YAMUCHA
Home Planet: Earth
Race: Human
Fusions: None
Appearances: Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT

Yamucha was first introduced early in Dragon Ball as a desert bandit. Sporting a stylish Jeep and a flying, shape-shifting cat companion named Puar, Yamucha had it going pretty good for him. Using his strength and superior martial arts techniques (he was especially proud of an attack he'd devised known as the "Fist of the Wolf Fang"), he and Puar would camp out in their desert with their Jeep and loot unlucky travelers that may obliviously step foot into their turf.

However, Yamucha made a mistake one day, a mistake that altered his entire life, when he attacked a young, innocent looking boy and his weakling companions. He received quite a surprise, however, and lost a tooth from his confrontation with Goku. He decided to stalk the group until they gathered all seven dragon balls, but ended up joining them instead.

Yamucha, like many other characters, joined the band in hopes of getting a wish from the Dragon Balls. He was terrified of girls. He had no idea how to act around them. Instead, he acted like a bumbling idiot and made a fool of himself. Yamucha planned to wish for a girl-friend.

Yamucha was a valuable companion, and a good fighter, although always a step behind Goku, in Dragon Ball. He journeyed with the group and did a decent job of keeping up. Yamucha was also incessantly worried about his looks, as well. It seemed as though every time Yamucha left the screen, he'd come back with a new hairstyle.

After years of journeying with the group, Yamucha came to a startling discovery - he wasn't afraid of women anymore. After hanging around Bulma so often, he'd become used to them, and acted completely normal. Bulma was also planning to use the Dragon Balls to wish for a boy-friend, so, naturally, the two hooked up.

5 years pass. Since they both suffer from arrogant attitude problems, Bulma and Yamucha have hit a few bumps in their relationship. However, more important complications arise when an alien warrior makes his appearance. However, Yamucha is off playing professional baseball, haggling with his coach on his pay for hitting homeruns. During a standard baseball brawl, however, Kuririn shows up and fills Yamucha in on all that's happened: Goku's dead and they are to train at Kami-sama's palace.

Yamucha trains his hardest for the fight with the Saiya-jin warriors, but, alas, he can do nothing against them for two reasons: one, he's no where near strong enough; and two, he's killed before he even gets a chance. All though Yamucha seemingly defeats a Saibaman in a one-on-one duel, his arrogance gets the best of him, and he lets his guard down - which allows the Saibaman to leap up from the rubble, latch onto his black, and self-destruct. However, unfortunately, the alien warrior takes the young warrior with him to the after-world.

Bulma is struck hard by this, but is somewhat cheered up by the possibility of ressurrecting Yamucha via the Dragon Balls. The rest of the Saiya-jin battle goes on without Yamucha's presence.

However, along with Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and Chaouzu, Yamucha braves the Snake Path and reaches Kaiou-sama to train. While he doesn't learn techniques such as Kaiou-ken and the Genki Dama, Yamucha still gets a massive power boost. While he basically watches the Freeza fight going on below from Kaiou-sama's, he gets some action when the Ginyu Force pays a visit to them. Yamucha is surprised when he learns that he's strong enough to take on Rikum all on his lonesome.

Yamucha is resurrected, and, upon returning to Earth, he instantly changes his hairstyle. Time passes, and it seems like things are going pretty well for the couple of Bulma and Yamucha. Goku returns and learns from Trunks of the Artificial Humans' arrival in three years, and the cast goes off to train.

Three years pass, and in those three years, Yamucha and Bulma have broken up, and Bulma has bore Vegeta's child. Yamucha seemingly has no bad feelings about this, however, for he lives in the very same house that Vegeta does (well, so does Bulma and Dr. and Mrs. Briefs....).

Anyway, Yamucha can do little against the Artificial Humans, and even littler against Cell. He basically watches the battle, except for one instance when he was sort of impaled, and another when a Cell Jr. molds his arm to resemble the Omega symbol.

Seven years pass. Yamucha has pretty much given up training. He doesn't even enter into the Tenkachi Boudakai and freely admits to Kuririn's daughter how much stronger Kuririn is than him. While by no means weak, Yamucha just doesn't measure up against the alien warriors, or even Kuririn and Tenshinhan. Yamucha basically sits out this saga as well from high above in Dende's palace, just as all the other characters that aren't fighting do.

Yamucha is killed, however, when Majin Buu turns everyone (save Dende) at Dende's Palace into some sort of sweet and eats them. He's ressurrected when the Earth is restored and donates energy to Goku's Genki Dama.

While Yamucha lost Bulma, he didn't lose women in general. Many a time you hear Yamucha speak of a girl-friend. And, of course, Yamucha always has his eternal friend Puar to fall back on.

Yamucha is the perfect example of one of the few things wrong with the series of Dragon Ball. Yamucha was such a vivid, devoloping character in Dragon Ball. It was always a joy just to have him around, if not just to hear him talk, or bumble around, or joke or something. However, come the transition to Dragon Ball Z, Yamucha becomes a mere shell of his old-self. You can tell he struggles to stay himself, and, for the most part succeeds in the beginning, but as the series progresses, Yamucha slowly withers away. If he has any sort of personality come the end of the series, we certainly don't see any sign of it.

It's a shame.

In Dragon Ball GT, Yamucha is about as worthless as worthless gets. To be honest, I don't even remember if he actually appears, and I'm too lazy to check. I'm just working on the assumption that Son Goku says goodbye to him in the final episode.

Written by PJ, with some minor additions by Dash.