Shū

* Part I
* Ninjatō

**Shū** (シュウ; *FUNimation* "Shu", *Viz* "Sho"), known as **Soba** (ソバ) in the early stage of the manga, is an Animal-type Earthling, and a member of the Pilaf Gang. He serves as Pilaf's loyal henchmen along with his partner Mai. He has encountered the Dragon Team on their mission to further their leader's quest to collect the Dragon Balls and to complete his master's goal of world domination.

## Appearance

Shū is an Animal-type Earthling, and as such, bears the appearance of a bipedal animal; in his case, he resembles a Shiba Inu. Shū has white fur with brown patches, as seen from around his face and hands, a long snout and a black button nose, as well as dark black eyes that are round.
Physically, Shū does not differ much from an adult to a puppy, beyond a height difference and softer features.

His typical attire consists of purple ninja garb, worn over a black undershirt, tied with a white *obi*, and he wears black *tabi* worn within *waraji* for footwear. On his back, he wears a sword tied with string. In the original *Dragon Ball* anime, he wore a yellow undershirt.

## Part I

### Red Ribbon Army Arc

***The following contents are "Non-Canon" and therefore not considered part of the Canon story.***

## Part II

### Cell Arc

*Main article: Cell Arc*
While they were not seen, Pilaf, Mai, and Shū, are always operating in secret, intending to take over the world. The emergence of Cell, however, caused them to postpone any attempts at world domination.

## Part III

### Majin Boo Arc

*Main article: Majin Boo Arc*
When Majin Boo's presence became known to Earth, it again forced Shū, Pilaf and Mai to postpone their plans for world domination. Shortly later, the three were killed by Boo during his assault on the entire population of Earth. Afterwards, the group alongside the rest of Boo's victims were resurrected by the Nameccian's Dragon Balls.

## Part IV

### Dragon Ball Z: God and God

*Main article: Dragon Ball Z: God and God*

### Dragon Ball Z: Revival of "F"

*Main article: Dragon Ball Z: Revival of "F"*

## In Other Timelines

### Trunks' Timeline

Shū shared the same past events with his present counterpart before Trunks used Time Machine to travel to the past. At some point in the future, the Pilaf Gang gathered the[Dragon Balls and summoned Shenron to wish for youth. Their timing was during the Android's attack on Earth, however, and the death of Piccolo rendered them inert from that point on; their wish turned them into infants. Due to Zen'ō erasing the 7th Universe, Pilaf and Shū suffered the same fate.

## Trivia

* Shu along with the Pilaf Gang make a cameo in Akira Toriyama's other work such as the movie *Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: N-cha! Love Comes From Penguin Village*.
* In the *Ask Akira Toriyama* section of the tankōbon version of volume 12, Akira Toriyama revealed to a reader in his questionnaire that the reason why this character is named both "Shū" in volume 10 of the manga and "Soba" in volume 2 is because when the anime came out in Japan, they had asked him to name Pilaf's underlings. Toriyama told the anime industry to name this character "Shū", completely forgetting that he already named this character "Soba" in the manga. By the time he realized this mistake, it was already too late, so Toriyama decided to rename the character to "Shū" in volume 10 onwards for consistency with the anime. Despite this, an editor revealed that they retained "Soba" as the character's name in the English version of the manga in order to stay true to Toriyama's original intentions.

## References

1. ↑ *Dragon Ball Super: Super Start Guide*, page 30
2. ↑ *Dragon Ball Volume "F"*, page 18
3. ↑ *Daizenshū 7: Large Encyclopedia: Secret Stories of the Dragon Ball Characters*
4. ↑ *Daizenshū 7: Large Encyclopedia: Secret Stories of the Dragon Ball Characters*
5. ↑ *Dragon Ball Super* special chapter, *Jump Victory Carnival 2016 Official Guidebook*
6. ↑ *Ask Akira Toriyama*