, also known as , is a fictional character in Dragon Ball created by Akira Toriyama. Within the series, Jiren hails from Universe 11, a parallel universe to Universe 2. He is the strongest member of the Pride Troopers, a heroic organization that defends their universe against evil-doers. Jiren is the primary antagonist and anti-hero of the Tournament of Power saga in Dragon Ball Super, where eight 10-person teams compete in a multiverse-oriented fighting competition to ensure the survival of their respective universes. Jiren is considered to be the strongest amongst the participants, as his power is said to rival or even surpass those of the universes' deities; his goal is to be given access to the Super Dragon Balls by winning the tournament. He quickly establishes a rivalry with the series protagonist, Goku, which lead the two to engage in a series of intense battles that eventually leads Goku to gaining new power and an ability.
Jiren's debut is in Episode 85 of the Dragon Ball Super anime, whereas his first appearance for the Dragon Ball Super manga is in Chapter 30. Jiren is voiced by Eiji Hanawa in Japanese, and by Patrick Seitz in the English localization by Funimation.
Jiren has been met with an overall mixed critical reception. Some reviewers have praised his involvement in the series, whereas others criticized his backstory as unpersuasive and shallow.
Creation and conception Jiren is an extraterrestrial being with a humanoid stature. His visage is reminiscent of the grey alien archetype, with a pair of grey eyes that has enlarged black pupils and a very muscular physique. As a member of the Pride Troopers, Jiren wears their standardized red and black costumed uniform with white gloves and boots. Jiren's visual design for the Dragon Ball Super manga is illustrated by Toyotarou, although his initial concept underwent some significant corrections by Toriyama as oversight for the final product. One major difference is that Toriyama inverted Toyotarou's body design for Jiren, by reducing the thickness of his lower body and accentuating his upper body. Toriyama also spread apart Jiren's eyes and drew it to be more square in shape.
Megumi Ishitani, the director of Episode 131 of the Dragon Ball Super anime series, provided a lengthy explanation of Jiren's character motivations during the Universal Survival arc in response to a question about his character development on the social discussion website Reddit. She said that Jiren's belief in the concept of "solitude is strength" is influenced by his tragic past, and that his own power had reinforced the validity of this belief until Episode 130 when he loses to Goku, a rival who had grown strong through his allies. Ishitani indicated that as a result of experiencing a crisis of faith and loses the opportunity to fight Goku on even terms, Jiren is unable to draw out his full power as he is plagued with self-doubt and emotional loss when he is forced to fight Frieza and Android 17, both of whom he consider to be unworthy opponents. Ishitani indicated that his emotional state and will to fight improves after receiving a show of support by his Pride Trooper teammate, and especially after he is confronted by a revived Goku who has regained some of his strength, due to his respect for Goku and for getting a second chance to finish their fight. On a scene where Jiren's barrier shatters like glass following a combined attack of Goku and his allies, Ishitani described it as conveying the visual cue that "there is now nothing separating Jiren from Goku and the others", and that Jiren's smile is intended to imply that he has broken through his emotional shell.
In an interview with Comic Book Resources, Jiren's English voice actor Patrick Seitz noted that Jiren is "so overpowered and they're setting him up to be such a badass that he didn't really have to try at all", and as a result he did not need to exert his voice until later in the series. On the issue of vocal health awareness which concerns voice acting for animation works, and with the context that characters are known to be depicted with a high frequency of yelling and screaming during fight scenes in the Dragon Ball series, Seitz indicated that he is happy to be playing a character like Jiren at a later stage in his career where he has since learned how to apply a judicious yet effective use of his vocal abilities.
Abilities Despite his humble origins, Jiren is regarded as one of the most powerful mortal beings among the twelve universes in the Dragon Ball mythos. Jiren was once considered as a candidate to become a God of Destruction – deities who are concerned with balancing the development of the universe they preside over by selectively destroying planets, civilizations or external threats. Due to his refusal, the position went to the Pride Trooper leader, or Top in the English localization of the anime, who is Jiren's friend and superior instead. His power level is said to have surpassed his universe's God of Destruction, or Vermoud in the English localization of the anime. In the manga, it is claimed that Jiren's strength and growth is immeasurable and that he is able to quickly adapt and become more capable on the battlefield.
Jiren possesses superhuman speed, strength, durability and reflexes, all of which are magnified to incredibly high levels. With ki energy manipulation, Jiren can fly and can use ki blasts for offensive uses and barriers for defense. His signature attack is Power Impact (パワーインパクト Pawā Inpakuto) which fires an energy ball that travels far enough until it discharges into an explosion, or it can also be used in different variations. He can also widen his eyes to create an invisible projection of force to repel attacks.
Appearances Dragon Ball Super anime Jiren is first shown meditating, prior to being invited by the Pride Troopers, and Vermoud to participate in the Tournament of Power. Initially, Jiren appears to be aloof and uninterested, despite the risk of the losing universes being erased from existence by Zeno, but later relented when Vermoud announced that the winner would be granted the Super Dragon Balls for a wish. Arriving in the Null Realm for the tournament alongside the Pride Troopers, Goku from Universe 7 attempted to greet him, only to be harshly rejected.
During the tournament, Jiren mostly remains inactive in spite of most of the Pride Troopers being eliminated from the tournament early on, but remains an intimidating force throughout. When Kale, a Saiyan from Universe 6 goes berserk, Jiren immediately approaches and incapacitates her with little effort. He was also able to repel the Light of Love technique from Universe 2's Ribrianne and swiftly eliminated Universe 3's Maji Kayo with a single punch after Maji Kayo threatened to torture Dyspo, one of the Pride Trooper's and Universe 11's contestants.
Jiren ultimately fights against Goku, with the former easily holding the advantage and dominating the latter by a wide margin. In desperation, Goku uses the Spirit Bomb from energy collected from his teammates. Jiren manages to overcome the Spirit Bomb, but Goku emerges in a new transformation, Ultra Instinct. In this new state, Goku is able to fight Jiren more effectively and surprise him for a few moments before the forms gives out, allowing Jiren to defeat him again. Soon afterwards, he is confronted by Hit, the strongest fighter of Universe 6, who, despite being overwhelmed, manages to trap him using his time manipulation abilities. Despite this, Jiren breaks free of Hit's trap and immediately eliminates him from the tournament. Seeing that he has defeated Goku and Hit, whom he perceived were the two greatest threats to him in the tournament, Jiren retreats to meditate while the remaining two Universe 11 fighters, Top and Dyspo carried on with the fighting.
Jiren awakens from his meditation upon sensing that Goku reactivated his Ultra Instinct form during his battle against Kefla, the Potara fusee of two Universe 6 Saiyans, Caulifla and Kale. He would continue to observe the battlefield until only Universe 7 and Universe 11 remained. He challenged Goku again and shares a vague explanation of his wish by stating that he seeks "what is beyond strength". He is then met by Vegeta who manages to out-maneuver and deliver a series of attacks before Jiren quickly incapacitates him. Vegeta later recovers, unleashes a limit-breaking transformation and allies with Goku to battle Jiren again, with the latter commending on how Goku and Vegeta are improving. The battle continues until Jiren stops to muse about Top's transformation as a God of Destruction and Vegeta departing to fight against Top, leaving only Goku to deal with. After Top is defeated, Jiren promptly calls him pathetic for throwing away his ideals and losing and praising Vegeta for holding on to his beliefs. He then proceeds to power up and stop holding back. Despite the aid of Android 17 and Frieza, Goku and Vegeta are unable to faze Jiren for too long, as he is able to successfully counterattack.
Vermoud then recites Jiren's backstory, and explained that one day when Jiren was still a child, he found his home, village and parents killed by a mysterious, malevolent individual. Jiren was then adopted and trained by a martial arts teacher, alongside others to avenge Jiren's parents, until he encountered the evil figure again, during which Jiren's teacher and most of his disciples were killed. Not willing to avenge their comrades, the remaining students abandoned Jiren, causing him to believe in one's own strength as an absolute goal towards justice and that trust in others is unnecessary. Jiren would later train and fight on his own, ultimately joining the Pride Troopers later on. Jiren cuts off Vermoud's speech before re-engaging Android 17, who criticized him for being disdainful of his teammates and for only being focused on himself, before Jiren powers up a large energy attack to destroy the tournament area. However, Android 17 uses a self-destruct bomb and seemingly sacrifices himself to nullify Jiren's attack, preventing Goku and Vegeta from being eliminated. Vegeta confronts Jiren again, despite suffering from exhaustion due to his battle with Top. Jiren toys with Vegeta and severely injures him, despite the Saiyan refusing to give up, before eliminating him.