Garlic Jr, Dragonball Z Movie 1 and Garlic Jr Saga
Movie 1 was great, but the Garlic Jr saga was no good. So I'm going to reserve most of my commentary here. Instead I think I'll let good ol' Prowling Wolf (of the "Wolf Fang Fist?") take over the descrip and I'll just fill in holes wherever I see fit.

As far as I know about this guy, he and his father, Garlic, and are seeking immortality with the help of the Dragonballs. They kidnap Gohan and try to make him their disciple (like sooo many others). Garlic Jr. kind of looks like Emperor Pilaf and talks a lot like him too. But one thing Garlic Jr. achieves that other villain doesn’t is... can I have a drumroll, please?......IMMORTALITY! Ya heard me! He gets to be immortal! That’s deserving of extra brownie points on the Villain-O-Meter. So therefore, he is utterly invicible, right? Wrongo. Goku banishes him to the DeadZone. I guess that’s like purgatory or something. He escapes from the DZ after the Freiza saga and fights Gohan and Piccolo after trapping Kami in a bottle. I like this saga, really. It gives somebody besides Goku a chance to shine. But I feel sorry for Piccolo. It must be horribly annoying to fight someone shorter than your kneecaps. ;)

Good bio, let me fill in some info here. Garlic Jr's father was a competitor with Kami for the role of... well... Kami. Basically Kami and Garlic both wanted to possess the title of Guardian of the Earth. Garlic was evil so he was bottled and banished, Kami was pure so he won the toss. Garlic Jr showed up in Movie 1 with the sole desire to achieve immortality and unleash his vengeance on the earth by releasing all of the demons in HIFL (heh... Funimation reference...) to feast on the living or something gross like that. In a rare break in form for this long-living series, the Garlic Jr saga actually made a reference to the movie plotline upon Garlic Jr's arrival on the scene. Usually DB/Z movies exist in an alternate-timeline but in this case they made direct references to it (the only other exception I can think of is the abundance of references and cels shared between the Freeza Saga and the Bardock Special). Anyway, this whole weird story emerges about Garlic Jr escaping the Dead Zone due to celestial alignment, he captures Kami in a bottle, he turns the remaining Z fighters into demons, and Piccolo pretends to fight on the side of evil again (check the Piccolo Pages for a great screengrab of Piccolo faking Garlic Jr's possession). Lots of fighting, lots of henchmen with food-name puns, and an overall mediocre mini-saga.

 

Raditz, Dragonball Z Season 1
Vidal Sassoon's biggest nightmare. Just check out that mane! Raditz isn't a Super Villain but he is the motivating cause behind Vegeta's arrival, and subsequently the whole trip to Namek and the whole Freeza battle and eventually Goku's Super Saiyan transformation. If Raditz hadn't arrived then none of that would have ever happened! I'm going to let Prowling Wolf (scarier than a prowling bunny) take care of this bio because he's so colorful about it!

Raditz is Goku’s older brother. Family issues, now, Akira-san? Raditz comes to earth to check on his baby brother’s progress. Here’s where we learn a whole buttload about Sayiajins, that Goku is one and that his name is Kakkarot. Raditz kinaps Gohan and will only return him if Goku kills 100 people and brings the dead bodies to him. Yuck, dude, yuck. Goku joins up with......PICCOLO! An unlikely duo, yes, but an effective one in the end it turns out. Piccolo has developed a special attck to use on Goku, the Makkusuppo (or Special Beam Cannon), but he uses it on Raditz first. Raditz kicks around for a couple of episodes until Goku grabs his tail, which is the Achilles of a Sayiajin. Raditz practically gets down on his belly and licks Goku’s boots to get him to let go. Goku, like a blasted fool, does. Piccolo warned him not to and I bet he felt like an idiot (not to mention being one) when Raditz got up and stomped his butt into the ground. Methinks that fall off the cliff messed up more than his Sayiajin mindset. Like his common sense. Piccolo builds up his ‘Cannon' for a second time (after a failed attempt) and Gohan finally gets his power level up to slam into his uncle with the rage of many disgruntled shrews. This weakens Raditz, Goku grabs him from behind and holds him until Piccolo can fire his beam cannon. It looks like a corkscrew. Don’t worry next time you’re on a hot date and the waiter can’t find a corkscrew, fellows! Piccolo can open it for ya! *Voice-bad joke!* Speaking of bad jokes, Raditz’s humor is a little corny, FYI. Before Raditz dies, Picc tells him of the dragonballs. As it turns out, that dirty base-turd didn’t tell anybody his scouter was a CB radio deal. He tells Picc that 2 more sayiajins much stronger than himself will be here in one year and they heard all about the dragonballs. He starts laughing manically and Picc finally puts him out of his misery.

Thanks again! Okay if you want a good look at that "corkscrew of death" you can head over to my Piccolo Pages (over in the lefthand sidebar, Veggiehead) and read pretty much the same joke as my pally-wally made here. Dragonball fans... we're all so humorous! So anyway, not much more to say about this fellow. If he really was Goku's brother, I wonder why they didn't mention him in the Bardock Special? Hmmmm.... the forgotten son...

Dr. Wheelo, Dragonball Z Movie 2 "The World's Strongest"
Back to the cold, evil embrace of androids. Dr. Wheelo and his assistant Dr. Kochin (not just a nasty old man, but a robot to boot!) are animated examples of why technophobes like me exist. According to the backstory, generously supplied in an expository monologue by Bulma, Wheelo and Kochin were reserachers who tried to use the awesome power of science to take over the earth (why does everyone want to take over the earth???). Unfortunately for their ambitions, an avalanche buried their laboratory, crushing Wheelo's body and freezing the lab in the coldest of un-meltable ice. Years later, Kochin gathers all of the dragonballs and uses his wish to melt the ice and release his buddy. Wheelo goes into action. Turns out he survived by having his brain implanted into a huge metalic robotic beast-body, and his only wish is to find the strongest man in the world so he can steal his body and wreak his vengeance on mankind. For what? Avalanches? Who knows. Anyway, he kidnaps Master Roshi and pits him against his henchmen, Ebafuliya, Mitsokatsun, and Kishimi (forgive my spelling, I'm doing the phonetic thing here). Goku arrives on the scene, does a bunch of kaioken attacks, and makes his way to Wheelo's haven. This is when we find out Wheelo has kidnapped Piccolo and made him evil again. All of us evil-Piccolo fans are gratified to witness a good fight between him and Goku, but it's cut short by Gohan's scream of rage. Back to Dr. Weelo, his best weapon is the big ol' laser cannon in his robotic-body's rump. What I couldn't figure out was why he wanted a human body when his metalic body was so much more capable of mass destruction? Check the Encyclopedia section to read up on Massive Oversights if you want to know my theory about that.

Vegeta, Dragonball Z Season 1... and the rest of the series...
He was most definitely a Super Villain. The real question is whether he actually ever became anything but a villain. I think the Majin Vegita episodes ought to quell any argument on that front. Vegita's got classic Napoleon Syndrome. He's short and hopping mad about it. He's a spoiled prince, heir to the throne of his home planet, in good with Freeza, and strongest of the remaining Saiyans. Or so he thinks, until he meets Goku. He has great depth to his character, in fact he is one of the deepest-explored characters in the entire series. Through episode after episode we grow to understand his weaknesses, his motivations, his conflicts, his pains, and we learn that his desire to find the dragonballs is ultimately driven by a desire to achieve immortality so he can escape from life under Freeza's thumb. But forgetting all of that, at this point in the series he's just a bad, bad man. Next to Piccolo, he's probably my favorite character simply because of the depth of his character. He's like Othello, deep and ultimately his unlikeability becomes his greatest assett and attraction to fans.

Turles, Dragonball Z Movie 3 "The Tree Of Might"
Picture Goku with a chubbier face and olive skin. I'm going to turn his bio over to Prowling Wolf again (i'd prowl too, but i'd end up spending too much time stuck in traffic) since Turles was his suggestion and the inspiration for this entire section. In fact, if you click Turles's pic you can see the site Prowling Wolf has dedicated to Goku's nemesis from Movie 3.

Turles is a Sayiajin space pirate who is seeking universal domination. An aspiring evil overlord. Hmm, me like! He looks exactly like Goku, too. Always a plus in villains. He could have used that to frame Goku for a crime spree he went on, but alas and alack, he doesn’t. Or seduced Chichi and then blew up the planet for the sheer heck of it or something equally villainous. Why does he look exactly like Goku? Food for thought...
1. Long lost twin brother
2. Doppleganger
3. Goku’s inner evil manifested (Piccolo to Kami)
4. Animators ran out of ideas.
Probably the latter. Who cares?! He’s wicked cool and definitely a force to be reckon with. Well, not *exactly* like Goku. His skin is a little darker and his head is a little bigger, but I’m nitpicking aren’t I? So Turles and his crew come to Earth and plant the Tree of Might. Goku and them catch wind of it by means of that blue catfish Kai. They go whoop up on Turles’s lackeys, Turles messes around with Gohan ( NEVER, EVER mess with Gohan! It’s a deathwish.) and turns him into a Oozaru ( that’s the giant monkey, for people who haven’t seen subtitled DBZ or the orig. Japanese video). Goku gets all riled up about this and attacks Turles. Turles eats the fruit of the tree and...sit back, relax and dig the carnage. I mean 4 or 5 minutes of straight whooparse! This reminded me of a cat batting a mouse around before finally killing it. To wrap this thang up, Goku makes a weak spirit bomb, throws it at Turles, he cancels it out and blows Goku to the ground. But check Goku: he’s all tore up and STILL can gather the tree’s energy for a spirit bomb. Turles finally gets up to the tree, eats ONE piece of fruit (Gorge, darn you! Gorge!!!!!), and Goku takes his ripped up self up there and acts like he’s about to do something. He’s talking about: "It’s over, Turles, and I won’t forgive you!" Turles looks at him with a "You’re-something-I-scrape-off-my-boot" look. That stare...oooo...makes me shiver. That is one scary mutha. Goku eventually blows Turles up (after a staredown) through the tree. Darn you, Kakarotto! That bloodcurling scream.....that’s GOTTA hurt.

Thanks for that colorful description. I agree with your assessment, why in the heck didn't Turles stuff mad quantities of fruit down his craw? And why did he think, if he himself was a Saiyan, that he could control Gohan in Oozaru mode? Again, refer to the Massive Oversights bit of the Encyclopedia Section.

Freeza, Dragonball Z season 3&4 and the Bardock Special
Check this picture out. I've got a theory that Dragonball Z is nothing more than a giant "pull my finger" joke. Check out Piccolo's beam canon, or how about Vegeta's gallet gun, and Freeza himself's either about to make a gastronomical statement ala Pilaf or else he's got a glowing boogie on his finger. Anyway, I will yet again turn the floor over to Prowling Wolf. Boy howdee!

Frieza. Hmmm....it this a male or female alien? They say it’s a "he", but "he" talks like a 50 year-old woman. Like Eartha Kitt, really. It makes him sound all cat-like and witchy. He wears black lipstick and nailpolish. Maybe he’s a hermaphrodite like Piccolo. But his dad is *King* Kold. Sigh. That why I like Sayiajins and Humans: they have apparent male/female lines. Frieza blew up the planet Vegetasai/Vegeta/ Planet Plant and all the Sayaijins on it excluding the ones you see.(except for in the Bardock/Baadock special.) Hmm, ever notice those Sayiajins seem to named after plants? It’s surprise since they seem to be pretty darn good at hunting (might I direct your attention to the first ep in DB where Goku catches that big fish? And the fact that he eat frogs and snakes...) Freiza is the most powerful being in space at the time. He goes to the planet Namek and trys to steal the Namekian dragonballs from them to wish for (dum dum dum dramatic reverb!) immortality. If he had just asked nicely, perhaps he would have succeeded. If he hadn’t been terrorizing them, the Z boys would have not had grounds to beat him into a bloody pulp, now would they? Can’t you just see Frieza being nice? Freiza: ZARBON! You give that nice man back his dragonball! Ha! Gohan, Krillin and Vegeta have a go at him, but Vegeta gets killed when Goku steps in. Goku gets his arse kicked but, when Freiza kills Krillin, Goku goes the infamous SSJ and it’s tit for tat for a while until Goku finally releases that \\$#@^ spirit bomb and blows him (and the planet) to smithereens and escapes on one of the Ginyu Force’s pods. Part of Frieza, like half the torso containing the heart and head are left and since he can breathe in outerspace, he floats around until Daddy comes to check up on his little guy. He gets the mechanics to build him a new body and Freiza comes out looking like a patchwork quilt. Eventually both he and his dad are blown completely up by Trunks. Serves that little beeyotch right! Blowing up the Sayiajins! I’m glad Trunks got him. Right on, Trunks, right on!

Thanks for handling this one, I was so tired of this lengthy saga by the time it ended that I couldn't stomach regurgitating his evil frolicking, even for the sake of the DB/Z Gallery.

Android 13, Dragonball Z Movie 7
13 started out all human-looking, then ended up looking like... well like Bojak. Android 13 was completed after Dr. Gero was killed by Android 17, in this weird alternate universe where 17 and 18 were no longer a concern but definitely in the story, and before Gohan could turn Super Saiyan. In this story, viewers realize Dr. Gero had a second-level lab not destroyed by the Z fighters where 3 more androids were in mid-creation. As the narration goes, the computer took up Dr. Gero's specific hatred for Goku and finished these "ultimate" androids as a means of finally doing away with him. The first 2 go after Goku and a whole lotta fighting goes on in some arctic region. Trunks shows up and helps out, and then in a fantastic display of light and shattering ice, Vegeta shows up and declares "the right to kill Kakarotto is reserved for only me" and joins the fight. Woo hoo, good stuff. Android 13 shows up and the three Saiyans go off and beat up their individual foes. Trick is, once the other 2 are dead, Android 13 absorbs their power units and becomes Super 13. His skin turns blue, his hair turns orange, and he get's really insanely strong. Goku does a Genki Dama (Spirit Ball in the U.S.) and absorbs it as a Super Saiyan, then expells the energy in such a powerful blast that it actually melts Super 13's fists and destroys him instantly. Best part of the movie? When Gohan (who had been watching from a distance) wakes up and sees his dad and goku waves and makes this weird little "yo!" noise. Oh, that and the closing shot of Vegeta and Piccolo sharing a silent ride home on an iceberg.

Cell, Dragonball Z Season 4 and the Trunks Special
I'm guessing on the season here, as I'm unsure how the sagas were divided up in the original Japanese broadcast. Frankly I'm not geek enough to care, either. The point is, Cell was god-awful evil times 3. Sucking people dry for their energy, eating androids, trying to destroy the earth, who did this guy think he was?? Cell is one of my favorite villains because of his design. I think you can really see the artistic shift in the animation during the Android/Cell Sagas, and his design led to the later DBZ character refinements that really ended up looking fantastic. Compare Perfect Cell's design to Season 1 Vegeta. No comparison on artistic improvement. Cell also hints at the design of Janemba, who is my favorite movie villain. Cell was pure evil, because he was designed to be. There was never any chance of reform on his part, he knew nothing but the most vile hatred for humanity. But that's what made him cool right?

Janemba, Dragonball Z Movie 12
Best... movie... EVER. Janemba was created when a low-paid demon in HIFL (there's that joke again...) neglected the soul-washing machine and was caught in the blast when the overloaded evil-collecting tanks exploded. All of the laws of the universe change and Janemba is born as a big, yellow, stay-puffed chipper villain who claps and smiles and yells "Janemba! Janemba!" So Goku and Pikuhan (surrogate Piccolo, if you ask me...) go after him and Goku beats the tar out of this jolly old fellow by going SSJ3. But then the Janemba goo resudue collects into the second, more evil form, the purple and red guy pictured above. This is where it gets good. His attacks are boss, his attitude is righteous, and his strength is greater than that of a SSJ3 fighter. Vegeta shows up, unsure why he's suddenly got a body, and he gets pummelled into the ground. Goku and Vegeta fuse (incorrectly first) and become Gogeta, who is super strong and throws punches you can't even see. He holds up his hand and creates something a friend of mine called a "mood ball" but which looks to me like an iridescent moon pie, then hurls it at Janemba. Game over. Great stuff. Janemba never speaks once in his second form. Oh sure, he yells but he never actually says something. It's like he's pure evil personified, non-communicative, not driven by a motive, just evil and destructive. Best... villain... EVER!!!