How tall is Vegeta?

If anyone personified the Napoleon complex in Dragon Ball Z, then it’s definitely Vegeta. Although there are other short villains in the show, none of them seems as insecure or as quick to anger Vegeta.

Compared to his comrades Raditz and Nappa Vegeta seem like a child in size which leaves many viewers wondering how tall is Vegeta?

Vegeta is 5′ 5″ / 1.65 m according to Daizenshuu 7. However, with his long bad boy spikey hair, he stands at over 6′ / 1.8m

Did Vegeta get taller?

Like most characters in the Dragon Ball Universe and anime in general, their height is subject to change.

Often this isn’t done on purpose, but with so many animators drawing millions upon millions of frames for Dragon Ball over the years a slight drift is expected.

If you look at Vegeta standing still, or in promotional material, then his height is pretty consistent.

But during a fight scene, his size is a lot more flexible depending on what is happening.

If you look at the two images below, you’ll see the sort of shift that can occur.

Why isn’t Vegeta very tall?

Toriyama has a thing for short guys, what can we say.

Throughout the series, it’s frequently shown that your physical size has very little to do with your ability to manipulate Ki.

All through Dragon Ball Goku is whooping enemies twice his size despite being a child.

Raditz and Nappa were tall and powerful when they were introduced only to be outclassed by tiny little Vegeta.

Frieza surrounded himself with large Henchmen, and his second form was gigantic, only to reveal his most powerful state was a small purple androgynous child.

As Mark Twain put it “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog” and nowhere is this more accurate than in Dragon Ball Z.

So has Vegeta grown? Officially no, he’s always been the same little 5′ 5″ tike we know and love. But does this mean he isn’t subject to growth spurts and shrinking during a hard to animate fight scene? Nope.