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 of Dragon 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 in Dragon Ball?
In an interview, Akira Toriyama revealed that when Goku participated in the Tenka’ichi Budokai in Dragon 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!” “
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 against Piccolo in the 23rd Tenka’ichi Budokai.
How did Akira Toriyama create Dragon Ball and its unique protagonist, Goku?
According to Toriyama, he took huge inspiration from Journey to the West. He wanted to make a story that included the absurd elements and adventures from Journey to the West with 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.”
However, this by itself would not set the manga apart 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 like Journey 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.”
In order to introduce more 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 the Dragon Ball characters, 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 that he would rather be friends with people who did not put him in danger.
You can read the Dragon Ball manga on Viz Media, and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
