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Bulma
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This article is about the original character. For the character portrayed in live action by Emmy Rossum, see Bulma Brief/Dragonball Evolution.

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"Flying through space and protecting the galaxy does sound like a good time. But when you're married to Vegeta and mom to a boy like Trunks, you don't look back. I'm perfectly content with how my life is unfolded."
— Bulma to Jaco in "Off to See Master Zuno! Find Out Where the Super Dragon Balls Are!"

Bulma (ブルマ Buruma, lit. "Blooma") is an engineer, second daughter of Capsule Corporation founder Dr. Brief and his wife Bikini,[14] the younger sister of Tights,[15] and Goku's first friend.[1][4] After dating Yamcha in their teen years,[16][17] she would marry Vegeta in adulthood and give birth to their two children, Trunks and Bulla. A technological genius who can turn her talents to almost any field and understand alien technology near-effortlessly, her inventions have been invaluable to Goku and the rest of the Dragon Team. Her most notable invention is the Dragon Radar.

Bulma is the most significant female character in the series. Aside from Goku himself, Bulma is the single longest-running character in the entire franchise, being introduced in the first Dragon Ball chapter and episode, maintaining a prominent role until the end of the series.

Concept and Creation

Pinchi

Bulma in the third draft under the name "Pinchi"

Bulma's original incarnation was the Princess of the Flower Country from Akira Toriyama's one-shot Dragon Boy, the predecessor to Dragon Ball, with her appearance also taking inspiration from the character Plamo from The Adventures of Tongpoo, another Toriyama one-shot.

In Toriyama's first draft of Dragon Ball, Bulma's design was significantly different, giving her the appearance of a western girl. During the second draft Bulma had the braided ponytail that she had in her first appearance but older looking with a different styled dress. The third draft gave her the name of Pinchi and had exactly the same design as the final draft but her clothes her tight black pants with a shirt that had her shoulders exposed.[18]

Appearance

Throughout the entire series, Bulma has changed her appearance more than any other character, going through a total of 18 different hairstyles. Her hair color varies between appearances, having been colored purple, blue, and turquoise. Her hairstyle was shoulder-length as a teenager. Many of the clothes she is seen wearing often bear her name or the Capsule Corporation logo on it.

Bulma had a youthful and tender appearance in her teen years, such as with her light-colored skin. In her teen years her bust measurement was 85cm, her waist measurement was 58cm, and her hip measurement was 84cm.[9] According to Zuno, her bust measurement as an adult was 87.2cm before breastfeeding, and 83.4cm after.[19]

In her initial appearance, Bulma had her hair in a braided ponytail with a red ribbon and wore a very short pink dress with her name on it with blue sneakers and purple socks. Due to wetting her panties when being captured by a pterodactyl, her clothes are quickly changed to a pair of boots, gray pants and a blue jacket with a white tank top underneath with her hair unchanged.

When she was staying the night in her Capsule House she wore a pink nightgown with one side of her hair in a pigtail and adds a pair of pink socks and blue sneakers to it when she was forced to take Turtle to the beach. After coming back from the beach, Bulma is briefly seen in a white shirt and pants with brown shoes and gloves when attempting to ride Goku's Flying Nimbus.

When dealing with Oolong in Aru Village, Bulma is seen in one of her more consistent appearances featuring her hair down and wearing a pair of brown short shorts, red and white shoes, pink socks, a red jacket with a white shirt underneath and a red hat with her name on it.

Since she loses her Capsules at a river, she is forced to wear a Bunny Costume since she thinks the previous outfit got too dirty for her to wear. She wears the Bunny costume until she gets a pair of gypsy styled clothes at Monster Carrot's Village. The gypsy clothes consisted of her hair in a ponytail while wearing a white suit with a red waistband, a golden collar, a small blue jacket, gold armlets, and red sandals. She wears this outfit until she gets back to West City.

When she attended the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament she wears a red tank top that has her name on it, a white shirt underneath, orange skirt, yellow socks, and purple shoes. Her hair is also ponytail with a red bow on her head. During the time, Bulma met back with Goku in West City during his time being targeted by the Red Ribbon Army, Bulma wore a red tube top that leaves her shoulders exposed, orange shorts, and pink shoes with purple socks while having her hair in a side ponytail. When she was with Krillin being pursued by General Blue in the Pirate Cave she left her shorts, shoes, and socks behind to swim and was just in her red tube top and red panties that showed her butt crack at the back.

After getting back to Kame House after the incident she is seen wearing an outfit which is identical to the outfit worn before but everything being pink. She wears this outfit all the way until the end of the Fortuneteller Baba Saga.

After the three-year time skip, has her hair cut shorter and wears an opened-up orange sweatshirt, a red shirt underneath, white skirt, orange socks and blue shoes with orange laces at the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. She wears this same outfit minus the orange sweatshirt for part of the King Piccolo Saga. In the later half, she switches to a blue shirt and skirt. After King Piccolo's defeat, Bulma is seen wearing a white and blue striped shirt with an orange skirt. After another three-year time skip during the Piccolo Jr. Saga, she wears a sleeveless dark blue turtleneck dress with a white belt that has a pouch to the side. She also is wearing white boots with yellow socks and has her hair at shoulder length again as well as wearing red lipstick. She also wears pink earrings and wears a pink bracelet on her left wrist. She also had the same appearance in The World's Strongest and Lord Slug.

After the five-year gap that begins Dragon Ball Z, Bulma has her hair cut short again and wears white shorts, blue socks, blue and orange shoes and a blue shirt that leaves her shoulders exposed underneath an open white coat. After the year has passed in the middle of the Vegeta Saga, Bulma wears a blue shirt with a white collar and white edges on the sleeves as well as matching blue shorts with the edges on the bottom. Her hair is also back to a ponytail with a red bow. After the battle of the Saiyans is over, Bulma wears a white shirt that says Capsule Corporation and a pair of tight red jeans and has her hair all the way down with it longer than before. While on the ship on their trip to Namek, Bulma had her hair cut to shoulder length again and wore only her gray tank top and panties while traveling on board the Nameless Namekian's Spaceship (a reference to Ellen Ripley in the Alien films). While on Namek, she wore a perfectly fitting black jumpsuit on the whole body with a yellow tunic over it and pair of orange boots as with as a red hairband. In the Androids Saga, she wore an exposed midriff in a red crop top with an orange ultra short jacket, cropped jeans, & high-top sneakers. By the end she's wearing a burgundy long-sleeved shirt, white pants, and her hair was still shoulder-length which is also retained in Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan while in Bojack Unbound, she wears a yellow spaghetti strap crop tank top which bared her midriff, a yellow headband, white jean shorts, a pearl necklace, a red ring around her wrist, red flip flops, and also retains her hairstyle from the Androids Saga.

In the Buu Saga, she wore a sleeveless green dress with the shoes similar to what her sons wear, and her hair is bowl-cut, and she also wears gold hoop earrings. At the Capsule Corporation garage, she wears a brown long-sleeved button-down shirt with dark green pants, a dark brown vest, and brown gloves. At the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament and for the majority of the Buu Saga, her green dress is replaced with a sleeveless red dress and a yellow kerchief tied around her neck, although she switches back to the green dress for the party celebration for the defeat of Kid Buu in "He's Always Late".

In Battle of Gods and early Dragon Ball Super, Bulma wears a sleeveless purple dress and a light green kerchief tied around her neck resembling her outfit that she wore in the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament and wears red sneakers and also wears small gold earrings instead of gold hoop earrings and she also retains her bowl-cut hairstyle from the Buu Saga.

In Fusion Reborn, she wears the same appearance from the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament in the Majin Buu Saga while in Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon, her red dress and a yellow kerchief is replaced by a blue dress which resembles her green dress.

For Resurrection ‘F’ and Dragon Ball Super, Bulma receives a new outfit which she wears a white t-shirt, a red bandanna, jeans, cowgirl boots, and wears stud earrings. She later wears an outfit identical to her future self, but her short-sleeved undershirt is green, her jeans are pale blue and wears brown flats. While pregnant with Bulla, Bulma wears a pink sleeveless maternity dress with a white long sleeve shirt, gray leggings and black shoes.

In Broly, she wears a purple jacket with yellow sleeves, a black bra-like garment, white shorts, yellow sunglasses, blue shoes and nail polish, and red lipstick.

After the Kid Buu Saga, she wears a yellow and black dress with a black leather jacket and brown gloves and black boots and retains her bowl-cut hairstyle from the Majin Buu Saga, but with an open bang and now wears gold triangle earrings.

In Dragon Ball GT, Bulma wears a long-sleeved orange dress with white pearls and black boots and retains the same hairstyle and the same gold triangle earrings from the end of Dragon Ball Z.

Personality

Crazybulma

Bulma's tantrums when stranded in the wild

Bulma has a temperamental personality while being very tomboyish and girly at the same time. While known for her extreme intellect, Bulma is quite spoiled and vain, using her beauty as an excuse for doing and getting whatever she wants; this sort of behavior seemingly prevented her from being able to ride the Flying Nimbus. While in stressful conditions, she becomes frightened easily and gets angry toward everyone, including her allies. Bulma tends to have a great deal of concern over her hygiene, complaining when circumstances prevent her from taking a bath or replenishing her beauty supplies, even when it is the least of her worries, such as when stranded in the wilderness. At times, her wanton outbursts have landed her and her friends in deeper trouble.

Despite her temper, Bulma frequently displays friendliness and helpfulness towards others. She also tends to seek out excitement and adventure despite her haughtiness and sheltered upbringing. When calm, she tends to approach major situations rationally, often making crucial decisions on her own, and is very persistent in achieving her goals. As she gets more mature, Bulma focuses on becoming a great scientist and helps out by creating and fixing inventions that help the Dragon Team and her family. She is shown to be very witty, usually teasing her friends, a part of being chipper and easygoing. In Japanese, she even refers to Goku and Krillin by the Japanese suffix "-kun," indicating she feels very close to them.

Bulmausingirome

An example of Bulma's attempts at using her sex appeal

Bulma enjoys strawberries,[8] attractive boys and bubble baths. Though she shows a strong dislike towards perverted men, she would not hesitate from taking advantage of them; she has been known to use her sex appeal for self-gain on occasion and would herself become infatuated with men she'd just met based entirely on their looks. This happened even during times when she was dating Yamcha, whom she claimed to intend to marry. Hypocritically, her infatuation would also sometimes cause her to flirt in a very crass manner, as demonstrated with General Blue, having grabbed his arm and licked it while meowing like a cat. She also had zero tolerance towards Yamcha being approached by other women when she was still dating him; she broke up with him when she thought he was cheating on her with Hasky, and again when she saw Maron attempting to flirt with him. She later lost interest in Yamcha due to his lack of commitment and showed greater commitment and maturity herself in her relationship with Vegeta.

Despite their rocky start and quarrelsome natures, Bulma has a unanimous relationship with Vegeta, which further improves after their marriage. Bulma tends to boss Vegeta around and often berates him for his rudeness, goading him into further argument, though they both seem to glean some bizarre fulfillment in their rapport, and she in particular takes pleasure in teasing him. Although they argue often and despite him being a former enemy, Bulma is very devoted to Vegeta and truly loves him, taking great pride in being his wife. After becoming a mother, Bulma is a loving one towards her children, though she doesn't hesitate to lay down the law when Trunks misbehaves.

Bitter breakup and marriage to Vegeta notwithstanding, Bulma and Yamcha still care for each other as longtime friends, enough so that the former openly wept in the latter's arms at the news of Vegeta's death battling Buu. By the time of Super, Bulma clearly still considers him an important part of her life, enough to have him at every one of their frequent parties, and happily lets him hold baby Bulla (though Vegeta was not amused when Yamcha made her cry).

One of Bulma's most interesting relationships is her friendship with Goku, having known him for the majority of his life and becoming his first and among closest friends. Initially, she expressed frustration and annoyance towards his lack of hygiene, manners, and knowledge of the world, and sought only to use him as protection whenever they encountered trouble while looking for the Dragon Balls. Soon after however, Bulma came to warm up and care for Goku, their relationship being akin to that of an older sister and younger brother. As they grew up together into adulthood, Bulma showed great concern for him whenever he was in serious danger and would assist him whenever he needed it, despite never-abating irritation at his unrelenting immaturity. Bulma's faith and trust in Goku's abilities has shown to be absolute to the point where she often displays more confidence in him than Vegeta, such as in the battles with Majin Buu as well as Goku Black and Future Zamasu. Bulma's companionship with Goku also extends to his family, being a good friend of Chi-Chi's and showing a great deal of warmth to their sons Gohan and Goten.

Though she isn't a fighter, Bulma can be violent when angered and defend herself if need be. Several characters such as Krillin, Goku, Vegeta, and even Beerus have shown fear at her violent temper. When it seemed Frieza had been destroyed by the Large Spirit Bomb, Krillin freaked when he remembered they had left Bulma alone on Namek, and even suggested that an angry Bulma is more terrifying than Frieza. Much later, Goku panicked when he realized he had forgotten it was Bulma's birthday and even suggested she might be more terrifying than Beerus. Also, Vegeta adamantly refused to go training with Goku during Bulma's pregnancy because he feared she would never forgive him, although it's more likely that he simply wanted to be there for her in this unsure time.

On a related note, when facing down an enemy, Bulma is known to be even more viscous. When she comes face-to-face with Frieza for the first time after his revival, confronting him alongside her friends and Jaco, Bulma bravely confronts him, addressing the tyrant outright and rudely, though this was due to believing that Gohan and the others utterly outmatched him, and she quickly began backpedaling once Gohan and Piccolo pointed out that Frieza was far stronger than before. This turned back around however when she insisted Frieza to wait for Goku; when Frieza agreed to wait only for ten seconds, she began raging and violently cussing him out. She was also shown to use rude and politically incorrect terms regarding specific people during her youth (largely in the original Japanese), best demonstrated in her first meeting with General Blue in the full-color manga. After the latter refused her advances in a manner indicating he wasn't into girls, she called him a fag; this was toned down in the VIZ translation to simply have her say "phooey, must be gay."

Bulma was shown to have some irritation towards her friends for constantly relying on the Dragon Balls to revive people when dealing with a threat. This eventually came to a head when Piccolo, Goten and Trunks were sealed inside the Hyperbolic Time Chamber when fighting Super Buu, where she called them and Krillin out for insisting, they'd revive Goten and Trunks with the Dragon Balls if they died, disapproving of taking the lives of children so lightly. This is comedically contrasted later when, as she grew older, she became so paranoid about losing her good looks that she collected the Dragon Balls to make herself look only 5 years younger. It's implied that she'd done this a few times before.

References

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