The Full History of Dragon Ball's Red Ribbon Army, From Commander Red to Super Hero

The Red Ribbon Army was one of Goku's fiercest enemies during his childhood, and even after he defeated them, their legacy came back to haunt him many years later. Here is the full history of the Red Ribbon Army, from conception to its return, along with the behind the scenes details and inspirations I have gathered from years of research.

The arc began in Dragon Ball manga chapter 55, while the anime debuted the army in Dragon Ball episode 30. The idea behind the Red Ribbon Army has been debated for quite some time, so let me lay out what I have found. Later in this piece I will also get to the one scene in the anime that I think went too far, and it was not Toriyama's doing.

Kamen Rider, James Bond and SPECTRE may have shaped the Red Ribbon Army's concept

In Japanese the group is called the Reddo Ribbon Gun, and the gun means army. It is rumoured that Toriyama borrowed the concept from Toei's 1971 tokusatsu hit Kamen Rider, which featured an army of villains similar to the Red Ribbon. Fans also assume he borrowed ideas from 1966's Django, another film from 1983 and a plethora of war movies. The individual characters in the army are based on numerous figures from Western cinema, which I will get to as we go.

The members are all named after colours like red, yellow, blue and white. I see that as Toriyama's callback to the way the villains of SPECTRE are named in the James Bond universe, where they go by numbers like number one and number two. Toriyama chose colours instead, and keep in mind that James Bond movies were a massive influence on him while he was writing all this. The members are identified by the RR logo on their clothing. We do not know whether these are code names or birth names, although it seems like they are code names, and we also do not know the in universe origin of the army.

When I was much younger I was told, or maybe I read somewhere on the internet, that the army was inspired by Mega Man, also known as Rockman, on the NES, and that Toriyama played and loved that game and wanted to incorporate the various colours Mega Man takes on when he switches weapons. I have not been able to find confirmation of that, so it could be made up.

The Red Ribbon Army is a World War II satire grounded in reality

It is pretty simple to figure out that the Red Ribbon Army is a satire poking fun at various armies of World War II, such as the Soviets and the Nazis, with a few direct references to them, but really played up for laughs. Each member has his own unique situation involving Goku. They are a totalitarian army loyal to no country, hell bent on world domination, or so it seems, as well as on retrieving the seven Dragon Balls to make a wish. James Bond inspired weapons and characters dominate the arc, and to me the army feels like a hybrid of the Bond films' SPECTRE and the Three Stooges.

Unlike some of Goku's future foes, the Red Ribbon Army is mostly grounded in reality. They are normal people or anthropomorphic animals, and very few are super powered, so Goku has to face large numbers rather than one strong opponent. Pilaf may have been the first antagonist of Dragon Ball, but the Red Ribbon were the first real threat. They command tanks, planes and other vehicles, some based on real world weapons and others rooted purely in science fiction. They are known worldwide in universe, even though Toriyama never delves into their formation. The arc is fun because it mixes traditional martial arts with Goku destroying so many vehicles and buildings, and "that's just a blast to watch."

Colonel Silver, Brown, General Copper and Colonel Violet fill the lower ranks

The manga and anime begin the saga very differently. The first Red Ribbon agent Goku confronts is Colonel Silver, in an anime only segment featuring Pilaf as the series transitions to its new antagonists. Silver has a much larger role in the anime, and compared to the wackier characters he is reserved, quiet and focused. In the anime only opening, the army storms through houses searching for the Dragon Balls, and there is a scene where Silver takes on four professional boxers that I love. He has no chance against Goku, though, who knocks him out and takes his bag with the Dragon Ball.

His fate also differs. In the manga, Commander Red says Silver was going to be executed for his failure, but that is never shown. In the anime, Silver returns to base and begs for another chance, and Red orders his guards to remove him. He leaves with the guards and we never see him again, so it is unknown whether he escaped or was killed, but I assume he did not survive. A few members are mentioned but never shown in either version. One is Brown, who appears to command troops, although we are never shown the Brown Squadron. The other is General Copper, of whom all we know is that he appeared to outrank Silver and Brown.

Another anime only character is a blonde master thief. She never appears in the manga, and it seems she may have been inspired by the blonde version of Launch, who was also a thief, though I believe other aspects were borrowed from Toriyama's one shot manga Pink. The most memorable thing about her is that after she stole a Dragon Ball from Goku, he tickled her to get it back. We never truly found out her fate. She is a hired thief rather than a member, but I included her because I do not know when I will ever talk about her again.

Colonel Violet appears in only a couple of manga panels but gets far more development in the anime. Unlike other leaders, she does not care much about the army's goals; she wants money, and lots of it. During the final four anime episodes of the arc, as Goku storms headquarters, she breaks open the army's safe and steals the surplus money instead of fighting. She is probably one of the few members to survive, and it is likely she lived off the army's riches for the rest of her life. In The Path to Power movie she is killed by Goku, making her the only female character in any Dragon Ball movie taken out by him. She also looks a lot like a fighter from the previous arc, the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, and just as the thief was a slightly altered Launch, that could be what was done with Violet.

Muscle Tower and General White come straight from Bruce Lee's Game of Death

After Silver, Goku's first run in with a top ranked leader is General White, the lead villain of Muscle Tower, sitting at the very top like a true final boss. The inspiration is clearly the pagoda in Bruce Lee's Game of Death. Toriyama is a massive Bruce Lee fan, and so is Japan, and we see the theme again and again: in the NES game Kung Fu, also known as Spartan X, and more recently in a Final Fantasy VII side quest on PS1 where you beat five levels of a pagoda with Yuffie. The idea of clearing levels with a boss at the end started with Game of Death. Toriyama himself admits in interviews that Muscle Tower was inspired by Spartan X, which was inspired by Bruce Lee.

Inside the tower, Goku faces a series of characters. Sergeant Metallic is the first of many cybernetic organisms in Dragon Ball, and cyborgs, also called androids or artificial humans, become synonymous with the Red Ribbon Army later on. Metallic is obviously based on the lead character of James Cameron's 1984 film The Terminator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger; the sunglasses and spiky hair give it away, and he is mechanical under his skin. Toriyama loves James Cameron and would revisit ideas from Terminator 2 in Dragon Ball Z. This part is also the first time Goku is hinted at being an alien, through the cyborg scanner. We know Toriyama did not plan for Goku to be an alien until much later, but it is funny that he may have danced around the idea many years before Goku's brother arrived from space.

Next comes Master Sergeant Murasaki the ninja. Murasaki is Japanese for the colour purple, so he fits the naming scheme. He was modelled after actor Tatsuya Nakadai from Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo. There were also ninjas in the Bond film You Only Live Twice, which I mention because it is as clear as day that Toriyama was watching Bond films at the time. The battle is fun and full of slapstick, and I recommend Jackie Chan's Drunken Master to get a feel for where Toriyama got this tone. It is the only time in the series we see people playing hide and seek. As a fun fact, Murasaki appears alongside Son Goku for a few episodes of the 1997 Dr. Slump anime reboot. Android 8 is also introduced during this part of the story.

Then comes the pink blob monster, inspired by the 1958 film The Blob. He does resemble Majin Buu a bit, and perhaps Toriyama borrowed the concept again later, but this was the original pink blob monster, and his name is a pun on a Japanese term meaning soft and fluffy. He is Goku's final challenge before General White, whose gun is the same one used by Nick Nack in the 1974 Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun. There is even a scene where White takes a hostage that was inspired by Jackie Chan's Police Story. Toriyama loves Bond, James Cameron, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

General Blue is a controversial character

On the surface, General Blue is a stereotype of an idealised German Nazi soldier: tall, in shape, with blonde hair and blue eyes, the non Jewish Aryan look Adolf Hitler believed was biologically superior. Blue is literally modelled on a German actor known for playing Nazis in films including the 1983 Twilight Zone movie. The Nazi regime does not exist in the world of Dragon Ball, so the army combines aspects of Nazis and Soviets. Even though Hitler was parodied in Dragon Ball Z movie 12, Blue does not wear a swastika; his armband just says blue. One of his top agents, unnamed in the manga but named in the anime, closely resembles Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Nazi SS.

Toriyama writes Blue as very feminine in the manga, and Toshio Furukawa, who would later voice Piccolo, mimics that in his performance. The big punchline comes when Bulma realises Blue is homosexual and calls him an okama, an offensive Japanese slur for gay men. The joke is the irony that an army inspired by the Nazi party, which considered gay people unclean, would have someone like him in its ranks. There is an exception, though, and it may be where Toriyama got the idea: Ernst Röhm was a Nazi leader who was openly gay. This, along with the portrayal of Staff Officer Black, is among the more controversial aspects of Dragon Ball. It was written in the 1980s, when even American cinema often used gay jokes, and it would not fly in today's more socially conscious era.

It gets worse in the anime. In the original Japanese version of Dragon Ball episode 56, during the Dr. Slump crossover in Penguin Village, it is implied that Blue is attracted to a robot resembling a prepubescent boy. That reinforces a very bad stereotype, but it was Toei's idea, not Toriyama's, since it was added to the anime. Many international dubs, including the English one, altered Blue's lines. As I see it, "whichever toei writer thought this was funny may have actually angered a large number of people." Beyond that, Blue is the first real martial artist Goku faces, with advanced knowledge of ki, a paralysis technique and telekinetic powers. He is ultimately defeated by Arale, who at that point was far stronger than Goku. After his failure, the army hired the assassin Mercenary Tao, Tao Pai Pai, and Blue died at Tao's hands, killed with his tongue.

Colonel Yellow and Commander Red lead to one of the arc's biggest twists

Colonel Yellow more closely resembles a World War One pilot, and I love how deep a cut this is. He is a satire inspired by the 1942 John Wayne war film Flying Tigers, and he is literally an anthropomorphic tiger with yellow fur who flies. Interestingly, in Journey to the West, the folk tale that inspired Dragon Ball, Sun Wukong fought numerous tiger demons. Goku defeats Yellow with a single punch. After Tao Pai Pai was defeated, Goku decided enough was enough and stormed headquarters, cutting through hundreds of soldiers while the rest escaped, many abandoning their loyalty.

At the top is Commander Red. Inaccurate dub changes have caused confusion, but Red is unquestionably the leader, and there is no record of anyone before him. Visually he looks like a combination of Joseph Stalin and the Bond villain Emilio Largo, while his personality borrows a lot from SPECTRE's leader Blofeld, who has inspired characters such as Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. The headquarters also takes directly from You Only Live Twice. Red's obsession with the Dragon Balls may have been inspired by Hitler's supposed obsession with sacred occult objects such as the Ark of the Covenant, as portrayed in 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Red's assistant, known by fans as Staff Officer Black, is fiercely loyal until the very end, when he learns Red's true motivation. We and the army were led to believe Red wanted world domination, but Toriyama subverts that comedically: Red wants to grow taller, because he was bullied at school for being short and has a Napoleon complex. Toriyama would reuse the joke with Frieza in Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Black, far more practical, realises the quest has cost hundreds of lives and possibly a huge amount of money in infrastructure and weapons, and he snaps and shoots Red.

Commander Black becomes the true final boss in a battle jacket

Black takes control, renames the group the Black Ribbon Army and calls himself Commander Black, becoming the true final boss of the arc. There has been some controversy throughout the years on how Toriyama chooses to draw the specific features of characters that resemble real-life African Americans. That is not considered offensive within Japan, but outside it some people may take issue. Unlike other members, Black does not really resemble any actor. Some have suggested he was modelled on Kareem Abdul Jabbar's character in Game of Death, but I do not really see much of a resemblance.

Black tries to fight Goku hand to hand, fails, and climbs into a red suit of armour officially known as a battle jacket, packed with weapons. If you have ever seen the old SF3D models, that is where Toriyama got the idea. Once Goku defeats Black, the Red Ribbon Army was finished, or so it seemed, because the story continues in Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super.

The movies reimagined the Red Ribbon Army, with designs drawn by Toriyama himself

The three original Dragon Ball films from the 1980s form their own continuity, a retelling and repurposing of manga characters. In the third, Mystical Adventure, General Blue, Sergeant Metallic and Tao Pai Pai appear not as Red Ribbon members but as servants of an empire that exists only in that film, with Tao as the lead villain. Blue is killed by Tao with his tongue as before, and Metallic is decapitated by Goku. It is the only film where Tao could be considered a general, although he really is not one.

The 10th anniversary film, The Path to Power, released in 1996, is another standalone retelling. The Red Ribbon Army are the main villains again, and the limited running time meant only key members appear: Blue, Black, Violet, Red, Sergeant Metallic and General White. Android 8 plays a far more pivotal role. As in the manga, Black takes over after learning Red's wish and fights Goku in his battle jacket. When Android 8, now a good character, is killed, Goku unleashes a massive Kamehameha that destroys Black, and Android 8 is resurrected at the end. The redesigned members were drawn by Akira Toriyama himself. It was the last theatrical Dragon Ball film until 2013's Battle of Gods, which kicked off the Dragon Ball renaissance, and the first in the franchise to mix CG effects with animation.

The Red Pants Army and Super Hero brought the Red Ribbon back

Before Super Hero, the army was last revived as the Red Pants Army, and no, I am not making this up. It is a reincarnated Red Ribbon Army in the Asian exclusive MMORPG Dragon Ball Online, which Toriyama worked on. Formed in Age 991 to restore the anthropomorphic species to power, it is co led by a robotic clone of Commander Red called Android 9, alongside advanced versions of earlier artificial humans. I bring it up because many of these tropes were reused by Toriyama in his script for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.

In the 2022 film, remnants of the army carried on in secret behind a front company, Red Pharmaceutical, owned by Commander Red's son Magenta, who wants to strike back, conquer Capsule Corporation and defeat the aliens it harbours. He and his assistant Carmine have spied on Goku and friends for years. Magenta has a photograph of Commander Red and Violet, so might Violet be his mother? It is not stated, but it is definitely possible. Magenta enlists Dr. Hedo, a brilliant scientist with two PhDs and the grandson of Red Ribbon scientist Dr. Gero. After Hedo's release from prison, Magenta convinces him that Capsule Corp is evil, and Hedo, needing funding, accepts and builds new androids along with the secret weapon Cell Max.

The new base appears to be hidden in a volcano and borrows heavily from Marvel's Wakanda, using camouflage technology that hides it unless you pass through an invisible barrier. The army has abandoned its old tanks and planes and relies on Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, though classic battle jackets and firearms still appear. Magenta is killed by Hedo's micro bee robot Hachimaru after going mad and unleashing Cell Max. Gamma 2 sacrifices himself, Cell Max is destroyed, and Gamma 1 and Hedo reform and work for Capsule Corporation. We can assume the remaining soldiers were reformed or arrested and the base destroyed when Cell Max exploded. Will we ever see the army again? Time will tell.

Why I think Toriyama really created the Red Ribbon Army

World War II changed Japan forever, but "I don't think Toriyama created the Red Ribbon Army as some sort of political statement" against dictatorships, communism or imperialism. Studying his work before and after Dragon Ball, you find a man who absolutely loves drawing vehicles, and this arc gave him the chance to do exactly that. The army's legacy continues into Dragon Ball Z through the artificial humans and their creator. Much of this research draws on the work of Derek Padula, whose Dragon Ball Culture Volume 4 examines the original manga panel by panel.

Do you think Violet could really be Magenta's mother, or is that photograph just a nod to the old army?