Character Profile: Yajirobe

Yajirobe is a sword-wielding, vagabond monk. He first meets Goku during the Piccolo Daimao Saga and befriends him under an odd set of circumstances. While the two are talking, Piccolo Daimao's child, Cymbal sneaks up on them. Both Goku and Yajirobe are eager to fight him, but Yajirobe wins a game of paper-scissors, so he gets to fight. He slices the monster in half. Yajirobe is far from being the coward he's portrayed as in the English version. Granted he's not always running head-first into danger, but he's not a baby either.

Yajirobe later rescues Goku from his first encounter with Piccolo Daimao and takes him to Karin to drink the Super God Water, (and get healed with a Senzu). Yajirobe takes a liking to Karin's abode, so he stays with him after the Piccolo Daimaou Saga ends. Yajirobe shows up a lot in Dragon Ball Z, up to the appearance of Frieza. After that, he shows up during the beginning of the Android Saga, but that's about it. Of course he makes a few more appearances in the manga, (and many more short ones in the anime), but he loses a lot of his importance, like many of the original Z Soldiers near the end of the series.