How tall is Piccolo?

Piccolo's official height: 226 cm

Piccolo, the Namekian warrior who goes from Goku's archenemy to Gohan's mentor in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, is listed at 226 cm (7′5″). The figure comes from Dragon Ball: Super Exciting Guide, the pair of official databooks Shueisha published in 2009, as cited by the Dragon Ball Wiki. It makes Piccolo the tallest member of the core group of heroes by a wide margin.

The same guide gives him a weight of 116 kg (about 255 lb). At 226 cm and 116 kg, his body mass index is about 22.7. That is a large but proportionate frame: tall, broad-shouldered and muscular without being bulky in the way some villains are drawn.

Piccolo next to the Dragon Ball heroes

Among the main heroes, nobody comes close to Piccolo's height. The gaps to his closest allies are enormous.

Piccolo stands 51 cm above Goku, 62 cm above Vegeta and 73 cm above Krillin. Even the tallest Earthlings in the cast, Mr. Satan and Tien, are almost 40 cm shorter. Of the major villains, Cell in his perfect form (213 cm) and Broly (208 cm) come closest, and both are still noticeably shorter. Frieza, the most feared tyrant in the universe, is 68 cm shorter than Piccolo.

Piccolo and Gohan: the giant and the child

Piccolo's most important relationship is with Gohan. When the Saiyans are on their way to Earth, Piccolo kidnaps Goku's young son and trains him in the wilderness. Over time, the stern Namekian becomes Gohan's protector, mentor and closest friend outside his family.

The size difference is a big part of how that relationship reads. Gohan debuts as a four-year-old, so during his training he would have stood well under half of Piccolo's height. Even as an adult, at 176 cm, Gohan is 50 cm shorter than his mentor, roughly the difference between an adult and a seven-year-old.

According to Wikipedia, Toriyama built the 2022 film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero around the dynamic between Gohan and Piccolo, saying their relationship motivates Gohan even more than his bond with Goku does. In that film, Piccolo gains a new form, Orange Piccolo, which Toriyama considered his first true transformation. He made it orange and extremely muscular to set it apart from Piccolo's regular form, partly because Piccolo has no hair to change during a transformation the way the Saiyans do.

A giant who is younger than he looks

Piccolo's size hides a surprising fact about his age. The Dragon Ball Wiki gives his birth date as May 9, Age 753, when King Piccolo spawned him shortly before dying. Goku's own entry dates the Cell Games, where Goku dies, to May 26, Age 767. That makes Piccolo only about 14 years old in chronological terms during the Cell Games, younger than many of the human fighters around him, even though he has the 226 cm body of a fully grown Namekian. Namekians, in other words, reach their full height far faster than humans, and Piccolo was already an adult-sized fighter when he faced Goku at the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament.

King Piccolo and Kami: the taller originals

Piccolo is the reincarnation and final child of King Piccolo, the demon king who terrorized the world in the original Dragon Ball. King Piccolo and Kami, the guardian of Earth, were once a single Namekian who split into evil and good halves, and both share the same official heights.

In their prime, King Piccolo and Kami were 250 cm and 200 kg, a full 24 cm taller and 84 kg heavier than Piccolo. In old age, both shrank to 223 cm and 115.5 kg, almost exactly Piccolo's size. The Dragon Ball Wiki notes that Piccolo greatly resembles his father but is noticeably shorter and somewhat thinner, and suggests that King Piccolo's extreme height was a personal choice made to look more intimidating rather than his natural size.

The heights become relevant again later in the story. Piccolo fuses first with Nail, a Namekian warrior on Namek, and later with Kami, reuniting the being that King Piccolo and Kami had once been. The Dragon Ball Wiki shows Piccolo as carrying both inside him, but the sources used here give no separate height for the fused Piccolo, so 226 cm applies throughout.

From demon to alien: how Piccolo's design evolved

According to Wikipedia's account of the character's creation, King Piccolo came about because Toriyama wanted a genuinely evil villain after earlier antagonists had turned out too likable. His editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, suggested looking at cruel historical figures for inspiration. A bonus pamphlet given with the Daizenshuu 2 guidebook, however, says the character was modeled on Toriyama himself.

Piccolo and his father were at first presented as members of a Demon Clan. Toriyama has said he never thought of making Piccolo an alien until Kami was introduced, and only midway through the series is it revealed that both are Namekians from another planet. That shift did not change Piccolo's size, but it reframed it: his height became a trait of an alien species rather than a mark of demonic power.

Toriyama later named Piccolo, along with Vegeta, as one of his favorite fighters. Wikipedia quotes him as liking how both stay quiet until they have something to say and carry an aloof, cool superiority. A towering, silent figure in a cape suits that personality perfectly.

Piccolo's versions and forms

Piccolo appears in several forms over the franchise, and only one of them has an official height.

The anime series Dragon Ball Daima turns many of the cast into small children through a wish, and Wikipedia notes that a mini version of Piccolo was voiced by a different actor, Tomohiro Yamaguchi, rather than his usual voice actor, Toshio Furukawa. That shrunken Piccolo is a story device; the regular adult is the one the 226 cm figure describes.

Orange Piccolo is the most visually different. Toriyama designed it to be dramatically bulkier than his regular body. Because no official figure exists for it, comparisons should treat the 226 cm regular form as the reference and note that Orange Piccolo is drawn larger.

Reading Piccolo's numbers carefully

A few cautions help when you compare Piccolo with other characters:

• Do not count the turban or antennae. They can add a noticeable amount to his silhouette, but the official figure is measured to the head.
• King Piccolo and Kami are not the same height as Piccolo. Their prime height is 250 cm. Using that figure for Piccolo, a common mistake, overstates him by 24 cm.
• His weight is real, but some of the bulk is clothing. The 116 kg is the guide's figure for Piccolo himself. His weighted training clothes would add more in a real-world weigh-in.
• Scale in panels varies. Perspective and composition can make Piccolo look closer to or farther from other characters' heights in a given panel. The official 226 cm is the consistent number to use.

Why Piccolo looks even bigger than 226 cm

Several features of Piccolo's design add visual size on top of his listed height:

• The turban. When not fighting seriously, Piccolo wears a white turban that covers his antennae and adds several centimeters to his silhouette.
• The antennae. Without the turban, two antennae rise from his forehead, extending his outline further.
• The cape and shoulder pads. The Dragon Ball Wiki notes that Piccolo, like Goku, trains in weighted clothing. The cape itself is not weighted, but heavy padding underneath it is, and the shoulder pads make his frame look broader.

When comparing Piccolo with other characters, the fair approach is to use 226 cm measured to the top of his head, without the turban or antennae.

What 226 cm means in real-world terms

Converted, 226 cm is 89 inches, or about 7′5″. That is far beyond the range of normal human height. The NCD Risk Factor Collaboration estimates adult Japanese men born in 1996 at an average of 170.8 cm, so Piccolo is more than 55 cm taller than the typical Japanese man. Against the US male average of 177.1 cm, he is almost 50 cm taller. The average height in Japan page shows how far that is from typical.

Basketball is the only real-world setting where people approach Piccolo's height.

Yao Ming, at 229 cm on this site, is just 3 cm taller than Piccolo. Chewbacca from Star Wars, listed at 228 cm, is 2 cm taller. Piccolo is 6 cm taller than All Might from My Hero Academia and 10 cm taller than Shaquille O'Neal.

Comparing Piccolo yourself

The height comparison tool lets you place Piccolo beside Gohan, Goku, Krillin or real people at true scale, and the height difference calculator gives exact gaps. Comparisons worth trying:

• Piccolo vs Gohan: 50 cm between mentor and student.
• Piccolo vs Goku: 51 cm between former enemies.
• Piccolo vs King Piccolo: the son 24 cm shorter than his father in his prime.
• Piccolo vs Yao Ming: a gap of only 3 cm.