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hellzyeahtoriyama:

ヤムチャ / Yamcha

From: DragonBall

Yamcha is the oldest “Z-fighter” friend of Goku’s, having met him on Bulma’s first quest to unite the Dragon Balls.  His name is a pun on the word “Yum Cha” which means “drinking tea” (coming from the phrase “to eat and drink tea”).  He originally lives in a desert as a bandit who robs unsuspecting travellers passing through “his” territory, but soon renounces his old ways and becomes a dedicated protector of Earth.  While he dates Bulma for several years, their relationship is strained at several points when Bulma believes he is cheating on her.  In many times this is a misunderstanding as it’s not clear whether Yamcha ever truly gets over his fear of women (especially to the point where he would want multiple girlfriends) or whether he simply feels comfortable only around Bulma and Chi-Chi, whom he sees often.  Despite his evident popularity amongst women, he remains single later in life, often accompanied only by his companion Pu’ar.

Toriyama based his design on that of the Journey to the West character Sha Wujing, who is commonly known as Sandy (or similar) in English versions of the tale.  Both characters are closely linked with sand (Yamcha living in a desert and Sha Wujing living in the “River of Flowing Sands”), both have an animal companion, both use flying vehicles and both become extremely loyal friends of Son Goku/Sun Wukong during their travels.  Yamcha’s look was protoyped in earlier Toriyama manga including Taro Soramame and Tsukutsun Tsun from Dr. Slump, Roid from Pola & Roid and the main male lead in Pink.

Set up in his early appearances as a credible threat to Goku, Bulma and Oolong, Yamcha is portrayed as a fearsome fighter who’s only weakness is talking to females.  It’s clear that Yamcha has a great network of information, for in his first battle with Goku, he recognizes Son Gohan’s Nyoi-bo/Power Pole on sight.  Gradually befriending Goku and curing himself of his fear of women, Yamcha and Bulma date for several years and Yamcha becomes one of Goku’s oldest friends, knowing him even longer than Krillin.  

A huge fan of the World Martial Arts Tournament, Yamcha’s ambition is to win the Title.  Training intentely before each Tournament, he invents fighting techniques including the Blinding Wolf Fang Fist, Neo Wolf Fang Fist and the Spirit Ball.  At some point during his training for the 23rd Tournament, Yamcha’s face is permanently scarred.  After the battle between Goku and King Piccolo, Yamcha temporarily retires from fighting, becoming the number 1 Baseball player for the Taitans.  He appears to come and go from the team during DragonBall Z, implying he makes a decent wage there.

Yamcha is prepared to lay his life on the line to protect Earth.  Aside from his early weakness against women, Yamcha’s weakness could be considered cockyness, as he drops his guard to gloat over “defeating” Nappa and Vegeta’s Saibamen and is killed.  When he returns to fight the Androids he is more cautious but cannot adequately defend himself against their strength.  Despite being clearly outclassed against the threats of the Androids and Cell, he attends the Cell Games with Tien Shinhan to spectate as a show of support for their friends.  Here, he gains a respect for Vegeta after his emotional reaction to the death of his son.  Prior to this, Yamcha had harboured a jealousy against the Saiyan for dating his ex-girlfriend.  Yamcha felt that Vegeta was not caring enough to deserve Bulma, particularly after he seemed to ignore her and treated her and Future Trunks callously.  Yamcha repeatedly tried to match Vegeta in terms of strength so he could continue to protect Bulma, even sneaking into Capsule Corporation late at night to attempt to train at 300x Earth’s normal gravity.  The experiment nearly killed him but is a great insight into his mentality and determination to keep trying hard despite being thoroughly outclassed by his enemies.

When he reappears at the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament, Yamcha has given up fighting professionally and does not even enter the tournament for fun.  His demeanour appears to have lightened and he is often seen smiling as he rediscovers his love of fighting and, despite not having fought for many years, he is still capable enough to take on two of the North Quadrant’s strongest fighters.  He even steps up to briefly fight against Kid Buu.

After his resurrection, Yamcha’s last contribution to the series is helping send energy to Goku’s Spirit Bomb.  He is seen briefly in DragonBall GT where he does not appear to have aged much, despite now being close to 60 years old.

He is voiced by Tohru Furuya, who is well-known as the voice of Tuxedo Mask in Sailor Moon.  Furuya has also held roles in series like Bleach, One Piece, GTO, Pokemon: Best Wishes and Gintama.

Yamcha is one of the few fighters to be seen driving regularly.  He is also one of the few seen to be employed.  His job as a baseball player was suggested by Toriyama himself, when filler episodes were needed.

In the DragonBall: Raging Blast video game, there is a “what if?” story that focuses on Yamcha beating Vegeta to prove he is better suited to Bulma than anyone else.  While Trunks attempts to intervene (because then he would never be born), Yamcha defeats Vegeta anyway.  The story then states that Yamcha is too much of a playboy for Bulma and the future wouldn’t be changed regardless of if he beat Vegeta or not!  Despite his playboy reputation, one of Yamcha’s early goals was to marry and have children.

In the 2008 anime Yo! Son Goku and his friends return!!, Gotenks uses Yamcha’s Wolf Fang Fist technique.

Some of Yamcha’s hairstyles are later used by Goku’s son, Gohan.  Aside from his changing hairstyle, Yamcha doesn’t appear to age like a regular human.

Yamcha’s clothing is the first in the show to feature a Kanji symbol on it.  The 樂 symbol on his bandits clothes can translate to たのしい/ happy or がく/ music.  After training with Master Roshi, he uses the 亀 (Kame) symbol out of respect.  He also adopts the Kami symbol after training with King Kai, and wears the insignias in the opposite way to how Goku wears them (with Kame on his back and Kami on the front).

Yamcha turned into a fag in DBZ.