The Hidden Symbolism Behind the First Time Goku Grew Up in Dragon Ball

When Goku first appeared as an adult in Dragon Ball, there was tons of secret symbolism, along with Buddhist and Daoist inspired references. It was also a huge turning point, because from that moment the series adopted the action style a bit more than the comedy style, and Dragon Ball would change forever.

I want to look at the first time Goku grew up: what it means, what it meant at the time, and why it's important.

In Japan, Kid Goku came first, so his growth spurt was a shock

The majority of people in the West first got into Dragon Ball through Dragon Ball Z, either on syndication, on Toonami or through one of the home releases. Then there's the crowd that got into the show through the games. Whichever way you came in, most Western fans became acclimated to the adult version of Son Goku. Adult Goku was the star, along with Gohan and Vegeta, with characters like Piccolo and Trunks rounding out the cast.

In Japan, people were exposed to Dragon Ball first. It was the kid version of Goku that got such high ratings on television and sold so many manga copies, so Japanese fans were acclimated to Kid Goku. When Son Goku grew up in the series, it came as a bit of a shock to a lot of them.

It wasn't only that they were used to him. Historically, a lot of manga protagonists don't grow up if they start out as kids. Akira Toriyama took the risk of aging Goku up anyway, which was actually at the behest of his editor, Torishima. Torishima was a mentor to Toriyama at the time, and Toriyama didn't always listen, but in this case he did. The grown up, full bodied Goku that resulted is the one we all kind of know.

Dragon Ball started as a gag manga before the Demon King Piccolo arc changed its tone

Dragon Ball began as a gag manga. We all know Toriyama as one of the most creative artists ever, with some of the most epic fight scenes in all of comics, but he started off as a comedian, not just with Dr. Slump but with other one shot manga he produced before Dragon Ball. When Dragon Ball first began there was a lot of action and lots of kung fu, but there was also a lot of comedy.

As the series progressed there were a couple of tonal shifts, and it got a little more serious. To me, the most important tonal shift was probably the Demon King Piccolo arc, which began with Goku finding the body of his best friend Krillin, killed by Piccolo's offspring Tambourine. That's a very heavy way to begin an arc, and by this point it felt like Toriyama was really adopting the action side of his writing more than the comedy.

There was always comedy, though, and Dragon Ball was never meant to be taken too seriously. A lot of fans take it more seriously than they should, and sometimes I've been accused of that myself. I can see why somebody would think so. Ultimately, Dragon Ball is just a wacky story with a bunch of wacky characters who come together and have wacky fights, and it's a lot of fun. We should try to have fun while watching or reading it.

The 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai turned Goku's story into a coming of age tale

When the tonal shift happened, Toriyama decided to grow Goku into an adult. In the period after Goku defeated Demon King Piccolo and before the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, Toriyama aged him up and made him pretty much an adult. Based on the timeline, Goku was 18 when he first appeared in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai arc. You also have to remember he spent a year in the Room of Spirit and Time, something we only found out about deeper into Dragon Ball Z. Back then we didn't even know what that was.

The 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai is my favorite arc in Dragon Ball because it really becomes a coming of age story for Goku. He goes from being a monkey boy alone, searching for his grandfather's heirloom Dragon Ball, meeting Bulma and beginning his adventure, to saving the world from Demon King Piccolo. Then in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai he grows up, finds his wife and marries her shortly after the big fight, and finally, after failing two previous times, becomes champion of the world by defeating Piccolo.

It really is a perfect way to end Dragon Ball, and had the story ended there it would have been very satisfying. Toriyama chose to continue and tell the story of Goku's child Gohan alongside Goku himself, and that of course became Dragon Ball Z. Looking back at Goku's initial growth, there is so much to digest, and I don't think people really realize how important that moment was for the future of the series.

The arc that introduced adult Goku in 1988 scored an 18.2 rating average

The moment arrived in 1988, in chapter 166 of the manga and in episode 133 of the anime. In this case I prefer the anime version. That episode begins the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai arc, which scored an 18.2 rating average, and the first episode scored a 19% rating share. For reference, that's a lot more than Super.

Three years had passed since we last saw Goku, and this was his third shot at becoming champion of the Tenkaichi Budokai. I can only imagine how much of a culture shock it was for Japanese audiences to first see Goku as a fully grown adult. It was a huge deal in Japan.

Masako Nozawa kept the role and deepened Goku's voice

Masako Nozawa, the voice of Son Goku in the anime, has stated that she's one of the only actresses selected to reprise her role as adult Goku after voicing Kid Goku. That's really rare, because usually in Japan when a character grows up, the role is recast. Nozawa was so talented and so respected by Toriyama that she was allowed to keep voicing Goku.

What I find interesting about that is how often people complain that Goku sounds like a girl. It's almost always from somebody who grew up with the dub and has only seen small bits and pieces of the Japanese version, never the entire thing. If you watch all of Dragon Ball from start to finish in Japanese, you'll notice that Nozawa does change her voice for adult Goku. Her voice deepens, and he sounds like the same guy, but grown up. She does a great job.

Granted, it's not as masculine as Sean Schemmel or Mario Castañeda, but it keeps the innocence that Son Goku represents. Whether he's a kid or an adult, Goku is always going to be pure of heart and innocent. Some don't think he is, but in the original Dragon Ball he certainly was, and Nozawa plays up that quality while still deepening the voice slightly. Goku definitely went through puberty here.

Goku's red paper umbrella points back to his training with Kami

The first part of the episode takes place outside the tournament grounds, and it's raining. Why would Toriyama choose rain and that dreary look? It could be foreshadowing, the calm before the storm, since one of the biggest battles in the history of the series is coming very soon. But I think he did it on purpose so that Goku would have an umbrella.

It's a traditional paper umbrella made with bamboo, called a wagasa, which is basically an oil paper umbrella. The wagasa is a Chinese thing, imported to Japan during the Heian period, from 794 AD to 1185 AD, the era of peace. An umbrella protects us from the rain, but to the Japanese reader it also signals that Goku has returned from his training with Kami, or God. The umbrella is made of paper, which is kami, a homonym with kami, the word for God. Western readers won't pick up on this as much as Japanese readers, who understand that culture very well.

In the anime, the color chosen for the umbrella is red. In Eastern culture, red is said to be a magical color that protects against evil spirits and bad events. That's interesting, because in Western culture red represents evil or sinister motives, or even Satan in the Bible. I don't know how that happened, but that's just the way it is. In Eastern philosophy and religion it carries a totally different meaning.

A Mongolian costume and Persian headdress mirror Goku's time with Mr. Popo

Toriyama dressed Goku very similarly, though not identically, to a Mongolian nomad with a Persian headdress. Mr. Popo was heavily inspired by Persian mythology: the genie and the flying carpet all come from Arabian Nights. So the headdress mirrors the fact that Goku trained with Mr. Popo.

I also think Toriyama did it so that when Goku finally takes off the headdress, we see the iconic Goku hairstyle, and that's how we know for sure it's him. It made for a nice reveal. The costume itself is mostly Mongolian, and some have speculated that Toriyama got the idea from watching a classic kung fu film, since the Mongolians inspired Western Chinese clothing as well.

Once Goku reveals his face and hair, everyone is shocked to see him all grown up, while he thinks everybody else shrunk, which was kind of a funny line. Then he looks at Bulma's lipstick and thinks she's bleeding, because he's Goku and doesn't know any better. He's still that innocent boy inside a man's body, which is really symbolic just in the introduction of adult Goku.

Torishima says Goku needed an adult body so the fights could feel tense

In the 1980s and 1990s, it was unheard of for a shonen manga protagonist to grow older. They just stayed kids forever, or until the story ended. In a 2014 interview, Torishima explained that following the appearance of Demon King Piccolo, the fights in Dragon Ball had become a lot more tense. To show that, he said, Toriyama needed to reference anatomical charts and draw muscles moving in more detail, such as muscles swelling as characters tense up to muster their auras.

"He had to use the character's muscles to express such a tense atmosphere but he couldn't draw muscles properly with the head making up a third of the height," Torishima said. He went on to say that drawing Goku with adult body proportions would make the presentation of the fights more realistic, adding: "when he told me that I thought oh yeah that makes sense."

So one of the key reasons Toriyama aged Goku up was to make the fights make more sense: two grown adults, not a little kid fighting a grown person like we had seen in the Piccolo arc and in the Red Ribbon arc, where Goku takes on Red Ribbon soldiers at half their height. This brought a different pace, a different meaning and a different feel and tone to his own manga.

Toriyama almost quit over aging Goku up, and the gamble paid off

When Toriyama first aged Goku up for the 22nd tournament, when Goku became 15 years old, he almost quit. Toriyama threatened to quit if they wouldn't let him do it, and his editor kind of came to understand a bit more. Both of them were nervous about how the audience would react.

It turned out that Goku growing up was well received, not only in the East but everywhere else as well. The fact remains that characters changing on the outside is symbolic of them changing on the inside first, and Toriyama chose to do this to illustrate that Goku had certainly grown after training with God.

Which detail of Goku's first appearance as an adult stands out most to you?