Lunch is a character from Dragon Ball who changes personality every time she sneezes. Akira Toriyama imagined her as part hardened criminal, part sweet, naive young girl, but always a friend of Goku. From its place in Toriyama’s work to its role in the series and the extended universe, here is a look back at 9 facts that you (maybe) don’t know about Lunch.
#9 Akira Toriyama created Lunch after seeing a Jackie Chan film
If it is established that the source ofmain inspiration for the beginnings of Dragon Ball East Journey to the West (The Adventures of the Monkey King), Akira Toriyama also drew on a multitude of other elements. The beginnings of Dragon Ball are, like the Japanese creations of this period, a gigantic cultural melting pot. We come across homages to the classic monsters ofUniversalwinks to Terminator or even rabbits in kimonos. But the films that really marked and inspired Toriyama were those in which Jackie Chan starred during the 1970s and 1980s. Drunken Master is the basis of many elements of the story, notably those surrounding Awesome Turtle (Kame Senin). Lunch’s appearance is also inspired by the film Wheels on Meals. Indeed, in this film, a woman (played by an uncredited Spanish actress) with a hairstyle similar to Lunch’s appears briefly at the beginning of the film, just saying “Hello”.
#8 You can actually buy and ride Lunch’s motorcycle in our world
Creating science fiction vehicles is one of Akira Toriyama’s favorite exercises. Several manga covers also offer small new scenes where the heroes drive strange and completely new machines, which we will not find in the different adventures. Even when the characters began to develop powers beyond reality, different vehicles have still been useful in history, such as the Namek ship, the time machine, or more recently in Dragon Ball Daima, the ship that allows you to travel to the world of demons.
Obviously, at the beginning of the history of Dragon Ball, the protagonists’ machines were even more important. If Yamcha had a flying car and Bulma a motorcycle, Lunch had a surprising unicycle motorcycle. This surprising vehicle, nicknamed the S-Cargo, is so well thought out that it even ended up inspiring the Rynocycle vehicle. in real life. Indeed, its creator, Chris Hoffmann, himself admitted to havingHe got the idea for this design after his daughter showed him Lunch’s motorcycle in the anime.
#7 Lunch’s powers inspired the Saiyans’ transformation
The similarities between the transformation into a Super Saiyan and the transition from Good Lunch to Bad Lunch are striking. In both cases, a physical and emotional transformation occurs: Good Lunch, gentle and calm, becomes a more violent and aggressive version of Bad Lunch, which is comparable to the transformation of a Saiyan into a Super Saiyan. A another common point lies in the color of the hair : Good Lunch has blue hair, while Bad Lunch sees her hair turn blonde, like the Super Saiyans. Akira Toriyama himself would have recognized these similarities in an interview.
However, the main difference lies in the involuntary nature of Lunch’s changes, caused by his dissociative personality disorder, which is triggered with every sneeze, while the Super Saiyan transformation, although sometimes unintentional at first, remains essentially a controllable mechanism of the Saiyans, that can be randomly triggered or amplified by violent emotions such as rage. Finally, we note that in Dragon Ball XenoverseLunch’s wig that can be purchased in the game changes color depending on the transformations of the Saiyans, further reinforcing the idea that Lunch’s powers could have inspired the Saiyans’ transformations.
#6 Lunch may have other personalities
Given the immediate popularity of manga and anime Dragon Ball, in 1988, the Japanese were entitled to a spin-off series never before seen in France entitled Goku from Kotsu Anzen, which could be translated as Road Safety with Goku. This video uses the main characters from Dragon Ball to promote road safety. It was shown on television between shows as a public service announcement and distributed to schools as a safety demonstration video. The strangest thing is that the guides in the series, named The Great Dragon Ball Books, mention the appearance of Launch in this special, although a priori she does not appear there.
Indeed, only a traffic policeman, resembling Launch and having the same voice (Mami Koyama in original version), appears. However, the agent is friendly and kind, while she has the appearance of the aggressive version of Launch. Could it be that it is indeed Launch and that we are therefore facing another personality? of the character that we didn’t know? If this were the case, it would be an open door to better understanding why so many characters share physical and psychological traits of the character while being credited under other names.
In this genre, we will notei Pasta in The Legend of Shenron, which resembles Bad Launch with orange hairthe Husky soldier in the Red Ribbon Army, which looks exactly like Mauvaise Launch, or even The Brigadiere in Doctor Slumpwhich is similar in every way to Bad Launch, except that she is a police officer and Launch is a criminal actively wanted by the police.
#5 Lunch met Vegeta’s brother
In the special episode Yo! Son Goku and his friends are back!!, Lunch makes an appearance during a banquet thrown by Hercules to celebrate Kid Buu’s defeat. It is on this occasion that Tarble, Vegeta’s hidden brother, arrives on Earth. Although Lunch was hardly present during the battle against Boo, she participates in the party. She also witnesses a fight between villains from Frieza’s army, who are pursuing Tarble. Once the antagonists are defeated by Trunks and Goten, Lunch returns to sit with the guests to continue the festivities.
#4 Lunch is hidden in Dr. Slump
This is a relatively well-known fact, but it is always important to clarify it: a lot of Akira Toriyama’s works take place in the same shared universe. Sand Land, Neko Majin and obviously Doctor Slump all take place in the same universe as that of Son Goku, in more or less different or similar eras. With this in mind, the heroes of the series Dr. Slump thent on several occasions and at different times met the heroes of Dragon Ball. On the other hand, as mentioned in the previous fact, Lunch, or a character very similar to Lunch, appears in the series Dr. Slump as a police officer, but that’s not all.
In the feature film Dr. Slump & Arale-chan Ncha! Penguin Mura yori Ai o Comete (which could translate into Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: N-cha! Love comes from the Penguin village), the heroes come to Yapaya’s aid. The problem of this country is surprising to say the least, since their princess, Puruah, never laughed or even smiled. The brilliant Professor Slump must therefore find a scientific way to make the sullen princess laugh. In one of the many attempts to get a smile out of Puruah, the “nice” version of Lunch makes a very discreet appearance in the audience. She is largely hidden behind Oolong and is alongside the gang of Pilaf, King Nikochan and other characters from different manga by Akira Toriyama.
#3 Lunch became a merchant
Lunch may have inspired the transformation of the Saiyans and having faced Goku then Krillin at the beginning, However, she is not a very powerful character. Given that it is difficult to make a fight between this character and the other warriors present in the saga credible, Lunch has not often been featured as a playable character in games based on the license. Dragon Ball. However, we note that the games Dock Battle et Dragon Ball Legends are the few to have attempted the exercise. In Legends, she also uses a jetpack, various firearms and even some special moves to stay competitive. However, the game that proposed the most interesting alternative to include Lunch in its scenario is Dragon Ball Heroes et Ultimate Mission X, where she runs a shop during the Divine Demon Demigra saga. She can appear randomly in her good or bad personality, which obviously interferes with the management of the store.
#2 Lunch inspired the creation of one of Gero’s cyborgs
The dual personalities of Lunch, nicknamed “Good” and “Bad” depending on its condition, appear to have been a major source of inspiration for the character C-21 in Dragon Ball FighterZ. C-21, originally the wife of Doctor Gero, known as Professor Vomi, is although partially human-earth, a complex mix of Majin, Saiyan, Namekian and Frieza’s race DNA. Its uncontrolled cells cause insatiable hunger and make emerge an evil personality in opposition to his original, benevolent personality.
Much like Lunch, who alternates between a gentle personality and a violent nature with every sneeze, C-21 ends up splitting into two distinct entities: a good version and an evil version. This diagram also recalls the evolution of Boo into Big Boo and Kid Boo. However, where the “Bad Lunch” retains a certain benevolence and becomes an ally of Goku and the first members of the hero team, C-21’s evil personality plays a central role as an antagonist.
#1 Lunch faced Gohan
In the video game Dragon Ball Z: Scratch, Lunch nice version meets Gohan after the Saiyan Saga, during the secondary quest Looking for Lunch. Gohan is sent by Awesome Turtle / Master Roshi in search of Lunch, which has strangely disappeared. But when Gohan finally finds her, the meeting does not go as planned. He discovers that the “evil” version of Lunch threatens a couple and uses attack robots that endanger the town where she has taken refuge. After defeating the robots, Lunch reveals that she is also the Lunch that Gohan knows and explains his shapeshifting problem to him. She also explains to him that she will not return with him, because she is looking for a man (without telling him that it is in fact Ten Shin Han). After that, Lunch thanks Gohan for helping her control herself, then leaves in search of her goal.
And did you like this article? You can also find our files on historical characters from the Dragon Ball saga, such as Awesome Turtle / Kame Sennin, Piccolo, Bulma, or even Yamcha.
Source: hitek.fr
