Shenron

Shenron
神龍
Shenlong
Anime name	Shenron
Manga name	Shenlong
Alias	Eternal Dragon Dragon God Dragon Lord
Debuts
Debut	Manga: "Bloomers and the Monkey King" Anime: "The Secret of the Dragon Balls"
Appears in
Characteristics
Race	Dragon
Birth Date	Age 470
Death Date(s)	Age 753 (revived) Age 767 (alternate timeline)
Professional Status
Personal Status
Relatives	Kami (creator) Dende (second creator) Porunga (Namekian counterpart) Ultimate Shenron (Black Star Dragon Ball counterpart) Black Smoke Shenron (evil counterpart)

Shenron (神龍, Shen Long; literally "Spirit Dragon" or "Dragon of Spirit"), is a magical dragon from the manga Dragon Ball, as well as the anime Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT. In the English dub of Dragon Ball Z, he is mostly called the Eternal Dragon and in the early Harmony Gold Dragon Ball English dub from the 1980s, he is known as the Dragon God; a literal translation of his Japanese name. Shenron is shown with the horns of a stag, sharp teeth, green scaly skin, red eyes, four toes on each foot, a long serpentine body (his tail takes up three-fourths of his length), long flowing whiskers, a long snout, crescent shaped nostrils, and flowing green hair on his cheeks. He is an Eastern dragon, whose kind are benevolent and sacred in Oriental mythologies. Unlike the Western dragons, which have large dorsal foldable wings on their backs, he has none. His kind are good at heart, but as a strong dragon, he has an aggressive temper, and is impatient sometimes (for some reason more so than Porunga, the Namekian Dragon).

Description

Shenron's first appearance in Dragon Ball

Shenron can be summoned by gathering all seven of the Dragon Balls of Earth. Shenron can bestow any wish as long as it does not exceed the power of his creator, who must be still alive (i.e. Kami /Piccolo or Dende). Shenron has also threatened to kill the summoner if they do not say a wish on time, or if they do not say a wish at all (although he has only actually attempted to kill someone in the "Tree of Might," where Gohan's friend dragon Icarus tries to attack Shenron). According to Goku, Shenron cannot (or will not) grant the same wish more than once. The Dragon Balls cannot be used for one year after a wish is made, as they turn to stone. The Earth Dragon Balls are relatively small, each about the size of a large orange.

The Shenron of the Black Star Dragon Balls is red, opposed to the Shenron of Earth who is green. Unlike Porunga, Shenron can only grant one wish per summoning, until Dende upgrades him to grant 2 wishes. Shenron can wish back more than one person per wish, provided that they (1) died less than a year ago, (2) died under a common circumstance (e.g. killed by a certain villain), and (3) haven't already been wished back before. This is used to revive the victims of many villains, such as King Piccolo and his men, Frieza and his men, and Cell.

Shenron in Path to Power

In the King Piccolo Saga, after King Piccolo uses the Dragon Balls to regain his youth, he murders Shenron before he can disperse to prevent anyone else from using the Dragon Balls against him. However, after his defeat, Kami revives Shenron to reward Goku for his valiant efforts against King Piccolo. He had originally decided not to recreate them, as he originally designed the balls to encourage acts of bravery and give people a sense of hope, but the selfishness and greed of mankind caused the Dragon Balls to be used in the exact opposite manner than that intended. It was only upon Goku displaying his undying love for his friends that he decided that there were, indeed, good people left in this world.

After Dende's remodeling, if a person only needed one wish, then the Dragon Balls would scatter around the world in the same way as if someone had spoken both wishes. However, the Dragon Balls will only become stone for 4 months, allowing the finding of the Balls and summoning of the Dragon 8 months faster than usual. Using the Dragon Balls this way allows only one wish the next time Shenron is summoned. Afterward, the balls scatter and turn into stones for a whole year, the next time allowing the two wishes it normally grants.

Shenron listening to Shenron's wish

Also, in the manga, It was implied during the Buu Saga that Dende may have upgraded Shenron during the seven years of peace, as Goku mentions that they have two wishes left after they wished for all the people killed that day back to life, but Piccolo replies that the immense amount of revivals during that time had consumed most of the Dragon Balls power to the extent that it could only allow one more wish.

In Dragon Ball GT, an evil dragon, known as Black Smoke Shenron in the English dub, is invocated from the cracked Dragon Balls (which were cracked because of Negative Energy), which emits seven individual dragons. Goku, along with his family and friends, are significantly inconvenienced and must battle them resulting in the Shadow Dragon Saga. After Goku and the other Z Fighters defeat the Shadow Dragons, Shenron appears without being summoned. He heals Goku's wounds and grants one last wish before he leaves the Earth with Goku and the Dragon Balls in order to recuperate and teach the Earth to stop relying on the Dragon Balls to solve their problems. One hundred years later, Shenron presumably returns, as the four-star Dragon Ball is

The Last wish in Dragon Ball GT

seen.

Non-grant-able wishes

Shenron can bestow any wish as long as it does not exceed the power of his creator, who must still be alive when he is summoned (i.e. Kami or Dende). He is unable to restore life to those that have died because of old age (but he can restore a person's youth), sickness or any other natural deaths. In the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, it is revealed that Shenron cannot grant the same wish more than once (e.g. bringing back those from the dead that have been killed before, etc.) and he also cannot grant a wish to defeat or kill a living being that surpasses the power of his creator (this means that the Dragon can't kill an enemy that Kami or Dende themselves are incapable of killing).

Granted wishes

Before Dragon Ball

• An otherwise unknown character uses the Dragon Balls to become a king. It is highly probable that the ramifications of this wish are still being felt to the present day, as the entire world is unified into one giant kingdom, with regional provinces dotting the globe, as shown in the King Piccolo Saga.

Dragon Ball

• Oolong wishes for a pair of panties off a "hot babe" (though he just yelled the first thing that came to his mind as he was trying to stop Emperor Pilaf from making his own wish). Due to censorship issues, the English dubs changed this wish to "the world's most comfortable pair of underwear" (Brought forth Oceanus Shenron in GT).
• Goku wishes for Upa's father Bora to be revived (Brought forth Haze Shenron in GT).
• King Piccolo wishes for his youth to be restored (brought forth Nuova Shenron in GT).
• Reviving everyone killed by King Piccolo and his sons.

Dragon Ball movies

Dragon Ball Movie 1: Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

• Penny's wish for the end of the rubies

Dragon Ball Movie 3: Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure

• Goku wished for Bora to be revived.

Dragon Ball: The Path to Power:

• Goku wishes for Shenron to rebuild Android 8 and remove the bomb inside him.

Dragon Ball Z

Saiyan Saga:

• Master Roshi wishes for Goku to be revived (Brought forth Rage Shenron in GT).

Frieza Saga:

• Mr. Popo wishes for all those slain by Frieza and his henchmen on Planet Namek to be brought back to life. (Brought forth Syn Shenron in GT.) This is the only wish that Shenron did not know he could grant.

Cell Games Saga:

• Yamcha wishes for all people killed by Cell and the other Androids to be revived.
• Krillin wished for the self-destruct bombs in Android 17 and Android 18 to be removed.

Majin Buu Saga:

• Bulma wishes that all the good people killed the day of the World Martial Arts Tournament to be revived. This resulted in Kibito being brought back to life along with the victims of the World Martial Arts Tournament. (Brought forth Naturon Shenron in GT.)
• All memories of the Buu massacres would be erased from the populace of Earth, save for the memories of the Z Fighters. (Brought forth Eis Shenron in GT)

Dragon Ball Z movies Edit

Garlic Jr.'s wish for immortality.

Dragon Ball Z Movie 2: Dragon Ball Z: The World's Strongest

• Dr. Kochin wishes for Dr. Wheelo to be released from his icy prison.

Dragon Ball Z Movie 3: Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might

• Bulma, Gohan and Krillin wish to restore the forest.

Dragon Ball Z Movie 4: Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug

• Lord Slug wishes for eternal youth.

Dragon Ball Z Movie 10: Dragon Ball Z: Broly - Second Coming

• Goten wishes to himself that his father was there, and an image of Goku appears. However, he did not summon the dragon, Shenron acted on his own.

Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn

• Shenron appears, but no wish is made due to his inability to grant the one Gohan wanted. This leads to Shenron remaining summoned. At the last moment in the film right before the credits, Shenron says,"Um, does anybody have any more wishes?"

Dragon Ball Z Movie 13: Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon

• Hoy wishes for the abnormally sealed music box containing Tapion to be opened.
• As they say their goodbyes to Tapion, Goku and friends mention that they will summon the dragon again to wish all the people back to life who died during the battle against Hirudegarn. (This part of the conversation is only mentioned in the Japanese Version.)

Dragon Ball GT

Shadow Dragon Saga:

• All the people of Earth who were killed after the doorway to Hell was opened (in Super 17 Saga) to be brought back to life (Shenron's last wish).

Other media

Dragonball Evolution

• Goku wishes for Roshi to be brought back to life.

Cross Epoch (Crossover with One Piece)

• Mr. Satan wishes to become a king. After this, Shenron invites his friends to his cave for a tea party during the one-year break.

Dr. Slump

• Shenron granted a wish for a tractor for the Penguin Village.

Voice Actors

• Japanese: Kenji Utsumi (Originally) and Masaharu Sato (Onwards)
• Ocean Group Dub: Don Brown
• FUNimation Dub: Christopher R. Sabat
• Harmony Gold Dub: Mike Reynolds (Movie 3)
• Latin American Dub: Abel Rocha
• Portuguese Dub: Ricardo Spínola
• Brazilian Dub: João Batista and Jonas Mello

Trivia

• In the original Dragon Ball logo, it is shown that a green "Chinese" dragon very similar to Shenron is tyed around the letters eating the "O".
• Although he is known as the "Eternal" Dragon, King Piccolo kills him after he wishes for eternal youth, although "Eternal" could simply mean he does not get old and die, but can still be killed.
• During the Namek Saga, when Frieza tells the Namekians about the story of the Dragon Balls which he had heard, the dragon shown is Shenron, although Frieza had never seen him before.
• The Dragon Fist technique vastly resembles Shenron himself.
• In one of Akira Toriyama's artworks, the Dr. Slump character Arale is seen holding Shenron and tying him up.
• Shenron's original design changed over the course of the Dragon Ball timeline, as his underside changed from green to a more yellow or minilla color.
• When Shenron revives someone, they appear where their body is located and all injuries healed up. However, if the body was destroyed, the person will be revived in the exact same place he died, regardless if it doesn't exist anymore. This was why at first it was a problem to revive Krillin and Goku (who was thought to be dead after Namek was destroyed), as reviving them would bring back to a planet that doesn't exist so they would have died in the vacuum of space. However, the souls can be moved to the Other World Check-In Station and thus allowing the revived to appear where the dragon was summoned instead.
• After the Cell Saga, Shenron is able to grant three wishes (two if one is resurrecting a massive amount of people). Yet, in Fusion Reborn, he can grant three wishes and in Wrath of the Dragon, he can grant only one (though this may be due to the Dragon granting the one wish in the Buu Saga to revive Vegeta's victims, but the other wish not being used so they could make another wish in 4 months). It should be noted that the Japanese version of Fusion Reborn mentioned two wishes, so the three wishes line was a dub error. Also, the second wish was omitted from the English version (they intended to use the second wish to revive all those who were killed by Hirudegarn).
• After the time of the Majin Buu Arc, Porunga became stronger than Shenron, as he can resurrect several people at the same time, including people who had already been resurrected before.
• It is shown in Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai that Shenron cannot grant wishes to someone he cannot understand.
• In Shin Budokai, it is shown that his power cannot cross dimensions, or timelines (which contradicts what is said in regards to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber during the Fusion Saga). Fusion Reborn also hints at this when he states that he cannot grant the Z Fighters wish to prevent the Dead from escaping Hell as it was a problem that originated within Other World and although he is capable of moving the dead souls back to their dimension, they would simply just return.
• In Shin Budokai, it is shown that when someone is wished to a certain place for a certain purpose they cannot leave until it is finished, and forms of translocation like Instant Transmission do not work.
• In Shin Budokai, it is shown that he may leave after a certain amount of time if the person in question doesn't give the wish under a time limit.
• In Dragonball Evolution, Christopher Sabat is credited as the voice of the Eternal Dragon. However, whatever lines he may have had were not kept in the final cut of the movie. They were most likely his usual lines in the anime.
• Mystical Adventure is the only movie that Shenron is summoned under water.