is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. 2/4 birthday Within the series, he is a genie who serves as the assistant to Earth's guardian deity and the caretaker of their residence, which is located high above the sky. He first appears in the one hundred sixty-third chapter of the Dragon Ball manga, published in 1988. In the Japanese anime adaptations, his seiyū was Toku Nishio, before Kawazu Yasuhiko took over the role for Dragon Ball Kai. For English language media, he was voiced by Chris Cason in 1999 and from 2010 on. The character was voiced by Christopher Sabat from 2000 up until 2005. Mr. Popo's design and humanoid appearance has been criticized as an offensive racist stereotype by some commentators, such as children's book author Carole Boston Weatherford. As a result of the controversy, Mr. Popo's appearance had been modified in some media depictions of the character: his lips are downsized digitally in the American release of the Dragon Ball manga by Viz Media, and his skin is recoloured blue from his original black colour in the CW4Kids TV broadcast of Dragon Ball Kai. Development Mr. Popo was initially envisioned by series creator Akira Toriyama as a reptilian humanoid with a chicken-like beak that had several variant designs, including one sketch with curly hair, though all of which were ultimately discarded. Later concept art by Toriyama depict him as a slender man dressed in a manner reminiscent of Namu, an Indian yogi-inspired character who fights series protagonist Goku in a martial arts tournament early in the series. Toriyama ultimately settled on the current design, a portly humanoid with bright facial expressions whose clothing resembles stereotypical depictions of Jinns, supernatural beings from Arabian mythology and Islamic theology. The early concept art sketches of Mr. Popo are included in the 30th Anniversary Dragon Ball Super History Book published in 2016. According to Toriyama, Mr. Popo has served as an assistant to successive generations of gods who preside over Earth in the Dragon Ball universe, suggesting that he existed long before the "Nameless Namekian" arrived on Earth and subsequently serve as the world's guardian deity. Besides being a skilled practitioner of martial arts, Toriyama noted that Mr. Popo is also responsible for crafting the physical appearance of the wish-granting dragon Shenron, originally created by the Namekian Kami" and summoned from Earth's seven Dragon Balls, as