Bulma Briefs is unlike any other character in all of Dragon Ball. She’s both the only non-combatant, and the only woman to receive consistent focus and reverence from the series, her personality is one-of-a-kind, and she’s the only character to have existed for as long as Goku. With how much she brings to the anime, and how irreplaceable she is in many ways, she’s just as key to its success as Shonen’s most famous hero.
Bulma was the original co-star of Dragon Ball, and Goku’s first friend, and she’s been just as important as everyone’s favorite Super Saiyan since. She has one of the strongest personalities in the franchise, her status as both the richest and smartest person on Earth has always made her invaluable to the Z-Warriors’ victories, her romance with Vegeta is one of the most iconic in all of anime, and Vegeta never would have become everyone’s favorite anti-hero in the first place without her influence. Bulma may not be able to throw a punch the way most of her friends can, but there’s a reason she’s never been dethroned as Dragon Ball’s leading lady.
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Bulma is the True Main Character of Dragon Ball’s First Storyline
Goku Spends the Pilaf Saga as Little More Than Bulma’s Noble and Naive Muscle
Goku has always been the face of Dragon Ball, but he is not at all the protagonist of the series’ first arc, the Pilaf Saga. Rather, the plot follows Bulma’s journey to collect the Dragon Balls so she can wish for the perfect boyfriend, and her decisions and schemes are what push the story forward at every turn. Goku has no goal of his own in this arc, and his roles in the story are all in relation to Bulma’s. He goes on his first Dragon Ball hunt to help Bulma, he acts as a narrative foil to Bulma with his polar opposite personality, and he steps up to deal with any problems that can only be solved through fighting.
Unlike later arcs, though, fighting isn’t what the Pilaf Saga is about, and Bulma’s intelligence and trickery get far more opportunities to shine than Goku’s strength. As both the literal and figurative driving force of the original Dragon Team’s adventure, Bulma is a uniquely entertaining protagonist. Bulma is introduced as a bratty, selfish, manipulative, shallow, vindictive, and narcissistic teenager, but not a heartless or useless one. Her more gentle and kind side is apparent as early as the beginning of her and Goku’s travels together, she backs up her ego by genuinely being smarter than anyone else on Earth, and both her vast knowledge of the world, and her abundance of useful capsules, prove essential on her hunt for the Dragon Balls.
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The Pilaf Saga is often looked down on by Dragon Ball fans for its raunchy, low-brow humor, but if someone wants to understand why the series was ever popular enough to last beyond this first arc, they need only look at the foundational relationship between Bulma and Goku. With one being a spoiled heiress, and the other being a pure-hearted hick, they couldn’t possibly be more different. This naturally leads to many of their interactions being comedic gold.
The fact that they’re able to form a genuine, caring friendship with one another by the end of the arc – in spite of their differences – is heartwarming. Bulma is also slowly influenced overtime to become a slightly better person by Goku, which makes it satisfying when the Pilaf Saga draws to a close, and Bulma gets her perfect boyfriend in the form of Yamcha. While Goku’s personality isn’t similarly changed through Bulma’s influence, his life is. Bulma is the only reason Goku ever leaves his childhood home, she’s responsible for him meeting all of his childhood friends, and their travels together are what first instill in Goku a desire to become stronger.
Bulma is Important Even When She Isn’t Relevant
Goku and the Z-Warriors Wouldn’t Ever Be Able to Achieve Much Without Bulma
While Bulma is the main character of the Pilaf Saga, the series’ first arc is also the last one she plays a major role in for a long time. From the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament Saga through the Frieza Saga, Bulma is reduced to a minor supporting character. On paper, this should remove any possibility of her being as important to Dragon Ball as Goku. However, this ignores how much Bulma brings to the table even when she herself isn’t especially active. The original Dragon Ball is a science-fantasy anime, and the first part of that almost exclusively comes from Bulma.
While Goku, and most of the people and creatures he encounters on his first Dragon Ball hunt, are steeped in the fantastical, everything about Bulma tells audiences immediately that this isn’t what the whole world is like. She has a flying car, she mentions living in a city, her capsules are more technologically advanced than anything in the real world, she invents a radar to track the Dragon Balls, and one of the first things she ever does on screen is to shoot Goku with a gun. The longer Dragon Ball has gone on, the more it has embraced science-fiction over fantasy, to the point of retconning its main hero to be an alien.
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If not for Bulma, this would never have been feasible. Bulma’s inventions have always been essential tools for the Dragon Team. The Dragon Radar and capsules are taken advantage of every time the heroes need to collect the Dragon Balls, and she has far more vehicles at her disposal than just the car she debuted with. Far removed from her initial prime, the Frieza Saga still sees Bulma able to pull her weight by repairing an alien spaceship and piloting it to Namek, enabling the entire plot of the arc to take place. Notably, she doesn’t invent the Gravity Chamber that debuts in this arc, but she is the one to perfect the technology later on.
During this extended stretch of time, it also can’t be overstated how important Bulma’s friendship with Goku and romance with Yamcha consistently remain. Besides Krillin, Bulma is Goku’s best friend, and the deep bond they share with one another is apparent every time they’re on-screen together. The golden chemistry they had in the Pilaf Saga never goes away, and their interactions are always some of the most endearing in any arc. With regard to Yamcha, he is one of the anime’s main characters during this period, and it’s often Bulma who carries the emotional narrative weight of the misfortunes that befall him. When Yamcha has his leg broken by Tien Shinhan or is killed by a Saibaman, viewers are made to care because of how much Bulma cares about her boyfriend.
Bulma’s Technological Genius & Romance With Vegeta Make Her the Most Valuable Non-Combatant on the Dragon Team
The Cell Saga Ensured That Bulma Would Always Be A Crucial Part of Dragon Ball
While Bulma’s presence could be constantly felt throughout Dragon Ball and the first half of Dragon Ball Z, the series definitely lost something by removing her so far from the action. Had this never been rectified, there wouldn’t even be an argument for her being as important as the human Z-Warriors, let alone Goku. Thankfully, the Cell Saga not only brought Bulma back to her former glory, but re-invented her in a way that didn’t take away any of her charm, and ensured that she would never be neglected again. With the main villains of the Cell Saga being a mad scientist and his destructive Androids, Bulma’s skill set finally becomes essential again.
Her knowledge of Dr. Gero and her ability to study the Androids wind up being major plot points, and the entire arc is set in motion by her Future counterpart inventing time travel to send Future Trunks back to the past. Even more importantly, this is the arc that turns Bulma into the character fans know and love today. She remains as fiery and self-assured as ever, but the mature and compassionate woman here is a far cry from the bratty teen she started out as. She still knows she’s richer, smarter, and better than everyone around her, and that she deserves nothing but the best, but she’s also eager to help whoever she can, and is willing to throw herself into danger to do so. This deep into DBZ, Bulma is the only non-Saiyan character to still enjoy this level of development.
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The Cell Saga is also responsible for breaking up Yamcha and Bulma, and for introducing one of the most popular ships in any Shonen anime: Bulma and Vegeta. While the circumstances that lead to the two becoming a couple and having a son, Trunks, are odd to say the least, there is no denying that they are weirdly perfect for each other. For one reason or another, every other major Dragon Ball couple is divisive, but Vegeta and Bulma are a blast every time they’re together, which is why they’re the only couple prominently featured in both Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball DAIMA. In regard to these sequel series, Bulma also forms the foundation of their status quo. Bulma is often the one to gather her friends together for social events and, whenever they need to meet up for anything important, it’s always at Bulma’s house.
Vegeta’s character arc is often cited as the best in Dragon Ball Z, and his popularity is what’s led him to being the second-most prominent character in the franchise. Without Bulma, none of this would have happened. Vegeta only stays on Earth at the end of the Cell Saga because of her and Trunks, and they’re the motivating factors that push him to finally become a proper hero at the end of the Buu Saga. A Bulma-free Dragon Ball Z would also be one without Future Trunks, Trunks, or Gotenks, and thus many of the franchise’s most iconic moments, and an entire arc of Super. And, whereas there are far bigger factors in how Gohan and Goten turned out than Goku’s parenting, both versions of Trunks are very much the boys that Bulma raised them to be.
Removed from Goku, removed from Vegeta, Bulma is an icon in her own right, and she should never be treated as anything less. She’s an endlessly endearing character with some of the best development and relationships in Dragon Ball, and she’s time and again helped to shape the franchise into what it is. No one in Dragon Ball is more important than Goku, but if there’s any character just as vital to the series’ longevity, it’s his oldest friend.
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Dragon Ball tells the tale of a young warrior by the name of Son Goku, a young peculiar boy with a tail who embarks on a quest to become stronger and learns of the Dragon Balls, when, once all 7 are gathered, grant any wish of choice.
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