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The Dragon Ball series, and Goku in particular, have had a profound impact on an entire generation of manga and anime fans. It is considered to be one of the most impactful shonen manga and anime series that has inspired the creation of characters from series like Naruto and One Piece.
The center of it all, is protagonist Goku. He is an exceptionally strong character who prioritized martial arts and went on to become one of the strongest characters in the universe. However, the Goku we know today no longer is a reflection of the legacy he has left. He is no longer the same character who is mature, intelligent, and hard-working, that inspired millions of people across the globe.
There is absolutely no doubt that Goku as a character has regressed over the past few years, and it only became more evident with every movie/anime series that was released in the recent past.
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Dragon Ball: Why do we believe that Goku as a character regressed and the possible reason for it
If we take a look at Goku’s character portrayal, his regression could be traced from the series’ Battle of Gods. During the fight between him and Beerus, the former outright boasts about his power levels and informs the latter that he’d go easy on him. After trying for a while, Beerus flicks his finger, which puts Goku out of commission. This bears an uncanny resemblance to the interaction he had with Mr. Popo and Kami, which took place way before when Goku was still a child.
At this stage, he boasted about his abilities since he was able to beat King Piccolo. However, he had a similar outcome against Kami, when he too flicked his finger to finish Goku at that time. Since then, Master Roshi played an integral role in his training.
He informed Goku about always encountering a fighter who will be stronger than him. After that, the protagonist has always respected his opponents. However, an extensive period of character development went down the drain in Dragon Ball: Battle of Gods.
Similarly, it doesn’t make sense to see Goku get injured by a beam when he finally reached his Super Saiyan Blue form. Since the inception of the Dragon Ball series, Goku has always lectured his opponents on refraining from leaving themselves open. However, to see himself leave his guard open in the Super Saiyan Blue form was not logical in any way, especially when the said character will have exceptionally increased durability and heightened senses.
In the original manga, Frieza was one of the most integral aspects of Goku’s character development since he made Goku realize that not everyone has the ability to correct their mistakes and turn over a new leaf. Frieza, despite receiving help from Goku in the past, attempted to kill him once again. He even killed Mecha Frieza in Trunks’ timeline after learning from his mistake.
It was at this point that Goku became ruthless in his approach. However, in Resurrection ‘F’ not only did he spare Frieza’s life, but also asked him to train harder and come back for a rematch.
Frieza ended up blowing the planet, and Beerus even blamed Goku for not being ruthless enough to kill him. In Dragon Ball Super: Super Heroes, Goku had no idea of what meditation was. In the original manga, he looked at Vegeta, and appreciated him for doing the very thing he seemingly had no idea about.
In the aforementioned movie, Vegeta explained to Goku the technique that allows him to conserve energy until the exact moment when he needs to launch an attack. The ironic part is, Goku himself perfected this technique way back in the Namek saga.
We believe that Goku’s character regression was necessary for the series to progress. In order to keep the Dragon Ball series going, they had to regress the main character who managed to develop incredibly well. A show will not be as interesting if the main character had no area to improve upon.
Stay tuned for more Dragon Ball anime and manga news as 2023 progresses.
