Certified Yamcha Scholar

Finally I can appropriately refer to these guys as Z-Fighters T-T

Saiyan Saga

In the anime, we get some filler episodes showing what Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu have been up to all these years. Yamcha is found incorporating his martial arts into a promising baseball career to earn himself money. He seems successful enough, but he himself isn't satisfied with making a whole career out of it. He's a martial artist at heart, after all. If money were not an issue, he'd much rather be out training.

It's no surprise, then, that Yamcha immediately agrees to come along with Krillin the moment he's invited to train under Kami. Within a year's time, they all prepare to protect the Earth from a 2-man alien invasion.

While I do enjoy the idea of seeing what these characters’ personal lives are like outside of fighting, none of this is canon. I bring this filler up only to show that even Toei (at least back then) understood how Yamcha's martial arts background was a major part of his character. Also, I love a man in uniform. 💕

In reality, we’re not sure what any of the Z-Fighters have been doing after Piccolo Jr.’s defeat. It’s been years since anyone's interacted. Goku got married, became a father, and now he’s dead; a lot has happened (in Goku's life at least). 

The next time we physically see Yamcha in the manga is when we are shown all the Z-Fighters training for the Saiyans' arrival. Yes, the first time we see Yamcha in the Z-era, he is in fact training. Always on the mind. Freak.

They all even get to wear the same weighted gi Goku wore for the last tournament. Yep, our earthling Z-Fighters are finally getting the full Kami treatment, as they are ALL viable martial artists who would stand a chance against the upcoming alien threat (don't snicker-).

After some months of preparation, Kami (remember, the god and ultimate master of martial arts here) told EVERYONE that he had nothing left to teach them and that they had to train on their own. They ALL surpassed him.

For some reason, Kami decided not to insist on how his students should continue training together, and instead allowed them to separate and spread across the planet. Do I think that's the most effective way to train for a dire situation like this? Not. At. All.

Sure, that made more sense for the Budokai arcs, cuz all these guys are literally competing against each other. They don't want their friends/rivals to take a peek at what they've been cooking up. That's meant to be a surprise for when they do get to beat the shit out of each other in that arena.

Now though? Not the damn time!!! The world is at stake; these characters need to know teamwork more than anything!!! They're gonna get their asses beat, Kami, tell them!!!! You can see everything from up there, TELL THEM!!!!!

(Tbf on Kami's end, Toriyama was never able to write teamwork dynamics. That's why every group battle somehow turns into a one-on-one tournament, even in literal Battle Royales 😒)

From what we do see, all the Z-Fighters take Kami's advice to heart, and thus spread out to refine their battle skills until the day in question.

Everyone but Yajirobe. 

So here’s the thing with Toriyama that we lightly touched in the other post. He’s a very visual person, especially when it comes to his humor. He's also not subtle in his writing and drawings at all; he's very literal. If he wants to let you know which of these guys is the “lazy slacker" who doesn't pull his own weight, he will let you know.

Consistently amongst these training montage pages, Yajirobe is depicted as the only member who either complains about working too hard, or is shown gorging on food. Meanwhile, everyone else actually takes this seriously (cuz y'know, the Earth is at stake here). They are given their own panels depicting them sparring and sweating buckets. When you put those guys and Yajirobe side by side, it's not hard to tell who out of the group is a total loafer. Fatphobic jokes are common with this character 😬. Never said all of Toriyama's jokes were actually funny.

Unlike Yajirobe, Yamcha's seen somewhere in the wilderness (the mountains?) the very next time we see him. The Saiyans arrived earlier than expected and caught the fighters off guard. As we see everyone's shocked reactions, Yamcha is shown wearing his training gear, indicating he was training at that very moment. 

Odd, given how often fans try to make him out to be someone who'd rather leisurely enjoy life and fool around with women than train so diligently in the wilderness. And yet, here is, away from civilization (and women) and focused on becoming stronger before anything else. 🤔

“Yamcha could have still messed around earlier the moment Kami released him. He also could have been training at the last minute. Are we supposed to assume he did nothing but train nonstop?”

Yes, actually. At least that's typically Toriyama's intention whenever he draws these sorts of panels. If Toriyama wanted you to read Yamcha as a slacker, he would have drawn that as a gag in the sea of montage pages he liked to create. Y’know, like the one above a couple of paragraphs showing everyone training, while Yajirobe is just eating.

Toriyama uses these montage time-skip pages to move the story along faster. Since he has only one page to establish anything, he makes clear what each character's personal goals and thoughts are through their expressions. We, as the audience, are left to assume that this is what they continue to pursue throughout the time-skip period, until we are brought back into the plot. Visual storytelling, crazy how it works, I know.

With that said, if you look at this cover page, can you identify the character who doesn't want to participate in this deadly fight?

Rhetorical question, it's obviously Yajirobe. It does raise another question of why Yajirobe is shown eating rather than training in the first place. What's the point of going to Lookout Point if he wasn't going to take this seriously til the very end?

Well, apparently Yajirobe didn’t want to concern himself with this Saiyan fight in the first place. He only trained up on Lookout cuz Korin threatened him. The moment he left and was free to do whatever, he regressed to just chilling. 

I want to make this clear: Yajirobe has always been a formidable fighter, which is why he was chosen to train under Kami. He’s a skillful swordsman; we have to assume he trained himself to an extent to get where he’s at now. Although given Toriyama’s sense of humor, he probably became a swordsman just to hunt really tasty animals. 😓

(C'mon man, that don't even look appetizing)

Believe me when I say, he's still an impressive Z-Fighter who's definitely stronger than the average Earthling by this point. However, compared to Yamcha and the others who actually continued their intense regimens off Lookout, Yajirobe lacked in many areas.

I suppose it was Toriyama’s way of emphasizing his laziness: Yajirobe CAN hypothetically train himself to become stronger; he simply chooses NOT to if given the option. He's content with where he is now, which doesn't really align with the other Z-Fighters.

It REALLY doesn't match Yamcha’s personality from what we've read so far. Yet, this is the exact attitude that the fanbase accuses him of having. We have actual lazy characters, guys. There's no need to bastardize Yamcha's character to justify this upcoming, monumental loss (You knew it was coming).

(Notice who's not in this lineup)

The battle between the Z-Fighters and the Saiyans finally arrives. After some unpleasant introductions, we start off with a "friendly" competition - a small tournament, if you will (we're never gonna escape this, huh?). Tien manages to take down a strong plant minion called a Saibaman, who was intimidatingly finished off by Vegeta with a simple hand gesture. Ugly lil gremlin, I know. The Saibamen ain't that cute either. 🥁

(Censored a bit cuz Tumblr would probably mark this as mature if I didn't)

Krillin volunteers as tribute, but Yamcha steps in instead. He believes Krillin shouldn't risk losing his life again for such a shady set-up. It's here that we finally get to see the infamous Yamcha vs. Saibaman brawl and the eventual TRAGEDY that follows. 

Listen, I’ve already covered my thoughts on the fight and that damn meme; no need to repeat myself entirely. Read this when you got the chance.

TLDR: your main takeaway should be that Yamcha’s training over the years has gotten him to the point where he can take on 99% of any member of the Saiyan race. This wounded Nappa's pride for a reason. Despite fans’ insistence that Yamcha’s death was due to his own arrogance, and that he simply didn’t train as hard as the others, the manga/story begs to differ. It was a series of bad circumstances and poor luck that applied to a lot of characters in this battle.

Regardless of everyone's intense training, most of the Z-Fighters were killed. It was not pretty. What makes it worse is that almost everyone’s heroic sacrifices came in vain; they all barely inflicted any damage on Nappa and Vegeta. It was a total one-sided massacre.

Oh hey, is this that whole “It can also be equally as devastating when all that time, sweat, and tears seem to have been all for nothing.” message I talked about in my intro? Haha, yeah storytelling!

(too soon?)

‼️‼️Edited additional note: Hang on, everyone was in the middle of training when the Saiyans unexpectedly arrived earlier than anticipated. It probably didn't help that no one had a chance to rest up and heal their bodies before the actual fight! Aghhhhh!!!!!‼️‼️

Goku finally showed up, ever so late. Pissed to see his friends left in such a state, Goku proceeds to beat the shit out of Nappa. It was Vegeta who proved to be a real challenge.

After an intense battle that almost destroyed the Earth, Goku is left exhausted and vulnerable. Vegeta, in his Great Ape form, was close to squashing Goku for good had a brave young soul not cut his tail off in the nick of time.

Ok kids, which character is most likely going to be brave AND skilled enough to cut off Great Ape Vegeta's tail? Could it be Gohan, the timid, inexperienced fighter who wants to prove himself? Could it be Krillin, a veteran who uses ki-slicing moves and desperately wants to save his best friend? Nope, neither of them are able to do anything (debateable). The person who saved Goku is none other than Yajirobe......

YAJIROBE?!?!?!

I mean…sure is a highlight for the 5 Yajirobe fans out there, I guess 😅. Does it suck to see how the cowardly, lazy character (who still runs away from the scene afterwards) became more essential to the plot than those who gave it their all? Yeah…yeah…….it kinda stings….. 🥲🥲🥲

Supposedly, that was the "twist" Toriyama intended. The guy who can’t fly, the guy who is nowhere near the same power scaling as the rest due to his lack of training, the guy who keeps on leaving Goku in difficult situations so he can duck for cover - yeah, that's the human earthling who somehow inflicted the most damage on Vegeta. Not Tien, not Yamcha, not Krillin - Yajirobe. Can’t say we saw that coming.

As much as this stirs some conflicted feelings, honestly, it's all the more reason we can’t suspect Yamcha of not training to his fullest extent. Toriyama kept this joke in mind for this specific Z-Fighter: the guy who was the least committed to this entire thing.

Moral of this story: Kami’s a shitty teacher who plays favorites.

Namek Saga

Four of our beloved Z-Fighters are now dead, and it's mainly King Kai's fault for sending Goku back to Earth too late. Dare I say they have been Left4Dead. 🥁 (🍅🍅🍅)

But no, seriously, King Kai really did screw them all over.

Since they're already deceased, surely Yamcha is allowed to grant himself some grace, and reward himself with a period of well-deserved rest, right? Well, apparently not. Not in his life, or even his afterlife!

Within a month, Yamcha and the others ALL simultaneously reached King Kai’s Planet with the intent to train under him. King Kai himself confirms to Goku that they ALL traveled down Snake Way much faster than he did. Goku had to travel down that same route for six months. 

This is, of course, in the context that compared to Goku when he first died, our Left4Dead crew became much stronger and faster in comparison. It shows you the scope of where their training prior to the Saiyans’ arrival got them. If there’s one thing I would find odd, it’s that Piccolo didn’t somehow leave the others in the dust, 'cuz it's Piccolo. Then again, Snake Way is essentially cardio training. Slow and steady wins the race.

Really quick break, as I want to briefly talk about the DBZ Infinite World games. As you may have guessed, they include a feature about Yamcha that contradicts this canon for the sake of "the joke".

There’s a mini-game where players run through Snake Way under a time limit, with any character of their choosing. Each character has a losing animation in which, for the most part, they slouch and appear exhausted. However, for Yamcha’s unique losing animation, they have him staggering in a pitiful state. His face is also contorted with this zoned-out, gaping expression. Remember that stupid Resurrection F Gohan face, yeah, it was like that.

(God, Super's ugly)

The way it's framed implies that even running poses a serious challenge for someone like Yamcha, which.....no-

As I pointed out before, Yamcha arrived at the same time as everyone else in the actual story, and he appears just fine. He's excited and ready to finally train under King Kai himself, a master who's even greater than Kami.

It goes to show how these games love to sell the Yamcha-bashing so much that they'll risk going against the story's canon. Then we wonder why Dragon Ball fans have a hard time discerning which information out there is accurate. Once again: read the manga, and don't base your entire understanding of the story on games and TFS jokes. Back to the story!

If arriving at King Kai’s on record time wasn’t a remarkable enough feat, Yamcha and the others ALL agreed they wanted even more intense training from King Kai than what Goku received during his time there. The question is, do they hold up on their endeavors? 

Unfortunately, we have not been given a clear answer in that regard 😅. Typically, whenever our heroes return to the story after their training sessions, they would demonstrate a new technique or a boost in battle performance. Basically, it's to show us what kept them so busy the whole time.

We don't get that here.

This saga primarily focused on everyone’s time on Namek. Our Left4Dead Crew is occasionally shown training, but for the most part, they act as spectators. Piccolo leaves early, making him the only member who got to have some action in this saga. Yamcha had to wait for a few months after the grand battle between Goku and Frieza to get revived. Tien and Chiaotzu are revived some months later. Three of these guys essentially had no real plot relevancy throughout this arc. They don't even get a proper welcome-back sequence in the manga as they do in the anime. It's just one page of narration going, "and then this happened," before you turn the next page and we already in the Android Saga (in the same chapter and everything).

ONE would reason that those who were left to stay at King Kai’s longer should have learned Kaioken or even the Spirit Bomb. ONE would reason that if they supposedly worked harder and faster than Goku, as King Kai puts it, they could easily have learned these techniques before they were all revived... 

They don’t.

Not even Tenshinhan comes up with a signature technique from his time on King Kai's Planet. Odd, given that’s LITERALLY HIS BIT!!!

Look, I don't buy into the idea that Tien does nothing but train his entire life, cuz fans seem to get that information only from Super or the games. Still, Tien (like Yamcha and Krillin) shows a tenacious mindset when it comes to perfecting his martial arts, and he's super talented at it. That’s what the third eye is for (which what do you mean there are fans that thought that was painted on??!!!)

So it does say a lot that Tien was visually shown plotting how to surpass Goku in his own training, AND was there the longest (with Chiaotzu), but nothing came out of that.

Perhaps it was for the sake of this throwaway gag of "these two serious characters can't tell a joke," but it doesn't apply to everyone else who also wanted more intense training than Goku's. We also see everyone train later on, so they clearly earned their spots regardless.

In short: Chekhov's gun, unfired.

I'm under the impression that Toriyama hyped these guys' reappearance and their supposed brutal regimen to serve as potential fighters on standby. It’s similar to how he wrote in Bulma for this Saga, IN CASE he needed a mechanic for the plot. Since he never actually needed a mechanic for the story, Bulma was just kinda there doing nothing.

Likewise, our Left4Dead crew would wait for the opportunity to become relevant, which will never come. Well no, actually, Piccolo does get to be involved near the end. Good for him, but there goes my Left4Dead joke 🤬. You probably recognize this issue with Toriyama's writing for Dragon Ball; it's only gonna get worse.

In the anime, they at least had the Left3Dead (nah, it don’t work no more) Crew fight the deceased Ginyu Force to show where these guys stand, skill-wise. As fun and interesting I would say that sequence would play out, it’s also not canon. By now, we should be used to Toriyama's habit of avoiding actually writing these guys' progression in their training arcs. At best, again, he’ll draw one panel to show they are indeed training, but that’s it.

"Then what makes you so sure they did train harder than Goku, if there’s no evidence they did?”

The same reason the plot needed Piccolo to fuse with Nail, the Zenkai Boost mechanic had to be momentarily made up, and Gohan and Krillin had to get their potentials unlocked: Everyone gotta play catch-up.

Speaking of which, I do want to bring up again how Krillin gets that power boost from Grand Elder Guru. More specifically, Guru unlocks Krillin’s potential and removes the limiter cap, but it's literally just a power-up boost. I bring this up because up til this point, Krillin and Yamcha were the only martial artists who relied on their own efforts to become stronger. Everyone else is either a descendant of an unusual race that inherits quirks that amplify their strength/skills, or they obtain a power-up through other external means. For folks like Goku, it’s both.

I didn't forget about Yajirobe, but by the end of the Saiyan saga, he kinda stopped being relevant enough to bother training. Now he's our resident Bean Daddy. For everyone else tho? Yeah, they all get something, which I find funny cuz every other time, folks would call this a cheat.

Since Krillin obtained his power-up through external means, Yamcha as of now, is the only Z-Fighter who has gotten this strong through his own efforts.

Will it matter in future sagas? No. Practically everyone who isn’t a Saiyan is reduced to Goku’s cheerleader. Nonetheless, it makes you think how bizarre it is that so many fans conclude Yamcha doesn’t train as efficiently as everyone else; he's actually one of the more self-disciplined Earthlings. He was literally a normal human being who somehow persevered through intense training and battles, which overtime made him strong enough to be considered a planet-buster. Literal Saitama moment, bro locked in fr.

But no, really, imagine all your friends are lucky enough to get items that give them crazy stat boosts, which help them level up easily. Meanwhile, you out here grinding at Lvl 1 in order to catch up to your team, and all you get is a motivational poster. Idk about y’all, but I’m mature enough to admit I’d just quit. That grind would be too much, and I'd already be frustrated with everyone else essentially cheating. I know most of y’all would feel the same way, given how y'all rage-quit whenever you're forced to fight a hacker in Xenoverse 2. To get over that mental barrier is nearly impossible for the average person. That's the sort of determination we tend to appreciate in our well-written protagonists. What is it about Yamcha then, that makes everyone fail to recognize such commitment? We'll have to discuss that in the final post.

Moral of this story: King Kai’s a shitty teacher who plays favorites. Cuz literally why don't Yamcha and Tien KNOW KAIOKEN -

You've probably noticed by now that, despite entering DBZ, I have yet to mention anything about Power Levels, and Yamcha's placement in that regard. Fact of the matter is that Power Levels are entirely bullshit, and that has always been the point for Dragon Ball's narrative. It was a numerical value the villains crutched on, only to be severely proven wrong. We never hear about it beyond the Namek/Frieza Saga for this reason - it served its purpose.

"But Yamcha's P.L. was a mere 177, while Krillin's and Tien's were in the 200-250 range!"

And what is that meant to imply? Is that meant to be proof he slacked off on his training? Alright, I'll play this game (no one asked you-).

If we go by non-canon sources, Yamcha jumped from 177 to 1480. That is a pretty damn drastic leap, all things considered. As we've witnessed in this post, Yamcha has done nothing BUT train for the Saiyans' arrival. He surpassed Roshi long ago, and eventually surpassed Kami as well. What could he possibly have been lacking in his training? Perhaps he needed a proper partner, but oh wait, no one ever trains together in the series for too long. Whoops.

(Blonde Bulma is not real, she can't hurt me-)

"It's still not as impressive as Tien's 1830," yeah, but Tien still died a meaningless death, so what does that matter? Did that power level give him a fighting chance? Did that power level prevent his arm from getting punched off? Did that power level protect Chiaotzu?

(Tien, baby, I'm so sorry, but I know folks gonna act stupid about this, please endure and understand my intent here my pookie 🙏🏾)

Meanwhile, it was Krillin's skills and luck that got him to protect Gohan when Piccolo went down. It was also Yajirobe who cut off Vegeta's tail while Vegeta was in his x10 multiplier form (What's the power level of that sword, Yajirobe?). This isn't even going into how your power levels can fluctuate depending on your attacks, and how much energy you're mustering up if you just shift your body's weight a bit (for someone who didn't want to talk about P.L. she sure got a lot to say-).

Like y'all, Toriyama simply came up with random numbers he had no intention of keeping track of. We're not even sure if the ones here and the Daizenshuu are even from him directly. Stop taking Power Level talk seriously, cuz it was never accurate. That's the point.

Actually no, I refuse to end this with Vegeta, even if it's abridged