Goku Jr.
Son Goku Jr. (孫悟空ジュニア Son Gokū Junia) is a descendant of Pan, and therefore also Goku, who appears in Dragon Ball GT: A Hero's Legacy, as well as the very last episode of Dragon Ball GT.
Names: Goku Junior, Son Goku Jr.
Origin: Dragon Ball GT: A Hero's Legacy (！ のしは Gokū Gaiden! Yūki no Akashi wa Sūshinchū, lit. "Goku’s Side Story! The Proof of his Courage is the Four-Star Ball") (1997)
Gender: Male
Race: Human-Saiyan/Saiyajin Hybrid
Alignment: Good
Occupation: Student
Created By:
Appearance
Normally, Goku Jr. wears a light blue vest with a white sash tied around his waist, a teal undershirt, light blue pants, red boots, a red headband, and red wristbands. Although when fighting in the World Martial Arts Tournament, over a teal T-shirt, he wears the blue vest and yellow pants that Goku wore throughout Dragon Ball GT (after Goku's fight with Omega Shenron, these were all torn).
Goku Jr.'s appearance strongly resembles Goku from Dragon Ball (just like Goten's former resemblance to Goku), down to his signature hairstyle.
Goku Jr.'s gi resembles Goku's, with the exception of having blue pants and a teal shirt underneath his vest (though in the finale of Dragon Ball GT, he wore Goku's preserved ancient gi) and it also resembles Goku's gi from the Emperor Pilaf Saga. Goku Jr.'s hair is in the same style, shape, and form of Goku's. He has black hair and black eyes (though they appear to have a dark blue tint when he is emotional, possibly as a reference to his great-great-great-grandmother Videl having blue eyes). Goku Jr.'s skin mostly resembles his great-great-great-grandfather Gohan's skin color. Also, Goku Jr. wears a headband similar to the one his great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Bardock was seen wearing.
Personality
Goku Jr. is a very timid, peace-loving boy who would rather play and avoid conflict than train or get into fights, much to his great-great-grandmother Pan's chagrin, and he appears to be a bit of a crybaby, somewhat like his ancestor Gohan's attitude before being taken in by Piccolo. However, after his journey and meeting Goku, he starts being brave and slowly starts acting like his great-great-great-great-grandfather when it comes to fighting.
Biography
Dragon Ball GT
Shadow Dragon Saga
| "They're not rags, Vegeta, these are the fighting clothes of my great ancestor. They're just a bit aged, that's all."
— "Until We Meet Again" |
Goku Jr. appears in the final episode of Dragon Ball GT, "Until We Meet Again", fighting Vegeta Jr. at the 64th World Martial Arts Tournament, with Pan and Bulma Leigh watching. Both Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. are able to achieve Super Saiyan.
A Hero's Legacy
Details about Goku Jr. are further elaborated on in the TV special Dragon Ball GT: A Hero's Legacy, in which he meets Goku. He is revealed to be by nature a very timid, peace-loving boy who would rather play and avoid conflict than train or get into fights (an example being when he refused to fight the bully Puck who stole Goku Jr.'s pen), much to his grandmother Pan's chagrin, and he appears to be a bit of a crybaby, somewhat like his ancestor Gohan's attitude before being taken in by Piccolo. However after Pan falls victim to an illness, Goku Jr. goes on a mission to restore her health with the Dragon Balls.
During his great journey, he meets up with Puck once again, and after a while, the two become friends. During their journey, Goku Jr. and Puck run into Mamba, Susha, Torga, and Lord Yao, demons who are located near Goku Jr. and Puck's location. After being misled by the demons to come to stay the night, Goku Jr. takes some previous advice from Puck, which helped lead to their escape. After battling the demons for a while, when Lord Yao starts to attack a bear cub, Goku Jr. becomes angry, taps into his inner power and becomes a Super Saiyan. After the transformation, Goku Jr. easily defeats Lord Yao.
After this, Goku Jr. finds the Dragon Ball, but nothing happens. He gets angry and is upset. His ancestor Goku appears in front of him and explains to him how to properly use the Dragon Balls, by stating that all seven are needed to get your wish. Goku Jr. is shocked to meet his namesake and they talk for a while. Then, a helicopter with Pan and Puck appears. When Goku Jr. turns back to thank him, Goku disappears. When Goku disappears, he tells Goku Jr. that it was his courage and bravery that caused Pan and Puck to be alive and safe, not the Dragon Balls. After that, Goku tells Goku Jr. to keep and treasure the Four-Star Dragon Ball as a memory of him and tells him that he is proud of him and wishes him good luck for his future.
Trivia
- While the Funimation refers to Pan as Goku Jr.'s grandmother, the original Japanese say Pan is his great-great-grandmother. Since Pan would have been at least 100 when he was born, this would make more sense considering the huge age gap between the two.
- Despite this localization, Goku still implies that he's farther back in his lineage than simply great-great-grandfather in the Funimation dub, counting to three fingers before giving up.
- Although Goku Jr. is not given a true heritage percentage, it was stated in the Daizenshuu (published long before Goku Jr.'s appearance) that anyone without over a quarter Saiyan heritage could not achieve the Super Saiyan form due to their heritage being too diluted
- However, this conflicts with both Goku Jr.'s ability to use the form and the human descendants of Goku and Vegeta being capable of the transformation in Age 1000 in Dragon Ball Online (which occurs in a different timeline) who's Saiyan blood would be even more diluted than Goku Jr.'s.
- Goku Jr. and his rival Vegeta Jr.'s ability to use the form serves as evidence against arguments that Pan's Saiyan blood was too diluted for her to transform, as Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr.'s Saiyan blood would be more diluted than Pan's who is only 1/4 Saiyan, yet both Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. can utilize the transformation indicating that Pan would be able to do so as well given the proper motivation and/or training (as Caulifla demonstrated that Saiyans can achieve the transformation through training and instruction without emotional upheaval if they are sufficiently powerful).
- The main reason why Pan never transformed in GT was because Toriyama never could quite figure out how to draw female Super Saiyans and presumably Toei Animation likewise avoided introducing any Super Saiyan forms for Pan or Bulla so as to avoid creating a design that might contradict Toriyama's vision should he ever come up with a design for female Super Saiyans, though since Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. resembled their male ancestors they were given Super Saiyan forms as Goku Jr.'s resembles Goku's and Goten's Super Saiyan forms while Vegeta Jr.'s is modeled after Vegeta's as the traits of male Super Saiyans had already been well established by that point. Ultimately female Super Saiyans would be introduced in Dragon Ball Online as well as other video games which eventually lead to the introduction of Caulifla and Kale in Dragon Ball Super as female Super Saiyans had been established in other media by that point. However, it remains to be seen if Pan or Bulla will achieve their own Super Saiyan forms like their relatives Goku Jr. and Vegeta Jr. in the future either in the manga, anime, or other media.
- Goku Jr. wears a red headband. This may be a reference to his ancestor Bardock, who similarly wears one around his head. Also, the character Son Wukong from the Journey to the West fables, whom his ancestor Goku was based on, has a restrictive headband that ironically mirrors the one Broly has on in his first appearance. It is also worth noting that in one of the chapter covers for Gohan's training sessions, he is depicted with a headband and at times the same outfit as the one Son Wukong wore. He also wears a headband when he enters the battle with Nappa and Vegeta in the Vegeta Saga.
- Both Goku Jr. and his ancestor Goku have beaten a Demon King at some point in their lives; Lord Yao and King Piccolo, respectively.
- Additionally, his ancestor Gohan was trained by King Piccolo's reincarnation Piccolo and fought against the King of the Demon Realm Dabura (who befriend his ancestors Chi-Chi and Videl while they were in Heaven during the Majin Buu conflict).
- Despite being named after Goku, Goku Junior's initial personality is more like his ancestor Gohan's before his training under Piccolo. Like Gohan, he starts out as a pacifist and crybaby, but gains courage enough to fight against evil and defend the innocent. His cowardly nature is also similar to his ancestor Mr. Satan though without the showboating and knack for persuasion, though he has Mr. Satan's cleverness as shown by him appealing to Mamba's vanity to distract her. He also becomes a Super Saiyan at a young age like Goten and Gohan. Additionally like Goku and Goten, he has a Super Saiyan rival who is a member of the Brief family (Goku's rival being Vegeta, Goten's rival being Trunks, and Goku Junior's rival being Vegeta Jr.).
- In World Mission, Beat is revealed to be a descendant of Goku like Goku Jr., however it is not specified whether he is descended from Gohan (like Goku Jr.) or Goten.
