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"Let me guess, you learned how to run away." |
Cui (キュイ Kyui) is an alien character and villain in the Dragon Ball manga and Dragon Ball Z anime; he also briefly appeared in Dragon Ball GT. He is an elite soldier who serves under Frieza in the Frieza Force. His name in Japanese is an alternate spelling of the kiwi fruit.
Appearance
Cui is an indigo-skinned, scaly, fish-faced alien. With the exception of his boots being green, he wears the common armor.
Personality
Cui is a rather cocky character who easily underestimates many of his enemies, but has a cowardly side when confronted by an opponent too strong for him. He treats Vegeta with a great deal of rudeness.
Biography
Background
Main article: Attack on Bun's planet

Cui in the midst of destroying a planet
Only in the anime, when Gohan, Krillin and Bulma stumble into an unknown spacecraft, they find out that the inhabitant's planet was attacked by a battalion of Frieza's army, which was led by Cui. Cui single-handedly managed to slay all in his path and the survivors of the onslaught (who were led by Zeshin), told the story of his domination. Cui was initially more powerful than Vegeta in the years he was working under Frieza.
Dragon Ball Z
Namek Saga
Main article: Namek Saga

Cui as he appears in the Frieza Saga
After Vegeta recuperates on Planet Frieza 79 from his fierce battle on Earth against Goku, Gohan, Krillin, and Yajirobe, Cui approaches Vegeta to give him some surprising news: Frieza is already on Namek and he is searching for the Dragon Balls alongside his top henchmen, Zarbon and Dodoria. Vegeta is furious about this because he hoped to collect the Dragon Balls for his own desire to obtain immortality. Cui mocks Vegeta but this does not destroy Vegeta's confidence. In fact, Vegeta jumps into a space pod and speeds straight to Planet Namek in order to gain control of the situation himself, while Cui is left yelling and screaming after Vegeta, ordering him to stop. However, during this brief intermission, Cui gets the order from Frieza that he can freely eliminate Vegeta. Cui, who has waited for Frieza's approval for quite some time to eliminate his arch rival, decides to take action by boarding a space pod and following Vegeta. Once they both arrived on Namek, Cui traced Vegeta with his scouter and came face to face with him.
Cui claims to have gotten stronger and threatens that he will easily defeat Vegeta. However, Vegeta let him in on a secret: his power level had increased substantially because of his previous defeat and he also learned how to control its output. Cui expected Vegeta's power level to be approximately the same as his (18,000), but this was a complete underestimation of his arch rival. Vegeta surprised Cui with his extremely high power rating of 24,000 and he overwhelmed him with an astounding demonstration of his aura, destroying Cui's scouter in the process, also frightening Cui. However, Cui decided to try and trick Vegeta in order to be victorious. He told Vegeta that Frieza was behind him and took the opportunity to launch an array of powerful blasts. After the dust cleared, Cui laughed and thought himself to be the victor, but was surprised shortly thereafter when Vegeta appeared behind him and told him that his speed increased as well, since he was able to dodge the blasts in a split second. At this point, Cui decided to flee the battle, tripping as he frantically and fearfully dashed upward. Vegeta, being the ruthless warrior that he is, flew right after him. He slammed Cui's stomach swiftly, cracking his armor and sending him propelling into the sky. He then smiled and mercilessly blasted Cui to smithereens in midair.
Dragon Ball GT
Super 17 Saga
Main article: Super 17 Saga

Cui escapes from Hell alongside many villains
Cui made a cameo appearance in Dragon Ball GT when he was unleashed once more from Hell and terrorized the Earth alongside a slew of villains. However, he was presumably defeated once more by the Z Fighters.
Film appearances
Fusion Reborn
Main article: Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn
Cui, Medamatcha, Frieza, Zeeun, Medas, and Rasin/Lakasei appear in Fusion Reborn
Along with countless other Dragon Ball antagonists, Cui makes a cameo appearance in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn when the residents of Hell make their escape to Earth. Cui escapes from Hell alongside dozens of villains from the past when Frieza gives the order to attack. However, he was presumably defeated again and sent back to Hell when Gohan comes to stop Frieza's onslaught.
Other Dragon Ball stories
Dragon Ball Online

Cui when under Towa's control in Dragon Ball Online
In the fifth Time Machine Quest in Dragon Ball Online, after Cui is defeated by Vegeta, his remains are found by Towa, who resurrects him and brainwashes him with a green Time Breaker stone. Towa reveals Cui to Time Patrol Trunks and his allies, and attempts to transform Cui into a giant for the battle but, due to her experiment not being complete, it causes him to shrink slightly instead. However, Cui's power is enhanced and Towa sends him to fight the Time Patrol. Cui manages to hold his own, but he is eventually defeated and killed once more.
Power
- Manga and Anime
Cui states that Vegeta's power level should be equal to his own power; since Vegeta is stated to be 18,000 by Dodoria,[2] Cui's power level should be 18,000. In the anime, Zarbon and Cui himself both reference Cui as being stronger than Vegeta.
However after Vegeta recovered after nearly being killed by the combined efforts of surviving Z Fighters during the Saiyan conflict, he was able to completely surpass Cui thanks to his Saiyan Power as well refining his ability to control his power (allowing Vegeta to suppress and raise as need be), thus allowing him to deceive Cui who like most of Frieza's army relied to heavily on Scouter readings before showing off Vegeta showed off his newfound abilities and power annihilating Cui despite his best efforts (even resorting to trickery which failed due to Vegeta's superior speed).
Techniques and special abilities
- Flight – Like many other characters, Cui can fly with the use of ki.
- Ki Blast – The most basic form of energy wave.
Bomb Strike
- Bomb Strike – Cui charges at the enemy when flying and crashes into the opponent.
- Finger Beam – Cui is seen injuring Bun with a finger beam during a flashback in "Held Captive".
- Full Power Energy Wave – This is Cui's most dangerous and largest energy wave, combining all of his energy into one wave. Called "Dustard Impact" in Dragon Ball Heroes.[3]
- Full Power Energy Barrage Wave – This is Cui's fastest attack (this is meaning a lot, considering that Cui's fighting characteristics contain many speed attacks), an attack which is performed this amazingly fast, that it is almost impossible to dodge or for certain to block, for someone under the power level of 20,000, Cui charges energy blasts with his full power in both of his hands and then launches them in a wave of approximately 30 blasts (15 from both hands) on his target.
- Ah! Lord Frieza! – Before performing the Flash Beam, Cui tricks the opponent into looking away, normally by saying that Frieza is right behind them (even when Frieza is his opponent).
- Flash Beam – Cui launches a barrage of energy blasts at his opponent and then releases a strong red ball of ki, which causes a massive accumulation of damage for his opponent. This attack was named in Dragon Ball Z: Goku Gekitōden.
- Exploding Wave – One of Cui's techniques in Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza.
- False Courage – One of Cui's Blast 1 in the Budokai Tenkaichi series.
- Sleep – One of Cui's Blast 1 in the Budokai Tenkaichi series.
- Feint - Cui's signature attack in Raging Blast 2.
Video Game Appearances

Cui's appearance in Tenkaichi Tag Team
Cui is a boss in Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza, Dragon Ball Z: Super Saiya Densetsu, Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen, 'Dragon Ball Z: Goku Gekitōden, and Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu. In Gekishin Freeza, Cui gets two color edits that appear as recurring foes: the blue Gonma (ゴンマー ) and the red Payer (パイヤー ). Cui gets two other color edits in Legend of the Super Saiyan: the teal Gorin (ゴリン; called "Cid" or "Grig" in English versions) and the green Strob (ストロブ; called "Zoak" or "Nezio" in English versions).

Cui in Raging Blast 2
He is seen in a cutscene in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, talking to Vegeta on Planet Frieza 79. His first playable appearance is in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, and he returns in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, Dragon Ball Z: Tenkaichi Tag Team, Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi, Dragon Ball Z For Kinect, and Dragon Ball Heroes. In Budokai Tenkaichi 2, Cui's character is often used as a generic Frieza Soldier. For example, in the "Final Battle" saga, three Cuis appear to fight Bardock, while in the what-if saga Beautiful Treachery, Cui is a messenger for Cooler.
According to the voice files, Cui was set to appear in Budokai 1,[4] but for some reason that never happened and he was replaced by (most likely) Great Saiyaman.
Voice actors
- Japanese: Kōji Totani (Dragon Ball Z and Budokai), Naoki Imamura (Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3) and Eiji Takemoto (Dragon Ball Kai and other games)
- Ocean dub: Ian James Corlett
- FUNimation dub: Bill Townsley
- Latin American dub: Ricardo Hill
- French dub: Eric Legrand
- German dub: Klaus-Dieter Klebsch
- Italian dub: Pino Pirovano
- Portuguese dub: António Semedo
- Brazilian Portuguese dub: Tatá Guarnieri
- Catalan dub: Xavier Fernández
Battles
- Dragon Ball Z
- Cui vs. Vegeta
Trivia
- Interestingly, Cui's dialogue with Vegeta on Planet Frieza 79 slightly differs in the anime and manga. In the English dub anime, Cui insults Vegeta for getting beaten by a low class Saiyan (presumably referring to Goku). In the Original dub and manga, Cui insults Vegeta for allowing his comrades Raditz and Nappa to get killed on Earth.
- Two other members of his race appear in episode 97 during the Frieza Saga. One of them was killed by the other when he insulted Frieza and took him for dead. The other held the rank of Commander and died as a result of a monitor explosion when one of the soldiers tried to read Goku's power level. On a related note, it's implied in this scene that Cui's species was nearly driven to extinction by Frieza and that Cui, the unnamed foot soldier, and the unnamed commander were the only ones left of the species (which was the main reason why the unnamed foot soldier had absolutely no love or respect towards Frieza and proudly declared him dead).
- Cui's name is pronounced differently in both English dubs. In the FUNimation dub, the "Cu" of his name is pronounced like a "Qu" and the "i" sounding like an "e". In the Ocean dub, the "Cu" is pronounced as such, while the "i" also sounds like an "e". This making the FUNimation dub's version sounding like "Cwe" and the Ocean dub's version sounding like "Cu-e". The name "Cui" is very close to the Ecuadorian delicay known as Cuy.
- In the Ocean Dub for the episode "Held Captive", the dialogue among the Mirror ship occupants made it seem as though Cui was supposed to be Frieza and that he had personally led the invasion, when in reality he had just been invading the planet on Frieza's orders. This was most likely because, at the time Ocean dubbed the episode, Frieza had not yet gotten a formal debut.
Gallery
See also
References
- ↑ Dragon Ball Online, 2010
- ↑ Dragon Ball volume 21, page 125
- ↑ ●DBH全キャラ必殺技集!DRAGONBALL HEROES ALL CHARACTER DEATHBLOW COLLECTION. youtube (November 1, 2014).
- ↑ Rumor Guide. kanzenshuu.