Goku

• 1. Introduction

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  Son Goku, the hero of Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball, made his debut on the 3rd of December 1984. The first chapter, titled Bulma and Son Goku, ran in Japan's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine. On the page stood an eccentric boy with a monkey's tail who practiced martial arts and had superhuman strength. He met a girl named Bulma, joined her search for seven wish-granting Dragon Balls, and collected friends along the way. From that start he grew into one of the best-known characters in all of manga and anime. Yet his creator never saw him as a straightforward champion of the innocent, and Toriyama grew angry when television suggested otherwise. Where did this boy come from? Why does his hair turn gold? And why did the man who drew him have to threaten his own editor to keep the story going?

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• 2. Monkey King Remade

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  Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of the Chinese novel Journey to the West, is the figure behind Goku. The novel dates from the 16th century, and in Japan the character's name is read as Son Gokū. Toriyama wanted a fresh take on the idea, so he drew a human boy with a monkey's tail instead of a full simian. The tail gave the character a feature that set him apart. It also turned out to be a chore to draw, and Toriyama later said that this was why the story had it cut off early.

  The Chinese flavor reached into the wardrobe. Toriyama wanted the series to have a Chinese appearance, so he took the color of the robes worn by Buddhist monks and used it for Goku's dōgi, his fighting outfit.

  Hong Kong cinema supplied the fighting spirit. Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon from 1973 and Jackie Chan's Drunken Master from 1978 were the original inspirations. Toriyama said he pictured a young Chan as a live-action Goku, declaring that "nobody could play Goku but him." On the page, Goku's fighting blends East Asian styles, among them Karate and Wing Chun.

  Dragon Ball itself grew out of an earlier Toriyama one-shot called Dragon Boy. Its hero looked much like Goku but had a pair of wings. Toriyama did not originally plan for Goku to be an alien. He settled on making him a Saiyan only once fighters from other planets entered the story.

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• 3. Drawn For Convenience

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  Toriyama's editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, looked at the early chapters and remarked that Goku seemed rather plain. The simple clothes were deliberate, because Dragon Ball was a fighting manga. To answer the complaint, Toriyama added characters such as Master Roshi and Krillin and created the Tenkaichi Budōkai, a tournament that pointed the story at combat. He also refused to make victory automatic, so Goku loses the first two tournaments.

  Torishima resisted the idea of Goku growing up, noting that manga protagonists rarely change so drastically. Toriyama replied that he could not continue the series otherwise, and the editor gave in. The author's own reason was practical, since an older body made fight scenes easier to draw. Practicality also explains Goku's ability to teleport to any planet in seconds, which Toriyama added to speed up the story.

  The Super Saiyan form arrived during the Frieza arc. Toriyama felt the only way to show a huge jump in power was a visible transformation. He worried that the scowling face looked like a villain's, then accepted it because anger triggers the change. The golden hair had a drawing reason too. Standard manga pages are black and white, and the assistant who inked Goku's hair spent a lot of time blacking it in. Light hair spared him that labor.

  The piercing eyes came from Bruce Lee's paralyzing glare. For the anime, character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro also used Lee as a reference, saying that the slanting pose and scowl at the first transformation were "all Bruce Lee."

  Dragon Ball GT pushed the idea further. Chief character designer Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru agonized over Super Saiyan 4, which was the producers' idea, and wondered whether more transformations were even necessary. The form appears in the Ōzaru state that Saiyans can take, so he gave Goku wilder hair and red fur across his body. He chose black hair over blonde because it contrasted better with the red. Only a single final draft was made.

  The last story arc of Dragon Ball Super called for one more change, named Ultra Instinct. The plan was for it to look completely different from every Super Saiyan form that came before.

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• 4. A Selfish Hero

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  Bulma and Goku were the first pair of characters in the manga, and Toriyama kept introducing newcomers in pairs. His reasoning was economy. Through their interactions, he said, he could explain the characters and their relationship without piling on narration. A child Goku knows nothing of the world, so without Bulma he would be a character who said nothing.

  Torishima hoped that Goku and Bulma would become a couple. The series never went in that direction.

  After the Cell arc ended, Goku's son Gohan was meant to replace his father as the protagonist. Toriyama later decided that Gohan was unsuitable for the role, and the spotlight returned to Goku.

  Toriyama's own verdict on his hero is blunt. He called Goku more selfish than heroic, a fighter whose main interest is facing strong opponents rather than protecting the innocent. For that reason he was angered when the anime adaptations began presenting Goku as more heroic than his manga counterpart. Toei kept to the heroic version anyway, especially in the sequel Dragon Ball GT. There Goku often rescues his granddaughter Pan, a choice shaped by producer Kōzō Morishita's reaction to the 1997 film Titanic.

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• 5. Saiyan On Earth

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  Son Gohan, a hermit martial artist, discovered an infant on Earth and became his adoptive grandfather, giving the boy the name Goku. The baby had been born as Kakarot, a Saiyan from Planet Vegeta, and was sent away before Frieza destroyed that world. At first the child was full of violence and aggression, which the story ties to his Saiyan nature. A head injury then turned him into a cheerful, carefree boy. The old man's kindness and teachings shaped him further, and Goku would later name his first son Gohan in his honor.

  The bond ended in tragedy before the story begins. After staring at a full moon, Goku briefly transformed into the mighty Ōzaru and killed his grandfather without knowing it. He kept a Dragon Ball as a memento. Goku lost the Ōzaru ability when his friends cut off his tail.

  The quest for the seven Dragon Balls, which summon the wish-granting dragon Shenron, gathered a crowd. The desert bandit Yamcha joined, along with the shapeshifters Oolong and Puar. Master Roshi trained Goku alongside a monk named Krillin, who became his best friend. Roshi also gave Goku the magic cloud Kinto'un as a reward for saving his pet sea turtle, and it became Goku's main way to travel by air. Goku already carried the Nyoi-bō, a magic staff given to him by his grandfather that extends and retracts on command.

  His first attack as a child was Jan ken, three physical blows modeled on the hand signs of rock-paper-scissors. His signature move came from Roshi. The Kamehameha is a concentration of energy released as a beam, and Roshi spent about 50 years perfecting it. Goku copied it after seeing it demonstrated just once.

  The name has a small origin story of its own. Toriyama tried out poses alone to find the right stance, then could not settle on a name. His wife, Nachi Mikami, suggested borrowing the name of the Hawaiian king Kamehameha, since it would be easy to remember. In Hawaiian it means "the very lonely one" or "the one set apart."

  Training with the Earth's Guardian, Kami, taught Goku the technique of Bukū-jutsu, which let him fly without leaning on the cloud. In the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament he finally took the title by defeating Piccolo. Soon afterward he married Chi-Chi, keeping a promise he had made years earlier without understanding what marriage was.

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• 6. Saga After Saga

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  Five years after the wedding, a man named Raditz arrives and reveals that he is Goku's older brother. He explains that Goku belongs to the Saiyans, a nearly extinct race of extraterrestrials. According to Raditz, Goku was sent to prepare Earth for sale on the intergalactic market by destroying all its life. Raditz was away when his planet was destroyed, so the claim rests on his word. The other version is that Bardock and Gine sent their infant son off to shield him from Frieza. A fall into a ravine, and the head injury that came with it, had erased any such mission.

  Raditz kidnaps Goku's son Gohan, and Goku forms a truce with Piccolo to defeat him. Goku gives up his life in that battle and trains with King Kai in the Other World. There he learns the Kaiō-ken, which multiplies his energy and strength at the risk of straining his body. He also learns his most powerful attack, the Genki-Dama, a sphere built from the energy of animals, nature and humans.

  Once revived by the Dragon Balls, Goku meets the Saiyan prince Vegeta, who becomes his greatest rival and later an ally. On Planet Namek he fights Frieza, the galactic tyrant who had destroyed the Saiyan homeworld. In that duel Goku becomes the first Saiyan in a thousand years to turn into a Super Saiyan. Next, the people of the planet Yardrat teach him a teleportation skill called Shunkan Idō. The time-traveler Trunks warns him of a heart virus and brings the medicine that cures it.

  Goku trains Gohan as his successor, then sacrifices himself again against the bio-android Cell. Seven years later he is briefly resurrected on Earth and meets his second son, Goten. Vegeta later falls under the wizard Babidi's control, and the monster Majin Buu soon threatens the universe. Goku tries to fuse with Gohan, but Buu absorbs Gohan, so he persuades Vegeta to fuse with him and create Vegito. Goku finally destroys Buu with a Spirit Bomb. Ten years afterward, at another tournament, he meets Uub, Buu's human reincarnation, and leaves to train him as Earth's next protector.

  Dragon Ball Super opens with the God of Destruction Beerus in the film Battle of Gods. There Goku reaches the Super Saiyan God form. In the sequel Resurrection 'F', Whis tutors him toward a blue-haired form called Super Saiyan Blue, which he uses against the revived Frieza. A tournament between Beerus and his brother Champa follows, where Goku shows that he can combine Blue's perfect energy control with the older Kaiō-ken.

  Then comes Goku Black, an evil double who terrorizes Future Trunks' timeline. Black turns out to be a rogue Supreme Kai in training named Zamasu, who stole Goku's body from another timeline. Zamasu and his counterpart pursue what they call the Zero Mortals Plan. After they merge through Potara Fusion, Goku summons the future version of Grand Zeno, who erases Zamasu.

  Goku's meeting with the Zenos also leads to the Tournament of Power, a multi-universal contest in which the losing universes are wiped out. His hardest opponent is Jiren, and during their fights Goku reaches a temporary state through a divine technique called Migatte no Goku'i. Goku and Frieza must work together to push Jiren out of bounds. Android 17 wins and wishes on the Super Dragon Balls to restore the erased universes.

  The film Dragon Ball Super: Broly retells Goku's origin from the Dragon Ball Minus manga chapter. His birth parents are Bardock, a low-class Saiyan mercenary, and Gine, who owns a butcher shop. Bardock grows suspicious of Frieza when an order on his scouter calls every Saiyan home, so he sends the baby to Earth in a space pod. In the present, Goku and Vegeta face the Saiyan survivor Broly, and only their Metamoran Fusion Dance, which creates Gogeta, nearly beats him.

  The manga carries on with the ancient warlock Moro, then the Cerealean survivor Granolah and the Heeters. The film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero then shifts the focus to Gohan and Piccolo, leaving Goku to train with Vegeta. Its post-credits scene shows a worn-out Goku falling from Vegeta's weak last punch and conceding defeat.

  Two anime-only sequels take him elsewhere. In Dragon Ball GT, a wish by his old enemy Pilaf turns Goku back into a child. He travels the universe with Trunks and his granddaughter Pan to return the Black Star Dragon Balls to Earth. After gaining Super Saiyan 4, he destroys Omega Shenron with the Super Ultra Spirit Bomb. A hundred years later, an adult Goku watches a match between his descendant Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. before slipping away.

  In Dragon Ball Daima, King Gomah of the Demon Realm makes a wish that shrinks Goku and his friends into children again. Goku travels to the Demon Realm with the Supreme Kai and the Majin Glorio, and Princess Panzy, Piccolo, Vegeta and Bulma join them later. In the final battle against Gomah, Goku unlocks an alternate version of Super Saiyan 4. Glorio then uses the Demon Realm Dragon Balls to return everyone to normal size.

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• 7. Voices Behind Him

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  Masako Nozawa has voiced Goku in Japanese in every Dragon Ball anime series and related project. Toriyama chose her after hearing her audition sample and remarked that only Goku could sound like that. Nozawa said she was ecstatic, since she had always wanted to appear in one of his works. She kept in mind that Goku grew up in the mountains and knows little of the world.

  Nozawa also voices Gohan, Goten and Bardock, and says she can slip into each character the moment she sees his image. She deliberately never read the manga, so that she would not know what was coming until recording and could react as Goku does. Her favorite version is the young Goku with his tail, whom she found cute. In January 2017 she won two Guinness World Records for her longevity in the role, having been the sole voice of Goku for over 23 years.

  The English-language picture is far more crowded, because different companies produced the dubs. Studios and recording facilities changed, and some actors quit. Barbara Goodson voiced Goku in Harmony Gold's very brief dub of the original series and two movies.

  Funimation's first dub used several actors. Saffron Henderson voiced him in the first 13 episodes of the original Dragon Ball. Ian James Corlett and Peter Kelamis shared the first 67 episodes of Dragon Ball Z, which were edited down to 53. Funimation's later in-house dub settled on Sean Schemmel as the adult Goku across the entire franchise. Child Goku passed between Ceyli Delgadillo, Stephanie Nadolny and Colleen Clinkenbeard, depending on the series, film or game.

  AB Groupe made its own dub for Canadian and European broadcast. Peter Kelamis returned, and Kirby Morrow later took over for Dragon Ball Z episodes 123-291. Zoe Slusar played the child in Dragon Ball and GT, Jeffrey Watson played an older teen, and Jeremiah Yurk played the adult and Super Saiyan 4 in GT. The first 27 episodes of Dragon Ball Super, made for a Toonami Asia broadcast by Bang Zoom, cast Lex Lang as the adult Goku and Philece Sampler as the child.

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• 8. Reach And Reception

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  Most Western viewers first met Goku as an adult. The Dragon Ball Z anime adapted the final 26 manga volumes, and the original series had enjoyed only limited success overseas. After Dragon Ball Z debuted in the United States in 1996, Goku began turning up in American pop culture. Wizard magazine staged a hypothetical fight between him and Superman, and he won. Goku appeared in a Robot Chicken sketch where he and Gohan fight an evil Mrs. Claus, and Saturday Night Live showed him briefly in a sketch about hot-dog champion Takeru Kobayashi. The rapper Soulja Boy Tell 'Em boasted of looking and feeling like Goku. In 2013, a Death Battle episode on the Rooster Teeth web series had him lose to Superman. The Epic Rap Battles of History episode Goku vs. Superman won a Streamy Award for Best Music Video.

  The Kamehameha even became an Internet meme. It began with Japanese schoolgirls photographing themselves as if they were firing it and being struck by it. The trend drew media attention in France, Germany and many Spanish-speaking countries in South America.

  In Japan, Goku was recruited for public service work in June 1988, when he appeared in two short films for children, Goku's Traffic Safety and Goku's Fire Fighting Regiment. In 2005 he became the teacher of the title character in Toriyama's parody manga Neko Majin Z. In 2006 he joined the cast of One Piece in the crossover manga Cross Epoch. He has also appeared in nearly every licensed Dragon Ball video game. A 2009 Hollywood film, Dragonball Evolution, cast Justin Chatwin in the role, and unofficial Taiwanese and Korean live-action films exist too.

  Other artists openly credit him. Eiichiro Oda, creator of One Piece, and Masashi Kishimoto, creator of Naruto, said Goku inspired their protagonists and the structure of their series. Kishimoto added that people hearing the name Son Goku now think of Dragon Ball rather than Journey to the West. Critic Jason Thompson observed that Toriyama made his hero cartoonish and small, unlike the "manly" heroes of series such as City Hunter and Fist of the North Star, and that this started a trend that continues.

  The tributes keep coming. The German rock band Son Goku took its name from him, and its singer Thomas D said he was "fascinated by Goku's naïveté and cheerfulness, yet, at the same time, a great warrior saving the world." In 2010 the artist Edison Chen made a fiberglass Goku statue bearing Chen's own face. CNN described the tennis player Rafael Nadal as drawing childhood inspiration from Goku. In 2015 the Japan Anniversary Association declared the 9th of May to be Goku Day, and in 2018 Goku became the first manga character to have a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

  Rankings have been generous. IGN placed him first on its 2009 list of top anime characters and third in 2014. In a 2007 Oricon survey of 1,000 people, he was named the strongest manga character of all time. Readers of Weekly Shōnen Jump voted him first in the magazine's 1995 poll.

  Critics have pushed back as well. Reviewers argued that Dragon Ball Super leaves him indifferent to the universes that lose and are erased, as long as he gets to fight stronger enemies. Writers at Syfy and Anime News Network noted fans joking that Piccolo has been a better father to Gohan than Goku. IGN pointed to his habit of showing mercy to enemies, including his decision to give Cell a senzu bean without telling his allies, which shook Gohan's confidence. Several outlets complained that both Goku and Vegeta are so overpowered that they steal the spotlight from the supporting cast.

  Game designer Hiroshi Matsuyama of CyberConnect2 found Goku hard to relate to and preferred Krillin or Bulma. What won him over was the final arc, when Goku declares that the comic-relief fighter Mr. Satan was the real hero of mankind.

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