Summary
- Yamcha is introduced as a fearsome desert bandit but becomes a more mature character by dating Bulma and remaining friends after their breakup.
- Yamcha’s fear of women is never explicitly explained, adding humor to the series and complexity to his character.
- Despite losing relevance compared to Saiyan characters, Yamcha remains an important Earth defender, showing growth and development throughout the series.
Yamcha is an important character in the Dragon Ball series, at least until part of Dragon Ball Z. As the series becomes more focused on the Saiyans, their amazing transformations, and new powerful aliens, the regular humans become less and less important.
A distinctive trait of Yamcha’s character is that he is afraid of women, at least in the beginning of the story. Since he is an attractive guy, he seems doomed to not be to approach girls who are interested in him. But does the series even explain why he was so nervous around them?
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From Enemies to Bulma’s Boyfriend
Yamcha is introduced early in the series. He first appears in Chapter 7 (“Yamcha and Pu’ar) in the manga and Episode 5 (“Yamcha the Desert Bandit”) in the anime. He and Puar try to rob Goku and Oolong, and he ends up fighting Goku.
However, he soon realizes that Goku is a relative of Great Gohan and later joins the group as an ally. One of his reasons for leaving his old life behind is that he is attracted to Bulma, who also has a crush on him.
As they travel around, he and Bulma get closer and closer, even though he is terrified of talking to women. Well, in some way, being around Bulma probably helps him to overcome his fear of girls. As Bulma also finds him attractive, she tries to flirt with him sometimes, but he is too nervous to answer the way she (and he) wants.
Eventually, they start dating, and they are together for years. Ironically, Bulma eventually breaks up with him because he cheated on her many times. While Toriyama apparently wanted the “new” Yamcha to be some sort of womanizer, he later said that Yamcha lost a job at a host club because of his fear of talking to women.
It’s not clear if his fear suddenly reappeared or if he never truly got over it — but then, how could he cheat on Bulma so often? Maybe Toriyama just invented a funny excuse to try to pair Bulma with Vegeta. Isn’t it funny that Yamcha, of all people, would frequently cheat on his girlfriend?
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He apparently never dated anyone else in the anime series for a long time. However, in a sub-story in the game Dragon Ball Z Kakarot, Yamcha is dating two girls at the same time (and they don’t know about each other). When they find out about each other, they accuse him of cheating, break up with him and become friends. Finally, in Super Dragon Ball Heroes, he gets engaged to Vidro, a surviving member of the Glass Tribe, but it’s a bit complicated.
Prince Vegeta Enters the Scene
After breaking up with Yamcha, Bulma starts dating Vegeta and eventually marries him and has children with him. The series never shows Yamcha getting angry about that, which is a sign of how mature he has become. Yamcha is still friends with Bulma and, apparently, Vegeta (it is hard to know what Vegeta thinks of him).
Why Was He Afraid of Women?
Some Things Don’t Need Explanations
The series has never explicitly explained why Yamcha was afraid of women, and may still be nervous around them. However, he is presented as a skilled fighter, a handsome guy, and a fan of martial arts competitions, so being scared of talking to a girl, especially a beautiful one, adds to the humor of the show and to his character as well. The guy just needs some sort of flaw. Besides, he was just 16 when he was introduced in the story, and it’s quite normal for teens to be anxious when interacting with people they find attractive.
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Although Toriyama stated that he has never got completely over that fear, it’s clear that Yamcha matures during the story. He also becomes a strong ally in the defense of the Earth, at least until the story dives deep into the superhuman strength potential of the Saiyans. Even though he’s no match for the Saiyans, Yamcha keeps training to become stronger (at least when he’s alive).
Many Dragon Ball series and movies are streaming on Crunchyroll. There also may be a few titles available on Hulu, Netflix, MAX and other services.
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball is a franchise by Akira Toriyama which follows the adventures of Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the earth with his group of friends. A recent title from the series is Dragon Ball: The Breakers, an action style game where 7 players have to survive being hunted by the Raider.
- Created by
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Akira Toriyama
- First TV Show
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Dragon Ball
- Latest TV Show
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Dragon Ball DAIMA
- First Episode Air Date
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February 26, 1986
- TV Show(s)
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Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball DAIMA