Goku is a farm boy with a monkey tail who lives alone on a mountain until a girl named Bulma drives up looking for a Dragon Ball. Decades later he's the strongest fighter on Earth, a man who has died twice, saved the universe more than once and still can't hold down a job. In between, Akira Toriyama made him the template for nearly every shonen hero who followed.
He's an odd hero. He doesn't fight for justice so much as for the fun of it, and he sometimes lets a dangerous opponent live because he wants a rematch. But he's honest, kind and uncomplicated, and his love of fighting is never about cruelty. This profile covers his age and family, his techniques and forms, his story saga by saga and the people around him. For the rest of the cast, see our Dragon Ball Z character guide.
Who is Goku?
Goku was born Kakarot, a low-class Saiyan from the warrior race that conquered planets for Frieza. As a baby he was sent to Earth in a space pod. An old martial artist, Gohan, found him and raised him as his grandson. Baby Goku was violent until a bad fall left him with a head injury; after that he grew up gentle and cheerful, with no memory of where he came from.
The original Dragon Ball follows his adventures as a boy, hunting the seven wish-granting Dragon Balls, training under Master Roshi and fighting in martial arts tournaments. Dragon Ball Z picks up years later, when his Saiyan brother arrives to tell him what he is. Dragon Ball Super continues into gods and the multiverse.
- The first Saiyan in a thousand years to turn Super Saiyan, and the one who unlocks Ultra Instinct in the Tournament of Power.
- Husband of Chi-Chi, father of Gohan and Goten, grandfather of Pan.
- Vegeta's lifelong rival.
- Student of Master Roshi, Kami, King Kai and Whis.
Personality
Goku is cheerful, trusting and very simple about what he wants: to eat a great deal and fight someone stronger than himself. He's polite in an old-fashioned way, has almost no interest in money or status, and treats a god of destruction with the same casual friendliness as a farmer. He takes very little seriously except training.
That simplicity cuts both ways. He's fiercely loyal and never holds a grudge. Several of his worst enemies, Piccolo and Vegeta most of all, become allies largely because he spares them. But his love of a good fight can make him reckless with other people's safety, and he's often absent as a husband and father. Chi-Chi isn't wrong about him, and the series knows it.
When he does get angry, it matters. His first Super Saiyan transformation is triggered by Frieza killing Krillin, and it's one of the few times Goku fights with real hatred.
Abilities and techniques
Goku is a martial artist first. He learns new techniques by watching them once, and his Saiyan blood means he grows much stronger after every near-death experience.
- Kamehameha. The signature energy wave, invented by Master Roshi. Goku copied it the first time he saw it, as a child, and it's been his finishing move ever since.
- Spirit Bomb. Learned from King Kai. He gathers energy from living things around him, or from everyone on a planet, into a huge sphere. It only works if the people lending energy mean it, and it's what finally ends Kid Buu.
- Instant Transmission. Learned on Planet Yardrat. He locks onto someone's energy and teleports to it, which lets him cross space in a moment.
- Flying and ki sensing. Like most fighters in Z, he flies and senses energy to track opponents. As a boy he rode the Flying Nimbus cloud and fought with the Power Pole.
- Fusion. With Vegeta he can become Gogeta through the Fusion Dance, or Vegito through Potara earrings. Both forms have been stronger than either of them alone.
Goku's forms and transformations
Dragon Ball's power-ups became the most imitated in anime, and Goku introduced most of them. Here they are in the order he first used them.
| Form | First used | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Great Ape | Dragon Ball, as a child | Looking at a full moon with his tail transforms him into a giant ape with no self-control. His tail was later removed for good. |
| Kaio-ken | Saiyan saga, against Vegeta | King Kai's technique multiplies his power for a short time at a real cost to his body. |
| Super Saiyan | Frieza saga, on Namek | Golden hair, green eyes and a huge jump in strength, triggered by rage at Krillin's death. |
| Super Saiyan 2 | Buu saga | Spikier hair and crackling energy. Gohan reached it first, against Cell. |
| Super Saiyan 3 | Buu saga | Very long hair, no eyebrows and an enormous drain on energy. He could barely hold it while dead, let alone alive. |
| Super Saiyan 4 | Dragon Ball GT | Red fur and black hair, in a Great Ape-inspired form. It debuted in GT, which isn't based on Toriyama's manga, and later appears in Daima. |
| Super Saiyan God | Battle of Gods / Super | Red hair and a slimmer build, reached through a ritual with five other Saiyans. It gives him a god's energy. |
| Super Saiyan Blue | Resurrection 'F' / Super | Super Saiyan applied on top of god energy. Blue hair and much more control. He later pairs it with Kaio-ken. |
| Ultra Instinct | Tournament of Power | Silver eyes, then silver hair once mastered. His body reacts without conscious thought. It's a technique even the gods struggle to master. |
Where Ultra Instinct Goku ranks against Jiren, Broly or the gods is one of the longest-running debates in the fandom. Our power scaling guide walks through it.
Goku's story, saga by saga
Dragon Ball
Goku meets Bulma and sets off to find the Dragon Balls, picking up Oolong, Yamcha and others. He trains under Master Roshi with Krillin and fights in the World Martial Arts Tournament. Over the series he beats the Red Ribbon Army, then King Piccolo, and finally Piccolo Jr. at the 23rd tournament, where he also marries Chi-Chi, keeping a promise he made as a child without understanding what it meant.
Saiyan saga
Raditz arrives, reveals Goku is a Saiyan and kidnaps Gohan. Goku teams up with Piccolo and dies holding Raditz still for Piccolo's beam. In the afterlife he trains with King Kai, then returns to face Nappa and Vegeta. He beats Vegeta with Kaio-ken and help from his friends, and asks Krillin to let the badly hurt Vegeta escape rather than finish him off.
Frieza saga
On Namek, Goku arrives late in a battle that has already cost several lives. When Frieza kills Krillin in front of him, Goku becomes the legendary Super Saiyan and defeats him. He escapes the exploding planet and spends time on Yardrat, learning Instant Transmission.
Android and Cell sagas
Future Trunks arrives with a warning and medicine for a heart virus that would otherwise kill Goku. After the Androids and Cell appear, Goku trains Gohan in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber and, at the Cell Games, steps aside so his son can fight. When Cell threatens to self-destruct, Goku teleports him away and dies. He chooses to stay dead, believing that trouble follows him to Earth.
Buu saga
Seven years later Goku returns for one day to fight in a tournament, and is caught up in Babidi's plan to revive Majin Buu. He shows Super Saiyan 3, teaches Goten and Trunks fusion, and is restored to life by Old Kai. He defeats Kid Buu with a Spirit Bomb powered by everyone on Earth, then wishes for Buu to be reborn as a good person. Z ends years later with Goku leaving to train that reincarnation, Uub.
Dragon Ball Super
The god of destruction Beerus comes looking for a Super Saiyan God, and Goku gets a new rival and new teacher in Whis. He faces a revived Frieza, fights Hit in a tournament against Universe 6, battles Goku Black and Zamasu, and represents Universe 7 in the Tournament of Power, where he reaches Ultra Instinct against Jiren. The film Dragon Ball Super: Broly retells his origin: his parents Bardock and Gine sent him to Earth to keep him safe from Frieza. Later manga arcs and the 2024 series Daima continue his story; we're leaving the latest developments out.
Relationships
Vegeta
Rival · Prince of all Saiyans
Vegeta arrives to kill him and spends the rest of the series trying to surpass him. Goku treats the rivalry as a friendship long before Vegeta will admit it. It's one of anime's most famous pairs; our iconic rivalries guide covers why.
Chi-Chi
Wife
Chi-Chi is a capable fighter who married Goku at the tournament and has been holding the household together since. She wants her sons to study, and she's the person Goku is most afraid of.
Gohan
Elder son
Gohan has more hidden potential than his father but none of his love of fighting. Goku's decision to let Gohan face Cell is his biggest act of faith and his biggest mistake as a parent.
Goten
Younger son
Goten was born after Goku's death at the Cell Games and is almost his double. He meets his father for the first time at seven.
Krillin
Best friend
Krillin started as Goku's rival under Master Roshi and became his closest friend. His death on Namek is what turns Goku Super Saiyan.
Piccolo
Former enemy · Ally
Piccolo spent years vowing to kill Goku, then trained and protected his son. Their alliance is uneasy and mostly unspoken, and it's among the best examples of the series turning enemies into friends.
Bulma
First friend
Bulma started the whole adventure by recruiting a boy she found in the woods. She's provided almost every machine the heroes rely on and is still one of the few people who scolds Goku freely.
Frieza
Nemesis
Frieza destroyed the Saiyans' home planet and killed Goku's father. Goku has beaten him more than once and still lets him live, which keeps going exactly as badly as you'd expect.
His mentors matter too: Master Roshi taught him the basics, Kami and King Kai shaped him as an adult, and Whis taught him the fundamentals that led to Ultra Instinct.
Trivia
- Journey to the West. Goku is loosely based on Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of the classic Chinese novel. "Son Goku" is the Japanese reading of that name, which explains the tail, the cloud and the extending staff.
- Grandpa Gohan. As a child, Goku accidentally killed his adoptive grandfather while transformed into a Great Ape.
- Vegetable names. Kakarot is a pun on carrot, Raditz on radish and Bardock on burdock, part of a Saiyan naming pattern explained in our character naming conventions guide.
- One voice for decades. Masako Nozawa has voiced Goku in Japanese since 1986, along with his sons, his father and Goku Black.
- Influence. Eiichiro Oda and Masashi Kishimoto both grew up on Dragon Ball, and you can see Goku in Luffy's appetite and Naruto's stubbornness. Mayumi Tanaka, who voices Krillin, is also Luffy's Japanese voice.
- Deaths. He's one of the few main heroes who stays dead for years of story time, a choice that surprised readers at the time. See our guide to character deaths.
Why Goku matters to the story
Goku is Dragon Ball's constant. The cast grows, the villains get bigger and the stakes move from a village to the multiverse, but he stays the same cheerful martial artist who wants to see how strong he can get. Every saga is built around someone he either beats or befriends, and often both.
He's also why the series' tone works. A story this full of planet-destroying villains could easily turn grim. Goku keeps it light, and the moments when he stops smiling, like Krillin's death on Namek, land harder because of it. His influence runs through modern action anime, from the overpowered heroes in One Punch Man to almost every fighter who powers up with a scream.
Frequently asked questions
How old is Goku?
He's about 12 when Dragon Ball begins and in his mid-twenties when Dragon Ball Z starts. He's around his early forties in Dragon Ball Super, though the years he spent dead after the Cell Games make his biological age slightly younger than his calendar age.
When is Goku's birthday?
The manga never gives him one. In Japan, May 9 is officially recognised as Goku Day, because the numbers 5 and 9 can be read as "Go-Ku". See our character birthdays calendar for other dates.
Who are Goku's family members?
His Saiyan parents are Bardock and Gine, and his older brother is Raditz. On Earth he was raised by Grandpa Gohan. He married Chi-Chi, and their sons are Gohan and Goten. Gohan's daughter Pan is his granddaughter.
What is Goku's strongest form?
In Dragon Ball Super, Ultra Instinct, a state where his body moves and dodges on its own without conscious thought. Before that, Super Saiyan Blue was his top form. Super Saiyan 4 comes from the anime-only GT and reappears in Daima.
Why is Goku called Kakarot?
Kakarot is his Saiyan birth name, a pun on "carrot" like most Saiyan names are puns on vegetables. Vegeta insists on using it because he refuses to accept the Earth name.
How many times has Goku died?
Twice in Dragon Ball Z. He dies holding Raditz in place for Piccolo's attack, and again when he teleports Cell away to explode. Both times the story brings him back, the second only after seven years in the afterlife.
Who voices Goku?
Masako Nozawa has voiced him in Japanese since 1986. Sean Schemmel has voiced adult Goku in the Funimation English dub since the late 1990s.