bulma

In the early Harmony Gold English Dragon Ball dub from the 1980s, she is known as Lena.

Bulma has a very spunky, tomboyish, temperamental personality. She is quite spoiled and vain, is known for her extreme intellect, and is a genius inventor. She'll do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she won't let anything stand in her way, not mountains, not monsters, not even pride, in the form of her lover/husband Vegeta, she is in fact the only person who never seems intimidated by him.

Rare for a cartoon character, even in anime, her hairstyle varies considerably depending on what point the narration is in the storyline. Throughout the entire series, she has 17 different hairstyles. Bulma has turquoise hair in the anime, and purple hair in the manga. Her outfit also changes often. Bulma is the only female character to be featured topless in the series.

Background

Bulma is the second (after Son Goku) character to be introduced in the series. In the early part of the plot, she is the one that has invented a Dragon Radar and is searching for the legendary Dragon Balls. She finds that Goku inherited one of the balls (the four-star ball) from his Grandpa Gohan. At that point, they team up to find the remainder of the balls and the adventure begins. As the anime progresses, Bulma's role waxes and wanes. In the later action-oriented episodes of the series, there is little room for a genius but Bulma continues to play a role as a secondary character.

In the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, she got to see a full grown Goku, as well as her old friends. She was a spectator in 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. After five years of peace, an evil menace came to the Earth. It was Goku's brother, a Saiyan, named Raditz. After Goku and Piccolo killed him, Bulma took the scouter from Raditz's head, and fixed it to find the power levels of people in human numbers. The only way to get to Namek, was with a spaceship. When Mr. Popo got Bulma to one, he tried to figure out if it really was a spaceship or not. After closer inspection, it was indeed, an actual spaceship. She fixed it with the help of her father, and flew off to Namek with Kuririn and Son Gohan. Bulma is well known for her intellectual approach to situations. She is also very proud of her abilities and can be very cantankerous when slighted, which may indicate a similar approach with other men. Bulma's first relationship in the series was with Yamcha, but after the Freeza Saga she begins a relationship with Vegeta which leads to the birth of Trunks and thirteen years later, Bra.

In the Great Saiyaman Saga, She helped Gohan make a super hero costume so he could fight crime, without his real identity being known.

In the Fusion Saga she and the other Z Fighters, with the exception of Goku, Vegeta and Gohan, hide on the Lookout from the monstrous Super Buu, however she is killed when Buu turns her into chocolate and eats her. She is revived by the dragon balls, along with her family and friends, and gives her energy to Goku to create the huge Genki Dama to eliminate Kid Buu once and for all.

In GT she becomes possessed by Baby, who takes her as his apparent queen (or second in command, at least.) During this time, she organizes the migration to Planet Vegeta (Renamed the Tuffle home planet), and creates the Brutz Wave device that helps Bebi-Vegeta become a Golden Oozaru, and later helps Vegeta reach Super Saiyan 4. However, the Holy Water hidden in Dende's lookout is used to free her and the rest of Earth from Baby's enslavement.

Bulma's father is Dr. Briefs, but it is unclear in the manga whether 'Briefs' is his first name or his last. Bulma's mother is shown several times in the anime and manga, without an official name.

Bulma's notable inventions besides the Dragon Radar, include: a Microband that shrinks her, modified Saiyan Armor for the hyperbolic time chamber, a Blutz Wave generator to allow Vegeta to reach Super Saiyan 4, and a time machine to allow Trunks to get to the past, in an alternate future timeline. She also repairs Android 16 with her father.

Alternate timeline

Bulma survived the Androids' onslaught in the "Trunks Timeline," as seen in The History of Trunks special. Bulma lives at the former site of Capsule Corp. attempting to build a time machine. She's very protective of Trunks and hates the idea of him fighting, but nevertheless allows him to take the time machine to the past to stop the Androids before they have a chance to wipe out humanity.

In this timeline, Bulma aged very quickly, probably due to the stress of living in the hell that was Earth. She still was as smart as ever, but she didn't look as young as she used to. She had also grown more mature and wasn't as selfish. She spent most of her life devoted to building a time machine so that Trunks could go back in time and prevent the devastation wrought by the Androids. Once the Androids were defeated in the main timeline, Trunks returned to his original time and defeated the (somewhat weaker) Androids there.

Anime filler

An alligator/dog-like henchman and his human-like partner, Blueberry and Raspberry are standard-issue cronies in Freeza's military sent to find the Namekian Dragon Balls. Freeza felt no need to enlighten his lower-level soldiers of the Dragon Balls' powers, only demanding that they be found. During their search they come across Bulma, who had one in her possession. Convinced she knew the location of the others, the pair intimidate the girl and threaten to take her to Freeza for questioning.

Bulma is able to talk her way out of the predicament by telling them that the Dragon Balls would grant them anything they wanted once all seven were brought together. Raspberry thought it was preposterous, but the idea intrigued Blueberry. The two then kidnap Bulma and demand she lead them to the rest, still thinking she had them stashed away elsewhere on the planet.

Bulma at last comes up with an idea, "confessing" that the Dragon Balls were hidden deep beneath the sea. In actuality, she tricks the two into believing that hundreds of giant crab eggs are the Dragon Balls, and as her captors think of all they could ever wish for Bulma leaves them to deal with the angry mother. Thinking she was safe at last Bulma resurfaces, but startlingly Blueberry and Raspberry arrive immediately thereafter. Before they can deal with her treachery the giant crab breaks free of the water and snatches them into its claws, rending them to shreds as it drags them down below.

Later, Bulma finds the Ginyu-Frog soon after he is placed into that body and as he follows her around. Showing intelligence, she grows semi-attached to the frog and builds it a voice translator; Ginyu wastes no time and immediately swaps bodies with her. Ginyu, now in Bulma's body, goes off to where Gohan, Kuririn and Piccolo are watching Goku and Freeza fight and attempts to swap bodies with Piccolo. Gohan intervenes just in time and throws the Bulma-Frog into the beam restoring them back to their original bodies.

Dragon Ball movies

Bulma appears in the following Dragon Ball Movies and Specials:

• Curse of the Blood Rubies
• Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle
• Mystical Adventure
• The Path to Power
• Dead Zone
• The World's Strongest
• The Tree of Might
• Lord Slug
• Broly: The Legendary Super Saiyan
• Bojack Unbound
• Fusion Reborn
• Wrath of the Dragon
• The History of Trunks
• Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans

Video games

Bulma usually appears as nothing more than a one-line character in cut scenes for most Dragon Ball video games, such as Dragon Ball: Advanced Adventure, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3. The biggest rumor on Budokai 3 game was that Bulma was playable, for the fact that she was seen in the 11th stage of the training mode, to explain how to use capsules during a duel. She barely could move, but it was a complete game model of her. Also in the DVD that comes with the special edition, her voice actor is seen recording fight sounds for Bulma. Note: Bulma is unlockable using a cheats disc. She has no moves and cannot set skills. This shows that they made a Bulma model, but for one reason or another they decided not to use it.

In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2, Bulma sells capsules in the Skill Shop. Bulma will wear a different costume depending on how many you have collected in Dragon World. In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, Bulma appears in the Options Mode explaining how the various game settings work.