Dragon Radar

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Dragon Radar
ドラゴンレーダー (Doragon Rēdā)
Manga Anime Goku holds Bulma's Dragon Radar.
English Name(s)	Dragon Radar (all modern) Bleeper (Harmony Gold, BLT) Ball Detector (early Viz)
Manga Debut	Dragon Ball Chapter 1
Anime Debut	Dragon Ball Episode 1
Appears in	Manga, Anime, Video Games, etc.
Created by	Bulma, various others

The Dragon Radar is a device that can detect the location of the Dragon Balls. Its inventor Bulma uses the device in Dragon Ball Chapter 1, published on 20 November 1984.

Overview

The Dragon Radar was invented by Bulma at the age of sixteen. After she discovered the Two-Star Dragon Ball in her basement, she built the Dragon Radar and then used it to find the Five-Star Ball; then it led her to Son Goku and his Grandpa's Four-Star Ball, which is where the story of Dragon Ball begins.

Turbo makes a new Dragon Radar.

Bulma switches her surveillance drone monitor from video to radar.

There are four known versions of Bulma's Dragon Radar in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball manga.

• The original radar seen in Dragon Ball Chapter 1. This radar was stolen by General Blue, delivered to Commander Red, and never explicitly recovered.
• The exact copy made by Turbo when Goku visits Penguin Village. Turbo repairs Bulma's broken radar, so he is able to make a copy of it from airplane parts after the repaired radar is stolen by Blue.
• The radar equipped aboard the small surveillance drone Bulma sends out in search of Goku. She builds the drone and radar out of common objects at Kame House following the group's encounter with General Blue.
• The additional handheld radar Bulma makes at Kame House. After the death of Kuririn, Goku asks Bulma for her (Turbo's) Dragon Radar and goes after Tambourine. Bulma makes a new one from scratch so that Muten Rōshi, Tenshinhan, and Chiaotzu can search for the Dragon Balls while Goku is otherwise occupied.

While Bulma's Dragon Radar was designed to detect Earth's Dragon Balls, she is able to use it to locate the Namekian Dragon Balls when she travels to Planet Namek with Kuririn and Goku's son Gohan. It is also able to detect the Ultimate Dragon Balls in Dragon Ball GT, though there is no explanation for why the radar never detected them before.

The Dragon Radar cannot detect Dragon Balls that have been swallowed by a living being, and Pilaf devises a box that can also shield a Dragon Ball from radar detection.

Bulma builds the Super Dragon Radar.

The Dragon Radar as originally designed is unable to detect the Super Dragon Balls, but only because its range does not cover the entire universe, much less two universes. Bulma is able to build a "Super Dragon Radar" (スーパードラゴンレーダー Sūpā Doragon Rēdā) by increasing the original radar's sensitivity without any Super Dragon Balls on hand to work with, but even with increased range, the Super Dragon Radar cannot detect the Super Dragon Balls from Earth. It is able to detect them when they travel to the Nameless Planet where all the balls are gathered together, but the Super Dragon Radar has never been successfully used to search for the Super Dragon Balls when they are scattered.

Name

This version of the Shonen Jump Graphic Novels came with Viz's "Dragon Ball" box set.

"Dragon Radar" (ドラゴンレーダー Doragon Rēdā) is directly transliterated from English to Japanese. It is unclear why Harmony Gold, Funimation (with their 1995 BLT dub), and Viz all chose to call it something else at one point: either "bleeper", in the case of the anime dubs, or "ball detector", in the case of the Viz manga. The term "ball detector" was used in Viz's original printing of chapter 1 in Part 1 #1 of their monthly comics, and this term persists even in 2019 printings of the Shonen Jump Graphic Novel version of Dragon Ball Tankōbon Volume 1, though it has been corrected in other editions including the VIZBIG edition and the 3-in-1 edition.

Variations

Various people other than Bulma have built their own "Dragon Radars", with varying levels of success.

Pilaf Gang

The Pilaf Gang has built three different kinds of Dragon Radar.

The final ball approaches Pilaf's Castle.

Their first attempt was built at Pilaf's Castle. In the manga, the Pilaf Gang's story begins when Shuu and Mai track down the car carrying Bulma, Goku, and the Dragon Balls. Mai reports to Pilaf that she is in section H15 (ほの十五) and that she sees a car passing through, as they expected. This suggests that the radar has a fair range. After Shuu steals the Dragon Balls and they return to the castle, Pilaf can see that the missing Four-Star Ball is approaching. However, after Goku and the gang arrive and walk into their trap, Shuu and Mai search their car for the missing Dragon Ball, suggesting the radar is not very precise. In the anime, there is a filler scene where Mai gives Shuu instructions on how many paces to walk to find a Dragon Ball showing on the radar, eventually leading him to the One-Star Ball that they already had, but this level of precision is absent when the car search is adapted. When the car search fails to produce a Dragon Ball, they deduce that one of their prisoners must have the ball on their person. This radar is destroyed along with Pilaf's Castle by Great Ape Goku.

Pilaf refers to the "satellite's Dragon Radar" in dialogue.

When they next hunt for the Dragon Balls, the Pilaf Gang builds a satellite system that also has Dragon Radar capabilities, and they have enclosed their One-Star Ball in a special case that prevents it from being located by a Dragon Radar. Their satellite is also used to track Goku's movements. The Pilaf Gang is watching when Goku fights his Grandpa Gohan and it is revealed that his tail is his weakness; they take off to confront him before his tail is removed. It is not clear whether they can use the satellite technology in their car, because Goku finds them before they have a chance to look for the remaining balls. Goku defeats them and takes their ball. It is also unclear what happened to the Pilaf Gang's satellite rig but it might have been adapted to make their next Dragon Radar.

The Pilaf Gang's third Dragon Radar.

The Pilaf Gang's third Dragon Radar is built into the ship they are using when they release Demon King Piccolo. A large globe hangs from the top of the ship's interior that shows Pilaf the location of the Dragon Balls. Pilaf points to a spot on the globe to show Cymbal where to search for the nearest Dragon Ball. Cymbal finds Yajirobe, who has the One-Star Ball, along with Goku, whose Four-Star Ball had been stolen by Tambourine. When Cymbal is killed by Yajirobe, Piccolo tells Tambourine to go to location "WSC 2933". Tambourine arrives at the location and looks around; Yajirobe and Goku spot Tambourine before Tambourine spots them, suggesting the coordinates were precise.

After Tambourine is killed, Piccolo orders the Pilaf Gang to take him to that location. Then Pilaf notices that someone else is gathering the Dragon Balls (Muten Rōshi and co.). They decide to ignore them for the moment and punish whoever killed Cymbal and Tambourine. After Goku is defeated, Pilaf notices that the rest of the Dragon Balls are headed their way. When Muten Rōshi and the others decide to plan an ambush, Pilaf notices that the other balls have stopped moving. This was the last time the ship's radar was used to search for the Dragon Balls. After Piccolo ejects the Pilaf Gang from their ship, it is not seen again.

Pilaf has a Dragon Radar like Bulma's in Dragon Ball Super Episode 4.

When the Pilaf Gang searches for the Dragon Balls in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, they use a radar like Bulma's in function and design, and this detail is consistent in the Dragon Ball Super retelling of Battle of Gods. It is not made clear whether the Pilaf Gang built this radar. Pilaf's technological skills are well-established, but it is possible that they found the radar stolen by General Blue, which was never recovered (see below).

Red Ribbon Army

The Red Ribbon Army's Dragon Radar.

The Red Ribbon Army builds a Dragon Radar, but it is very imprecise. Colonel Silver's men have been searching for the Six-Star Ball for twenty days when Goku arrives with Bulma's Dragon Radar and finds it. Silver realizes that Goku's radar must be far more advanced than their own, which can only give approximate locations. After Silver is defeated, Commander Red is notified that the ball Silver was searching for is now moving toward General White's location. Then Silver reports the incident with Goku, informing Red that Goku has a more precise radar than theirs. White is contacted, and he orders his men to find Goku and take his Dragon Radar, but Sno finds him first and takes him to Jingle Village. Goku attacks Muscle Tower and defeats White, but then Goku realizes his Dragon Radar was broken during their fight, so he decides to go to West City and ask Bulma to fix it.

While Bulma fixes the radar, Red receives reports of the fall of Muscle Tower, and he again complains that Goku has technology more sophisticated than their army could produce with all its expertise. Adjutant Black theorizes that Goku must be in league with a brilliant scientist, so when Goku travels to Kame House, Red contacts General Blue to apprise him of their theory and order him to go after Goku's Dragon Radar. When Blue finds Muten Rōshi at Kame House, he assumes he is the scientist. Eventually, Blue steals Goku's Dragon Balls and Goku chases him to Penguin Village, where Goku discovers that Bulma's Dragon Radar is broken again. Arale suggests that he take it to Senbe to get it fixed, but Senbe struggles with it, so Turbo fixes it for him on the sly. Then Blue steals it and delivers it to Red, rendering Red Ribbon Army radar obsolete. After the Red Ribbon Army is defeated, it is unclear what becomes of the Dragon Radar they had stolen from Goku.

Movies

Dragon Ball Movie 1

Vongo and Pasta's Dragon Radar.

In The Legend of Shenlong, Vongo and Pasta tell Gourmeth that they have determined the locations of the remaining Dragon Balls. (He already has four.) They have a Dragon Radar built into their airplane (it is specifically called a "Dragon Radar"), and they use it to lock on Goku's Four-Star Ball; it switches from the normal greenscreen grid view to video of Goku's house. They somehow miss the Two-Star Ball that Bulma has nearby. It is not clear why they cannot detect Bulma's Dragon Ball, and they also do not know where Gourmeth is keeping the Dragon Balls he already has. Gourmeth had swallowed the Dragon Balls, but this is not why they could not detect them; Bulma is able to detect them with her radar at the end of the film. (This limitation of the Dragon Radar was revealed in Dragon Ball Chapter 97 which was published two months before the film premiered, making it too late to correct the discrepancy.) The radar is damaged in their first encounter with Bulma and Goku, but it is later seen repaired. After Bulma acquires the Three-Star Ball from the Turtle Hermit, they use the radar to locate Kame House, though they only manage to steal the Three-Star Ball.