Captain Ginyu (Dragon Ball Series)

Captain Ginyu (ギニュー, Ginyū) was the strict but caring captain or commander of the elite mercenary platoon, the eponymous Ginyu Force.

Personality[]

Ginyu is shown to care deeply about his teammates, becoming incredibly furious when learning from Jeice that his three other subordinates were defeated and killed. However, he also can be quite harsh to his team members if they fail a mission, as shown when he harshly scolds Jeice for letting Burter and Recoome lose to Goku and running away from the fight. Ginyu is one of the few men who pure-heartedly reveres Frieza, and so he is shown to be very loyal to Frieza, and follows any order Frieza gives him. His loyalty to Frieza appears to be so extreme that even after he has swapped bodies with a Namekian Frog, he tries to sneak a Namekian Dragon Ball away from Gohan to make sure that they do not use the Dragon Balls before Frieza can (or it may simply have been as revenge for such a humiliating defeat), and during his long tenure as a frog he endured the hardships without giving up hope due to his belief that one day he would be able to one day serve Frieza again. However, despite his flaws, Ginyu has displayed a strong sense of honor in combat and prefers fairness in his battles, as shown when he refused to break Goku's neck due to Jeice interfering in their fight, and even threatening to kill Jeice if he did it again. Goku takes note of this and insinuates that Ginyu may not be all bad and even capable of redemption.

Biography[]

Background[]

Like the other members of the Ginyu Force, Ginyu's special powers originated during his childhood. When Ginyu first learned of his Body Change ability, he swapped bodies with the richest kid in his class, which made him popular with girls but also stupid, and he soon realized that men should compete in terms of strength rather than money. Only a few people have seen Ginyu's true form, and Salza is among them. Salza had to fight Ginyu to become leader of Cooler's Armored Squadron.

Dragon Ball Z[]

Frieza Saga[]

Captain Ginyu and his comrades are commissioned after Frieza learns that Vegeta is searching for the seven Dragon Balls on Namek, and that the Saiyan's Power Level is growing rapidly, quickly surpassing Frieza's personal henchmen, Dodoria and Zarbon. The force spends five days traveling the stars en route to Namek, and upon reaching the planet, Frieza dispatches the team to capture Vegeta, kill his two companions (Krillin and Gohan), and recover the Dragon Balls which have since been stolen by Vegeta. Efficient as they are, the Ginyu Force do not take long to track down their targets and locate all seven Dragon Balls, with the rest of his team showing off their special talents, such as Burter's tremendous speed and Guldo's time freezing. Initially, Captain Ginyu intends to slay Vegeta by himself, but when his subordinates complain that they have not had the opportunity to fight, Ginyu concedes, allowing them to deal with Vegeta and the others while he returns the Dragon Balls to Frieza's spaceship.

Captain Ginyu transfers the Dragon Balls back to Frieza, using his telekinetic powers to levitate the Dragon Balls, but the two almost instantly discover that they can not activate the artifacts to summon the Eternal Dragon. Remembering one of his previous Namekian victims whose last words told of how Frieza could never make a wish even with the seven Dragon Balls gathered, Frieza deduces that there must be a secret Namekian language custom used to activate them. The tyrant uses his scouter to investigate the vicinity for Nameks, finding three of them in an area that his forces left untouched (Nail, Guru and Dende). Captain Ginyu volunteers to force the secret out of them, but Frieza declines in favor of handling the task himself. In the meantime, Captain Ginyu is assigned to watch over the seven Dragon Balls.

While guarding the Dragon Balls, Captain Ginyu is joined by one of his subordinates, a delirious Jeice, who confirms that a powerful warrior has arrived on Namek, and their comrades, Recoome, Burter and Guldo, have been brutally killed. Captain Ginyu scolds Jeice for running away from the battle, and advises against Jeice's proposal to warn Frieza, as he does not want this to compromise his reputation. Ginyu decides to confront this new fighter called Goku himself, leaving his subordinates in the care of the Dragon Balls (in the manga, Jeice is left to hide the balls, while in the anime, they are left to be buried by Frieza's low-class soldiers).

Upon convening with Goku, Captain Ginyu determines that the Saiyan is capable of masking his true power level (as Ginyu is the only member of the Ginyu Force able to do so), speculating his true strength to be somewhere around 60,000 (in contrast to what has appeared on the Ginyu Force's scouters as a mere 5,000). The commander's first advance on Goku is only amplified when Vegeta escapes the scene in flight, in spite of the alliance he and Goku had formed specially for the encounter. This distraction leaves Goku open for an elbow bash to the face. Goku and Ginyu continue to do battle, with Ginyu eventually realizing his shortcomings against the Saiyan from Earth. Ginyu started to believe that Goku might even be a Super Saiyan. However, he disproved this as no Saiyan he ever encountered or heard about was as sympathetic as Goku. As Ginyu and Goku continue their battle, both Ginyu and Goku manage to trick each other, using certain tricks and stealth attacks to land hits, as they seem evenly matched. Despite managing to capture Goku in a full nelson, Ginyu releases him upon deducing that he was only able to take hold of Goku as a result of Jeice's interference, blasting Goku with a beam, which distracted him. For this, he admonishes Jeice, even threatening to kill him if he intrudes on the conflict once more. This act makes him seem to be an honorable fighter.

Captain Ginyu realizes Goku is not using his full power in their fight, and requests Goku to reveal his full power, which he does, shocking Ginyu and Jeice, as Goku's power was 180,000, while Ginyu's was 120,000. Accepting that he is at odds with Goku, Ginyu's next action is a startling one. He spontaneously stabs his chest, before revealing his true plot: resorting to his ability to exchange bodies in an attempt to level with Goku, showing the reason why he stabbed his old body; so that Goku cannot fight back and will eventually die of blood loss. The body change is a success, but Captain Ginyu fails to make the most of Goku's shell's power level of 180,000, stopping short at just 23,000. Only in the English dub, Jeice says that the power level was actually growing weaker.

With this, he is promptly forced into a losing battle against Gohan and Krillin while Vegeta battles Jeice. However, midway through the battle, he begins to learn how to draw out Goku's full power and begins to fight back and win against Gohan and Krillin, even when Goku (having also learnt how to utilize Ginyu's body's power) tries to come to their assistance, Ginyu easily defeats all three of them. It is not until Vegeta, having finished off Jeice, appears and pummels Ginyu with his new maximum power that they survive. Beaten into the ground, Ginyu attempts switching bodies with Vegeta twice. The first time, Goku, still rendered within Ginyu's body, interferes with the attack. The second time, the further injured Goku successfully tosses a Namekian Frog within the trajectory of the Body Change's energy wave, thus rendering Captain Ginyu's soul trapped within the shell of the frog. Unable to pronounce the technique, he is unable to transfer himself to a new body. Likewise, Ginyu's original body is inhabited by the Frog's soul, and in a similar manner, can only speak in croaks.

Captain Ginyu is ultimately the only member of the Ginyu Force not to be killed by Vegeta during the Frieza Saga. Though Vegeta has the opportunity to finish the captain off after Ginyu switches bodies with the frog, Vegeta opts not to kill him so as not to get "toad guts" all over his "nice clean boots" (in the manga and Kai, Vegeta lets him live after Goku mentions that he is no longer a threat, and states that the life he has ahead of him is torture enough).

In the manga, Ginyu is never seen or heard from again. In the anime, however, Ginyu continues making subsequent filler appearances as a frog. Here, he is discovered by Bulma and kept as her companion. After realizing that the frog understands human dialect, Bulma creates a device to translate his croaking into speech, which Ginyu in turn uses to betray Bulma with his regained ability to pronounce the Body Change technique. Seizing Bulma's body, Ginyu uses Bulma's air-ski to visit the site of Frieza and Goku's showdown, also attended by Piccolo, Krillin and Gohan; Bulma takes hold of the air-ski, and despite Ginyu's attempt to lose the frog, Bulma is able to reach her oblivious friends. Captain Ginyu attempted to pose as Bulma and watch the fight between Goku and Frieza, although he lets slip about his true identity when he blurted out cheers directed towards Frieza. Sensing that he ended up exposing himself, Ginyu wages an attack on the trio, before deciding to switch bodies with the most powerful of the three, Piccolo. Gohan comes to realize that the frog is in actuality Bulma, which leads him to throw Bulma in the path of the wave, reverting Ginyu to the shell of a frog once again, and restoring Bulma to her human body. Bulma and Ginyu are then blown away by the force of one of the blasts from Goku and Frieza's fight. They are eventually blown into a cliff by Goku's Spirit Bomb. Ginyu is eventually used to scout out to see where they are by Bulma, who is still sore about Ginyu's earlier betrayal. By the time Ginyu reports back to Bulma, she notices the immense aura overtaking an island in the vicinity: The same island Frieza, Goku, and Gohan are on as Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan.

After a wish made to Porunga, the Eternal Dragon of Namek, Ginyu is later transported to Earth with all living beings on Namek except Goku and Frieza. Afterwards, Ginyu goes on to live among the frogs surrounding Capsule Corporation, apparently becoming the ruler of the pond. He also ends up living in the greenhouse of Bulma's home. It is never revealed what becomes of the frog whose soul is within Ginyu's shell, save for one scene where he hops around the Earth forest where Porunga evacuates the people of Namek to Earth.

Cell Saga[]

Ginyu makes infrequent appearances in later episodes as a frog, such as outside Goku's house during Gohan's 11th birthday.

Majin Buu Saga[]

Ginyu appears later when he is picked up by a Great Saiyaman-disguised Gohan, after an attempt by Sharpner to unmask him. Ginyu is ultimately killed when Kid Buu destroys the Earth. However, he is revived alongside the Earth and its citizens later but is still trapped in his Namekian frog body. It is unknown why he was revived when Dende asked Porunga to only revive good victims.

Dragon Ball Super[]

Resurrection ‘F’ Saga[]

Ginyu, first seen as a frog, sees Sorbet and Tagoma put Frieza's body parts into their containment. Several months later, at the start of Frieza's revenge, Ginyu sneaks into Jaco's ship so that he can fly to the battlefield. After many of Frieza's soldiers are defeated and Tagoma is about to engage the Z Fighters in battle, Ginyu climbs out of Jaco's ship.

When Tagoma lies on the ground after having been hit by Gotenks, Ginyu appears and changes bodies with Tagoma by tricking him into reading the word "Change" that he wrote in the dirt in a foreign language (the symbol that Ginyu draws comes from the same, seemingly only written language, that everyone who is with the Frieza Force appears to know) Ginyu—now with the body of Tagoma—has a brief discussion with Frieza explaining how he's still alive and has always been faithful to the belief that one day he would fight for Frieza once more despite his hardships as a frog. After doing his new pose to commemorate his revival he attacks the Z Fighters on Frieza's orders, decimating them in combat.

In response to Ginyu overwhelming them, Ginyu is challenged by Gohan in a one on one fight, but he later transforms because he proved no match for him due to not training. As a Super Saiyan, Gohan manages to easily defeat Ginyu in two blows, but spares him, saying there is no point in continuing the fight. Frieza then steps in and exclaims that he will finish Gohan off in Ginyu's place, blasting him with a barrage of Death Beams. While Frieza is attacking Gohan, Ginyu holds off the other Z Fighters who tried to help him against the tyrant.

After Goku and Vegeta arrive, Ginyu joins in the discussion, stating his contempt for Goku and Vegeta having trapped him in a frog's body. Almost immediately after, Vegeta kills Ginyu with a ki blast, noting that he did not want him interfering with their upcoming fight with Frieza.

"Future" Trunks Saga[]

Some time has passed since the saga's main event, Goku gets bored and asks Krillin to come spar with him. Krillin suggests that they should go train with Master Roshi, like the old days. Roshi sends them to an island to find a magical herb called Paradise Plant. On the island they meet Fortuneteller Baba who gives them directions that leads them to an unsettling and mysterious temple. When Goku and Krillin were sent into a forest to retrieve a special herb for Master Roshi, an illusion of Captain Ginyu and many other villains from the Z-Fighters' past show up to challenge the duo.

Dragon Ball GT[]

Super 17 Saga[]

6 years later in Dragon Ball GT, Captain Ginyu is shown again escaping Hell and attacking Earth. he is defeated again and sent back to Hell.

Voice actors[]

Japanese: Hideyuki Hori (Dragon Ball Z), Katsuyuki Konishi (Dragon Ball Kai)
Ocean Group dub: Richard Newman
FUNimation dub: Dale D. Kelly (Original dub), Brice Armstrong (Video games and Remastered dub), R Bruce Elliot (Dragon Ball Z Kai, and video games from Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 onwards)
Latin American Spanish dub: César Soto, Octavio Rojas (DBZ Kai)
Portuguese dub: Henrique Feist, João Loy (Dragon Ball Super)
Italian dub: Marco Balzarotti
Brazilian Portuguese dub: Sergio Moreno
Polish dub: Jacek Czyż
Hebrew dub: Efron Etkin
Hungarian dub: Holl Nándor
Thai dub: Thanakrit Jenklongtham (Dragon Ball Z), Pattarawut Samutnavee (Dragon Ball Z Kai)

Trivia[]

His name is a pun on gyūnyū (牛乳), the Japanese word for dairy milk.
Captain Ginyu's "Character Introduction" biography in the Budokai Tenkaichi video game series states that Ginyu has used the Body Change technique numerous times in his career, which suggests that his humanoid appearance in Dragon Ball Z is the result of a previous Body Change, rather than Ginyu's original body. However, Ginyu's appearance as a child and in the Other World in Dragon Ball GT after dying in the body of a Namekian Frog (in Dragon Ball Z) or Tagoma's body (Dragon Ball Super) is the form he had during first on-screen appearance. It may be possible, however, that this body was simply his preferred one, the one he had stayed in for the most time (even longer than the frog), or that he had switched back to his original one sometime before the battle on Namek, or that the artists/animators wanted to ensure he was recognized easily by the viewers.
In Chi-Chi's commentary in Budokai Tenkaichi 3, she notes that Ginyu appears to like comic book heroes. Indeed, he does often strike poses like a hero.
In most English dubs of Dragon Ball Z, each of Captain Ginyu's voice actors also served as series narrators: Dale Kelly was the first narrator in the FUNimation dub (until he was replaced by Kyle Hebert), and Brice Armstrong was the narrator of the Dragon Ball anime series. Of note, even though Ginyu and the narrator are not the same voice actor in the English dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai, that series' narrator, Doc Morgan, sounds strikingly similar to Richard Newman (Ginyu's Ocean dub voice actor).
In the Remastered Ginyu Saga, where Ginyu is voiced by Brice Armstrong, Dale Kelly's voice is still used whenever Ginyu powers up, possibly due to Armstrong's age (of note, Armstrong retired shortly after the Remastered versions).
Captain Ginyu's own voice actor is used regardless of the body he inhabits, even if this would be logically improbable/impossible due to differences in vocal chords (such as when in Bulma's body). This is true in both the original Japanese and the English dub.
- However this may be explained as a way to make it less confusing for the audience to realize which body Ginyu was in. It should be noted that this problem is only present in the anime and presumably he would have the same voice (save for his manner of speaking which may be different than side bodies' original inhabitant) as his current body in the manga (this however is unknown due to the manga's nature as a literary medium).
Ginyu's reaction for Jeice's report about the death of Guldo, Recoome and Burter differs in the English dubs: in the original Ocean dub, he shouts that "How could three of the most powerful warriors in the universe be defeated?!" and then has a flashback of each of them. However, in the FUNimation dub, he shouts "How could two of the of the most powerful warriors in the universe be defeated?!" and then has the same visual of them three; which could be because Goku did not defeat Guldo and Ginyu does specify "one man" defeating Recoome and Burter.
In Dragon Ball Z Kai, for the preview for "Surprise! Goku is Ginyu and Ginyu is Goku?!", Ginyu breaks the Fourth Wall by saying that he is taking charge and comments on changing the series name to "Ginyu Force Kai".
In the scene he appears as ghost in the Other World on Dragon Ball GT, Ginyu is drawn with white gloves (like most of Frieza's henchmen and Ginyu Force members), instead of the black & white arm-protectors he wears in his humanoid shell.
Captain Ginyu was the only member of the Ginyu Force to meet a Super Saiyan, and even fought Gohan in this form (although he was outmatched).
- Ironically, he is also the only member capable of using the transformation himself in the Xenoverse series while in Goku's body during a parallel quest.
Captain Ginyu is the last member of the Ginyu Force to be killed by Vegeta.
- He is also the only member of the Ginyu Force that did not die on Namek as he was killed by Kid Buu on Earth, and then in Tagoma's body by Vegeta in Dragon Ball Super.
Frog Ginyu begin alive in Dragon Ball Super is odd as he was killed when Kid Buu destroyed the Earth and Porunga only revived the good people killed during the Majin Buu conflict. One explanation is Porunga revived Ginyu by accident due to him being in the body of a frog or Frog Ginyu evil personality may have diminished over the years he lived on Earth as a frog to the point he was considered good enough by Porunga to be revived (and possibly due to Porunga being aware that Ginyu no longer posing a threat as a Frog), only for his evil nature to resurface once Ginyu realized Frieza had finally been revived as he had always hoped.
- However he is not the only evil person shown to have been revived in Dragon Ball Super as actor Barry Kahn is also shown to possess an evil heart (though it is possible that Barry became evil some point after the Majin Buu conflict as people can become evil over time) which allows the parasite Watagash (who grows stronger the more evil his host is) to transform while possessing Barry's body becoming powerful enough to defeat Gohan (as Great Saiyaman) in his base form. It is also not the only time that this wish was contradicted, as even in Dragon Ball Z, there was an example of person who was a villain who got revived in the form of Pit Bull Pete.

Captain Ginyu (Dragon Ball Series)

Contents

Personality[]

Biography[]

Background[]

Dragon Ball Z[]

Frieza Saga[]

Cell Saga[]

Majin Buu Saga[]

Dragon Ball Super[]

Resurrection ‘F’ Saga[]

"Future" Trunks Saga[]

Dragon Ball GT[]

Super 17 Saga[]

Other Dragon Ball stories[]

Ultimate Tenkaichi Hero Mode[]

Online[]

Voice actors[]

Trivia[]

Gallery[]

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