When Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot was first announced, fans were excited to see that it would feature an original character designed by series creator Akira Toriyama himself. Toriyama doesn’t design new characters for Dragon Ball games often, but the ones he does tend to be very well received. A good example of this is Android 21 from Dragon Ball FighterZ, a character that many feel was the saving grace of the game’s otherwise lackluster story elements. As such, fans had high hopes for the new character Bonyu, a former member of the Ginyu Force, but she has since been criminally underused.
DLC 2 of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot just released, and with it comes a host of new content. Players can now unlock the Super Saiyan Blue form for both Goku and Vegeta, and have the opportunity to use it against the might Golden Frieza. This terrifying opponent gives players a run for their money, and can be battled again at increasingly difficult levels. There’s also the introduction of the Horde Battle mode, which pits players against over 100 enemies at a time. Despite all of this neat new content, Bonyu is nowhere to be seen in the DLC focused on the Frieza Force and its members.
As previously stated, Bonyu is an original character designed by Akira Toriyama specifically for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. It’s revealed part way through that she was once a member of the Ginyu Force, acting as the brains of the team before quitting because she felt her teammates were too silly and obsessed with poses. It isn’t clearly stated where she went after leaving the team, but there’s nothing to imply that she left the Frieza Force as a whole. Most assumed that she was absent on Namek because she was on a different assignment, causing many to hope that she’d make an appearance in DLC 2.
The only time players get to interact with Bonyu is through the Training Room run by Android 21. Players can recover battle data of the fighter from one of the Ginyu Force pods, revealing that she was a very capable fighter in addition to being very intelligent. In terms of power, it seems like she was at least near that of Ginyu, the leader, but there’s not much to base this assumption off of. Players can fight her in the training room, and before DLC 1, Bonyu was the best way to grind to level 250.
Given her connection to the Frieza Force, fans expected to see Bonyu finally make her first in person appearance alongside Frieza in the second DLC. Even if she wasn’t working with the Ginyu Force, it would make sense that if she was still around she might pledge her skills to the Emperor of the Universe given that she was so inclined to do so once before. At first this seemed unlikely, though, as many expected Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot to adapt the events of Resurrection F to the letter.
This didn’t end up being the case, though, as although many of the story elements are the same, there are a lot of changes as well. For starters, the new Frieza Force that Frieza creates in Resurrection F is nowhere to be found, with characters like Shisami and Tagoma being nowhere to be found. Instead, players fight previous villains like Zarbon, Dodoria, Cui, and the rest of the Ginyu Force that were revived alongside Frieza. With these changes already having been made, it doesn’t make much sense that Bonyu wasn’t included here as well, especially since this was the most likely time for her official introduction.
At this point, the only chance Bonyu has to appear in person in Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is in DLC 3, and that seems highly unlikely. DLC 3 will probably adapt the events of the Universe 6 tournament, the Future Trunks Saga, the Tournament of Power, or Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and Bonyu wouldn’t fit into any of those stories nearly as well as she would have into the story of Frieza’s triumphant return. While it isn’t impossible, fans shouldn’t get their hopes up to see her included in any of these sagas.
That said, there is some confusion about what DLC 3 will be exactly. Due to some misleading wording on Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot’s season pass, fans are uncertain about whether this upcoming story arc will simply continue the story of Dragon Ball Super or if it will be an original story altogether. If the latter is the case, than Bonyu very well could be the focus of that story. Golden Frieza is sticking around at the end of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot DLC 2 since Goku revives him yet again, so that connection could still be explored in the future.
Unfortunately, while it’s still possible that Bonyu will get the attention she deserves, it does seem highly unlikely. DLC 2 seemed like the perfect time to bring Bonyu into the story, but Bandai Namco decided against it even so. Unless it is saving the character for the third DLC, then there likely won’t be any more Bonyu in the game outside of what’s already there. This means she’ll be relegated to being a digital training partner, with fans only getting a glimpse of the character’s personality and capabilities.
This is a huge shame, though, as many were hailing Bonyu as an answer to one of the franchise’s biggest problems, a lack of representation. At the moment there aren’t a lot of female fighters in the Dragon Ball franchise, and while recent additions like Android 21 and the Universe 6 Saiyans have helped with that issue, there’s still a lot more that could be done. Bonyu also represents a body type that isn’t found often in Dragon Ball or any fighting franchises for that matter, a fact that when paired with her intelligence makes her a really great and well rounded character.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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