BULMA
Home Planet: Earth
Race: Human
Appearances: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT

Beautiful, ingenious, cocky, confident, and sporting one hell of an attitude, Bulma is actually a much more important character than most people realize. Some may be surprised that she's actually the second character to be introduced in the series.

Yep. When the epic series starts, Bulma is but a teenager, searching for the mystical Dragon Balls on her summer vacation. Following the Dragon Radar, the powerful and important machine that is used constantly through the series (the fact that she created it at such a young age is a testification to her genius...), she finds Goku, a savage 12 year old (not 5 like FUNimation says) boy who unknowingly has the Four Star Dragon Ball.

Bulma at first tried to shoot Goku, and was horrified when he simply sat up grimacing from the bullet wound in his head. Then he picked up the car she was in and it was obvious - this wasn't your ordinary run of the mill brat. However, since he wasn't so bright, she was able to coax him to tag along on her journey - even though her reasons were selfish. She figuerd she could use him as a bodyguard and then ditch him eventually with the Dragon Ball. She probably had no idea how much the two of them would grow to love each other, or just what, in fact, she was getting herself into.

And thus, the epic tale, spun throughout Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and even Dragon Ball GT, began.

At first, Bulma searched for the Dragon Balls with the ambition of wishing for a boyfriend in mind. Being so shy with boys that she was attracted to, it was a given that she and the thief Yamucha, who was also afraid of girls and planning on wishing for a girlfriend, would make a sensible couple. However, both of them cradled large egos and as a result, their relationships were often rocky. I guess if opposites attract, then it must work the other way around, too.

Bulma, even at the beginning of the series, basically serves the same purpose as she does later on. She just kind of tags along, nagging and bitching and basically serving as comic relief when she isn't making some ultra super machine that bends the space time continuum or whatnot. Of course she's more important than just comic relief, but she never actually gets her hands bloody.

Needless to say, Bulma is a scientific genius. When you look at her father, though, the creator and boss of the world renouned Capsule Corporation, it's not so surprising that she's so smart. Her expertise basically stretches from all ends of the scientific spectrum, too. She's good at mechanics, chemistry, biology, anything. So, while she never helps in decapitating bad guys, the machines she creates and donates to the Senshi's use more than make up for it.

In fact, Bulma played a major role in getting the group to Namek-sei. After discovering Kamisama's spaceship, it was her, working alongside her father and their mechanics, that fixed it up and prepared it for travel. She even went along with Gohan and Kuririn to Namek, helping pilot the ship and work all the complex mechanical thingamajiggers with all those flashly lights and stuff.

Bulma is apparently quite beautiful by the standards of the DBZ population, and her beauty has many a times been abused at the expense of some pretty funny puns. Most memorable to me is the one where Yamucha is fighting and invisible man, and in order to help him, Kuririn tilts Muten Roshi's head and places Bulma in front of him. Then, Kuririn walks behind Bulma and just rips her shirt down, exposing her breasts. Muten Roshi's eyes pop out of his glasses and blood spews from him nose (because anime men don't get erections, they get nosebleeds) onto the ring, covering the invisible man and exposing him to Yamucha. She wasn't too happy with Kuririn for pulling that one.

Bulma also plays a key role in one of the most shocking twists in all of Dragon Ball when she has a baby with Vegeta. Apparently, during the three year training period before the Artificial Human's arrival, she and Yamucha broke up and she and Vegeta hit paydirt. At a first glance the two of them don't seem very close. They barely ever refer to each other as more than simply mates, and in the time period where Bulma and Trunks are the only two heroes left alive from the Artificial Human's attack, the two of them never even got married. However, later on in the series, Vegeta begins to refer to her as his wife, and the way they bicker to each other and then act so nice to each other when they think the other one doesn't know shows how much they really care about each other.

Speaking of Bulma in the Artificial Human's time, she played a major role in the salvation of our current DBZ timeline. It was her genius that spawned the time machine, and the ambition and persistency of the character really shows in her inscription of the word "HOPE!!!" on one of the legs of the machine.

Bulma is also a loving and caring mother, as she shows time and time again to Mirai Trunks, a son she barely even knows and yet still manages to love so very much. And with present times Trunks, she's just as motherly and supportive.

Bulma dies in the series only a couple of times, in situations where basically the whole cast dies, like when Buu turns them into chocolate or when he destroys the planet.

In Dragon Ball GT, Bulma's role relies on her technical expertise. She is responsible for helping Goku, Trunks, and Pan get into space. Later, after becoming one of Bebi's minions, she is used to help move people from Earth to Plant. She also builds the Blutz Cannon, which allows Bebi Vegeta (and later, regular Vegeta) to reach Golden Oozaru and Super Saiya-jin 4.

I am pleased that a lot of Bulma's character made it through the transition from Japanese to English. While her voice may be annoying, the bitchiness and some of the genius does an okay job of showing in the US counterpart of this character. It's nothing like what they pulled with Kaiousama, anyway.

Bulma's, in conclusion, a great character, and I'm actually ashamed at how little I have to write about her. She may not be like Goku or Piccolo, where they participate in the fights, but Bulma is by no means any less important of a character. Even with all the mechanical and scientific contributions she makes to the series, her character achieves a much greater feat. Bulma Briefs, more than anything, adds to the character and charm of Dragon Ball that has helped it win millions of fans worldwide.

Written by PJ, with minor additions by Dash.