Discover why Tenshinhan has 3 eyes in Dragon Ball
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When it comes to creativity in character design, Akira Toriyama is a master. In Dragon Ball you find all types of races, humanoids with monkey tails, shapeshifters, aliens, and many others.
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Although Dragon Ball has many exotic characters, a question that has lingered for a long time is why Tenshinhan has three eyes. Check out below the explanation for the existence of Tenshinhan's third eye and more details about the character.
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Tenshinhan in Dragon Ball
Even though he's not one of the main characters in the anime and doesn't get much spotlight, Tenshinhan catches attention for his appearance. The main physical characteristic of Tenshinhan, obviously, is his three eyes. Tenshinhan is present in all three Dragon Ball series: the classic series, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball Super.
The character has absurd strength. His greatest ability is the power to fly using his Ki. He defeated Yamcha and fought against Goku during the martial arts tournament, but was defeated by Goku. Master Kame tried his best to warn him that he was swimming against the current by seeking revenge. Until Master Kame's advice finally had some effect, because later Tenshinhan allied himself with Goku, helping the Z-Fighters in countless memorable moments.
If you think Tenshinhan gets little spotlight in the anime, you need to take a look at the manga. There he spends almost the entire time overshadowed. His biggest moment came in the anime, even though it was barely explored.
And the third eye?
Since he's not one of the main characters in the anime series, Tenshinhan's backstory isn't explored much in the story. However, the Dragon Ball guides explain that Tenshinhan is from a race called the "Three-Eyed Clan". Technically he's earthling, but not completely human. Yeah, I was confused too, but don't worry because there's an explanation!
According to the Dragon Ball guides, Tenshinhan's race came to Earth with a vibe of "I like this place, I'm gonna stay here, build my family here and live here forever". The strange thing is that Tenshinhan was the only one from his race presented in the entire anime. But since he's not one of the main characters, it probably wouldn't make much sense to introduce the rest of the tribe. On the flip side, it would be interesting to learn more about the character's history.
It was never made clear whether he's the last survivor of the race, if the rest of the people suffered some kind of mass death, or if they spent some time on Earth and gave up (I would've given up). But what is known is that this third eye gave him a very important ability: true sight.
Unfortunately for the three-eyed guy, he lost the power of true sight when he made the decision to train with the villain Master Shen. In return, he's able to grow extra arms to help him in his battles (I would use them to clean the house faster, but to each their own, right?). Now his third eye is used to fire ki!
