Pan: The Granddaughter of Goku and Mr. Satan

She flies all the way around the Earth and, the very next day, competes in the World Martial Arts Tournament where her grandfather Mr. Satan is the champion: Pan takes after both of her grandfathers. Here's the story of Goku's granddaughter, from her birth to her old age, through the manga, Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball GT.

Daughter of Gohan and Videl, granddaughter of Goku and Mr. Satan

Pan is the granddaughter of Goku, Earth's hero, and of Mr. Satan, the world martial arts champion. As the daughter of Gohan, himself born to a Saiyan father and an Earthling mother, and of Videl, an Earthling, she's only one-quarter Saiyan. Akira Toriyama created her in the Dragon Ball manga.

Her name means “bread” in Japanese, where pan, a generic term, is part of the names of various specialties, like karē-pan or melon-pan: it carries on the food-based names of her father's side of the family, gohan meaning “rice.” The name also recalls the goat-legged Greek god Pan, whose image came to be associated with the devil: a possible echo of her mother's name, an anagram of the English word devil, and of her grandfather Mr. Satan's.

Even before she's born, Pan counts: in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013), as in Dragon Ball Super, both anime and manga, a pregnant Videl takes part in the Super Saiyan God ritual on behalf of her unborn daughter, since a sixth Saiyan is needed. In episode 9 of the anime, which aired in Japan on September 6, 2015, the five-person ritual has just failed when Videl reveals she's expecting Gohan's child; Chi-Chi suggests naming the baby “Gomen.”

According to the timeline in the official guidebooks, Pan is born in Age 779; in Dragon Ball Super, her birth comes a few months after the fight against Beerus. Episode 17 of the Dragon Ball Super anime, which aired in Japan on November 1, 2015, opens with Pan already born: Mr. Satan dreams of turning her into a great martial artist leading more than a hundred disciples, while Chi-Chi wants to raise her as a well-behaved little girl.

🎈 In that same episode, Chi-Chi and Bulma wonder what kind of party to throw for Pan; to celebrate a birthday of your own, choose from our Dragon Ball birthday party supplies, including a balloon bouquet featuring kid Goku, Gohan, Videl and Pan.

Four years old and already at the World Martial Arts Tournament

In the manga, Pan first appears in chapter 518, titled “10 Years After” in the Viz Media English edition, the second-to-last chapter of Dragon Ball, collected in volume 42. Ten years after Majin Buu's defeat, she arrives at Goku's house and tells her grandfather she has just flown around the Earth.

She enters the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament; Bulma is worried, because there's no junior division this time and the little girl will have to face adults. In chapter 519, the last chapter of the manga, the announcer introduces her as a brilliant little girl of only four, Mr. Satan's granddaughter.

Her first-round opponent, Mō Kekko, also known as Wild Tiger, stands 2.30 m tall and had lost to Buu, the Majin Buu who turned good and became Mr. Satan's partner in crime, in the semifinals of the previous tournament. Pan leaps up, punches him in the face, then kicks him out of the ring and straight into the arena wall.

In the anime, she first appears in episode 289 of Dragon Ball Z, titled “Granddaughter Pan” in English (its Japanese title means “Grandpa Goku! It's Me, Pan!!”), which aired in Japan on January 17, 1996. In episode 291, the last of the series (January 31, 1996), Pan cries and begs Goku not to leave to train Uub; her grandfather comforts her and asks her to be strong for him. In the manga, Goku says goodbye and leaves right away.

At the end of that final episode, Trunks, Goten and Pan put on an impromptu fight to entertain the crowd: Pan beats her uncle Goten with a slap, with Trunks as referee. The scene is anime-only.

For fans of Pan

Dragon Ball Figure - Pan in Superhero Costume

At four years old, Pan beats Mō Kekko at the World Martial Arts Tournament; this figure shows her in her superhero costume, with a yellow helmet with antennae, a red cape and a V for victory.

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Dragon Ball Super: a flying baby, then Piccolo's student

In the movie Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' (2015), Pan, still a baby, is looked after by Piccolo at Gohan's house until Videl gets back from grocery shopping with her husband.

In episode 43 of the Dragon Ball Super anime, which aired in Japan on May 15, 2016, Pan is accidentally carried off by the Pilaf Gang. Their flying robot is destroyed high in the sky, and Pan, having unleashed her energy, floats in midair, with Pilaf, Mai and Shu hanging on to her foot. Goku, Chi-Chi, Goten and Piccolo, who were babysitting her and searched for her everywhere, find her asleep on the couch and think she was simply hiding: they have no idea she flew.

In episode 131, the last episode of the Dragon Ball Super anime (aired in Japan on March 25, 2018), Pan flies every which way during the party that closes out the series and crashes into Vegeta, who's left with a bump on his head.

In the Dragon Ball Super manga, in chapter 91, Pan, then in preschool, dreams of becoming a superhero like Goten and Trunks, who have just had to give up their heroics for not studying enough; Piccolo decides to train her.

The movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, in which Pan plays a major role, was supposed to come out on April 22, 2022; a cyberattack on Toei pushed it back to June 11, 2022 in Japan. In it, Piccolo trains three-year-old Pan in the woods near his home: she'd like to learn to fly but can't do it yet. He notes that, for her age, she shows far more promise than Gohan once did. Pan is therefore younger than at the end of the Dragon Ball manga: the movie takes place before that epilogue, where she's four.

To lure Gohan, the new Red Ribbon Army decides to kidnap his daughter, but the kidnapping will be staged: undercover among its soldiers, Piccolo volunteers for the mission and sees it as a way to reawaken Gohan's fighting instinct; Pan happily agrees to play the part. When preschool lets out, Red Ribbon soldier No. 15, who claims he's there to pick her up, is knocked out cold by the little girl, who then recognizes Piccolo, disguised as a soldier, by his ki. At the base, Carmine, threatened by Pan, opens fire on her: she dodges every bullet, then knocks him out.

Pan finally learns to fly, but not the same way in each version: in the movie, by dodging an attack from Cell Max; in the manga, in chapter 98, by jumping off a building to catch the last Senzu Bean, which she throws to Gohan. In chapter 103, the man picking her up from preschool with her father is a stranger to her: when she learns he's her grandfather Goku, she tests him with a kick, which he blocks effortlessly.

🦸 Pan dreams of being a superhero; to play hero yourself, browse our Dragon Ball toys, including the costume of the Great Saiyaman, the masked crime fighter played by her father, Gohan.

Dragon Ball GT: the space adventure with Goku and Trunks

In the first episode of Dragon Ball GT, which aired in Japan on February 7, 1996, Pan, out on a date with a boy named Poperu, easily takes down two crooks, which sends her date running. She then discovers, to her horror, that the little boy she snapped at is her grandfather, turned back into a kid.

In episode 2, titled “Pan Blasts Off” in English (its Japanese title means “I'm the Star! Pan Flies Off Into Space!!”; aired February 14, 1996), Pan stows away aboard the spaceship Bulma designed and launches it while Goten is on the phone: she leaves with Goku and Trunks in place of her uncle, in search of the Black Star Dragon Balls.

In GT, Pan wears a short red top that bares her midriff, an orange bandana tied on her head, gray denim capris decorated with chains, and fingerless gloves like the ones her mother wore in Dragon Ball Z. Akira Toriyama didn't write GT's story, but he did draw the new looks of Goku, Trunks and Pan for the series.

On Imecka, Trunks drops the Dragon Radar, which is swallowed by the little robot Giru, who integrates it into his system: Giru becomes the team's Dragon Ball detector and Pan's friend.

In episode 34 (aired in Japan on January 22, 1997), Goku, transformed into a Golden Great Ape, is on a rampage; Pan approaches him and shows him the martial arts outfit he gave her when she was little. It's a family photo at the beach, which falls out of her bag, and her pleading that bring Goku back to his senses: he then transforms into a Super Saiyan 4.

At the World Martial Arts Tournament in episode 41 (aired on March 12, 1997), Goku is placed in the junior division and Pan with the adults: according to Krillin, Mr. Satan wants her to become champion to keep the title in the family. Yet Pan withdraws partway through the tournament, afraid she'd have to grow a mustache if she became the new champion.

During the battle against Super 17, Pan attacks and captures Dr. Gero. Later, off with Goku and Giru to hunt down the Shadow Dragons, she is absorbed by Naturon Shenron, who turns her power against Goku; later still, while she's unconscious, she is savagely attacked by Eis Shenron, who steals her Dragon Balls. Earlier in that hunt, she had stood up to the dragons: she had first easily dominated Haze Shenron, until his pollution weakened her, and, with a Kamehameha, forced Oceanus Shenron to drop its guise as a sea princess (Princess Oto).

In episode 64, the last episode of GT (aired in Japan on November 19, 1997), Goku leaves with Shenron; Pan finds Goku's outfit, and Vegeta tells her to take good care of it before leaving her alone.

A hundred years later, and Pan's voices

At the very end of the Dragon Ball GT anime, a hundred years later, at the 64th World Martial Arts Tournament where Goku Jr. faces Vegeta Jr., an elderly Pan spots Goku in the crowd and runs after him, but can't find him. In Japanese, she thinks: “You were here, weren't you, Grandpa Goku?”

The TV special Dragon Ball GT: A Hero's Legacy aired in Japan on March 26, 1997, between episodes 41 and 42 of the series. It takes place in Age 889: Pan, now over a hundred years old, is a lively old lady in excellent shape despite being a little frail. She trains Goku Jr.; while scolding him for not standing up to a bully at school, she faints and is hospitalized, which drives the boy to set off in search of a Dragon Ball to cure her.

The family relationship between Pan and Goku Jr. varies between versions: the Japanese version makes her his great-great-grandmother, Funimation's American dub his grandmother. The safest thing is to say he's her descendant.

In the online game Dragon Ball Online, Pan takes over Mr. Satan's distance-learning martial arts course in Age 794, renamed the Pan Fighting Network, and becomes its instructor.

Pan never transforms in the series. According to Akira Toriyama, if he had never drawn a female Super Saiyan before (Caulifla wouldn't come along until Dragon Ball Super), it was partly because neither Pan nor Bulla had any reason to transform; the Japanese guidebooks (Daizenshuu 7) nonetheless suggest she would have the potential, just as she would have the potential to become a Great Ape.

In Japanese, Pan is voiced by Yūko Minaguchi, who also lends her voice to her mother, Videl; in Dragon Ball Z Kai, it's Shino Kakinuma. In English, Lucy Small (Susan Huber) voices her in Funimation's Dragon Ball Z dub, then Elise Baughman takes over in Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Z Kai; Jeannie Tirado, who voiced her as a baby in Dragon Ball Super, voices her again in the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

Pan at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• Who are Pan's parents?
  Gohan and Videl. Her grandfathers are Goku and Mr. Satan; she's only one-quarter Saiyan.
• How old is Pan at the World Martial Arts Tournament at the end of the manga?
  Four, at the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament, where she fights the first match in chapter 519. With no junior division, she faces adults and beats Mō Kekko.
• Is Pan really kidnapped in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero?
  No: the kidnapping is staged by Piccolo, undercover in the Red Ribbon Army, to push Gohan into fighting. Pan plays along.
• What does Pan do in Dragon Ball GT?
  She heads into space with Goku, turned back into a kid, and Trunks, in search of the Black Star Dragon Balls.
• Does Pan become a Super Saiyan?
  Not in the series. The Japanese guidebooks credit her with the potential, but she's never shown transforming.
• Who voices Pan?
  In Japanese, Yūko Minaguchi, who also voices Videl. In English, notably Lucy Small (Susan Huber) in Funimation's Dragon Ball Z dub, then Elise Baughman in Dragon Ball GT, and Jeannie Tirado in Dragon Ball Super and the movie Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

🖼️ In Dragon Ball GT, a family photo that falls out of Pan's bag helps bring Goku back to his senses; to put your heroes up on the wall, choose from our Dragon Ball posters.