Lunch and Yajirobe - Pointless?

[Kid Buu]

Dragon Ball is probably one of the most notorious anime/manga series for throwing characters under the bus, in the sense they lose relevance to the narrative. In the first storyline, Yamcha is introduced as a girl-fearing desert bandit and over the arc we see him overcome his phobia. Later as new characters show-up, he loses relevance but he still remains screentime. He's even there until the last final arc being eaten by Super Buu, but the two characters whose decline doesn't feel organic at all are Lunch and Yajirobe.

Lunch - Goku and Krillin need to find a hot girl so Master Roshi can train them and they find Lunch. They bring back Lunch, and then the gag is revealed that she changes form when she sneezes. Then what? She does do a few useful thing like help Master Roshi fight Red Ribbon Soldiers, but she doesn't really develop like Yamcha and Tenshinhan did in their debut arcs. We do see get her crush with Tenshinhan, but that is never developed. After the 23rd Budokai, Toriyama seems to have put her on a bus and gotten rid of her. The only times I recall seeing her was that Toriyama-inspired filler in the Saiyan Arc and Christmas Namek Arc Special Panel.

Yajirobe - In his debut he is shown to be even strong enough to match Goku and somewhat of a rival to him. Then what? In his debut arc, he doesn't really develop and instead falls into obscurity right away! Instead the Daimao arc shifts Tenshinhan back into the role of Goku's rival/measure stick comparison. Not to mention he debuts at a time two other characters, Tenshinhan and Chaozu, were added so it feels overcroweded. I've heard allegations he was added because Kuririn was killed off, so the voice actress lost her job. I thought they could have just given her voice to Piano, since he doesn't do much but talk anyway. He does a few useful things, but I felt like they could have gone to other characters. Why not Oolong? Since Yajirobe's personality is just a retread of his.

Thoughts?

EDIT - Just to make something clear. I don't dislike either character and I'm not trying to insult them or their fans, but rather felt like their presence in the story was lacking.

[Retan]

I don't think Oolong has the cunning or strength to cut off Vegeta's tail... could be wrong about that swine though.

[Kid Buu]

Hey, Puar was able to cut off Oozaru Goku's tail. Perhaps Oolong can do the same?

[B]

Both characters are "retired" entirely too early. Puer does just as much as Lunch, but he got to stick around until the end. And I've always thought Yajirobe got shafted in favor of all the Z characters. Perhaps it was in his nature to avoid fights, but it's a little disappointing when he is introduced as roughly Goku's equal. I'm 99% sure he got his own theme/musical cue when he first appeared and caught Goku eating his fish in the anime, too, so clearly Toei felt there was something special about him when we first see him. You get the impression he'll be as prominent as Kuririn, Yamcha, or Tenshinhan, but that obviously turns out not to be the case. Everyone complains those characters get sidelined as the story goes on, but I don't feel that it stings that much because they receive fully formed arcs. Yajirobe doesn't.

[Kingdom Heartless]

I think it's hilarious that despite his slacking, Yajirobe not only survived the Saiyan Arc, but served more purpose than Tenshinhan, Chaozu and Yamucha in the end.

[Marco Polo]

Man Oolong cutting off Vegeta's tail would have been so epic It would have echoed Puar cutting off Goku's tail nicely, instead of being a retread.

[Blade]

Toriyama has a thing about introducing characters for a story arc, and instead of having their story end with the respective narrative they're involved in or writing them out, he adds them to the ensemble cast of main protagonists, eventually losing interest in writing specifically for them, to the point when they're more or less just there for the ride.

Yajirobe is a good case in point - I enjoy his character when first introduced, and I think that he adds a good comic relief dynamic up until the end of the Saiyan arc, but beyond that? He's just there. I mean, I don't think he's wasted or pointless because he isn't involved more in big battles - because sure, he's relatively strong when he first shows up, but the nature of the very character is that he's a lazy and unmotivated coward. The story increasingly becomes dependent on the strength of characters increasing through training and hard work - and that's the total antithesis of what Yajirobe is about, depicting the opposite would be untrue to his character, and to have him keep up with the others in strength without adhering to the requisite training would be nonsensical and add nothing to the narrative. I think Toriyama got it right with Yajirobe.

Likewise, with Lunch, I think that not including her past the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai is another example of Toriyama making a good decision with the progression of the story in mind. By that point in the story, more or less the only reason why she's there is because of her undying love for Tenshinan. Would including her in the rest of the Manga have added anything to the story? Would having her mourn Ten when he died fighting Nappa have enhanced the plot? Would it have been fun having her swoon over him as he trains to fight the Androids? I'm not convinced - as far as I'm concerned, it was water that had already been tread.

Personally, I think the plot would have benefited by writing out more of the fringe protagonists sooner - and maybe having them pop up on a rare occasion, such as when Tenshinhan appears to fight Buutenks. Personally I loved that, and the screen absence of the character prior to that only adds to that as a moment of dramatic pay off.

[Gokuden]

It's not that they are useless, it's just that Toriyama forgets about older characters when new ones are introduced.

Yajirobe was just as strong, if not stronger than Goku in DragonBall when they first met.
They both share similarities; both would wonder off in the wild in search for food, doing so would increase their strength to all new highs as the dishes they would fight would get all the more exotic.

I personally think that Toriyama just forgot about them, characters can't be useless, it's how they're written that makes them appear useless.

[Cetra]

I think the characters are wasted potential. Of course the Saiyajin are attention whores and Akira Toriyama himself said he is not very good at this romance thing and all as whenever he tries it seems to come out awkward but I think the whole 2nd Lunch being interested in Tenshinhan which resulted in the filler should have been totally defined and not only her disappearing and the 1st Lunch later revisits Tenshinhan and also falls in love with him but as before he is not interested in one of those 2 persons but Lunch keeps visiting him. A bit more story would have been wished from me. Tenshinhan is a complicated kind of person, okay but even these people can find someone they like. And Yamchu. He likes Baseball. And women. And money. Sounds like Mr. Satan. Why not give him a woman who actually shows him who's boss? (And who is not Bulma as they obviously couldn't get along) I like those filler scenes. Tenshinhan and Lunch. Yamchu and Baseball. The humans defeating people in the Otherworld. It helps a bit as they normally don't do anything but I wish there would be more as I always liked them, especially Yamchu and Tenshinhan. And Tenshinhan get +2 Coolness points for attacking Cell and Boo to rescue others. Plus, the extended finale against Cell where they all attacked him while he used his Taiyou-Kame Hame-Ha.

[GarrettCRW]

It didn't take long during my first-ever watching of Dragon Ball to realize that Yajirobe is just as hatable as he is in Z. Lunch, however, is definitely a victim of all of Toriyama's worst faults as a writer-bad at romance, forgets old characters, and struggles with what to do with the women.

[RandomGuy96]

I don't think Lunch was "pointless". It's just that some people try to assign her more importance than she actually has. She's an extremely minor and one-note character, and was never meant to be anything else.

Yajirobe, I actually am not sure of. While you could argue that his place in the story is redundant, he does, you know, do stuff, and arguably is more important overall than characters like Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu.

[Kid Buu]

It's kind of hard to compare who is more important between Yajirobe and Tenshinhan. Tenshinhan was at least a character of focus through all of his debut arc, but winning a tournament (through a technicality) isn't exactly being useful. They both do thing some useful things at times, unlike Chaozu. Chaozu's only real niche was that he could rig the tournaments, but I think that is the reason why he wasn't at the 23rd Budokai. Had Chaozu had qualified instead of Cyborg Tao, I'd assume Tenshinhan would have had Goku battle Piccolo straight away, thus giving us the climatic battle too early in the story. Later on, Chaozu even lost his niche to rig the matches to Buu.

[TheGmGoken]

I really want to know how was Lunch not suppose to be some funny minor background character in Db that just happens to be Friend s with main cast. Is that guy ON TTGL who always goes boom pointless too? Is Iruka sensi Pointless? Is the other wolfs in Wolfs Rain useless? Not to sound like an asshole but not every character needs to be important. Not every character need to be devolped. Lunch was just a plot for Krillin and Goku to train with Roshi. She just stuck out more than her purpose. Same with Yajroibe but he stayed longer and was funny side character that most anime has. Like someone who's strong but lazy(most time they fat) or a coward.

[DonZ]

Launch is too awesome to be "pointless", Yajirobe can go to hell, not that i would care. i wish Toriyama forgot about him instead of Launch... *sigh* (in case he have to forget about some character, i choose forgetting yajirobe over launch. not that i hate him, he's ok)

[DBZAOTA482]

As much as I don't really care for Lunch (her shtick is just too one-note for my likings) she's not pointless. She's there for comedy and I see that some folks like her shtick so she has a purpose though as maniable as it is.

Yajirobe is certainly not pointless (till the later arcs but pretty much everyone who wasn't a saiyan was practically pointless too by that point). He gets shit done when he can or will. He just wants those careless motherfuckers to learn.

[Kid Buu]

Launch is too awesome to be "pointless", Yajirobe can go to hell, not that i would care. i wish Toriyama forgot about him instead of Launch... *sigh* (in case he have to forget about some character, i choose forgetting yajirobe over launch. not that i hate him, he's ok)

I don't think he did forget Lunch. I've even been trying to get to get in touch with the people who run this website to see if we can add it to the rumor guide, because I have some contradicting evidence.

[Tyro]

Launch is too awesome to be "pointless", Yajirobe can go to hell, not that i would care. i wish Toriyama forgot about him instead of Launch... *sigh* (in case he have to forget about some character, i choose forgetting yajirobe over launch. not that i hate him, he's ok)

I don't think he did forget Lunch. I've even been trying to get to get in touch with the people who run this website to see if we can add it to the rumor guide, because I have some contradicting evidence.

I think that would be a great addition to the Rumor Guide. There certainly is a lot of evidence against that claim.

Can anyone throw any interviews involving Lunch's disappearance my way? I've heard different things from the standard "Toriyama forgot about her" to "Toriyama forgot how to draw her" (referring to her would-be final appearance). The Saiyan arc says she went chasing Tenshinhan, and we have that Christmas comic showing her traveling, but I can't remember what interviews exist where Toriyama talks about her.

[Kid Buu]

Where did Lunch go?
Lunch went off to chase after Tenshinhan. Tenshinhan and Chaozu move around from region to region as they train, so she’s can’t manage to meet up with them at all. They really do a great job of giving her the slip. When No.17 appeared near the final chapter, in the rough draft he had actually been Lunch.

[picture of Bulma asking Kuririn where Lunch is, along with a picture of #17 from the end of the series] No.17’s line near the final chapter makes sense if you think of it as being Lunch’s line.

Source

He actually intended for Lunch to be in the Buu Arc.