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Dragon Ball‘s Goku is often seen as the epitome of a Shonen hero. Goku’s status in the anime world sparks millions of controversies every year. Under the video of any strong anime character, fans comment that they would be defeated by Goku in an instant.
So, how did Goku become a universal scale of strength? Obviously, all credits go to Akira Toriyama, the creator ofDragon Ball, who ensured that Goku stood out in a field of extremely similar protagonists.
From Goku’s struggle to win the Tenka’ichi Budokai to giving him a tail, here are all the things Akira Toriyama incorporated in Dragon Ball to make Goku “not like the rest.”
Why didn’t Goku win the Tenka’ichi Budokai sooner inDragon Ball?
In aninterview,Akira Toriyamarevealed that when Goku participated in the Tenka’ichi Budokai inDragon Ball, everyone around him kept assuming that he would surely win. This made Toriyama want to go against their wishes.
“Even though I had wanted him to win, but since I’m perverse, when they said that to me I went “Like I’d let him win!” “
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Yes, the reason it took Goku three tries to win the World Martial Arts Tournament was Toriyama’s determination to go against everyone’s wishes. Goku began training under Master Roshi and entered the 21st Tenka’ichi Budokai at the age of 13. The winner turned out to be Jackie Chun.
Goku then trained for another three years to appear in the 22nd Tournament and lost the winning spot to Tien Shinhan. It was finally at age 19 that Goku was finally able to conquer the top spot againstPiccoloin the 23rd Tenka’ichi Budokai.
How did Akira Toriyama createDragon Balland its unique protagonist, Goku?
According to Toriyama, he took huge inspiration fromJourney to the West. He wanted to make a story that included the absurd elements and adventures fromJourney to the Westwith a modern spin.
“Yeah, to have it be completely like “Journey to the West”. This wasn’t very innovative, so I decided to have the protagonist be a human, and made him an ordinary boy.”
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However, this by itself would not set the mangaapart from the rest, so he thought of adding a distinguishing characteristic to Goku. He wanted a characteristic that could set the protagonist apart just by how he looked, so he gave Goku a tail.
“So even if he was hidden behind a rock, if you could still see his tail you’d know that it was Goku.“
Then Toriyama added the Dragon Balls, a cluster of seven balls, which, when put together, could grant any wish. He thought that if the characters were on a search for the Dragon Balls, they could attempt a journey much likeJourney to the West.In fact, if you read the first chapters of the manga, you will find many similarities between the two works.
“Bulma was Tripitaka, Oolong was Zhu Bajie, and Yamcha was Sha Wujing. I initially thought that I’d end it after they finished collecting the Dragon Balls.”
“It killed two birds with one stone”: Akira Toriyama Had the Laziest Reason for Making Goku Blonde Everytime He Went Super Saiyan
In order to introducemore originality, Akira Toriyama slowly began to introduce the World Martial Arts Tournament, Piccolo, and eventually the rapid escalation of stronger enemies. Next appeared the Artificial Humans and then Cell.
Toriyama then quickly confessed that out of all theDragon Ballcharacters, Piccolo was his favorite. The fact that his favorite is not Goku or Vegeta might be shocking to you, but in another interview, Toriyama admitted thathe would rather be friendswith people who did not put him in danger.
you may read theDragon Ballmanga on Viz Media, and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
Aaheli Pradhan
Anime Content Writer
Articles Published :1558
Aaheli is an Anime Content Writer at FandomWire with 1300+ published articles. With five years of experience under her belt, she is a living, breathing encyclopedia for anime and manga. From Shonen and Shojo to the most niche anime, nothing escapes her radar. Her poisons of choice are Assassination Classroom, Gintama, Ouran High School Host Club and every Ghibli movie ever. She believes in living a slow life, surrounded by incomplete art projects and her beloved cats.
