Mercenary Tao: The Hitman Hired to Kill Goku

He calls himself the world's greatest assassin, rides around standing on a pillar and charges a fortune for his contracts: Mercenary Tao came very close to killing young Goku. Here's the story of this hitman, from the Red Ribbon Army to his return as a cyborg.

Mercenary Tao, the World's Greatest Assassin

Mercenary Tao is a highly skilled hitman and the younger brother of Master Shen, the master of the Crane School. In the manga, he introduces himself as “the world's greatest assassin” (chapters 90 and 92); the Japanese title of episode 59 of the anime, which aired in Japan on April 22, 1987, describes him the same way, and the English version titles it “The Notorious Mercenary.”

His Japanese name, Taopaipai, is written with the Chinese characters for peach (tao, 桃) and white (pai, 白), doubled: literally “Peach White White”. Akira Toriyama reportedly chose it for its cute sound, the very opposite of a hitman's image.

Tao has small eyes, a pointed nose, a thin mustache and black hair tied in a braid. He wears a long pink Chinese tunic, marked on the front with the kanji 殺 (satsu, “kill”). In the anime, the back of his tunic bears the English words “KILL YOU!” from the Red Ribbon Army Saga onward: they aren't exclusive to his cyborg form, though some dubbed versions reportedly edited them. In the movie Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure, his tunic is blue.

According to the official timeline in the Daizenshuu 7 guidebook, Tao was born in Age 459: that makes him 291 years old when he fights Goku in Age 750, and the series never explains this longevity. According to the same timeline, he became a hitman in Age 730, twenty years before he was hired to kill Goku.

Commander Red, leader of the Red Ribbon Army, hires him for an exorbitant fee: Tao is to eliminate Goku and take his Dragon Balls from him. Tao first appears in chapter 85 of the manga, in volume 8, released in Japan on July 10, 1987.

👕 Tao's tunic bears the kanji for “kill” on the front and, in the anime, “KILL YOU!” on the back; to wear a more peaceful emblem on your chest, like Goku's, pick from our Dragon Ball T-shirts.

Hired by the Red Ribbon Army: General Blue, Bora and Goku

At Red Ribbon Army headquarters, General Blue, facing execution for his failures, has to fight Tao to save his life. The assassin announces that he'll use only his tongue, and kills him with a flick of his tongue to a pressure point on his head (chapter 85). In the anime (episode 59), the duel is drawn out: Blue tries to paralyze him with telekinesis, to no effect; in the manga, Tao kills him before he has time to use that power.

Rather than take a plane, Tao rips out one of the headquarters' pillars, hurls it into the sky and rides it all the way to his target. According to the Daizenshuu 7 guidebook, this flying pillar reaches 10,000 km/h at full speed; in the game Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, it becomes a vehicle, colored pink.

In chapter 86, Tao lands in the Land of Korin, where Goku has just met Bora and his son Upa, and introduces himself as an assassin sent by the Red Ribbon Army to kill Goku. Bora steps in to protect the boy who saved Upa: Tao stops his spear with two fingers, then with just one, sends him flying high into the air and hurls his own spear back into his heart.

Enraged, Goku attacks Tao and ends up firing a Kamehameha at him: Tao doesn't get a scratch, only his outfit is left in tatters. Furious to see it ruined, he fires his Dodon Ray from the tip of his index finger, and it hits Goku square in the chest; thinking he's dead, Tao takes off with the bag of Dragon Balls. The Japanese title of chapter 86 means “Taopaipai's Surefire Dodonpa”; the Viz English edition calls it “The Devastating Dodon-Pa!!!”

Goku survives: the Dodon Ray hit the Four-Star Dragon Ball he kept under his clothes, and Tao left with only three Dragon Balls (chapter 87). Before setting off again on his pillar, he blows back the rock Upa throws at him, which hits the boy square in the face, and tells him he should count himself lucky to still be alive.

Instead of heading back, he demands that a tailor copy his outfit in three days instead of a week, then tells Commander Red over the phone that he won't be back for three days and that he wants his money. In the anime only (episode 60), Red orders him to return to Korin Tower at once, and Tao refuses, reminding him that he isn't one of his soldiers. The anime had already shown him briefly at the end of episode 58, talking with Commander Red.

🖱️ According to one guidebook, Tao's flying pillar zips along at 10,000 km/h; to keep your mouse gliding just as smoothly, pick from our Dragon Ball mouse pads.

Goku's Rematch at the Foot of Korin Tower

Once his new outfit is ready, Tao refuses to pay the tailor, outraged that anyone would ask the world's greatest assassin for money, and kills him with a jab of his finger to the forehead (chapter 90). Back at Korin Tower, he lifts Upa by the neck to find out where the last Dragon Ball is, then throws him at the tower; Goku, back down from the top, catches him on his Flying Nimbus.

After three days of training with Korin, Goku dominates the fight and this time stops the Dodon Ray with his bare hands (chapter 91). Tao then pulls a sword out of a capsule, but a single blow from the Power Pole, or Nyoi-bō, which Upa threw to Goku, is enough to snap the sword in two.

In chapter 92, Tao seems to regain the upper hand for a moment, but Goku counterattacks and knocks out one of his teeth with a kick to the face. Cornered, Tao drops to his knees, begs for forgiveness and promises to give up evil; while a bewildered Goku turns toward Upa, Tao throws a grenade at them and leaps into the air, but Goku kicks it back at him and it explodes on him.

The Japanese title of chapter 92 means “The End of Taopaipai” (the Viz English edition calls it “Taopaipai at the Brink”); episode 64 of the anime, which aired in Japan on May 27, 1987, shares that Japanese title and is called “The Last of Mercenary Tao” in English. In the anime only, between the broken sword and the resumption of the fight, Tao climbs Korin Tower in turn: Korin serves him water with no power at all, makes him believe it has an effect, then sends him back down on a dark cloud that he pulls out from under him halfway down.

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Back as a Cyborg Against Tien Shinhan

At the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament (chapter 120), Goku recognizes Mercenary Tao's technique in Chiaotzu's Dodon Ray and reveals that he defeated him, which unsettles Tien Shinhan. In the final (chapter 128), Master Shen insists that Tien must not lose to Master Roshi's student, “for Mercenary Tao's sake”; Tien eventually breaks with the Crane School, followed by Chiaotzu.

Along with Master Shen, Mercenary Tao was Tien Shinhan's master. The anime adds a flashback in which a younger Tien spars with Tao (episode 136).

At the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament (chapter 167), a contestant wearing a strange helmet, with goggle-like eyes, crushes Chiaotzu in the preliminaries and says he only let him live to avoid being disqualified: it's Mercenary Tao, back as a cyborg. He explains that he spent all the money he earned as a hitman on having himself rebuilt, which multiplied his power (chapter 168). His skull is now topped with a domed cap, and his eyes are red, cylindrical and telescopic; only the lower part of his face, from the nose down, and his hair seem to have stayed organic.

Winning the tournament doesn't interest him: he wants to kill Goku, then Tien Shinhan, whom he accuses of betraying the Crane School for the Turtle School. Having qualified for the main event, he faces his former student in the very first quarterfinal (chapter 169); Tien tells him he doesn't want to humiliate him and asks him to withdraw (chapter 170). In the anime, this fight takes up episode 136, “Tien Shinhan vs. Mercenary Tao,” which aired in Japan on November 30, 1988; the two opponents stand face to face without moving for more than ten minutes before the first blow, a scene that isn't in the manga.

Outclassed, Tao breaks free by leaving his mechanical hand in Tien's grip: a hidden blade shoots out of the wrist and slashes Tien's chest. The referee disqualifies him, since weapons are forbidden, but Tao keeps fighting to kill his former student (chapter 170). He then detaches his other hand, which hides a cannon, and fires the Super Dodonpa, a more powerful version of the Dodon Ray; Tien cancels it out with a simple kiai, a shout, then knocks him out with a punch to the stomach. He carries the unconscious Tao over to Master Shen and asks them to leave; Master Shen flies off with his brother over his shoulders.

Dragon Ball Z, Movies, Games and Mercenary Tao's Voices

In episode 170 of the Dragon Ball Z anime, an episode with no counterpart at all in the manga, set while everyone waits for the Cell Games, Tao is a con man's bodyguard. He fires a Super Dodonpa at an old man from the village, but Gohan intercepts the attack; as he's about to try again, Tao notices that the boy looks like Goku, then flees when he learns he's Goku's son.

In episode 174, whose scenes with Tao aren't in the manga either, Tao works for a gangster who holds two Dragon Balls. From his robotic hand, he pulls out three small ring puzzles and promises Goku the balls if he can take them apart before dawn, then makes off with Goku's jacket, which holds the four Dragon Balls Goku has already gathered; Goku teleports to him, and Tao, giving up on a fight, congratulates him.

In Dragon Ball GT, Mercenary Tao is only mentioned: one of the Shadow Dragons was born from the wish that brought back Bora, whom the hitman had killed (episode 49). In the movie Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure (released in Japan on July 9, 1988), Tao is a general, one of the two main villains along with his brother Master Shen, who scheme to seize Emperor Chiaotzu's kingdom of Mifan. There, he kills Bora in the middle of a tournament by hurling him onto a statue's spear; later, in Penguin Village, where Arale knocks him off his pillar, he's caught in the explosion of the two missiles he had just fired, which Goku and Arale send back at him, apparently killing him.

In the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Mercenary Tao makes a brief cameo in the recap of the Red Ribbon Army's history: we see him defeated once again by Goku, who sends his grenade back at him. According to the Dragon Ball Forever guidebook (2004), Mercenary Tao and Master Shen died on an unknown date, after Age 767, in an event the series never shows.

Manga artist Nobuhiro Watsuki modeled Uonuma Usui, a character from his manga Rurouni Kenshin, on Mercenary Tao, who had left a strong impression on him, he explains, as the first villain in the series to defeat Goku. In video games, Mercenary Tao is notably playable in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, as downloadable content.

In Japanese, Mercenary Tao is voiced by Chikao Ōtsuka in the Dragon Ball series (1986–1989) and the movie Mystical Adventure; Yukimasa Kishino voices him in episodes 170 and 174 of Dragon Ball Z. In English, Kent Williams voices him in Funimation's dubs of Dragon Ball, Mystical Adventure and those two Dragon Ball Z episodes, and also voices Dr. Gero. Scott McNeil voices him in the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z and Doug McKeag in the Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball; in Harmony Gold's 1989 dub of the movie, he's called “General Tao Pei” and voiced by Michael McConnohie.

Mercenary Tao at a Glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is Mercenary Tao?
  He's the hitman the Red Ribbon Army hires to eliminate Goku. He's the younger brother of Master Shen, the master of the Crane School.
• How does Goku survive Mercenary Tao's Dodon Ray?
  The beam hit the Four-Star Dragon Ball that Goku kept under his clothes (chapter 87).
• Why does Mercenary Tao become a cyborg?
  After his own grenade, kicked back by Goku, blows up on him, he spends all the money he earned as a hitman on having himself rebuilt (chapter 168).
• Who beats Mercenary Tao at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament?
  Tien Shinhan, his former student: he cancels out Tao's Super Dodonpa with a simple shout, then knocks him out with a punch to the stomach (chapter 170).
• Does Mercenary Tao come back in Dragon Ball Z?
  Yes, in anime scenes that aren't in the manga, in episodes 170 and 174; episode 128 also shows him in Master Roshi's account of the Red Ribbon Army. Outside of Z, the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero brings him back for a brief cameo.
• Who voices Mercenary Tao?
  In Japanese, Chikao Ōtsuka, then Yukimasa Kishino. In English, Kent Williams in Funimation's dubs of the Dragon Ball series, the movie Mystical Adventure and episodes 170 and 174 of Dragon Ball Z, and Michael McConnohie in Harmony Gold's 1989 dub of the movie.

🧩 In episode 174 of Dragon Ball Z, Tao pulls three small ring puzzles out of his robotic hand and challenges Goku to take them apart before dawn; to rack your own brain, pick from our Dragon Ball puzzles.