Is Bulma's age 38 or 45 during BoG?

[Zephyr]

Bulma is 45. Goku is four years younger. She wasn't lying about her age, as that doesn't match the context at all. BOG just made a mistake.

This is an in-universe topic in the in-universe sub forum. That warrants an in-universe explanation. Whether or not it was a mistake isn't relevant.

[RandomGuy96]

Bulma is 45. Goku is four years younger. She wasn't lying about her age, as that doesn't match the context at all. BOG just made a mistake.

This is an in-universe topic in the in-universe sub forum. That warrants an in-universe explanation. Whether or not it was a mistake isn't relevant.

The question was "Is Bulma's age 38 or 45"? The answer was "45, BOG was wrong". If you want an in-universe answer for why BOG made a mistake, here's one: BOG is set in a different continuity. "They made a mistake" is still a completely fine answer to this topic, because I pointed out that, in-universe, she would be 45 by the time of this movie, assuming the timeline in BOG is the same as the manga timeline.

[Zephyr]

If you want an in-universe answer for why BOG made a mistake, here's one: BOG is set in a different continuity.

Fair enough. Including that would have made your original post way more clear though.

[Thanos]

Realistic explanation: The writers didn't really give it that much thought and simply threw out a number that seemed roughly appropriate.
In-universe explanation: She's vain, so she's just lying.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

Realistic explanation: The writers didn't really give it that much thought and simply threw out a number that seemed roughly appropriate.

Her age kinda seems like a holdover from the original version of the script, maybe for a joke, that no one thought to double check after the rewrites.

She should be 45, but says she's 38. That's a 7 year difference. The movie is set in AGE 778 for Bluma's birthday, but was originally set for Kuririn and 18's wedding in AGE 770. Her birthday is in August, but we don't know when the wedding was held. Could technically be less than a year gap. Just seems too close to be a coincidence to me.

[SaiyaJedi]

I do think that the idea of it being a holdover from the original script (set before the Buu arc), when Bulma would actually have been 38, makes sense. However, the issue is less Bulma's line about her age than Kuririn's response to it, which doesn't make sense in a non-birthday context.

My personal take is that whoever wrote the lines about Bulma's age knew that she was older than that, but there was insufficient direction in the scenario itself, so that the voice actors didn't catch on to the joke and performed the lines straight. Particularly with the way Kuririn congratulates her on her "38th" birthday, the way it's worded seems clearly meant as him mocking her (since he's younger than Bulma, and he himself is almost 42!), yet there's not much hint of that mocking in how it's said by Mayumi Tanaka (it's more playful, as though he's finally found out her true age).

The only real way to resolve this is to say that Bulma has just turned 38 for the eighth year running.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

I do think that the idea of it being a holdover from the original script (set before the Buu arc), when Bulma would actually have been 38, makes sense. However, the issue is less Bulma's line about her age than Kuririn's response to it, which doesn't make sense in a non-birthday context.

Oh I agree. My suggestion was that if the number itself were an unintentional holdover, there may have been a different joke in place entirely before Toriyama rewrote everything. Maybe something with Kuririn mocking her about beating her and Vegeta to the alter (we've had Vegeta calling Bluma his wife recently, but nothing on a wedding date...if there even was one?), and that she's not exactly a young woman anymore? Then an angry Bluma remark about only being 38 and still in her "prime or something? I dunno.

[miguelnuva1]

Considering most woman lie and don't like telling their true age when they get older Bulma was most likely just lying.

[Eternal Super Saiyan]

Bulma did say she is 1 year older than Vegeta. So those who are wondering, Vegeta is likely 44 or something. Vegeta in the Cell Saga was 32 I believe. Add 12 years, that makes 44.

There's also a slight inconsistency with Pan. In the World Martial Arts Tournament 10 years after Buu, Pan is supposedly 4. If we are going by Battle of Gods events, she's 5 in that tournament.

[Darkprince410]

There's also a slight inconsistency with Pan. In the World Martial Arts Tournament 10 years after Buu, Pan is supposedly 4. If we are going by Battle of Gods events, she's 5 in that tournament.

That's not necessarily wrong though. Since the Budoukai are held in early May, as long as her actual birthday was later in the year, she could still be 4 during the events of the Budoukai and turn 5 later on. Even if the events of Battle of Gods took place at the start of Age 779, if we assume that Videl's pregnancy ran the usual 9 months, then she'd probably not have Pan until August or September of the same year. She wasn't physically showing at all during the course of the movie, and she had yet to tell Gohan, so it's safe to assume that she's very, very early into the pregnancy. As such, that would put Pan being born late into the year, well after May, and thus she can easily be 4 during the 28th Budoukai while still having been born in Age 779.

[SSJ2FutureGohan]

When you look at the context of the scene, it's a very weird time for her to lie about her age.

It's just an inconsistency, but I guess in-universe wise lying is the only way to cover it up.

[Dbzfan94]

She's 45.

It's in her personality to lie about her age so she said she was 38

[Gyt Kaliba]

As others have said, pretty much the easiest way to mentally fix this is to just assume that Bulma was lying about her age; it makes sense with the kind of character she is and fits the context well enough, so why throw out the entire film just because of this one line?

[miguelnuva1]

Bulma did say she is 1 year older than Vegeta. So those who are wondering, Vegeta is likely 44 or something. Vegeta in the Cell Saga was 32 I believe. Add 12 years, that makes 44.

Vegeta is a year older I believe.

[hyperbeing1]

Ever since her first appearance Bulma has been extremely vain. Her saying she is 38 and really 45 can fit quite well.

lol she must be really jealous of 18.

[Herms]

/offtopic: Mai, Pilaf's associate, is born 737 (making her 41 in BoG) according to DBZ wiki. Which makes her younger than Bulma even back in DB, yet Mai looks older even back then. Huh?

No official source states Mai's birth year. She says she's 41 in BoG, so since BoG is officially set in Age 778, the DB wikia people calculated backwards to get Age 737 as her birth year. Logical enough, except Mai saying she's 41 is as problematic as Bulma saying she's 38. Odds are, both ages are based on the same mistake. Like you said, Mai seems older than Bulma during the start of the series, so it seems BoG went with the idea of her being 3 years older. But since Bulma should really be about 45 by the time BoG is set (going not just by the official timeline, but by various statements throughout the series), if we stick with the "3 years older" idea then Mai should likewise be about 48. If we correct Bulma's age to 45 but keep Mai's at 41 (as the wikia folks do), this makes Mai 4 years younger than Bulma. Since Bulma is 16 at the start of DB, this would make Mai 12 when she first appears. Which seems totally wrong, unless Mai grew up about as fast as Piccolo.

[ImmaDeker]

The question was "Is Bulma's age 38 or 45"? The answer was "45, BOG was wrong". If you want an in-universe answer for why BOG made a mistake, here's one: BOG is set in a different continuity.

Literary works with more prestige and higher quality than Dragonball have inconsistencies between installments but still maintain canonicity with each other.

You don't understand how continuity or canon works.

[Saiga]

The question was "Is Bulma's age 38 or 45"? The answer was "45, BOG was wrong". If you want an in-universe answer for why BOG made a mistake, here's one: BOG is set in a different continuity.

Literary works with more prestige and higher quality than Dragonball have inconsistencies between installments but still maintain canonicity with each other.

You don't understand how continuity or canon works.

That's not what RandomGuy was saying. Just that if Bulma was actually 38, the only thing that could explain that except for out of universe explanations is that Battle of Gods is set in a timeline where Bulma was born 38 years ago.

[ImmaDeker]

Which is dumb.

Battle of Gods is set somewhere between the end of the Buu arc and the final story in Z. Bulma is 38 when Battle of Gods takes place because that's how old she is. It doesn't matter how old she should or shouldn't be, she's 38 (or whatever age she is, because I don't really care).

Besides, "BoG is set in a continuity where she's 38, where everything is the exactly the same except Bulma's age is different" is a boring nonanswer. It doesn't really expand or enhance the material as much as make an excuse for an inconsequential, irrelevant detail because modern nerds are stupid.

[RandomGuy96]

Which is dumb.

Battle of Gods is set somewhere between the end of the Buu arc and the final story in Z. Bulma is 38 when Battle of Gods takes place because that's how old she is. It doesn't matter how old she should or shouldn't be, she's 38 (or whatever age she is, because I don't really care).

Besides, "BoG is set in a continuity where she's 38, where everything is the exactly the same except Bulma's age is different" is a boring nonanswer.

It's not just a universe where Bulma is a different age. It's also a universe where Vegeta gets rage boosts, Mr. Satan never met Dende, Piccolo has five fingers, Mai is a different age, Shenron doesn't grant the correct number of wishes, there are more surviving saiyans than 4, Beerus sealed Elder Kaioshin instead of some other guy (according to Toriyama's BOG related interviews), etc. Again, this is the in-universe answer, which I only gave because someone pointed out this was an in-universe question. I acknowledged from the beginning that the real reason Bulma was stated to be 38 was because BOG made an error, and there's nothing more to it than that.

Literary works with more prestige and higher quality than Dragonball have inconsistencies between installments but still maintain canonicity with each other.

That doesn't suddenly not make them inconsistencies. BOG is inconsistent with the manga. The out-of-universe answer is that someone (or multiple people) made a mistake when making it. That is the simple explanation. But it doesn't fit the in-universe nature of the question.