Summary
Born on November 8, Pan is a fictional character featured in the Dragon Ball Z manga and anime series, as well as in Dragon Ball GT. She is a Human-Saiyajin quarter breed. In the original Japanese version, she was voiced by Yuko Minaguchi, while she is voiced by Elise Baughman in the FUNimation dub and by Caitlynne Medrek in the Blue Water Studios redubs. Pan's name derives from Pan of Roman mythology. At first glance, she appears to have been named after her mother Videl rather than her father Gohan. However, closer inspection reveals a double-pun by author Akira Toriyama, as Pan is also the Japanese and Spanish word for bread, continuing her father's food-based name as well as her mother's god-religion-based name. Pan is introduced in the series following the ten-year interval between the defeat of Majin Buu and the end of the written Dragon Ball series. She is the daughter of the primary character Son Gohan and, as a result, the granddaughter of the main character Son Goku. Pan is the only original character in the series with the most diluted Saiyajin heritage. Consequently, it was stated in the Daizenshuu that she lacked the ability to become a Super Saiyajin. However, this is later contradicted by the Dragon Ball GT Perfect file books, which state that she could have ascended if she trained hard enough. Toriyama also stated that the simple reason for Pan's inability to become a Super Saiyajin was that he could not come up with a logical design for a female Super Saiyajin, given that most Super Saiyajin traits are typical of males rather than females. As Pan only appears for three chapters in the manga, her later life is elaborated on in the anime-only series called Dragon Ball GT. There, she is seen as a young girl who travels the galaxy with her grandfather Goku and Trunks, the half-Saiyajin son of Vegeta and Bulma. In the final episode of Dragon Ball GT, Pan is seen as an old woman, being over 100 years old. She is the grandmother to Son Goku Jr., who has the ability to become a Super Saiyajin. This contradicts the Daizenshuu, which stated that characters who possessed less than half-Saiyajin heritage did not have the ability to become Super Saiyajins because of diluted blood-lines.
