You know, when you put down Goku’s qualities like that, I think I understand why Tanjiro from Demon Slayer appeals to me. On some level the character calls out to the 10 year old me that was obsessed with Dragon Ball Z.

Son Goku, is one of the faces of the hero with thousand faces, IMO one of the greatest of all personification of the myth, from the perspective of someone from Latin America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

from my perspective of someone from Southeast Asia, Son Goku is definitely Sun Wukong the Monkey King from Journey To The West

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_King

How?? The Monkey King is a trickster and quite frankly, mean to a lot of people. Goku is the exact opposite. The only thing they have in common is the extending rod that Goku would fight with as a child.

Watch the original episodes, he is very much like a trickster monkey. Then he matured into what people remember him as and became very different, but he didn't start that way.

He is inspired by Wukong for episode 1 and then pretty much stopped being that...

Literally never seen Goku tricking anyone, there are a few instances in which he plays with the enemies but they were the baddies.

> then pretty much stopped being that

not true

The original Wukong [1] flies on a "golden cloud" (does that rings a bell?) and uses as a weapon a growing stick (Ruyi Jingu Bang, transliterated in Japanese as Nyoi Bo, the name used in the Dragon ball anime and manga) that obeys to voice commands

In Dragon ball the golden headband (that can shrink as a form of punishment) is missing, replaced by a regular red headband that sometimes Goku wears

EDIT: of course I forgot the most important one: Goku can become a monkey. Wukong is a monkey, the monkey king.

[1] https://external-preview.redd.it/CZeTiWE13k8lyrdzQ5pGZqY6wI6...

It was crazy reading Journey to the West and being like, "WTF, THAT part of Dragonball comes from this?"

I get that but I was talking about the behavior.

In Journey to the west Sun Wukong learns to behave and start following a path of spiritual growth and wisdom that, at the end of his journey, leads him to become enlightened and a Buddha himself.

Much like Goku in Dragon ball, where trough the training and by following his master's teachings, he becomes a warrior with a noble heart that values friendship over everything else.

After that, I agree, it's simply about becoming stronger and stronger.

I didn't watch the episodes, I read the 16th century book Monkey, translated into English by Arthur Waley. Supposed to be a pretty faithful translation, which is why I was surprised by your comparison of Sun Wukong and Son Goku.

> and quite frankly, mean to a lot of people > Goku is the exact opposite.

How? How abandons his family to train or fight enemies. He puts everything at risk just for a good duel. He helps the enemy recover or throws his son out there just to see a good fight. Just because he's the MC and portrayed in a positive light...

He might be a popular character but definitely not nice.

Especially when you get into DragonBall super when he goes against what everyone is telling him to do and challenges super God to a fight, starting something that could have led to the death of multiple universes. And when he allows frieza to do whatever as long as it doesn't effect earth. He's very selfish in a lot of ways.

China pumps out a Monkey King movie every year. They are all totally different interpretations other than he is a monkey and has a stick.

I also didn't realise as a western kid that Dragon Ball is set in a Taoist / Buddhist universe. The way the gods, afterlife, etc work in Dragon Ball, the way you can get super powers through training is extremely related to buddhist / taoist mythology.

That was his original inspiration but he has matured far beyond that.

> Son Goku, is one of the faces of the hero with thousand faces

Son Goku from Toriyama is probably one of the best adaptation of the legend of Sun Wukong [1], one of my other favorites is Jan Kugo from Starzinger [2] and of course The Monkey from no other than the master Osamu Tezuka [3]

EDIT: it definitely also fits the definition that Campbell gives of the hero

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_King

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starzinger

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gok%C5%AB_no_Daib%C5%8Dken

was "Goku" a transliteration of wukong ? wu -> go, kong -> ku ?

孫悟空 is how it's written in both Traditional Chinese and Japanese. That's Son Gokū, as read in Japanese. For some reason it became Sangoku in France. While we're on names, did you know all names fell in themes. Vegetables for the saiyans (saiya-jin, vegetable in Japanese is yasai). Goku is Kakarot (carot), Vegita (vegetable), Raditz (radish), etc. Underwear: Bulma (bloomers), Trunks. Chinese(ish) foods: Yamcha (yumcha), Tenshinhan (tenshindon), Chaozu (jiaozi), and many more themes.

The vegetable link yeah I knew, the clothing too (they were a bit more obvious), but not saiya per se, nor the other food named chars.

side note, imported mangas were my entry-point to non European languages, I went into a deep rabbit-hole to decipher the Japanese writing system. And the pair trunks/dragon was my first seed to solve that, except I didn't really know how they were spelled there torankusu / doragonu so it took a little while to associate consonants with vowels.

To add to the list for the interested. Not exhaustive, but showing more themes!

Food: - Garlic Jr, his henchmen: Shu, Mai, Spice, Vinegar, Mustard, Salt - Captain Ginyu (牛乳 Milk), Recoome (pun for Cream), Guido/Gurudo (pun for Yogurt), Bonyu (母乳), Jeice/Jisu (Cheese), Burter (Butter) - Beerus (Beer) - Oolong and Puer (Teas) - Chichi (milk) - Pan (Bread)

Temperature: - Chilled, King Cold, Freiza, Cooler

Animals: - Namek (蛞蝓 Namekuji, slug), Dende: (Denden-mushi, snail) - Master Roshi/Kame Sen-nin (亀仙人 "Turtle Hermit) - Tsuru-Sen'nin (鶴仙人, "Crane Hermit")

Instruments: - Piccolo - King Piccolo's children: Banjo, Bell, Mandolin, Maraca, Marimba, Conga, Cymbal, Drum, Harp, Organ, Piano, Tambourine, Ukelele

Colors: - Red Ribbon Army: General Blue, Tao Pai Pai (桃白白 white), Colonel Brown, Colonel Silver, General White, Captain Dark, Captain Yellow, Colonel Viiolet, General Copper

Cinderella: - Bibidi, Babadi, Buu

Devil/Satan: - Mr. Satan - Videl (anagram of Devil)

AFAIK "Goku is the Japanese way of saying Sun Wukong"

thanks

Guy might be most reponsible for holding up Japanese soft power during the 90s

so glad someone remembers Kentaro Miura on a post like this. they went back to the source and i hope can return asap to this wonderful planet we live.