Hirudegarn

Hirudegarn
Vital statistics
Names	Hirudegarn, Genmajin Hirudegarn Hildegarn, Hildekhan, Phantom Beast, Leviathan (by Hoi), World Slayer (by Hoi)
Gender	Genderless
Race	Phantom Majin
Occupation	Demon God
Origin	Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon (ドラゴンボールＺゼット 龍りゅう拳けん爆ばく発はつ！！悟ご空くうがやらねば誰だれがやる Doragon Bōru Zetto Ryū-Ken Bakuhatsu!! Gokū ga Yaraneba Dare ga Yaru, lit. Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Fist Explosion!! If Goku Won’t Do it, Who Will?) (1995)
Alignment	Evil
Age	1000+ Years Old
Created By	Takao Koyama
Height	{{{height}}}
Weight	{{{weight}}}

Hirudegarn (ヒルデガーン Hirudegān) is the main antagonist in Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon. He is an enormous Phantom Majin that destroys everything and kills anyone in its path.

Appearance

Hirudegarn is a towering behemoth with a vaguely humanoid appearance. Its head is shaped like a human skull, and it possesses a long tail. After metamorphosis, the creature gains shoulder blades, horns, and insectoid wings.

Personality

Hirudegarn has displayed no other emotion other than hatred and rage. It seems to obey its master's will until it accidentally kills him. Without anyone to control it, Hirudegarn's only focus appears to be mindless destruction. However, it's implied that prior to the Kashvar transforming him into a Phantom Majin, he had some degree of benevolence, due to his original role being to purify the Konats inhabitants of any evil Ki.

Biography

Background

Hirudegarn was a Demon God who placed his spectral body into a statue on Planet Konats, he would watch over Planet Konats and purify people's hearts, sucking up evil ki. However, sorcerers of the Kashvar race transformed him into a Phantom Majin, and he broke free from the statue and began rampaging.

According to Tapion in the Funimation dub, Hirudegarn is a "phantom of mist and shadow" who "consumes its victims and imprisons their life-force" (similar to Cell but on a massive scale). He was apparently turned to stone with the use of an enchanted sword and a pair of enchanted ocarinas, and sealed away in a temple by Tapion's and Minotia's ancestors, until a group of star-traveling black magicians known as the Kashvar arrive on Konats and use their dark magic to bring the monster back to life with the intent of destroying the Konatsians and all races in the universe different from themselves. In Fusions he is referred to as a Phantom Majin created from an energy filled statue.

Hirudegarn went on a rampage, killing everyone in his path or who tries to get in his way, and devastating the planet. Tapion and his brother Minotia manage to freeze the monster in his tracks by each playing a pair of enchanted ocarinas found in the wraith's temple, giving a wizard the opportunity to cut the monster in half with an enchanted sword. However, this action only badly injures and handicaps Hirudegarn, as opposed to killing it.

Since Hirudegarn cannot be killed at the time, his upper half is sealed in Tapion and the other half in Minotia and in this way the brothers became legends. However, fearing that the Kashvar would try to revive the monster again someday, the brothers are separated, each sealed in a music box by the wizard, and are then shot into opposite ends of the farthest galaxies, far away from each other by the Konats war council, with the music box holding Tapion landing on Earth. The wizard vows to release the brothers once the Kashvar are brought to justice, and it is assumed that the Kashvar are hunted down over time.

Wrath of the Dragon

A thousand years later in the present, the last of the Kashvar, Hoi, has vowed to resurrect the monster to cleanse the universe of all who are not Kashvars. He releases Hirudegarn's lower half on a distant planet and easily disposes of Minotia, who is crushed under the foot of the monster. Upon Minotia's death, Hoi seals the lower half inside himself to summon at his leisure. On Earth, however, he switches to a more tactical plan and spies on Great Saiyaman and Great Saiyawoman, as they fight crime. Both are summoned from their school again to rescue Hoi, who is pretending to be suicidal to gain their trust and sympathy. Hoi then tells the two about the legendary warrior, Tapion.

Both are anxious to see who this Tapion is. However, neither they nor Goten, Trunks, Goku or Bulma (using her scientific expertise) are able to open the seal. Seeing no other alternative, the fighters of Earth collect the Dragon Balls so they can summon Shenron and wish for the seal to be broken. Shenron succeeds and Gohan, Videl, Goten, Trunks, Goku, Bulma, Krillin, Oolong and Master Roshi along with Hoi (who may have encountered Tapion as far back as during the original Hirudegarn crisis on Konats a thousand years ago), meet Tapion for the first time. However, Tapion is very upset at them all, because it is a bad idea to release him. He demands that he be sealed back again, but by his release, the Oracle has shattered, so this proves impossible. Trunks, however, is determined to bring him food and drinks, as he sees Tapion as a brother.

Shortly after Tapion's release, Hirudegarn's lower half (summoned by Hoi) starts destroying Satan City. Gohan and Videl arrive at the scene to investigate, but shortly after they arrive, they are almost swept away by the monster's tail. After executing their Great Saiyaman poses, Hirudegarn's tail throws the two each to a side of the street. Gohan immediately sets up a counterattack, with Videl supporting him. After the short battle, Videl thinks Gohan has won however, Gohan said it is not over yet. Both then hear the same ocarina melody that they heard when Tapion was released, and they notice the monster is gone.

Later, as Tapion sleeps, Hirudegarn's top half temporarily escapes, but Tapion is able to imprison it before it does any significant damage. The next night, Tapion explains everything to Bulma: about how Hoi had been a member of the Kashvar, how he was involved in the attempted genocide of the Konatsians and how he helped unleash Hirudegarn on the people of Konats, ultimately revealing that Hoi had deceived them all. He explains how Hirudegarn had been given a major impedimenting injury but ultimately survives, how the halves had been sealed within him and Minotia, how they were further sealed within the music boxes and then sent to opposite ends of the universe. Bulma is angered at hearing it, and she decides to create another oracle. She finishes it by the next day.

That night, Hirudegarn's lower half is summoned by Hoi to once again wreak havoc, as he drew seven men and two women into his tail to devour their life energy. Hoi directs his power to release the upper half of Hirudegarn. He finally succeeds in this, and with the monster back together, nothing can stop him. However, the Dragon Team resist magnificently. Goku, Gohan, and Goten are the first ones to launch a counterattack, but just as Gohan is being crushed in the demon's fist, Vegeta throws himself into the line of battle after saving Gohan. Goten and Trunks decide to use the Fusion Dance to become Gotenks after even Super Saiyan 2 Goku is overwhelmed. As a Super Saiyan 3, Gotenks attacks the monster with his Continuous Die Die Missile. Although apparently successful in crippling the monster, it is soon revealed that Hirudegarn survives the onslaught and subsequently breaks out of his heavily damaged husk.

In his new form, Hirudegarn mows Gotenks down to the ground, smashes Gohan and Videl into a building and throws Goku into some rubble. Tapion plays the Hero's Flute again and manages to seal Hirudegarn inside himself. He then orders Trunks to kill him with his sword, which will destroy the trapped monster. Due to hesitation, Trunks fails to kill Tapion, resulting in Hirudegarn breaking free and Tapion's Hero's Flute being destroyed in the process. Hoi, who has been watching the whole fight, mocks Tapion for being so foolish but is killed when Hirudegarn crushes him underfoot. At this point, Goku arises as a Super Saiyan 3. Nevertheless, Trunks tries to fight Hirudegarn with Tapion's sword and manages to cut off the monster's tail. Goku taunts the monster and uses his Dragon Fist to pierce through Hirudegarn when he becomes solid, obliterating the monster completely.

Trivia

• The character's name comes from the movie's co-producer, Seiichi Hiruta, who did not like the original design of Hirudegarn. After he demanded that they redesign the character, his jaw dropped when he saw the new design. The sound effect for a "jaw-dropping" in Japan is gaan (ガーン), so they named the character "Hiruta gaan" (蛭田ガーン).
• Hirudegarn has a few similarities with Cell due to his insectoid features and his ability to drain life energy via his tail. However, his size resembles Cell X who was created after Hirudegarn's film appearance.
• It would seem that Hirudegarn is one of the few villains who does not follow the pattern of being stronger than the villain of the previous film as Super Janemba defeated Super Saiyan 3 Goku while Hirudegarn was killed by SSJ3 Goku, but it should be noted that Super Saiyan 3 Goku in Wrath of the Dragon was likely much stronger than he was in Fusion Reborn presumably due to training between the two films (if the two films take place in the same timeline) which would explain the discrepancy.
  • Additionally, Hirudegarn does follow the pattern of being weaker than the antagonist who follows him, as God of Destruction Beerus easily defeated Super Saiyan 3 Goku in Battle of Gods.
• Hirudegarn is the last movie villain/antagonist who does not speak, as the antagonists of the two films that followed him, Beerus and Frieza both speak. He is also the last movie villain to be exclusive to a film, as Beerus appears in Dragon Ball Super and Frieza was previously introduced as a main villain in Dragon Ball Z.
  • Broly (DBS) unlike his counterpart Broly is not exclusive to the Broly film as he appears briefly in the Dragon Ball Super manga.
• Hirudegarn is the 6th and final giant movie villain in a Dragon Ball Z film, the 1st being Dr. Wheelo, the 2nd being Great Namek Lord Slug, the 3rd being Meta-Cooler Core, the 4th being Culture Fluid Gigantification Bio-Broly, and the 5th being Pre-Transformation Janemba. However, he and Dr. Wheelo are the only movie villains who remain giant sized throughout both of their films.
• Before becoming a Phantom Majin, Hirudegarn was the Demon God of Konats who inhabited a statue that would cleanse the Konatsians of evil by absorbing it which makes it similar to the Soul Cleansing Machine used by the Ogres in Other World to cleanse souls before they go to Hell in Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn.
  • This makes the Demon God of Konats similar to the Saike Demon (who was responsible for watching the Soul Cleansing Machine) in that they were once good entities who were transformed into powerful monsters that act movie villains, Hirudegarn and Janemba respectively.
  • Before its transformation into a Phantom Majin, it is unknown what kind relationship the Demon God of Konats had with the Konats' Guardians such as the Konatsian Wizard, though presumably it was a positive one given the Demon God's ability to cleanse Konatsians of evil (as such an ability would be incredibly valuable to any Konats Guardian or Guardian attendant as it would make finding a pure hearted successor that much easier).