If there’s one family that is an integral part of the Dragon Ball world and franchise, it’s the Briefs – and not just because they’re one of the only families that actually has a surname. Without the Brief family, there would be no Capsule Corp., and without Capsule Corp., the world of Dragon Ball would be without its greatest technological advancements.
But Capsules aren’t the only contribution the Briefs have made to the Dragon Ball franchise. Bulma has been a huge part of the series from the very beginning, and were it not for Trunks, the world would be doomed a few times over.
Despite the prominence of the Brief family, fans might not know that much about them, perhaps because the focus of the Dragon Ball franchise is usually on Goku and his family. Regardless, there’s actually quite a bit of interesting trivia about the Brief family, all of which shows just how much they bring to the world, story and lore of Dragon Ball – and we’re not just talking about what Bulma and Trunks have done.
With everything from their family’s company to their shared traits, here are 15 Things You Didn’t Know About The Brief Family.
15 NAMING JOKES
Let’s start off with one that is a bit more well-known: the naming convention of the Brief family. With most other Dragon Ball characters, their names tend to be plays on food, but the Brief family is a bit different. As their surname demonstrates, they are all named after underwear, and it all started with the creation of Bulma’s character.
Akira Toriyama wanted to name her after bloomers, thus the name Bulma came about, and it didn’t stop there. Bulma’s older sister is named Tights and her mother’s name is Panchy, a play on “panties.” Bulma kept up this naming tradition when it came to her own kids as well. Trunks is obviously a reference to boxers, and her daughter was named Bulla, a play on “Bra.”
14 THE FOUNDING OF CAPSULE CORP
In the world of Dragon Ball, things like vehicles, storage containers, and even entire buildings can easily be transported from place to place. This is achievable thanks to the technology of capsules, an invention of the Capsule Corporation that allows nearly any object to be compacted into a small pill-like container. Capsules can be used to store anything from motorcycles to small airships, all of which are also creations of Capsule Corp.
The inventor of capsules is none other than Bulma’s father, Dr. Brief.
Dr. Brief invented the capsule technology soon after graduating college, founding a company after his creation took off. The applications of capsules are endless, and as a result, the Capsule Corporation became a powerhouse of industry in the world of Dragon Ball.
13 THE RICHEST FAMILY IN THE WORLD
Speaking of the Capsule Corporation, with how successful the capsule technology was, Dr. Brief’s company took off and he soon found himself incredibly wealthy. This wealth continued to grow as he had a family, and by the time Bulma was a teenager, the Brief family was easily the richest family in the world.
We see just how wealthy they are throughout the franchise.
Everything from the lavish parties that Bulma throws to all of Dr. Brief’s exoctic pets and the giant cruise-liner boat they own show just how ridiculously rich the family is. Despite all this wealth, they seem to still be a very humble and giving family, as Bulma knows the value of hard work and raises her kids not to be too spoiled.
12 GENIUS FAMILY
Dr. Briefs was able to gain his wealth with his genius intellect, something that all the members of the Brief family seem to share. Dr. Brief was literally able to condense enormous mass into the size of a pill, so it’s easy to show just how smart he is. The same goes for Bulma, who not only managed to invent a time machine, but also developed a mobile dragon radar and was able to adapt and reverse-engineer countless technologies throughout the Dragon Ball franchise.
The two scientists in the family are not the only geniuses amongst them.
Trunks has also shown to be rather smart, receiving advanced tutoring for his age in Dragon Ball Super. Since Vegeta is also a member of the Brief family, we can discuss his intelligence, which he has shown in his ability to use advanced alien technology and his genius-level tactics in battle.
11 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
While we’re on the subject of Bulma and her father being geniuses, let’s talk about what they contribute to their company. Despite what you might be led to believe, Dr. Brief’s status as the president of Capsule Corp. doesn’t mean he’s just some suit who oversees the company. The same could be said of Bulma, who might just seem like the rich heiress to the Capsule Corp. fortune.
Quite the opposite is true of both these notions, as Bulma and her father both seem to appreciate the value of hard work. Both Dr. Briefs and Bulma are shown actively contributing to the the research and development department of Capsule Corp., acting as scientists first and company officials second. This is to say that they are not afraid to get their hands dirty in the workshop, something we’ve seen on several occasions.
10 THE SECRET BRIEF DAUGHTER
Did you know that Bulma isn’t the only daughter of Dr. Briefs and Panchy? Heck, she’s not even the first daughter. That’s right, Bulma has an older sister, her name is Tights Brief and she was one of the main characters in the Dragon Ball spinoff manga, Jaco The Galactic Patrolman. We’ve seen Jaco in a few episodes of Dragon Ball Super, and Tights even made a brief appearance.
Despite being the older sister, Tights has not taken up the family business.
She is still quite brilliant, though, making her living as a science fiction writer. This sounds like a cool job to have, but with all the crazy stuff that goes on in the world of Dragon Ball, it’s hard to imagine what could be considered science fiction at this point.
9 HOME SWEET CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
Whenever Dragon Ball fans think of Capsule Corp, they usually think of the giant (usually) yellow dome-shaped building located in West City. This building actually serves several purposes, as it is both the corporate headquarters of Capsule Corp and the home of the Brief family. But that’s not all.
The Capsule Corp building also houses several research and development workshops and labs, the gravity training room, an atrium for parties, and a housing area of all of Dr. Brief’s exotic pets.
The building’s layout is not quite clear, but we know for sure that all of the Brief family lives there, which is not usually how corporate headquarters work. Think about how weird it must be that the place the Brief family sleeps is the same place in which a large staff operates the inner workings of a corporation.
8 BLUE HAIR
In the original Dragon Ball manga, Bulma had purple hair, but it was changed to blue in the anime. When Trunks came around, he got to keep the original manga hair color, but his future self’s hair was changed to blue in Super. What’s up with this, you ask? Beats us, so we’re just going to consider it all one color and leave it at that.
This brings us to our point, the Brief family has some really strong genetic traits, something that can especially be seen in Bulma and her kids. Bulma’s blue hair and eyes were passed down to both of her children. This might not seem all that impressive or interesting at first glance, but when you think about the fact that Saiyans have incredibly strong genes and traits, its actually kind of amazing that Trunks and Bulla don’t have the typical Saiyan dark hair and eyes.
7 THEY’RE NOT SAIYANS BUT THEY BARELY AGE
Hair and eye color aren’t the only genetic traits that the Brief family share. They also age incredibly well.
We’re not just talking about a low number of wrinkles or anything as small as that. No, we’re talking about the fact that the members of the Brief family age almost as well as Saiyans.
This can be seen in the fact that Bulma’s mother has not aged a day since her first appearance, and the only changes in Bulma’s appearance over the years were her many hairstyles. But it doesn’t stop there, Bulma’s father even seems to have some good preservative genes going on since, despite his elderly appearance, he also hasn’t age a day since his debut in the franchise.
Seriously, even in the Dragon Ball Z epilogue, Bulma has like, one wrinkle.
6 VEGETA MARRIED UP
Vegeta is the prince of all Saiyans, and he sure likes to remind everyone of the fact. Though he is technically the king of all Saiyans at this point, it still doesn’t mean squat. To put it bluntly, Vegeta is the prince of nothing, since Goku is the only other full-blooded Saiyan around and Planet Vegeta was completely destroyed. All that royalty doesn’t mean much when you’re people are gone.
When you take this into consideration, and the fact that Vegeta had nothing on Earth due to being an alien with no job, no money, and no place to live, it means that when he and Bulma got together, she was technically out of his league. When you look at all the things that Bulma has in her life and all the ways Vegeta benefits from his rich wife, it could easily be said that he married up.
5 TWO KINDS OF ROYALTY
Speaking of royalty, since Vegeta is technically the king of Saiyans now, that makes Bulma his Queen, Trunks the prince, and Bulla the princess. These titles don’t really come with anything special as things are now, but that doesn’t make them any less significant, especially in Vegeta’s eyes.
Regardless, Trunks and Bulla’s Saiyan heritage isn’t the only kind of royalty they have in their family.
It may not be considered literal royalty, but the fact that the Briefs are literally the richest family in the world means that they have quite a bit of power and influence amongst the general public. Sure, they can’t order people around, but it’s not that much of a stretch to say that Trunks and Bulla come from two types of royalty.
4 VEGETA’S “CONTRIBUTIONS”
Vegeta may have married into the Briefs family, but he’s a member all the same. As such, he kind of ended up contributing to the research and development of Capsule Corp. technologies much like his wife and father-in-law. Though he might not have directly developed new technology for Capsule Corp., he was essential in both inspiring new inventions and furthering various technologies that Bulma and her father developed.
If it wasn’t for his incessant need to train and get stronger, Dr. Brief would not have helped developed the gravity chamber for Vegeta. Furthermore, when Vegeta’s old, broken Saiyan armor needed replacing, Bulma developed a much more effective and lightweight version of it – a technology she continues to modify and update to this day.
Who knows how many of Capsule Corp.’s products and inventions were advanced with the help of the developments made for Vegeta?
3 COUSIN CELL
Cell was one of the best villains in the series, and it’s easy to see why he’s a fan favorite. After all, he wasn’t just a powerful villain – he had a cool origin as well.
He was a bio-android made from the cells of powerful warriors to create the perfect being. Amongst the many warriors that went into making Cell was Vegeta, meaning that Cell is, in a way, related to Vegeta.
By way of marriage, this means the Cell has some sort of relation to the Brief family.
We could call him “cousin Cell” if we wanted to, though if we did that means that he committed a form of fratricide when he killed future Trunks. Regardless, as messed up as it seems, Cell is technically related to Vegeta and the Brief family, but let’s hope he doesn’t show up to the family reunion.
2 THE FIRST FEMALE HALF-SAIYAN
The world of Dragon Ball is somewhat lacking in female characters, and the few women that there are in the franchise are mostly not Z-fighters. Characters like Chi-Chi and Bulma act more as support characters than active fighters for the protection of the world. Even more disappointing, there were no female Super Saiyans until we were introduced to Caulifla and Kale of Universe 6 in Super.
However, there is one other female Saiyan – a half-breed that is the only female Saiyan in Universe 7: Bulla.
The second child of Vegeta and Bulma, Bulla makes history as the first female half-Saiyan in the series. We hope that Super, or whatever installment the future holds for Dragon Ball, shows her taking up fighting, finally adding a female warrior to the Z-fighters.
1 AN UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE STORY
Last we come to the relationship that expanded the Brief family from just Bulma and her parents: the unconventional love between Bulma and Vegeta. What started as a one-night stand led to a child; the first in the new generation of Brief family (and the second half-Saiyan to be born), and eventually to a loving marriage.
Though the love between them is definitely real, it can be hard to tell sometimes with how often Bulma and Vegeta butt heads.
Underneath all the yelling and arguing is a deep relationship that started after Bulma showed compassion to someone who had been her enemy. It really is a cute relationship; Bulma isn’t afraid to show how she feels (be it angry or loving), while Vegeta has a hard time doing the same, but their love shines through.
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Do you have any more trivia about Dragon Ball‘s Brief family to share? Leave it in the comments!
