Ginyu Force

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The Ginyu Force Activated: Before Age 762 Deactivated: December 24th, Age 762 Located: Unknown Leader: Captain Ginyu Main Members: Jeice Burter Recoome Guldo Allies: Planet Trade Organization Conflicts: Battle for Planet Namek

The Ginyu Force (ギニュー特戦隊, Ginyū Tokusentai; lit. "Ginyu Special Squadron") is a group of characters in the Dragon Ball Z series, and they appear briefly in Dragon Ball GT. They are an elite mercenary team working for Frieza to conquer planets, and are part of the Planet trade organization.

Creation and Concept

The Ginyu Force

The Ginyu Force has some resemblances and references to Super Sentai teams (like the Power Rangers): five color-coded warriors, tendencies to pose during battle, role calls and supernatural powers. However, because Akira Toriyama's works usually feature parody, the stances used by the Ginyu Force may be a parody of the stances seen in magical girl animes of the time. Some of the recent references to the Ginyu Force's stylistic forms of poses and colorful display comes from Super Sentai series and even Sailor Moon. This resemblance to Super Sentai may be due to Toriyama's son interested in Super Sentai shows as stated by Toriyama in an interview.

The Ginyu Force members follow the tradition of Dragon Ball characters being named for puns; in this case, all manner of dairy products: Guldo is derived from "yogurt", Recoome from "creme", Burter from "butter", Jeice from "cheese", and Ginyu is derived from "milk". The name Gi'nyu Tokusentai itself translates to "Special Corps. Milk".

History

Burter and Jeice

The Ginyu Force is a team of super-elite and powerful warriors. They are called upon by Frieza to assist in the defeat of Vegeta and obtainment of the Dragon Balls on Planet Namek during the course of the Namek Saga and Captain Ginyu Saga in an attempt to regroup from Zarbon and Dodoria's previous failure, which caused their deaths. Though physically some of the strongest in the universe, the Ginyu Force's arrogant members delight in coming up with strange poses, betting candy on fights, and playing Rock-Paper-Scissors to decide the order they should fight.

Ginyu and Jeice on Namek

The overall embarrassment Frieza displayed when they perform their strange poses when arrived on Namek seems to imply that he had never met them in person before, or he had never gotten used to their goofy attitude. The interesting thing about the Ginyu Force is that they have their own individual special or gifted abilities into which they can supplement their own ki. (e.g. Recoome - high-endurance, Burter - incredible speed, Jeice - specialized Ki blasts/techniques, Guldo - psionic abilities, Captain Ginyu - consciousness transferring). The strongest of them all is Captain Ginyu himself, who, for a majority of his appearances in the series, occupies the body of a horned, purple-skinned extraterrestrial, though he is capable of changing bodies at will. All but Ginyu are killed by Vegeta, with Ginyu having the unfortunate mishap of body-switching with a Namekian Frog (and Vegeta deciding to be merciful for once).

The Ginyu Force in Hell

All the members of the Ginyu Force reappear (in the anime only) during the Frieza Saga from their current positions of defeat. Captain Ginyu (currently in the body of a frog) switches bodies with Bulma in the episode "Frieza's Boast", but inadvertently switches back with her while going after Piccolo in "Embodiment of Fire". In the following episode, "Trump Card", Recoome, Burter, Jeice, and Guldo (who are all dead) arrive at King Kai's planet. Recoome fights Yamcha, Burter and Jeice fight Tien Shinhan, and Guldo fights Chiaotzu. Powered up from their training with King Kai, the dead members of Earth's Special Forces (which will later be expanded to the Z Fighters) are easily able to overpower the dead Ginyus, sending all of them into Hell where they are unable to escape.

The Ginyu Force, with Frieza, in Hell

They later team up with Frieza, King Cold, and Cell in the episode Warriors of the Dead, but are all beaten by Goku, falling into the Bloody Pond, and are later impaled on spikes by Pikkon, and are locked up. Ginyu has a few cameo appearances as a frog on Earth throughout the series, until Buu kills him by blowing up the earth.

In the 1995 film Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn and Dragon Ball GT episode "A Dangerous Union", the members of the Ginyu Force made their escape from Hell and were eventually defeated and sent back.

Ginyu Force members

• Captain Ginyu (Commander)
• Jeice
• Burter
• Recoome
• Guldo

Team attacks

• Purple Comet Hurricane (Jeice & Burter)
• Red Comet Attack (Jeice & Burter)
• Purple Spiral Flash (Jeice & Burter)
• Crasher Cannon (Jeice & Burter)
• Continuous Crasher Cannon (Jeice & Burter)
• Purple Comet Attack (Jeice & Burter)
• Ginyu Storm (whole team)
• Body Change Special (Ginyu & Goku)
• Cracker Formation (Ginyu & Frieza)

Video Games

In most of the video games they appear, only Ginyu and Recoome are playable, though the first Dragon Ball Z arcade game also featured Burter. In the opening sequence of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, the entire Ginyu Force strikes their famous team poses; however, only Recoome and Captain Ginyu appear in-game. Dragon Ball Z: The Legend was the first video game to feature all of the members.

Appearances

Ginyu Force members have appeared as enemies in:

The Ginyu Force arrives on Namek in Legend of the Super Saiyan

• Dragon Ball Z: Shutsugen! Ginyū Tokusentai
• Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza
• Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyan
• Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen
• Dragon Ball Z: Goku Gekitōden
• Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku (all except Guldo)
• Dragon Ball Z: Sagas (all except Guldo)
• Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu
• Dragon Ball Online (Recoome and Frog-Captain Ginyu)

Ginyu Force members have been playable characters in:

• Dragon Ball Z Arcade (Captain Ginyu, Recoome, and Burter only)
• Dragon Ball Z: Buyuu Retsuden (Captain Ginyu and Recoome only)
• Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 (Captain Ginyu and Recoome only)
• Dragon Ball Z: Shin Butōden (Captain Ginyu and Recoome only)
• Dragon Ball Z: The Legend

The Ginyu Force in Dragon Ball Z: The Legends

• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai (Captain Ginyu and Recoome only)
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 (Captain Ginyu and Recoome only)
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (Captain Ginyu and Recoome only)
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
• Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors
• Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors (Captain Ginyu only, but the whole team appear during an attack)
• Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2 (Captain Ginyu only, but the whole team appear during an attack)
• Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3
• Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit (Only Captain Ginyu and Recoome)
• Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World (Only Captain Ginyu and Recoome)
• Dragon Ball: Raging Blast
• Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2
• Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team
• Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi (all except Guldo)
• Dragon Ball Heroes

The Vegeta Force

In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, on Namek Stage, when confronting Captain Ginyu for a third time as Vegeta, Vegeta will say that the Ginyu Forces is now disbanded and invites Captain Ginyu to "The Vegeta Special Forces" instead. Ginyu considers it, but suddenly declines, thinking that Vegeta will have a better pose than him. Vegeta gets angry and says that Ginyu is such a pathetic fool for that decision.

In Dragon Ball: Raging Blast, "The Vegeta Force" is the title given to Ginyu Force after Vegeta defeats Captain Ginyu in the What-If scenario, "Ginyu Force Shakeup Part 2: Ginyu Demoted." Vegeta takes the role of captain of the Ginyu Force and renames the Ginyu Force after himself. He also comments on how pathetic the fighting poses are when Recoome asks what their new poses will be. He also calls the current members of the Ginyu Force losers for having poses.

Trivia

• Befitting the team's over-the-top nature, its theme song "Take the Stage!! Ginyu Special Squad!!" is composed of comical, silly lyrics. These include references to frogs, rock-paper-scissors, and afternoon snacks, all related to the Ginyu Force's time spent menacing the Z Fighters. It is sung by the Ginyu Force in the order that they arrive on Namek (Recoome, Burter, Jeice, Guldo, and Captain Ginyu).

The Ginyu Force insignia on a Space Pod

• The Ginyu Force insignia is an upside down A that resembles Ginyu's head.
• Each Ginyu Force member wears a green scouter. The only exception is Guldo, who does not wear a scouter at all.
• All four members of the Ginyu Force that are killed in the Ginyu Saga are killed by Vegeta, although Jeice is actually the only one of the four that Vegeta defeats in a battle prior to destroying him. Vegeta also had a chance to squash and kill Captain Ginyu (as a frog) but decided not to as he did not want to get his boots dirty (though in Dragon Ball Z Kai, his amusement at Captain Ginyu hopping around stopped him from doing so).
• Three members of the Ginyu Force (Burter, Jeice, Recoome) were all played by Christopher R. Sabat in the FUNimation Dub of Dragon Ball Z. However, Burter was originally played by Mark Britten, and was replaced by Sabat after taking leave. In Dragon Ball Z Kai, Sabat kept the role as Recoome, so Vic Mignogna and Jason Liebricht handed over the roles as Burter and Jeice, respectively.
• In addition to their resemblance to the Sailor Senshi from Sailor Moon, the Ginyu Force is also similar to the Witches 5, five chief villains from Sailor Moon, in that they are shadowed when we first see them, and the only ones that last long in a fight against the heroes are the leader and the least serious one (Ginyu and Recoome).
• In Episode 86 (87 in the Japanese version) of the Pokémon anime, The Crystal Onix when Team Rocket does their motto, when Jessie and James say their names near the end, they strike poses similar to the Ginyu Force. Jessie's pose resembles the one Recoome strikes when he is about to fight Vegeta (glimpsed again when Ginyu begins to absorb that Guldo, Recoome, and Burter are dead). James's pose looks like the kind of pose that any member of the Ginyu Force (particularly Jeice or Ginyu) would strike.