Why do people say ChiChi is uncaring?

[MediaFanGirl93]

Forgive me for asking this, as I am rarely on this website anymore.

I mean, when some fans say that ChiChi is uncaring, they stay bringing up the incident after the Saiyan Saga when she only cares about Gohan and ignores Goku. To be fair, I can understand why fans would be pissed, but people use this incident to define her character.

While I find anime Chi-Chi to be very annoying with her nagging towards Goku and Gohan, she's shown many times that she cares about them. Plus, Chi Chi gets upset when anything bad happens to Goku and Gohan, so I don't get how anyone would say she's uncaring.

[NeoKING]

Forgive me for asking this, as I am rarely on this website anymore.

I mean, when some fans say that ChiChi is uncaring, they stay bringing up the incident after the Saiyan Saga when she only cares about Gohan and ignores Goku. To be fair, I can understand why fans would be pissed, but people use this incident to define her character.

While I find anime Chi-Chi to be very annoying with her nagging towards Goku and Gohan, she's shown many times that she cares about them. Plus, Chi Chi gets upset when anything bad happens to Goku and Gohan, so I don't get how anyone would say she's uncaring.

She already knows Goku is a battle-friendly fool. Bringing in her first and at the time, only son into battles for his life when he's only what, 5? I'd say screw Goku too.

However, there are moments that suggests that despite how they act, Goku cares about Chi-Chi and his family more than anything, and likewise for Chi-Chi. Recall the images in his mind before he fired the Kaioken Kamehame-ha towards Freeza, and when he took the blast from Beerus to protect the Earth (Chi-Chi was the first person to come to his mind).

[DBZAOTA482]

Your answer should be obvious:

1. They want Goku's monkey dick 'cross their faces.

2. They're one of those 13-year olds/adult children who care only for power levels and shit, and like living vicariously through Gohan's life.

3. They have mommy issues.

4. They're mainly familiar with the anime, specifically the dub.

and/or

5. They're fanon-shippers.

[ABED]

She already knows Goku is a battle-friendly fool. Bringing in her first and at the time, only son into battles for his life when he's only what, 5? I'd say screw Goku too.

Goku didn't bring in Gohan to the battle.

I don't think Chichi is uncaring, but I don't think she was in love with Goku. Her idea of what a wife and mother are comes from what she's read.

[MediaFanGirl93]

Your answer should be obvious:

1. They want Goku's monkey dick 'cross their faces.

2. They're one of those 13-year olds/adult children who care only for power levels and shit, and like living vicariously through Gohan's life.

3. They have mommy issues.

4. They're mainly familiar with the anime, specifically the dub.

and/or

5. They're fanon-shippers.

Okay, responding to all your answers....

1. While I do love Goku, I do agree that some Chi-Chi haters are always sucking Goku.

2. Well, that's kind of understandable. While It's annoying how fans are like that towards Chi-Chi, try to look at it from their perspective. DBZ is a shounen anime and fighting is one of its prime focuses, so by them watching the sho an seeing Chi-Chi keep them fro fighting, of course they'd be a little annoyed.

3. Ironically, I encountered a Chi-Chi hater who hated Chi-Chi because she reminded him of his mother.

4. I used to dislike (not hate) Chi-Chi myself because I only watched the anime and not the manga. I read the manga and found Chi-Chi to be pretty chill, despite her having only two bad scenes. However, I dont think we can use this defense anymore, because some of her bad moments are still there, and some fans expect her to be perfect since she's Goku's wife and all.

5. Yeah, I've seen people whine about her "getting in the way" of Goku/Vegeta and Goku/Bulma.

[mAcChaos]

It's not really unusual for a mom to fret and fuss over her 5 year old kid over the grown man when the kid got all beat up.

[Kendamu]

Y'know, I always took that "defining moment" of Chichi going straight to Gohan right after the fight against Vegeta as a gag. It was set up just like one. All the shots were framed so that it looked like she was going to help the obviously more injured Goku. It makes sense considering how much she worried for his safety during the last huge fight he had with Piccolo in the 23rd Budokai. Then, the tone changes completely as soon as she hops right over Goku and she starts telling Gohan's name and whatnot. I'm pretty sure it's the exact same setup in the manga, too.

If you look at it any other way, you're just missing Toriyama's humor (as well as Japanese humor in general) completely and taking the scene way too seriously.

Of course Chichi cares for Goku. That instance was just a chance to do something funny.

[GokuT23]

Chichi is definitely a caring mother, very strict mother but a caring mother

[Zelvin]

Goku getting beat up is like a Tuesday event, so that's nothing new for Chi-Chi. But her devotion to her son also comes from the fact she seriously wants someone Educated in her family. I mean, she and her father grew up on a Mountain with wealth. Until the place was set on fire and blown to bits by Roshi. The only money Goku ever made was from the Budokai tournaments, and Chi-Chi has no job or skills of her own outside being a Home Maker and the scariest woman on the planet. So Gohan was her dream, to get him to be a Scholar and the complete opposite of her husband, who is about as intelligent as a brick soaked in apple sauce.

Gohan was the future of the family, so fighting for his life was not something Chi-Chi ever wished for him. She is certainly overbearing to an extreme degree. But this was her first child and ever since the introduction of Raditz, she's scarcely been with her son up until after the Cell Saga. Since Gohan goes from being kidnapped by Raditz, to kidnapped and trained by Piccolo, to a hospital stay and then a Month+ time in Space and on Namek before coming home. Then that one solid year gets interrupted by 3yrs of training for the androids, more constant fighting for his life, until finally that nightmare is over.

Chi-Chi only got more lax after having Goten, whom she wanted to take after Goku instead of Gohan. Gohan was now free of the burden of having to fight and could pursue his education and with Goku apparently dead on a permanent basis, Goten greatly resembling him was all Chi-Chi had left to look forward to. And it is unfortunate that neither Gohan nor Goten would ever end up taking over as the protector of Earth and taking up the mantle left behind by Goku, since they magic'd him back to life and made him the main hero once again.

[voltlunok]

I don't think she is uncaring, in fact I think it's the opposite! She is over caring. She cares so much about Gohan and his future that she forgets that he is Goku's son. That maybe he will end up like his dad, which isn't good as there is definately a shift in the world between DB and DBZ. Martial arts don't seem to be as big and amazing in DBZ compared to DB, where they were pretty much everything. Maybe Chi-chi sees this and wants Gohan to work towards something more secure.

To me the defining moment of when I really liked Chi-chi and what really sums her up was in the cell saga. When Goku woke up from the virus and was on the beach and she ran down the Kame House roof and jumped into Goku's arms. I teared up at that, it was such a great moment.

[mAcChaos]

At my job a lot of my coworkers are parents with very young kids, and they act just like Chi Chi. In fact, even moreso considering that Chi Chi is reacting to her kid going off to fight some alien menace. With my coworkers though they start to panic if their kids wandered out of sight for a few minutes. And it's the perfectly natural reaction.

[Zelvin]

That maybe he will end up like his dad, which isn't good as there is definately a shift in the world between DB and DBZ. Martial arts don't seem to be as big and amazing in DBZ compared to DB, where they were pretty much everything. Maybe Chi-chi sees this and wants Gohan to work towards something more secure.

That's not entirely it. I mean, look at the end of the 23rd Budokai. There wasn't anything left of it. Piccolo turned the entire island into a barren dust ball. They wouldn't get the tournament up and running again ten or so years, and probably on a completely different island. Also, Goku had no need to go back to them since he accomplished his goal with it; which was to be the world champion at least once. He had almost succeeded against Jackie Chun (Roshi) and Tenshinhan, but never quite proved he was the strongest until that fight with Piccolo. Once that was done, he had no reason to go back.

The next time we even hear anything about the World Tournaments was the Cell Saga where we hear of how Hercule is now the World Champion and it's apparent all the contestants from those ones are pretty weak, generic fighters. All the previous fighters like Nam and such never participated after Piccolo busted the place up fighting Goku,

Plus Toriyama changed styles after the end of Dragon Ball. DB was that fantasy/martial arts comedy, whereas DBZ is more Sci-Fi/Martial Arts.

[Lord Beerus]

Chi Chi loves her family. I think it's the moment where she completely disregards a virtually paralyzed Goku in favour of making sure Gohan was okay was one of those "never live it down" moments and resulted in Goku fanboys and fangirls demonized her and thinking she would give two shits about Goku's wellbeing. I mean Chi Chi in way embodies the concept of "Adult Fear". I mean would you want your five year old son to travel into space and battle aliens the could destroy planets ten time larger than Earth with ease? And at the same time she love her family so much that she just want nothing other than them living financially secure so that the family can take care of themselves as the years go by, just like every other mother that has ever existed.

Ironically, during the Buu arc it's hinted that Chi Chi actually felt guilty over Goku's death at the Cell Games, due to her willingness to let Goku take part in it and at the same time constant nagging that Gohan shouldn't take part in it and she mellowed out an incredible amount. Even to the point where she trained Goten in martial arts.

[Gyt Kaliba]

I could try rebutting a few of the other notions brought out in this post, but since they're pretty much all loaded with assumptions...I'll just tackle this one.

4. They're mainly familiar with the anime, specifically the dub.

That's the thing though - while it may be more pronounced in the dub, it's still there in the sub. And in the manga. Some of Chi Chi's worst moments are still very much there in the manga, it's just that they're not heightened to the same level of annoying that the anime does by extending said scenes while adding like twenty more.

I think I'm never going to know exactly how to feel about Chi Chi, personally. On the one hand, I totally get where she's coming from. She just wants a safe, happy life, with the family that she always envisioned having. Whatever romance she saw about the martial arts, having been one herself, seems to have promptly gone out the window after the 23rd Budokai, and that's understandable - she witnessed Piccolo practically slaughter her fiance, that would shake anyone to their core. Goku, while not an outright terrible person, is still far from the perfect mate. He's not really that attentive as a husband and definitely not the world's greatest provider, and it's definitely not the life that Chi Chi always thought she'd have.

...That's kind of also where my sympathy starts to fall apart though. Chi Chi's whole idea of romance and the life she wants seems incredibly, incredibly skewed. For some reason she seems fixated on having this perfect, storybook life, and while she does seem to make the best of the life she does get, it's still kind of hard to sympathize too much when she should have known what she was getting in to, and that it was going to be far from what she seemed to think it was going to be. Her 'beloved' didn't even remember who she was at first...he hadn't gone to see her at all since their first meeting (disregarding filler anyway)...he thought marriage was a type of food...he promptly agreed to marry her after all simply because 'I guess I did say that huh'...and he's still very into the martial arts, despite being the one who actually did almost die at the Budokai. There's evidence at every turn that her life isn't going to be the perfect thing that she thought it was going to be, and yet, she still chooses to go with it anyway. If there was more shown between the two, it could maybe be argued that she just loved Goku that much, and perhaps it did grow into that over time...but I think the truth of it is that she was just in love with the idea of love that much, and Goku just happened to be on the other end of it.

And as far as Gohan goes? Again, I totally get where she's coming from. He's way too young to be involved in the things he's involved in, to have his life always in danger. However, Chi Chi can't seem to realize that despite that fact, he is needed to help out due to his strength (even where he fails, he still at least prolongs things enough for others to arrive). It would be something hard for any parent to realize, but she never even seems to try. For me it all goes back to a sentiment that seems to exist in every dub and translation, as well as being in the original Japanese and the manga both - she flat out states that she doesn't care what happens to the Earth, so long as Gohan goes to school and gets a good education. ...If the Earth is destroyed, there's not going to be a school for him to go to. At all. I'm not saying that she would literally rather have her child die than him help save his (and the rest of humanities) livelihoods...but she's definitely not thinking things through as clearly as she should.

So in short, Chi Chi is a complicated case to me. As much as I understand her, I also think she's very hard to fully sympathize with, so it's little wonder why so many people - including myself - often have issues with her as a character.

[DBZAOTA482]

That's the thing though - while it may be more pronounced in the dub, it's still there in the sub. And in the manga. Some of Chi Chi's worst moments are still very much there in the manga, it's just that they're not heightened to the same level of annoying that the anime does by extending said scenes while adding like twenty more.

It's not the same as, say, Bulma on Namek where TOEI simply add in a shit ton of scenes. They pretty much exaggerate those traits as one of the writers even admitted.

he thought marriage was a type of food...he promptly agreed to marry her after all simply because 'I guess I did say that huh'...and he's still very into the martial arts.

Anime-only does he say it to her face. In the manga, he just thinks it to himself.

Just throwing that out there.

[ABED]

Admittedly, having gone back and looked at the manga, she's in very little of it. What she is in, she's a tad strict for my taste, but not necessarily that bad. I could've done without her not caring for her injured husband, but much of people's perceptions of the character is due to filler, which may or may not be consistent with how Toriyama thinks of her. My views on her have softened over the years, and I'm glad she lightened up with Goten.

[Eire]

For me Chi-Chi was the character with the most understandable background. Basically

Her idea of what a wife and mother are comes from what she's read.

She has lost her mother when she was a baby and due to her father's er... job been isolated for most of her youth. Everything she could have learn about interacting with others would be from pop culture and popular perception.
And what kind of the ideal woman was dominating Japanese media when Dragon Ball was created and long before? A wife. A mother. With kids who work hard to obtain the best degree, get to the best college etc. I don't think it was Toriyama's intention but he created a perfect image of the woman who wants to have a life from those magazines for the good housewife. Too bad for her that she missed that this ideal housewife is usually completed by calm salaryman who brings money to the house and doesn't meddle with raising children.
Or maybe it was? It's an old proverb that when your first-born swallows a coin you call the ambulance, but when second child does the same you don't mind (and the third one had to pay back from pocket money)ion. With Goten she had some experience and mellowed a bit (Gohan after all didn't join punks).
And say what you want about her relationship with Goku, but she was used to have him beaten. And her reaction when she heard he is coming back from the dead to visit was one of the most heartwarming moments of the series.

[MediaFanGirl93]

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[DarkPrince_92]

I think uncaring is the wrong word. People think she's a bitch, for lack of better term. She just like my mother, very serious, RATIONAL and blunt. I still love my mom, just btw.

They think Chi-chi hinders Gohan's growth as a fighter, which I guess is true, but Gohan wants to be a scholar just as bad as his mother wants him to be.

I think she dropped the ball with Goten though... he's a lost cause.

[dbboxkaifan]

I honestly don't really like her much as a female character much less as a mother because of her questionable behaviours she has. That said, she's still slightly better than Barbara (Gotham) as she's loyal to her husband, feeds their family and looks out for them (although too harsh on Goku and Gohan at times).