Majin Boo

Majin Boo (Japanese: 魔人ブウ, Hepburn: Majin Bū), spelled Majin Buu in the Funimation anime dub and translated as Djinn-Boo in the Viz Media manga, is a fictional character and the final antagonist in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. He is introduced in chapter #460 Majin Boo Appears?! (魔人ブウ出現か!?, Majin Bū Shutsugen ka!?) first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on March 14, 1994.^[1] Majin Boo is a genie-like magical life form created by the evil warlock Bibbidi that terrorized galaxies by destroying entire planets, millions of years before the events of Dragon Ball take place. He was temporarily sealed away and brought to Earth; however, Bibbidi was killed and Boo remained hidden. During the series, he is revived by Bibbidi's son Bobbidi in order to carry on his father's plan to conquer the entire universe.

Creation and design

Toriyama stated that when creating a villain in Dragon Ball, he would try to make them different from any that had come before. Although it was difficult and he was usually not entirely pleased with the results, he thinks he did achieve this with Majin Boo.^[2] The Shenlong Times issue #2, a bonus pamphlet given to some buyers of the Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide guidebook, says that Majin Boo was modeled after Toriyama's editor at the time, Fuyuto Takeda.^[3] Boo, Bibbidi and Bobbidi take their names from the song "Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo" in the Walt Disney movie Cinderella.^[4]

Majin Boo has several different forms, each with a different appearance and personality, however, all are pink creatures with an antenna on their head and several holes/pores on both sides of their heads and on their arms. They have a rubbery body that can regenerate instantly from any wound,^[5] separate parts of it from themselves and control them independently,^[6] and can even completely restore themselves from vapor.^[7] Boo can also heal damaged beings,^[8] and can absorb other organisms by enveloping them with his body or eating them,^[9] the latter done by using his signature attack that turns people into food such as candy.^[10]

When first introduced he is overweight and wears gloves, boots, a vest and a cape. He is very naive and childlike, taking joy in fighting and scaring people. Throughout the series, he is always referred to by either Majin Boo or simply Boo, no matter what form he is in. However, each form has been given their own names in guidebooks, video games or by fans, in order to distinguish between them. When Boo expels the evil inside him, it takes on a taller and much skinnier, frail form referred to as "Pure Evil Majin Boo" (魔人ブウ 純粋悪, Majin Bū Junsui Aku).^[11]:61 When this Boo absorbs the fat one, they become what is referred to as "Evil Majin Boo" (魔人ブウ 悪, Majin Bū Aku).^[11]:61 This form is much more muscular and he loses the vest and gloves, but now wears long-legged pants. Personality-wise, he is more intelligent than the other forms and is described as "pure rage".^[12] This intelligence allows him to plan ahead for the opportunity to absorb Gotenks and Piccolo, and later Gohan. After absorbing the first two, his antennae grows, he forms five full-fingers and wears the vest typical of all "fused" characters, when he absorbs Gohan, he wears his dōgi top and undershirt. The last form shown, referred to as "Pure Majin Boo" (魔人ブウ 純粋, Majin Bū Junsui),^[11]:61 is actually Boo's original form. He appears when Gohan, Gotenks, Piccolo and the fat Boo are removed from his body. Appearance-wise, he is the same as the first Evil Majin Boo form, only smaller. However, personality wise, he is completely feral and animalistic, living only to destroy and is called "evil incarnate".^[13] Daizenshuu 2: Story Guide refers to him as the "strongest enemy in the universe".^[14] Even after Pure Majin Boo is killed, the fat Majin Boo lives on Earth now completely-kindhearted and known as Mr. Boo (ミスター・ブウ, Misutā Bū). In the anime, Boo's "Evil" and "Pure" forms' designs differ from the manga in that they both always have five fingers.

Appearances

In Dragon Ball

Majin Boo in the anime, in the first form he is introduced in.

Before the events of Dragon Ball, the evil warlock Bibbidi created Majin Boo; a being that existed "solely to slaughter and destroy" and within a few years they destroyed hundreds of planets.^[15] Boo even killed four of the five Kaiō-shin, who govern the universe, however, Boo was too ferocious even for Bibbidi to control, so he sealed Boo temporarily and moved him to their next target, Earth.^[15] But, seeing an opportunity, the last surviving Kaiō-shin killed Bibbidi and left Boo sealed away on Earth.^[15] In present-day, Bibbidi's son Bobbidi makes it his goal to revive Boo, which Kaiō-shin plans to prevent by killing him. However, Kaiō-shin underestimates the power of Goku and Vegeta, and their spent energy results in Majin Boo's quick revival.^[16] When Bobbidi threatens to re-seal him, Boo begins to obey his orders and destroys and kills everything and everyone in sight in-order to get Piccolo, Trunks and Goten to come out of hiding.^[17] That is until Goku asks him why he lets Bobbidi boss him around, leading to Boo killing him, however he continues his mischief and destruction, unaware that what he is doing is wrong.^[18]

Majin Boo attacks humans, destroying nearly all of the world's population, then builds a house by converting people into clay. He is resting in his house when Mr. Satan befriends him while waiting for an opening to kill him.^[19] The friendship coupled with the affection from a dog he healed, has Boo resolve not to kill anymore, when two civilians shoot the dog and then Mr. Satan.^[18] Boo heals them, however, his anger expels his evil side, which manifests into a taller and much skinnier Boo, who attacks fat Boo.^[18] The skinny Boo reflects the other's attack, turning fat Boo into chocolate and eating him, which results in another new Majin Boo.^[18] This new form is muscular and more intelligent; he quickly senses Piccolo, Trunks and Goten and goes to them, demanding Gotenks fight him.^[20] Gohan then arrives and clearly has the upper-hand over Boo, but Boo absorbs Gotenks and later Piccolo. Now stronger than Gohan, Boo, knowing that there is a time-limit on Gotenk's fusion, planned ahead and is able to absorb Gohan as well.^[20] However, Goku and Vegeta fuse together into Vegito, but, despite being powerful enough to defeat him, they purposefully get absorbed by Boo in-order to enter his body.^[21] There they separate from each other and retrieve Gohan, Piccolo, Goten, Trunks, and fat Majin Boo, and escape his body.^[21]

This results in the Majin Boo that they entered reverting to his original child-sized form, who is obsessed with chaos and destruction and immediately destroys the Earth.^[21] Boo then follows Goku and Vegeta to the Kaiō-shin planet, where, after a battle with Goku, he is stalled by Vegeta and then fat Boo, so that Goku can gather energy.^[21] Majin Boo is killed by Goku's giant Genki-Dama technique, made with energy from the people on the newly resurrected Earth.^[21] The good fat Majin Boo goes on to live with Mr. Satan on Earth as Mr. Boo, after the Dragon Balls erase the people of Earth's memories about him.^[21] The evil boo is reincarnated into a child named Oob, whom, ten years later, Goku meets at the Tenka'ichi Budōkai martial arts tournament and leaves with to train as his successor.^[21]

In Dragon Ball Super

Boo is selected to participate in the Universe 7 team's tournament with Universe 6. He is disqualified before the tournament begins by falling asleep during the exam. Boo agrees to fight with Goku and Gohan in the Universe Survival tournament, being matched against Universe 9's Basil.^[22] Boo is initially overwhelmed, though becomes enraged over seeing Mr. Satan injured by the battle collaterally and quickly overpowers Basil. After consuming a drug that increases his power, Basil seems to gain the upper hand on Boo with a buffer form coinciding with his attacks, however Boo is unaffected by the attacks and defeats Basil with a Kamehameha wave. Boo then heals Mr. Satan.^[23]

In other media

In Dragon Ball GT, an anime-only sequel to the series, both Mr. Boo and Oob participate in battles against foes such as Baby, Super Android #17 and Super One-Star Dragon. They also fuse together, creating a character referred to as "Majoob" or Super Oob (スーパーウーブ, Sūpā Ūbu) and became more powerful. Boo is also seen in the 2008 short film Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! and plays a small role in the 2013 theatrical Dragon Ball Z film, Battle of Gods.

Majin Boo briefly appears in an episode of the 1997 anime remake of Toriyama's Dr. Slump, and makes a brief cameo appearance in Toriyama's manga series Neko Majin Z. He also appears in chapter four of the Saikyō Jump manga Dragon Ball SD, a super deformed spin-off of Dragon Ball written by Naho Ōishi, which depicts a comedic alternate retelling of him being released.^[24] Ōishi drew a special chapter focusing on Boo for the July 2014 issue, titled Dragon Ball SD Majin Boo Extra Story (ドラゴンボールSD 魔人ブウ番外編, Doragonbōru SD Majin Bū Bangai-hen) it also features Toriyama's Neko Majin.^[25]

He is a playable character in the franchise's video games, the first being Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 3 in 1994, but also in most of the more recent games such as the Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! series. He is also playable in the Weekly Shōnen Jump crossover games Battle Stadium D.O.N and Jump Ultimate Stars.

He is also referenced in the song "Pink Matter" by Frank Ocean featuring André 3000 in the lyrics "That soft pink matter, Cotton candy Majin Buu".

Voice actors

Justin Cook is Evil and Super Buu's most consistent English voice actor.

In the original Japanese, Boo and all his forms are voiced by Kōzō Shioya in all media.^[26] He said he looked at the character as a self-centered three-year-old. Even through all the different forms of the character, Shioya explained that he tried not to deviate too far from the personality of the original while subtlety showing that he changed form.^[27]

In the Funimation dub, Josh Martin voices Fat and Kid Buu,^[28][29] while Justin Cook voices Evil and Super Buu.^[30]

Reception

Majin Boo is a popular character in the Dragon Ball series, in 2004 Japanese fans voted him the eighth most popular character.^[31] He was rated by Wizard magazine as the 40th greatest villain of all time, the only anime or manga character from Japan to make the list.^[32] IGN's David F. Smith states that although he is tough, Majin Boo's pink complexion prevents anybody from taking him as a serious threat.^[33] Theron Martin of Anime News Network claims Boo's "childlike demeanor actually gives his malicious smiles and mad faces a surprisingly chilling effect", claiming it sets him apart from the "hyper-evil badasses" of the series.^[4] He called Josh Martin's English vocal performance far more childish than Kōzō Shioya's, but also felt that Shioya's voice does not fit Boo's behavior.^[4] According to Dennis Amith of J!-ENT, seeing him "kill people for the sake of hunger or for enjoyment to hear things go 'boom'" makes Boo the deadliest villain of the series.^[34] Toriyama stated that the fight between Boo and Gotenks was fun to draw because he was able to come up with odd techniques in "the spirit of gag manga".^[11]:167

References