Chi-Chi (Dragon Ball)

Chi-Chi is a fictional character from the Dragon Ball media franchise. Created by Akira Toriyama, she first appears in Chapter #11 of the Dragon Ball manga entitled "...And into the Fire!". Typically portrayed as the shrewish wife of series protagonist Son Goku and the overprotective mother of Son Gohan and Son Goten, Chi-Chi is considered to be one of the most prominent female characters in the franchise, and is featured consistently in merchandise and in cosplay by Dragon Ball fandom.

Chi-Chi
Dragon Ball character
Chi-Chi as she appears in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
First appearanceDragon Ball Chapter 11 - "...And into the Fire!"[1][2]
Created byAkira Toriyama
Portrayed byJamie Chung (Dragonball Evolution)
Voiced byJapanese
Mayumi Shō (1986-1991)
Naoko Watanabe (1991-present)
English
Cynthia Cranz (adult, Funimation)
Laura Bailey (child, Funimation)
In-universe information
SpeciesHuman
OccupationHousewife
FamilyOx-King (father)
SpouseGoku
ChildrenGohan
Goten
RelativesVidel (daughter-in-law)
Bardock (father-in-law)
Gine (mother-in-law)
Raditz (brother-in-law)
Pan (granddaughter)
Goku Jr (descendant; Dragon Ball GT)

Development

Chi-Chi is known by different names in other language localizations of the Dragon Ball anime adaptation. She is known as Kika in Portuguese dub[3] and Milk in Spanish dub for Latin America). Besides being a colloquial pun for "milk", it also happens to be a slang term for female breasts in Latin America.[4] Her original swimsuit style costume was based on an costume earlier manga character from the same creator called Pola from Pola & Roid.[3] Toriyama had expressed disdain for the character in a 2003 interview, and claimed that drawing her is a "punishment".[5]

Portrayal

Chi-Chi is voiced by Mayumi Shō in the Japanese version of the series up until Dragon Ball Z episode 88,[6] from which point she is voiced by Naoko Watanabe.[7][8] In the Funimation English dub, she is voiced by Laura Bailey as a child and Cynthia Cranz as an adult. In the Ocean dub, she was voiced by Andrea Libman as a child and by Laara Sadiq and Lisa Ann Beley respectively as an adult.

Appearances

Dragon Ball

Chi-Chi first appears as an unnamed child running away from a dinosaur, which she later decapitates with a blade attachment on her helmet. After an awkward encounter with Yamcha, she later meets Goku, who offered her to ride with him on his flying nimbus cloud. When Goku ignorantly patted Chi-Chi's crotch with his foot to determine her gender, she instinctively reacted by smacking Goku, but then became bashful and believed that Goku liked her. Chi-Chi and Goku’s interactions would continually display Goku’s naivety about love and emotions; Chi-Chi tells Goku that when she becomes older, he will be the person to take her hand in marriage, to which he agrees, thinking that "marriage" was a kind of food. She would meet Goku again at the beginning of the Red Ribbon Army Saga, when he would visit her to search for one of the Dragon Balls, which at the time was being sought by both Emperor Pilaf and Colonel Silver of the Red Ribbon Army.

Years later, Chi-Chi resurfaced as a competitor at the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budôkai martial arts tournament and kept her identity concealed. Chi-Chi is angry that Goku had never come back to keep his promise to marry her, which he had completely forgotten about. They eventually faced each other in a tournament match; after winning the match, Goku is shocked to realize that his opponent was in fact Chi-Chi, who had grown up as he had. Being a good-natured man, Goku decides to keep his promise of settling down with Chi-Chi, and publicly announces that he will marry her. In the anime-only filler conclusion to the Dragon Ball TV series, they would go on several adventures to retrieve a magical fan in order to put out the fire on Chi-Chi's mountain home to save her father. By the end of the original Dragon Ball series, she and Goku are married.

Dragon Ball Z

Chi-Chi's role in the succeeding Dragon Ball Z series revolves around her status as Goku's wife and mother to their son, Son Gohan, and later, Son Goten. She demonstrates behavior typical of a helicopter parent, and is adamant that her children, Gohan in particular, prioritize academic pursuits and stays away from Goku's lifestyle of fighting and constant conflict. She often becomes frustrated whenever Gohan is encouraged to hone his fighting skills or is drawn to a fight, so much that often Chi-Chi is willing to go to battle herself to defend her son. Under her influence, Gohan worked hard to develop a career path as an academic scholar. She is widowed after Goku sacrifices his life to stop Cell from destroying the world, and would go on to raise Gohan and Goten, the latter being born shortly after the events of the Cell Saga arc, as a single mother.

During the Buu Saga arc, Chi-Chi's parenting style is depicted as not being as strict with Goten and a now teenaged Gohan, though she is still very protective of her children. She initially disapproved Gohan training Videl, misunderstanding that the two were dating. However, her mind changes drastically when she learns that Videl lives with a rich family, encouraging Gohan to marry her. Along with the family members and associates of the Dragon Team, she was relocated to Kami's Lookout after Majin Buu was unleashed and went on a rampage throughout the world. When she learned of Gohan's apparent death at the hands of Buu, Chi-Chi takes the news badly. She confronts Buu when he arrives at Kami's hideout, scolding and slapping the creature out of anger for the lives he has taken; Buu retaliates by turning her into an egg and crushing her. Chi Chi and everyone else who had died at Buu's hand are wished back to life at the end of the storyline, and is happily reunited with her husband, who has been brought back to life in order to defeat Buu. By the end of Dragon Ball Z, Chi-Chi becomes a grandmother to Pan and mother-in-law to Videl, who ended up marrying Gohan.

Chi-Chi appears in multiple Dragon Ball films which carry the Dragon Ball Z branding, often in minor supporting roles which provide comic relief.

Dragon Ball GT

Chi-Chi plays a minor role in the Dragon Ball GT series. She mostly associates with Bulma and Videl, while also supporting her family in times of crisis. Goku is turned into a child at the beginning of the series, which frustrates her, but she still cares for him deeply. Chi-Chi, along with nearly the entire population on Earth, is later possessed by Baby, but later cured with the sacred water. She is last seen with Goku, when he says goodbye to everyone and departs the mortal world with Shenron.

Dragon Ball Super

Chi-Chi's appearances in the Dragon Age Super series continue to be defined by her relationships with her husband and sons. She often reminds Goku that he has a responsibility to provide for his family as a husband and a father, and continually nags him about getting a job and earning more money. While she still tries to keep everyone in her family away from physical violence, she appears to accept that fighting is in a Saiyan’s nature and that conflict is sometimes unavoidable.

In other media

Chi-Chi usually appears as a non-playable character in cut scenes or is referenced in dialogue for most Dragon Ball video games. She is a support-type character for Goku and Gohan in Dragon Ball Z: Harukanaru Densetsu. Chi-Chi is a playable character in 2006's Super Dragon Ball Z; her appearance is derived from her time as a competitor at the 23rd Tenka'ichi Budôkai martial arts tournament. The child version of Chi-Chi is playable in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3, while both adult and youth versions are playable in Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle. She appears as an enemy character in Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo, Dragon Ball Z: Super Gokuden: Kakusei-Hen, Dragon Ball Z: Goku Hishōden and Dragon Ball: Origins. In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Chi-Chi appears as one of several cooks that can cook meals for the playable characters using various recipes and ingredients acquired through gameplay.

Chi-Chi is portrayed by Jamie Chung in the American live-action film Dragonball Evolution; her voice was dubbed over by Ami Koshimizu in the Japanese version of the film.

Reception

Chi-Chi is a divisive character.[9] Some commentators believed that the character had potential based on her early appearances as she was originally depicted as a tough lady fighter, but she was later developed as a stereotypical housewife and nagging mother archetype instead.[5][10] Monique Jones from Syfy identified the cause of the character's negative reception to Toriyama's lack of interest in the proper character development of female characters, and argued that she deserve to be better written.[11] Peter Megan from Comicbook.com described Chi-Chi as being "misunderstood", and argued that she is in fact a positive role model for feminism in spite of the fact that a significant section of the series' audience finds her to be a loud and obnoxious character.[10] She has been cited as the "responsible adult" who introduces a sense of maturity to the franchise along with being portrayed as "headstrong".[12][13][14]

Chi-Chi is a popular subject for cosplay activities by Dragon Ball fandom.[15][16][17]

Her original appearance as a child wearing a revealing two piece swimsuit costume has been scrutinized by commentators for not being age appropriate.[11][9]

References
  1. "DRAGON BALL 1" (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  2. "DRAGON BALL 42" (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved 2008-06-02.
  3. Elvy, Craig (23 March 2017). "Dragon Ball Z: 15 Things You Never Knew About Chi-Chi". ScreenRant. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  4. Nguyen, Lisa (11 March 2018). "Dragon Ball: 20 Things About Chi-Chi That Make No Sense". TheGamer. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  5. Kurland, Daniel (21 July 2019). "Dragon Ball: 20 Disturbing Facts About Chi-Chi". TheThings. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  6. Dragon Ball 天下一伝説 (in Japanese). Shueisha. 2004. pp. 166–167. ISBN 4-08-873705-9.
  7. "Shino Kakinuma Replaces Yuko Minaguchi as Videl in Dragon Ball Z Kai". Anime News Network. 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2014-03-10.
  8. "青二プロダクション　渡辺菜生子" (in Japanese). Aoni Production. Retrieved 2015-03-07.
  9. Valdez, Nick (March 9, 2020). "Dragon Ball Cosplay Takes on Chi-Chi's Armor Bikini Look". Comicbook.com. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
  10. Megan, Peter. "This Viral Dragon Ball Z Post Finally Stands Up for Chi-Chi". Comicbook.com. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  11. Jones, Monique (8 April 2019). "Dragon Ball Z's Chi-Chi deserved better". SYFY WIRE. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  12. "Dragon Ball: Chi Chi Is the Only Responsible Adult In the Entire Franchise". CBR. 8 August 2020. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  13. Nguyen, Lisa (24 January 2019). "Dragon Ball: 25 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Chi-Chi". TheGamer. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  14. Adler, Liz (25 April 2020). "The Women Of Dragon Ball Reimagined As Disney Characters". CBR. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  15. Valdez, Nick. "Dragon Ball Cosplay Takes on Chi-Chi's Armor Bikini Look". Anime. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  16. Peters, Megan. "Dragon Ball Cosplay Brings Daring Chi-Chi Look to Life". Anime. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  17. Valdez, Nick. "Dragon Ball Cosplay Reimagines Chi Chi as a Z-Fighter". Anime. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
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