Launch

Launch (ランチ) is a woman with a strange disorder which causes her to switch between two different personalities each time she sneezes. She appears as a sweet, blue haired woman, who is pure-hearted. But when she sneezes, she is an angry, trigger-happy, blonde haired woman, who commits crimes for money and is quick to respond with gunfire when angered. She does not remember her actions, or anything she said. In the Japanese version, her name is Lunch.

Background
Not much about her past is reveal, except that she admits that she has another personality.

Personality
The innocent persona of Launch is pure of heart as she is quite capable of riding the Flying Nimbus with Goku in the anime.

Launch is happy to carry out her work for Master Roshi, never realizing that he is constantly trying to grab, poke, rub, or catch a glimpse of her breasts, butt, panties, or bra. However, many of his schemes are foiled, if not by his own mistakes. When Launch's nose gets tickled and she sneezes, it causes her to change into her violent half. Launch has a very sensitive nose, that, when irritated by even the smallest things, can result in a sneeze. Her sneezes are often provoked by things such as pollen, pepper, dust, and other common irritants.

In her bad form, Launch has blonde hair and thin, green eyes. Son Goku, Master Roshi, and Kuririn are all deeply afraid of her bad side after she shoots them all with a machine gun. Afterwards, all of them run behind a boulder several meters away in fear, after being victims of her first assault, when it seemed like she would sneeze, and carefully observing her during dinner, ready to run away at the first sign of a sneeze. Somehow, she always appears to have a machine gun on her.

Her transformations come in handy during the 22nd and 23rd World Martial Arts Tournaments, when she would clear the crowd and allow her friends to get up in front. Additionally, in the later episodes of the series, she seems to be more in control of her blonde form, whereas her earlier transformations in the series turn her into a berserk maniac with no control and no memory of any of the gang. In fact, later on in the story, she begins to control her blonde form completely and this is confirmed when she is shown to care greatly for Goku and the others, and even cries after Kuririn's death, though she is still more aggressive than her other half.

Appearance
Launch's outfits change often, but almost all include a red ribbon in her hair. Launch's initial appearance consisted of a light green belly baring tank top, yellow shorts with a red belt, brown fingerless gloves and red shoes with the Nike signia worn with green socks. Launch's primary appearance changes during the General Blue Saga to a pink tank top and a black pair of pants with white knee pads. In the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, she wore a black shirt with green pants. In the King Piccolo Saga, she wore a purple sleeveless top with gray pants, a brown belt, and a brown sash. During the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament, she wears a red dress with pink boots.

Abilities
Launch is very strong in her blonde form, being able to defeat characters such as Red Ribbon Army soldiers or Vodka's bodyguards by herself. The movie pamphlet for Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might states that, while in her normal blue haired personality, Launch has a power level of 18. Launch has good skills of weaponry when she is in her bad side. She often shoots people such as Goku, Master Roshi, and Kuririn.

Launch's arsenal is carried via capsules; this was revealed in the Tien Shinhan Saga, opening a capsule to use a pistol and a machine pistol to clear away a crowd so that Bulma and the others could get a better seat for the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament. It is highly conceivable then, that Launch could have an entire arsenal of weaponry at her disposal, all within the size-reducing capsules.

Cooking
When Launch is in her good form, she seems to cook very often for Master Roshi, Goku, and Kuririn. She once cooked a pufferfish for Roshi and Kuririn, and made them ill.

Fighting
When Launch is in her bad side, she is good at fighting. She fought a bear person while she and Kuririn were grocery shopping, saying "Don't talk with food in your mouth!" while constantly punching the bear and then saying "What kind of shop doesn't sell green onions, this is ridiculous! Come here!". She later fought and defeated members of Captain Dark's troops when they attacked Roshi at Kame House.

Rocket Launcher
Launch uses it to stop a train that she is about to rob. She is later seen attempting to shoot King Piccolo with it but she changes back to her nice form before she can. Later on, she accidentally activates it nearly blowing up herself, Yamcha, and Bulma.

Sub Machine Gun
Master Roshi gives Launch some lingerie to change into, and after she changes she sneezes. She quickly pulls out a submachine gun and fills the boys full of bullets for making her wear such a thing. This gun is also used during the saloon scene at the beginning of the episode 15, appearing much sooner in the anime than it does in the manga, later in the series, in order to protect Yamcha from Tambourine, she tries to kill him with this, but the bullets have no effect.

According to Launch, it "is a high-performance, automatic weapon," and "it fires 100 rounds in less than 10 seconds". This is in line with the IMI Uzi, the real world firearm that Launch's gun is based on. With NATO ammunition, Its cyclic rate is 600-700 rounds per minute (10-12 per second, though the magazine only holds 30).

Shotgun
This is a sawn-off pump-action shotgun that Launch tries to use against the police that are chasing her. She does not get the chance to use it, as she sneezes just before she is about to shoot. She also uses a double-barrel shotgun to threaten Bora in a Dragon Ball Z filler episode.

Hammer
It is a huge mallet that she used once in the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament to stop Chaozu from controlling Son Goku. Master Shen stopped it and threw Launch at a wall and the hammer was not seen after that.

S-Cargo
Launch is seen driving this one-wheeled bike as she is being chased by the police after robbing a bank. The name itself is a pun, with "escargot" being the French word for "snail". The bike's design actually resembles a snail.

World Tournament arc

 * "You see, my other half comes out when I sneeze and she doesn't like pig headed boys."
 * — Good Launch in "Look Out for Launch" (English version)

Launch's blonde counterpart was the highest wanted criminal in Brown Country. One day, after turning into her blonde self when sneezing in a bar, she robs a train, getting the police to chase her. During the chase, she accidentally sneezes, bringing her back to her weak and innocent form. Launch is saved by the young martial artists, Son Goku and Kuririn, while they are on Master Roshi's order to find him a woman. Goku and Kuririn think the police officers are just impersonators, and Goku knocks them unconscious while Kuririn hides. Launch is brought then to Kame House, where she is introduced to the turtle hermit Master Roshi.

She agrees to stay with them so she can train with them and lay low from the authorities finding her. Roshi gives Launch some clothes, saying it is "fighting uniform" although it really is not. Then, just as they are about to begin, a bee comes and tickles Launch's nose, making her sneeze into her bad side. She does not like what she is wearing, and angerly shoots Master Roshi, Kuririn, and Goku. While she is shooting them, she then sneezes again and apologizes for shooting at them, and explains that she changes personalities whenever she sneezes.

Once they moved to the Training Island, Launch decides to just cook and clean the house instead, since she does not like fighting. One morning, Launch in her bad side finds Goku in the same bed as her, and shoots at him. Pushing him too far, Goku fights back and knocks Launch out with a kick to the face. Another time, Launch is eating dinner with the gang when Kuririn begins to put pepper on his food, causing Launch to sneeze. She shoots at them, causing them to run away. Launch spends the next eight months cooking for Goku, Kuririn and Roshi as they prepared for the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament while at the three try to avoid Launch's angry blonde side. Launch stays at the house while the three go to the tournament.

Red Ribbon army arc
After the World Martial Tournament is over, Launch, Kuririn and Roshi moves back to Roshi's island and Launch continues her duties of cooking and cleaning. When Goku and Bulma come to the get a submarine from Roshi. Roshi receives Bulma's Micro Band in exchange for his submarine and, once Goku, Bulma and Kuririn leave in the submarine, Roshi into constantly bugs Launch into to taking a bath, so he can spy on her.

Soon, Launch's bad form comes out and takes command in Kame House, which then comes to an agreement to not shoot Roshi as long as he does what she says. One time, Master Roshi gives her some food, which tastes awful. She is about to shoot at him when Turtle, who came back from vacation recently, brings Launch back to her good form by rubbing her nose with a weed. After returning to her normal form, some Red Ribbon Army troops led by Captain Dark show up, demanding the Dragon Balls Goku had left behind. Roshi easily defeats them, but one threatens to shoot Launch if he does not give up. Turtle luckily turns Launch back to her bad form by once again by rubbing her nose with a weed, resulting in her beating the soldier herself. Later on, Launch joins Yamcha, Roshi, Bulma, Turtle and Kuririn to go help Goku fight the Red Ribbon Army at their main base, but by the time they got there, all the troops were single handedly defeated by Goku.

Tien Shinhan arc

 * "Fine! You wanna do this the hard way!? Well you got the right girl."
 * — Bad Launch in "Goku Enters the Ring" (English Version)

After three years have passed and the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament is approaching, the good Launch is going to stay behind at Kame House but she sneezes and her bad form decides to come along. While there, Roshi meets up with his old rival Master Shen, the crane hermit. While getting annoyed with him Launch tries shooting him with her machine gun, but Master Shen is able to catch all the bullets with his hand not hurting him. Next, Launch is able to get the crowd into the front row by shooting a gun up in the air, causing people to get scared and move. She cheers for her friends and sneezes at times, appearing either in her good side or bad side in the crowd.

Later on when Goku was matched against Pamput, Pamput's manager tricked Goku into leaving the arena so he would be disqualified for not showing to the match, but Launch who was getting ice cream at the time saw this and chased after the car on a motorcycle. Launch chased them into an alleyway, and then beat up his bodyguards and the manager, allowing Goku to get to the fight on time. During Goku and Kuririn's fight, Launch urges her friends to get some backbone and pick a side, while she chooses to root for Kuririn.

However, after the match is over, she compliments both of their skills and joyously wants to go out to eat to celebrate. In the final match, Master Shen has Chaozu stun Son Goku so Tien can easily beat him. Launch goes over and tries to smash Chaozu with a mallet, but the Crane Hermit interferes with his pinky and easily pushes Launch out of the way. After the tournament is over, Launch becomes attracted to Tien.

King Piccolo arc
Launch is with the group when they find Kuririn dead, and, even though she is in her bad form, she is just as sad as everyone else. After Goku raced off to find Kuririn's killer, Master Roshi, upon seeing the symbol on a piece of paper nearby, tells the group of King Piccolo, Launch finds his name stupid. Later on, while group is still waiting for Son Goku to return, Launch is the one holding Kuririn, she also tells Oolong that no one feels compassion for him right now. Eventually the group returns to Roshi's house. Launch, Bulma, Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong remain at the house, they even fight off three convicts who tried to burgle Kame House.

Piccolo Jr. arc
Three years after Goku defeated King Piccolo, Launch attends the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament with Master Roshi. There, they meet back up with everyone. When the gang has trouble seeing through the crowd, Bulma tickles Launch's nose with a plant, causing her to sneeze into her bad form. Launch then takes out a gun and starts shooting to make everyone move. With her friends, Launch spectates the fights in the tournament, cheering for her friends that are fighting, such as throughout matches between Tien vs. Mercenary Tao and Son Goku vs. Piccolo, and she remains in her blonde state until the end of the tournament.

Saiyans arc
Launch's first appearances in Dragon Ball Z are as her blonde self during the Saiyans Saga and apparently, she has stayed with Tien and Chaozu since the end of Dragon Ball.

Launch is shown in the Mushroom Forest, fleeing from the police on her S-Cargo after she robbed a bank to buy food for Tien. She manages to blow up one of the chasing police cars with her Rocket Launcher and outruns the other one. Later, she joins Tien and Chaozu, who are training by a waterfall, and screams Tien's name, bringing him out of his concentration. When all of a sudden the waterfall bursts and is heading at Launch, Tien quickly intervenes and saves her, making her blush while in bad form.

After being saved, she sneezes into her good side and leaves. She later sneezes back into her bad form and finds Tien and Chaozu again. When the two go to Kami's Lookout in order to train for the battle against the Saiyans, Launch is seen at the Sacred Land of Korin, rummaging Bora's tepee in order to find something that will help her climb Korin Tower and find Tien again, but Upa and Bora find her and they tell her to leave.

After Tien is killed, she is seen in a bar drowning her sorrows and soon she feels the earthquake caused by the battle of Son Goku and Vegeta.

Cell Games arc
In the anime, Launch also appears in a flashback when the gang was having memories of Goku after he died saving the Earth from Cell.

Kid Buu arc
She reappears as her innocent self in the last episodes of Dragon Ball Z to give her energy to Son Goku for his Super Spirit Bomb. Launch seems to have aged somewhat. Although this did not occur in the manga by Akira Toriyama, it is one of the many filler stories written by Toriyama and his staff.

After the end of the saga, Launch finds Tien once again; she fell in love with him at first sight and had been constantly pursuing his whereabouts. He even reluctantly lives together with her, but she is not cut out for farming and Tien has no interest in romance, so she leaves after just a few days. After that, Launch apparently drops in from time to time.

Shadow Dragons arc
Launch appears in a flashback by Goku during the final episode of DBGT, when he returned to earth after watching the 64th world martial arts tournament 100 years later.

Dragon Ball movie 2
In Dragon Ball: Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, Launch (in her evil, blond state) goes to the Devil's Castle in order to steal the Sleeping Princess, which is a giant jewel. But then, she sneezes and turns into her good side. Launch as well as Goku and his friends are captured and encased in a wall of rock. It is the night of a full moon, and the moonlight used to power the jewel also turns Goku into a Great Ape. Goku grabs Launch, but he then returned to normal thanks to Yamcha and Puar. Goku, his friends and Launch eventually escape the Devil's Castle after Goku defeated Lucifer. Goku and Krillin return to Kame House with Launch, and Master Roshi takes them both on as students. He then tries to take advantage of Launch, but she sneezes into her bad side and attacks Master Roshi instead.

Dragon Ball movie 3
In the movie Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure, Launch is first seen eating with Roshi and his students when they hear sirens. Launch is worried it is cops, but Krillin tells her not to worry so she relaxes. Then, some guys with guns walk in and one of them think Goku is Launch's kid, which gets Launch angry and calls him an idiot. When a really large man comes and attacks the restaurant they are in, Launch tries to shoot him down with her machine gun, but with no success. During the film, Launch demonstrates more reserve and compassion in her violent state than normally expected, especially considering that she is one of the lead characters here and is only seen in her innocent state during an early scene in the film. Later on, Launch goes with Bulma, Oolong, and Puar to find the Dragon Balls.

Yo Son Goku & His Friends Return!!
Two years after Kid Buu's defeat, in Age 776, Launch is shown in her good side and appears to once again live at Kame House with Master Roshi, Android 18, Kuririn and Marron. She attends Mr. Satan's Banquet along with the Z Fighters and their family and friends.

Video Games
Launch appears in all the following video games:
 * Dragon Ball Daimao Fukkatsu
 * Dragon Ball 3 Gokuden
 * Dragon Ball Origins
 * Dragon Ball RPG Shonen hen
 * Dragon Ball Z Bakuretsu Impact
 * Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3
 * Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2
 * Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3
 * Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle
 * Dragon Ball Z 2 Super Battle
 * Dragon Ball Z Super Gokuden Totsugeki Hen
 * Dragon Ball Z Super Gokuden Kakusei Hen

Trivia

 * Launch does not appear again for the majority of the series, except in a flashback from Goku when he was losing badly against Frieza. Launch's final appearance in the manga is actually during a filler scene in the Frieza Saga, the only instance where she appears after the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament. Such filler scenes were inserts to the chapters found in Weekly Shōnen Jump 1991 #3 and #4. Since they are only gag-manga done at the request of the magazine, resulting in each author from those two issues contributing holiday-themed gag-manga inserts, they were never included in the Tankobon (compilation volume).
 * Launch's bounty is $2,000,000 as shown in "Look Out for Launch".
 * Akira Toriyama has stated that the reason Launch stopped appearing during Dragon Ball Z was because he simply forgot about her, and that her bad state would have caused confusion because of its similarity to the Super Saiyan transformation.
 * While shown in a filler when Goku needed energy for the Spirit Bomb to defeat Kid Buu, Launch was shown to have aged somewhat, but when in Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return, she was shown to be young again.
 * The Traffic Agent Lady from "Goku's Traffic Safety" is often referred as being Launch, because they are both voiced by Mami Koyama and have a similar character design, which is of Launch's good form but with blonde hair. Also, the Dragon Book mentions the appearance of Launch in the special, while only the Traffic Agent Lady appears.
 * While Launch does not appear in Dragon Ball Z Kai, she appears in the credits. However, like in the original manga and anime, it is explained in the first episode that she went chasing after Tien so she was long gone.
 * While shown in her blonde state, in the promotional poster of Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, she only appears in her innocent state during all the film.
 * Launch does not appear at all in Dragon Ball GT, but she is shown in the flashback montage of the three Dragon Ball series at the very end when Goku is leaving the World Martial Arts Tournament 100 years later.
 * Launch makes a cameo appearance while in her good state in the 7th Dr. Slump film, Dr. Slump and Arale-chan: N-cha! Love Comes From Penguin Village. She is seen in a crowd with Oolong, the Pilaf Gang, King Nikochan and his servant and the two characters to Akira Toriyama's one-shot Pink.
 * Launch's disorder is similar to the dissociative identity disorder.
 * The personality of Launch's bad form seems to be modeled after Polly Buckets from Akira Toriyama's previous series Dr. Slump, although their roles are the opposite since Launch is a criminal and Polly Buckets is a cop.
 * Launch's line "Doesn't he know it's an offer he can't refuse!" is a reference to the famous gangster film The Godfather.
 * Launch's S-Cargo was an inspiration for the real life Rynocycle vehicle, created by Chris Hoffmann after his daughter came across seeing Launch's motorcycle in the anime.

Voice Actresses
all information on Launch came from http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Launch
 * Japanese : Mami Koyama (Good), Sumi Shimamoto (Bad)
 * English : Meredith McCoy (2001 – Present)