Dragon Ball Z: 10 best villains ranked

❘ Published: 2024-01-30T10:24:26

Toei Animation

From planet-killing tyrants and alien royalty to the perfect being, here are our picks for the 10 best villains in Dragon Ball Z.

Dragon Ball is full of iconic characters with good intentions and anime heroes we can only aspire to – but all heroes need a villain to fight, whether it’s a challenge to their ideals or a direct threat. Dragon Ball Z often offers the same solution when a villain appears: a swift and firm Kamehameha.

We all love a good villain, whether they’re an anti-hero, someone trying to redeem themselves, or an utterly evil character that evokes hatred as soon as they appear. All of these can make a great antagonist, and Dragon Ball Z has no shortage of them – so today, we’re ranking the best baddies in all of Dragon Ball Z.

The best villains in Dragon Ball Z

We’re only counting the baddest of the bad that made an impact during the Dragon Ball Z anime, so do not expect any movie characters to appear in our rankings.

10. Zarbon

The pretty boy of Frieza’s army takes no prisoners except for Vegeta when ordered. Zarbon is Frieza’s right-hand man, always at the beck and call of the tyrant, willing to do his bidding, usually under threat of death. This advisor is shown to be as ruthless as his boss and, much like Frieza, dislikes doing his own dirty work.

What makes Zarbon a threat is his hidden “beast behind the beauty” style form, where he turns into a grotesque version of himself that comes with a massive power buff. Though Vegeta takes care of Zarbon on their second encounter, the prince can’t even come close to making a mess of that pretty face the first time around.

9. Raditz

Raditz appearance on Earth snowballs almost the entire course of events of Dragon Ball Z from Vegeta attacking to Frieza coming for revenge. Raditz comes in full of disappointment and exposition, revealing that he’s Goku’s brother (and his true origin story of the Saiyans) and he needs to destroy the Earth.

Goku’s fights in Dragon Ball were rarely one-sided, so the first big bad of Dragon Ball Z requiring the protagonist and former main antagonist to team up to take on a new threat is a great way to set up the fresh stakes. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard a peep from Raditz’s side since his death, making his impact feel like wasted story potential.

8. Nappa

The middle-class Saiyan warrior tags along with Vegeta; though few Saiyans remain, they’re loyal to their prince and obey his commands without question. With that said, Nappa is no lapdog and dishes out the punishment on the Z Warriors that take out 40% of their forces. Sorry Yamcha, you fell to a Saibaman and must live with the shame.

Nappa shows the brutal power of the Saiyans as soon as he arrives on Earth by turning a city into a glass floor. When the heroes convince the pair to wait for Goku to arrive for a real fight, Nappa takes on Earth’s military forces out of boredom, making short work of the meager attempt at defending themselves. Nappa is a Saiyan through and through; though he’s a blockhead, he could break you in half with it.

7. Kid Buu

Buu goes through many forms throughout his saga with each encounter with the Z Warriors. The childlike nature of his first form is met with serious fights, and his evil form is all business that gets messed around. He’s looking for a fight and knows where to find it, with the heroes doing everything they can to distract him with the promise of a better fight.

As the forms go on, Buu eventually transforms into Kid Buu, who isn’t as chatty or complex as his former forms; he is in it for the destruction. This basic entity isn’t playful – he’s barbaric and wants a fight. Kid Buu is the incarnate of what ultimately becomes the theme of Dragon Ball Z: fighting for the sake of fighting. It takes the force of the whole world to put Buu down, with the Spirit Bomb giving Goku his only win using that technique.

6. Vegeta

The Prince of all Saiyans has a lot to live up to, and his common declarations of pride will let you know it. Vegeta. Vegeta presents something that the series never had with Dragon Ball, a genuine rival to Goku. Where Krillin, Piccolo, and Tien all met their match with Goku and became unlikely friends to the kind-hearted warrior in Dragon Ball, Vegeta wants nothing of the sort.

Vegeta despises that Goku, a low-class warrior, can meet his strength and wastes it by being friendly, protecting others, and not fighting to kill. Though they became best buddies, Vegeta always secretly resents Goku and sees him as a only goal to surpass until he finds a life worth protecting on Earth.

5. The Androids

Though we know them from Trunks’ timeline as a pair of malicious monsters who see human life as nothing but a plaything, Android 17 and 18 are hyped up to be ruthless killers in Dragon Ball Z. They live up to their reputation during their first fight with the group and during Piccolo’s fight against Android 17, and nothing besides the creeping Cell can seemingly hold their own against the Androids.

The Androids get some much-needed humanity in the main timeline of Dragon Ball Z with the appearance of Android 16, offering some much-needed perspective for the group in terms of fighting for what’s right. 17 and 18 maintain a nonchalant nature towards humanity and have since found their peace in the world, but we know the impact these machines left on Trunks.

4. The Ginyu Force

Who says villains couldn’t have the passion and flair of the Power Rangers? The Ginyu Force represents a unique idea in Dragon Ball: elite forces, an idea that isn’t touched upon for the rest of DBZ. Frieza led an empire that was organized enough to require not just teams, but ranked members with higher authority to keep everyone in line.

The Ginyu Force arrives on the scene in Namek and is met with a panicking Vegeta, a disposition we haven’t seen before from the warrior. A justified reaction as the force wipes the floor with Vegeta as Gohan and Krillin attempt to help him out against Guldo and Recoome, but it’s only the arrival of Goku that saves the would-be Namek crew from certain death.

3. Dr. Gero

Introduced as Android 20 alongside the mime-looking Android 19, the pair made short work of the Z Warriors, even Goku, due to his fated illness striking at the worst possible time, leaving Vegeta to take care of the situation. Besides taking out Yamcha, which admittedly is a low bar, we see little action featuring Dr. Gero, but sometimes the character’s story outweighs their fight prowess.

What makes Dr. Gero interesting is that it’s the only case of Goku’s past returning to haunt him. It’s thought that Goku’s attack on the main Red Ribbon Army base in Dragon Ball resulted in the death of Dr. Gero’s son, whom Android 16 is modeled after, as well as the destruction of the organization led to a multi-decade-spanning quest for revenge.

2. Cell

Dr. Gero didn’t put all his eggs in one basket when planning his revenge on Goku. He left a secret creation brewing for years until Trunks’ time, where in that timeline, the boy succeeds in beating the Androids, leaving Cell imperfect. So, stealing Trunks’ time machine, he travels to the past and hides until he emerges when the Androids appear. Cell has a surprisingly complex story that’s welcome for villain whose end goal is straightforward: to become perfect and try the form out.

Cell operating in the background of the Android Saga, absorbing people to get stronger, kept this threat in the back of everyone’s minds while dealing with the Androids. When he finally achieves his perfect form, Cell knows he doesn’t even need to try to defeat the Z Warriors, so why not have some fun and throw a tournament? Cell embodies a true villain who only has everything to gain, and the only thing that could stand in his way is Goku’s legacy: Gohan.

1. Frieza

The tyrannical dictator of the galaxy, Frieza, lives up to his name. As soon as our heroes arrive on Namek, they know they cannot even match up to Frieza and have to play an elaborate game of cat and mouse with his forces, only fighting if they need to as they collect the Dragon Balls. Frieza is one of the best examples of the “Fine, I’ll do it myself” attitude in anime because he only jumps into action when literally all of his forces are wiped out.

It takes everything the group has to even slow Frieza down, let alone beat him, and he knows it. Frieza’s sadism knows no bounds as he treats Vegeta as a plaything, rendering the proud warrior down to a crying, blubbering mess before Goku appears – and even then, Goku doesn’t stand much of a chance until he becomes a Super Saiyan. It took fulfilling a prophecy to take Frieza down, so we must show this galactic overlord the respect he deserves.

Those are our rankings of the best villains in Dragon Ball Z. Did your favorite baddie make the cut or did we snub them, making us the true villains? For more Dragon Ball action we recommend our rankings of the strongest characters in Dragon Ball Super, our picks for the most powerful fighters in Dragon Ball Z, and why not the best fights in Dragon Ball Z too while you’re at it