Super Saiyan Goku

Concept and creation

The original incarnation of Goku in the Dragon Ball prototype was . The original inspirations for that story were , including films such as (1973) and films such as (1978); Toriyama later said he had a young Jackie Chan in mind for a live-action Goku, stating that "nobody could play Goku but him."

The Dragon Ball universe began as a loose adaptation of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, with Goku himself as an alternate take on . Similarities between the two include their mischievous nature and possession of the and (which, in Japanese, have the same name as the source material).

Akira Toriyama's original design of Goku

When Toriyama started his first draft of Dragon Ball, he originally planned on making Goku full to make the series more faithful to During Toriyama's second draft, Goku was instead a full human dressed in sailor clothes that rode a flight mecha instead of the Flying Nimbus. Toriyama's third draft became the final design.

Goku's full name is also based on Sun Wukong. The name "Son Goku" is simply the Japanese on'yomi rendering of Sun Wukong, as Chinese and Japanese share the same characters but with different pronunciations. "Sun/Son" is a common Chinese surname that normally means "grandchild", while "Wukong/Goku" is a common Buddhist name that means "perceiving air/awakened to emptiness". Reading "Sun Wukong" via the first and final characters only through the Japanese kun'yomi rendering system makes it read out as "Mago Gosora", used at some point as a gag in the original manga's run by the .

Goku was revealed a month before the Dragon Ball manga started, in postcards sent to members of the Akira Toriyama Preservation Society.

Goku's first appearance was on the last page of "Grand Finale", the last chapter of the Dr. Slump manga, advertising Dragon Balls upcoming debut.

Goku's Saiyan birth name, Kakarot, . , like most Saiyans, are all named after root vegetables (burdock, leek, radish, and carrot) or even the word "vegetable" itself.

While Goku is an overall good person, designed him as one who fights mostly for personal joy of challenging strong opponents. To which, Toriyama notes that the anime tends to go overboard in making Goku look heroic, and that his original depiction of Goku in the manga has certain "poisonous" traits.

The primary reason why Akira Toriyama created his state with blond hair was so that his assistant would no longer have to spend so much time coloring Goku's hair black - thus saving time. Due to also having the effect of making Goku appear stronger, it killed two birds with one stone.

Goku's Super Saiyan form was heavily influenced by the martial artist Bruce Lee. According to Toriyama, Goku's piercing eyes were based on Lee's paralyzing glare. Dragon Ball Z anime character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro also used Lee as a reference for Goku's Super Saiyan form, stating that, when he "first becomes a Super Saiyan, his slanting pose with that scowling look in his eyes is all Bruce Lee."

Appearance

Goku as a child, an adult, Super Saiyan, and Super Saiyan 3

Goku looks almost exactly like , possessing the same spiky black hairstyle, dark-colored eyes, and facial features. However, he has softer eyes, a kind demeanor, and a lighter-pale skin complexion from . Goku's most distinguishing physical characteristic is his hair. He has three bangs hanging to the right of his forehead and two bangs hanging to the left. His hair also stands up in the front with four spikes and three bangs in the back (later in the anime, he has five spikes in the front and four in the back). Goku was born with the signature tail of the Saiyans, which was long and prehensile with brown fur. It was removed and regrown multiple times in his early childhood, but in his late teens, Goku's tail was permanently removed by in order to prevent his transformation.

At age 12, Goku was rather short and appeared even younger than he was, being considered less than 10 years old (people were surprised when learning his actual age). His somewhat simple-minded personality also gave people the impression that he was as young as he looked. During the next few years, Goku did not go through any physical changes, other than his muscles becoming more pronounced. By age 15, he began showing noticeable increases in height. By age 18, he had a considerable growth spurt, growing taller than most of his friends and developing a well-built physique. He is also considered very handsome, as noted by various women including and . His physical changes made him almost indistinguishable from before and was only recognized by his signature naïve personality and "trademark" hairstyle. By age 25, Goku had another growth spurt, and became similar in height to his taller human allies and much more muscular.

Due to his love of training, he is most commonly seen wearing a . Originally, Goku wore an open blue gi secured with a white bow-tied obi over his waist, red wristbands, and dark blue kung fu shoes and also a tank top. After training under , Goku wore the basic ; consisting of a closed red gi (later orange) secured by a black knot-tied obi over his waist, blue wristbands, and blue kung fu shoes, with Roshi's on the back and front-left side of his shirt. After training with Kami and , Goku wore a black short-sleeved undershirt (later dark blue) with this gi and replaced his shoes with dark blue boots with a yellow border and red laces. After training under , Goku wore King Kai's kanji on the back of his gi shirt. During the , Goku wore his own kanji on both sides of his gi shirt. During the and , Goku wore a more plain version of this gi that lacked any kanji and featured a blue sash-style obi over his waist, as well as the same dark blue undershirt, same wristbands and the same boots from his previous gi, but with a red border and yellow/tan laces. He later retains this outfit throughout most of as he regains his own kanji on both sides of his gi shirt.

During his early training under , Goku wore an orange traditional and loose gi, with Whis' kanji on the front-left of his shirt, that was secured together with a blue obi tied in a knot at the left of his waist. He also wore blue wristbands that cover nearly his entire forearms and blue boots that clasp together on the front of his shins.

In , Goku returns to wearing a knot-style obi with his regular uniform and "Go" kanji (essentially regaining his appearance). In addition, to compensate for the wintery climate he is on, he also wears a long blue snow jacket with a high turtleneck, white stripes down his shoulders and arms and bold purple letters of "SAB" over the front-left side of it. It also has black gloves. In the , Goku is given the emblem of the in place of his own on the front of his uniform and also switches back to wearing a sash-style obi. In the , Goku regains Whis' kanji on his standard gi when the angel trains him in honing .

1/3

When he appears in the , Goku wears an outfit identical to the one Whis gave him, but instead with a logo. He also wears his blue shirt underneath the gi. In the , he wears an outfit identical to the Grand Minister's. The attire consists of a dark blue long-sleeved shirt with an orange circle over the chest, with baggy shoulder pads that runs beneath his red-colored belt with his kanji on the round belt-buckle. The shirt is complimented by a matching color pair of jodhpur-like pants, and white boots that run beneath his shins.

In the , Goku's attire is the same from the previous arc but this time, it has a lighter tone of orange and the blue undershirt, tied-belt, wristbands and boots are now replaced with a lighter black color. later on, in the , after being released from the Demon's Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Goku returns with Vegeta with the 's logo imprinted on his gi.

By the , Goku wears a turquoise gi with a white knot-style obi, orange wristbands, dark green pants, and black kung fu shoes with orange stockings. In the cover of the volume of the manga, this outfit's color is different. The gi is lime green, his wristbands are purple, his pants are cyan, and he wears the boots from his previous outfit, albeit purple.

Despite his fighting gi being his preferred look, Goku is not without other types of wardrobe, such as a suit and tie, casual clothes like blue pants with a button-down red shirt, or an orange and black jacket with a white sleeveless undershirt, light green pants and brown shoes. When returning home to prepare for the androids, Goku wore a outfit similar to one from his youth; a white tank top with periwinkle Chinese pants with a white sash and purplish brown toe shoes and white socks. His farmer attire consists of light beige collared denim jacket with a white scarf around his neck and a charcoal gray short sleeved undershirt, light beige pants with a black belt around his waist and black boots. The sleeves on his jacket has been folded into white cuffs.

In . Goku's skin tone got a noticeable tan. His general outfit is a blue gi with a white knot-style obi, pink wristbands, ochre pants, and black kung fu shoes with white stockings, which overall is very similar to his outfit at the 28th World Martial Arts Tournament. Due to the carelessness of , Goku was wished back into a 12-year-old. While essentially looking the same as he did back then, Goku showed considerably more defined muscle. Later, with the aid of , Goku regenerates his tail, which would poke out from his pants. 100 years later at the 64th World Martial Arts Tournament, despite growing back to his physical prime without transforming, he was not still seen with his tail. However, in one ending, he is seen with a tail in adult form. During which, he wears the outfit from the 28th Martial Arts Tournament. He also wears his again.

When re-grown up, GT Goku appears in , he wears his classic outfit from Dragon Ball Super. In Dragon Ball Minus, an infant Goku was seen wearing a standard of the Frieza Army when being sent to Earth. It is a full body model with a dark-colored chest protection and light-colored outward-pointing pads on his shoulders and at the hips that hang over his upper legs. He also wore dark jumpsuit shorts and light boots with dark legging and also dark armguards.