Dragon Ball: Here Is Why Goku Has a Tail!
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Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise is, without a doubt, one of the most popular manga and anime franchises in history. The story of young Son Goku, a brilliant and kind-hearted fighter who evolves to become the mightiest fighter in the universe and the protector of the world, has attracted millions of fans worldwide ever since the manga debuted back in 1984. Son Goku and his powers have been the topic of debate for a while now – even we at Fiction Horizon have written several articles on Goku and his powers – which is why it should not surprise you that we are, once again, going to talk about Goku. In this article, you are going to find out why Son Goku has a tail.
Son Goku has a tail because he is a pure-blooded Saiyan born on the planet Vegeta. The Saiyans are a superpowered alien race that is born with a monkey’s tail, which is also their weak point. All Saiyans are born with a tail as it is their source of power, but once they achieve Super Saiyan, their tails won’t regrow once they are cut off because they now have a different power source.
We’re going to start off our article by giving you a brief introduction to Son Goku and his story. Then, we will tell you how his tail is connected to that story and how important it is for him and his powers. You’ll find out everything you need to know about the tail, but we must warn you that the article will contain some spoilers.
Why does Goku have a tail?
In order to fully explain why Goku had a tail, we have to tell you about his backstory. Goku is the son of Bardock and Gine, born in the year 737 with the name of Kakarot. There are two versions of his birth and origin. According to the special Tatta Hitori no saishū kessen, when he was born, his power was measured immediately, reaching only two units, qualifying him as the weakest Saiyan ever recorded. He was sent to planet Earth 12 since it was thought that with the low level of fighting of its inhabitants, his transformation would be enough to conquer it; this happened minutes before the destruction of his home planet at the hands of the tyrant Frieza.
According to the Dragon Ball Minus manga, Goku was put to sleep in an incubator after being born. Bardock – who was conquering planets – received the order through his scouter (tracker) that all Saiyans should return to Planet Vegeta. Bardock sensed a threat from Frieza, so upon returning to the planet, he looked for his wife, Gine, to tell her about her feeling. Gine tells him that Kakarot already has to leave the incubator. Bardock and Gine go after Kakarot. Bardock steals a spaceship and sends Kakarot to planet Earth to save it from the possible threat.
Weeks later, his home planet was destroyed at the hands of Frieza. When Goku landed on Earth, an old mountain martial artist named Son Gohan found Kakarot near a crater formed in the ground by the small spaceship he was sent on and gave him a new name, Goku. At first, Son Gohan encountered a very rebellious boy. According to the manga Jaco, Son Gohan is surprised by how strong he is. He points out to Goku that, since they have not taught him manners and he does not have a home at all to return, he could teach her new techniques.
One day Goku accidentally fell off a cliff and hit his head hard; after that, he left his aggressive nature, and over the years, Goku began to learn martial arts. As time passed, the old Son Gohan discovered that every time the boy looked at the full moon, he transformed into a giant ape, which would go into a violent frenzy and destroy everything around it until the moon disappeared. Trying to prevent these transformations, the old man forbade the boy to go out during full moon nights, which he obediently complied with, so they could lead a peaceful existence.
One night, accidentally seeing the full moon, Goku became Ōzaru, and inadvertently killed Son Gohan. Still, having no conscience in that form, when he woke up and did not find the old man, he continued his life believing that the four-starred Dragon Ball, which until then had belonged to his grandfather, was Son Gohan. This is where Goku’s story begins, but we won’t be talking about the plot of Dragon Ball here, but rather about Goku’s appearance.
At the beginning of the series, Goku is a black-haired, minute, a muscular child with a peculiarity foreign to any human being: he has a monkey’s tail. It is one of the physical traits common to all Saiyans, Goku’s species. Goku loses his tail twice at the beginning of the story before being definitively removed by the God of the Earth before the 23rd Tenkaichi Tournament. As you can see, the tail s a trait of all Saiyans and an important power source for a younger Goku; once he activated his Super Saiyan powers, he ultimately lost his tail permanently.
Being a member of the Saiyan race from an early age, he can quickly become much stronger than normal Earthlings. As for all the other members of his people, he possesses supernatural powers: the length of his juvenile period and maximum health is longer than that of the terrestrials; he is capable of transforming himself into a giant ape by means of his tail (on full moon nights) which increases his fighting power by ten times; lastly, he has the skill called Zenkai: when he suffers serious wounds in battle, but manages to survive, after healing he increases power, resistance, speed, alertness and Ki, which is able to control, use and perceive in other individuals.
Being a Saiyan, he possesses strength and resistance far superior to those of a human being (as is already highlighted in his first appearance). Nevertheless, since he was a newborn, Goku was classified as a warrior of the lowest level since he was one of the weakest individuals of his people.
During the plot, Goku managed to overcome his natural weakness with constant training under the supervision of various masters, among other things. Since his arrival on Earth, he had trained in martial arts at an early age, with the result that he managed to achieve and surpass Vegeta’s strength, although the latter was thought to be the best elite Saiyan of all. Like any Saiyan, he loses all his energy if someone grabs his tail, but on the occasion of the 22nd Tenkaichi Tournament, he was able to strengthen it by training it, no longer being deprived of his strength when grabbed.
As you can see, as a Saiyan, Goku had an array of powers, some of which were a consequence of having a tail. The tail was also Goku’s biggest weakness at the time. But, as we have said, once a Saiyan dives into his Super Saiyan powers, the source changes, and they are no longer in need of a tail.
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