King Yemma

Directory: Characters → Deities

"He was supposed to go below, but he would have enjoyed that so I gave him my stamp of approval and admitted him up here."
— "Return to Other World"

King Yemma (閻魔大王, Enma Daiō) is the boss of all ogres who judge the dead. A line of souls leads to his office where he decides whether a soul goes to Heaven or Hell.

Overview

Creation and concept

King Yemma is based on the Buddhist and Chinese deity Yama. Also, King Yemma's dislike for lying is a direct reference to a Buddhist fable where the lord of death Enma will tear out a child's tongue if they lie.

Appearance and personality

Compared to the other ogres, King Yemma is of a different color, he wears a beard, he has a helmet with two horns, and he is colossal in size; even his desk is at least three times taller than Goku, who is able to fit in one drawer. King Yemma is strong enough to stay in control in any situation and can easily overpower Raditz. Later in the series, when the power of the villains increases, this becomes less impressive. King Yemma is very impatient, and easily angered by the smallest of things, but is willing to listen to people's problems if he needs to.

Biography

Early life

Before Goku came along, King Yemma was the only one who had ever beaten Goz, caught Mez in a footrace, completed the trip along Snake Way, and escaped from Princess Snake's palace.

Dr. Slump

YemmaHornHelmet — King Yemma scolds Kami

King Yemma's first appearance in one of Akira Toriyama's manga series is in Dr. Slump, where Trampire and her servant were hired by him as grim reapers to retrieve Senbei Norimaki when he died from being hit by a coconut. Arale Norimaki manages to go with them, throws a pile of poop on him, which angers him. Yemma then sends them on the way to Hell, not knowing that Arale's friend Chivil is getting them back to the living world. Also, King Yemma fires Trampire and her servant during the incident.

Dragon Ball

Traces of his existence can be found during Dragon Ball, in instances such as when Goku met his servant Annin at the Furnace of Eight Divisions.

Dragon Ball Z

KingYemma.Ep.11 — King Yemma while Goku comes back from King Kai's planet

King Yemma appears early in Dragon Ball Z, when Goku is killed during the Saiyan Saga and is brought to the Other World by Kami to receive training from King Kai. Until then, King Yemma was the only person who had ever run all the way along Snake Way, but he grants Goku permission to give it a try. He is apparently skilled to some degree in fighting, as he claims he easily bested Raditz when the latter attempted to fight him while passing through his realm using his Yemma Lock technique. Yet, according to Kami, King Kai is much stronger than he is. King Yemma heard Kami whisper this to Goku, and threatened to send him to Hell when he dies, although in truth, he was just trying to scare him. When Kami thought to himself about all of the dangers that would come in one year, King Yemma finally lost his patience and ordered Kami to leave.

Later, when Demon King Dabura is killed by Majin Buu, King Yemma admits him into Heaven on the basis that he would have enjoyed himself in Hell; however, in anime filler, Dabura is shown enjoying Heaven too. Later, it is revealed that after Vegeta's death, King Yemma allowed him to keep his body and had Fortuneteller Baba bring him to Earth so he could help Goku fight Super Buu. He also got a satellite television so he could watch the fight between Goku and Kid Buu. Following the battle's climax, King Yemma overhears Goku's hope that Kid Buu will return someday as a better person so that they can have a rematch, and decides to grant Goku's wish and reincarnate Kid Buu as Uub, who goes on to be Goku's apprentice and successor.

File:400023.jpg

King Yemma in Fusion Reborn

King Yemma appears in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, where he is trapped in his office by Janemba by a barrier that Pikkon slowly destroys while Goku and Vegeta fight the monster. One of his workers gets frozen by the strange yellow stuff that traps them inside. Pikkon realizes that insults could destroy the barrier, but its very slow, and King Yemma gets impatient and waits for a long time (Pikkon goes down to hold off Janemba while Goku and Vegeta are fusing). Everything inside the strange yellow circle is funny, and King Yemma wants to send people to either Hell or Heaven immediately.

King Yemma later makes a few cameo appearances in Dragon Ball GT, such as when he sent Piccolo to Hell during the Super 17 Saga.

Power level

The movie pamphlet for Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might states that King Yemma has a power level of 1,300. In Dragon Ball Z: The Anime Adventure Game, his power level is 2,600.

Video game appearances

Budokai HD - King Yemma — King Yemma in a *Budokai HD* cutscene

Voice actors

Japanese dub: Daisuke Gōri
Ocean Group dub: Ward Perry and Don Brown
FUNimation dub: Chris Rager
Hebrew Dub: Ami Mendelman
Latin American dub: Abel Rocha
Portuguese dub: João Loy (I); António Semedo (II)
Brazilian dub: Felipe Di Nardo (up to the Buu Saga), João Batista (Buu saga), Valter Santos (DBGT)

Trivia

King Yemma is similar in appearance and conception to Ox-King. They are both big with a beard, and have hats with horns. In conception, they both were students of Goku's masters. Also, both have king in their names.
King Yemma shares the same voice actors as Mr. Satan in the Japanese, FUNimation, and Ocean dubs.

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Related articles	Core Person • Offworlder • Yemma Tree