Dragon Ball's Chi-Chi was based on the character of Princess Iron Fan, a powerful demigod like being from Wu Cheng'en's novel Journey to the West.

While Chi-Chi is primarily thought of as Goku's wife and not a fighter in the Dragon Ball franchise, her mythical inspiration suggests that she should be a much more powerful and prominent character. Throughout Dragon Ball’s early years, several characters cycled in and out of the main cast rotation. One of these characters was Chi-Chi who, although she debuted rather early on in the series, wouldn’t return until much later in the Piccolo Saga. Like many characters in early Dragon Ball, Chi-Chi was loosely based off of a character from Wu Cheng’en’s story classic, Journey to the West.

The first appearance of Chi-Chi is in Dragon Ball chapter 11 when Goku, Bulma, and Oolong arrive at Frypan Mountain. Yamcha and Pu’ar have been tailing the gang for a while and come into contact with a young girl who somehow severs the head of a Tyrannosaurus. This girl turns out to be Chi-Chi, the only daughter of the Ox-King. The rest of the chapter plays out with Yamcha knocking her out and Ox-King interrogating Goku about where he got the Flying Nimbus. Almost immediately Chi-Chi is relegated to being a tool of the plot rather than a character who functions within it.

Chi-Chi’s origins in Journey to the West lie with a character known as Princess Iron Fan. In the original Journey to the West story, Princess Iron Fan functions as a massive extortionist, actively forcing a village to rely on her to put out the raging fires of a nearby volcanic chain with her mystical fan. Though Princess Iron Fan puts the fires out once every year with her magical Banana Leaf Fan, she always makes sure they return so the villagers continue to require her help and thus pay her. Much like Goku and Chi-Chi in Dragon Ball, Sun Wukong meets Princess Iron Fan and requires her help to extinguish the flames of the mountains in order to pass. In Journey to the West, however, Princess Iron Fan refuses to help Sun Wukong as her husband the Ox-King has a troubled past with the Monkey King. To get around this, Wukong tricks Princess Iron Fan by transforming into a fly, diving down her throat, and beating her up from the inside until she agrees to hand over the fan.

Chi-Chi’s inspiration from Princess Iron Fan is clearly seen in her relation to Gyo Mao, or Ox-King, and her status as an actual princess. She also tries to assist Goku in retrieving the Bashousen, a mystical fan owned by Master Roshi. Where she fails to live up to her counterpart is in her status and worth as a fighter. Princess Iron Fan is also known as a Rakshasa or Raksasi. A Rakshasa in Hindu and Buddhist mythology is an incredibly powerful being that may come from divine origins or wield superhuman power but lacks the essence of true divinity.

All of these facets surrounding the character whom Chi-Chi was based on show that she could have certainly been a much more important character within the Dragon Ball series. Dragon Ball already lacks female fighters in its main cast and there was so much that could have been done with Chi-Chi’s character. Despite being someone who is the mother of two main characters and husband to another, Chi-Chi has been relegated to a background role for decades. Her origins in the character of Princess Iron Fan from Journey to the West show that Chi-Chi could have been fleshed out much further and stayed relevant in terms of fighting power long into the Dragon Ball series if Akira Toriyama wanted.

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