Discussing Trunks and Mai from Dragon Ball

[Winter]

Before I go into this I want to talk about the anime series, Inuyasha and more specifically the relationship between Sesshomaru, the title character's older brother, and Rin. When I watched Inuyasha when it first came out I found the relationship between Sesshomaru and Rin to be rather adorable. I thought it was a nice father daughter dynamic that added to a rather bland villain and thought it was a nice change of pace to see a relationship in this show that wasn't romantic... then the sequel series came out and when Rin got older Sesshomaru apparently became her love and I needed bleach for my brain and soul.

This one bit retroactively ruined the characters and their relationship for me because now instead seeing a sweet father and daughter relationship I see instead a monster grooming a child to be his bride.

Another thing I want to bring up is a anime that I doubt most of you have even heard of called Please Teacher. Long story short PT is a series that goes out of it's way to justify a romantic relationship between a full grown woman and her 15 year old student. Basically the main character it technically 18 but is mentally and physically 15 but suffers some kind of coma that basically pauses his age so he remains a certain age until he comes out of his coma.

I bring this all up to better provide context to the relationship between Trunks and Mai over on Dragon Ball Super. The longest running antagonists of Dragon Ball is the Pilaf gang who were introduced in the first arc of the series and they have appeared a number of times over to the years in different arcs throughout the series, appearing in at least 3 of the OG DB, where in the first few episodes of GT and have recently returned to the series in DB Super.

Of the three members of the gang the character of Mai has recently gotten the most overall development thanks in large part to her role in the Goku Black arc where we meet a future version of her who plays a prominent role. In this arc Future Mai is Future Trunks' love interest and over the course of the series it's been implied that present Trunks and present Mai will also hook up and become a couple.

Now this seem as well and good, until you realize that Mai is, techinally old enough not to Trunks mother but grandmother... except not really because Mai currently is the same age as Trunks. Let me explain.

See at some point in the past the Pilaf gang got their hands on the Dragon Balls and Emperor Pilaf wished for him and his minions to have their youth restored. The dragon granted this wish but did so by turning them into babies, about the same age as present day Trunks (this took place in the years leading up to the Cell Saga but happened just when the Androids started killing the Z Fighters in the future Trunks timeline).

One thing that's made clear is that the Pilaf gang has retained their memories but not in full, it's shown a few times that they don't remember everything that their age getting reverted screwed them up their minds. What's less clear is how much them becoming children has affected their brain chemistry. See the Pilaf gang was always immature throughout the series, acting like children all the way up to GT, thus it's impossible to tell if the way they're acting now is a result of their brain chemistry being altered as a result of their wish or if it's just the Pilaf gang being the Pilaf gang.

But one thing is made clear and that is present day Trunks has a crush on present day Mai and with the all the set up it's pretty clear that the series is likely planning to hook up Trunks and Mai in the future. In fact it seems that Akira Toriyama was very interested in this pairing, I think he even insisted on a scene between the two to be added in the movie Battle of the Gods where the two are seen sitting in a tree together at the end of the film.

One other thing to remember, the wish for the gang to have their youth restored was made by Pilaf before they ever met Trunks and didn't really meet him until Super in the main canon.

Another thing to keep in mind is the romantic elements between Trunks and Mai is that it's all pretty one sided and all on Trunks end. Mai has yet to show any real interest in Trunks, being more interested in Future Trunks instead of the one she knows. Again, while the series seems to be setting them up it's clear that Mai sees Trunks as a child and has no interest in him and she's given no indication that she is simply waiting for the Trunks she knows to become future Trunks, she sees them as two different people.

This is why I brought up Inuyasha and Please Teacher, the stories either turned or revealed that the relationship was romantic while the other tried to justify itself when dealing with relationship between an older woman and her student.

In Dragon Ball, it's not so clear cut. Mai is, physically, the same age as Trunks, she's mentally a child, she has lost some of her memories as an adult and she's not showing any real interest in Trunks and is not attempting to pursue a relationship with him.

This is a relationship that has caused a lot of discourse in the fandom, is this relationship perfectly fine or is it creepy?

It really comes down to how you see this which can be split into two questions, is Mai an adult in a child's body or is she a child with the vague memories of being an adult?

My view on this? I don't know I do know. It's not as bad as the other examples I pointed out but it's still more then a little weird. This is really a hard point to talk about as Mai isn't grooming Trunks, didn't turn herself into a child to romance him and is a child at this point thanks to the wish in question. She isn't interested in present day Trunks and I think Toriyama said that her brain chemistry was changed so she is a child both physically and mentally but that doesn't make it any less strange to talk about.

Again, compared to the other series it's not to bad but does that make it okay or is it still creepy. One thing to keep in mind is this scenario is impossible in real life. It's impossible for an adult to physically revert their age to that of a baby and yet Mai was older then Bulma when this series started so, I really don't know.

Most fans seem to like the relationship between Future Mai and Future Trunks but those two are consenting adults at that point and the nature of this war has forced Trunks to grow up fast.

That's all I got on this one, so let me know what you all think cause I am curious.

[Thebestoftherest]

I admit I have a hard time caring because I just don't like Kid Trunks, if they age him up and mature I could care instead I'm like why are you on the screen you seem to only exist to have Gotenks to be a golber.

[McAvoy]

I admit I have a hard time caring because I just don't like Kid Trunks, if they age him up and mature I could care instead I'm like why are you on the screen you seem to only exist to have Gotenks to be a golber.

The only time Kid Trunks had a decent part in Super was when he was briefly talking to Future Trunks. That period where Future Trunks was down. To me that worked.

Goten is worse. He even seemed to age a bit backwards. He seems to be even more of a kid than Trunks. I know they are a year apart but still.

In general it's weird how Dragonball treats kids. First it was Gohan who was 5-6 years old fighting Saiyans. I think he was 10-11 when he fought Cell. Then we got Goten and Trunks. Who are about 6-7 years old by Buu saga.

[Thebestoftherest]

Gotens was 11 in battle of gods.

[McAvoy]

Gotens was 11 in battle of gods.

There was a four year skip since Buu Saga? I thought it was six months? Was that in the movie? I know in the anime, at least in the dubbed it was six months.

[Thebestoftherest]

I know I keep getting separate results as well

[McAvoy]

I know I keep getting separate results as well

I think the four year time skip may have camd from the movie.

Six months I know came from the anime because I did re-watch it recently.

[Thebestoftherest]

This is so confusing.

[Winter]

This is so confusing.

... I can't resist!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egw_ZG0vMxA

[McAvoy]

This is so confusing.

Well Dragonball Super does that. There is so much undescribed time skips in the series that makes the whole thing confusing.

I mean at least with DBZ you got the times so you could actually follow for example how old Gohan is in any of the sagas. Less than five years old at the beginning due to the five year skip since the 23rd Tournament. One year to prepare and train against Nappa and Vegeta and so on.

Super doesn't do that at all.