Movie
Description
King Gourmet, also known as King Gurumes, is the primary antagonist of the first Dragon Ball film, Curse of the Blood Rubies. His name is a direct pun on the French word gourmet, referring to a connoisseur of fine food and drink, which directly ties into his central character flaw. He is a movie-only character created as an original villain for this cinematic adaptation, which retells and reimagines the series' introductory story arc with several distinct narrative changes.
The character was once a normal human king who ruled over his own land, but a monumental change occurred after he discovered valuable blood rubies within the territory beneath his kingdom. This discovery triggered a curse or transformation that gradually warped him into a grotesque and obese monster. His physical appearance in this transformed state is striking and unpleasant, characterized by bulging purple skin, mismatched eyes of differing sizes, sharp fangs, and a constant, slobbering hunger that dominates his every action. He is often seen in his throne room, surrounded by the trappings of royalty but reduced to a gluttonous beast.
King Gourmet's personality and motivations are entirely shaped by his cursed, insatiable appetite. He suffers from a painful and never-ending hunger that can only be temporarily quelled by consuming food that is more delicious than the last thing he ate. This condition has driven him to become a selfish and greedy tyrant. He is not motivated by world domination or pure malice in a typical sense, but by a desperate, all-consuming need to satisfy his physical torment. His kingdom is in ruins because he has ordered the continuous excavation of the blood rubies to fund a worldwide search for the finest cuisines, pushing the boundaries of what any chef can provide. Eventually concluding that no earthly meal can cure him, he commands his underlings to gather the seven Dragon Balls, intending to wish his hunger away permanently.
In the story, King Gourmet's role is that of a distant but oppressive force whose actions drive the plot. Early in the film, his two highest-ranking henchmen, a female soldier named Pasta and a large, powerful enforcer named Vongo (also referred to as Raven and Bongo in different adaptations), steal Goku's Four-Star Dragon Ball, setting the hero on his journey. They are tasked with acquiring the remaining orbs for their king. Gourmet himself remains in his castle until the climax, where he confronts Goku and his friends directly. His key relationships are solely with his subordinates, whom he commands to do his bidding, and his subjects, whose land and lives he has destroyed in pursuit of his own relief.
The character undergoes a significant development at the film's resolution. During the final battle, he grows to an even more immense, giant-sized monster form to fight Goku, demonstrating a notable ability: even a direct Kamehameha wave from the young hero has no effect on him, making him seemingly invincible to conventional attacks. However, it is revealed that he has swallowed six of the Dragon Balls. Bulma realizes this and throws the seventh ball into his cavernous mouth. The light of the assembled balls summoning the Eternal Dragon Shenron blasts out of Gourmet's stomach, destroying part of his castle. After a wish is made to restore the blighted land, the curse is broken. King Gourmet reverts to his original human form, a bald and still rather homely-looking man. His monstrous hunger is finally gone, and his redemption is symbolized when a young girl named Penny (or Pansy) offers him a simple apple, which he finds delicious, ending his painful appetite for good. His notable abilities, aside from his great strength and immense durability in his monster form, are intrinsically linked to his curse, which warped his body into a physical manifestation of gluttony.
The character was once a normal human king who ruled over his own land, but a monumental change occurred after he discovered valuable blood rubies within the territory beneath his kingdom. This discovery triggered a curse or transformation that gradually warped him into a grotesque and obese monster. His physical appearance in this transformed state is striking and unpleasant, characterized by bulging purple skin, mismatched eyes of differing sizes, sharp fangs, and a constant, slobbering hunger that dominates his every action. He is often seen in his throne room, surrounded by the trappings of royalty but reduced to a gluttonous beast.
King Gourmet's personality and motivations are entirely shaped by his cursed, insatiable appetite. He suffers from a painful and never-ending hunger that can only be temporarily quelled by consuming food that is more delicious than the last thing he ate. This condition has driven him to become a selfish and greedy tyrant. He is not motivated by world domination or pure malice in a typical sense, but by a desperate, all-consuming need to satisfy his physical torment. His kingdom is in ruins because he has ordered the continuous excavation of the blood rubies to fund a worldwide search for the finest cuisines, pushing the boundaries of what any chef can provide. Eventually concluding that no earthly meal can cure him, he commands his underlings to gather the seven Dragon Balls, intending to wish his hunger away permanently.
In the story, King Gourmet's role is that of a distant but oppressive force whose actions drive the plot. Early in the film, his two highest-ranking henchmen, a female soldier named Pasta and a large, powerful enforcer named Vongo (also referred to as Raven and Bongo in different adaptations), steal Goku's Four-Star Dragon Ball, setting the hero on his journey. They are tasked with acquiring the remaining orbs for their king. Gourmet himself remains in his castle until the climax, where he confronts Goku and his friends directly. His key relationships are solely with his subordinates, whom he commands to do his bidding, and his subjects, whose land and lives he has destroyed in pursuit of his own relief.
The character undergoes a significant development at the film's resolution. During the final battle, he grows to an even more immense, giant-sized monster form to fight Goku, demonstrating a notable ability: even a direct Kamehameha wave from the young hero has no effect on him, making him seemingly invincible to conventional attacks. However, it is revealed that he has swallowed six of the Dragon Balls. Bulma realizes this and throws the seventh ball into his cavernous mouth. The light of the assembled balls summoning the Eternal Dragon Shenron blasts out of Gourmet's stomach, destroying part of his castle. After a wish is made to restore the blighted land, the curse is broken. King Gourmet reverts to his original human form, a bald and still rather homely-looking man. His monstrous hunger is finally gone, and his redemption is symbolized when a young girl named Penny (or Pansy) offers him a simple apple, which he finds delicious, ending his painful appetite for good. His notable abilities, aside from his great strength and immense durability in his monster form, are intrinsically linked to his curse, which warped his body into a physical manifestation of gluttony.