15 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Dragon Ball Z’s Goku

Goku Has Only Killed Two Villains

Goku is a powerful fighter and has managed to defeat many villains throughout the Dragon Ball series but it’s important to remember that defeating and killing are two different things. It turns out that after all this time, Goku has really only killed two villains—Kid Buu and Yakon.

He Uses the Kamehameha A LOT

Sure, the Kamehameha is Goku’s signature move but you’d probably still be surprised to find out just how many times he has launched the massive blast of energy at someone. Screen Rant’s Christopher Isaac has done the math and found that throughout Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z Goku used the Kamehameha a grand total of 97 times.

Kamehameha Doesn’t Sound As Cool in English

When Goku starts yelling the name of his famous signature move, Dragon Ball fans know it’s about to get real. The move itself is enough to get anyone hyped over a good battle but just hearing Goku’s voice drawing out the name of the move just seems so cool that you can’t help but get excited even if he was just going to blast the thing at a soda can. Unfortunately, the move’s name doesn’t sound nearly as badass in English. Kamehameha loosely translates to “Turtle Destructive Waves.”

Goku’s Japanese Voice Actor is a Woman

For those who preferred watching the Dragon Ball series in Japanese, this may not be extremely surprising. For those who were first introduced to a Goku voiced by Sean Schemmel, however, it can be pretty shocking. The original voice behind Dragon Ball’s main protagonist is actually a woman named Masako Nozawa and Goku actually isn’t the only man she voices for the now iconic series.

The Same Woman Voiced Most of the Men in Goku’s Family

That’s right. Every one of Goku’s immediate male relatives, except for Raditz, were also voiced by Masako Nozawa. In addition to voicing Goku, Nozawa lends her voice acting talents to bring Gohan, Bardock and Goten to life. She also voiced Vegeto, Gotenks, Future Gohan and Goku Black in the Japanese versions of their respective anime series.

Goku Was Too Much for His English Voice Actor

Dragon Ball is known for a lot of screaming. Not just a lot of screaming but also long periods of screaming. Whether Goku is about to blast someone with the Kamehameha or he’s just going into his Super Saiyan form, he’s usually doing some serious screaming. At one point, this was a bit too much for his English voice actor Sean Schemmel. Just when Schemmel had mastered the high pitched screaming required for Goku’s previous Super Saiyan transformations, Goku had to turn things up a notch and go Super Saiyan 4. Schemmel said adjusting to the lengthy scream in a lower register was quite a challenge and ultimately resulted in him passing out during the recording.

He Was So Bad at Counting as a Kid That He Got His Own Age Wrong

Despite the fact that Goku claimed to be 14 in the Dragon Ball anime and manga, it is later revealed that this age wasn’t accurate. It’s not that Goku was lying about his age already. He was just that bad at counting. During the Tournament Saga it’s finally revealed that Goku is actually 12 at the time.

Goku Doesn’t Seem To Be That Great At Martial Arts

Goku can clearly hold his own when it comes to hand to hand combat but for some reason when it comes to formal martial arts, he just can’t seem to master it. Goku has competed in nine martial arts competitions throughout all these years and he’s only managed to win one of them. To be fair, many of these losses came from some unusual circumstances. During the Cell Games, Goku actually forfeited. For several other matches, Goku and his opponent were disqualified. So maybe he’s just not that great at following the rules or staying focused?

There’s a Simple (and Lazy) Reason Goku’s Super Saiyan Hair is Blond

At some point or another, most Dragon Ball fans have asked themselves—why blond hair for the Super Saiyan transformations? Later series finally introduce other hair colors but the blond hair is certainly the most iconic. Turns out that the decision was made in order to save time. Drawing Goku in the manga takes a lot of time and it takes even more time when you have to draw him turning into a Super Saiyan with a new hairstyle in some fast paced action scenes. So what better way to save some time than to opt for blond hair… a hair color that is represented in manga by simply not coloring in the hair. The decision saved so much time that it was only natural that all the Saiyans would flaunt blonde hair after going Super Saiyan.

He Discovers Tanning at Some Point

We aren’t exactly sure how or why but it appears as if Goku discovers the joy of tanning at some point in his life. In the Dragon Ball GT series, he suddenly appears with a tan skin color while in his normal form. For every other series prior to this Goku’s skin was just as pale as everyone else around him. In GT, however, he is actually the only character who becomes suddenly and mysteriously really tan. He also loses his tan if he takes on any Super Saiyan form. Weird.

The Dragon Ball Creator Isn’t a Big Fan of Him

Turns out that when it comes to the anime adaptation of his incredibly successful manga, Akira isn’t a big fan of what has been done to Goku. Toriyama once stated that he was frustrated with Goku being portrayed as such a noble and kind hearted character when he created Goku as a man who was addicted to the thrill of a good fight and a strong opponent. In other words, Goku’s intentions are far more selfish than the anime portrayal would suggest.

He Was Originally Supposed to be an Actual Monkey

Saiyans may walk around with monkey tails now but at one point Goku was supposed to be way more monkey than he was boy. Dragon Ball was originally based on Journey to the West and Goku was supposed to be fashioned after the Monkey King himself, Sun Wukong. Toriyama ditched plans to portray Goku as a full monkey character but the similarities between Goku and Sun Wukong are still pretty apparent even without the complete monkey design.

Goku’s Mother Wasn’t Shown Until 2014

The Dragon Ball series was created back in the 1980s and yet it wasn’t until 2014 that we got to catch a glimpse of Goku’s mother. Goku’s mother, Gine was first introduced by Akira Toriyama during a 2014 interview with Saikyo Jump. Later that same year, Gine’s design was released via a short story titled Dragon Ball Minus.

Goku Holds the Record for Longest Anime Fight

The entire Dragon Ball series is all about the quality of the fighting. While there is certainly a plot driving actions forwards, things usually boil down to somebody needing to catch the hands of justice and that’s usually delivered via Goku. One battle, however, went on far longer than anyone expected. The battle between Goku and Frieza was absurdly long and is currently the record holder for the longest fight in an anime series. All in all, the fight received more than 4 hours of air time and is believed to have been drawn out on purpose because the animated series had caught up with the manga.