Dragon Ball isAkira Toriyama’s magnum opus. The mangaka responsible forSand Land, Dr. Slump and the character designs of Dragon Quest will forever be known as the creator of the Goku saga. Dragon Ball is the ultimate shounen story. Though many anime series have been influenced by Dragon Ball, none have surpassed it in white-knuckle martial arts storytelling.
It isn’t just the men of Dragon Ball who are fierce combatants and compelling characters, though. The female characters can more than hold their own, be it in the brains department or in brawn: here are some of our favourites.
8Mai
Debut: Dragon Ball
Though it eventually became the quintessential martial arts series, Dragon Ball originally started out as a lighthearted adventure manga. This is whyits villainsare often inept - the first true villain, Emperor Pilaf, is only slightly more competent than his loyal companions Mai and Shu.
Mai’s reactions to her leader’s constant shortcomings made her an endearing character in the original anime. Surprisingly, she turns out to be much stronger in an alternate timeline where she helps Trunks lead a resistance movement.
7Pan
Debut: Dragon Ball Z
The canonicity of Dragon Ball GT may be debated, but Pan remains a compelling character nonetheless. First introduced in Dragon Ball Z as Goku’s granddaughter, Pan is one of the lead characters in Dragon Ball GT.
Like her grandfather, Pan is pure of heart and filled with determination at a young age. She helps Goku recover the Dragon Balls and proves to be as talented at fighting as the younger version of Goku himself. Unfortunately for Pan, Dragon Ball Super aged her back to infancy.
6Baba
Though her role is greatly de-emphasized from Dragon Ball Z onwards, Baba is one of the most memorable characters in the original anime. She acts as a mentor and unwilling helper for Goku and his band of misfits.
A fortuneteller by trade, Baba resides at Korin Tower and guides Goku on his adventure there. Before that, however, she has Goku fight a gauntlet of five warriors handpicked by her.
As a fun bit of trivia, Baba is Master Roshi’s sister and over 200 years his senior.
5Kefla
Debut: Dragon Ball Super
It is a question that has been asked since the ’90s: is there anyonestronger than Goku? For a short time, Kefla was. This Potara Fusion of Caulifla and Kale almost overpowered the series' hero in Dragon Ball Super, forcing him to use Ultra Instinct.
Caulifla and Kale were powerful Saiyans in their own right, and their fusion proves to be greater than the sum of its parts. Kefla’s role in Dragon Ball, though short-lived, will be seared into your memory forever.
4Launch
Launch is one of the most amusing and sorely missed characters in the Dragon Ball series. A mild-mannered, good-natured girl when she has blue hair, Lunch transforms into a blonde, gun-toting terror when she sneezes.
This character was a regular in the original Dragon Ball anime, giving us plenty of laughs as she made Master Roshi pay the price for his perversion, but her role in the anime waned once Dragon Ball became a fighting anime. She is last seen in hidden scenes in Dragon Ball Z, still striking fear into the hearts of people around her.
3Chi-Chi
Fans who started watching the series from Dragon Ball Z onwards may see Chi-Chi onlyas a mother, constantly telling Gohan to study and acting as the household manager while Goku is off training. However, Chi-Chi was an early debutant in Dragon Ball and first met Goku when they were children. Her insistence on Gohan becoming a scholar is because she’s a fighter herself, and doesn’t want her son to face the same hardships she did.
After Goku wanders off and forgets his promise to marry her - mainly because he doesn’t understand what marriage is - Chi-Chi trains in martial arts herself and travels to the World Martial Arts Tournament to confront him. The two have a happy ending: Goku wins the tournament and saves the world, and Chi-Chi manages to hold him to his word.
2Android 18
Android 18’s character design reflected the changing trend and fashions of the ’90s. Rather than wearing traditional military gear or a martial arts gi, Android 18 is clad in denim and has a punk rock attitude indicative of the era’s grunge leanings.
She is also one of the strongest characters in Dragon Ball’s continuity: an alternate dimension shows her terrorizing the world alongside her brother, though in the good timeline she gives up her evil ways and marries Krillin.
1Bulma
Bulma is the first character to appear in Dragon Ball besides Goku. She is the heart of the series: her drive to find the Dragon Balls is what kick starts Goku’s adventure, gives rise to their bond and leads them both down a path of growth as well as forging new relationships.
Bulma changes her look constantly throughout the series, and once Dragon Ball became a more fantastical show, she continued to provide the comedy. This tech genius is one of Akira Toriyama’s greatest creations: it wouldn’t be Dragon Ball without Bulma.
