Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

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Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by precita » Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:02 pm

I notice of all the original DBZ movies, Yamcha and Tenshihan only appear in two movies, Movie 3 and Movie 9. They are completely absent in all the other movies.

Whereas characters like Oolong, Yajirobe, Master Roshi are in quite a number of them, as are Krillin, Bulma, etc. So why were they left out?

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by OhHiRenan » Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:07 pm

I actually never noticed until now how non-present the side characters are in the movies. I knew Piccolo got phased out after a while but it never occurred to me that Tenshinhan and Yamucha had only been in two.

I'd say a big reason why the non fighting characters like Kame-Senin, Yajirobe, and Oolong are present while the supporting fighters aren't is really because the movies like to pick out a few key fights to have, and most of them go to Goku and the Saiyans/Piccolo in the first five), so there really isn't much room for the others to get some spotlight.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by Android 50 » Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:34 pm

Wow they were only in just 2?? I wish they were in more, I enjoyed the brief fights in movie 3 and Tien vs Trunks.
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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by FoolsGil » Sun Jan 15, 2017 9:57 pm

Actually, Yamcha and Tenshinhan were in Movie 14 Battle of Gods and Tenshinhan was in Movie 15 Resurrection of F

But to answer your question, they have terrible win/loss ratios unlike Piccolo and Vegeta, and they aren't endearing enough like Krillin and Gohan.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by dragonball0900 » Sun Jan 15, 2017 11:10 pm

I guess it's also because of how they are portrayed in the series.

In the Raditz arc, they were not present, so they wouldn't be present on the Garlick Jr movie either.

In the Saiyan arc, they died quickly, so they had to utilize the other characters for the Dr Wheelo movie.

In the Namek arc, however, they were with Piccolo on King Kai's planet, considering Piccolo seems to always being utilized in the movies, I guess that's the reason why they were in the Turles movie.

Then in the Frieza battle, they were not utilized in the main plot at all, and Piccolo was revived and part of the main plot. So they wouldn't be used in the Slug and Cooler movies.

Later in the Android and Cell arcs, Tien and specially Yamcha weren't used that much like the others.
I guess they were used to use the main 6 (Goku, Vegeta, Trunks, Piccolo, Gohan and Krillin). See, Goku is the main character, Vegeta is his rival, Gohan is his son, Trunks and Piccolo are the second ones in power, and would be there defeating the secondary villians, and Krillin, being Goku's best friend, is the one who represents the humans, and is there for the others, despite being the weakest in comparison to them (the saiyans and Piccolo).

I suppose that in Tien and Yamcha's case, Toei didn't know what to do with them, since I guess they wanted the most relevant and important characters (who were relevant and important in the original series) to be used in the movies.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by Kerunou » Mon Jan 16, 2017 12:58 am

I liked that little fight that Tien and Future Trunks had in the beginning of Bojack Unbound. Showed rapport between two pretty different characters that didn't have too much interaction in the show. I like Yamcha's portrayal in Path To Power, he was pretty cool in that. As for DBZ flicks, I can't think of any really notable appearances of his. I think it goes hand in hand with what they were doing with the characters in the anime at the time. Though, it's probably just coincidence that Tiens last really significant moments happen during androids/cell/Bojack.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by TheZFighter » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:40 am

Yes it is a shame, but this is the "Goku 'n' his Super Saiyan Friends" Show. It's Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and to a lesser extent, Piccolo, Future Trunks, Trunks and Goten, with Krillin drifting between "useful front line character" and "comic relief side character".

Characters like Oolong, Yajirobe and Master Roshi tend to just be a bit of light comic relief on the side, and aren't overly involved in the front line fighting, whereas Yamcha and Tien aren't particularly funny (in-universe at least, anyway).

I have to say though, Movie 3 has always been my one of my favourites of all of the original movies, and the reason for this is largely because we see the Z Fighters (Goku, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, and later, Gohan) all fighting together against an alternative, similarly-numbered crew (Turles, Daiz, Amond, Cacao, Rasin and Lakasei). I know how this show works, and I don't expect to see the non-Saiyan main characters fighting on par with the Saiyan characters, but they're characters I've always thoroughly enjoyed and I just like to see them involved.

I always really enjoyed Tien's fight against Future Trunks in Movie 9. I think Tien came off really well in that one. I quite enjoyed Yamcha's involvement as well, as he thought he had a chance of winning this tournament and then was very downhearted when he discovered that other Z-Fighters had entered, which I imagine reflects how most of the non-Saiyans would feel about these things. Both then tried their best against Bojack's fighters.

I liked Master Roshi's role in Movie 2 a lot as well, actually, as a villain who'd been frozen in ice for 50-odd years emerged, still thinking Roshi would be the strongest on Earth, and it quickly became apparent that he wasn't!
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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by coola » Mon Jan 16, 2017 11:36 am

The better question is, why they even appeared? They got their butts kicked by main villain mooks.
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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by DBZ Macky » Mon Jan 16, 2017 11:42 am

I, for one, am glad that we didn't get more stuff like Tenshinhan vs. Trunks.
It really makes no sense how he'd be able to fare so well against Trunks who had apparently been to the RoSaT at least once.
I would definitely love to see more of Tenshinhan though.
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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by TheGreatness25 » Mon Jan 16, 2017 12:18 pm

DBZ Macky wrote:I, for one, am glad that we didn't get more stuff like Tenshinhan vs. Trunks.
It really makes no sense how he'd be able to fare so well against Trunks who had apparently been to the RoSaT at least once.
I would definitely love to see more of Tenshinhan though.
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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by Lord Beerus » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:31 pm

coola wrote:The better question is, why they even appeared? They got their butts kicked by main villain mooks.
That's the point: put over the villain mooks, so that when Goku/Gohan/Vegeta easily kill them, it seems all the more impressive. Gotta keep those Saiyans looking strong.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by Gog » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:35 pm

Lord Beerus wrote:
coola wrote:The better question is, why they even appeared? They got their butts kicked by main villain mooks.
That's the point: put over the villain mooks, so that when Goku/Gohan/Vegeta easily kill them, it seems all the more impressive. Gotta keep those Saiyans looking strong.
Of course, we can't let the humans have anything of course.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by The gr » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:36 pm

Lord Beerus wrote: Gotta keep those Saiyans looking strong.
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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by nite_jay » Mon Jan 16, 2017 8:45 pm

They don't really show up much because they are basically irrelevant in DBZ.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by TheOverlyMadHatter » Mon Jan 16, 2017 10:22 pm

It didn't seem like they were all that popular at the time, not did Toei seem to have much use for them. They are soundly dispatched in M3, and again in M9 (though, at least Ten got a decent match with Trunks in that case.) Their only purpose in those films are to establish the minions as a threat, which is in itself is only to make Goku and Gohan seem that much more formidable in their respective movies when they take them down in one hit, a role which Gohan (when this isn't M9) and Kuririn already fulfilled in most other movies.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by kinisking » Mon Jan 16, 2017 11:31 pm

DBZ Macky wrote:I, for one, am glad that we didn't get more stuff like Tenshinhan vs. Trunks.
It really makes no sense how he'd be able to fare so well against Trunks who had apparently been to the RoSaT at least once.
I would definitely love to see more of Tenshinhan though.
Saiyans never surpassed freeza in their base forms. It's the super Saiyan transformations that have them so far ahead.
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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by JulianStyles » Tue Jan 17, 2017 12:23 am

Because Toei doesn't think much of them. It's also why you should Take the Tien vs Trunks fight seriously. As they wouldn't hype up Tien over Krillin. Which is exactly what's shown in Bojack.

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by DBZ Macky » Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:39 am

kinisking wrote: Saiyans never surpassed freeza in their base forms. It's the super Saiyan transformations that have them so far ahead.
I'll agree with you on that. But really, it makes no difference anyways. The way I've always seen it is that the Saiyans are a fair bit weaker than True Form Freeza but likewise, the Earthlings are a fair bit weaker than 1st Form Freeza... at least in the Manga.
So seems a bit odd that Tenshinhan would be able to put up a fight against an opponent roughly 200x stronger than him.
And people thought Nappa vs. Goku was bad enough.
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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by Pantalones » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:59 am

I'll agree with you on that. But really, it makes no difference anyways. The way I've always seen it is that the Saiyans are a fair bit weaker than True Form Freeza but likewise, the Earthlings are a fair bit weaker than 1st Form Freeza... at least in the Manga.
There's absolutely nothing that says the humans never surpassed even first-form Freeza. That's not "in the manga," it's in the fandom.

(Now, it's safe to say they never surpassed final-form Freeza considering that even the Saiyans never pulled that off in their base forms until after gaining godly ki and all that. But if you're going to insist on lowballing the humans to absurd extents, at least admit that's only your own preference rather than trying to claim it actually comes from the manga in any way, shape, or form.)

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Re: Why are Yamcha and Tenshinhan only in Movies 3 and 9?

Post by DBZ Macky » Thu Jan 19, 2017 4:00 am

I'll agree with you on that. But really, it makes no difference anyways. The way I've always seen it is that the Saiyans are a fair bit weaker than True Form Freeza but likewise, the Earthlings are a fair bit weaker than 1st Form Freeza... at least in the Manga.
Pantalones, please take time to read others' post before making your own. I never claimed that the Manga stated anything of that sort.
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