Ahh, poor Chi-Chi. Of all the women in the Dragon Ball franchise, Chi-Chi might be the most interesting case. Born a princess to her intimidating yet gentle father the Ox-King of Fire Mountain, Chi-Chi grew up longing for a man to marry and to continue the cycle of royalty. Nothing could have prepared her for meeting the monkey boy who stole her heart (somehow seriously how did he manage that) Goku.
After riding on the flying nimbus with the naive martial artist, she made him promise that he would one day marry her. Being the idiot he is, Goku didn't know what that was and blindly agreed to it. After not seeing her for years, they finally meet up again and Goku fulfills his promise and weds Chi-Chi. They would go on to have two children.
But that's all stuff you probably knew. Chi-Chi gets a lot hate in the Dragon Ball community for being an overbearing, irrational and nagging hag. While some of this criticism is justified, Chi-Chi has seen and been through a lot of awful things over the course of her life. In this article, we're going to go into some of these secrets some fans might not know about. There are plenty of fingers to go around for these dark facts including her own husband, his friends, and even her creator. Here are the fifteen dark facts about Chi-Chi that you don't really want to know.
15 Akira Toriyama Gave Up On Her
Fans of Dragon Ball oftentimes try to mind read the creator of their favorite anime to know why certain decisions were made or why he seems to clearly hate Vegeta because blah blah blah. While it was true that at some point in time Toriyama wasn't fond of Vegeta, the prince got off easy compared to Chi-Chi.
In an old interview from 2003, the author of Dragon Ball spilled the beans about his thoughts on Chi-Chi. Thanks to Kazenshuu.com's translations, we have this quote: "I’m really not fond of Chi-Chi as a character. In the middle of the comic, I started to think, “I don’t want to draw her anymore,” and, sort of as a way of spiting myself, I decided, “you’ll have to draw her if she gets married to Goku."
14 Goku Never Kissed Her
On the whole, Dragon Ball Super has been well-received by the fanbase, but it isn't without criticisms. One of those critiques has to do with how Goku's character seems to have regressed to the point where instead of just being a naive man, he's more akin to a pure buffoon. Things weren't helped by this little nugget of info he dropped.
In episode 60, as Goku watches Future Trunks chew up a senzu bean for Future Mai, Goku acts repulsed at Trunks putting his lips to Mai. He then admits to Vegeta that he has never done this to Chi-Chi. Frankly, at this point, I'm surprised Chi-Chi didn't get a smooch from Master Roshi just to get some action. Fan art is the closest we're gonna get to a kiss.
13 He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not
So we already know that romance isn't Goku's thing and that he's never kissed Chi-Chi because he finds it gross. Well, if he can't do that, he might as well put his admiration for Chi-Chi into words just so he can make his wife feel good. Well, he has done that... once.
For nearly the entirety of the Dragon Ball franchise, we never hear Goku tells his wife that he loves her. Now for most couples, that's something that you say every day. But not for this monkey to who romance is still a foreign concept. We only hear Goku say the magic words at the end of the Buu saga after he defeats Kid Buu. I mean I guess it's a sweet moment, but it's more of an "about darn time" moment.
12 She Has Fought Her Whole Family
Master Roshi once stated that the one thing that Goku is afraid that is stronger than a Super Saiyan is his wife Chi-Chi. No, mostly this is just for her explosive anger because obviously, she can't fight a Super Saiyan. That, however, hasn't stopped her from trying to fight her entire family.
Her fight with Goku takes place in 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament and while she can't lay a hand on our goofy protagonist, she certainly tries. Goku eliminates her from the tournament with an attack that with just its wind power knocks her out of the ring. Years later she fights Gohan during the maligned Garlic Jr. saga under mind control from the tasty villain and finally, she trains Goten in fighting after Goku's sacrifice against Cell.
11 There's A Reason Why She Hates Super Saiyans
To North American audiences, and especially to the kids watching Dragon Ball Z when it first aired in the west, they were perplexed by Chi-Chi's reasoning as to why she hated the look of the Super Saiyans. Their blonde hair looked amazing, why would Chi-Chi call them delinquents? Well to be fair to Chi-Chi, this is an opinion that is not exclusive to her.
In Japanese culture, excessive individualism is seen as disrespectful so if you have a visual key that separates you from the "normal" Japanese look it can be a problem. Not many Japanese people are going to be seen with natural blonde hair thus blonde hair is seen as a sign of rebellion in Japan. So basically don't blame Chi-Chi, she's just a product of her environment.
10 Her Mother Was Short Lived
Chi-Chi's father Ox-King isn't exactly the main character or even a second tier character like Master Roshi, but he does make enough appearances through the franchise that you at least remember that he exists. You might be wondering where the Ox-Queen is though, Chi-Chi's mother. Well, about that...
The reason why we've never seen her is that she is deceased. In the same year that Chi-Chi was born, her mother passed away to an unknown disease. Since it was due to that, the Dragon Balls are incapable of reviving her. As if Chi-Chi hasn't been through enough hardships, she has gone through her entire life not knowing the woman who gave birth to her. Just throw another shrimp on the tragic barbie, why don't ya, Toriyama.
9 She Has A Unique History With Yamcha
Fans who haven't watched Dragon Ball might only know Yamcha as a pathetic loser who got destroyed by a weakly Saibaman. But come on now, Yamcha had plenty of victories in the original series. Like that time he beat up a young girl named Chi-Chi... oh man, Yamcha is just impossible to like, isn't he?
Well to the defense of this Z Fighter, Chi-Chi was the one who started it. As she was fleeing from a rampaging dinosaur intent on eating her up, Chi-Chi got rightfully scared and threw her head blade at the beast and chopped it up good. Yamcha (who was just a wandering bandit at this point) went up to her and complimented her on that but as she was told not to talk to strangers fired a laser beam at Yamcha. Defending himself, he knocked her out. Yay, Yamcha?
8 She Was Hurt By Goku
Judging by the headline for this slide you might think that I'm talking about their fight at the World Martial Arts Tournament that we talked about before. Nope, I'm talking about in the OTHER way...
You see my friends, Goku is kind of a bumbling oaf. As a result of a lack of formal schooling, he lacks some basic life skills such as knowing the difference between a boy and girl. Instead of asking somebody, Goku instead has to touch their area to discover if they're a man or not. He did that to Bulma and he also did it to Chi-Chi. Unlike Bulma, Chi-Chi wasn't used to this stupidity and knocked him off the flying nimbus. She then still thinks he's cute though... please do not take dating lessons from Dragon Ball, everyone.
7 Her First Date With Goku Was Fitting
For anyone who has felt that Chi-Chi has been an ungrateful wife to Goku and that they would gladly be the wife of the strongest man on Earth, well I have to ask you if you're prepared to go on a date with Goku. That date isn't going to be heading out to the movies or go for drinks with the Saiyan warrior. You know exactly what it's going to be.
In a flashback to her first date with Goku in the episode Gohan's First Date, we see Chi-Chi making the mistake of telling Goku that a date is the most pleasurable thing you can think of sharing with someone. Of course, Goku thinks it's fighting and almost knocks Chi-Chi's head into a tree. They have a sparring match and while it's cute I suppose, it also shows that being Goku's lover isn't a picnic.
6 She's Armed
We see a lot of projectile attacks in the Dragon Ball franchise, but never really any guns and it's pretty obvious why. When you can shoot Ki attacks that can devastate planets from your body, carrying around a firearm is pretty pointless. But for those like Chi-Chi who can't fire energy blasts, they can still be packing heat.
There are two times throughout Dragon Ball Z where Chi-Chi brings out her armory in an attempt to rescue Gohan from danger. The first time is when the Saiyans arrive on earth and Gohan goes off to fight them with Piccolo and the others. The second time is when she tries to fly off to Namek and bring Gohan back home. Motherly instinct is stronger than any Super Saiyan transformation, I'll tell you that.
5 Her Own Husband Thinks She Isn't As Attractive As Bulma
Well, if there's anybody who can match Chi-Chi in terms of rage, it would have to be the shorty Prince of Saiyans himself, Vegeta. So why is he so mad at Goku in this photo? Let me explain.
In the Buu saga of Dragon Ball Z, the Old Kai on the right has to be coaxed into letting Goku use the Dragon Balls. Goku, in a rare display of intelligence, tries to bribe the old guy by offering pictures of or a kiss from (depends on the version you're watching) a pretty girl. Not offering up his own wife, though (I suppose we should give him credit for that), he instead offers Bulma. Vegeta gets wind of this and scolds him, but Goku gives the excuse that Bulma is prettier than Chi-Chi. Oh man, Goku is lucky Chi-Chi doesn't have Superman's hearing.
4 She Is Barely Playable
Due to her parse fight record throughout the franchise, it's very to see Chi-Chi as a playable character in any video game. Sure, she makes appearances as an NPC and perhaps makes an appearance in a cutscene here or there, but the player can only control her in two games.
The first of which is possibly one of the most unknown Dragon Ball games in existence called Super Dragon Ball Z for the PlayStation 2. This is much more of a traditional fighting game than most other games in the franchise, with traditional juggles and Street Fighter button combos. The other one is Budokai Tenkaichi 3, and if I have to go into how iconic this game in this community, you're just too young.
3 She Has Had To Mourn Her Husband Twice
So, passing away in the world of Dragon Ball isn't really a dramatic moment, unless you perish from natural causes or if you're a Namekian living on earth. Leave it to Goku, though, to put his wife through much grief by dying twice throughout the series.
The first time really wasn't his fault as he had to sacrifice himself in order to save everybody from his angry brother Raditz. His second time is way harder to reason as he teleported Cell away and then perished in the bomb blast. He could have been wished back but chose not to as he thought his presence on Earth drew evil to the planet. If that sounds like dumb reasoning, that's only because it is.
2 She Is Totally Justified
Suck it, all you Chi-Chi haters, you may hate her but the mother of Gohan and Goten and the wife of Goku is completely right in her anger and stress. Why is that? Well, let's see...
How is she supposed to feel when her mother perishes before she even knew her, her father is considered a scary beast atop a mountain of fire, she falls for a man who treats her more like a friend than a lover, has her son taken away by a green alien who previously tried to destroy her husband to fight scary monkey people, has her son taken away AGAIN to go to a far away planet AND having a man-child who eats forever as a husband? Yeah, she's had it pretty rough so lay off the lady, will ya?
1 She Has A Transformation? Maybe?
I've discussed at some points on this list about the expressions of comical rage Chi-Chi has throughout the series and how she should feel justified in them. In some of those fits of rage though, she glows with a red aura. No, that can't be... could it be?
I'm largely joking here, as there is no concrete evidence that his red aura is anything more than an effect for comedy. However, what I will theorize is that maybe if she were to train than she could tap into a transformation or power up just like tons of other characters in the franchise. Remember, the original Super Saiyan transformation is brought upon by strong emotions, and Chi-Chi is absolutely full of those. Oh well.