Android 18
Antagonist turned allyDragon Ball Z
- Also known as
- No. 18; Lazuli (her name before conversion)
- Team
- Red Ribbon Androids, later allied with the Z Fighters
- Occupation
- Cyborg created by Dr. Gero; later martial artist and member of the Son/Kuririn circle
- Japanese voice
- Miki Ito
- English voice
- Meredith McCoy
- Affiliation
- Red Ribbon androids; later Z Fighters by marriage
- First appearance
- Android Saga
- Series
- Dragon Ball Z
Who is Android 18?
One of Dr. Gero's human-based androids, created to kill Goku. Cool, sardonic and far stronger than the heroes expect, she joins her brother 17 on a casual rampage before Cell absorbs them. Spared by Krillin, who destroys the device that could shut her down, she is restored by the Dragon Balls and gradually drifts from villain to reluctant member of Goku's extended circle.
Appearance
A slim, pale blonde woman with cool blue eyes and shoulder-length hair parted so that it falls across one side of her face. Her first outfit is deliberately ordinary: a denim vest over a striped shirt, a dark skirt, dark tights and brown boots, with small gold earrings. She later changes to a loose blue denim jacket and black shirt. Her expression is usually flat and faintly amused, and she carries herself with relaxed, unhurried posture even in combat. Nothing about her appearance signals artificial origin until she fights.
Personality
Eighteen is dry, blunt and difficult to impress. She mocks opponents and allies alike with a flat, unbothered humour, treats danger as an inconvenience and rarely raises her voice. Unlike her creator's intention, she has no interest in obedience and no particular appetite for slaughter; she shops, joyrides and fights when it amuses her. The one consistent soft spot is her brother, and threats to him provoke genuine anger. Over time a second attachment forms, awkwardly and almost against her will, in the form of a short fighter who refused to destroy her. Pride keeps her from sentiment, but her loyalty, once given, is absolute and expressed through action rather than words.
Background
Before her conversion she was an ordinary human, a delinquent abducted along with her twin brother by Dr. Gero, the surviving scientist of the Red Ribbon Army. Gero rebuilt the pair as cyborgs powered by an unlimited internal energy reactor, intending them as weapons of revenge against Goku, who had destroyed the Army years earlier. They proved uncontrollable, and he sealed them away in his mountain laboratory. In the alternate future that Trunks comes from, the two awoke and spent years razing cities and killing the Earth's defenders. In the main timeline they are released early, by Gero himself, when he panics during an attack.
Role in Dragon Ball Z
Androids Saga
Woken in Gero's laboratory alongside her brother, she promptly turns on her creator and destroys him. Unimpressed by the fighters sent against her, she breaks Vegeta's arm and defeats him decisively, treating the whole confrontation as a diversion rather than a battle, and leaves rather than finish the job.
Imperfect Cell Saga
Hunted by Cell, who needs to absorb her to complete himself, she goes on the run with her brother and with Krillin's unexpected help. After her brother is swallowed she fights on, but Vegeta's interference allows Cell to reach her, and she is absorbed to make him perfect.
Cell Games Saga
Expelled from Cell's body when he is injured badly enough to regurgitate her, she is left unconscious and vulnerable. The Dragon Balls are later used to remove the self-destruct device inside her, a wish made by someone who could not bring himself to harm her.
Buu Saga
Years later she is married to Krillin, mother to a small daughter, and living at Kame House. She enters the World Martial Arts Tournament for the prize money, dominates her bracket and makes a shrewd financial arrangement with Mr. Satan before the tournament collapses into crisis.
Abilities and techniques
Infinite energy reactor
Her internal power source does not deplete, so she never tires in a prolonged fight. This endurance is her decisive edge over ki-based warriors, who must manage a finite reserve while she maintains full output indefinitely.
Superhuman strength and durability
She fights with casual, almost bored economy, snapping bones and crushing armour with single strikes. Attacks that would level terrain barely mark her, and she shrugs off blows from Super Saiyans without changing expression.
Energy projection
Although not a ki user in the conventional sense, she fires concentrated blasts from her hands, including a powerful outward discharge used at close range. She can also form a defensive field to blunt incoming energy attacks.
Undetectable energy signature
Because her power is mechanical rather than spiritual, trained fighters cannot sense her presence. This makes her nearly impossible to track by ki alone and forces opponents to search for her visually, a considerable tactical advantage.
Flight and speed
She moves and fights in the air with ease, closes distance faster than most opponents can react, and sustains high-speed pursuit without strain. In the Buu era she fights at tournament level using disciplined, efficient technique.
Relationships
- Android 17
- Twin brother
- The one person she consistently protects. They bicker constantly and share the same bored contempt for authority, and his absorption by Cell is the only thing that visibly rattles her composure.
- Krillin
- Husband
- He destroyed the remote that could shut her down and later wished her bomb removed rather than let her be killed. Her reaction moves from bafflement to grudging affection, and by the Buu era they are married with a child.
- Dr. Gero
- Creator
- The Red Ribbon scientist who abducted and rebuilt her. She holds no loyalty whatsoever and ends him at the first opportunity, mocking his fear as she does it.
- Cell
- Predator
- The bio-android engineered to absorb her and her brother. Being swallowed and later expelled is the one experience that leaves her genuinely diminished, and she has no interest in facing him again.
- Marron
- Daughter
- Her small daughter with Krillin, introduced during the Buu era. Eighteen's parenting is as deadpan as everything else she does, but she is plainly settled and content in her family life.
Notable moments
- She destroys Dr. Gero moments after being activated, ignoring his orders entirely.
- She defeats Vegeta in open combat and walks away without finishing him.
- She is absorbed by Cell, completing his transformation into his perfect form.
- Her self-destruct device is removed by a Dragon Ball wish made on her behalf.
- She competes in the World Martial Arts Tournament years later and negotiates a lucrative deal with Mr. Satan.
Trivia
- She and her twin are cyborgs built from human beings, unlike the fully mechanical models in the same series.
- Her inability to be sensed by ki detection is a recurring plot problem for the Z Fighters throughout the arc.
- Her first appearance is deliberately mundane, dressed for a day out rather than for battle.
- She is one of very few characters introduced as an antagonist who permanently joins the main cast's household.
