Character · Dragon Ball
Nappa
The invader who lands second, talks the most, and plants a row of green fighters in the dirt like seedlings.
In Otakana the clue reads: Bald invader who arrives with the prince
- Type
- Character
- Series
- Dragon Ball
- Letters
- 5 · Normal
Nappa arrives on Earth with Vegeta, a head taller and several ranks lower. He was a general under the old Saiyan king and has spent the years since the homeworld died working as muscle for whoever pays. His method is straightforward: land, check the scouter, destroy something populated to make a point, and let his prince decide when it stops being entertaining.
He brings Saibamen, which he grows on the spot by pushing seeds into soil and waiting a few seconds. They are the first opponents in Dragon Ball Z that the Earth's defenders cannot simply overwhelm, and the fight against them costs the heroes more than they expect. Nappa himself exists mostly to demonstrate a gap. He is far beyond everyone on the planet and clearly beneath the man standing next to him, which is how the arc explains its own stakes without a speech.
Saiyan names are vegetables and nappa is leafy greens, the same word behind napa cabbage. For a bald man built like a wall it is a deliberately silly choice, and Toriyama made a habit of those. His prince is named after the vegetable category itself, so the pair land on Earth as cabbage and produce.
Spelling NAPPA
NAPPA is five letters and the doubled P is real in both languages. ナッパ carries a small tsu, the character that stops the sound and doubles the consonant after it, so a Japanese speaker holds that P too. Two A's, in the second and fifth slots, with the P pair between them. This is one answer where writing what you hear works.