The ‘Dragon Ball Z’ Character That Akira Toriyama “Forgot About”

The Big Picture

• Dragon Ball
  evolved from its comedic roots to an epic saga, inspiring generations of shōnen with iconic characters like Goku and Vegeta.
• The character Launch, with dual personalities, added humor and chaos to
  Dragon Ball
  , delighting as one of the best side characters.
• Launch’s minimal screen time in
  Dragon Ball Z
  was due to Akira Toriyama ultimately forgetting about her and feeling her powers were too similar to Super Saiyan form.

Dragon Ball may have had humble beginnings as a comedic action manga, but over the years it evolved into a sprawling epic about the triumph of good over evil that would make even its original inspiration feel inadequate in comparison. Akira Toriyama‘s hit series is globally recognizable and nearly universally beloved, inspiring subsequent generations of shōnen that followed in Dragon Ball’s enormous footsteps. The Dragon Ball franchise boasts some of the most iconic characters in fiction, such as the incomparable Son Goku and the bitterly noble Prince Vegeta. However, the vivid world Toriyama imagined was truly brought to life with the menagerie of colorful and eccentric characters that filled the pages with exciting designs and interesting traits.

As the series progressed, some characters grew in importance, such as Krillin, who went from rival to Goku’s best friend, while others unfortunately lost most of their screen time and relevance (… sorry Yamcha). While most of these examples were natural results of the changing narrative, there’s one early character from Dragon Ball that rapidly disappeared from the screens: Launch. Launch, a young woman with two unique personalities, was once a popular recurring character in Dragon Ball, but eventually disappeared from the manga pages entirely — for a reason that is surprising, and yet ultimately understandable.

Who Is Launch in ‘Dragon Ball’?

Launch has an early introduction in the series, first appearing in just the second saga of the original Dragon Ball, the Tournament Saga. Sent on a quest to find a girl by Master Roshi, Goku and Krillin initially rescue Launch from police chasing after her — but they soon learn that she’s not as defenseless as she appears. Launch has a unique personality disorder that causes her to switch between two vastly different personas whenever she sneezes: the blue-haired Good Launch and the blonde Bad Launch. The changes between identities are far more than just cosmetic, as each version of Launch has a significantly different personality. Good Launch, as her name suggests, is sweet, kind, and dutiful, if not a bit naive. However, when she sneezes and turns into Bad Launch, she becomes more aggressive and assertive. Bad Launch is far angrier than her nice counterpart, with a penchant for violence and an itchy trigger finger. One of the gags of Bad Launch’s character is her inexplicable possession of a machine gun, always ready to fire, whenever she switches from her Good version.

Roshi, Goku, and Krillin all learn this about Launch the hard way, when the perverted turtle hermit convinces Good Launch to wear scanty clothing under the pretense of it being “training clothes.” Though, being fair, Roshi and his students also wore the same clothing. However, once a bee flew under Launch’s nose, she sneezed, turned into her Bad Version, and sprayed a blast of justified bullets at the teacher and his pupils. Over the remaining sagas in Dragon Ball, Launch continued to be a recurring character after she decided to stay at Kame House and continue to help out Master Roshi. The duality of her ability to play both damsel-in-distress and still be capable of defending herself made her one of the most amusing characters in the series, causing chaos every time she sneezed and switched forms. Though she never played a major role in the story, she was nonetheless an important addition to the world building and friendships that Goku made on his journey.

In Dragon Ball Z, Launch’s role was greatly diminished, even before it was removed entirely. She makes her only appearance in the Saiyan Saga, the first of DBZ, as Tien Shinhan’s girlfriend. Launch first developed a crush on Tien in Dragon Ball during the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, though their relationship is hardly treated as an important focal point. When Tien is killed, Launch is shown mourning her partner but, fortunately, Tien is later resurrected using the Namekian Dragon Balls. However, even after Tien’s return, Launch never makes another significant appearance in the series.

Akira Toriyama Forgot About Launch for Years

From a prominent comedic side character to a minor cameo, Launch had limited time in the series and suddenly disappeared from the show after her brief appearance in early DBZ. That was ultimately it for Launch, who would never make another canon appearance in the entire series. But why was she written so completely out of Dragon Ball? In an interview on Mandō Kobayashi, Akira Toriyama shared that he had forgotten about Launch for some time, which was why she was absent from the series. Toriyama would eventually remember his personality-switching, gun-toting side character, but decided not to include her in the series because he felt that her gimmick of turning blonde and powerful was too similar to the newly introduced Super Saiyan form.

Obviously, Launch’s alternating personas did not carry the same world-destroying power of the legendary Super Saiyan, but Toriyama had a point on the surprising number of similarities. Both Bad Launch and the Super Saiyan form involve their users turning blonde, changing their eye colors to green, and exhibiting personality traits far more aggressive than their natural state. The world and scope of Dragon Ball Z was drastically different from early Dragon Ball, and Launch was both non-integral and, unfortunately, a bit redundant.

Fans of the character would need to search far and wide for any glimpse of Launch in the series, but they would still have something to find. Launch appears in pivotal flashbacks during the fights against Frieza and Cell respectively, among the list of Goku’s staunch allies. And in the Majin Buu saga, Launch is one of the many characters who raise their hands to the sky to give Goku energy for the Spirit Bomb, though this moment was a filler episode not written by Toriyama. Nonetheless, Launch can still be found in some Dragon Ball movies and video games. And just because Toriyama forgot about her, doesn’t mean any of her fans ever will.

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