Bulma’s Hair Color

[SorikaiWolf89]

What is Bulma’s official hair color ???

As we all know Bulma’s hair color seems to constantly be changing over the years and I’m assuming has been discussed for decades but here we are again in an endless loop bc there apparently IS no official color for her hair

At first it was purple in the manga , changed to various hues of turquoise in the DB , DBZ , and GT anime , then years later in Super it was changed to a mid sky blue

The light to mid tone turquoise is her most consistent color and my personal favorite so I’d like to say that’s the official one until they changed it yet again in Super

Why is that ? Why do they keep changing her hair color so much ? It’s honestly kinda annoying and frustrating to me and I’m sure a lot of fans

Same with Trunks’ hair too but that’s a whole different discussion that I’ll make another separate post on later …

[Zebra]

Toriyama said that he wasn't sure whether her natural hair color was blue or purple.

He first gave her blue hair in the first chapter. Switched to purple in the third, but occasionally went back to blue. Starting in 2013, however, Toriyama always gave Bulma blue hair.

The anime has always given Bulma blue hair, aside from the 10th anniversary film in 1996.

[Luso Saiyan]

Toriyama colored it both ways, so both are official.

Trunks inherited his hair color from Bulma.

[angeldreamZ004]

It's a big artistic confusion, but I already figured out a while ago a simple way to explain it.

Aside from Chapter 1,There were indeed some instances in the 80 / 90s where Toriyama gave her blue hair, or some weird mixture of blue with lilac even with Trunks as seen in Volume 32 cover art
But almmost all of the time her hair is purple / lilac, and the same goes for Trunks. (Note that I'm considering all of Toriyama art, not only the manga)
Purple was adopted for both in the full color manga with the exception of chapters 1 and 2 where they use the turquoise blue.

Toei would adopt the turquoise blue for Bulma in the entire animated run, which I believe they got from the first chapter in the manga with the original colors by Toriyama and also some art. The only except to this being the 1996 movie where they gave her the lilac hair.

The last time the turquoise blue is seen for Bulma is in Battle of Gods and the Beerus arc in the Super anime.

Starting from this movie Battle of Gods in 2013, Toriyama viewed both Bulma and Trunks with Blue Hair, a permanent switch for him, as he also applied it to Future Trunks in Super. The Full Color Super manga followed this idea accurately.
After the Beerus story, Toei adopts the true blue for Bulma as Toriyama intended, so Bulma has the blue from Toriyama until Daima.

But then there's Trunks. I believe the confusion starts in the 90s when Toei decides to not give him Turquoise hair, which would make more sense with Bulma's hair in the anime, but they kept lilac for both Present and Future versions of him for some reason during the entire Z anime, then followed by Present Trunks also sharing the same color in GT. And Toei never abandoned that hair color for him in anything animated, in Battle of Gods despite existing a model for him with blue hair just like in Toriyama's art, they still decided to use lilac for him in the movie for whathever reason and that was kept for the Super anime.

That created a huge confusion as Present Trunks would continue with lilac hair in the anime, but when Future Trunks arrives, Toei follow's Toriyama's idea and gives him blue hair instead, so they ended messing up the color of Kid Trunks' hair in the anime. The only time they gave the correct hair color for Present Trunks was when he grew up in Super Hero. Of course in the next animation which was Daima, where he's a kid again, they went back to lilac

And it seems that Toei doesn't plan to correct that mistake anytime soon, as Kid Trunks still shows up with lilac hair in the trailer for the Super anime 2.0 (1:36 and 1:57)
Of course they can fix it in the release, or maybe give Future Trunks the lilac hair too, but I believe they'll just leave it inconsistent between the two Trunks as it was in the anime version 1.0 / 1.5

So in summary:

Original Manga / Toriyama Run = Both Bulma and Trunks mostly with purple hair with some exceptions where it was colored blue or turquoise.
Modern Toriyama Run = Both Bulma and Trunks with Blue hair.
Original Toei Anime Run = Bulma with Turquoise hair with the exception of the 1996 movie. Trunks with Purple hair.
Modern Toei Anime Run = Bulma with Turquoise hair, but changes to Pure Blue after Beerus. Kid Trunks with Purple hair, but changes to Blue when he's older in Super Hero. Future Trunks is blue.

A extra. Toriyama gave the Trunks' part of Gotenks' hair a white color palette in Super Hero for some reason (this video at 4:35) we don't know if he either forgot to color it blue or he simply decided to color it white because he thought it looked cool.

[Grimlock]

So in summary:

Original Manga / Toriyama Run = Both Bulma and Trunks mostly with purple hair with some exceptions where it was colored blue or turquoise.

Might as well add that Dragon Ball Online, which uses manga colors, goes with purple hair for Trunks.

A extra. Toriyama gave the Trunks' part of Gotenks' hair a white color palette in Super Hero for some reason (this video at 4:35) we don't know if he either forgot to color it blue or he simply decided to color it white because he thought it looked cool.

Huh, I can't remember if I noticed that at the time. Nonetheless, that does remind me: Trunks with blue hair and Gotenks with purple hair in the movie...

[angeldreamZ004]

Might as well add that Dragon Ball Online, which uses manga colors, goes with purple hair for Trunks.

I didn't intend to include games subseries, but that's right and they precisely always used the same color for the differente versions of Trunks in Xenoverse and Heroes, so Z Kid & Mirai Trunks and DBO Trunks in XV1 & 2 have purple hair while DBS Mirai Trunks has blue hair. In Super DB Heroes especially in the anime both Xeno Trunks and DBS Mirai Trunks appear, DBS with Blue hair and Xeno with Purple / Lilac hair. So technically there are two grown up Trunks with different hair colors in Heroes.

Trunks with blue hair and Gotenks with purple hair in the movie...

It's always purple in the Super manga (Gotenks, which makes no sense as it should be blue), in the 2022 movie it clearly looks white to me just like Toryima's design, (it's even more clear in promotional art) which is a lot weirder than if they used purple

[SorikaiWolf89]

Toriyama said that he wasn't sure whether her natural hair color was blue or purple.

He first gave her blue hair in the first chapter. Switched to purple in the third, but occasionally went back to blue. Starting in 2013, however, Toriyama always gave Bulma blue hair.

The anime has always given Bulma blue hair, aside from the 10th anniversary film in 1996.

So basically Toriyama couldn’t decide on her hair color bc he liked it in both turquoise and purple but seemed to prefer it in turquoise overall as it was the most consistent color

I personally like it best in turquoise
Whenever I see Bulma with purple hair it just looks weird to me for some reason probably bc the turquoise hair is the color I’m most used to seeing bc I grew up with the anime

[SorikaiWolf89]

It's a big artistic confusion, but I already figured out a while ago a simple way to explain it.

Aside from Chapter 1,There were indeed some instances in the 80 / 90s where Toriyama gave her blue hair, or some weird mixture of blue with lilac even with Trunks as seen in Volume 32 cover art
But almmost all of the time her hair is purple / lilac, and the same goes for Trunks. (Note that I'm considering all of Toriyama art, not only the manga)
Purple was adopted for both in the full color manga with the exception of chapters 1 and 2 where they use the turquoise blue.

Toei would adopt the turquoise blue for Bulma in the entire animated run, which I believe they got from the first chapter in the manga with the original colors by Toriyama and also some art. The only except to this being the 1996 movie where they gave her the lilac hair.

The last time the turquoise blue is seen for Bulma is in Battle of Gods and the Beerus arc in the Super anime.

Starting from this movie Battle of Gods in 2013, Toriyama viewed both Bulma and Trunks with Blue Hair, a permanent switch for him, as he also applied it to Future Trunks in Super. The Full Color Super manga followed this idea accurately.
After the Beerus story, Toei adopts the true blue for Bulma as Toriyama intended, so Bulma has the blue from Toriyama until Daima.

But then there's Trunks. I believe the confusion starts in the 90s when Toei decides to not give him Turquoise hair, which would make more sense with Bulma's hair in the anime, but they kept lilac for both Present and Future versions of him for some reason during the entire Z anime, then followed by Present Trunks also sharing the same color in GT. And Toei never abandoned that hair color for him in anything animated, in Battle of Gods despite existing a model for him with blue hair just like in Toriyama's art, they still decided to use lilac for him in the movie for whathever reason and that was kept for the Super anime.

That created a huge confusion as Present Trunks would continue with lilac hair in the anime, but when Future Trunks arrives, Toei follow's Toriyama's idea and gives him blue hair instead, so they ended messing up the color of Kid Trunks' hair in the anime. The only time they gave the correct hair color for Present Trunks was when he grew up in Super Hero. Of course in the next animation which was Daima, where he's a kid again, they went back to lilac

And it seems that Toei doesn't plan to correct that mistake anytime soon, as Kid Trunks still shows up with lilac hair in the trailer for the Super anime 2.0 (1:36 and 1:57)
Of course they can fix it in the release, or maybe give Future Trunks the lilac hair too, but I believe they'll just leave it inconsistent between the two Trunks as it was in the anime version 1.0 / 1.5

So in summary:

Original Manga / Toriyama Run = Both Bulma and Trunks mostly with purple hair with some exceptions where it was colored blue or turquoise.
Modern Toriyama Run = Both Bulma and Trunks with Blue hair.
Original Toei Anime Run = Bulma with Turquoise hair with the exception of the 1996 movie. Trunks with Purple hair.
Modern Toei Anime Run = Bulma with Turquoise hair, but changes to Pure Blue after Beerus. Kid Trunks with Purple hair, but changes to Blue when he's older in Super Hero. Future Trunks is blue.




Why didn’t Toriyama and Toei just stay with the original hair colors though for Bulma and Trunks ? Why did they change the colors in the first place ? That’s the main thing I’m wondering about

I mean Trunks originally had the hair color of his grandfather Dr Briefs so the blood relation there is obvious enough
His and Bulma’s hair colors didn’t exactly need to be the same to show they were mother and son

There are other anime where the parent and child hair colors don’t match
Just look at Usagi , Mamorou, and Chibi Usa from Sailor Moon
They all have radically different hair colors :
Blonde, black, and light pink

[SorikaiWolf89]

It's a big artistic confusion, but I already figured out a while ago a simple way to explain it.

Aside from Chapter 1,There were indeed some instances in the 80 / 90s where Toriyama gave her blue hair, or some weird mixture of blue with lilac even with Trunks as seen in Volume 32 cover art
But almmost all of the time her hair is purple / lilac, and the same goes for Trunks. (Note that I'm considering all of Toriyama art, not only the manga)
Purple was adopted for both in the full color manga with the exception of chapters 1 and 2 where they use the turquoise blue.

Toei would adopt the turquoise blue for Bulma in the entire animated run, which I believe they got from the first chapter in the manga with the original colors by Toriyama and also some art. The only except to this being the 1996 movie where they gave her the lilac hair.

The last time the turquoise blue is seen for Bulma is in Battle of Gods and the Beerus arc in the Super anime.

Starting from this movie Battle of Gods in 2013, Toriyama viewed both Bulma and Trunks with Blue Hair, a permanent switch for him, as he also applied it to Future Trunks in Super. The Full Color Super manga followed this idea accurately.
After the Beerus story, Toei adopts the true blue for Bulma as Toriyama intended, so Bulma has the blue from Toriyama until Daima.

But then there's Trunks. I believe the confusion starts in the 90s when Toei decides to not give him Turquoise hair, which would make more sense with Bulma's hair in the anime, but they kept lilac for both Present and Future versions of him for some reason during the entire Z anime, then followed by Present Trunks also sharing the same color in GT. And Toei never abandoned that hair color for him in anything animated, in Battle of Gods despite existing a model for him with blue hair just like in Toriyama's art, they still decided to use lilac for him in the movie for whathever reason and that was kept for the Super anime.

That created a huge confusion as Present Trunks would continue with lilac hair in the anime, but when Future Trunks arrives, Toei follow's Toriyama's idea and gives him blue hair instead, so they ended messing up the color of Kid Trunks' hair in the anime. The only time they gave the correct hair color for Present Trunks was when he grew up in Super Hero. Of course in the next animation which was Daima, where he's a kid again, they went back to lilac

And it seems that Toei doesn't plan to correct that mistake anytime soon, as Kid Trunks still shows up with lilac hair in the trailer for the Super anime 2.0 (1:36 and 1:57)
Of course they can fix it in the release, or maybe give Future Trunks the lilac hair too, but I believe they'll just leave it inconsistent between the two Trunks as it was in the anime version 1.0 / 1.5

So in summary:

Original Manga / Toriyama Run = Both Bulma and Trunks mostly with purple hair with some exceptions where it was colored blue or turquoise.
Modern Toriyama Run = Both Bulma and Trunks with Blue hair.
Original Toei Anime Run = Bulma with Turquoise hair with the exception of the 1996 movie. Trunks with Purple hair.
Modern Toei Anime Run = Bulma with Turquoise hair, but changes to Pure Blue after Beerus. Kid Trunks with Purple hair, but changes to Blue when he's older in Super Hero. Future Trunks is blue.

A extra. Toriyama gave the Trunks' part of Gotenks' hair a white color palette in Super Hero for some reason (this video at 4:35) we don't know if he either forgot to color it blue or he simply decided to color it white because he thought it looked cool.

Why didn’t Toriyama and Toei just stay with the original hair colors though for Bulma and Trunks ? Why did they change the colors in the first place ? That’s the main thing I’m wondering about

I mean Trunks originally had the hair color of his grandfather Dr Briefs so the blood relation there is obvious enough
His and Bulma’s hair colors didn’t exactly need to be the same to show they were mother and son

There are other anime where the parent and child hair colors don’t match
Just look at Usagi , Mamorou, and Chibi Usa from Sailor Moon
They all have radically different hair colors :
Blonde, black, and light pink

As with any anime and manga the hair colors don’t have to make sense bc at the end of the day the characters are fictional and not real people

The audience doesn’t really need definitive obvious proof characters are related like hair color or eye color
All we need is for the narrative to say so and for the characters to confirm this themselves not necessarily always verbally but by either living together, their dialogue together, or their behavior around each other like teasing for example usually with siblings close in age

A good example of this is Yusuke and his mom Atsuko
They look nothing alike with them both having different hair colors :
light/ medium brown for Atsuko and black with green highlights for Yusuke

The narrative says they are mother and son Yusuke confirms that Atsuko is his mom upon her introduction and the narrative also confirms it by showing them living in the same apartment room and their casual interactions with each other

Another good example also from Yu Yu Hakusho is Hiei and Yukina
The only thing that’s the same with them as twin siblings is :
their age, height, and eye color are both red
Besides those things they are complete opposites in personality and you guessed it have different hair colors :
Black with white streaks for Hiei and turquoise for Yukina

Not to mention from DBZ the twin Androids 17 and 18 who have the complete opposite hair colors :
jet black with gray undertones for 17 and platinum blonde for 18

In other words in anime and fiction in general you can make the characters hair and eye colors whatever you want even if they’re related
Want a character who has red hair have a kid with green hair ?
Sure why not
A sibling with blue hair and the other sibling with orange hair ?
Go for it

Do the genetics make sense ?
Nope absolutely not but it’s fiction so they don’t necessarily have to

Will it bug the audience and fans ?
That’s ranges from :
who cares to absolutely

It’s all just preference and opinion when it comes to how realistic people want anime genetics to be
I’m personally very loose when it comes to related anime characters looking completely different in fact I welcome it and prefer it as it makes for more visual contrast but at the same time I like there to at least be one obvious genetic similarity like the same eye color for example

Speaking of that by the way and getting back on topic Bulma and Trunks already shared the same eye color so once again I ask why change their hair colors to match ?
I vastly prefer the more subtle eye color similarity over just copy and paste the exact hair color AND eye colors
It’s just very lazy character design in my opinion

[Grimlock]

I didn't intend to include games subseries, but that's right and they precisely always used the same color for the differente versions of Trunks in Xenoverse and Heroes, so Z Kid & Mirai Trunks and DBO Trunks in XV1 & 2 have purple hair while DBS Mirai Trunks has blue hair. In Super DB Heroes especially in the anime both Xeno Trunks and DBS Mirai Trunks appear, DBS with Blue hair and Xeno with Purple / Lilac hair. So technically there are two grown up Trunks with different hair colors in Heroes.

Well, mentioning Dragon Ball Online is not really a welcoming door to mention "game subseries". Dragon Ball Online gets special treatment for some obvious reasons and it shouldn't just get lumped with other games, also for some obvious reasons. But that reminded me, there was a Dragon Ball Heroes art depicting Dragon Ball Super Trunks with lilac hair, a mistake of course, but it just goes to show how even the powers that be are confused with this whole nonsense.

[Luso Saiyan]

Why didn’t Toriyama and Toei just stay with the original hair colors though for Bulma and Trunks ? Why did they change the colors in the first place ? That’s the main thing I’m wondering about

Because Toriyama felt like it...? He played with colors all the time, Bulma's hair is just one of many other examples.

[SorikaiWolf89]

Why didn’t Toriyama and Toei just stay with the original hair colors though for Bulma and Trunks ? Why did they change the colors in the first place ? That’s the main thing I’m wondering about

Because Toriyama felt like it...? He played with colors all the time, Bulma's hair is just one of many other examples.

Maybe he was just very indecisive with colors , kept forgetting what the colors were ,or he simply just ran out of certain colored inks for some panels OR all the above
Him playing with the colors and being indecisive seems the most likely as you mentioned
Sadly we’ll probably never truly know now that he’s gone …

[DanielSSJ]

Toriyama actually talked about this in Daizenshuu 1:

Do you think of the color scheme for a character’s clothes and body when drawing them in black and white?

Yeah, that’s right, but I don’t do it consciously. When I’m applying the color, I think “It was more or less this color”. However, with people that I’ve already drawn in color before, I generally don’t go back and check, so sometimes I end up using different colors than I did before. (laughs)

It's really as simple as he colored characters from memory rather than referring to his old drawings. It isn't just Bluma's hair, either. A lot of characters would change color over the years, like Dodoria being yellow or Kibito being blue on the Kanzenban covers.

[Luso Saiyan]

He talks about Bulma's hair specifically in this interview:

Toriyama: I am not at all particular about things like hair styles and colors. Especially with women, changing their hairstyle or color is a bit too commonplace, don’t you think? With people like Bulma, I actually don’t even know myself what their natural hair color is. (laughs)

V-Jump: Whaaat?! And I was sure that the blue she had when she first appeared was her natural hair color. (laughs)

Toriyama: I’m not at all particular about things. Er, well, I am particular about things I should be particular about, like the dialogue. (laughs)

[DanielSSJ]

That one almost makes it sound like Bluma's blue hair is dyed or something.

[JulieYBM]

That one almost makes it sound like Bluma's blue hair is dyed or something.

I was going to post this earlier, but I like the idea that her natural hair color is just black and she dyes it because she marches to the beat of her own drum or whatever.

[DanielSSJ]

I was going to post this earlier, but I like the idea that her natural hair color is just black and she dyes it because she marches to the beat of her own drum or whatever.

That'd mean she started dying Trunks' hair pretty much right after he was born, not that I wouldn't put it past her.

[JulieYBM]

I was going to post this earlier, but I like the idea that her natural hair color is just black and she dyes it because she marches to the beat of her own drum or whatever.

That'd mean she started dying Trunks' hair pretty much right after he was born, not that I wouldn't put it past her.

Bulma absolutely gives "dying my poodle's fur" energy, so I bet she'd do the same to Trunks lol

[DanielSSJ]

Trunks has had dyed hair for so long he doesn't even know it's not his natural hair color. Vegeta doesn't know either, and would be pissed to find out.

[JulieYBM]

Trunks has had dyed hair for so long he doesn't even know it's not his natural hair color. Vegeta doesn't know either, and would be pissed to find out.

This is what that fop prince gets for not being at his own kid's birth!!