Dragon Ball 10 Strongest Tenkaichi Budokai Participants (Who Weren’t Main Characters)

The Tenkaichi Budokai is as exciting as it is for Dragon Ball both because of the action and the eclectic characters who briefly join the cast.

One could argue that tournaments are the lifeblood of early Dragon Ball. Three of the franchise’s six pre-Z story arcs center around the Tenkaichi Budokai explicitly, with the Red Ribbon Army arc featuring a smaller scale tournament through Uranai Baba’s 5v5 challenge.

Some of Dragon Ball’s finest moments happen during the Tenkaichi Budokai, often because of the wide range of characters in play at any given time. The Tenkaichi Budokai is as exciting as it is for Dragon Ball both because of the action and the eclectic characters who briefly join the cast.

10 Jewel

Jewel is a fairly substanceless character introduced during the Majin Buu arc mainly to showcase how much the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai has fallen. Jewel’s not the only character who fills this role, of course, but of the but players, he seems to be the strongest of the lot & the one given the most focus.

Worth noting is that Jewel fought Mr. Satan in the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai and lost. This would suggest a few things about other characters: Majin Spopovich is much stronger than regular Spopovich, and Videl is far beyond the average Earthling of her age in terms of strength. There’s truly nothing remarkable about Jewel.

9 Pamput

A recurring element with the stronger supporting characters in the Tenkaichi Budokai is that they’re often used to set a benchmark between realistic standards for strength and Dragon Ball’s standards for strengths (often tongue in cheek, always self aware.) Pamput is one of the earliest, and clearest examples of this fact.

A master martial artist and a champion in his own right, in a real world context, Pamput would be the guaranteed winner of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai. Even in the context of the tournament, he’s set up with enough flare to suggest Goku will get a good fight out of him– only for Goku to immediately take out Pamput with a series of extremely fast, almost invisible, punches & kicks.

8 Giran

It’s kind of incredible how dangerously close Goku comes to losing the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai. The first opponent to require more than one chapter to defeat, Giran gives Goku a hard time during their match. Giran even manages to ring him, Goku only coming back into the arena thanks to Kintoun.

While the refs decide to let Goku’s cheating slide, Giran traps Goku with his Guru-Guru-Gum. Had Goku’s tail not suddenly grown back, he would have lost the Tenkaichi Budokai here. Worth noting, however, is that this wouldn’t have any major consequences on the story. The end goal of the tournament was to instill Goku with the notion that there will always be someone better than him.

7 Namu

Giran gives Goku a hard time because of his unique abilities, Namu gives Goku a hard time because of his sheer determination to win. Dragon Ball still has its comedic roots front & center during the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, but Toriyama begins playing around with more dramatic storytelling through Namu.

The strongest martial artist from a poor village suffering a drought, Namu plans to win the Tenkaichi Budokai and use the prize money to purchase water. Namu ends up losing to Goku, but only after a hard fought fight. Thankfully, Jackie Chun recognizes Namu’s talents & struggles and gives him a Hoi Poi Capsule to fill with water.

6 King Chappa

King Chappa is a fascinating, recurring character in early Dragon Ball. Considered one of the strongest martial artists in-universe, King Chappa is basically Pamput written as a proper Dragon Ball character (which is funny considering Chappa is introduced first.) As strong as King Chappa may be, however, he never makes it into the tournament itself.

This isn’t a knock against his strength, however. Rather, King Chappa simply has the misfortune of facing Goku in the Preliminaries of both tournaments he participates in– almost immediately defeated each time. Both times put into perspective just how powerful Goku has gotten in his training, and how even the strongest in-universe characters pale in comparison.

5 Akkuman

The penultimate opponent during Uranai Baba’s tournament, Akkuman is a former Tenkaichi Budokai champion and a surprisingly dangerous character, all things considered. His signature technique, the Devil Mite Beam, expands all the evil in one’s heart, exploding them in the process.

Akkuman attempts using this Beam on Goku, but the boy’s pure nature ends up tanking it head-on. While strong, Akkuman’s not strong enough to take a kick from Goku head-on. In terms of sheer power, the Red Ribbon Army arc is the one saga where the supporting cast can’t keep up with Goku whatsoever.

4 Tao Pai Pai

Tao Pai Pai’s reintroduction into the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai is quite a shocking development, especially because Goku killed him with a grenade on-screen all the way back in the Red Ribbon Army. But that’s why Tao Pai Pai returns as a cyborg, and alongside Tsuru Sennin– both ready to tie up some loose ends and kill Goku & Tenshinhan.

Tao Pai Pai is strong enough to take out Chaozu with ease (what an accomplishment) and ends up fighting Tenshinhan in his first & only match. Tenshinhan’s psyche waivers fighting a martial artist he used to look up to, but Tao Pai Pai pulling a blade during their match shatters any respect Tenshinhan may have had for the Crane School, defeating & humiliating Tao Pai Pai on the spot.

3 Videl

Akira Toriyama doesn’t excel when it comes to writing either women or romance (Bulma being the exception to the rule,) but he does gradually improve as Dragon Ball goes on. Notably, Videl stands out as the one love interest who can really stand on her own as a three-dimensional character, developing quite a bit through her relationship with Gohan.

Videl ends up getting beaten rather badly by Spopovich during the 25th Tenkaichi Budokai, but not due to any weakness on her part. Videl trains incredibly hard for the tournament, even mastering Bukujutsu (suggesting she has some form of Ki control,) Babidi’s possession of Spopovich makes him invulnerable to Videl’s attacks. Under normal circumstances, Videl is strong enough to kill Spopovich.

2 Spopovich

Speaking of Spopovich, he may be a minor villain in the grand scheme of the Buu arc, but he has an interesting place in Dragon Ball’s lore. Spopovich previously fought Mr. Satan in the 24th Tenkaichi Budokai, losing relatively early into the tournament. Spopovich allows Babidi to possess him as a means of revenge, but his mind is weak & he ends up doing Babidi’s bidding.

All the same, Spopovich does get some semblance of revenge against Satan when he goes up against Videl, beating her mercilessly. While Spopovich should be weaker & less skilled than Videl, Babidi’s possession gives him seeming invulnerability and infinite stamina (think the Artificial Humans.) Videl has the strength to snap his neck, but Spopovich is too magically augmented to die.

1 Uub

Considering Dragon Ball’s last plot point is directly tied to Uub’s strength, it perhaps goes without saying that he’s one of the strongest Tenkaichi Budokai participants in the franchise. Uub is able to trade blows with an End of Z Goku like it’s nothing. But then again, Uub is the reincarnation of Majin Buu, bursting with the Djinn’s latent potential.

With the introduction of God Ki, Dragon Ball Super sets the stage for an even stronger Uub. The Moro arc has even gone out of its way to place Majin Buu back in the action, reminding audiences of how powerful he is. The Dragon Ball Super manga has even formally put Uub on Goku’s radar, suggesting the series hasn’t forgotten its last prodigy.