Dragon Ball is widely considered to be one of, if not the best anime series out there. It's loved by many, and pretty much everyone has opinions on who their favorite characters are or which story arcs they like best. Some characters are meant to be hated, others are clearly meant to be loved, but there are some that kind of skirt the line more often than not depending on which fan you actually ask.

Often thought to be one of the most beloved characters of Dragon Ball, Bulma actually has quite a few character flaws. In retrospect, she seems like an outgoing, fun-loving, youthful character with a bit of fire within her, but there's an entirely different side to this girl... Few tend to look at Bulma's true flaws, instead, choosing to focus on all that they love about the spoiled character. Well, here's the largest dose of reality anyone's willing to give about Bulma. The more obvious things like her vanity and selfish manner are one thing, but something that not many fans are willing to look back at is the possible damage and destruction Bulma has caused to the Z Fighters, as well as the people of Earth. Not to mention, many of the characters find her to be just flat-out annoying.

Our heroine definitely has some redeeming features, however, it's time to reconsider her in another light. Here's some reasons why Bulma might not be as great as you remember her. Remember, everyone has their flaws, and Bulma isn't any exception!

20 No Priority For Priorities

It may be lesser known or a totally forgotten fact since Dragon Ball Z has certainly upstaged its predecessor, but, in Dragon Ball, Bulma’s entire objective was to get a boyfriend. The entire beginning episodes were about her and Goku’s journey to collect all of the dragon balls so that she could gain her wish to have a guy by her side. In Bulma’s defense, she was only a teenager at this point in her life, but being as confident as she is (especially regarding her looks) you’d think she wouldn’t feel like she needs dragon balls just to get a date. This makes many fans question Bulma’s supposed intelligence and sort of downplays some of her validity right off the bat. Not to mention that the girl has billions of dollars and is attractive, yet she spends all of her time chasing boys (literally traveling the world)?

19 Fans Aren't Fans In Namek

Bulma has gained a lot of popularity over the years, becoming one of the most adored characters in all of Dragon Ball. However, her early appearances turned off some fans forever. In the Namek Saga of Dragon Ball Z when her, Krillin, and Goku, fly to Namek, Bulma can be seen complaining incessantly. A lot of Bulma fans point out that she piloted the ship to Namek claiming that it makes her a very important part of these events. On the other hand, other fans have also recognized that the ship pretty much flew itself since all that was needed was a code word to start it. Aside from this, Bulma made the entire ride to Namek (and everything after that) pretty much about herself. Whining constantly did not gain her any favorability (even between the characters on the show). While the Z fighters are getting completely beaten up, she complains to anyone who'll listen about how her own life has been put in danger. Obviously, selfishness is inherent to her, but annoyingness is even more so.

18 Even Clouds Can't Stand Her

Of course, we see in the early episodes that Bulma’s a bit boy-crazy, but that doesn’t automatically mean that she’s an impure teen. Or does it? Taking a look back at the episode, “The Nimbus Cloud of Roshi” says something on the contrary. Roshi rewarded Goku with a Nimbus Cloud which allows him to ride it at super-fast speeds because of Goku’s pure heart. Seeing this as an opportunity to find the dragon balls faster, Bulma attempts to lunge onto the Nimbus Cloud, falling through it onto the ground immediately. Which is no surprise because a few episodes earlier she’d been trying to tempt Goku with a view of her underwear in exchange for his dragon ball. Bulma deserves to be grounded (pun intended).

17 Nothing Cool About This Habit

While being a smoker isn't necessarily a matter of having a good or bad personality, it sure doesn't help the situation in Bulma's case. Putting on the façade of being a glamorous girl isn't always easy and it's unsurprising to think that Bulma would smoke purely for the 'glamor' behind it. There's been speculation that her smoking habits may have to do with the fact that her own father is a smoker, which is likely true. It only reinforces the already evident desperation she has for men. Oftentimes, throughout the Dragon Ball series,  (especially before Trunks was in the picture) Bulma would help the fighters. It's easy enough to claim that Bulma enjoys helping out the guys, which could possibly have been part of why she adopted smoking. Between the taboo charm and the tough girl look of smoking, Bulma likely took on the habit as a way to gain likeness with her male companions.

16 A Perfectly Bad Invention

It may not have been an obvious concept, but the coming of Cell is actually partially Bulma's fault. For those who don't know, Cell is made up from cells of different warriors such as Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Frieza. He's an artificial life-form that originally came from Dr. Gero's computer and had the ultimate goal of absorbing power from Androids #17 and #18 in order to reach his perfect form. However, the Androids are deactivated within Cell's timeline, so he uses Future Trunks' time machine in order to travel to the present timeline and attain his desired form. Bulma created Trunks' time machine in his alternate timeline and therefore brought Cell to the present timeline (although not intentionally), which brings you the Cell Saga.

15 Even Her Roots Are Bad

Toriyama has been known to have quirky concepts behind his inspiration of characters and other story elements. However, Bulma's origin is a bit more offensive than that. When Toriyama was creating Bulma's character, he based her off of the princess from his short-lived Dragon Boy. If you hadn't guessed already, this wasn't a compliment. In Dragon Boy, the princess was spoiled and bratty, but was also completely helpless. She had no real intelligence and without Dragon Boy, she couldn't fend for herself. Thinking of our Bulma that we know, it's not so far off. Especially in Dragon Ball's early episodes, she threw fits nonstop and offered little to move missions forward (in the grand scheme of things), except for her technology that she'd had from daddy's money. In Bulma's defense, she didn't inherit the lack of intelligence from her royal counterpart, though. Nonetheless, Toriyama meant for her to be a highly annoying character which fans weren't necessarily supposed to fall in love with.

14 Give Credit Where Credit Is Due

The default argument in defense of Bulma's worth is that she created the dragon radar. However, this isn't entirely true. As seen in many of the episodes, friends (and enemies alike) already have this technology. In fact, it's implied in Dragon Ball that the dragon radar had been conceptualized before Goku had even been born. We witness that Emperor Pilaf, as well as The Red Ribbon Army, had already possessed this technology for ages. However, Bulma had improved the dragon radar, giving it slightly more precision to locate the dragon balls. In other words, Bulma did make a contribution as far as the dragon radar goes, but it definitely would have existed with or without her. So, it's not exactly the best reason to credit Bulma for being a character of exceptional value.

13 You Don't Want Her Bad Romance

It's commonly known that Bulma goes gaga for men at any given moment. She's always found checking out men, regardless of their character flaws. She's even gone so far as to wish that Zarbon would beat Vegeta, purely because she found him to be extremely attractive (of course, this was before Bulma and Vegeta actually became a thing). Aside from her lack of hesitation to ogle any attractive man alive, she's also pretty bad about having shallow motivations behind her relationships. Looking back at when Yamcha and Bulma were together, she cried out in despair that she would've married him had he asked her before he died in the battle with the Saiyans. This was after a fairly rocky, five-year relationship. Afterward, she hooks up with Vegeta who we all know is less than hospitable, to say the least. It kind of seems like Bulma's only real objective throughout the series is to get married to some hot hunk, regardless of who they are inside. Yet, she's supposed to be a genius?

12 Even Fan Service Doesn't Help

A common criticism of Toriyama's writing in the early episodes of Dragon Ball is the overuse of fan service (of which Bulma is usually the victim). Toriyama tends to have a unique sense of humor, leaning toward uncomfortably creepy and most of the time Bulma is the butt of these jokes. However, even in the less humorous moments, Bulma is seen wearing hardly any clothes, if any at all. One of the most notable fan service moments in Dragon Ball is when Bulma is constantly walking around the ship in Namek wearing only her grey underwear and crop-top (which unsurprisingly catches Krillin's full attention). Then there are also shower scenes, as well as the typical fan service that you might expect. Much of this had to be removed from the English dub because it was that bad. Given Bulma's flaw of being nearly desperate for any attractive man, this isn't exactly the most redeeming look.

11 No Good Deed is Worth It

Throwing it back to the old-school episodes of Dragon Ball, we see Goku offer to help a lost turtle reach the ocean (which is over 100 miles away). Since he and Bulma had partnered up to find all of the dragon balls together, this caught her off guard. She refused to carry the turtle back to the ocean because she said it would take too much time. Luckily, Goku's open heart and stubbornness won in this dispute (which was actually a good thing for Bulma because they got a dragon ball out of the deal). Needless to say, going out of her way for a stranger only really reaches a minimal extent; the only thing she did offer the turtle is a bowl of water. Bulma's extremely unwilling to do for others unless it ties into her own self-beneficial motives somehow. This sheds a lot of light on her compatibility with Vegeta, although, that's not necessarily a good thing...

10 Even The Spinoffs Blame Her

I know, I know. "It's not canon." If you think about it, it's sad that even in a non-canon knockoff such as Dragon Ball GT, Bulma is still the cause of chaos. If you've seen it, you'll likely know where I'm going with this. If you haven't, then don't waste time watching it, take my word for it. Bulma is to blame for Omega Shenron's serious damage to Earth. Due to her careless use of Dragon Balls for almost anything, they accumulated negative energy which allowed the evil dragons to manifest on Earth. Syn Shenron, the most powerful of the seven dragons, became Omega Shenron after eating all of the Dragon Balls. After which, he almost destroys Earth entirely, nearly killing Goku. While she is brilliant, there seems to be a repetitive pattern of her ideas getting the other characters into trouble.

9 Self-Centered Much?

While Bulma is typically thought of as a relatively caring woman, it may come as a bit of a disappointment to find that she's not exactly who we all think we know. For one thing, most fans think of Bulma as a huge help to the Z Fighters when coming up with new inventions (which, she does assist them in a major way). However, no one really stops to consider the things that she says within the series. For instance, Bulma spent large amounts of time with Whis, at one point, showing him all sorts of new foods and cultures because she wanted to form a bond with him. She knew that Whis was stronger than the Z Fighters and may be their only hope of survival sometime in the future. Then there's the fact that she's pretty much just expected Goku to save her ever since they met as kids. Bulma isn't exactly altruistic about saving Earth either (as seen with the sea-turtle that she refused to help). Bulma doesn't necessarily care about saving the entire world; just her own family.

8 She Brings The Boys To The Yard (And She Knows It)

It's definitely not a bad thing to be a confident woman. Though, Bulma takes this to the next level. She's a bit more self-assured than one can handle. This isn't a secret either; a lot of fans are over Bulma's obvious vanity. It's gotten her out of a lot of sticky situations but, for the most part, it's pretty unnecessary. Not only does it make her less appealing as a character, it also shows off her narcissism, which should've already been evident in her unwillingness to help others anyway. It only gets worse when Bulma shows absolutely no humbleness toward other women. For instance, when Marron calls Chichi and Bulma "old women" they immediately begin fighting, pettily over who is more attractive. We all know Bulma is definitely the beauty queen of the show, going so far as to flaunt it and even bring others down in the process.

7 She's Loud And Bold... Until She's Scared

You can't exactly blame anyone for fearing bad guys like Frieza, especially when you're just a defenseless human, like Bulma. Then again, when you walk around bossing around all of the Z Fighters, it seems like maybe you should have some gusto with the seemingly omnipotent. To her credit, Bulma did slap Beerus in the face for ruining her birthday party. On the other hand, in Dragon Ball Super, when Frieza and his army arrived on Earth, she talked a big game about how Gohan could beat him. Upon hearing this, Gohan clarified to Bulma that he could only beat his army, not Frieza himself, changing Bulma's entire tone toward their alien enemy. Bulma began pleading with Frieza to give them more time for Goku to return before destroying the planet. Not to say her begging was misplaced, but she had completely contradicted herself, making her much more of a cowardice than her prideful husband.

6 Someone Stop The Screaming

While this is sort of a jest (on Toriyama's part) toward the stereotypical 'hysterical women' it also has a lot to do with Bulma's personality. Within the episodes and Manga, Bulma has a serious problem with throwing tantrums. Come on, the girl has practically everything, even dragon balls (after a certain point), yet she feels she's entitled to complain? Krillin, Goku, Vegeta, Yamcha, among others have died multiple times and still choose to put themselves in danger to protect others. No matter what, though, Bulma finds a way to make their less-than-ideal destruction from the fights seemingly worse by throwing a fit about them afterward. Clearly, she's accustomed to a spoiled lifestyle because she has plenty of money and tech to get what she wants most of the time and dragon balls to revive whomever she'd like, so what's the deal?

5 She Could Have Been Someone

Growing up with a billionaire lifestyle and having inherent intelligence, you'd think the possibilities would be endless as far as life accomplishments go. A lot of fans could argue that Bulma played a large role in saving Earth, but did she really? Many of the inventions and situations that she helped the Z Fighters with could've easily been done by her own father. With all of her resources, knowledge, and technology, she could've, for instance, created her own super-hero suit (think Ironman). Yet, she hardly has an interest in any of the real fighting, just as long as she and her family make it out okay. Although, we don't see her doing anything else with her life as far as personal endeavors. Her first real exploration around the world was motivated almost entirely by her desire to get a boyfriend. Not to say she doesn't have any achievements on her belt, but Bulma's resources would've allowed her to exceed even her father.

4 Vegeta's Not A Self-Made Man?

Quite possibly one of the most offensive remarks fans have made is that Vegeta's character would have been completely irrelevant if it wasn't for Bulma. Although, this theory can be completely thrown out with a simple speculation of Toriyama's intentions behind each of them. For one thing, Bulma was originally conceptualized as a love-interest for Goku once he became older. Later on, in the writing process, Toriyama had a change of heart and chose to make Chichi Goku's wife. Glancing back to the early episodes in which Vegeta and Bulma found each other equally distasteful makes perfect sense; she was never supposed to be married to him. In fact, Toriyama has come out and stated that Yamcha is his least favorite character, therefore, Bulma actually made him relevant when she dated him. But that's beside the point, what makes this so offensive is the fact that Bulma's character has totally upstaged Vegeta to the point that fans don't even believe he's really valuable.

3 Toriyama Loves His Clichés

Speaking of Vegeta's supposed irrelevance, Bulma is actually a bit more of an irrelevant character. Aside from initially being Goku's future wife, Bulma was meant to be an undignified and annoying woman. As seen with Chichi, Toriyama enjoys making women the punch line of jokes (most of which have a slightly different cultural context). Bulma's no exception to this. The obnoxious amount of fan service alone can be overwhelming, but Bulma is also meant to have a fiery attitude with a plethora of foolish moments sprinkled in. Sources have claimed that Toriyama wanted Bulma to be an annoying character so that the audience wouldn't be bothered when she was used as fan service all the time. Whether it's true or not, this scenario has played out for her. The entire concept behind many of Toriyama's female characters is to make them hysterical and use them for fan service, which kind of makes Bulma a less appealing character because fans only reinforce these tropes when they support her.

2 A Bad Mother Too

There's been a lot of dispute about whether or not the Z Fighters are good fathers. Given their unique situation and cultural differences from the humans, coming to a consensus will be challenging still. Bulma, however, is no doubt a bad mother. Not to build an unfair comparison, but her friend Chi-Chi raises her children (primarily Gohan) to be studious so that they won't have to struggle like herself and Goku do. Bulma, on the other hand, has a near-endless supply of funds. Which would incline you to expect that she would use some of this to challenge her son, Trunks, to be educated like her own family? However, she never pushes Trunks to try harder and also doesn't really do enough to discipline him seeing as how he acts pretty bratty in much of his childhood. On top of that, she took Trunks to the Androids battlefield with her when he was only an infant! I guess motherly instincts came secondhand to Bulma.

1 She Doesn't Respect Herself, So Who Should?

If it wasn't already evident from the plethora of previous examples, Bulma doesn't seem to have much self-worth. She uses her lady parts as a bribe in exchange for the various things she'd like to have. Right off the bat, we see her do this with young Goku in exchange for his dragon ball, and a couple episodes later she does the same with Master Roshi (except she realized, later, that she hadn't even had underwear on). There have been countless incidents (not just in the beginning episodes) where Bulma is seen coaxing men into doing what she'd like in exchange for some sort of gross return. However, her lack of self-worth is also pretty obvious in her relationships. She stayed with Yamcha for five years and even considered marrying him even though he cheated on her. Vegeta's an entirely other story altogether, but he's not exactly a 'nice guy' either. For being the main female protagonist in Dragon Ball, you'd think she'd set a better example for self-worth.