Goku

Bulma hits Goku with her car, and he learns that his grandfather's ball is one of the Dragon Balls. The two travel the world to find the rest. Along the way Goku saves a turtle and gets the Flying Nimbus from Master Roshi, meets Oolong the pig, the bandit Yamcha and little Chi-Chi, and watches the old man put out a burning mountain with the Kamehameha.

Emperor Pilaf steals the balls and locks the group up, but Oolong makes his wish first. Trapped, Goku looks at the full moon and turns into a giant ape that wrecks the castle. To calm the monster, his friends cut off his tail.

Goku trains with Master Roshi alongside Krillin, loses the 21st Tournament final to Jackie Chun and takes on the Red Ribbon Army alone. At the 22nd Tournament he loses again, to Tien. Soon after, Krillin is murdered by a demon.

Goku goes after the killer and reaches King Piccolo, who beats him. Saved by Yajirobe, he climbs Korin Tower, drinks the dangerous Ultra Divine Water and survives with enormous power. At the king's palace, he punches straight through Piccolo and wins.

Goku beats Piccolo's son at the 23rd Tournament, marries Chi-Chi and has a son, Gohan. Five years later Raditz arrives, claiming to be his brother: Goku is a Saiyan named Kakarot, sent to Earth as a baby to destroy it. To save Gohan, Goku holds Raditz while Piccolo fires the Special Beam Cannon and kills them both.

Dead, Goku runs Snake Way and trains with King Kai, who teaches him the Kaioken and the Spirit Bomb. Brought back to life, he arrives in time to face Vegeta. In the end, he asks the others to let the prince escape alive.

Goku flies to Namek training under a hundred times Earth's gravity and arrives in time to defeat the Ginyu Force. Then he faces Frieza, the emperor who destroyed the Saiyans' home world.

Not even the Spirit Bomb brings the villain down. When Frieza kills Krillin in front of him, Goku explodes with rage and becomes the legendary Super Saiyan. He wins the fight as Namek falls apart and escapes the planet in a ship at the last second.

Goku returns to Earth with Instant Transmission, learned on Planet Yardrat. The heart disease Trunks warned about drops him in the fight against the androids. Once recovered, he trains with Gohan in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

At the Cell Games, Goku gives up and names Gohan as the fighter who can win. When Cell threatens to blow himself up along with the Earth, Goku teleports with him to King Kai's planet and dies. Afterward he asks not to be revived: he thinks the Earth is safer without him.

Seven years later, Goku gets one day on Earth for the 25th Tournament, but the wizard Babidi awakens Majin Buu. Goku fights a mind-controlled Vegeta, shows off Super Saiyan 3 and teaches Goten and Trunks the fusion before returning to Other World. Old Kai gives up his own life to restore Goku's, and with the Potara earrings he fuses with Vegeta.

In the final battle against Kid Buu, Vegeta holds the monster off while Mr. Satan gets the world to give its energy. Goku throws the Spirit Bomb and, before the blow, wishes for Buu to be reborn as a good person.

Toriyama built Goku from Sun Wukong, the Monkey King of Journey to the West, mixed with Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee fight movies. He dropped the tail early because it was a pain to draw. To Toriyama, Goku is more selfish than heroic: he fights because he likes taking on strong people, and Toriyama disliked it when the anime made him too heroic. In Japan, Masako Nozawa has voiced Goku since the first episode and earned two Guinness World Records for the role in 2017.