Nappa and Vegeta are a pair of elite Saiyan warriors who fought together. They made their appearance in the Saiyan Arc, engaging in a fierce fight with Goku and friends as part of their quest to collect all seven Dragon Balls and gain immortality.

Although these two had stuck together as two of the few remaining survivors from Planet Vegeta, once Nappa lost to Goku in battle, Vegeta had absolutely no qualms about disposing of him.

So, what exactly were Vegeta and Nappa to each other?

To learn more about this interesting relationship, as well as the shared sense of purpose that kept them together, we talked to Professor Murase, who specializes in teamwork research.

Profiles

Interviewee: Toshiro Murase
Associate Professor at the School of Commerce at Waseda University. Moved to the United States after graduating from high school in 1997. In 2011, he received his doctorate in Industrial Organizational Psychology from the University of Central Florida. After completing his postdoctoral work at Northwestern University and Georgia Institute of Technology, he took on a teaching position at Roosevelt University. He has held his current position since September 2017. His fields of expertise are leadership and teamwork studies.

Interviewer: Hayato Inui
Editor and writer. Is constantly moving between Tokyo, Nagano, and his hometown in Kansai while reporting and writing. Has experience working under a boss as intimidating as Vegeta.

Contents

・Does a Lack of Formality Mean Equality? Not for These Two
・ Nappa and Vegeta: Not a Good Team
・​​​​​​​ Too Proud to Ask for Help
・​​​​​​​ From "Being the Best" to "Working Together"
・​​​​​​​ Vegeta's Humanity Comes from Living with Others

Does a Lack of Formality Mean Equality? Not for These Two

—We first see Vegeta as a Saiyan warrior, a violent race of people who invade planet after planet for the purpose of selling them to the highest bidder. You'd think he'd feel some sense of kinship with Nappa, a fellow Saiyan warrior...

Professor Murase (Hereafter Murase): Well, first let's start with the reason Vegeta and Nappa are working together. Their goal was to "Collect the Dragon Balls and obtain eternal life", right? Because if they do that, then they can spend their days in glorious battle forever.

From my perspective, their relationship doesn't seem to be much more than "Having a shared goal and removing any obstacles in the path to achieving that goal". So, they only fought together against the warriors of Earth because they both considered them an obstacle.

—Since they're only working together to accomplish a goal, would you say things are just business between them? They seem to have a frank style of communication, which we can see in how Nappa speaks to Vegeta in a pretty casual manner.

Murase: The thing you need to keep in mind is that rank is not necessarily reflected in surface-level communication. For example, in English, although there are polite expressions, such as calling someone "sir", communication is still rather casual, even between a boss and an employee. However, the boss is usually the one who ultimately makes the decisions.

Conversely, the Japanese language places a lot of value on using respectful language, but the "let's all talk things out and then decide" method of consensus building is also important. Because of this, not all aspects of interpersonal relationships are visible if you only look at the language used.

In the case of these two, I think that it's not that Vegeta and Nappa are on equal footing, but that Vegeta allows Nappa to speak to him casually.

Nappa and Vegeta: Not a Good Team

—So there's a clearly defined hierarchy here. And Vegeta is undeniably the stronger of the two.

Murase: Yes, that appears to be the case. As a Saiyan, Nappa may simply hold a "respect for power", but there are also many scenes where he seems truly afraid of Vegeta.

Ideally, a team should be free of the "don't talk back to your seniors" preconception. Instead, it should be built on a foundation of mutual respect and recognizing each other's talents, rather than titles or hierarchy.

Perhaps Vegeta and Nappa's relationship is more akin to that of a group of delinquents.

—Based on your expertise in the field of teambuilding, how would you evaluate their relationship?

Murase: I can't say it's a very good one. I don't think Vegeta is very skilled at building interpersonal relationships.

In an organization where the leader yells at dissenters and forces them to obey and follow his lead, then that organization can only ever be as good as its leader. On the other hand, if the leader and the team members are on a more even footing, then problems that the leader was unaware of will come up in the course of communication. In that case, the team can then work together as a whole to solve said issues.

—When you put it that way, I don't know if you can really say they were a team after all. By the way, how do power dynamics form in an organization or a team? In Vegeta's case, is it just purely based on Power Levels?

Murase: Generally, in any given relationship, once it comes down to "We can't complete this task without X", then that person gains power.

However, not only is Vegeta a more accomplished fighter than Nappa, but he can also strategize perfectly well on his own.

Perhaps Vegeta's thoughts towards Nappa could be summed up as "With or without him, I can still accomplish my goals (i.e., stealing the Dragon Balls from the people of Earth and achieving immortality)".

—So if there had ever been a situation where Vegeta thought, "I can't do this without Nappa's help," their relationship might have been different?

Murase: If Nappa had been able to contribute something besides battle prowess to Vegeta, then I'd say it's possible.

In the manga, Bulma points out that Vegeta is the type to get lonely easily. If Nappa had been able to support Vegeta in terms of external communication, then there's a chance things could have turned out differently.

In general, the goal of a team is to work together to accomplish a goal none of the individuals can accomplish on their own.

To Vegeta, maybe Nappa just never reached the level of someone he wanted to discuss things with so they could combine their differing skillsets to achieve a goal.

Too Proud to Ask for Help

—And by seeing how Vegeta interacts with others, we also get a feel for who he is as a person.

Murase: Even when fighting with Goku, Vegeta continues to say, "I'm the strongest there is!" The fact that he has to say this can actually be interpreted as a sign that he doesn't have a lot of confidence in himself.

From each and every word that he says, we can see that he remains unable to accept his own weakness and his own flaws. So, I think Vegeta is really a person with low self-esteem.

It's easier for people who have accepted their own flaws to cooperate with others. This may be because if you're trying to work together with someone with an ego and you make a suggestion, it's likely you'll be met with some form of backlash, like "I came up with this idea. Are you really going to disagree with me?"

This is just speculation, but it's possible that Vegeta never developed the concept of depending on others due to his pride as a Saiyan prince. It seems he was strongly influenced by Saiyan culture, so for example "refusing to depend on others is a sign of strength" may have been something he was raised to believe back home.

From "Being the Best" to "Working Together"

Murase: Vegeta had always focused on being better than everyone else. The concept of "performance orientation" applies here, meaning he doesn't base his standards on the process or growth, only on results. Nappa couldn't produce results, and so he was discarded.

On the other hand, Goku finds joy in the process of growing and become stronger. It's quite the contrast, right? Even so, in the end Vegeta was able to recognize the value in Goku's way of life. I think this a scene where we can see Vegeta's growth as a person.

—It's one of the few scenes where Vegeta bestows his approval on another.

Murase: Actually, besides Goku, there were others with whom Vegeta was able to communicate in a much more human manner than he did with Nappa. By that, I mean with Krillin and Gohan when they all fought together on Planet Namek.

I think this communication was able to happen because, as I mentioned earlier, Vegeta had a goal (defeating formidable enemies) that he was unable to accomplish on his own.

Besides having a shared goal, it's also necessary for a team to share an understanding of who will take on which task, and how they will do it.

I think Vegeta acknowledged Krillin and Gohan's strength as warriors, and so he took the time to have a discussion to ensure that no one person was taking on too much.

—In terms of fighting together, I think the last battle, the fight against Majin Buu, was impressive as well. By thinking about holding Majin Buu back for Goku's sake, and by coming up with the idea of asking the people of Earth for their help, Vegeta acts differently here than he had in the past.

Murase: This definitely shows growth. He’s become able to consider his own role before acting, as well as able to call for cooperation in order to accomplish a goal.

I think his time living on Earth is what allowed this to happen. By living a life not solely focused on battle, he was able to recognize the relationships between himself and others, as well as the importance of individuals other than himself, and to learn what it means to live and interact with other people.

Perhaps that also allowed him to understand how important his actions and the role he plays are to others.

And I think that's precisely where the idea to let someone else take responsibility came from. For Vegeta, who had been unable to depend on others, that was a big change.

Vegeta's Humanity Comes from Living with Others

—Until fighting against Goku and his friends on Earth, Vegeta lived a pretty self-centered life. He placed all of his self-worth solely on how strong he was, or how much he could accomplish.

Murase: Yes, that's right. But after the fight on Planet Namek, Vegeta starts a family. With this step, he starts to focus less on himself and more on the relationship between himself and his family, and this new awareness of others begins to appear in his conversations.

Maybe it's this combination of low self-esteem and change brought about by interacting with others that humanizes Vegeta and makes him an interesting character.

—In a change from the cold, businesslike relationship he had with Nappa, he grew to be able to build warmer relationships as well.

Murase: I think the Vegeta we see in the beginning, who was only concerned with how capable someone was or how well they were able to fight, would have had a very difficult time forming the relationships we see him have later.

However, Nappa was the person who had spent the most time with Vegeta at that stage of his life. With Nappa, I think he might have been able to let his guard down a little bit and be his true Saiyan self.

—Just by looking at his interactions with other characters, we've learned a lot about Vegeta's humanity! Professor Murase, thank you so much for your time today!