Son Goku

About Son Goku

Goku is the hero of Dragon Ball Z, a Saiyan raised on Earth who loves a good fight more than almost anything. He is kind, cheerful, and always training to become stronger so he can protect his family and friends. His battles against powerful enemies have made him one of the most famous anime heroes in the world.

Appearance

Goku is a powerfully built man with wild, spiky black hair that stands in every direction, and changes completely with his forms: gold and upright as a Super Saiyan, silver-eyed calm in later forms beyond Z. He wears his iconic orange gi with a blue undershirt, belt, wristbands and boots, and the 'Go' kanji of his own school. Even at rest he looks like a friendly country boy; in battle, the aura, the stance and the grin of a man who loves this are unmistakable.

Personality

Goku is pure-hearted to a degree that confuses gods: kind to enemies, honest to a fault, and incapable of holding a grudge past the next meal. His defining drive is not justice but growth. Goku fights the strongest opponents he can find because testing himself is the joy of his life, and he will spare a villain, heal him, even befriend him, if it means a better fight later and a better person now. That innocence sits inside a warrior's genius: in combat Goku reads opponents instantly and invents counters mid-exchange. Earth is safe mostly because its greatest defender finds saving it enormous fun.

Background & Story

Goku was born on Planet Vegeta, a low-class Saiyan baby sent to Earth as an infant, arriving just before Frieza destroyed his homeworld. Found and raised by the kindly Son Gohan in the mountains, the wild boy's nature softened after a childhood head injury, and he grew up gentle, ignorant of the world and freakishly strong. His adventures gathering the Dragon Balls made him Earth's greatest martial artist; Dragon Ball Z opens the wider universe to him, revealing his Saiyan blood when his brother Raditz arrives, and sending him from the afterlife's training grounds to the planet Namek, where rage at a friend's murder awakens the golden legend: the Super Saiyan.

Powers & Abilities

• Kamehameha: The Turtle School's signature: a concentrated beam of ki gathered between cupped hands, Goku's most famous attack, learned as a boy by watching Master Roshi once.
• Super Saiyan forms: Goku's golden transformations multiply his power enormously, the first Super Saiyan in a millennium, then the bulked second and third grades, and the calm mastery of the form at full power.

  

• Instant Transmission: Learned on the planet Yardrat, Goku teleports instantly to any ki signature he can sense, across rooms, planets and even the afterlife.
• Spirit Bomb: Goku gathers energy from living things across a planet, or a universe, into a colossal sphere; it can only be built by a pure heart, and it answers evil with everything alive.
• Kaio-ken: The World King's technique multiplies Goku's power and speed for bursts at the cost of tearing at his body, the trump card of his early Z battles.

Key Relationships

• Vegeta: His rival and fellow Saiyan, the prince who came to kill him and stayed to chase him; their competition drives the whole saga.
• Son Gohan: His elder son, whose hidden power Goku believes in more than his own, the boy he trusted with the fate of the world against Cell.
• Krillin: His best friend since boyhood training under Roshi; Krillin's death on Namek is the trigger of the Super Saiyan legend.
• Bulma: The friend who started it all, finding a strange boy with a tail in the mountains, their families are bound for life.
• Frieza: The emperor who destroyed his homeworld and murdered his people, Goku's defining enemy, and the man he beat on Namek and pitied anyway.

Quick Answers