Yamcha

Yamcha
Dragon Ball character
Yamcha (right) with Pu'ar, drawn by Akira Toriyama and digitally colored by Shueisha
First appearance	Dragon Ball chapter #7: Yamcha and Pu'ar (1985)
Created by	Akira Toriyama
Voiced by	Japanese Tōru Furuya English See Voice actors
Profile
Aliases	Zedaki (Harmony Gold dub)
Species	Earthling
Gender	Male

Yamcha (Japanese: ヤムチャ, Hepburn: Yamucha^?) is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is first introduced as a desert bandit and an antagonist of Son Goku in chapter #7 Yamcha and Pu'ar (ヤムチャとプーアル, Yamucha to Pūaru), published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on January 12, 1985, alongside his constant companion Pu'ar. He is eventually depicted as being reformed, becoming an ally of Goku's.

Yamcha is voiced by Tōru Furuya in all Japanese media. In the English versions, he is voiced by Ted Cole and Christopher Sabat. Yamcha has received mixed reviews since his inception, he has been praised as being a fun character, but criticized as an outclassed fighter later in the series.

When Toriyama decided to create Dragon Ball, he used Chinese author Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West as a prototype for his own series. Yamcha took the role of Sha Wujing. His name is a pun on a form of Chinese cuisine called yum cha. A prototype for Yamcha was Gojō, the river monster, from Toriyama's one-shot series Dragon Boy.