#saibamen

First of all I want to say that I used to be a fan of Yamcha… yeah, USED! because the current version is just a joke, a character used only for humorous purposes and in a bad way if we consider that is at his expense, I used to be fan of the Old Yamcha, back when Dragon Ball was a little more about adventures than about defeating the powerful villain of the week, at that time we met Yamcha… a badass bandit and the first “Z-fighter” to fight Goku, a character with cool design, a sword, with a cat companion before cats were popular, with interesting motivations and traits (gynophobia) and with the most epic melee technique in the history of Dragon Ball… Rōgafūfūken(Wolf Fang Fist)

Then he met Bulma, overcame his fear and abandoned his old life (and weapons) to become… Bulma’s boyfriend, from that moment that was his unique contribution to the history of Dragon Ball, his role! of course he kept training but in his own way, not going to train with Master Roshi the first time he met him was a big mistake because the difference of powers between him and Goku increased a lot, Krillin became the new “rival of power” in Goku’s life, during the tournament Yamcha had the bad luck to face Jackie Chun/Roshi in his first fight, something that would be repeated in following tournament so we could say that he was cannon fodder to face the most powerful (Jackie Chun/Roshi, Tenshinhan) or mysterious character (Shen/Kami) of the moment… everything changed in the fight against the Invisible Man (maybe the greatest fight triumph in the life of Yamcha) and Bandages the Mummy, this last fight was very good, seriously, Yamcha demonstrated all his skill like fighter and his ingenuity, but it wasn’t enough… it was time to train with Roshi!

Oh yeah, it’s time for the next tournament… Yamcha advanced a lot, I dare to say that he was even stronger than Krillin but that is my personal opinion, his fight was very good overall, but unfortunately it was against Tenshinhan, the “villain” of the tournament aka the strongest after Goku, the outcome of the fight was humiliating for him, but had an achievement in the middle… Yamcha became the 4th character to learn and use the Kamehameha(Roshi, Grandpa Gohan, Goku), after the tournament we could have had some cool development because he thought he was the only surviving warrior and therefore the only one who could stop King Piccolo but his broken leg prevented his participation in the conflict and that definitely saved his life, we could consider as an achievement survived the attack of Tambourine but it was just a matter of luck.

Thanks to his training with Karin, he returned to the next tournament with great new techniques and a great haircut… unfortunately he faced the mysterious Shen (who was Kami in "disguise”) but that didn’t prevent him from showing us another great technique that unfortunately we haven’t seen enough… Sōkidan (Spirit Ball), after this tournament his next big fight would be the cause of years of bullying and jokes against him and his ability to fight, in other words… a meme!

Behold…Yamcha’s Death Pose! yeah, the fight that truly ruined Yamcha’s fighter career but let’s be honest, he wouldn’t be what he is if it not were for this fight, for this image of him! and let’s be even more honest, it wasn’t his inability to fight what made him lose but underestimate the enemy, another case of him being used as cannon fodder, because although Tenshinhan was the first to fight against a Saibamen… nobody knew about their ability to self-destruct, anyway! after that we didn’t have moments of Yamcha fighting (except the filler episode where he defeats Recoome) but he was still Bulma’s boyfriend and therefore an important secondary character of Dragon Ball, but everything changed when the “Badman” attacked…

When Vegeta entered Bulma’s life and pregnant her in few months (damn!), Yamcha was without a purpose… that happens when you’re a bad boyfriend, although Vegeta wasn’t a good husband and father neither if we consider that he practically left his family to go to train in space and when returned he didn’t care if Dr. Gero kills them or not… but well, I already talked about this and the great development for good that Vegeta had over the years, talking about Gero, Yamcha become his first Z-Fighter victim (another case of cannon fodder lol) and then he became even more a support character than a fighter, participating in the fight against the Cell Jr only because there was no other option, another humiliating defeat but let’s be honest, except Gohan the only one who fought well against them was Piccolo! during the Majin Buu Saga his participation was more than null, highlighting his fight against Olibu but as it was a filler episode with even more filler characters, well…

His next great “feat” was be the first non-saiyan to hit Beerus although he didn’t participate in the fight, then he wasn’t considered to fight against Frieza soldiers, but for some stupid and inconsistent reason Master Roshi was able to fight them, you know, that character that was less powerful than Yamcha, Chiaotzu and even Yajirobe… anyway! his non-participation in the Tournament of Power doesn’t annoy me if we consider that techniques and strategies are almost as important as the power, in that Master Roshi is much superior to Yamcha and I dare to say to all the Z-Fighters, although to be honest, would have been a great opportunity to “Make Yamcha G̶r̶e̶a̶t̶ Average Again” I mean…

Don’t tell me that wouldn’t have been awesome see Yamcha with his Wolf Fang Fist alongside Tenshinhan and Krillin in the Boogie Back Ending! but well, they chose go “full joke“ with him and now he’s waiting for Goku to recruit him, maybe Yamcha finally found his role in Dragon Ball, a role he lost when he stopped being Bulma’s boyfriend… I don’t know, anyway, in conclusion, Yamcha is a joke? yes! he was always a joke? no! he was a loser, but never a joke! it’s internet fault? a little but it doesn’t matter anymore because I doubt Yamcha can once again become an important warrior unless… you know what would be cool and crazy? that a new enemy appears on Earth during the tournament and only Yamcha can stop him because Goten and Trunks can’t leave the Island of Android 17, then everyone returns and no one knows of the heroic struggle of Yamcha against the new force of evil :P not a great idea, but would be hilarious xD