Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball has become one of the biggest franchises in the world in terms of anime and manga with its extremely famous characters like Goku and Vegeta. The series has not only amassed a huge fan following but has become a global phenomenon that is recognized even by people who don’t watch anime or even know what anime is.
The majority credit for this goes to the protagonist of the series, Son Goku who is deemed as one of the strongest characters in the anime world and is an inspiration for his fans and also many other manga writers and creators who have based many of their characters on him. He is the literal manifestation of hard work, power, and never giving up.
However, there is one feature of Goku that Toriyama has hated since he created the character and removed it the second he got the chance. This feature was his tail and Toriyama has exclusively mentioned how he couldn’t even stand it. When the character was introduced the tail was the representation of his Saiyan heritage.
Akira Toriyama Hated Goku’s Tail A Lot
In an interview with Kanzenshuu, Toriyama talked about how he was asked by his editor to keep Goku’s tail as it was his distinguishing trait, but he hated the tail. He said:
“It’s true. Goku was originally an actual monkey in the initial sketches, after all. My editor told me, “Without a tail, he has no distinguishing traits,” so I added a tail. That tail I added was such a nuisance when I was drawing, I couldn’t stand it… so I immediately thought up an episode where his tail gets cut off.”
Toriyama found Goku’s tail to be a nuisance and he hated it the second he drew it. He immediately thought up the episode where he would have removed his tail. However, in contrast to his personal opinion, fans quite loved Goku’s tail when he was a kid as it allowed him to transform into an ape which was quite an interesting twist.
The Importance of Goku’s Tail in Dragon Ball
The Saiyans have a tail similar to a monkey’s from birth, which enables them to change into Great Apes when they look at a full moon. Saiyans from Planet Vegeta, such as Bardock, King Vegeta, Vegeta, and Raditz, wear their tails as belts around their waists.
A Saiyan experiences excruciating pain and unpleasantness when their tail is squeezed, which also makes them weaker. In the series, Goku gained and lost his tail about three times. By rigorously training his tail to become stronger and more resilient to pressure, Goku was able to eliminate its weakness.
The tail was given more weight in Dragon Ball GT than it was in Dragon Ball Z. Fans somewhat loved his tail in the initial chapters but as the story progressed, the tail lost its importance and eventually fans lost interest in the tail just like Toriyama who removed the entirety of the tail from the series.
