Piccolo is the Namekian mentor at the tactical heart of the Dragon Ball Super manga — the former demon king turned guardian whose planning, patience and teaching hold Earth’s defence together whenever the Saiyans are away. The manga rewards his decades in that role with the Super Hero arc, a storyline he drives almost single-handedly, in which Shenron grants him a transformation of his own: Orange Piccolo, the first new form the character has ever received.
Piccolo’s role in the manga
Piccolo is the cast’s strategist and its memory. He reads opponents faster than anyone, coordinates fighters mid-battle, and understands the younger generation better than their own parents do — it is Piccolo who raises the alarm about threats, Piccolo who trains Gohan back into shape, and Piccolo who effectively raises Pan day to day. The manga leans into this: again and again, arcs turn on information Piccolo gathered or a decision Piccolo made while stronger fighters were elsewhere. The Super Hero arc simply makes explicit what was always true — remove Piccolo, and Earth’s defence collapses long before any final battle.
His journey, arc by arc
Piccolo fights in the Universe 6 tournament, where his bout with Frost ends in controversy and an early glimpse of his role as the team’s tactician, and he serves as Gohan’s coach and partner through the Tournament of Power, fighting at his student’s side. In the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, with Goku and Vegeta off-world, Piccolo commands Earth’s defence against Moro’s escaped prisoners — chapter 54’s fight against Seven-Three, fought back-to-back with Gohan, is the purest expression of their teacher-student bond in the whole series.
The Super Hero arc is Piccolo’s masterpiece. Infiltrating the revived Red Ribbon Army in disguise, he uncovers the Cell Max project and Dr. Hedo’s Gamma androids, and realises Earth cannot wait for Goku and Vegeta to come home. His response is a layered plan worthy of his old villain days: he has Shenron unlock his potential — the dragon adding “a little extra” — and then engineers a fake kidnapping of Pan, chapter 93’s “Operation: Kidnap Pan,” purely to force the complacent Gohan back into fighting form. In chapter 95 he duels Gamma 2 while Gohan faces Gamma 1, teacher and pupil fighting the same battle on two fronts. When Cell Max is unleashed, it is Orange Piccolo who holds the monster off, and Orange Piccolo whose near-death at its hands triggers Gohan’s awakening in chapter 99. In chapter 100 he survives long enough to see his student destroy Cell Max with the very technique Piccolo invented.
Powers and forms
Piccolo’s established toolkit — regeneration, limb extension and growth, the Special Beam Cannon, the Light Grenade, and some of the sharpest ki sensing in the cast — is built on technique rather than transformation, which is exactly why the Super Hero arc is such a landmark for him. Shenron’s wish unlocks his latent potential the way the Grand Elder once did for others, and the dragon’s bonus manifests as Orange Piccolo: a bulkier, orange-skinned form with a dramatic surge in power, enough to fight Gamma 2 as an equal and to trade blows with Cell Max, a foe built to kill Goku and Vegeta. The manga presents the form without ranking it against the Saiyans’ god forms — what matters is the gap it closes. For the first time in the series, Piccolo is not merely supporting the final battle; he is one of the fighters it depends on.
Key chapters
- Chapter 93, “Operation: Kidnap Pan” — Piccolo inside the Red Ribbon Army sets his plan in motion.
- Chapter 95, “The Ultimate Teacher and Pupil” — Piccolo battles Gamma 2 while Gohan faces Gamma 1.
- Chapter 99, “Son Gohan’s Ultimate Awakening!” — Piccolo’s stand against Cell Max triggers Beast.
- Chapter 100, “Burst Forth!—Light of Death!” — His technique, in his student’s hands, ends Cell Max.
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Relationships that matter
Gohan is the centre of Piccolo’s world: the child he kidnapped, trained, died for and ultimately rebuilt into Earth’s strongest defender, and the Super Hero arc is structured as the story of that bond paying off. His care for Pan extends the same line to a third generation. With Goku he shares the dry mutual respect of two old soldiers, and Dr. Hedo and the Gammas become unlikely allies once his infiltration exposes who the real villains are — Gamma 2’s change of heart is partly Piccolo’s doing.
Manga vs anime
The Super Hero story was a film before it was a manga arc, and the manga version is Piccolo’s story even more than the film’s cut: Toyotarou expands his infiltration of the Red Ribbon base, the Shenron wish and the staged kidnapping into full chapters, and adds the aftermath sparring on Beerus’s planet. Earlier, the manga also gives him the Seven-Three defence of Earth alongside Gohan — part of the Moro arc, which has never been animated at all.