Goku’s Eyes: What Color Are They & Why Do They Change?

We all know that Son Goku is the protagonist of Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball manga and anime. A lot has been written about Goku here on Fiction Horizon, but there are still a lot of other things that need to be talked about. Goku is a very complex and layered character and there are a lot of mysteries surrounding him, and one of those mysteries is going to be the topic of this article. We are going to reveal what the color of Goku’s eyes is and why it changes when he transforms.

Goku’s eyes are naturally black in color. As he transforms into different forms, the color changes, corresponding to the color of the aura he emits while in a specific form. The color is sometimes identical to the hair color, but not always since the aura is not always the same. There seems to be no specific reason for this save for the fact that Akira Toriyama wanted it to be that way.

The rest of this article is going to put more focus on Goku’s eyes and their color. Son Goku’s eyes keep changing and while that is quite cool in itself, we still wanted to know why that is. This article is the result of our research, as we have decided to share our findings with you and answer all the questions you might have about this issue.

What color are Goku’s eyes?

He is 1.75 m tall and weighs about 62 kg as an adult, he has black hair with spikes and a gray sheen, this consists of three strands hanging to the right of his forehead and two hanging to the left, his hair also stands up in his forehead with four spikes and three locks behind (later in the anime, he gains five spikes on his forehead and four locks behind).

This capillary form remains unchanged throughout the series in its base state, only changing when it transforms or if I make an aesthetic change with a comb and hair gel, like when he worked as a bodyguard to keep his hair fixed, but it returned to its normal shape after a few minutes.

Goku looks almost exactly like his father. He has the same spiky black hairstyle, dark eyes, and facial features. However, he has softer eyes, a friendlier demeanor, and a lighter complexion from his mother. Goku’s Super Saiyan form was heavily influenced by martial artist Bruce Lee. According to Toriyama, Goku’s piercing eyes are based on Lee’s paralyzing gaze.

Dragon Ball Z character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro also used Lee as a reference for Goku’s Super Saiyan form, stating that when he “first becomes a Super Saiyan, his slanting pose with that scowling look in his eyes is all Bruce Lee.”

Why does Goku’s eye color change when he transforms?

As Son Goku changes into his many forms, his eye color changes as well. Now, the reason behind this is much simpler than you thought. People have tried to find a proper in-universe explanation for this phenomenon, but in all honesty, there doesn’t seem to be one. Namely, as things stand, the eye color changes simply because Akira Toriyama wanted it to be like that. There is no in-universe reason for why that happens – it just does.

We shall now go through the changes in brief. When transforming into the Super Saiyan form, Goku’s eyes change to green, or, to be more precise, greenish-blue. This has been a question much debated online – whether the color changes to green, blue, or something in between – but the official sources seem to confirm, now at least, that it is a greenish-blue shade.

Next up is Super Saiyan God. In this form, Goku has magenta hair (identical to his fur as Super Saiyan 4), while Vegeta has crimson hair. The hair retains its natural hairstyle, but becomes finer (and loses all stray hairs). The Saiyan’s eyes become more detailed and the irises become red (he appears more relaxed even in battle until he is sufficiently angered). The overall body structure seems to get younger and thinner, although this is not the case with the future warrior and Shallot, as their musculature remains the same in their Super Saiyan God form. The Super Saiyan God’s aura resembles a raging fire.

As for Super Saiyan Blue, the form’s eyes and hair glow blue though the hair’s color is a more saturated shade of blue than that of natural Saiyans. From Blue, we continue to Super Saiyan Rosé. In the anime, this state is identical to the Super Saiyan Blue form except for the color: Black’s hair takes on a pastel pink color with slight white highlights, his eyebrows match the color of his hair, and his eyes turn light gray.

The shape of the aura is very similar to Super Saiyan Blue’s, with major differences in color; it has a very dark shade of red on the outside, while the inside is a more pinkish color. While the aura is present, Black’s clothes become lighter, while his eyes appear pink and the color of his hair and eyebrows turn a slightly darker shade of pink (because he is illuminated by the aura) and he gets a dark purple glow around his body.

Since it is not a human(oid) form, we’ll just skip the Great Golden Ape form here and head straight to Super Saiyan 4. In this form, the Saiyan has a different hair color, the same goes for the tail and the body is covered with red fur. A Saiyan in this form also has a shadow rim around the eyes and above the eyelids that varies in color, such as crimson.

The hair becomes longer and wilder, reaching the middle of the back, while two long, spiky tufts of hair appear on either side of the neck. Also, the person becomes significantly larger and more muscular, as Vegeta showed when his time limit ended and he returned to his significantly smaller size.

The aura in this form loses the arcs of electricity and returns to the shape of the smooth aura of a normal Super Saiyan (although in various video games, the aura has been depicted as reddish with a small yellowish glow and sparks of bio-electricity). In most games, the aura is depicted as standard gold.

In the case of the Fusion Dance warrior Gogeta, the coloring of the above features seems to change, as Gogeta’s hair takes on a lighter shade of red, while his fur takes on a darker shade of brown and the rim of his eyes is black instead of red. His aura also has a yellow glint to it.

Finally, the Evil Sayan form causes a noticeable increase in height and muscle mass, plus gives the Saiyan sterner and defined eyes. But, it doesn’t seem to change the original eye color in any way. And with this, we can conclude the overview of the eye color changes of Goku’s transformations.