Dragon Ball: What Happened To Launch?

There are few TV shows — live-action or animated — with the kind of cultural impact that "Dragon Ball" has. No matter how legendary its reputation, trust us when we say this classic anime is somehow even better than its legacy would suggest. How many authors can say they created a title that's become synonymous with an entire medium? Well, Akira Toriyama could. "Dragon Ball" and "Dragon Ball Z" are virtually interchangeable with anime as a whole. It's one of the first shows to come to mind when you think of anime, similar to "Pokémon." Meanwhile, its protagonist Son Goku has been the archetypal anime protagonist for 40 years, inspiring dozens upon dozens of other anime characters with spiky hair over the decades.

"Dragon Ball" is a global institution. It turned millions of kids into anime fans around the world, and the franchise even helped save Toonami. What's more, this is the anime that brought tens of thousands of people together on the streets of Mexico just to watch a cartoon fight in a public square.

As iconic as the franchise is, and as high quality as it still is, "Dragon Ball" is also a bit of a miracle. Toriyama famously did not plan to turn his manga into what it became, as it started as a gag comedy-heavy story before becoming a sci-fi, martial arts action epic. The late, great author often pivoted from his plans, retconned his own work, or even outright forgot about characters and plots. This leads to several threads seemingly disappearing out of nowhere.

One of these is the character of Launch, which was a big part of the early days of "Dragon Ball" but is nowhere to be found in "Dragon Ball Z." Let's dig into this mystery.

Launch was an early addition to the cast of "Dragon Ball," debuting in chapter 26 of the manga and episode 15 of the anime. After Master Roshi agrees to train Goku and Krillin on the condition that they get him a date with a pretty girl, the two young boys spot Launch on the run from some cops, shooting at them with a shotgun. The problem is, when the girl suddenly sneezes, her hair turns into a different color, and she becomes meeker, more shy, and a lot less badass.

The purple-haired version of Launch has no idea what her shotgun-wielding blond-haired version did or why she was on the run. Turns out, Launch has two personalities, a violent one and a nice one, and she switches from one to the other every time she sneezes — without any awareness of what the other does. Launch agrees to follow Goku and Krillin back to Master Roshi's house, where she doesn't agree to a date, but she does move in with the guys. From there, Launch becomes a constant presence in "Dragon Ball," appearing in and around the Kami house virtually every time we're there. 

Last time we saw Launch was after the 22nd Strongest Under the Heavens tournament, where she was awed by Tien's prowess and developed a crush on him. She spent the remainder of the original "Dragon Ball" trying to win over Tien.

Unfortunately, by the time "Dragon Ball Z" began with a time skip and a brand new saga, Launch was nowhere to be seen.

The only other appearance by Launch in the anime comes in episode 285 of "Dragon Ball Z" where she is briefly seen donating energy to the worldwide Spirit Dumb during Goku's fight with Majin Buu. Sadly, that scene is anime-exclusive and not technically canon.

For years, fans have joked that Toriyama simply forgot about Launch, but that's not entirely true. In fact, Toriyama was always clear and consistent with Launch's fate. During a 1996 interview (via CBR), Toriyama said, "Launch went off chasing after Tien Shinhan. Tien Shinhan would also go from place to place while training with Chiaotzu, so they'd never meet up. But surely they've managed to miraculously cross paths."

This idea is repeated in interviews and even supplemental material, such as a gag strip Toriyama wrote and drew in 1990, which showed what several "Dragon Ball" characters were doing during the Planet Namek fight. Launch is briefly seen in hiking gear, walking through a mountainous forest, wondering where Tien went.

We do have one slightly different answer from Toriyama on what happened to Launch after she went out to find Tien. During a TV interview (via Kanzenshuu) to promote "Dragon Ball Z: Battle Of Gods," Toriyama explained what happened to several characters after the end of the manga's story. He then comes to Tien's epilogue, and said that Launch not only found Tien, but they even lived together for a bit (reluctantly). "But she wasn't cut out for farming, and Tenshinhan has no interest in romance, so she left after just a few days. After that, it seems Lunch apparently stops in from time to time."

So there you have it. Not the happiest ending for Launch, but a consistent ending for Tien.