The Original Demon Clan Behind Demon King Piccolo, Explained

Going back to where demons first entered Dragon Ball means going all the way to the late 1980s manga, long before Daima ever confirmed that the Namekians originally came from the Demon Realm. But before getting into the original demon clan, I want to clear up a misconception: even though Demon King Piccolo (Piccolo Daimao) refers to himself as the Demon King, that does not mean he was the actual demon king of the Demon Realm. It is more like a title he gave himself, although subconsciously he may have been aware of his demonic roots.

Demon King Piccolo's origin is not the same as the Namekians from the Demon Realm

The first time Toriyama dabbled in demons in the original manga was during the Demon King Piccolo arc, right after the 22nd Tournament, when Krillin was mysteriously murdered by a demon called Tambourine. That happened in Dragon Ball manga chapter 134, published July 21, 1987. Tambourine was working for Demon King Piccolo as an assassin, sent to travel the world killing any martial artist who could be a potential threat to Piccolo, especially competitors in the tournaments.

Demon King Piccolo, unlike the Namekians, is not a demon from the Demon Realm. Deep in the past, in Age 261, a Namekian came to Earth wanting to become the God of Earth. In order to graduate into that role and take the throne, he had to expel all the evil out of his body, casting out all of his sins. That evil energy manifested physically and created Demon King Piccolo as the evil twin to the good side, who would later become Kami, the God of Earth.

Demon King Piccolo became the leader of the demon clan and caused enormous problems on Earth, almost conquering it, until Master Roshi's teacher Mutaito used the Mafuba, the Evil Containment Wave, to seal him away for many years. Piccolo was eventually freed when Pilaf found the rice cooker and unleashed him back on the world.

Piccolo's children are mazoku, not Namekians, and calling them Namekians misses the point

When Piccolo returned, he began building a new demon army using what would later be known as Namekian birthing. Because Piccolo himself is made up of pure evil, this pollutes the birthing technique, so when he gives birth to characters like Tambourine, Drum, Piano and Cymbal, the core of the demon clan, these children are not traditional Namekians. Dragon Ball guidebooks list them as being of Namekian origin because of the birthing technique, but they are properly called mazoku, and to be a mazoku you have to be composed of pure evil.

"It does annoy me when I see people referring to Drum and Tambourine and Cymbal and Piano as the Namekians," because look at them, they look nothing like Namekians. That is because what would normally be a Namekian rite of passage, giving birth, has been polluted by Piccolo's evil.

Going the meta route, before Toriyama had ever thought up Planet Namek and Piccolo's backstory, Piccolo was simply a demon in his eyes. In the same way that Goku's inspiration from Sun Wukong in Journey to the West made him sort of like a yokai, Piccolo started out as just that: a demon, with no elaborate Namekian history attached.

Lord Slug mirrors the Demon King Piccolo arc with his own rare demon-hearted Namekian and mazoku clan

The Lord Slug movie, written by Takao Koyama and released as the fourth Dragon Ball Z film, borrows heavily from the Piccolo arc, almost like a soft retelling of it. In that film, Lord Slug is explained as being a Namekian, but a very rare one, born with a heart of evil, and he also commands his own clan of mazoku. As with Piccolo's children, the way they are designed shows they are not Namekians either.

Putting this in the proper context, Demon King Piccolo and the mazoku were the original creatures known as demons in Dragon Ball, but they are not related to the other demons like Dabura, Majin Buu, or anyone from the Demon Realm. Daima confirmed the Namekians did come from the Demon Realm, but that realm is composed of many different civilizations and factions, and the Namekians were segregated from the other demons living there.

Dragon Ball Heroes complicates the rules of who can still be a Namekian once turned demonic

Dragon Ball Heroes ran a story where Towa figured out a way to brainwash Dende, turning him into a demon clansman and creating the Dark Dragon Balls. I have always felt throughout my life that if somebody becomes a demon like Piccolo, they lose the ability to create Dragon Balls, because that is not the type of Namekian they are anymore, they are barely even a Namekian at that point. Dragon Ball Heroes says otherwise.

Part of why this information can feel new to English dub viewers is that when Dragon Ball Z and the original Dragon Ball were dubbed, the shows were heavily dumbed down and censored, and words like "God" and "Demon" were treated as taboo. The word "God" was not even used in Dragon Ball until Super Saiyan God in the 2014 English dub of Battle of Gods. That is why I always say it is important to watch the Japanese version of Dragon Ball and Z to see how deep the series actually goes.

Piccolo's psychic bond with his mazoku children, and the demon clan's Dragon Ball Heroes revival

The demon clan became the main villains of the Demon King Piccolo arc, where Goku, Tenshinhan, Yajirobe and the others fought Piccolo's children directly. Much like the Namekian birthing connection, whenever one of Piccolo's children died at the heroes' hands, Piccolo felt extreme pain, because he shares a psychic connection to his children and their deaths hurt him too.

The idea of Piccolo and the demon clan was later revived in Dragon Ball Heroes, in a storyline where a group of Namekians came to Earth after New Namek was destroyed. It turned out Demon King Piccolo's old throne was still filled with dark and negative energy, and the Namekians who settled near it began to change as evil overtook their hearts, becoming the evil Namekians led by Naruk, the dark Namekian. Piccolo's legacy lives on through that storyline and the demon clan's ongoing story.