The company that creates the "Dragon Ball Super" anime, Toei Animation, has honoured one of the shows iconic Japanse voice actors. Hiromi Tsuru voiced Bulma, a fan favourite character and one of the shows longest running heroes.
Dragon Ball and Hiromi Tsuru
Tsuru voiced Bulma for over 31 years before she passed on 16th November 2017, first taking up the role back in the original Dragon Ball anime in 1986. Toei Animation took to Twitter to pay their respects to this legend of the anime industry on her birthday and remember Tsuru and Bulma's stories.
The tweet received almost 30,000 likes and plenty of comments with fans sharing their favourite Bulma moments. Throughout all of her years voicing Bulma, Tsuru appeared in many of Dragon Ball's over 300 episodes. As well as featuring alongside everyone's favourite Saiyans, Tsuru also voiced iconic roles in Trigun as Meryl Strifle, Metal Gear as Naomi Hunter and Ranma 1/2 as Ukyo Kuonji.
While Tsuru past in 2017, she has clearly not been forgotten by both fans and Toei Animation. Her passing was the first to truly affect the Dragon Ball franchise. This has led to her successor being named as Aya Hisakawa who voiced Bulma in the "Dragon Ball Super: Broly" movie and all future "Dragon Ball Super" projects, including any anime and video games.
Dragon Ball and Bulma
Bulma has been an integral part of Dragon Ball ever since the first episode and manga chapter. Without her meeting with Goku at the very beginning of the series, it is likely none of the events that followed would have happened. She was with Goku all the way through the original series and even went to Namek in the Frieza Saga of "Dragon Ball Z." From there, she went on to mary Vegeta, the Prince of all Saiyans and play in integral role in the Android Saga.
The same Saga where she would have her first child, Trunks who's future self would become another fan favourite character. Her son, Trunks would later return in Super where Bulma would have her second child, Bulla. While GT isn't canon, Bulma would still play a major role going as far as unlocking the potential for Super Saiyan 4 for Vegeta.
Bulma has been a part of the show and manga from the start and Tsuru's voice will be missed by many.
One of many iconic Bulma moments happens while she is on Planet Namek, and how she deals with the frog form of Captain Ginyu. While she is for a time body swapped with Captain Ginyu and becomes a frog herself, in the ensuing events she manages to find her way back to her own body and ensure Captain Ginyu is once again trapped in the body of a frog.
Do you have a favourite Bulma and Tsuru moment? Let us know.
