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[Image description: two page colored comic of Dragon ball characters. Bulma and Yamcha are sitting together while Puar floats by them. Yamcha and Puar are excited to go to school since it’s Yamcha’s first time going to a school. Bulma tells him that he needs to cut his hair short to fit in with the other kids. Yamcha is apprehensive about the idea, but Bulma insists or else people will make fun of them. Yamcha asks if it matters what people think and Bulma says it does. She asks him to cut his hair again and this time, Yamcha reluctantly agrees. Bulma becomes very happy and hugs Yamcha, making him get flustered. Later, Yamcha has short hair and looks unsure while looking in the mirror. Bulma is hugging him from behind and is happy with his new haircut. Puar is in shock because they’ve never seen Yamcha with his hair so short. Last page is a bunch of sketches. Bulma and Yamcha are arguing about making Yamcha wear western clothing, then Yamcha wears a t-shirt and jeans while pouting while Bulma is happy. Yamcha still wears his Tai Chi Fu to school and Bulma is upset with him. He is popular at school and all of the kids are surrounding him while Bulma and Puar watch in awe. Bulma also got Yamcha’s tooth fixed and he thanks her. End of description.]
Something I noticed throughout all of DB/DBZ is the process of Yamcha fitting into western standards, at least in physical appearance. Idk if anyone has ever talked about this already, I haven’t seen anything yet (I’m new here 😅) LOL The first instance we see of Yamcha trying to fit into westernized standards is when he cut his hair short for the first time in DB. He said that Bulma told him to do it so that he’d fit in more. Then later in his life, he keeps his hair short and also wears western style clothing most of the time up until the Buu saga. The only time he had long hair again was during the 23rd tournament (where he went away from the city to train) and when Bulma broke up with him in the Saiyan arc. Then he cuts it again when he gets back with Bulma. I think that while Bulma had a big influence on having Yamcha change his appearance to fit in, being his gf who’s opinion he cares about, the other people in the city definitely pressured him to fit in, too. After dealing with constant judgement, Yamcha develops a need of wanting to fit in so he just adapts to western culture. He seems like the type of person who doesn’t like being excluded. The reason why I think that is cuz Yamcha keeps his hair short long after his relationship with Bulma ended. Imo, Bulma doesn’t think making Yamcha fit western standards is a big deal. It’s just normal to enforce “acting/presenting properly” onto others in the west, especially when she’s raised with those societal norms and she’s from one of the richest families in their world. My experience with the topic of westernization is that it’s not really seen as a big deal to a lot of people. As a Vietnamese person living in the West, it’s hard not to notice when it’s so common for people to force whiteness onto everyone. It’ll always be upsetting to me when I see characters go through the westernization process of “this POC is uncivilized and they’re only civilized and somewhat accepted once they act/look more white”. I don’t think Bulma has any malicious intent behind it, but she’s still trying to make him change himself to fit into western society. I think a part of why she does it is to protect Yamcha in her own way from being shamed by others, but for the most part it’s cuz she holds those standards herself and wants Yamcha to fit into them. While I don’t think Yamcha absolutely hates wearing western clothing later in life, it still makes me feel a certain type of way that he was initially forced into it. He definitely still likes his hair longer tho!
And this is just something that I observed specifically with Yamcha’s character. There are Tien, Chiaotzu, and ChiChi for example who don’t really get Westernized throughout the story which is cool to see (it’s because they live outside of the city, so they’re not pressured to be). I don’t have a problem with portraying westernization in media, imo it needs to be pointed out and talked about.
I do love that Yamcha goes back to having his long hair and wearing his Tai Chi Fu later in Super tho 😭 Also, I did some research into different types of Chinese clothing and hopefully I got the name of his outfit right- if not, please correct me! 🙏
This is all my perspective and HCs on the matter, I’d love to hear any opinions anyone has about this if you wanna share! Just don’t be rude 👁️👁️
