Character · Dragon Ball
Krillin
Six burn marks on the forehead, no nose, and by a wide margin the highest death count in the cast.
In Otakana the clue reads: Short bald fighter with six forehead dots
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Dragon Ball
- Letters
- 7 · Easy
Krillin turns up at Master Roshi's island as a small boy who wants training and is willing to cheat to get it. He starts as Goku's rival, loses that argument permanently, and settles into being his oldest friend instead. As the only ordinary human who keeps showing up to fights involving gods and aliens, he is the character the audience measures scale against, and the one who has to decide each time whether to stand in a doorway he cannot hold.
He compensates with technique. The Destructo Disc is a spinning blade of energy that cuts through opponents raw power cannot dent, and it remains one of the few human attacks that genuinely alarms stronger fighters. Later he retires into the least likely life available: police work, a house on the island, and a marriage to Android 18, who was built to kill his best friend.
The six dots are burn scars from moxibustion, a mark of temple training, and they explain the name. クリリン is Kuririn, from kuri, chestnut, and the rin of Shaolin. A bald head, a monastery and a nut in one word.
Spelling KRILLIN
KRILLIN is seven letters and English rebuilt it. Kuririn has a vowel after the K and three light R sounds; the dub cut the U, turned the middle R into a doubled L and kept the ending. So the spelling that sounds right, KURIRIN, is the Japanese one and the wrong one here. Two I's, two L's, and no vowel between K and R.