What are your thoughts and feelings on the female characters within the franchise?

The reason I ask is because DB is heavily testosterone fueled with the majority of characters and fights featuring males, or even asexual or genderless aliens/demons/androids (Namekians, all mechanical androids) having male like bodies. Very few female fighters and some who once were (Like ChiChi and Videl) giving it up to tend to their family life/motherhood, which is fine, but yeah.

Early Dragon Ball featured a few more female fighters like in the tournaments and the RRA, but once the Saiyan arc and so on rolled along female fighters and even supportive characters were far and few between with 18 being the most notable exception but even she doesn't get much action compared to the fellas even after still being a fighter post settling down with Krillin and having a child.

Movie wise we pretty much got Zangya in Bojack's crew who was ultimately made into cannon fodder by her own boss due to her cowardice. We got Seripa/Fasha in the original Bardock special who didn't have much screen time. Princess Snake in Z filler, the female evil dragon in GT, etc... Even Arinsu in Daima didn't lift a finger fighting wise and Panzy was like a young demon realm Bulma with her tech knowledge.

Let's be honest, the most useful and important female characters in DB history have been non fighting supportive characters. Bulma being arguably the most important female character ever and one of the most important in general with her dragon radar, Capsule Corp. Capsules, the time machine, repairing 16, etc... As mentioned above, Panzy being good with tech stuff to a degree, Suno helping aide Goku in the RRA arc, and even GT Pan talking Oozaru Goku down and harnessing SSJ4.

You could argue that even ChiChi being the mother of Gohan and Goten and Videl being the mother of Pan along with Bulma birthing Trunks (future mainly) are major "supportive contributions" if you wanna get technical about it, but that sounds kinda crass like women are just baby makers, which isn't the case.

Then DBS era came around and we got a breath of fresh air with Caulifla, Kale and Kefla even though some fans aren't crazy about the U6 Saiyans, personally I don't care for Kale, but I appreciate seeing more female fighters/Super saiyans. U7 also got to know Goku's mom a bit, but she wasn't a fighter.

There is still hope that DBS Pan gets more development and maybe becomes a fighter in the future and even Bra who hasn't shown any fighting abilities/latent power yet but has shown signs of having Bulma's brains, which could mix well with being a fighter too, but its too early to tell with them.

Many fans want to see more formidable and powerful female fighters whether an ally or an enemy, and I can't blame them, DB has largely been a boys club 90% of the time. Not exactly a rare thing for most shonen action franchises, but DB fans seem to want more female fighters and not just supportive sideliners.

Female Characters