Bulma from the series Dragon Ball is a terrific character! Who wouldn’t like Bulma? She’s an excellent depiction of a woman in fiction. Let’s look at these amazing things about her.
- She invented the Dragon Ball radar (note: this is completely false).
- Without her, Gokuu would have never left the mountains (note: this is also completely false).
- She piloted the spaceship to Namekku (note: this is also completely false).
- She gave birth to Trunks (note: because parents totally take credit for their kid's accomplishments just for conceiving and giving birth to them, rite?!)
- She invented a Time Machine (note: this violated the laws of nature and gods, led to the distortion of the spacetime continuum, and eventually resulted in the destruction of the multiverse).
- She reformed Vegeeta (note: this is completely false and there's no "reforming" or
"redeeming" a mass murderer who has committed genocide multiple times,
anyway).
- She stopped Birus from destroying Earth by making him meals (note: this is also completely false).
As you can see, all of these things make Bulma such an oh-so very important character in the series. Oh, wait a second, they don’t. She’s an objectively garbage and useless character with no actual importance in the story. But how? Just how can I declare that when I just mentioned those six examples of her "usefulness" in the story? She’s done this and that, so she must be important, right? No. Those six examples just happen to be the go-to arguments Toriyama apologists use to defend her worthless existence. None of those things make her even one bit significant. Her purpose has only ever been to satisfy perverts. This is what they look like, btw.
What these incel ass apologists fail to understand is that there is a critical difference between a character's importance inside of the fictional universe that they appear in, and their importance to the actual franchise. The former is discussed from an in-universe (with synonyms being intradiegetic and Watsonian) perspective, and the latter is discussed from an out-of-universe (with synonyms being extradiegetic and Doylist) perspective. A character may be important inside of the fictional universe they appear in, but that's not relevant to us viewers because we don't exist in that universe; we're just the audience that views the story. And in a visual story, the only things that actually matter to the audience are the things they see with their own eyes. The stuff that the author takes the time to actually show and flesh out; these are the only things that the author bothers putting any real effort into, and these are the only things that the viewers care about. Because these are the only things that leave any impression on them; you can’t leave an impression on anyone if they don’t even see what you’re doing. The off-screen bullshit in the background or lore aka the strictly in-universe bullshit? No one gives a fuck about that, not even the author himself. It’s just nerds with nothing going on in their lives that do. “Show, not tell” is a basic writing rule that they fail to grasp.
So, the first point, Bulma inventing the Dragon Ball radar? First, this is false because we see for ourselves that Pilaf already had his own radar, so Bulma was not the first person to invent a Dragon Ball radar in the story. She was only the first person to create a portable Dragon Ball radar, and hers was capable of minimizing map distortion. In other words, she only innovated Dragon Ball radars. If we're talking innovation, then we see that Pilaf eventually innovated them better than she did to an extent as he connected his radar to a satellite that could pull up the precise location of the balls on live video in the Red Ribbon arc; as long as the Dragon Balls are somewhere out in the open, then Pilaf would be able to tell their precise location without traveling. Granted, his radar wouldn't tell him the exact location of the balls if they're hidden inside somewhere like a building or a cave, but he'd at least be able to tell what they're hidden in without traveling to that location. No matter how accurate Bulma's radar is, she still has to travel to the locations of the balls just to figure out where they may be as she can't pull them up on live video. But get this, even if Bulma made her radar first and it was better than any subsequent models, it doesn't matter because we don’t see Bulma invent that shit; the plot doesn’t go into detail about it or flesh it out because the author knows no one cares about it. Like, it emits a subtle energy (more accurately, 電波 "electromagnetic waves" according to the Japanese text)? How did she figure that out? How did she make a pocket-sized radar capable of reducing map distortion from that? Nobody gives a shit, because the plot doesn't focus on it, so it doesn't matter; everything about this supposed accomplishment is hollow and empty.
This isn’t rocket science; for a character to truly be important or relevant in a story, they have to actually be SHOWN doing important things throughout it on a regular, consistent basis. Swiping their supposedly notable accomplishments off-screen means we don’t see them, and therefore, they’re worthless. Because we don’t see it, Bulma inventing her portable Dragon Ball radar is nothing more than a lazy plot device to kick the story off; it’s not even necessary for that to be what kicks the story off, because you could have just had the Dragon Ball radar be created by some monkey shitting it out and nothing would actually change. A radar doesn’t magically justify the existence of a stereotypical teenage brat being shoved down our throats, because there’s no reason for said brat to be the one who makes the radar or even for said radar to exist. Frankly, Gokuu could have just been able to sense the Dragon Balls like he senses energy normally and nothing would actually change. Here’s a tip about writing a plot point; if it can be replaced by something else or taken out altogether without the rest of the story changing much, it’s not important.
The same logic works for dismantling the next point, her bringing Gokuu out of the mountains. It’s not necessary for her to do it, and even looking at the story in-universe, it’s clear that other people like Pilaf and the Red Ribbon guys would have come for his Dragon Ball sooner or later as they had their own radars. And in that event, it’s anyone’s guess what happens next; maybe he’d end up befriending Team Pilaf or some mooks from the Red Ribbon army. After all, Bulma and Yumcha ended up becoming his friends after trying to kill him. Ox King was an evil son of a bitch, too, killing tons of people for their treasures. And many other characters throughout the series end up befriending Gokuu after trying to kill him. We see that Team Pilaf has joined Gokuu's allies in DBS, too. There’s nothing special about Bulma pulling Gokuu out of the mountains; someone else would have done it sooner or later. Having someone else do it and become his friend isn’t altering the story in any substantial way.
If the plot calls for something to happen, it's going to happen; there's no actual rhyme or reason to it. The bullshit that happens in the plot is just determined by the whims of the author. Speaking of which, in DBS, it's revealed that the reason Gokuu survived all the way into adulthood is because of Burdack's wish with the Cerealian Dragon Balls (and this is the correct translation, btw. "I'd wish that my sons end up thriving" is a Viz mistranslation). This means that no matter who Gokuu runs into as a child, he'll always live and grow into adulthood, so Bulma had no part in ensuring Gokuu's survival. Because of this one retcon Toriyama made on a whim decades after the original manga ended, Bulma is even less significant. A testament to why you shouldn't put much (if any) stock into the plot or lore; it's all arbitrary and can change in an instant if the author feels like it. "B-but the manga is non-canon!" said the dumbass Toei stan.
More importantly, though, here’s another thing that Toriyama apologists fail to grasp; doing one important thing at the start of the series doesn’t make you important for all of it. All it means is that you were important at the beginning, which means jack shit if you do nothing else for the rest of the story. To argue that Bulma is an important character because of something she did at the beginning of the story is the equivalent of arguing that Mizuki is the most important character of Naruto because he told Naruto about the Shadow Clone scroll at the start of that story; without Mizuki telling Naruto about the scroll, Naruto would have never learned how to make Shadow Clones nor would he have graduated from the ninja academy, which also means he wouldn’t have joined Team 7 and the rest of the story can’t occur as it did. Too bad Mizuki is worthless, because he doesn’t do jack shit for the rest of the story. He’s only relevant to the first chapter. No one gives a fuck about Mizuki.
And while Bulma doesn’t literally vanish after the start of the story like Mizuki did, she’s not any better because she doesn’t actually do anything useful once the adventure kicks off. Whatever credit Bulma may have deserved for pulling Gokuu out of the mountains in the first chapter is immediately negated (as in, before the chapter even ends) because right after deciding to take Gokuu along with her, she gets into the role of a damsel-in-distress as she gets kidnapped by a dinosaur; of course, it’s up to Gokuu, the boy, to save the girl from being kidnapped. This totally isn’t a cliche or stereotypical way to write a female character (sarcasm); making them damsels-in-distress who need to be rescued by boys. At the end of the chapter, she pisses herself in an unfunny gag to satisfy perverts who love seeing teenage girls pee themselves. Satisfying perverts, right from the get-go, was Bulma’s only purpose. The first time we even see her, she’s 16 years old and she flashes her ass at 11 year old Gokuu (although he says he's 14 in the beginning, it later turns out that he's actually 11 because he can't count. Note the 21st Budoukai is about one year after the Pilaf arc. Even though Gokuu was only retconned to be younger later, the whole time Bulma is under the impression that he's a young child, so the point still stands), offering to let him touch it; this bitch literally seduces children and there are people who think she’s a good example of a female character. In the second chapter, we see her bathing in a tub and Gokuu stripping her of her underwear while she sleeps. This stupid bullshit isn't funny; it's just perverted and gross.
Anyway, third chapter, they come across Roushi’s turtle; Bulma wants to leave it behind but Gokuu wants to return it to the sea. They part ways due to their disagreement, but Bulma immediately changes her mind and tags along when she gets scared from seeing another dinosaur. People want to pretend she's a capable character, but the story is literally showing that she needs to be protected by a strong male 24/7. That some people want to give her credit for Gokuu meeting Roushi is ridiculous, too. Gokuu got to meet Roushi because he himself chose to return his turtle to the sea; Bulma’s brat ass wanted to leave it behind, so she gets no credit for it, especially not when she opted to leave it to be killed by a tiger. Oh, right, but then the apologists whine, “B-but without Bulma taking Gokuu on her quest, Gokuu would have never met Roushi in the first place!” It’s a laughably stupid argument, because there isn’t any direct correlation. You could walk into a mass shooting at your supermarket; by chance, a few minutes earlier, some guy was dropped off by a bus driver at the same shopping center. This same guy then walks into the supermarket and kicks the mass shooter’s ass, saving your life.
Are you actually gonna thank the bus driver who dropped him off by chance earlier … or are you just gonna thank the guy who kicked the mass shooter’s ass, saving your life? You’re just gonna thank the guy who kicked the mass shooter’s ass, because he’s the only one who saved your life. It was only a coincidence that the bus driver had already driven him to the supermarket and you damn well wouldn’t thank the bus driver if he opted to leave you when the shooting started. Likewise, Bulma opted to leave the turtle behind instead of taking it to the sea; she was literally gonna leave it to be eaten by the tiger, so she doesn't deserve any credit. Gokuu was the one who actually decided to return the turtle back to the sea and most importantly, he’s the one who saved the turtle’s life from the tiger; we clearly see that the reason he got to meet Roushi was a gift from the turtle for saving its life. He was allowed to meet Roushi not because of anything Bulma did, but because of his own courage and bravery. Even the turtle himself acknowledges that Bulma didn't do shit.
Imagine thanking the parents of the guy who saves your life when they weren’t the ones who saved you or even met you. Or worse, if they themselves chose to abandon you and leave you to die. It doesn’t matter that they’re the ones responsible for your savior’s birth; the fact is, they didn’t save you. You would only be thanking the person who saved you, period. This whole practice of giving Bulma credit for every one of Gokuu’s accomplishments simply because of the fact she pulled him out of the mountains is nonsense; the only person who deserves credit for them is Gokuu, because he is the one who actually pulls them off. He is the one directly responsible for the things he does, so he is the only one who deserves credit for them. Simply put, if you’re not the one directly responsible for something happening, then you don’t deserve any credit for it. The fact people try to give Bulma credit for things that were only connected to her indirectly at best is a testament to how useless she is. She herself doesn’t actually do shit; it’s someone else who does it and people try to give her credit because of something totally irrelevant. She sucks.
Oh, right, but she did convince Roushi to give up his Dragon Ball by flashing her vagina at him so that must mean she’s important, right? Huh? RIGHT?! No, that was just an excuse to show a teenage girl’s bare ass to the series’ target audience of socially stunted male perverts. Toriyama literally had Bulma flash Roushi to drive it home that this was just perverted fan-service. Frankly, Bulma could have saved the whole world; if the way she does it is like this, namely by being blatantly sexualized for the sake of appeasing perverts, then no, she’s still a worthless character. Imagine if she saved a whole multiverse by letting all the bad guys gangbang her; you could say her getting gangbanged was useful to saving the world in that specific story, sure, but that would mean the story is utter misogynist, perverted trash.
What does importance mean when you're only important to a story that's total garbage? Furthermore, if the scene in which you save the world by getting gangbanged is totally brief, then it's not actually important, not even to that specific story. It just amounts to a short gross gag. Just like Bulma flashing her shit at Roushi to get the Dragon Ball. Of course, if it were longer and the plot actually focused on that scene, then Dragon Ball would be a worse series and Bulma would be a worse character, even more of an awful depiction of a female than she already is. If you want a truly good or important character, then you have them do important things in ways that aren't totally ridiculous or gross. And you take the time to actually focus on what they're doing, not only utilize them for no more than brief, half-assed gags or lazy plot devices.
Bulma's an absolutely terrible depiction of a female in fiction; she's deliberately intended to be a stereotypical, misogynist depiction of a woman who constantly gets sexualized and humiliated, because this is Toriyama's unfunny idea of funny. She's literally named after underwear, for fuck's sake; "Bulma" is just Toriyama's Engrish for what was always intended to be "bloomers" (note: the "s" is obscured, but you can still see it). The following scenes further exemplify how useless she is, especially compared to her male companion. One, she can't ride the flying cloud, so Gokuu has to slow it down in order for her to keep up with him. Next up, Gokuu and Bulma run into Oolong’s village, Gokuu gets struck by an axe while Bulma helplessly screams, and when they decide to work with the villagers, Bulma herself acknowledges how useless she is compared to Gokuu. “My male friend can survive getting hit in the head with an axe and not even be hurt, but I can't!" And then, "I, a girl, won’t be the one to save your village by beating the bad guy terrorizing it. No, my male friend will do it!”
How the fuck does anyone not see how worthless she is, especially in these first few chapters? She's a constant reminder of the whole stereotype about women being weaker than men; for fuck's sake, she literally surrenders and begs mercy to Gokuu when they first meet, which about sums up the whole dynamic between males and females in this series. That females are inferior to males, as it is with most Shounen. From that point on, she just finds herself needing to be saved by Gokuu or unable to do things that Gokuu can easily do. As well as being sexualized and humiliated for cheap misogynistic laughs. Case in point, she devises a plan to stop Oolong from terrorizing the village, but she literally interrupts it to flash her tits at him because she’s horny. Then, upon seeing Oolong turn back into a monster, she runs off scared and goes right back to telling Gokuu to save the day as always. Even one of the villagers note she’s an unlikable person. Then, Gokuu saves the day again and is the only one who is thanked for it. Bulma didn't do shit but flash her titties. She's fucking trash.
Oh, right, but she did trick Oolong into staying in their quest for the Dragon Balls by using her panties and feeding him a laxative, so that must mean she’s important, right? Nope. These are just more perverted, unfunny gags that only amount to very brief scenes in the story, just like her flashing her shit at Roushi. That’s another thing that the apologists fail to understand; if your moment of supposed usefulness is only brief, then it’s not actually important. Especially if it's a dumb perverted gag. Bulma then screws the gang over by dropping her capsule case into the river like the dumb bitch she is. The gang finds themselves in a desert, Bulma bitches like a brat before immediately falling asleep, and so, Gokuu is the only one who actually faces Yumcha and Pu'er when they attack. Of course, in the end, Bulma wakes up and scares Yumcha off by simply being a girl; y'see, folks, it turns out Yumcha is a beta bitch who gets scared around girls. In the next chapter, we see Bulma's fully naked body in the shower for more perverted fan-service. Remember, she's only 16 here. Then, she gets drugged by Oolong, who plans to sexually assault her in her sleep. Then, Yumcha stumbles upon her naked body and leaves in shock because again, he's a beta bitch.
No, none of this stupid perverted shit makes Bulma a useful or important character; she only exists to satisfy the boners of perverts and that’s all there is to her. It's pathetic how every seemingly "useful" moment from Bulma involves these dumb gags. Roushi's Dragon Ball? Flash her shit at him. Make Oolong stay? Give him her panties. Scare Yumcha away? Just be a girl or unknowingly show him her naked body. Oh, yeah, and when she wakes up, she puts on a skintight bunny costume because herp derp Toriyama gotta sexualize underage teenage girl some more to satisfy his perverted audience. This is a good depiction of a female. Not. Then, she gets knocked the fuck out when Yumcha shoots their vehicle with a rocket; this time, she can’t wake up when Yumcha attacks and so, it comes down to Gokuu to save the day, again. We get to Fire Mountain, Bulma is scared shitless when Ox King shows up, and once again, Gokuu is the one who saves her by showing to Ox King that he’s an acquaintance of Roushi.
Gokuu then picks up Chichi and brings Roushi, who only agrees to put out the fire in Ox King’s castle as long as Bulma lets him touch her tits, which she agrees to. Roushi puts out the fire and motorboats her likeness when Oolong disguises himself as her. We see Bulma's bare titties again. Man, so useful. Without Bulma agreeing to let Roushi motorboat her, they would have never gotten that Dragon Ball, huh? She's so important! Haha, no. Fuck no. Jesus fucking Christ this character sucks and Toriyama is a fucking talentless hack. I’d expect nothing else from someone who wrote and drew a comic about a woman turning to prostitution after repeatedly being raped, though. Or someone who proudly admitted to wanting to spy on his daughter bathing (he also drew a scene in Dr. Slump where a man molests his young daughter in her sleep. You have been spared the page with the molestation). This man is a degenerate, sexually repressed pervert and the anime/manga industry is full of sickos just like him.
Anyway, they go to the Middle East. Bulma is a damsel in distress yet again as she gets turned into a carrot by a rabbit gangster, Not Bulma saves the day, and they continue on with their quest. Finally, they go to Pilaf and Bulma doesn’t do jack shit during that whole ordeal; Not Bulma is the one who saves the day by stopping Pilaf from getting his wish. All Bulma does is get trapped underneath some rubble when Giant Monkey Gokuu goes on his rampage, slowing the other characters down. Oh yeah, and she gets used for more perverted gags. So, anyway, for the whole first arc, Bulma is just the butt of nonstop perverted gags and is made a damsel-in-distress multiple times. Whenever shit goes down, it’s up to a male character, usually Gokuu, to save the day. She’s fucking useless; an annoying bitch who just whines and wants to fuck every handsome guy in sight, but for some reason, we must pretend she is important simply because she kick-started the whole adventure (remember, by that logic, Mizuki is the most important character of Naruto because he kick-started Naruto's adventure). Too bad kick-starting it means nothing when she does absolutely nothing of note when it actually begins. Anyway, she gives Gokuu her Dragon Ball radar and returns to the city so she can start dating her beta male bitch boyfriend.
Oh, right, I forgot to mention. Why the hell did she make her radar in the first place? Because she wants to wish for a boyfriend. Yeah, of all the things she could wish for, she wants a fucking boyfriend (why not just get one normally? Oh, right, no normal guy wants her nasty ass). She could wish to feed a starving nation or end world hunger. She could wish for the poor to get money or end poverty all around the world. She could do something truly noble with her wish. But instead, she just wants to abuse the Dragon Balls, which we later learn were created by God to help humankind, for her own selfish desire; she just wanted a boyfriend. That’s the only reason she made her radar and this effectively means that she gets no credit for any positive usage of it because that’s not what she made it for. This character is fucking garbage. An utterly half-assed, stereotypical depiction of a spoiled rich teenage girl. She’s then irrelevant for basically the entire Jackie Chun arc, only cheering her male friends on when they fight in the finals. Oh, yeah, and another dumb gag. She helps Gokuu when he's about to be eliminated by Roushi's hypnosis, yelling that food's ready, but this is just a brief gag scene right at the end of the arc that doesn't even change the outcome of the match as Gokuu still loses. Pointless.
Yawn, we get to the Red Ribbon arc, which is really just a nonstop Gokuu wankfest. We don’t even see any other preexisting characters until the Muscle Tower phase is over, when Gokuu decides to go to Bulma to fix his radar. “See? Bulma’s useful because unless she fixed the radar, the rest of the story couldn’t occur!” is what an apologist would use to defend her right about now, but it’s worthless because her fixing it is off-screen and she doesn’t do jack shit afterwards. Just look at how quick it was; a page of unfunny perverted gags, and then, Bulma begins work on the radar off-screen. We cut to the Red Ribbon Army, and when we next see Bulma less than two pages later, it's already fixed. Brief, off-screen moments of supposed “usefulness” aren’t one bit significant, no matter how important they may seem to be in-universe. You need to consistently be shown doing important things over the course of the story on a regular basis. What you do can't take place in the span of two pages; the story has to devote a great deal of time to it. And Bulma doesn’t do jack shit; she shows off a device that lets the user shrink, which is really just used for another perverted gag with Roushi trying to spy on her taking a shit later. "It let her be able to ride the cloud by going underneath Gokuu's shirt!" Gokuu could have just carried her the old fashioned way or she could have just used a ship to follow Gokuu; hell, Gokuu could have just rode the ship with her.
She tries to be useful by bringing a capsule with a submarine, but screws up by accidentally bringing her dad’s porn mags instead. Utterly fucking useless. Then, some perverted Red Ribbon soldiers try raping her, and of course, Gokuu has to save her again. Useless. Then, Roushi tries to spy on her taking a shit. Useless. So, because her stupid ass forgot to bring her own submarine, they have to use Roushi's instead. They enter a cave and she slows Gokuu and Kurilin down when she can’t keep up with their superhuman abilities. Useless. She can only run and hide when Gokuu fights the robot. Useless. She can only stand around and shriek as Blue kicks Kurilin’s ass; oh, and she shrieks as he’s about to kill Gokuu (while also reminding us how awful her personality is; "I'm gonna die but I'm so sexy!" Shut up, bitch). Oh, right, but she also flirts with Blue and shakes her ass at him for more perverted gags. It's actually pretty detestable of her to assume that a guy is gay just because he doesn't find her attractive. And isn’t she still dating Yumcha? But she’s flirting up some other dude and invading his personal bubble to grab his muscular arms while sticking her tongue out (arguably sexual assault because imagine if the genders were reversed). Utterly useless character. But she does manage to hide a whole diamond up her vagina, so I guess that must count for something. Not (some idiots also think Bulma helped Gokuu and Kurilin escape from the cave when it collapsed, but this is bullshit because we see that the submarine ran out of fuel and Gokuu ended up saving everyone with his Kamehameha to get them out of the cave. Even Bulma herself credits Gokuu for saving everyone, and as Kurilin reminds us, she was just gonna leave Gokuu behind. And Bulma isn't necessary to take the sub underwater, because Kurilin already knew how to operate subs himself).
After they leave the cave to return to Roushi's island and Not Bulma unties Gokuu from Blue's ropes so he can throw away his bomb, the Gokuu fest resumes. Bulma doesn’t appear again until later on, when she and Gokuu’s other useless cheerleaders decide to help him attack Red Ribbon’s base. They're gonna help out, right? However, by the time they show up, Gokuu has already destroyed it all by himself. Wow, what an amazing cast of side characters; they literally don't do shit! Bulma then doesn’t appear again until they go to Baba’s palace, where she’s just used for yet another perverted gag; Kurilin pulls down her shirt to expose her bare titties so Roushi can get a nosebleed and expose the invisible guy Yumcha is fighting. So usefu-No; getting sexually assaulted does not make her an important, useful character. Anyway, she does nothing in the Tenshinhan arc, just watching the men fight like she did in the Jackie Chun arc. In the Daimaoh arc, she makes a new radar off-screen to stop Daimaoh from gathering the balls, but this plan fails as Daimaoh gathers them and gets his wish, anyway. She and the other useless background characters head over to fight Daimaoh later ... only to find out Gokuu saved the day before they even arrived, just like in the Red Ribbon arc. In the Piccolo Junior arc, she's once again a mere spectator for a tournament. So, for the entire Tenshinhan, Daimaoh, and Piccolo Junior arcs, Bulma basically does nothing. Of course, every now and then, there’s a perverted gag with her.
Imagine actually pretending a character is important when there are such long stretches of them doing absolutely nothing in the story. For fuck’s sake, this character isn’t important; in fact, no one in Dragon Ball is truly important except Gokuu. Everyone else is nothing more than his cheerleader or punching bag (even if they give him trouble at first, they’ll ultimately just become his bitch when he surpasses them. Such is true at least for the original manga. Only time this wasn't true was when Gohan briefly took his place as the protagonist at the end of the Cell arc); they just exist to make him look better, because he’s the only one who matters here. I could go into detail how everyone else sucks as well, but this article is only about Bulma. Instead, let's talk about this particularly stupid moment of her at the end of the Piccolo Jr arc, where she's touched by how Gokuu spared Piccolo. Oh, you know, Piccolo, the evil bastard who literally tried slaughtering an entire stadium full of people twice. The evil bastard who tried killing all of Gokuu's friends. Gokuu let this piece of shit go just because he wanted to fight him again (and him not wanting Kami to die is a bullshit excuse, because they could have just sealed Piccolo away with the Mafuuba. Piccolo wasn't even on the verge of death, as Kami noted he was eventually gonna wake up), thereby putting the entire Earth at risk (and at this point, no one has any reason to think Piccolo would ever turn over a new leaf) ... and Bulma is moved, thinking he just did something good. For fuck's sake, he let an unrepentant genocidal maniac go and Bulma admires him for doing this; what a dumb fucking bitch.
Things don’t improve for Bulma one bit when we enter DBZ territory, either. What does she do in the Saiyan arc? Well, first, as soon as we see her again, another dumb gag. Next. She fixes Raditz’s scouter (off-screen, so worthless) and uses it to locate the other Z Fighters … you know, the same jobbers who do nothing but job to the bad guys as a way of “buying time” for Gokuu to arrive. Oh, cool, she located Tenshinhan, Jiaozi, and Yumcha; these guys fucking suck, so who cares. Hell, she wasn’t needed to find them as Kami could have done so himself and Popo could have just picked them up with his carpet (and they could have just asked Baba to tell them where they all were!). In any case, it’s completely insignificant as it’s off-screen. She supposedly helps out to gather the Dragon Balls to bring Gokuu back to life, but this is also off-screen and it’s not like she was needed to do anything as everyone else helped gather them (and they didn't even need to use her radar when they could have just asked Baba where the balls were); her sitting out would change nothing and how could she have helped, anyway? Did she just seduce more guys for their Dragon Balls again? Worthless. No one gives a fuck about this totally off-screen search for the Dragon Balls as that's not what the story is about. Then, she just stays behind with other useless characters such as Roushi, Oolong, and Pu'er while the Z Fighters fight the Saiyans and doesn’t appear until the battle is over; she just cries over Yumcha’s death. Useless.
Well, we get to the Freeza arc and she’s particularly insufferable here. They go to planet Namekku and this brings us to the third talking point you saw all the way at the top of this post. She was needed to pilot the ship to Namekku? This is completely false, as she didn't pilot shit; we literally see that the ship runs on autopilot when it goes to Jupiter, when they first take off for Namekku, and when Bulma is sleeping. She even regrets not building a stasis chamber on the ship to put her in suspended animation for the whole ride. She was never needed here; you know her fans are full of shit when they literally don't pay attention to the story. The only reason she even went on this trip was because Kucklin was afraid something would go wrong with the ship, as she'd be the only one who could fix it. The issue with that is nothing went wrong with the ship on the way to Namekku, and when it got destroyed by Freeza soldiers shortly after landing, Bulma couldn't repair it at all. So, there ended up being no point in bringing her along and Kucklin was just a scared little bitch.
And reprogramming Kami's ship from Namekkian to a language they could understand was also pointless, because all they needed to know were a few buzzwords from Popo ("Open door". "Close door". "Go to Namekku". "Land". All in Namekkian and that's it). She also wasted time building useless shit like a stereo into the ship. Frankly, it's unclear just how Bulma actually "fixed" or even modified the spaceship beyond reprogramming its language, installing a shower, installing a stereo, and making a bigger bed (all pointless additions. She just wasted valuable time by installing these things); all she said is that she needed to "tweak the insides a bit", whatever the hell that means. What part of the insides needed tweaking? "Revamp the interior a little"? The plot doesn't go into detail on any of this, because it's not actually important.
It is true though that Bulma was the first one to realize that Kami’s ship, the one they used to go to Namekku, had voice sensors. Without her realizing that, they would have never been able to use the ship to go to Namekku, right (except her dad would have been able to figure it out, too, so no). So, that must make her useful, right? Oh, wait, it doesn’t, because the only reason they even needed to use Kami’s ship was because Bulma’s stupid ass blew up Nappa’s ship. Dumb bitch. She gets no kudos when she was the one who screwed everyone in the first place. They have very limited access to these high-tech alien spaceships (aside from Nappa's spaceship, Kami's spaceship, and Gokuu's spaceship, they have no other means of quickly traveling to other planets save for Dragon Balls, which were inert at this time. Bulma's out here blowing one of these valuable spaceships up like a dumbass).
Anyway, so they land on Namekku and she does absolutely nothing the whole time they’re there. When they find out Vegeeta and Freeza's men are invading the planet right after they land, she wants to dip back home. Then, when Freeza's men confront them, she hides behind the spaceship. When Gohan and Kucklin save her life by defeating them, she has the audacity to badmouth them. And then, she just cries like a bitch over the ship being destroyed. She slows Gohan and Kucklin down when they're trying to move discreetly and mopes. Then, she's confused how Gohan and Kucklin can sense energy; just look at how clueless she is. Then, it's agreed to just leave her behind in a cave. She does absolutely nothing for this whole arc. The entire time the Namekkians are getting fucking slaughtered by (an image for every word highlighted here) villains, she's just chilling, doing her lipstick or some shit. Her reaction when she meets Dende, who had just been saved by Gohan and Kucklin after seeing his people, including his own brother, get slaughtered, is despicable. Then, she panics some more when the bad guys show up again, oh but she wants to fuck one of them just because he's handsome, a repeat of when she met Blue; so much for her character development (note: Zero). She gets left behind for her own safety again and she has the audacity to complain about not being left in a better spot; bitch is pigging out, moping while they're risking their necks.
When they see her next, she doesn't know what the hell is going on and is left behind again. When they see her again after that, she literally badmouths them again. Remember that they had just come back from getting their asses (that's Krillin) beaten by Freeza's men (that's Gohan) and nearly died; Gokuu showed up to save them right when they were about to be killed. What was she doing then? Pigging out and moping some more, thinking they're just fooling around. She gets left behind again and she just thinks about how she wishes she fucked Gokuu, (here's Gokuu) who is currently dying in another person's body. Oh, and Nail's busy getting tortured by Freeza, too. And then, they fight Freeza, Piccolo comes back, and they're all getting fucked up. They're all getting their shit rekt, badly (an image for every word highlighted in this sentence. Kucklin, Gohan, Piccolo, Dende, Gokuu, Piccolo again, and Kucklin again). What's Bulma doing as all this is going on? What she always does: bitching. When Gohan comes to pick her up and save her from being crushed to death by a rock, how does she thank him? She bitches at him, and then, she bitches at him some more. All these guys are out there fighting, getting the shit beaten out of them, and dying ... and Bulma has the nerve to complain when she's hiding safe and sound, doing nothing for the whole arc. For fuck's sake, this is not a useful character in the slightest. It's one of the most half-assed, stereotypical representations of a woman ever. Even the author himself knows how much of an awful person Bulma is; she was only ever intended to be a stereotype on women. This right here is not a useful character in any regard whatsoever; she’s fucking useless.
And now we come to the Android/Cell arc. Remember that piece of shit mass murderer Vegeeta? Bulma fucks him and has his baby. Yeah, same dude who slaughtered a bunch of Namekkians (as well as plenty of other people throughout his life), including the kids. He even threatened to murder her to her face. What a douche. Doesn't stop her from inviting him to her home, though. It's all just a lazy plot device for Trunks to exist and that brings us to the fourth talking point at the top of this post. Yeah, no, giving birth to someone else doesn’t make Bulma important. Your parents don't take credit for your accomplishments just because they birthed you. You may as well be arguing that Gine is the most important character of Dragon Ball for giving birth to Gokuu, but no one gives a fuck about Gine because she never even appears (we didn't even get introduced to her until some random bonus chapter in 2014, 30 years after the franchise started). Women doing nothing but giving birth to babies is the most stereotypical role they can have; getting knocked up by a bitch ass mass murderer and giving birth to the baby off-screen doesn’t make anyone important. Vegeeta could have knocked up Bulma's mother instead and nothing would change. If anything, only Trunks is important; the circumstances behind his birth are irrelevant. All that matters is that he’s a Super Saiyan from the future and in that case, you could have just put Future Gohan in his role and nothing would change! Oh, but speaking of time traveling, how did Trunks come back in time? The Time Machine. Bulma supposedly invented that. Fifth talking point. That must make her important, right? No.
First of all, it wasn’t even the main Bulma we came to know who invented it. It was a different version of her from an alternate future who did. And this counterpart never even shows up in the story proper; one panel of a flashback, an optional bonus chapter that isn’t required reading (that's why it's called a side story), and two chapters right at the end of the story arc after the main conflict has been resolved are irrelevant. For practically the whole story arc, meaning the entire conflict with the androids and Cell in the past, this alternate Bulma never appears; she’s just drinking coffee in the alternate future while all of this is going on. And apologists want to pretend she’s super important simply because she invented a Time Machine as if that makes up for the fact she never fucking appears. No, you can’t be an important character in a story when you never fucking show up, period. Whatever significance you may have from a purely in-universe perspective is overshadowed by the fact you never appear; when you never appear, you don’t have any real significance in the writing because your presence can’t be felt one bit and that’s why Future Bulma is worthless. Besides, the Time Machine violated the laws of nature and gods, as traveling back in time is strictly prohibited as it tears the fabric of reality, which can result in the destruction of the multiverse. Time is only meant to move forward, not backward. By creating three other timelines, or realities, Bulma's Time Machine fucked the spacetime continuum. Fucking the spacetime continuum just to save one planet in an entire multiverse is silly and you'd think that if she could invent something as complex as a Time Machine, she'd be able to simply make a spaceship that could have taken someone to New Namekku, where they could ask the Namekkians to revive everyone who was killed by the androids.
Her inventing a Time Machine is nothing more than a lazy plot device that the author put zero thought into; it’s really just a lazy excuse for Trunks to show up in the story, because again, if anything, Trunks is the only one who matters here (although he’s not really important, either, because he’s ultimately just another cheerleader for Gocow). He’s the one who actually uses the Time Machine to go back in time to fight with the good guys; as a result, he’s the only one who leaves any impression on us, the viewers. How he shows up is irrelevant; as long as he’s there, that’s all that matters, which is why the story puts no focus on Bulma making the Time Machine. We don’t even know how she made it, because again, it’s just a lazy plot device that the author put no thought into. Nothing more than a lazy excuse for Trunks to exist and that’s it. He's the only one who gets any focus in the story, so if anyone actually matters, it's just him. Focus is the key here and thus, Future Bulma doesn't matter because she isn't focused on at all as she never appears.
It’s like Bibbidi and Bobbidi. In the manga, Bibbidi is the one said to have created Boo; that would certainly give him in-universe significance, but because he himself never shows up (loser was killed long before the story starts), he has no importance in the actual franchise. The only warlock we actually see is his son Bobbidi; he’s the one who releases Boo and uses him to terrorize Earth. Because the viewers actually see him do things in the story, he leaves an impression on them; his father, on the other hand? No one gives a shit about Bibbidi except stunted nerds. In fact, the story could have been written so that Bobbidi was the one who created Boo the entire time; Bibbidi wouldn’t even exist and nothing meaningful would change. That’s how insignificant he is. Likewise, it’s not even necessary for Trunks to use Bulma’s Time Machine. He could have traveled back in time through a wormhole in a squirrel’s anus and nothing meaningful would change. As long as he shows up in the past fighting with everyone else, that’s all that matters.
You don’t need his bitch mother at all. The only characters from the alternate future where the androids terrorize Earth who ever remotely mattered were Trunks and Cell; literally everything about this stupid dystopian future plotline was a lazy ass excuse to have a time traveling Super Saiyan fighting alongside the Z Fighters against androids (later cyborgs and an insect bug boy who’s packing the anaconda to satisfy perverts with a vore fetish). Future Gohan, Future Bulma, Future Gokuu, all the Future Z Fighters, no one actually gives a fuck about them because they don't appear. Nothing about it even makes sense; what the hell were the Z Fighters doing after they were killed? Why didn’t they ask the Namekkians through Kaioh to use their Dragon Balls to revive them? Why didn’t they tell Gohan and Trunks about the Time Chamber? Why didn’t they use their one day pass on Earth to fight the androids after training in the afterlife for years like Gokuu surely would have? This whole arc is full of questions, plot holes, and inconsistencies because Toriyama simply didn’t give a fuck. How "useful" can anyone truly be in a story if literally none of it makes any sense? All of it is completely arbitrary and bullshit. At the end of the day, the only thing people care about is who kicks the most ass.
Anyway, what does the main Bulma do in this arc? Nothing whatsoever. She suggests tracking down Gero and kicking his ass before the androids are made, but she gets shot down by everyone else and being the weak little bitch she is, she has to go along with their decision. Next up, oh, right, already discussed her getting knocked up by a mass murderer. She certainly has good taste in men (sarcasm), wanting to fuck bandits who are trying to kill her and her friends (Yumcha), misogynist Nazis who are trying to kill her and her friends (Blue), and aliens who are trying to kill her and her friends (Zarbon and Vegeeta). Goddamn, this character sucks. Some people also claim that she reformed or redeemed Vegeeta (sixth talking point), but that’s bullshit because Vegeeta never truly stops being an evil POS. Furthermore, the only person who made Vegeeta realize he could care about others was Trunks (specifically, Future Trunks). You rarely even see Vegeeta interact with Bulma at all; it’s only his relationship with Trunks that gets any focus and him fucking Bulma was just a lazy plot device for Trunks to exist. Again, he could have knocked up Bulma's mom (or even some hooker on the street) and nothing would change.
And the only reason a genocidal Saiyan prince like Vegeeta would find himself in a situation that he'd be willing to fuck some random lowly Earthling like Bulma was because getting humiliated and killed by Freeza left him a broken man. It was Freeza who softened him in the beginning because he scarred him; Vegeeta was no longer the same after that as he was now willing to live on Earth when he wanted to destroy the planet before. Bulma was just looking for a rebound after breaking up with Yumcha and Vegeeta was the nearest buff guy around as he was living with her. They fucked and Vegeeta forgot to pull out. Even then, he was still evil as hell and he didn't give a fuck about Bulma or their baby, as we see when he doesn't bother saving them from Gero (more on this scene soon). Bulma didn't make Vegeeta a good person at all; we see him kill an innocent truck driver when he's fighting Eighteen, too.
The whole time, Vegeeta was still planning to kill Gokuu. He also lets Cell become Perfect and beats up his own son Trunks for trying to stop him. Vegeeta was absolutely an evil POS in the Android/Cell arc. It's only after Future Trunks dies that Vegeeta realizes he cares about someone other than himself. From that point on, Vegeeta cared more about Bulma, but that was only because Future Trunks already made him a less selfish person. Despite that, however, Vegeeta was still an evil piece of shit as we see when he goes back to killing innocent people in the Boo arc. He never truly reformed or redeemed himself in the end and whatever degree he softened up wasn't thanks to Bulma. Freeza broke his pride and Future Trunks made him realize he could care about other people. Bulma gets no points just for housing a genocidal mass murderer and fucking him when she was horny. There's no "fixing" someone like Vegeeta. He's an utter piece of shit who deserves to burn in Hell for all of eternity. And remember, all those Namekkians and the truck driver he killed never came back to life.
Now let's talk about that scene with Bulma and baby Trunks. Bulma's stupid ass literally brings baby Trunks to the scene of the android attack, just because she wants to see how the androids look like. Jesus Christ. Wanting to endanger your own life is one thing ... but why the hell would you bring your own baby with you? And as if that wasn't bad enough, this dumb fucking bitch literally brings her baby to ground zero of the fight, which gives Gero the opportunity to escape and activate stronger androids; oh, and this nearly gets her baby killed. People think this piece of shit is useful when she’s literally endangering the lives of everyone including her own infant child and helping the bad guys get away due to her stupidity? Just look at her stupid fucking face as she's doing this shit; that perverted hack Toriyama knew damn well what he was doing here. No, she's not useful; she's a useless, dumb ugly bitch who is a garbage person, a garbage mother, and a garbage ass fucking character. Absolute fucking irredeemable trash. She was insufferable when she first appeared as a teenage girl and she's insufferable as a mother in her 30s. Then, she invents a switch to shut off the androids, but she fumbles it by handing it to Kucklin's bitch ass. He's a beta bitch who crushes it because he wants some cyber sex. “But it was Kucklin’s fault, not hers!” Nope, her fault for trusting the incel cuck bitch with it. “Wh-what the hell do you expect? She’s not a fighter! She’s only an inventor!” Another dumbass argument. Bulma has only herself to blame for being weak as fuck.
Being an inventor does not preclude you from being a fighter at all. There are a ton of fictional characters who fight in addition to being genius inventors and scientists. Dr. Gero’s genius completely shits all over Bulma’s and he himself was a fighter. There’s Android 21 from the FighterZ game, too; she’s both a genius scientist and a fighter. From other franchises, Batman, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four, the Beast from X-Men, Donatello from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Tails from Sonic the Hedgehog, etc are all inventors in addition to being fighters. And there are characters from other franchises who possess no real physical strength whatsoever and still find a way to help out in fights by controlling robots and other machines; the characters who pilot the mechs in Gundam come to mind, as do Roger from Big O, Harold Cooplowski from Megas XLR, and Child Emperor and Metal Knight from One-Punch Man; Child Emperor and Metal Knight are genius scientists, too. Bulma would have been significantly better if she commanded robots and other machines to assist the Z Fighters in fights, but of course, 80s/90s Shounen audiences and authors are sexist pigs so you can’t have women being fighters at all.
Let’s face the fact that needs to be said; in a fighting series, you can’t truly be useful or important unless you actually are a fighter yourself. Why? Because in a fighting series, the fighters are the ones who get all the focus; damn, crazy how that works. Being an inventor doesn’t preclude you from being a fighter, because there is no reason why you can’t be a fighter in addition to being an inventor. There are plenty of characters in fiction who are both fighters and inventors, as mentioned before. If you wanted a series where the act of building shit was all that mattered, you would watch Bob the Builder or some shit. As far as Shounen go, Dr. Stone is actually one that primarily focuses on building things; the protagonist Senku rarely fights but he still drives the plot forward by building stuff. The story primarily focuses on him making stuff to rebuild human civilization. We get to see him make them and search for the materials he needs with his allies. Like Bulma, he isn't a fighter, but unlike Bulma, he finds a way to be important in his story. His accomplishments aren't swept off-screen; they're the meat of Dr. Stone.
And there are other anime/manga that give plenty of focus to characters who aren't necessarily inventors, but they're still highly intelligent and drive their plots forward primarily through their smarts. Look at Yagami Light and L Lawliet from Death Note. They don't do much of any fighting, but the story primarily focuses on all the schemes and plans they come up with; what they do isn't swept aside because their battle of wits is the meat of the series (until Light kills L, who is replaced by Near and Mello. Despite being less interesting than L, they're still better written than Bulma). The same with Kudoh Shin'ichi aka Edogawa Conan from Detective Conan; that series focuses on him solving various cases, and we see his thought processing in considerable detail, so his title of genius doesn't feel unearned. See, these are characters who use their brains to drive their plots forward. The same can't be said for Bulma. This Reddit comment nicely explains why her supposed smarts are worthless, especially compared to intelligent characters from other series (and no, I didn't write it). She's as shallow and as surface level as can be.
Anyway, some people also argue she was useful for repairing Sixteen, but he's useless, too; no, he wasn't needed for Gohan to turn SS2, as Cell already noted that he was on the verge of transforming before Sixteen spoke to him. Sixteen just happened to be the first person he saw get destroyed and it makes no difference if he transforms over someone weak like Kucklin, Yumcha, or Tenshinhan dying. You can remove Sixteen from the plot entirely and nothing changes. So, then, Boo arc. She does fucking nothing. Making a stupid disguise off-screen for Gohan to wear is worthless and his cover quickly gets blown as Veedel figures out who he is, anyway; his other school acquaintances like those two dumb blondes also find out when he's at the Budoukai. There was never any point in him putting on some stupid disguise when he could have just taken out criminals faster than anyone can see, a la Kale when she fights Freeza in Dragon Ball Super; no way ordinary humans would be able to see him. To be on the safe side, he could also turn Super Saiyan to disguise himself like he did at the start of the arc.
Later, Bulma forgets her Dragon Radar at Capsule Corp like a dumbass, prompting Gokuu to use up all his time on Earth by stalling Boo as a Super Saiyan 3 so Trunks can go fetch it. Wow. She was literally just at Capsule Corp with her radar right before she went to the lookout. She also cries like a bitch over Vegeeta's death; you know, that mass murdering piece of shit who had just slaughtered hundreds of people an hour earlier. This is who she is crying for. Jesus Christ. Vegeeta deserved to fucking die! He never reformed when he stayed evil as hell (remember he chose to let Bobbidi power him up so he could fight Gokuu. And he killed all those people to make Gokuu fight him. And he caused Boo to come out by beating Gokuu up). Then, she just chills on the lookout for the rest of the arc until Boo kills her and the other useless background characters (shame it was off-screen in the manga, because goddamn, Bulma deserved a gruesome death). End of the manga, she becomes an old wrinkly bitch wanting to waste wishes with the Dragon Balls to look younger. She's really developed from the spoiled teenage brat who wanted to wish for a boyfriend, huh? Not.
And so, she makes a spaceship at the start of GT, then never appears again until she gets taken over by Baby. Doing one thing at the start means jack shit when you don’t appear afterwards and popping up at the end of the second arc (or the end of the first arc if you consider the Black Star and Baby arcs to be the same arc) to aid the villain is also worthless. So is popping up at the end of the series to help Vegeeta transform; Vegeeta is a loser jobber, anyway, and him turning SS4 was just a lazy plot device for him to fuse with Gokuu into Gogeta, who doesn't do shit. Then, everyone decides that GT sucks ass and DBS replaces it. What does Bulma do in DBS? Jack shit. Let’s get it out of the way, the last talking point at the top of this post. Birus didn’t decide to spare Earth because of Bulma; he didn’t give two fucks about Earth’s foods when he was about to blow it up after Boo pissed him off. Duh. He spared it only because he was entertained by his fight with Gokuu; for fuck sake, even the two Kaioushin note it was only because of Gokuu. Bulma's meals are irrelevant; he just wants to see Gokuu become a worthy rival to him someday. That the Bulma simps thought they could spin this to make her look important is pathetic. Resurrection F, “she called Gokuu and Vegeeta over to fight Freeza so she’s important”. Literally a fucking damsel making a distress call to her boy toys to save her, fucking worthless. She can't do anything herself, so she just calls over men to fight for her. And it was Gohan, Piccolo, Tenshinhan, Krillin, and Roushi powering up that enabled Gokuu to teleport to Earth from Birus's planet, anyway.
Bulma’s role in DBS is just what we’ve come to expect of her; every now and then, she’ll invent (the Super Dragon Radar) or fix (the Time Machine. Oh, hey, we finally learn something about how the Time Machine is made, over 20 years after the original manga ended. It runs on ... Blue Electric Liquid 15! ... what the fuck is blue electric liquid? How exactly does it fuel the Time Machine? LOL, none of this convoluted nonsensical bullshit matters) something for the plot to continue, but it’s all brief and off-screen so it's inconsequential no matter what any apologist says. No one is watching for Bulma; people are just watching Dragon Ball to see characters fight and anyone who denies this is delusional. Nothing Bulma does is ever a focus; it's never the crux of the plot. The Champa arc? The crux is just the tournament, which Bulma doesn't participate in; she just cheers the men fighting along with the other useless background characters like she always does. The Zamasu arc? The crux is just the fight against Zamasu and Gokuu Black in the alternate future; she never goes there in the manga, and while the anime shoehorns her in at the end, all we really get are dumb cringy gags like this. Look at this dumb bitch, doing the same shit she did with Blue all those years ago as a teenager; she's nearly 50 at this point in the story. People seriously think she's developed? Nonsense. Sure, she fixes the Time Machine after Zamasu blasts it, but it's her fault for not immediately turning it back into a capsule after she arrives with Gokuu and Vegeeta. This is just worthless Toei filler, anyway.
Then, Bulma pretty much sits out the entire Tournament of Power arc; we get pointless filler scenes of her pregnant at the very beginning and that's really it. She convinces Eighteen to participate by offering her money? Couldn't Mr. Satan just pay her again (or couldn't they just use the regular Dragon Balls to pay her)? No one cares about any of this nonsense; it's not one bit important when the only focus is the tournament itself. How shocking, the focus in a tournament arc ... is a tournament! Bulma doesn't appear at all during the tournament, the most significant and popular part of all of DBS. So much for her supposed importance when there are such long stretches of her not appearing. Then, she does nothing in DBS Broly other than let six Dragon Balls and the Dragon Radar that were in her possession be stolen by Freeza's men. She does nothing noteworthy in the Moro and Granola arcs, either, helping gather fodder side characters in the former and leaving her Dragon Radar unguarded in the latter, which leads to it getting stolen again, proving she's learned nothing since DBS Broly). She does nothing of relevance in Daima, either. She helped fix a ship in a very boring episode that was basically filler and that was it. Pansy completely overshadowed her as the group's mechanic.
Gotta love this, though. In the Super Hero movie, Bulma wastes a wish with the Dragon Balls on a bigger ass. Of all the things this dumb fucking bitch could have wished for, it’s a bigger ass. Remember when Bulma first appeared? She wanted to wish for a boyfriend. Now, as a grown woman pushing 50, she wishes for a butt lift and slightly longer eyelashes. Character development at its finest, huh (sarcasm)? This screws them over because they can't summon Gokuu and Vegeeta to deal with the bad guys. She's also been wasting the Dragon Balls on other pointless wishes over the years for the sake of her appearance ("it's to keep the Dragon Balls inactive in case another bad guy tries to use them" is bullshit, because they can just seal them away somewhere, like a Dragon Radar proof box, and in any case, there are far better things to wish for than cosmetic surgery). Oh, and there's also a scene in the movie where Bulma’s bending over underneath a table, showing her ass off for the audience; obviously, this scene had no other purpose than to make perverts blow their loads. You already know how people reacted in the theaters.
It's not that sexualizing a character is inherently bad; it's when the character has no real purpose other than to make people horny that there's an issue. And Bulma's only purpose, right from her very debut, was just to give perverts something to jack off to. It wasn't a woman who created Bulma; it was just a very perverted man. She just exists to be a comic relief character for Toriyama to poke fun at women with, because he is a sexually frustrated misogynist degenerate. "B-but she was the one who kickstarted the plot by pulling Gokuu out of the mountains, so this is all A-okay!" Fuck out of here with that bullshit. Even looking at the story from a purely in-universe perspective and giving her credit for things that she was only indirectly responsible for at best like her apologists love to do, she caused more harm than good. Let's see here.
1. She created a Dragon Radar (even though Pilaf made his around the same time as her and he eventually improved his radar to have live video feed, a feat she couldn't replicate) to gather the Dragon Balls for the sole purpose of wishing for a boyfriend. In other words, she wanted to abuse the Dragon Balls for her own selfish desires, completely going against the entire reason God created them. Her Dragon Radar also makes it easier for the characters to overuse the Dragon Balls, which shouldn't even exist on Earth to begin with as per the highest God in the original manga.
2. She pulled Gokuu out of the mountains. Gokuu, who was already being protected by Burdack's wish with the Cerealian Dragon Balls, which ensured his survival into adulthood. Gokuu, who would later go on to destroy the Red Ribbon Army, which would lead to Dr. Gero creating the androids that would slaughter almost everyone on Earth (and Gokuu isn't even needed to beat the Saiyans or Freeza, as they could have just been sealed away with the Mafuuba if they were to ever come to Earth). Gokuu himself also continually endangers Earth and causes innocent people to die, like when he allowed Gero to make the androids in his timeline instead of stopping him ahead of time, which led to Cell killing a bunch of innocent people, when he allowed Vegeeta to beat up on him instead of immediately beating him as an SS3 which led to Boo coming out and killing a bunch of innocent people, and when he refused to beat Boo as an SS3 because he wanted two dumb kids to clean up his own mess which led to Boo killing just about everyone on Earth and blowing up the planet.
3. Her alternate counterpart violated the laws of nature and Gods when she created a Time Machine, which was used to fuck over the spacetime continuum by producing multiple timelines. This eventually leads to Zamasu killing everyone on Earth and Zenoh erasing the entire multiverse in this timeline altogether.
4. She continues to abuse the Dragon Balls for completely worthless wishes like a bigger ass and other forms of cosmetic surgery (and there are actually some especially stupid apologists who try to defend this).
Not even the characters themselves agree with the bullshit argument that Bulma was needed to start the plot. There's actually a scene in the manga where someone is given credit for everything that had happened in the story; contrary to what dumbass apologists say, it's not Bulma. It's literally God who is credited for everything that had happened in the story up to that point, because he's the one who made the Dragon Balls. We later find out that God comes from the planet known as Namekku, which is where the original set of Dragon Balls were made by the Grand Elder. Much later down the line, we find out that the very first set of Dragon Balls were created by the Ryuujin (Dragon God) Zalama; the Namekkian Dragon Balls were made from Zalama's Super Dragon Balls. And there are plenty of other Gods who stand above Bulma, like Enma (the Judge of Death), all the Kaioh (World King), all the Kaioushin (World King God), all the Hakaishin (Destruction God), all the Tenshi (Angel), Daishinkan (Grand Priest), and Zenoh (All King). And there's Lymus, the one who created the multiverse. So, even from a purely in-universe perspective, Bulma is worthless. She's just another lowly human who wanted to abuse the Dragon Balls for her own selfish desires.
But anyway, as I said before, all of this nerdy in-universe bullshit is worthless. Even if Bulma was literally the highest deity or creator of the Dragon Balls, that still wouldn't make her important. The plot in Dragon Ball is convoluted nonsense. None of it makes any sense. It's all basically just a half-assed excuse for the fighting to occur. That's the only thing people actually care about when it comes to this series. They watch it for the intense, adrenaline-fueled battles. They only care about characters like Gokuu, Vegeeta, Gohan, Trunks, Piccolo, Freeza, Broly, etc because they're the ones who get to do all the "cool" shit that the franchise is known for. Bulma doesn't get to do any of that and that's why no one gives a fuck about her. It's just nerds and degenerates who do. Note how the series was unpopular when it first started with the Pilaf arc. It only became popular during the Jackie Chun arc, which is when the focus first shifted away from Chinese folklore-inspired adventure to martial arts. Interestingly, it was in this arc that Bulma was sidelined as she barely had any screen or panel-time, only showing up as a spectator for the tournament. She had more screen/panel-time during the Pilaf arc, which was unpopular. She gets written off and gets little screen/panel-time during the Jackie Chun arc, and only then does the series become popular. That just tells you how worthless she is; she had no role in making the franchise a success.
You don't need this stupid bitch. All you need is fighting for the series to be popular. And as fighting became more of the focus over time, the series became even more popular, reaching a peak in the Freeza arc; what did Bulma do there? Nothing, she just hid while everyone was out fighting and she rarely even appeared. You're not important when you never show up. Nerdy in-universe stuff like making radars and time machines is just arbitrary bullshit no one actually cares about, because the story never focuses on those things. And while you could say everything in the story is ultimately arbitrary, it's especially the stuff that the author doesn't bother showing or fleshing out in detail, because none of it amounts to any more than a convenient excuse for the fighting to occur. In other words, half-assed, lazy plot devices. None of that bullshit is important.
Only the fighting is important, because that's what makes the series popular and that's what the story actually focuses on. It's what the story actually fleshes out and what the viewers actually see. The plot is convoluted bullshit full of plotholes, inconsistencies, asspulls, conveniences, etc but viewers don't care, because they're entertained by all the flashy shit. Because that flashy shit is all they care about. There's a reason why Dragon Ball is stereotyped as just having a bunch of mindless fighting where men punch each other nonstop, spam lazer beams each other nonstop, scream at each other like they're constipated nonstop, and have flashy transformations that generally consist of nothing more than hair changes. Because that's all the franchise is known for at the end of the day. Only nerds care so much about the "plot", because the "plot" is just dumb bullshit. Just look at Dragon Ball Super's anime. The writing is utter dog shit and none of it makes sense; it doesn't get any stupider than Gokuu randomly being able to heal himself by fighting in the Tournament of Power. But that didn't stop the show from being a huge success.
Most American viewers actually started off with DBZ in the 90s, skipping the entirety of the original Dragon Ball as Funimation dropped it after a few episodes in favor of airing the more action-oriented Dragon Ball Z in 1996; their 1995 dub of the original Dragon Ball was cancelled due to poor ratings. While this was partly due to poor time slots, it's obvious that the original Dragon Ball was never going to be any real success in America; a perverted bastardization of Journey to the West isn't marketable to American audiences, not even when it gets "Americanized" through censorship and localization. Keep in mind that DBZ didn't start off with ideal time slots in the United States in 1996, either, as they were only slightly better than the ones DB got in 1995. Despite that, DBZ was so successful in syndication that it became the top-rated syndicated show in the country for its demographic and was given an entire hour time slot to air two episodes in 1997; the original Dragon Ball would have never been anywhere near that successful with its lesser focus on action. Even with better time slots, it would have been cancelled before the more action-oriented episodes could air.
Furthermore, this wasn't even the first time that Dragon Ball was brought to the United States; in 1989, Harmony Gold became the first American company to license Dragon Ball, dubbing five episodes and two movies that were broadcast on several independent TV networks across the country as a test to see if there was an market for the series. It turned out there wasn't a market for it as Harmony Gold's test dub flopped and was cancelled. The original Dragon Ball anime literally flopped in America twice, which tells you that it was never going to do well on its own and the only reason it did alright on Toonami many years later was because it was riding Dragon Ball Z's popularity. If not for Funimation skipping ahead to DBZ in 1996, then the franchise would have never become a cultural phenomenon in the United States.
Despite the fact this left American viewers with a very limited understanding of the lore and all the events that had happened prior in the plot, they still enjoyed the show. Nerds try to say Bulma is important because she "started" the story in the Pilaf arc, but most viewers missed that whole arc entirely as they started with DBZ, when Bulma is pretty much always left behind. This didn't stop DBZ from becoming such a hit in America and why is that? Because it had action. Fighting. Start the franchise with not much fighting and it flops (OG DB). Restart it with a lot of fighting and it becomes a success (DBZ). It doesn't matter why the characters are fighting; as long as they're fighting, then people will tune in regardless of whether or not they actually understand what's going on. They don't need to know the specifics of the lore or plot. Just establish who the good guys are, who the bad guys are, and put in plenty of flashy, dramatic fight scenes.
As long as you do that, then the series will be popular and that's all that matters. If the series is not popular, then it makes no money and if it doesn't make any money, it gets canceled. It's for that reason the fighting gets all the focus in the story; because it gets all the focus, it's nowhere near as arbitrary as anything else in the story. Without fighting, no one would give two fucks about Dragon Ball and that's a fact. Granted, this isn't to say there should literally be nothing but fighting in the series. Obviously you'll need to include breaks and downtime between the battles so viewers don't get burnt out, but this other stuff comes secondary to the fighting; you can focus on some other elements when the characters aren't fighting, but the whole time, you need to be building and leading towards the battles.
That creates anticipation and excitement for them. No matter what other things the story chooses to focus on in the meantime, they can't overshadow the fighting, because the fighting is what people want to see the most. Because the fighting is all people really want to see, the story focuses the most on it. The story can't focus on other things like slice of life, gags, or lighthearted adventures for long, because that causes people to lose interest; this is why the Pilaf arc was unpopular, why the high school/Great Saiyaman miniarc was unpopular, largely why the start of GT was unpopular, and why most of Daima was considered boring by everyone who watched it. Bulma doesn't fight and thus, she gets no real focus in the story. Therefore, she's worthless. "But the story could easily be rewritten so Bulma is a useful fighter!" Not as easily as if you just removed her from the plot altogether. Turn a non-combatant like Bulma into a fighter and you're changing what the viewers see in the story. Simply remove non-combatants like Bulma altogether and you're changing little to nothing of what the viewers see. Nobody actually gives a fuck about her.
Toei and Toriyama could have made a series starring Bulma without any fighting whatsoever if they felt like it. They didn't, because they knew it would flop like shit. Bulma is rarely ever playable in the videogames, too, because the developers know no one gives a fuck about playing as her. The only female character who's been a staple in the videogames is Eighteen; while she doesn't get all that much spotlight in the series and eventually turns into a housewife, her few fight scenes leave a much bigger impression on viewers than anything Bulma's ever done. Same with Caulifla, Kale, and Kefla, who are newer female fighters; they fight and do flashy things, so they leave an impression on viewers and they actually have fans. They're playable in the games and people buy merchandise of them, like toys and cards. Bulma is almost never playable in the games and not many people buy merchandise of her. The ones who do are just buying body pillows of her.
There are actually some fairly respectable depictions of girls and women in anime/manga, Shounen even. Even if they're flawed, they're much better than Bulma. Let's be real, for a girl or woman to truly be important in a story, she has to be the main character. The protagonist. If you want truly important female characters, then you shouldn't settle for girls or women only being side or supporting characters. You shouldn't settle for a story where male characters greatly overshadow the female characters like they do in Dragon Ball and most any other Shounen. You should just go for stories that actually star female characters. If female characters are the main characters, then they're the main focus of their story and are thus important to it. To name a few, there's Clare from Claymore, Kusanagi Motoko from Ghost in the Shell, Frieren from Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Komatsuzaki Ran from Crimson Fang Blue Sonnet, and even the characters from Sailor Moon. Don't get me wrong, none of them are perfect, but they're still much better than Bulma, because they're actually the main focus of their stories and are consistently shown doing important things throughout them. Granted, though, what's truly an important thing in a plot when the plot itself is bullshit? Forget the plot. If a character is consistently shown doing flashy, "cool" shit that leaves an impression on viewers, then they're a noteworthy, important character to have around. And Bulma isn't noteworthy or important at all.
Outside of anime/manga, you'd be better off reading or watching Wonder Woman, even with how sexualized she's been throughout her long history (the same with other superheroines from DC and Marvel, but Jessica Jones doesn't seem as sexualized as most others, so feel free to check her series out). Korra from The Legend of Korra is also better than Bulma, even if she's ultimately a poor man's Aang. There's also Kim Possible, Carmen Sandiego, and the Powerpuff Girls. If you want notable female characters in videogames, there's Lara Croft, Bayonetta, Samus Aran from Metroid, and Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark. Sure, many of them are oversexualized, but they're still better than Bulma. For any character to truly be significant in a story or series, they have to consistently do important things throughout the story (or just really flashy "cool" shit) and we as viewers have to actually see them do these things. Their accomplishments can't be swept off-screen or made to be totally brief like a few pages or panels; they have to consistently be shown and fleshed out. Because only then can it be said that the series or story actually focused on the character and bothered to utilize them. And Bulma was never actually meant to be utilized beyond degenerate fan-service or misogynist gags. She sucks.
Some idiots try to misconstrue what I'm saying by accusing me of being a misogynist or an incel who just hates women. They only do this because instead of actually addressing my arguments, it's more convenient for them to just strawman what I'm saying. It should be blatantly obvious by now that I don't hate women. I just hate shitty female characters, ones who are stereotypical, perverted, misogynist, etc depictions of girls and women. I want good representation of girls and women in fiction. Bulma doesn't qualify and she was never intended to. Her only purpose is to be fap material for perverts. No respectable, intelligent person would consider her to be a good female character or a good character in general. She's a surface level caricature of the worst aspects in women. Her supposed smarts are intended to contrast with the fact she's a dumb bimbo at heart and the series never even truly focuses on her being a scientific genius, so that aspect of her is hollow. She was and will always be a shitty character. And Toriyama Akira was and will always be a talentless hack.
"I'd like to be the sort of geezer who pretends to be senile so they can peep on their daughter in the bath." - Toriyama Akira, creator of Lady Red
