Dodonpa

A narrow ki wave shot from the index finger. It is essentially the Crane school version of the Kamehameha.

It is first used by Tao Pai Pai in an attempt to kill Son Goku, but the four star Dragon Ball in his shirt blocked the attack from being fatal. This attack is later used in the 22nd Tenka-ichi Budoai by both Chaozu and Tenshinhan.

It is never made clear who invented the move, but if it is truly the Crane equivalent of the Kamehameha, it is likely to have been invented by Tsuru-Sennin, though he has only used the move in the third Dragon Ball movie, Mystical Adventure. Tao Pai Pai, as a cyborg, develops the upgraded Super Dodonpa. It's essentially the same move, although more powerful.

Character meaning
Dodonpa doesn't appear have a character meaning. ど is the sound do and ん is the sound n; only 波 ha (-pa) has a meaning, "wave". Thus, directly translated, the attack is still "dodon-wave".

Instead, dodon is often used as an onomatopoeia for an explosion in Japanese, additionally dodon is also used as an adjective to denote power; thus a loose translation could be "*boom*-wave" or "powerful wave".

Similar to how the Kamehameha has a dual meaning, one of which is said to be named after Kamehameha I, it is possible that the Dodonpa is also named after something else as well.

Two possible explanations are that Dodonpa ドドンパ (dodonpa in Hepburn system Roman letters) is one of the categories of Japanese popular music; the other is of the fictional King Dodon from The Golden Cockerel, a Russian play influenced by the Russo-Japanese War.


Kanji / Kana：どどん波
Romaji：Dodonpa
Translated：Boom Wave
English anime：Dodon Ray/Dodon Wave/Dodompa/Dodonpa Wave/Dodonpa Ray
English manga：Dodonpa/Dodon Blast
English Videogame(s)：Dodon Ray/Dodon Wave/Dodonpa
Creator：Tsuru-Sennin
Other Users：Tao Pai Pai/Chaozu/Tenshinhan