Mr. Popo

Mr. Popo is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga and Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT anime. He is an eternal djinn who forever tends the grounds of Kami's Lookout and is Kami's assistant. He uses a flying carpet for transportation.
Biography
Kami’s very old and faithful servant, Mr. Popo is thousands (possibly millions or even billions) of years old, and has served every other Kami (God/Guardian of the Earth) of the past. His purpose consists of tending to Kami’s Palace, keeping the lookout clean, helping to reconstruct Shenron if he is destroyed, and most importantly, taking care of Kami. He also tends to the ancient butterfly garden that he planted thousands of years ago, and enjoys the more simple things in life. While YTV's and FUNimation’s English dubbed Mr. Popo speaks complete, highly sophisticated sentences, the Japanese version proves him to be a seemingly primitive figure. His grasp of the common tongue is less than the English-dubbed version makes it out to be, and in addition, the Japanese version has him commonly referring to himself in the third person, which is not done in the English version. (However, he does refer to himself in the third person on Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi; the quote is: "You're here. Mr. Popo is happy.") Although he is not shown frequently in the series, Mr. Popo is an excellent martial arts master. In Dragon Ball, Popo is far stronger than Son Goku when he first arrives at Kami’s Palace. He trains Goku for three years until the boy learns everything he knows. Some of the techniques Goku developed here later prove valuable, such as the Chou Kamehameha, a more lethal version of the attack, though Piccolo survives it with minimal damage. In Dragon Ball Z, he helps Bulma, Kuririn, and Son Gohan get to the Planet Namek by showing Bulma the location of Kami's old Spaceship.
Anime Filler
When first reaches Kami's Sanctuary in the anime, he sees Popo seated on an open rug (possibly the same one he uses to fly with in Dragon Ball Z) with birds on his shoulders and what appears to be a fog covering him.
During the Majin Buu Saga, Mr. Popo has a brief match with Super Saiyans Goten and Trunks. During the fight he blocks several hits and even dodges a kick. After Trunks kicks him once he is seemingly uninjured, proving him a far stronger character than the others assume he is.
Controversy
To some, Mr. Popo is claimed to be a variant of darky iconography, a racist style of caricature. In May of 2000, an article written by children's book author Carole Boston Weatherford claimed that Mr. Popo, along with the Pokémon Jynx, were derogatory stereotypes. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1:63650354/Japans+bigoted+exports+to+kids%7eR%7e(Opinion).html] In 2004, Viz began to downsize Mr. Popo's large lips digitally in the American release of the Dragon Ball manga.[http://www.daizex.com/general/ask/archive/2004_07_04.shtml#2] In the CW4Kids airing of Dragonball Z Kai, Mr. Popo was recolored to be blue.
Trivia
* In the original Japanese seiyÅ« he was voiced by Toku Nishio until Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3,which was his last time perfoming as Mr. Popo before his death in 2005. In 1997-1998, he was voiced by Chris Cason who played Soba (Shu) in Dragon Ball, now he is currently voiced by Christopher R. Sabat up into the video games.
Special abilities
Bukujutsu
This is the ability to fly using one's Ki. Mr. Popo can quickly control his energy and push ki out from underneath him allowing him to fly or levitate in the air with ease.
Bushitsu Shyutsu Gen Majyutsu
A magical ability used to create objects from seemingly thin air. In Popo's case, he brings out a ball of rolled-up rug from nowhere and throws it upon the ground which, instead of actually touching the floor, then opens up in mid-air and becomes his magic carpet. This was only seen during the Garlic Junior Saga so it may not be considered canon, but it does signify as to how he had this magical item during the Vegeta Saga.
;Kai Kai:
Unlike the , Mr. Popo can teleport instantly to a desired location in the Dragon World without requiring the use of an energy signature to home in on. He is first seen using this technique when he teleported with Bulma on his flying carpet to Yunzabit Heights, which was the region where Kami's old spaceship crash-landed and needed to be restored.

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See Also

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