Is Bulma a Genius? Dragon Ball Daima Settles the Debate for Good

Dragon Ball has always held Bulma in high regard since the very beginning of the series for her intelligence, and Dragon Ball Daima has offered another major example of why she’s a true genius in the newest episode. Dragon Ball kicked off its run with Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine 40 years ago, and thus the franchise is celebrating with a brand new anime sending Goku off on a wild new journey through the Demon Realm. But while Goku is definitely a main character that fans want to see, he’s not the only one who helped to spark the entire journey. It was Bulma that gave Goku his first real reason to travel.

Although Bulma was initially introduced to Dragon Ball as a young girl who just wanted to make a wish on the Dragon Balls to get her dream boyfriend, it was always apparent that she was highly intelligent. She always played the straight man to the wacky shenanigans of everything that happened around her, and continued to play huge roles in the story as her knowledge and resources allowed Goku and the others to make their way to key locations in the series thus far. But Dragon Ball Daima helps to show just how smart she really is as she understands a piece of Demon Realm technology with ease.

Bulma’s a True Genius

Bulma’s intelligence has never really been debated in Dragon Ball’s history, but fans might have forgotten just how smart she is. Because she’s often put in the background of so many big things happening in the later eras of the series, it’s often forgotten just how pivotal Bulma is towards understanding key elements of the world around her. It’s important to remember that a version of Bulma was able to build a working time machine out of scrap material in two versions of Future Trunks’ future, and that’s just one example of the stuff she’s been able to pull off.

Previously being able to understand Namekian technology to fly a spaceship in previous arcs, Bulma quickly assesses the damage done to the Supreme Kai’s ship after the fight against Majin Buu. She then says it will take ten days to make it fully operational, and it further showcases that she’s smart enough to even make those repairs in the first place let alone have it within that quick of a timeline. And with her resources, she’s going to be able to actually make it happen.

Bulma Understands Demon Realm Technology

But the biggest example of her intelligence comes with Glorio’s debut at the end of the episode. Not only does she recognize his ship as a spaceship (something Glorio seemed to argue against), after examining it for a few moments she already grasps how it works. This will help her speed up the repairs to the Supreme Kai’s ship, so it won’t be too much longer before she’s even more involved in the events of Dragon Ball Daima to come. Once again, Goku and the others need Bulma for a key thing to make their adventure actually happen.

Bulma is one of those characters that when you really think about it, a lot of Dragon Ball would not have been possible without her involvement. She’s not the one throwing any of the punches, nor is she at the center of the fights, but it’s because of Bulma that the characters are able to find the Dragon Balls so many times in the first place. They’re considered regulars with Shenron because of her Dragon Radar, and it’s about time that Dragon Ball fans really recognized how big of a genius she truly is.