Interest

Dragon Ball Announces 1st Worldwide Character Popularity Poll

The Dragon Ball franchise announced its first Worldwide Character Popularity Poll to celebrate its 40th anniversary on Thursday. Fans can vote on 212 characters over four stages. The first stage runs between November 20 and November 24 Japan Time and will cut the number of characters from 212 down to 80.

The 212 characters in the first round mostly come from the original 42-volume Dragon Ball manga series. As such, no anime original characters (sans Bardock) or characters from the Dragon Ball Super manga series, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman manga series, or Dr. Slump manga series appear in the poll.

Fans can vote once per day during each round. At the end of each round, the staff will remove an allotted number of characters from the next round of voting, but the Dragon Ball X (formerly Twitter) accounts will hold a 24-hour poll to bring back one eliminated character. The staff will announce the final ranking on YouTube on January 24, 2026. Further details are available on the poll's website.

A cursory look at the entrants reveals several are minor or even unnamed characters, such as the Dolphin who gave the main character Son Goku directions to Master Roshi's house, Farmer with a Power Level of 5, Bikini (Bulma's mother), Girl Goku picked for Master Roshi in the third volume of the manga, Maid-Robot, and Bandit Bear from the second chapter of the manga series. Son Gohan also makes three separate appearances in the poll: Grandpa Son Gohan (Goku's grandfather), Son Gohan (Goku's son), and Great Saiyaman (Gohan's superhero alter ego).

After Day 1, the top five vote-getters are Son Goku, Vegeta, Son Gohan, Vegito, and Piccolo.

Sources: Dragon Ball's English X/Twitter account (link 2), Dragon Ball's YouTube channel, Dragon Ball Worldwide Character Popularity Poll's website (link 2), Anime! Anime!