I thought he said something at some point about how having her around would cause confusion, on account of how similar her transformation is to a Super Saiyan.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
That I remember.
Maybe he should have just altered one or the other instead of completely dropping her.
One Strip! One Strip!![]()
I do also remember hearing that rumor a lot. Do you have quote from an interview to back it up? Because that certainly would be a very... weird reason to drop a character completely if it is true.
But as far we know, the reason Launch disappeared in Dragon Ball Z was because Toriyama simply forgot about her.
edited 9th May '14 1:03:55 PM by FireShadow
I've got nothing, I just read it on Dragon Ball Wiki.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.No, we don't. And it makes absolutely no sense if he had forgotten her, because he accounts for her absence in 3 out of 4 of Z's arcs.
Saiyan - mentioned at the start to have left chasing Tenshinhan
Namek - drew her during a Christmas omake showing she's still chasing Ten, unaware that he's dead
Android - no mention
Boo - planned to bring her back for the finale, was worried readers wouldn't remember her.
Toriyama didn't forget Lunch. He wrote her out of the story, then decided against brining her back. If he did forget her, at any point, it can't have been for any meaningful period of time because of all the times we know she was in his mind.
Hell, that interview shows that he remembered Lunch since he brought her up when she wasn't even mentioned by the interviewer.
edited 9th May '14 5:41:43 PM by Saiga
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Oh. There we go then.
Still though, he vastly underestimated the fandom if he thought they forgot her.
edited 9th May '14 6:04:24 PM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!Keep in mind the fandom he's talking about - the fans that read Shonen Jump weekly in Japan. It's not too much of a stretch to think that the fans at that time were not the same as the ones reading when Lunch was still around, and the scene would lose all impact if the reader wasn't aware of how long she'd been absent.
I suppose.
I guess you could argue that the series outgrew her, just like it outgrew it's own gag status.
In fact, you could argue that Launch being dumped is representative of the Growing the Beard / Cerebus Syndrome of the series as a whole.
edited 9th May '14 9:02:00 PM by HandsomeRob
One Strip! One Strip!
Launch didn't suck. She was pretty funny for the role she played. But just like Handsome Rob said, once the plot of Dragon Ball Z kicked in with the Saiyan Arc, there was really no place for her in the show, just like a lot of the original supporting cast of Dragon Ball. With the exception of Piccolo, Bulma, Krillin and Tien.
edited 10th May '14 5:53:21 AM by FireShadow
Seats at a tournament are a place aren't they?
Yeah, it's ironic that after Saiga pointed out her pointlessness, I ended up agreeing and even further explaining it.
One Strip! One Strip!
It happened in one of the fillers scenes during the Saiyan Arc when she tried to impress Tien, as Bad Launch, while he and Chiaotzu were training. Here's a link to the episode where it happens - Launch just... being there
. (Fast forward to the 4:00 mark)
Had the weirdest dream, and it gave me an idea for a fan fiction.
In it, Goku was wearing a "Senzu Bean Suit" invented by Bulma that would produce Senzu Beans on the hour.
There was a fight going on in space, in a what-if kind of thing where Majin Buu conquered/destroyed Earth and was hunting Goku, Goten, and Trunks down throughout the cosmos, and this time was fighting them on top of an asteroid belt. Instead of using his Bishounen form, he just created giant, tumorous masses of Buugoo to smother them with. Goten and Trunks both looked like their teenage GT selves, so I imagine the heroes screwed up bad and Buu had "won" the final battle a long time ago.
It all ended on a cliffhanger, with Goku finding this planet that was called "Super Saiyan Land" (I think it was Super Land, but that sounded stupid). It was some kind of Super Saiyan holy ground out there in the middle of space and Goku solemnly states, "I'm home".
Find out next time in your Dragonball-influenced dreams... psh.
It got me thinking though. Senzu Bean armor, Majin Buu taking over the universe, and what with a Super Saiyan god in existence...
I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

So she gotta happy ending at least.
edited 9th May '14 12:58:09 PM by FireShadow