Dragon Ball Daimadid a lot of things right, but it also wasn’t afraid to create retcons or other continuity snarls that changed the history of the franchise. One major such retcon surrounds the origins of Majin Buu, and arguably, the change made Buu far less interesting.
To be fair, this wasn’t the first time that Majin Buu’s origins were altered. The original manga describes Buu as having been created by Babidi’s father, Bibidi, a bizarre wizard with grand ambitions who lived millions of years ago. Years later, Akira Toriyama would clarify that this is only what Babidi believes to be true; in fact, Buu was actually a creature of ancient and unknown origins, and Bibidi merely knew of a way to awaken the creature and get it to do his bidding.Dragon Ball Daima, however, completely changed this storyby introducing Buu’s creator: Marba.
Majin Buu’s New Origin Removes the Mystery
Majin Buu Went From Being a Mysterious Cosmic Force to Just Another Creation
According toDragon Ball Daima, it’s widely believed that Bibidi created Buu, but this isn’t actually true. Majin Buu was actually created by a witch from the Demon Realm, Marba, and seems to have largely been a “happy accident,” if one considers Buu’s destructive nature “happy.” Marba has no moral qualms about working with evil beings such as Bibidi, who requested that she create a Majin for him since he was unable to. Marba, however, wound up embarrassed by her creation, Buu, as, despite his power, he was wildly unruly and difficult to control, making him a failure of a Majin.
Meeting Majin Buu’s creator removed a lot of the mystery and intrigue surrounding the character. When Buu was merely a being who had existed since time immemorial, he felt like a force of nature, or some kind of inherent part of the universe, like the God of Destruction. This was even backed up by comments by some characters, like Frieza inResurrection F, who states that his father told him “never to touch Majin Buu or the God of Destruction Beerus.” That line puts Buu on the level of a god, something that even powerful figures like Frieza are wary of.
With no known origin, Buu was a mystery. How did he get here, and where did he come from? Now that fans know the answers to those questions, however, a lot of the intrigue surrounding Buu is gone. In a way, he’s just like Cell now: a powerful, artificially-created being who is incredibly malicious. That makes Buu a lot less interesting and distinct from the other major villains ofDragon Ball, and ultimately does his character a disservice. Buu is now just one of Marba’s many creations, alongsideMajins Kuu and Duu, albeit significantly more powerful.
Why Did Daima Alter Buu’s Origin So Heavily?
Daima Wanted to Introduce a Being Capable of Creating Majins
SinceDaima’s story was heavily influenced by Toriyama himself, it’s clear that this retcon was probably his work as well.Given that Buu’s ancient and unknown origins were originally stated by Toriyama directly, rather than taken from the text, he likely had little problem going against the existing explanation of Buu. After all, most fans would only know theDBZversion of Buu’s origin, that being that Babidi created him. From that perspective, changing who created Buu wasn’t a big deal to Toriyama, and thus he had no issues with changing it.
Buu’s new origin allowed Toriyama to play around with the idea of who Majin Buu’s creator was inDaima, and show that perhaps she wasn’t exactly the kind of person one might picture. Buu was meant to be an obedient servant of extraordinary power, but she accidentally gave him too much will of his own, leading to the disobedient Majin seen in the series. It’s also important to remember that Marba originallycreated the “Kid Buu” version of Majin Buu, not the fat version; the fat version only came about after Buu absorbed the Southern Supreme Kai.
Because Buu is so apparently clueless about his own origins, this revelation about how he came to be doesn’t seem likely to significantly impact his character. Knowing how Good Buu behaves, he may even be pleased to learn there are others who were created like him, and would love to meet Majins Kuu and Duu. One can’t help but wonder if he would remember Marba, and how she might feel about him seeing the state he is in now.
Buu’s Retconned Origins Changed Things Too Significantly
Retcons are pretty common in anime and manga in general, andDragon Ballhas been particularly subjected to themover the years. In the Saiyan Saga, for example, it was originally stated that the Saiyans were the ones running the planet trade, but the Namek Saga eventually revealed that it was actually Frieza, using the Saiyans, who ran things. In that case, many of the changes were made as a result of the decision to spare Vegeta rather than kill him, and so many of the evil deeds Vegeta claimed to be responsible for in the Saiyan Saga were transferred onto Frieza instead.
Buu’s retcon, however, seems to have been motivated by the desire to create other Majin characters, without much regard for the impact it would have on Buu himself. That makes it a far more reckless type of retconning than that seen with Vegeta, where characterization was in the forefront of Toriyama’s mind.
Ultimately, Buu went from being a force of nature who has existed longer than some of the gods to a created being like Cell who, in the end, turned out to just be the most successful and powerful of many. That robbed Buu of a lot of his uniqueness, and harmed one of the most interesting aspects of the character. Still, perhaps some interesting character development could be wrung out of this, if there ends up being moreDragon Ball Daima.
