Dragon Ball 10 Ways Yamcha Was Really Underrated

Any Dragon Ball hero that isn't Goku is going to be overlooked by default, but Yamcha doesn't completely deserve to be put into that camp.

Originally a menacing desert bandit who threatened to steal the Dragon Balls from Bulma and Goku, Yamcha would go on to be one of the young Saiyan's most trusted companions alongside his long-time friend, Krillin. While he never reached the heights of fellow fighters, Yamcha proved that he was more than capable of taking care of himself despite how many times he has been defeated.

Like the majority of human characters in the Dragon Ball series, Yamcha falls short of just about every other race in the series and seems to be utterly useless in the current state of Dragon Ball Super. That doesn't mean that he isn't worth bringing into battle, as Yamcha has proved time and time again that, despite his losses, he is still one of the best and most underrated fighters around.

10 He Was Able To Keep Pace With Goku For A While

It's easy to forget that, until Dragon Ball Z, Yamcha was able to keep pace with Goku, Krillin, and Tien for quite a while, even surpassing Master Roshi fairly quickly once the group had to fight the likes of King Piccolo. Even during the Saiyan Saga, Yamcha was able to become significantly stronger than Goku was before he died with only a year of serious training, meaning he was potentially on the heels of Goku and Piccolo the entire time.

9 He Was Able To Create Multiple Ki Techniques

Despite having some of the most memorable techniques in anime history under his belt, Goku has yet to actually create a technique that is truly his own as they have all been taught to him by someone else— with the exception of his Super Saiyan transformations.

Yamcha, not unlike Krillin and Tien, has created a few of his own in the past that have actually been quite useful, such as the Spirit Ball and various Wolf Fang techniques, as well as taking on several of his friend's own attacks.

8 He Knocked Out Chi-Chi

Chi-Chi, as the daughter of Ox-King, is a formidable fighter in her own right despite not having the ki abilities of the other human fighters. During their first meeting, Yamcha was able to knock out Chi-Chi with ease, who was no pushover at the time for someone like Yamcha.

In modern Dragon Ball, the idea of Chi-Chi being able to stand toe to toe with the Z fighters isn't a possibility without some serious wishes from Shenron. But during their first adventures, Chi-Chi could easily stand up to seemingly more powerful foes, with her even accidentally decapitating a full-grown dinosaur as she fled from it.

7 He Fought See-Through The Invisible Man Somewhat Successfully

As one of Fortuneteller Baba's champions, See-Through would have proved to be a problem for any one of the Z fighters, with the exception possibly of Goku given his heightened animalistic senses and overall fighting abilities.

Even though he was invisible for most of the fight, Yamcha was able to hold his own and fight an opponent that he couldn't see by listening for any noise he would make. He would eventually need the assistance of his comrades to win the fight, but the fact that he wasn't immediately defeated by the invisible opponent is commendable.

6 He Learned The Kamehameha By Himself

After seeing Master Roshi's Kamehameha for the first time, Goku decides that he also wants to be able to do it and successfully destroys a car on his first attempt. Although it wouldn't be until a while later, both Krillin and Yamcha were able to learn the technique as well without the assistance of Master Roshi, surprising the old man to no end as it had taken him decades to perfect the technique.

5 He Completed King Kai's Training Faster Than Goku

After their embarrassing defeat at the hand of the Saiyans, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, and Piccolo all train on King Kai's planet in the same way as Goku several months earlier. Despite staying on King Kai's planet for a longer period of time, Yamcha, along with the other fighters, completed a harder variant of the same training Goku did in much less time.

That said, he was one of the first to be brought back to life with the Dragon Balls and didn't spend as much time there as Tien or Chiaotzu.

4 He & Tien Held Their Own Against The Cell Juniors

By the time the Cell Games came around, the human fighters were all woefully underutilized, as their strength just couldn't keep up with the constant additions of Super Saiyan transformations despite the fact they should have learned the Kaioken technique from King Kai. While none of the human fighters chose to use the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, they were still able to hold their own against the Cell Juniors.

It might have been a two-on-one battle, but Tien and Yamcha combined were able to hold their own against the tiny terrors longer than would be expected. However, like the other fighters, they quickly feel to the Cell Juniors before Gohan unleashed the Ascended Saiyan form.

3 He Actually Has A Job

After Piccolo and Goku's battle ended in a stalemate, Yamcha would hang up his fighting uniform and become a pro baseball player, being one of the only original fighters to actually get a job after Dragon Ball ended. Although Goku would go on to become a radish farmer after the Buu Saga and Krillin became a police officer, this was well after Yamcha had a successful career in sports, where he used his immense strength to his advantage.

2 He Kept Training After Dragon Ball Z

Many of the fighters— including Krillin, Gohan, and Yamcha— appeared to not maintain their martial arts training after the Buu Saga, choosing to live a quieter life while leaving the Saiyans to protect Earth from potential threats.

However, late in Dragon Ball Super, it is revealed that Yamcha never actually stopped training, though he uses it for his baseball career rather than fighting off universe destroying threats and later proved in the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc that he was still a very capable fighter, even by modern standards.

1 He's Surprisingly Hard To Keep Down

Despite being the butt of many fan's jokes alongside Krillin for being embarrassingly weak compared to the Namekian or Saiyan characters in the series, Yamcha is surprisingly hard to keep down.

Aside from being wished back to life multiple times, he is one of the most stubborn fighters in Dragon Ball and won't give up a fight until he is knocked out or killed in the process. While Goku also shares this trait, it is a little more impressive on a man who doesn't also have the powers of a god.