Dragon Ball character tier ranking

🟠 Shit-talking all the Saiyans and their friends. SPOILER WARNING!

I started watching Dragon Ball in 2026. So far I have watched:

all of Dragon Ball Z Kai
all of Dragon Ball Super
both the Dragon Ball Super films

I haven't seen any of the original series yet, but will probably catch up at some point. I'm sure watching Kai means I missed some bits from OG DBZ as well. Some day I will watch the infamous driving lessons episode.

However, I will not let my incomplete knowledge stop me from achieving my goal: ranking all the characters from best to worst. (Or at least all the characters I have anything to say about.)

This list will evolve as I keep watching.

S tier

Vegeta
BADMAN. Vegeta is everyone's favourite and I tried so hard for him not to be mine too, but unfortunately his character development is just too good. I love this stupid insecure asshole. Also Christopher Sabat bellowing "KAKAROT!" will never get old. Congratulations, Vegeta, you're finally #1. That's right, boys... mondo cool.: Bulma
It took me a while to warm up to DBZ Kai's version of Bulma because she doesn't get much to do at first, but now I love her. This woman is an engineering genius who invents time travel and confidently schmoozes with deities – what's not to like? And she consistently has great hair.: Piccolo
DBZ's Saiyan Saga was my introduction to Dragon Ball, so of course I immediately fell in love with Piccolo. I mean, the guy blows up the moon. Unfortunately, as the series became more Saiyan-focused, Piccolo got stuck with the role of "character who gets his ass kicked so the audience can see how dangerous the new villain is". I strongly object to this. Let Piccolo win a fight once in a while! And let him blow up another moon!! Thankfully Super Hero gave him one more chance to really shine (and show off his kitty-cat phone case). Still the best dad in the series btw: Lord Beerus the Destroyer
Funny purple kitty cat who is mean and likes food 💖💖💖 I am ignoring the fact that he has slaughtered untold quadrillions of sentient life forms 💖💖💖

A tier

Krillin
Krillin peaked when he and Gohan teamed up on Namek during the Frieza Saga, but sadly suffers from the same power-scaling issue as Piccolo where he's now almost completely sidelined from the plot. I still like him a lot because he's just a thoroughly good egg. Also he's very much an "I love the kind of woman that will actually just kill me" guy, and I respect that.: Future Trunks
Time-travelling grimdark sword twink with the coolest character introduction of anyone on the show. Great outfit. And he's the only Saiyan smart enough to actually try to kill his enemies ASAP instead of letting them get stronger so they can have a cooler fight!! Groundbreaking philosophy!!! Clearly Bulma's genius coming through. Also imagine being child Trunks and this angst-ridden adult version of yourself periodically shows up to flex on you with how much cooler and more traumatised he is and you have to watch your mum fuss over him instead of you. This is extremely funny to me. I love Future Trunks and I hope he suffers outlandishly forever.: Whis
Delightful and unbothered. A worthy bestie for my girl Bulma. Would watch his food reviews channel on YouTube.: "Limit Break x Survivor"
"Now wait a minute," you might be saying. "This isn't a character. This is the intro theme for Dragon Ball Super's Universe Survival Saga." Too bad. It's my tier list and I'm putting it on here anyway because I love it and it gets me hyped as as hell every single time. DOOT DOOT DOOT, DOO-DOOT DOO-DOO-DOO-DOOT

B tier

Gohan
Child Gohan: amazing, perfect, my baby boy, incredible character arc, no notes. Teenage Gohan: okay, I guess. Adult Gohan: lame as hell ☹️: Mr Satan
Mr Satan's concept is very funny – if a villain announces to the entire world that they're holding a fighting tournament, it makes sense that someone besides our protagonists might show up. And it's even better for that person to be an absurd pro-wrestler-style celeb who's hilariously out of their depth. I didn't expect that Mr Satan would survive Cell, so I was pleasantly surprised when he became part of the gang. His arc with Buu was my favourite part of the Buu Saga, although I do now worry he's trapped in a toxic relationship. S-tier name though. YYYEAAAAHHHHH!!!: Android 18
18 achieves the (unfortunately rare) status of being the only woman in the show who's still allowed to throw down after becoming a mother, although she remains wildly underused. I love her original incarnation where she's more like a sulky Gen X teenager with a great wardrobe (remember that cowgirl outfit??). Thankfully the Tournament of Power brought her back off the sidelines, although I still yearn for a proper 18/Krillin-centric story.: Android 17
Kind of a sassy bitch, which I like. I was disappointed when he vanished for ages after the Cell Saga, so it was a treat to have him back for the Tournament of Power – and even better that he actually played such a pivotal role instead of just making up the numbers. Loved how he got into the spirit of being a villain to the other universes. And he did all that in jeans?!?!!??!: Frieza
I was a little divided on Frieza during his DBZ saga. Perhaps my biggest beef is that his final fight with Goku and co lasts for a mind-numbing six hours, which is simply too long to fight one guy, and his Resurrection F comeback didn't do much for me either. Then Goku had the phenomenally dumb idea to bring him back again for the Tournament of Power... and, to my surprise, Frieza's presence turned out to be one of my favourite parts of that saga. I loved his constant scheming, backstabbing and bitchy comments (I especially lost it at "Go on, Goku! Be your best ape!" and "Dance for us, monkey!"). Still don't think they should have let him go at the end, but that's an issue to take up with Goku. Either way, Frieza remains the most memorable perma-villain Dragon Ball has ever had, especially because he has motivations beyond just "kill everyone".: Android 16
My sweet baby robot who never did wrong in his entire life. Listening to the birds in heaven 🙏🙏🙏: Captain Ginyu and the Ginyu Force
Absolutely lost my mind the first time the Ginyu Force showed up and did their special introduction. Quality weird little freaks. I'm pretending Ginyu didn't get de-frogged and dispatched in Resurrection F and he's still hopping around out there.: Hit
I like how this guy seems to inhabit his own separate noir when he's not interacting with the main cast. Cool design, cool powers, still maintains his mystique.

C tier

Grand Zeno(s), the Omni-King(s)
The scariest concept on this show is that mortals are nothing more than playthings for a fickle child who might wipe us out at any moment. These guys force mortals to fight for their entertainment and then erase their universes from existence without a second thought! They're creepy!: Babidi
An evil space wizard who looks like a cross between a rat and a testicle, my boy Babidi was a better baddie than his saga's big bad. Honestly, I miss him.: Videl
Teenage Videl was so cool and tough and fiesty, but in Super... oof. I can't even say she gets a personality transplant because that would imply she has any personality left at all. It makes me sad. Why would Toriyama do this to me?: Chi-Chi
Since I started watching the series with DBZ Kai, my initial impression of Chi-Chi was a shrewish caricature whose thankless role is to stop the boys from having any fun. I was surprised when I found out she was originally a martial artist too. As the series progressed, my fondness for Chi-Chi grew, mostly out of sympathy for her being saddled with the world's most useless husband and co-parent.: Goten and Trunks
Lumping these two together since they basically operate as a unit anyway. They're fine. I don't have much to say about them.: Yajirobe
The cockroach of the Dragon Ball universe. Comes in clutch when needed, stays out of everyone else's bullshit the rest of the time. Honestly, fair enough.: Sixth Universe Saiyans
Never quite clicked with the very different art style these three have, but they're fun foils for the main crew and I wouldn't mind seeing more of them. Also Caulifla and Kale are sisters like Uranus and Neptune are cousins. Speaking of which...: Second Universe lesbian polycule
Won my heart with the power of love! Apparently a lot of people hated these characters. Wrong, fools – putting magical girls in Dragon Ball is funny. They do NOT get to talk shit about Krillin's lack of nose though.: Broly
Don't much care about this guy, but wearing your childhood pet's severed ear as a skirt because your mean dad shot it off with a laser is a hilarious tragic backstory.

D tier

Goku
Causes 99% of the problems on this show by being a complete dumbass, then never lets anyone else resolve them. Flanderised to the point of becoming unbearably stupid. And did I mention no woman has ever suffered as much as poor Chi-Chi??? Kiss your wife, asshole!!!! Look after your damn kids!!!!!: Cell
Amazing saga... but Cell himself is just not very interesting as a character. Sorry!!: Zamasu
Another great saga, and a cool concept for a villain, but Zamasu winds up being the embodiment of that one ProZD video. Too often Dragon Ball falls back on antagonists whose goal is just "I want to kill everybody". (Successful redemption arc for voice actor James Marsters after that dogshit live-action movie though.): Tien
One of those guys who I assume was more important in the original Dragon Ball but now mostly seems to just hang around for old times' sake. I feel nothing for him.: Chiaotzu
See Tien. Honestly idk who or what Chiaotzu is. Is he human? Is he an alien? Is he a magically animated doll?? It's confusing.: Supreme Kai
Remember when this guy was introduced and Piccolo was terrified of him??? lol.: Yamcha
I originally wrote something really mean about how Yamcha's only contributions to DBZ Kai are A) being a big whiny baby about potentially dying, and B) actually dying, but he redeemed himself a bit in the Super baseball filler episode. I admire the man's genuine passion for the sport (and for being a meme).

E tier

Jiren
Kind of cool and mysterious at first, but that boring backstory really sucked all the interest out of his character, and then he was just a big angry guy. Diet Hit.: Majin Buu
So annoying oh my god shut uuuup!!!!: Gotenks
So annoying oh my god shut uuuup!!!!

F tier

Master Roshi
I will kill this elderly pervert with hammers.