The Dragon Ball franchise often gets tunnel vision and becomes “The Goku Show” for long spans of time, but there was a period where the sprawling series was meant to chronicle the circle of life and the changing tides in Goku’s family.
Gohan’s daughter, Pan, has always been a bit of the black sheep in the Saiyan family. She’s one of the few female Saiyans who the series looks at, and even though she’s a main character in Dragon Ball GT, she still continues to be a bit of an outlier in the fandom.
However, Pan is an especially exciting character because she’s someone who is still growing up and has an uncharted future ahead of her. Dragon Ball Super does a great job at filling in some of the gaps and gets to highlight Pan’s conception, birth, and infant years, but there’s still so much more to touch on.
Besides, Pan’s also one of the only Saiyans who doesn't become Super Saiyan (even in the video games), so she’s overdue for a redemption tour. In the meantime, Pan’s still a baby, but the character has already covered a surprising amount of territory.
Here are the 16 Crazy Things That You Didn’t Know About Dragon Ball’s Pan.
She Helps Goku Become A Super Saiyan God
Pan is an exceptional character purely for the fact she solves problems and helps save the world before she’s even born-- no one else gets to lend a hand as a fetus. Pan’s path as a hero gets set in motion right from conception.
The first saga of Dragon Ball Super and the Battle of Gods feature film introduce the God of Destruction, Beerus, who’s set on turning Earth into space rubble. Beerus is determined to fight against the legendary “Super Saiyan God” and when it comes time to perform the ritual, Pan is a crucial part of the process.
The Super Saiyan God ceremony involves six Saiyans who donate their energy to a pure-hearted Saiyan in order to trigger the transformation. It appears that the group will be a member short to complete the ceremony, but Videl reveals at this moment that she’s pregnant with Pan and thus she’s able to qualify.
She's Stronger Than Majin Buu
Back in Dragon Ball Z, Majin Buu was as tough as it gets. After all, the character beat the likes of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and even super powerful fused fighters like Gotenks and Vegito.
Pan isn’t born yet when the showdown against Majin Buu takes place, but in Dragon Ball GT, she faces General Rilldo. It’s mentioned that Rilldo’s base form is stronger than Majin Buu and Pan manages to defeat him using only two attacks. Trunks even begins to question if this young girl has surpassed him.
The fact that Dragon Ball GT has such a marred reputation and isn’t strictly considered to be canon is unfortunate because one of the aspects that the show really gets right is its treatment of Pan. It’d be great to see where this super strong character could go if she were given the opportunity.
Her Lack of Super Saiyan Nature Isn't Her Fault
Pan is a rather interesting character because she’s actually one of the few Saiyans who doesn't get to turn into a Super Saiyan. Even characters like Raditz or Nappa who don’t canonically become Super Saiyans get to experience the honor in Dragon Ball video games. However, even in video games Pan remains in her base form.
Even though Pan’s Super Saiyan powers have never revealed themselves, Toriyama admits that this isn’t because Pan isn’t strong enough or hasn’t gone through the necessary trauma. Instead, he simply didn’t know how to draw a female Super Saiyan since he didn’t know what that would look like.
Obviously this “challenge” got figured out in Dragon Ball Super with Kale and Caulifla, but it’s interesting that it’s because of this weird hang up that Pan was never able to push through to the other side. Maybe the next Dragon Ball video game will finally go there.
She Has The Potential To Turn Into A Great Ape
This entry verges off into “What If?” territory, but it definitely gains some significance due to who weighs in. Many people believe that Dragon Ball has turned into a series that is all about transformations, yet Pan is a Saiyan who doesn’t get to experience such thrills.
In spite of this, both Akira Toriyama and TOEI have stated that Pan has the potential to turn into not only a Super Saiyan, but also a Great Ape, it just never happened.
The prospect of this young female Saiyan turning into a huge gorilla is instantly more interesting than when Goku and Vegeta transform.
It’s also worth pointing out that Pan does not have a tail, which is integral to the transformation. However, GT is all about bringing back the Great Ape. It’s easy to picture Pan achieving it in the same way that Vegeta does with artificial rays.
She Lives To Be Over 100 Years Old
Dragon Ball is a series that covers a surprising span of time. The first episodes of the original series depict Goku’s childhood adventures, and by the end of Dragon Ball GT, he’s a grandfather and many decades have passed.
The series also knows how to have fun with this timeline and it sets many stories within the gaps that get skipped over. For example, Dragon Ball Super takes place at the end of Dragon Ball Z, but during the ten-year gap that happens at the end of the show.
Dragon Ball GT pulls some similar theatrics and jumps forward in time a considerable amount at the end of the series and for its special, A Hero’s Journey. In these flashforwards, Pan is shown to be 100 years old as she watches her grandson, Goku Jr., fight against Vegeta Jr. in the 64th World Martial Arts Tournament.
She Was The First Major Female Saiyan
Dragon Ball is without a doubt a series that’s highly fueled with testosterone, but that hasn’t stopped a number of female fighters from popping up in the series.
The original Dragon Ball even introduces the under utilized Launch, as well as Chi-Chi, who begins as a fighter in the series. In spite of this, female Saiyans are few and far in between. They’re more rare than Super Saiyans at this point.
Pan is the first female Saiyan to really get any focus. She’s basically the only female Saiyan to receive any attention (looking past the ancillary character, Fasha, in Bardock: The Father of Goku) until quite recently, when Caulifla and Kale from Universe 6 enter the picture in Dragon Ball Super.
She’s still the only female Saiyan (and to a larger extent, the only female fighter) to be a core cast member in a series.
She’s Been Turned Into A Doll
Dragon Ball GT goes to some pretty weird places, but the gang’s pit stop on Planet Luud introduces Dolltaki and the Machine Mutant Luud, which bring both religion and obsessive fandom into the show’s crosshairs.
Dolltaki uses his grifting powers to start his own religion. Weirdly enough, part of Dolltaki’s “Luudism” involves the followers getting turned into dolls, who are then absorbed by Luud and turned into energy for Baby (yes, there are a lot of parts to this plan).
Pan not only gets turned into a doll by Dolltaki, but she also becomes his favorite doll. He pampers her, plays with her, and takes her everywhere with him.
The whole thing would be sweet if it wasn’t so pathetic. Pan, with Goku’s help, eventually defeats Luud and returns to normal. Pan is the only character in the series who has actually been turned into an action figure.
She Has An Aversion To Dancing
Pan is still on the younger side as far as Dragon Ball characters go and she certainly gives into many child-like tendencies. That being said, do not ask Pan to dance. She’d rather fight against an evil dragon or a fused android than move her body to some music.
The activity of dancing comes up a few times in Dragon Ball GT (like with the Para Para Brothers and their Para Para Dance) and for whatever reason, it utterly embarrasses Pan.
The Dragon Ball video games also play into this trait and in Dragon Ball Fusions Pan is more prone to use the Metamo-Ring for her fusions than the traditional dance.
Then again, maybe all of this stems from her parents’ theatrics as the Great Saiyaman 1 and 2. They might have ruined the activity for her and branded it as dorky before she could ever learn to love it.
She's Had Four Voice Actresses In Funimation's Dub
It’s not unusual for the dubbed version of anime to feature roles that get recast. Sometimes this can come down to budgetary issues and a change of dubbing studio, or even personal issues or a fervent fan response.
In the case of Pan, the character is a young child so it’s only natural that there will be different voice actors involved between a baby, child, and pre-teen version of a character.
Pan has an especially large amount of voice actors. The character has four different voice actors in the Funimation dub alone and seven if you include the other English dubs that exist.
For a point of reference, Pan only has two voice actresses in Japan, and the second one only came recently in Dragon Ball Kai. If Pan continues to get older in Dragon Ball Super, then she might need even more voice actresses to step in.
She Forms The Pan Fighting Network Martial Arts School
One of the most interesting aspects of Dragon Ball Online is the creative story that it cobbles together by using many forgotten characters from the collective series. The online titles put a spotlight on many ancillary characters and expands on them in fun ways.
One of these methods is that the video game sets up a faction of fighters that are all pupils of Pan. It turns out that she started a school of martial arts known as the Pan Fighting Network.
As much as Pan is eager to tutor fresh warriors, her school is also meant to compete against the style of teaching that Hercule Satan, her grandfather, enforces. Someone has to be pushing legitimate martial arts so the world doesn’t get swayed over Hercule’s style over substance tactic for saving the world.
She Fuses With Bulla In Dragon Ball Fusion
Everyone goes crazy over hypothetical fusions that involve Goku, Vegeta, or even Piccolo, but it doesn’t seem like enough people try to throw Pan into the fusion mix. This is a real shame because the character lends herself to some creative fusions that pay respect to her lineage, and she’s still a Saiyan after all.
For instance, Dragon Ball Fusions pairs the daughter of Gohan with the daughter of Vegeta together to some interesting results. Bulla and Pan are good friends in Dragon Ball GT, so a fusion actually makes a lot of sense and the end result here is Bulpan.
Pan also fuses with her mother, Videl, to become Pandel. Goku was eager to fuse with his son, Gohan, but couldn’t make it happen, so it’s sort of sweet that these two make it possible. Naturally, all of these fusions are with the Metamo-Ring, as Pan isn’t one for choreography.
She Suffers From Fame And Vanity Issues Due To Mr. Satan Being Her Grandfather
The closest thing that Dragon Ball has to a celebrity is Mr. Satan and his showboating theatrics. Hercule Satan is never one to pass up an opportunity to be on television and obtain fame, but Pan is the exact opposite.
It even appears like Satan’s time in the spotlight has caused his granddaughter to develop a natural aversion to being the center of attention.
For instance, in Dragon Ball GT, Pan drops out of several World Tournaments because of public image issues that she faces because Hercule Satan is her grandfather.
Hercule’s fame is also a detriment to Pan in other ways. For example, she’s worried that she’ll be kidnapped because of her famous family. Pan even resorts to a Saiyaman-like costume in the Dragon Ball Online so she that can hide her identity and become anonymous without the baggage of her family’s status.
She Was Almost Named Something Else
One of the most commonly known hidden jokes within Dragon Ball is that many of the characters have names that are derived from different items or food groups.
It’s a little amusing that different varieties of breads, vegetables, and fish can be the inspiration for such creative characters, but what’s the difference in the end? Everyone’s named after something.
Pan’s name is fitting enough and it plays into the whole bread angle that so many of Goku’s family are named after, but Dragon Ball Super reveals that the little Saiyan almost had a very different name.
Chi-Chi suggests the name Gomen to Gohan and Videl, regardless of whether the child is a boy or a girl, and the two run with it for a very long time before eventually switching over to Pan. Gomen would certainly be appropriate after Goku and Gohan, but maybe they felt that it was more of a boy’s name.
She Has A Signature Attack Style
What’s cool about Pan is that she knows how to perform a lot of attacks that reflect her heritage and the other fighters in her family. She can throw out a killer Kamehameha or Masenko, but she also has a bunch of original attacks that get to show off her own style better.
Pan’s biggest moves are her energy projectiles like Maiden’s Rage and Maiden’s Burst, which are both killer techniques.
Most notably, Pan pulls these off to great success against Great Ape Baby in the 31st World Martial Arts Tournament. These attacks have also grown to be quite popular in the Dragon Ball video games, which have also expanded upon Pan’s repertoire of attacks.
Pan’s Maiden attacks serve many purposes, as she can use them whenever she needs a strong single blast or a projectile that can hit multiple enemies.
She’s The Youngest Character To Fly
It’s absolutely crazy that Pan as a baby appears to be as strong as Goku was as a child in the original Dragon Ball. In Dragon Ball Super, there’s an entertaining filler episode where baby Pan gets out in the wild and ends up foiling the plans of Pilaf and company.
Pan’s exploits entail her inexplicably leaving the Earth’s atmosphere, flying, and powering up in a very Super Saiyan-like fashion. This character is in a onesie and she masters what it took Videl an entire episode to conquer.
In the original Dragon Ball, Goku defeats Pilaf, so the transitive property would state that Pan is just as strong as he was then, even though she’s just a baby.
Other examples in the series seem to indicate that the children of Saiyans appear to get progressively stronger, so this isn’t exactly a huge surprise since Pan is the first Saiyan grandchild.
She’s The Youngest Fighter To Enter The World Martial Arts Tournament
So this isn’t exactly confirmed, but it’s something that lines up when all of the details get examined. There have been some young competitors in the World Martial Arts Tournament.
In fact, there have even been such an increase of young fighters that the Tournament started to host a junior division branch to accommodate them. As a result, there have been young competitors like Goten and Trunks, but Pan gets involved at an age that even puts them to shame.
Pan enters the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament at the age of five and does an amazing job. She defeats a grown man, Wild Tiger, in two punches. Plus, at the end of Dragon Ball Z, she not only also beats Hercule, but Goten too, and she makes it to the final round before the Tournament gets canceled.
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