Krillin is a popular character in the series; in 2004 Japanese fans voted him the seventh most popular character. In January 2007, Oricon held a poll in which they asked Japanese fans of manga and anime which characters from any series they would most like to see in spin-off series. Krillin ranked third in the men's poll and sixth in the overall poll. In 2016, Krillin was ranked No. 3 on the saikoplus.com list "10 Most Popular Characters in Dragon Ball Z". When younger fans would belittle the character as weak, Krillin's voice actress Mayumi Tanaka said she would explain to them that Krillin and Yamcha are the strongest earthlings, the other characters are all aliens. She also said it was more fun to play Krillin when he was a dirty-minded bad kid, that she was not fond of him growing his hair out and was shocked when he died for the first time. Various publications for manga, anime and other media have commented on Krillin's character, adding praise and criticism to his development and traits in the series. Anime News Network writer Carl Kimlinger liked Krillin and Goku's childhood, noting it to be the warmth that the later "Dragon Ball Z" anime does not have. Also believing the first anime to have more development than the sequel, Tim Jones from Them Anime Reviews cited how Krillin was not a friend to Goku when first introduced. David F. Smith of IGN comments that Krillin and #18's relationship really help make the storyline more interesting. Additionally, he liked Krillin's appearances in the fight against Cell as he has more screen time than the main character, Goku. Although Chris Beveridge from Mania Entertainment thought that Krillin had a drastic change in "Dragon Ball GT", he mentioned that fans from the previous series would like some of its episodes due to the appearance of Krillin and other older characters.