Bulma
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| Bulma | |
|---|---|
| Dragon Ball character | |
| File:BulmaHappy.jpg Bulma by Akira Toriyama | |
| First appearance | Book 1 (Chapter 1) (manga) Episode 1 of Dragon Ball (anime) |
| Created by | Akira Toriyama |
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Bulma Briefs Bloomers Lena |
| Species | Human |
| Relatives | Dr. Briefs (father) Mrs. Briefs (mother) Vegeta (Husband) King Vegeta (Father in law) Trunks (son) Future Trunks (son, alternate future) Bra (daughter) Vegeta Jr. (Descendant) |
Bulma (ブルマ, Buruma) is a fictional character who first appears in the Dragon Ball manga created by Akira Toriyama, followed by an identical anime, including Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT. She was originally a secondary main character, but her role is quickly downplayed as the series continues, even though she does remain an important supporting character for most of the series. In the series, Bulma is the daughter of the family who own the Capsule Corp. franchise. Being the daughter of a brilliant scientist, Bulma is also a scientist and inventor. Bulma is most credited for inventing the Dragon Radar, a device that is specifically designed to detect the signal emitted by the Dragon Balls in the series.
Bulma's father is Dr. Briefs, but it is unclear in the manga whether 'Briefs' is his first name or his last. Bulma's mother is shown several times in the anime and manga, without an official name.
In the series, Bulma's notable inventions, besides the Dragon Radar, include: a Microband that shrinks her, modified Saiyan Armor for the hyperbolic time chamber, a Blutz Wave generator to allow Vegeta to reach Super Saiyan 4, and a time machine to allow Trunks to get to the past, in an alternate future timeline. She also repairs Android 16 with her father.
In the early Harmony Gold English Dragon Ball dub from the 1980s, she is known as Lena.
In Japan Bulma was voiced by Hiromi Tsuru. In the Ocean Group dub she was first voiced by Lalainia Lindbjerg and later by Maggie Blue O'Hara. In the FUNimation dub, she has always been voiced by Tiffany Vollmer.
Name and character origin
Bulma is a direct parody of the character Xuanzang from the Chinese novel Journey to the West. Even though Bulma's character parodies a monk, her Japanese name "Buruma" is the brand of a popular gym short worn by girls in Japan. Her re-adapted name Bulma is a direct take on the word "bloomers", which was a popular brand of women's underwear in the early 20th century.
As with most characters in the Dragon Ball series, Bulma's name is consistant with those of the rest of her family. Her family name has been said by Toriyama to be "Briefs", which is a type of underwear. All of Bulma's family members are named after underclothing of some sort.
Appearance
Bulma's appearance in the anime differs slightly then her appearance in the manga. In the manga, her hair is a shade of fuchsia, while in the anime, her hair is a shade of turquoise. Her hair in the Dragon Ball 10th anniversary special is changed to the manga color for unknown reasons.
Bulma's appearance in the series is not as consistent as the other characters. She quite often changes her hair style and clothing, which is very unusual for any cartoon character. Bulma has also been seen topless, the only topless female character in the entire Dragon Ball series.
Personality
Bulma's personality is like the typical female characters in Toriyama's stories; nagging and temperamental. Bulma at first is the identical to the image of a pampered city girl for most of the series; arrogant and adventurous, but afraid of being alone. Her arrogance can be seen to stem from her intellect; Bulma is most recognized for her fierce determination to get what she wants, and can be viewed as reckless in those quests.
Bulma mellows out as the series continues, and it's not until she begins her relationship to Vegeta that her focus switches from Goku to him. She is often depicted at first to support Goku, as he is a good friend of hers. But her relationship with Vegeta and his rivalry with Goku sparks a friendly rivalry with Chi Chi, Goku's wife, but she manages to remain one of Goku's strongest supporters due to their long friendship.
Background
Dragon Ball
Bulma is the second character to be introduced in the Dragon Ball series. In the early part of the story, she is the inventor of the Dragon Radar and is searching for the legendary Dragon Balls. Bulma was hoping to use the Dragon Balls to wish for the perfect boyfriend. While searching for a nearby Dragon Ball, she runs into Son Goku. It is at this time that she finds out Goku inherited one of the balls (the four-star ball) she is searching for from his Grandpa Gohan. Because of Goku's love for the ball and his belief that his Grandpa's spirit lives in the ball, Goku is not willing to give it up. Bulma then asks him to loan it for her in exchange of taking him in her travels. At that point, they team up to find the remainder of the balls and the adventure begins.
As the search progresses, Bulma and Goku meet Muten Roshi after finding his pet turtle; Oolong, a shape-shifting pig who is terrorizing a village; and Yamucha, a desert bandit who Bulma soon finds herself attracted to, and who she eventually starts a relationship with. Througout the series, Bulma goes through many life-threatening situations and is often a damsel-in-distress, needing the protection of Goku and the others. Despite their heroics however, Bulma at times takes advantage of them by escaping whenever possible, uncaring of how they will survive.
Dragon Ball Z
As the anime progresses, Bulma's role waxes and wanes. In the later action-oriented episodes of the series, there is little room for a genius but Bulma continues to play a role as a secondary character, helping Goku and his friends with her gadgets, and having a rather rocky relationship with Yamcha. After five years of peace, an evil menace came to the Earth. It was Goku's eldest brother, a Saiyan, named Raditz. After Goku and Piccolo killed him, Kuririn and Bulma took the scouter from Raditz, and fixed it to find the power levels of people in human numbers. The only way to get to Namek, was with a spaceship. When Mr. Popo got Bulma to one, he tried to figure out if it really was a spaceship or not. After closer inspection, it was indeed, an actual spaceship. She fixed it with the help of her father, and flew off to Namek with Kuririn and Son Gohan.
Bulma is well known for her intellectual approach to situations and her sexiness. She is also very proud of her abilities and can be very cantankerous when slighted, which may indicate a similar approach with other men. Bulma's first relationship in the series was with Yamcha, whom she met in their first travel with Goku; they have an on and off relationship, which is terminated later romantically but continues as a friendly one. Bulma also had an eye out for extremely handsome fellows, who happened to be major villains, General Blue, and Zarbon. Her taste in men was depicted well enough, however, sometime after the break-up with Yamcha during the three years the Z fighters use to train for the Artificial Humans, Bulma falls in love with Vegeta and begins a relationship with him which eventually leads to the birth of their son Trunks and thirteen years later, their daughter Bra.
In the Great Saiyaman Saga, She helped Gohan by making a watch which automatically changes his clothes into a super hero costume so he could fight crime, without his real identity being known. In the Fusion Saga she and the other Z Fighters, with the exception of Goku, Vegeta and Gohan, hide on the Lookout from the monstrous Super Buu, however she is killed when Buu turns her into chocolate and eats her. In heaven, she, along with Chichi, Videl, and a reformed Dabura looked for Gohan. She is revived by the Dragon Balls, along with her family and friends, and gives her energy to Goku to create the huge Genki Dama to eliminate Kid Buu once and for all.
Dragon Ball GT
In Dragon Ball GT she becomes possessed by Baby, who takes her as his apparent queen and lover (or second in command, at least). It could be possible that since Bebi was possessing Vegeta who loved Bulma, then Bebi was influenced by these feelings while he and Vegeta existed as a single entity in the same space.) During this time, she organizes the migration to Planet Vegeta (Renamed the Tuffle home planet), and creates the Blutz Wave device that helps Bebi-Vegeta become a Golden Oozaru. However, the Holy Water hidden in Dende's lookout is used to free her and the rest of Earth from Baby's enslavement. Later, she helps Vegeta reach Super Saiyan 4, by exposing him to a new Blutz Wave Cannon, and she helps the rest of the group defeating the One-Star Dragon.
Alternate timeline
Bulma survived the Artificial Humans' onslaught in the "Trunks Timeline," as seen in The History of Trunks special. Bulma lives at the former site of Capsule Corp, attempting to build a time machine. She's very protective of Trunks and hates the idea of him fighting, but nevertheless allows him to take the time machine to the past to stop the Artificial Humans and also deliver Goku an antidote for a heart virus that claimed his life in the alternate timeline.
In this timeline, Bulma aged very quickly, probably due to the stress of living in the hell that was Earth. She still was as smart as ever, but she didn't look as young as she used to. She had also grown more mature and wasn't as selfish. She spent most of her life devoted to building a time machine so that Trunks could go back in time and prevent the devastation wrought by the Artificial Humans, by saving the life of Goku, whom Bulma believed was the one who would save them all. Once the Artificial Humans (or more importantly, Cell) were taken care of in the main timeline, Trunks returned to his original time and defeated the much weaker Artificial Humans and this timeline's Imperfect Cell with ease.
Appearances in other media
Video games
Bulma usually appears as nothing more than a one-line character in cut scenes for most Dragon Ball video games, such as Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3. The biggest rumor on Budokai 3 game was that Bulma was playable, for the fact that she was seen in the 11th stage of the training mode, to explain how to use capsules during a duel. She barely could move, but it was a complete game model of her. Also in the DVD that comes with the special edition, her voice actor is seen recording fight sounds for Bulma. Note: Bulma is unlockable using a cheats disc. She has no moves and cannot set skills. This shows that they made a Bulma model, but for one reason or another they decided not to use it.
In Budokai 2, Bulma sells capsules in the Skill Shop. Bulma will wear a different costume depending on how many you have collected in Dragon World. In Budokai Tenkaichi, Bulma appears in the Options Mode explaining how the various game settings work. In Budokai Tenkaichi 2, she appears in the data center, explaining about custom characters and in practice mode along with a pink shirt-wearing Vegeta. She also comes with her desert costume from the original Dragonball anime, once unlocked.
Bulma is a Help Koma in Jump Ultimate Stars. She gives more SP for collected coins to the Battle Koma she is attached to.
Manga crossover
She has a cameo in a Dragon Ball and One Piece crossover.
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