For far too long, the one-time desert bandit Yamcha has been the butt of countless jokes in the Dragon Ball franchise. While standing toe-to-toe with Son Goku during his early appearances, the human fighter was left in the dust, with transformations like Super Saiyan and Ultra Instinct thrown into the mix. Luckily, this doesn’t mean that Yamcha doesn’t have plenty to celebrate in his shonen fighting career, and we’re here to reminisce about some of the Z-Fighter’s best victories, sparse as they may be. Let’s get started.
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Yamcha’s Baseball Career
While Goku lived in the woods and Vegeta sponged off his rich wife, Bulma, Yamcha decided to forge a career path for himself in the perfect way. Rather than becoming a professional fighter, the one-time bandit decided to step up to the plate and become a baseball player for the West City Taitans. Even though he wasn’t a Super Saiyan, Yamcha was far and away the greatest baseball player in the league and harnessed his secret skills to make him a necessity for his baseball team. This fact would come in handy for Yamcha’s next major victory.
Yamcha Leads The Z-Fighters to Victory
In Dragon Ball Super’s seventieth episode, “A Challenge From Champa! This Time, a Baseball Game!” Yamcha is front and center in the match between Universes 6 and 7. Rather than raising his power level for the affair, Yamcha brings his skills as a baseball player to the table to help his friends on the field. While his tenure in this episode ends with him recreating the now infamous “Yamcha meme” that has become what he’s most known for, he still was able to stand toe-to-toe with Saiyans, Gods of Destruction, and more during this installment.
Yamcha Beats Recoome
While this event never takes place in the Dragon Ball Z manga, Yamcha’s win on the baseball field wasn’t technically “canon” either so we consider this win to be fair game. While residing on King Kai’s planet as he waited to be wished back to life, Yamcha, Chiaotzu, and Tenshinhan fought against the Ginyu Force. While Tenshinhan fought against Burter and Jeice, and Chiaotzu fought Guldo, Yamcha took on the Ginyu member who almost killed Krillin, Gohan, and Vegeta. Unfortunately, Yamcha doesn’t return to life with the ability to use Kaioken, but we’re more than happy to mark this as a victory for the human Z-Fighter.
Yamcha Gets Engaged
In Super Dragon Ball Heroes, Yamcha finds himself becoming a part of the “Space-Time War,” a special tournament that includes other universes and timelines in a fight to the finish. While the human Z-Fighter isn’t strong enough to defeat an alternate Frieza in a one-on-one fight, he does meet a powerful warrior from another dimension named Vidro, who gives him a major win. Becoming infatuated right from the start of the tournament, Vidro immediately proposes marriage to Yamcha, and while the wedding never takes place, we’ll mark this as a win for the human brawler all the same.
Yamcha Beats The Invisible Man
While this win might be the grossest of the victories that Yamcha has secured in Dragon Ball’s history, it’s a win all the same. In the original series, Yamcha finds himself becoming a part of a monstrous tournament orchestrated by Baba, the crystal ball wielder who has been featured sparingly across the shonen’s history. Involving vampires, mummies, and other supernatural creatures, Yamcha fights against an Invisible Man and wins thanks to a gross assist from Master Roshi. Covered in blood from the Turtle Hermit, Yamcha uses brains and brawn to score a win here.
Yamcha Beats The Rabbit Mob
Exceptionally early on in Dragon Ball’s history, Goku and his companions fought against some colorful villains such as Pilaf and his group of ridiculous cronies. While Pilaf and his companions have continued to have a role in Dragon Ball Super, Monster Carrot and his underlings have been stuck on the moon ever since Yamcha and Goku beat them into the dirt. This early fight helped to show how Yamcha was no ordinary warrior and net him a victory when he was still within striking distance of Son Goku.
The Yamcha Isekai
Dragon Ball: That Time I Got Reincarnated as Yamcha is an official spin-off mini-series that focuses on a Dragon Ball fan dying in an accident but being reborn in the body of the human Z-Fighter. Knowing his shonen lore, the new character piloting Yamcha’s body immediately gets to work on making himself strong enough to take on the challenges ahead. While this technically isn’t Yamcha per se, the “new Yamcha” scores quite a few victories in increasing his power level to fight Vegeta, Nappa, and the Saiyamen with ease.
Yamcha’s Moro Arc Win
Anime fans are still waiting for Dragon Ball Super’s grand return to the small screen, as the series made the transition to movies following the Tournament of Power Arc. Of the arcs that have yet to be animated at all, the Moro Arc is easily one of the biggest. Much like how Dragon Ball Super has given plenty of the human fighters the chance to shine, Yamcha finally gets his due after being left out of the universal confrontation. Even though Yamcha hasn’t been able to keep up with Goku and several of his colleagues, he is still a powerhouse in his own right and takes down several henchmen under the wizard’s employ.
Yamcha’s Tenkaichi Budokai Record
While Yamcha never won any of the Tenkaichi Budokai tournaments he was a part of, he still made it quite far in each of the original Dragon Ball events. Routinely, the one-time desert bandit plowed his way through countless characters to hit the top of the rankings, though his allies were usually the ones to net him his defeats. Of course, fighting the likes of Jackie Chun (aka Master Roshi at the time) and Piccolo wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination.
Creating Dragon Ball’s Greatest Meme
Even in defeat, Yamcha claims victory. This might be a bit of a cheat, but we’re going to count it all the same, as Yamcha’s death scene has become one of the most iconic moments of the Saiyan Saga. Even outside of Dragon Ball itself, the Yamcha pose has become legendary in countless anime series that would recreate the scene caused by a suicidal Saibaman. Unfortunately, this might be one of the biggest things that Yamcha has become known for, but the meme itself continues to find its way into the most unexpected places.
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Image courtesy of Netflix
