth blast at him. Later, Frieza mercilessly destroys the Saiyan planet, along with Bardock in the midst. Zarbon and Dodoria are the only characters to bare witness when Frieza destroys Planet Vegeta. They stare at the destruction of the planet without any sympathy.

Namek Saga

Zarbon's second form, which he generally refrains from assuming because of its repulsive appearance.

Zarbon accompanies Frieza and Dodoria to the planet of Namek in search of the Namekian Dragon Balls. Frieza's one wish is to gain immortality in order to maintain his dominance in the universe. Zarbon is able to help him collect most of the Dragon Balls alongside Dodoria by mercilessly slaughtering Namekians in order to squeeze information out of them. Unfortunately for Frieza, Vegeta shows up on Planet Namek with his own desire to gain control of the Dragon Balls. Vegeta had openly betrayed Frieza and went to Earth when Frieza did not order him to. And on Namek, Vegeta decides to proceed with his deliberate betrayal and gain control of the Dragon Balls for himself. Vegeta takes the first opportunity he gets to eliminate Dodoria when he is temporarily separated from his crew after pursuing Gohan and Krillin. Zarbon is the only remaining top henchman of Frieza, and is sent to find another Namekian village, but instead comes face to face with Vegeta. Vegeta challenges Zarbon and has the upper hand, blocking Zarbon's blasts and dodging all his attacks. However, after Zarbon has been pushed enough, he surprises Vegeta when he undergoes his demonic reptilian transformation. Zarbon easily dominates Vegeta with a series of brutal poundings, multiple headbutts and roundhouses. He finishes the fight with an aerial piledriver, sending Vegeta head first into the ground and washed into the murky waters of Namek.

Zarbon reports back to Frieza in order to relay the message of his victory. Frieza, however, is not pleased. Vegeta was able to find one of the Dragon Balls and hide it before being beaten. The location of the Dragon Ball is a necessity, so Freeza orders Zarbon to heal Vegeta in order to squeeze the information out of him. Zarbon goes back, locates Vegeta's battered body, and takes him to the rejuvenation chamber in Frieza's ship in order to heal him for further questioning. Upon healing, Vegeta manages to escape and steal Frieza's five Dragon Balls by distracting them. Zarbon, without healing, hurries out in search of Vegeta. Soon, he finds Vegeta and challenges him once again, this time with Krillin and Bulma as witnesses. With Krillin and Bulma's lives at stake, Zarbon and Vegeta face off until Zarbon transforms once more. After they resume their battle, Vegeta tells Zarbon that Saiyan strength increases after every battle, so Vegeta's power level has increased substantially because of the beating he took. This enables Vegeta to overcome Zarbon by slamming his arm through his stomach. While Vegeta's arm is rammed into Zarbon's stomach, Zarbon begs for his life (and also seems to imply at an alliance at defeating Frieza) before Vegeta finishes him off with a blast clean through the stomach, cracking his backbone, and sending Zarbon to a watery grave in the Namekian sea.

Power Level

Zarbon's Power Level was around 23,000 in his first form, as stated on pg.69 of Volume #7 of the Daizenshuu. His second forms power level is never specified, but since Vegeta was stated to be "20,000 and rising!", it's very plausible that Zarbon's power would be around 28-30,000 at the most. To confirm his power level in his second form, perhaps the best resource is the Dragon Ball Z RPG game, Legend of the Super Saiyan, where in the battle against Zarbon, his power level is at a maximum of 30,000.

Dragon Ball GT

Super 17 Saga

File:200px-Zarbonreturns.jpg

Dodoria and Zarbon terrorizing Earth in Dragon Ball GT

Zarbon and Dodoria return from Hell in Dragon Ball GT. Similar to his brief escape in Fusion Reborn, Zarbon escapes from hell alongside Dodoria and they wreak havoc with all the other villains in the Super 17 Saga. However, he is presumably defeated again and sent back when the Z Warriors come to face all the previously defeated foes.

Abilities

Zarbon has the distinct ability to transform into a reptilian beast. Incorporating brute strength and ferocity, his second form is the opposite in appearance to his first form, becoming grotesque and brutal. Upon transforming, his size increases as well as his muscular build and his skin becomes covered with noticeable scales, similar to that of a reptile. Thus, he only does this when extremely necessary since he dislikes disfiguring his image in such a grotesque manner. He is also said to be very intelligent and mysterious.

Other appearances

Along with countless other Dragon Ball antagonists, Zarbon makes a cameo appearance in the 1995 film Fusion Reborn when the residents of Hell make their escape to Earth.

File:'s budokai appearance.jpg

Zarbon in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi

Zarbon has appeared as a playable character in numerous video games, some of which includes: Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, and Ultimate Battle 22. In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, he is not only a playable character, but also has his own storyline from his perspective in the main story mode of the game. (In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, Zarbon's character image and various cut scenes depict him as having his cape and scouter. However, while playing as or against him, neither the cape nor scouter can be seen). In Dragon Ball Z: Super Sonic Warriors 2, he is only a support-type character.

Within Zarbon's main story mode in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, entitled Beautiful Treachery, he tries to find the Dragon Balls for his own desire of obtaining eternal beauty. Zarbon creates a lucrative scenario where he calls upon the Ginyu Force, along with Cooler and his squadron, and instigates a clash between Frieza and Coola. However, after using Kuririn, Dende, and Gohan to aid him in acquiring his wish, Zarbon finds that eternal beauty wasn't the most logical wish when dealing with an angered Frieza. Just as Goku arrives to help Zarbon battle Frieza, the fight is interrupted and Frieza sets off to battle his enraged brother Cooler. Zarbon and Goku try to escape the planet as the clash between the two tyrants obliterates it. Krillin succeeds in using the Dragon Balls to teleport Goku off the planet safely, while Zarbon is tragically left to die along with Namek, which in turn, is destroyed when the titanic battle between Cooler and Frieza erupts.

In an issue of Beckett Anime, a Beckett magazine publication, Zarbon was voted as one of the top five greatest henchmen of all anime, and was the only character from Dragon Ball Z on the list.

Abilities list

• Elegant Blaster

• Monster Form [Transformation]

• Monster Crush [Piledriver]

• Possibility Cannon (Budokai)

• Hyper Elegant Magnum (Budokai)

• Super Beautiful Arrow (Budokai)

• Extra Graceful Cannon [Spinwheel Roundhouse] (Budokai)

• Pinkeye Breaker (Ultimate Battle 22)

• Star Hail (Ultimate Battle 22)

• Cosmic Energy Flash (Ultimate Battle 22)

• Destructive Sphere (Ultimate Battle 22)

• Super Footslide (Ultimate Battle 22)

• Purple Circle [Backflip Kick] (Ultimate Battle 22)

• Energy Beam (Legend of The Super Saiyan)

• Explosion (Legend of The Super Saiyan)

Voice actors

• Japanese Dub: Sho Hayami

• Ocean Dub: Paul Dobson

• FUNimation Dub: Christopher R. Sabat

Zarbon cosplay

Trivia

• His voice in the games differs greatly from his voice in the anime. The original FUNimation dub, first seen in Frieza's flashback to King Vegeta's rebellion against him, has Zarbon's voice sound similar to the Ocean Dub. In later versions of the FUNimation dub, his voice was changed so it resembled King Cold's or Caroni's (similar to how later versions made Vegeta's voice deeper than it did in the original FUNimation). Some fans who have heard both voice actors portraying Zarbon feel that his voice changed for the worse, and that the Ocean groups's rendition better suited the character.
• In the Ocean Dub, when Zarbon's scouter breaks, Dodoria says "Zarbon, what was that?" But in the flashback Dodoria has while he's fighting Vegeta, he says "What was that, Zarbon?"
• When Zarbon came for his final showdown with Vegeta, Bulma fell in love with him at first sight (though he didn't seem to notice) and thought he was there to rescue her. Ironically, she marries Vegeta, who kills Zarbon.
• Two mistakes regarding Zarbon's armor were made by the animators during the scene where Vegeta kills him. At the beginning of this scene, Zarbon's armor is already battle-damaged and his cape is gone. While they are fighting, however, his armor and cape are completely intact, as they used a clip from a previous Vegeta vs Zarbon scene. Secondly, when Zarbon falls into the lake, his armor (though still battle-damaged) slightly resembles Vegeta's more than it does his own.
• Zarbon and Dodoria are the first and final villains to appear onscreen in the history of all Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. When looking at the timeline chronologically, the first movie to take place is the Bardock TV Special, where Zarbon and Dodoria appear first (not counting Vegeta, who switches sides). In the final episode of Dragon Ball GT (episode 64), Zarbon and Dodoria are the final villains to appear onscreen when Goku remembers all the villains who escaped from Hell.
• Oddly enough Zarbon can be compared to Vega/Balrog from the Street Fighter Video Games in terms of appearance and personality.