Shenron, 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.
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). He is the combination of several animals: the horns of a buck (male deer), the body of a python (constricting snake), the whiskers of a catfish, and the teeth of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
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). Multiple times in the Dragon Ball series, Shenron threatens 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 attempted to kill someone in the "Tree of Might" movie 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, 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.
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.
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.
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 Warriors 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 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, 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[]
[]
- An otherwise unknown character uses the Dragon Balls to become a king.
[]
- 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 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 (Piccolo killed him shortly afterwards, he was later revived by Kami and Mr. Popo.) (Brought forth Nuova Shenron in GT).
- Reviving everyone killed by King Piccolo and his sons
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 for all the good people who got killed since the start of the World Martial Arts Tournament (so those killed by Majin Vegeta would be included) to be revived. (Brought forth Naturon Shenron in GT).
- All memories of the Buu would be erased from the populace of Earth, save for the memories of the Z Fighters. (Brought forth Eis Shenron in GT.)
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).
- 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).
Dragon Ball movies[]
* Dragon Ball Movie 1: Curse of the Blood Rubies
- Penny's wish for the end of the rubies
- Dragon Ball Movie 3: 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 Movie 1: Dead Zone
- Garlic Jr.'s wish for immortality.
- Dragon Ball Z Movie 2: The World's Strongest
- Dr. Kochin wishes for Dr. Wheelo to be released from his icy prison.
- Dragon Ball Z Movie 3: The Tree of Might
- Bulma, Gohan and Krillin wish to restore the forest.
- Dragon Ball Z Movie 4: Lord Slug
- Slug wishes for eternal youth.
- Dragon Ball Z Movie 10: 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: Fusion Reborn
- Shenron appears, but no wish is made due to his inability to grant the one Gohan wanted, leading to a somewhat comedic ending.
- Dragon Ball Z Movie 13: Wrath of the Dragon
- Hoy wishes for the abnormally sealed music box containing Tapion to be opened.
- Dragonball: Evolution
Video Games[]
- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2:
- Zarbon collects the Namekian Dragon Balls in his story mode entitled Beautiful Treachery and wishes for eternal youth and eternal beauty.
- Zarbon collects the Namekian Dragon Balls in his story mode entitled Beautiful Treachery and wishes for eternal youth and eternal beauty.
Other media[]
- Crossover with One Piece:
- Hercule 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.
- Shenron granted a wish for a tractor for the Penguin Village.
[]
- Japanese: Kenji Utsumi (Originally) and Masaharu Sato (Onwards)
- Ocean Dub: Don Brown
- FUNimation Dub: Christopher R. Sabat
- Latin American Dub: Ismael Larumbe Sr.
[]
- It's 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).
- In Shin Budokai, it is shown that when someone is wished to a certain place for a certain purpose they cannot leave until it's 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.
- Although he is known as the "Eternal" Dragon, King Piccolo kills him after he wishes for eternal youth.
- During Namek Saga when Frieza tells the namekians about the story of Dragonballs which he had heard, the Dragon shown in his imagination is Shenron, although Frieza had never seen him before.
- The Dragon Fist technique vastly resembles Shenron himself.
- After the Cell Saga, Shenron is able to grant two wishes. Yet in Fusion Reborn he can grant 3 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 another wish in 4 months. It should be noted that the Japanese version of Fusion Reborn mentioned two wishes, so the 3 wishes line was a dub error.
- 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.