Goku, also known as Son Goku or Sangoku, is the titular protagonist of Dragon Ball, a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. From the beginning to the end, Goku has been the only coherent element to advance the Dragon Ball story. His presence, even when he is not physically involved in the action, drives the story forward. It is his legacy and character that form the main mythology of the entire Dragon Ball saga. Without him, there would be no Dragon Ball.
Goku’s story is full of themes that concern everyone. The following descriptions discuss each of them in more detail:
- Sangoku’s origins and history are revealed.
- He is an important character in the Dragon Ball series.
- His real age has now been revealed!
- His most powerful abilities
- His strange habits, as well as funny stories about him.
Let’s not wait any longer to find out how Goku was able to establish himself as the main character and undisputed protagonist of a story that has spanned decades in and out of the universe. As a warrior, we intended to pay tribute to him with this essay, so (re)discover his story in our Ultimate Guide to Sangoku!
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THE STORY OF SANGOKU
Ail Jr. saved his planet by defeating the evil galactic army of Frieza, then became Goku’s apprentice to fight crime in New York. At the age of two, he was kidnapped by his father, Bardock, on a mission to destroy the planet Kanassa and its people. He grew up with Broly, one of the greatest warriors in the galaxy. As a small child among the Saiyans, Goku was sent to a sparsely populated planet (Earth) to exterminate all life, as powerful Saiyan warriors are required for more difficult missions. So they usually send their Saiyan child to a less remote planet to destroy their weak rivals.
An old man known as Gohan found Kakarot in a small spaceship. Gohan tried to educate the young child, but he was extremely violent and strong by human standards. One day, while traveling, Goku fell into a deep gorge and hit his head. The young boy’s inability to complete his main objective following this fall was prolonged by a permanent amnesia. Goku was given to him by Gohan after he recovered from his injuries.
Gohan quickly took Goku under his wing and trained him in martial arts, partly because the great Saiyan had incredible power, speed and fighting skills. The young fighter had a monkey tail. This tail allowed him to transform into a huge monkey at the sight of the full moon (Oozaru form), but Goku had no recollection of when he became a huge monkey or that he was one until later, when he met Vegeta.
After the death of Gohan, his biological father, Goku and Bulma Brief (originally based at the Capsule Corporation) set out to find the mystical crystal balls of the dragon Shenron around the world. During his journey, he will meet Master Roshi (turtle genie), Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong, a shape-shifting pig. )
After acquiring the Dragon Balls and losing his wish against Oolong, Goku decides to train with Roshi, the famous old master. Genius Turtle begins to teach Goku and Krillin the legendary energy blast, the Kamehameha. Goku then participates in the World Martial Arts Tournament (Tenkaichi Budokai) and is defeated by Master Roshi under the name Jackie Chun.
After the World Martial Arts Tournament, Goku sets out to find the most powerful Dragon Balls in the world, beating the entire Red Ribbon Army in his quest. All his friends are amazed at his achievement. In conclusion
Goku returns to the World Martial Arts Tournament after defeating the Red Ribbon Army and discovering the last Dragon Ball of Shenron. Thanks to a stroke of luck, he loses again to Ten Shin Han. He also defeated King Piccolo Daimao, his other major achievement.
HOW OLD IS SANGOKU ?
In the manga, Goku was born on April 16th 737 and 736 in the anime. He is sent to Earth three years later, at the age of 739, just before the destruction of the planet Vegeta. If we don’t take into account his numerous deaths, Goku is about 38 years old in the most recent series of Dragon Ball Super.
To summarize, in the anime, he is 780 years old at the end of the Tournament of Power. You have to remove his six months of training with Beerus, his visits in the time chamber, etc… So, in the anime, Goku is 39 years old since the events with Broly take place in the same year ! Concerning the chronology of the manga, it’s a bit more complicated because the chronology is taken differently, so Goku would be around 40 or 41 years old.
GOKU'S FAMILY
Goku began his journey as an infant, adopted by Gohan and Chi-Chi. He eventually married Chi-Chi and had a son named Sangohan. Goku leads a relatively quiet life until Raditz arrives on planet Earth. Raditz turned out to be Goku’s brother and informed him of his original purpose on Earth. Goku refused to join Raditz in murdering the people of Earth, so they clashed.
Goku wakes up and discovers that he is once again Piccolo’s sworn rival, who has come to Earth to fight him. In order to fight Raditz, Goku teams up with his old adversary Piccolo and they fight side by side. He gave up his life so that Piccolo could fire his unique ray gun at him, which allowed Piccolo to win the battle.
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After his death, Goku trained with King Kai. Kaio sama’s planet had a gravity several times greater than Earth’s, which helped to increase Goku’s strength. As Vegeta and Nappa attacked the planet in search of their comrade Raditz, Goku left King Kai in time to fight the saiya-jin warriors in their counterattack. Yamcha and Chiaotzu had already been killed by this time, as well as Tenshinhan, Piccolo, Vegeta and Nappa.
Goku could neither defeat nor fight Vegeta, but both were unable to fight after Piccolo’s death. The Dragon Balls disappeared from the earth after Piccolo’s defeat, so they need them to bring their friends back. Goku and the other survivors go to the planet Namek where there are seven more Dragon Balls.
GOKU IN THE FREEZER SAGA
Freezer was already on the lookout for dragon balls when he arrived on Earth. Goku defeated Freezer’s unique army, the Ginyu Commando. Goku was far inferior to Freezer, but they fought and when Freezer decided to kill Krilin just for fun, Goku reached his limit and became a super saiyan goku in the Dragon Ball Z episodes.
Freezer then transforms into his second ultimate form, which is the one where he increases his muscle mass (see the clip available online in streaming dbz). He thinks he can resume the fight, but Goku continues to surpass him with his superior super saiyan strength. Seeing no other choice, he destroys the planet Namek.
After his opponent Freezer proved to be a coward, Goku decided to leave him for dead. He even asked him for some of his energy to be able to assassinate Sangoku, and in the worst case, both would perish. Goku, being such a kind person by nature, gave him just enough for Freezer to survive. He hoped that he would be able to recognize his blunder. But he was wrong. As a result, he finished off Freezer, whose groan is extremely emblematic of the dbz saga! The translation simply states, “He had no intention of doing anything other than making sure Freezer was completely destroyed.”
After Freezer’s defeat, it was widely believed that Goku had perished on Namek. One day, the Z-Fighters and Vegeta noticed that Freezer’s power level was getting closer and closer to Earth. The newly rebuilt Freezer and his father King Cold were trying to demolish the planet as the villains approached. With Goku gone to protect them, everyone was afraid the planet would be destroyed.
They face three unknown and powerful men, who all have strange features. The Cold King is quickly defeated by the young Super Saiyan, who then goes to the Z-Fighters and reveals that Goku will soon land on Earth. Goku arrives on Earth, having learned a new move: the instant move. Trunks of the Future (son of Bulma and Vegeta) appears as a mysterious young man to warn the team that the androids (cyborgs) will arrive in three years
After Arale’s birthday party, he and his family visit Earth for the first time. He tries to give Goku a heart medicine, but it has the opposite effect, making him faint. They separate and begin their training. In the hyperbolic time chamber, Sangoku trains with his son Gohan. This is where Goku and his son Gohan learned to keep their Super Saiyan limits, and where Gohan learned to control his Saiyan strength. This is also how Goku and Gohan were able to stay in these forms for longer periods of time.
A new show, the Cell Games tournament, was organized by the evil Cell after Goku and Gohan left their training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
GOKU IN THE CELL SAGA
Goku knew that he did not have enough strength to defeat Cell in his current condition (Cell had reached his ultimate form due to Vegeta’s excessive pride in his Super Saiyan 2 form). Therefore, Cell defeated Goku in his ultimate form. Following this, Cell decided to create a fighting tournament to face all the most powerful fighters in the world, which seemed to be an excuse for him to beat Goku.
Goku planned to exhaust Cell so that Gohan could finish him off. Cell began to self-destruct, and he used his fast movements to teleport to King Kai’s planet in a hurry. He sacrificed his life to keep Earth safe, but Cell was able to regenerate. It was up to Gohan to finish him off, and he did so by transforming into SSJ2. After coming back to life, Goku gathered the Dragon Balls again to wish everyone a happy new year. He thought the world would be safer if he stayed dead, and he even asked Kaiōshin for his help in bringing him back to life permanently. Find this famous Goku figure if you were touched by the Cell Games or the anime Dragon Ball Z:
GOKU IN THE MAJIN BUU SAGA
We are now at the moment when Babidi arrived to resurrect Majin Boo. Before that, Goku was able to reunite with all his old friends, like Krillin and Vegeta, as well as his sons Gohan and Goten. Two fighters with an M-badge on their foreheads stole some of Gohan’s power during the World Martial Arts Tournament and escaped. The group follows them to Babidi’s spaceship. In this ship, Goku, Vegeta and the Supreme Kai had to face some challenges.
Goku fought an entity that could absorb energy. Goku powers up and allows the demon to absorb its energy until it explodes. Babidi transforms Vegeta into a Majin in order to get power for Goku and himself, but it backfires. They fight until they discover that Boo has been released as a Majin.
Goku tries to persuade Vegeta to join forces with him to defeat Majin Boo. Vegeta accepts, but when Goku goes to get some beans, he is knocked out. Vegeta sacrificed his life to try to destroy Majin Boo, but when he woke up, Goku had to return to the Netherworld because his 24 hours on Earth had expired.
After the death of his father, Gohan trains with the greatest Kai. The former Kai would later trade his life for another in order to return to Earth and discover someone who could use the Potaras (fused earrings) to make a permanent connection. Vegeto was formed when Goku and Vegeta merged after their resurrection as Vegito. Eventually, Goku used his spirit bomb to destroy the original form of Kid Buu (Majin Boo). As soon as Kid Buu was killed, Goku requested that he be reborn later so that they could fight again. Oob was reborn as a boy decades later after being Boo. In an attempt to release his hidden energy, Goku tried to stop Oob during a martial arts competition.
GOKU'S TECHNIQUES
Goku has many techniques under his belt, having mastered more than twenty methods thanks to his tenacity and intensive training. The most frequently used in the series are Kamehamaha, Kaio-Ken and Genkidama. He will also learn to use the Ultra Instinct in Dragon Ball Super.
A. KAMEHAMEA
This is the most famous technique in the Dragon Ball saga. This technique was passed down from Kame Sennin (aka Tortie Geniale, Master Roshi), who would succinctly concentrate all of his energy in his hands to send a charge of tremendous energy. Goku will frequently use this strategy.
B. GENKIDAMA
The above technique generates a huge ball of energy in front of Goku’s head. As his ability to destroy a planet is important, he will need it when he faces Freezer, Kid Boo or Vegeta.
C. KAIO-KEN
Goku’s legendary fight against Kaio-Ken leaves him with a crimson glow. This technique allows him to quintuple his strength, but be careful not to abuse it, or his health will suffer!
D. ULTRA INSTINCT
Ultra Instinct, considered by some as a method and by others as a state, has been so much talked about during the Super saga that we had to mention it. This “strategy” allows its user to enter a state of calm and zenitude in which he can use superhuman strength, speed and anticipation. To be continued!
ANECDOTES ABOUT GOKU
- Akira Toriyama was inspired by the Chinese myth of the Monkey King to find the name of this character. It is a sentence from chapter 1.
- Do you know the origin of the most famous technique of the Dragon Ball saga? It is the name of a famous Hawaiian king, whom you know as “Kamehaméha”, who gave it this name.
- As you may know, Sangoku is a skilled fighter who has proven his ability throughout the series. But try to calculate the number of different enemies he has killed… And, yes, it is a problem! Come on, I’ll take the suspense out of it: during his entire career as a saiyan, Goku has only killed two individuals: Boo (Babidi’s henchman) and Yakon (Babidi’s henchman)!
- The name Sangoku, often known as Kakarot, comes from the words “carrot” and “potato”. You will understand what it means after studying the syllables.
- What is Goku’s most terrible phobia? It’s not Freezer, as far as I’m concerned! It’s the needles that terrify him. He’s so afraid of them that just seeing one causes his blood to freeze, as shown in episodes 27 and 28 of Dragon Ball Z.
- One of the things manga fans wonder about… Who would win in a fight between Son Goku and Saitama?
That’s all there is to know about Son Goku and his mission in the Dragonball and DBZ saga! We’ll soon cover his appearances in the Dragon Ball Super Saga (with Beerus, Whis and Jiren), Dragon Ball GT (SSJ4) and the movies (against Broly, the legendary warrior), but for now, allow yourself to digest and remember all his past exploits in order to better understand the next phase of his young Saiyan escapades!
Meanwhile, you can play as Goku in the Dragon Ball games (Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1 & 2, Dragon Ball Z : Kakarot), although he is probably best known for wearing his colors. Especially thanks to his famous training T-Shirt! You can find it below !
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