Bulma

Heiress to Capsule Corporation and the group's resident genius, Bulma never throws a punch but repeatedly saves the day with invention. She reverse-engineers alien scouters, builds the Dragon Radar and spaceships, and provides the group's base of operations. Sharp-tongued and fearless, she accompanies the search for the Dragon Balls on Namek and later begins an unlikely family with Vegeta, becoming Trunks' mother.

Bulma has bright blue-green hair and matching eyes, with a fashion sense that changes almost every arc. Early on she wears her hair long with a headband; on Namek she switches to practical jumpsuits and a utility vest; by the android and Cell period she keeps a short, sharp bob suited to laboratory work. She is slim and poised, fond of bold colours, jackets, dresses and jewellery, and she never entirely abandons glamour even in a war zone. Her expression range runs from delighted scientific curiosity to withering impatience, often within the same scene.

Brilliant, vain, loud and fearless in a way that has nothing to do with fighting, Bulma is the engineer who keeps the Earth's defenders equipped. She solves problems nobody else can touch, and she is entirely aware of how clever she is. Her temper is legendary, aimed as readily at alien tyrants as at family, and she argues with Vegeta as an everyday hobby. Underneath the bluster she is deeply loyal, insisting on accompanying expeditions where she is the most vulnerable person present simply because her friends need a translator, a scanner or a repaired ship. Motherhood softens none of her sharpness but adds a fierce protectiveness, and she handles chaos with exasperated competence.

The daughter of the Capsule Corporation's founder, she grew up surrounded by prototypes and wealth and inherited her father's genius for invention. As a teenager she built a Dragon Radar and set out to collect the Dragon Balls, a journey that introduced her to Goku and drew her into every subsequent world-threatening crisis. Over the years she travelled with the Turtle School group, endured the Red Ribbon Army and King Piccolo conflicts, and conducted an on-again, off-again relationship with Yamcha. By the time the series begins she is an established scientist running her family's company, still the person everyone calls when something impossible needs to be built, located or translated.

1. Saiyan Saga

   She examines Raditz's scouter after the battle and reverse-engineers it, cracking the alien language well enough to track power levels and pinpoint Planet Namek. With Earth's Dragon Balls gone along with Kami, her research becomes the only route to reviving the fallen and sets the next journey in motion.

2. Frieza Saga

   She flies to Namek with Gohan and Krillin aboard a repurposed Namekian ship, spending the campaign hiding, navigating and improvising while far stronger beings fight around her. She endures a transformation mishap, keeps the Dragon Radar running, and is evacuated along with the surviving Namekians before the planet is destroyed.

3. Android and Cell Sagas

   Now a mother with infant Trunks, she identifies the design flaws in Dr. Gero's work and locates his abandoned laboratory, recovering the blueprints that let the group understand Cell's origin. She also studies the time machine left by her future son, confirming the warnings about an altered timeline.

4. Majin Buu Saga

   She attends the World Martial Arts Tournament as the family matriarch of a household that now includes Vegeta and Trunks, and reacts with fury rather than fear when Babidi's forces strike. Turned to stone and later restored, she survives Buu's rampage and later helps rally the planet's energy for the final attack.

Vegeta

Partner and father of her son

An unlikely pairing that forms quietly between the android threat's announcement and its arrival. She tolerates his pride, builds his training equipment, and is one of very few people who shout him down successfully.

Trunks

Son

She raises him in the Capsule Corporation household and also meets his adult counterpart from a ruined future, whose time machine she built in that timeline. Both versions treat her with unmistakable devotion.

Goku

Oldest friend

Their chance meeting during her first Dragon Ball hunt began everything. She treats him with blunt affection, scolding his obliviousness while remaining one of his most constant allies across decades.

Yamcha

Former boyfriend

Their long and unstable relationship finally ends during the years before the androids arrive, though the two remain on friendly terms and continue to move in the same circle of fighters.

• She decodes a captured scouter and identifies Planet Namek as the source of the Dragon Balls.
• She travels to Namek personally and survives the conflict there with no fighting ability whatsoever.
• She recognises the visitor from the future as her own son before anyone else pieces it together.
• She discovers Dr. Gero's hidden laboratory and the blueprints that explain Cell's creation.
• She builds the gravity training chamber that lets Vegeta and others push past their limits between crises.

• Her family name and those of her relatives follow an underwear-themed naming convention.
• She changes hairstyle and outfit more often than any other recurring character in the series.
• The Dragon Radar she built as a teenager remains the group's standard tool for every later quest.
• She was voiced in Japanese by Hiromi Tsuru from the franchise's beginning until the actress's death decades later.

• Son Goku
• Vegeta
• Piccolo
• Krillin
• Frieza
• Future Trunks

• Son Gohan
• Android 18

Back to the Dragon Ball Z guide