Portrait of King Kai from the front against a pink background: blue skin, pointed ears, round glasses, black antennae and a black tunic with a medallion.

King Kai: The North Kai Who Trained Goku

CharacterDeitiesOther World

King Kai is the North Kai, one of the gods of the Other World, who watches over the northern quadrant of the universe from a tiny planet at the end of Snake Way. A lover of puns, he only agrees to train Goku after laughing at a joke from his future student, then teaches him the Kaio-ken and the Spirit Bomb. Here's a look back at his appearance, his planet, his students, his telepathy, his death during the Cell Games, his appearances in the anime, GT and Super, and his voices.

He has blue skin, cricket antennae and a soft spot for bad jokes, and yet King Kai is the one who trained Goku in the Other World. Here's the story of this prankster god, from Snake Way to Dragon Ball Super.

Contents

Who Is King Kai, the North Kai?

His Japanese name, Kaiō-sama, literally means “King of Worlds”; his exact title is North Kai (Kita no Kaiō). In English, he's best known as King Kai, his name in the Funimation and Ocean dubs, or as the North Kai, while Viz's English edition of the manga calls him the Lord of Worlds, which is also the title of one of its volumes.

There are five Kais: each of the first four watches over a quadrant of the universe, North, South, East and West, and the fifth, the Grand Kai (Dai Kaiō in Japanese), oversees them all. Above them are the Supreme Kais, who have authority over the Kais: so King Kai is one of the universe's gods, but not the highest-ranking one. The movie Battle of Gods, and later Dragon Ball Super, would go on to call this universe Universe 7.

Rather short, he has blue skin, pointed ears and two catfish whiskers, one on each side of his face. He wears round sunglasses, small white shoes and a black tunic with sleeves trimmed in golden yellow, and he has two cricket antennae on his head; on the front of his tunic, a large round medallion bears the kanji 界王, “king of worlds.”

He has a great sense of humor: you have to make him laugh before he'll agree to train you, and he himself tells really bad jokes. In the anime, West Kai, who rules over the western quadrant of the universe, is his personal rival.

In the manga, he first appears in chapter 210, titled “Masters and Students” in the English edition, at the same time as his monkey Bubbles; until then, he had only been mentioned. In the anime, he makes his entrance in episode 18 of Dragon Ball Z, “The End of Snake Way,” which aired in Japan on September 6, 1989.

King Kai standing on the grass of his planet under a pink sky, in a black tunic with a medallion, a tree on the left and his monkey Bubbles sitting on the right.
Blue skin, cricket antennae, round glasses, a black tunic with a medallion and little white shoes: King Kai on his planet, with his monkey Bubbles sitting behind him.

📍 King Kai wears his emblem on a large round medallion on the front of his tunic; to show off an emblem or a warrior from the saga on your own jacket, choose from our Dragon Ball pins.

A Tiny Planet at the End of Snake Way

King Kai trains dead fighters who have been allowed to keep their bodies, provided they reach his little planet at the end of Snake Way. At the start, an ogre tells Goku that the road is a million kilometers long; it takes him six months to cover it.

On this planet, gravity is about ten times stronger than on Earth: your body weighs ten times as much there. The grassy sphere is home, for the most part, to the god's house, a small outbuilding, half a dozen trees, a well and a road that runs all the way around it, on which he drives a red American car, a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.

He lives there with Bubbles, his pet monkey and friend. When he arrives, Goku first mistakes Bubbles for King Kai and starts imitating his movements, thinking it's part of the training. The monkey's name may be a nod to Bubbles, Michael Jackson's chimpanzee.

The anime adds Gregory, a small cricket sprite who floats in midair and serves as King Kai's butler. He's absent from the original manga, but it was indeed Akira Toriyama who designed him: the anime team wanted one more character for the episodes set on the planet.

The planet wasn't always this small. In the movie Battle of Gods, Whis reminds Beerus that he's the one who shrank it, destroying it in a rage after losing at hide-and-seek; other versions blame a defeat at a racing video game or, in the Dragon Ball Super anime, a meal he found bad. In a special chapter of the Dragon Ball Super manga, King Kai, whose planet was blown away by Cell's explosion, plans to bring it back bigger, with less gravity and a race track, thanks to Namek's Dragon Balls; but Goku has the planet restored exactly as it was, perfect for training.

Goku, seen from behind in his orange outfit, leaping toward a tiny green planet with a house, a circular road, a red car and trees.
At the end of Snake Way, Goku leaps toward King Kai's tiny planet: his house, a few trees and, on the road that circles it, the red car.

🔑 King Kai drives around his planet behind the wheel of a red Chevrolet Bel Air; to keep your own keys within reach, hang them on one of our Dragon Ball keychains.

Puns and Gravity: Goku's Training

Before training Goku, King Kai sets one condition: tell him a pun that can make a “gag genius” like him laugh. In the original version of the manga, Goku passes the test with a play on words, “Futon ga futton da!” (“the futon flew away!”), which makes his future master burst out laughing.

Using his antennae, he calculates that the Saiyans will reach Earth in 158 days, and warns Goku that to beat them, he'll have to surpass even his own master, because even King Kai is no match for them.

First test: catching Bubbles despite the gravity. In the manga, Goku manages it after forty days; in the anime, after three weeks. The anime adds a second test: hitting Gregory, the flying cricket, with a mallet.

Impressed, King Kai thinks Goku could master the Kaio-ken, a technique he himself was never able to master. He forbids him from pushing it beyond double his power; when Goku goes up to triple against Vegeta, his master worries from his planet.

He also teaches him the Spirit Bomb, a technique of his own invention whose strength depends on the number of living beings who contribute to it. To test it, he throws a brick at full speed that Goku has to spot and hit; then the master warns his student that a Spirit Bomb formed on Earth could destroy the planet, and advises him to use it only as a last resort.

Later, as Goku is heading to Namek in his spaceship, King Kai discovers that Frieza is there: he describes the tyrant to him as the worst of them all and orders him to stay away from him. Yamcha, Tien Shinhan, Chiaotzu and Piccolo, who died fighting the Saiyans, then have to make him laugh with a pun before he'll agree to train them: a particularly difficult test for Tien and Piccolo.

King Kai in midair, arms raised and hands open, facing Goku, who wears a halo and is seen from behind in his orange outfit, against a pale green grass background.
Goku training with King Kai, on a planet where your body weighs ten times as much: to beat the Saiyans, the student will have to surpass even his own master.
Front view of a King Kai figure against a black background: blue skin, round glasses, black antennae, a black tunic trimmed in orange and a medallion with kanji.

For fans of King Kai

Dragon Ball Figure - King Kai

The master who taught Goku the Kaio-ken and the Spirit Bomb, as a figure: King Kai, with his antennae, his round glasses and his medallion.

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Telepathy, Death and a Halo

King Kai's telepathy can be shared: all it takes is a hand on his shoulder to talk across any distance, as Goku does to ask Master Roshi to bring him back to life with the Dragon Balls. As Namek is dying, King Kai organizes the wishes: he asks Guru, the Namekians' Grand Elder, to have everyone on Namek transported to Earth, except Frieza.

In chapter 412, during the Cell Games, Goku teleports with Cell, who is about to explode, to King Kai's planet, apologizing: he had nowhere else to take him. The explosion destroys the planet and kills Goku, King Kai and Bubbles; in the anime, Gregory dies with them.

On Snake Way, King Kai can't believe that Goku killed him, a god of all people, just to save the Earth. Since he already lived in the Other World, his death only earns him a halo over his head; in the anime, he then settles on Grand Kai's planet. In the manga, we learn that he refused to be brought back to life along with Cell's victims, so that he could guide Goku in the Other World.

It's through him that Goku, now dead, tells his friends it's better for him to stay in the afterlife, since his presence seems to attract villains. Against Buu, when Vegeta wants to speak to every Earthling, King Kai takes care of it: his telepathy makes it possible to gather the energy for the giant Spirit Bomb that finally destroys the monster.

A beaming Goku hugging King Kai, whose mouth is wide open, and the monkey Bubbles; Gregory flies above them, all of them wearing halos.
In the anime's We Gotta Power opening, Goku, King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory all wear the halo of the dead: Cell's explosion on King Kai's planet killed them.

From the Anime to Dragon Ball Super, and His Voices

In the anime, and not in the manga, a tournament is held on Grand Kai's planet in memory of King Kai's death: the Other World Tournament. There, King Kai makes a bet with West Kai: if Goku wins, King Kai gets his rival's planet; if Pikkon wins, King Kai becomes West Kai's servant. The final ends in a double disqualification.

On the big screen, in Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, King Kai warns Goku of a threat approaching the North Galaxy; in Bojack Unbound, we learn that the Kais had imprisoned Bojack and his gang, who were set free when King Kai's planet was destroyed. In Dragon Ball GT, from Grand Kai's planet, he establishes a telepathic link with the entire universe so that Goku can gather the energy for a giant Spirit Bomb against the last of the Shadow Dragons.

In the Dragon Ball Super manga, Beerus comes to challenge Goku on King Kai's planet; despite King Kai's objections, Goku accepts the fight. In the Dragon Ball Super anime, Goku promises to bring his master back to life with the Dragon Balls, but Shenron leaves before the wish is made: King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory stay dead, and the master gives his student a good scolding.

In Japanese, King Kai is voiced by Jōji Yanami, who was also the anime's narrator, in Dragon Ball Z, GT, Kai, the movies and the beginning of Dragon Ball Super; after Yanami's medical leave, announced in September 2015, Naoki Tatsuta takes over the role. A fun nod: Tatsuta used to voice Bubbles in Dragon Ball Z. Jōji Yanami passed away on December 3, 2021.

In English, King Kai is voiced by Sean Schemmel in Funimation's dub, from Dragon Ball Z to GT, Kai, Super and the movies; Schemmel is also Goku's English voice, so student and master share the same actor. In the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z, the role went to Don Brown, and in Bang Zoom!'s alternate Dragon Ball Super dub for Toonami Asia, to Michael McConnohie.

King Kai with a halo and bent antennae, behind the purple-skinned West Kai, whose mouth is open; their black tunics are smudged with soot, on a lawn.
In the anime, King Kai and his rival West Kai during the fight between Goku and Pikkon, the final of the Other World Tournament and the subject of their bet.

King Kai at a Glance

Key fact King Kai
Japanese name 界王様 Kaiō-sama, “King of Worlds”
Title North Kai, one of the four Kais who divide the universe among themselves
First appearance Chapter 210 of the manga; episode 18 of Dragon Ball Z, September 6, 1989
Companions Bubbles, his monkey; Gregory, a cricket added by the anime
Techniques taught Kaio-ken, Spirit Bomb
Voices Jōji Yanami, then Naoki Tatsuta (Japanese); Sean Schemmel (English)

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Who is King Kai?
    He's the North Kai, one of the gods of the Other World, who watches over the northern quadrant of the universe and trains Goku after Goku dies fighting Raditz.
  • What techniques does King Kai teach Goku?
    The Kaio-ken, which temporarily multiplies your power, and the Spirit Bomb, which gathers the energy of living beings.
  • Why do you have to make King Kai laugh?
    He only agrees to train someone after laughing at a pun from his future student. In the original version of the manga, Goku pulls it off with a pun about a futon.
  • How does King Kai die?
    During the Cell Games, Goku teleports with Cell, who is about to explode, to King Kai's planet. The explosion kills Goku, King Kai and Bubbles; ever since, the god has worn a halo.
  • How long does it take Goku to catch Bubbles?
    Forty days in the manga, three weeks in the anime.
  • Who voices King Kai?
    In Japanese, Jōji Yanami, then Naoki Tatsuta, who replaced him partway through Dragon Ball Super, in the fall of 2015. In English, Sean Schemmel in Funimation's dub, from Dragon Ball Z to Dragon Ball Z Kai and Dragon Ball Super; Don Brown voiced him in the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z.

💡 Since his death, King Kai has worn a halo over his head; for a soft glow on your nightstand, choose from our Dragon Ball lamps and night lights.

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