Dragon Ball’s Prototype Completely Flipped Goku & Bulma’s Relationship

Before Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama wrote and illustrated another manga called The Adventures of Tongpoo, which followed characters that were seemingly prototypes of the classic Dragon Ball heroes like Goku and Bulma. While these prototypes resembled the iconic Z-Fighters in nearly every regard, The Adventures of Tongpoo completely flipped the original relationship between Goku and Bulma.

In Dragon Ball chapter 1 by Akira Toriyama, Goku and Bulma meet each other after Bulma happens across Goku while searching for the Dragon Balls. Bulma had the Dragon Radar (which she designed and built herself) and Goku unknowingly had a Dragon Ball, hence why they crossed paths in the first place. After Bulma convinced Goku to give her the Dragon Ball, she realized that his superhuman strength could be used to obtain the other six Dragon Balls, so she decided to keep him around.

Bulma’s first appearance showed her inventing a piece of tech that could track down wish-granting orbs, and then manipulate a superhuman to get the rest for her. Then, as the series progressed through its many eras – including Z, GT, and Super – Bulma only proved her intelligence even more with every passing Dragon Ball adventure. Now, Bulma is easily considered one of the smartest people, not just in Dragon Ball, but in anime/manga fiction. However, that was certainly not the case with her prototype in The Adventures of Tongpoo.

Bulma’s Pre-Dragon Ball Prototype was an Airhead, Not a Genius

The Adventures of Tongpoo by Akira Toriyama

Reminiscent of what fans would later see in Dragon Ball with Goku, The Adventures of Tongpoo introduced the titular Tongpoo as a boy from another world who crash-landed on a foreign planet. Soon afterward, Tongpoo was approached by the Bulma prototype character named Plamo. However, unlike Bulma and Goku’s first interaction, Tongpoo and Plamo’s initial encounter made it clear that Tongpoo was the smarter of the two of them, with Plamo being a downright airhead.

Goku’s prototype, Tongpoo, was a cyborg from another world, meaning he had access to advanced technology that many Dragon Ball fans would recognize as the prototype for Capsule Corp tech. Tongpoo would use these capsules in front of Plamo, who would act utterly amazed and dumbfounded by the level of technology she was witnessing – a level of tech that she clearly didn’t understand in the slightest. Not only was Plamo decidedly unintelligent, but Tongpoo was something of a genius, which is the exact opposite of the relationship fans would see with Goku and Bulma in Dragon Ball.

Akira Toriyama Corrected the Obvious Misstep with Bulma’s Prototype in Dragon Ball

It’s interesting that Tongpoo and Plamo are the exact opposite of Goku and Bulma in Dragon Ball, despite being so comparable otherwise. Tongpoo is a superhuman from another planet, while Plamo is the person who found him, thereby sparking the manga’s adventure. However, it seems Tongpoo was given every interesting character trait, while Plamo was left with nothing, making her just a dim-witted sidekick that added little to the story. Even without Goku and Bulma to compare to, this was an obvious storytelling misstep on Akira Toriyama’s part, one that he promptly corrected in Dragon Ball.

The Adventures of Tongpoo laid the groundwork for characters that would eventually flourish in Dragon Ball. While Tongpoo’s meta transition into Goku turned a forgettable protagonist into an iconic hero, it’s safe to say that no character benefited more than Bulma, as her prototype paled in comparison to the unparalleled genius she’d become in Dragon Ball.

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