About Son Goku Story

Goku was born as Kakarot , a member of an extraterrestrial warrior race called the Saiyans. Due to the Saiyans' methods of systematically conquering habitable planets, Goku was sent to Earth as an infant to conquer it and make it suitable for sale on the galactic market.

Since Akira Toriyama does not consider what is to come in proceeding chapters of his stories, Goku's story develops into one that is not typical of other superheroes in media. Much of these reasons come from the simple fact that Dragon Ball was originally intended to be an adventure, and not a series that primarily focused on martial arts. Since Goku's character was originally inspired from a fictional monkey king named Sun Wukong ("Son Goku" in Japanese), he originally appeared in the series with traits that mimcked the character, like dark hair, a lean build, and a monkey tail. As the series developed, these physical traits are later explained to be typical of all Saiyans. As Dragon Ball departed its parody of Journey to the West, Goku's tail is removed permanently by kami.

Goku does not possess the typical behavioral traits of the race, such as extreme aggression and ruthless behavior, this is due to head trauma and amnesia that he recieved during his childhood on Earth. Because of his devotion toward Earth, he dresses in an Asian martial arts uniform instead of the traditional Saiyan battle armor. Goku's uniform consists of a red/orange-colored full-body outfit with a dark blue short-sleeved under shirt, belt, wristbands, and boots. He is also known to use the symbols of his training masters. The first symbol that Goku uses was the symbol of his first master Muten Rsohi's, which stood for Kame, meaning "turtle." Later he wears the symbol of his next master, North Kaio for "Kai" (meaning "world") while battling Nappa and Vegeta. After Goku recovers from his battle, North Kaio sends him another gi with the symbol for "Go" (meaning either " enlightenment" or wisdom") which also appears in his name's Japanese symbols. As the series progresses, he discards these symbols, becoming a master instead of a student by training his child Son Gohan, and later a pupil named Uub.

Though Kakarot is Goku's original name, he prefers to be called by his Earth name "Goku". When Goku learns of his origins as an extraterrestrial, he rejects his heritage, but later accepts it during his battle with the galactic overlord named Freeza. Due to a unique trait in Saiyan genetics, Goku's physique almost perfectly mimics his father's. Another unique trait in Saiyan genetics is that they evolved to retain their youthfulness for combat, so as a result, Goku ages slowly when he reaches about age thirty, appearing very young even when he is middle-aged.

Goku's original name Kakarot (a pun on "carrot") fits in with the rest of his family; all the known members in his family are a pun on vegetables that are related to each other. For example, Goku's older brother's name is Raditz, a pun on "radish".