Son Goku
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Son Goku (孫悟空 Son Gokū?) is the Japanese pronunciation of the name of the character Sun Wukong, a monkey god in the Chinese novel Journey to the West. He is somewhere between a trickster-god, a superhero, and an allegory.
Characters called Son Goku are to be found in a number of Japanese anime and manga series based on this myth. One is in the universe of Dragon Ball; another is in the series Gensomaden Saiyuki. A Doraemon anime also features the story.
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[edit] Alakazam the Great
One of the earliest anime feature films, it was adapted from Boku no Son Gokū (ぼくの孫悟空? lit. "My Son Gokū") a 1953 manga by Osamu Tezuka (of Astro Boy & Black Jack fame), Alakazam the Great was one of the first releases by Toei Animation (which had been established just three years before, in 1957, as part of Toei Productions). At the time, Toei Animation was geared to create feature-length movies, as is the case with Alakazam the Great, which was originally released in Japan in 1960 under the same title as the novel from which it came: Saiyuki. Despite an excellent original script and Disney-level animation, crude translation made its American appearance less successful, primarily because of the removal of a lot of religious connotations that were an important part of the original story.
[edit] Saiyuki
In Saiyuki, Son Goku, like the legendary Sun Wukong, is a heretical demon who was imprisoned in a cave for five hundred years as punishment for his crimes against Heaven. He was eventually freed by Genjo Sanzo and was watched over in the monastery Sanzo administrated. When Sanzo was dispatched by the gods to journey to the west and stop a process that was causing the world's demons to go mad and turn on the humans with whom they had lived peacefully, Son Goku accompanied him, along with the demon Cho Hakkai and the half-demon Sha Gojyo.
Son Goku is a skilled fighter with the nyoi-bou (nyoi-bō). Although a demon, he is kept in human form with a golden power limiter that he wears as a coronet. When this is removed, he goes berserk and is unable to distinguish friend from foe, made even more dangerous by strength rivaled by only the greatest gods and demons. The power-limiting coronet concept is inspired by the original Chinese legend. As opposed to other legends where the title Seiten Taisei was self-bestowed to indicate his enlightenment, Goku's title was given by others to indicate that his power was nearly an equal of the gods.
In the anime and manga, Goku is seen as a monster rather than a demon, and cannot die no matter how brutally he's beaten or how long he goes without food. He's a bottomless pit for food, possibly as a result of not eating for his entire imprisonment, and is extremely affectionate. He was born from the chaotic energies of the earth itself, emerging from a rock on top of a mountain. Thus, he has no parents and Genjo Sanzo acts as a guardian to him in his former and current life. Goku is very attached to Sanzo and if Sanzo ever gets hurt, Goku tends to lose it, and his fighting ability greatly increases.
He's voiced by Soichiro Hoshi, a good friend of Akira Ishida, who voices Hakkai. In the English dub, he's voiced by Greg Ayres, who was a fan of Goku even before the dub.
| Series |
|---|
| Saiyuki · Saiyuki Gaiden · Saiyuki Reload · Saiyuki Gunlock |
| Characters |
| Sanzo Party: Genjo Sanzo/Koumyou Sanzo · Son Goku · Sha Gojyo · Cho Hakkai · Hakuryu |
| Kougaiji's Group: Kougaiji · Lirin · Dokugakuji · Yaone |
| Gyumaoh's Revival Group: Gyokumen Koushou · Dr. Ni Jianyi/Ukoku Sanzo |
| Others: War Prince Nataku · Gyumaoh · Kanan · |
[edit] Gokudo-kun Manyuki
In Gokudo Swordsmen Extrordinare, a very Slayers-like anime series, the Monkey King Gokudo makes an appearance as a troublemaking monkey, switches bodies with Gokudo, & later becomes a redheaded biseinen. "[1]"
[edit] Dragon Ball
In Dragon Ball, Son Gokū is a Saiyan who was sent to Earth as a baby. He and the manga series are loosely based on apes and in Journey to the West. Goku is very strong compared to the humans he becomes friends with, and has a monkey tail. He also has a virtually endless appetite, and is very naive about many things until Bulma teaches him otherwise. In later parts of Dragon Ball (known as Dragon Ball Z in the anime adaptation and to the western world) Goku and the series become less like their origins in Journey to the West, and instead move onto a more sci-fi-oriented plot (such as journeys into outer space, android/cyborg characters, etc.).
[edit] Differences between Son Goku(dragonball) and Sun Wukong
There are some major differences between Son Goku as portrayed in the dragon ball series and sun wukong. In appearance, Son Goku is a young warrior of the Saiyan race sent to Earth as a baby. He wears a cotton gi, and has hair that sticks in every direction. Sun Wukong is richly dressed, wears a crown, and looks more monkey-like than human. Personality-wise, Son Goku is innocent, pure of heart, and considerably low in intelligence, as for Sun Wukong he's a bit of a trickster and is is known to have caused a certain amount of trouble in heaven.
