Goku is undoubtedly one of Dragon Ball’s strongest characters. But what secrets is the Saiyan’s body hiding?

While he isn’t exactly known for being the smartest character in Dragon Ball, Goku more than makes up for that with his strength. Even by Saiyan standards, he’s seen as a mighty warrior. Time and time again, he’s proven that he is one of the most powerful mortals this side of the multiverse.

His body has taken its fair share of beatings over the years, though, from being squeezed by giant ape Vegeta to surviving heart disease to having a laser shot through his chest. Despite all of this, he still looks young and spry, and will probably continue fighting until his body fully gives out on him. With that in mind, here are five weird facts about Goku’s body you may or may not know.

Goku’s Growth Was Stunted

When we met Goku in the first episode of Dragon Ball, he was a tiny little squirt running around the woods. But did you know that he was actually considered short, even for his young age? At the start of the series, he was around 12 years old, much to our — and Bulma’s — surprise. Many people thought he was actually younger than 10. It wasn’t until he had a couple of growth spurts between the ages of 15 and 25 that he actually started looking his age. Of course, that never stopped him from taking on opponents much bigger than him.

Goku Doesn’t Age… For A While

Despite the series spanning well over 30 years, Goku doesn’t have a single wrinkle or gray hair, while other characters around him do show signs of aging. This is because Saiyans don’t show signs of aging until they reach about 80 years old. This fact could explain why he didn’t look like he’d hit puberty until a later age. It probably also helps that his body is regenerated numerous times throughout the series. If he keeps this up, he may end up looking young for much longer than the average Saiyan. Whatever the reason is, doctors hate him.

Goku Is Able To Withstand Intense Gravity

As we see multiple times in the series, Goku’s body is able to withstand extreme levels of gravity. The first time this becomes apparent, he’s training with King Kai after being killed in his fight with Raditz. This becomes a go-to training method for him and other characters, as it increases their strength and dexterity.

The only time he seems to be in real danger is when his ship malfunctions on the way to Namek with the machine set to 100 x Earth’s gravity. Even then, he decides to keep it at this level to prepare for his fight against Frieza. It’s also implied that he and Vegeta use the Gravity Machine at Capsule Corp. for sparring in the Galactic Patrol Prisoner saga, though it’s not clear at what level they train. Vegeta has been seen training at 500 x Earth’s gravity, but there have been hints that Goku too could withstand it with some further training. Nothing can keep these boys down — not even physics.

Goku’s Hairstyle May Be Genetic

It’s not hair gel that keeps Goku’s signature hairstyle up — it seems to be genetics. When Bardock is introduced, he also sports the particular spiky hair that Goku is known for. While Gohan didn’t inherit this particular gene, Goten was lucky enough to take after dear old Dad. We even see Goku Jr., one of his descendants, with it in Dragon Ball GT’s last episode, as well as in Dragon Ball GT: A Hero’s Legacy, though the character is not considered canon within Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball lore.

Even his mother Gine and older brother Raditz have matching hairstyles. This begs the question, do hairstyles signify which family a Saiyan comes from — sort of like a family crest? Or is it just one of those weird anime things?

Goku’s Biggest Bodily Weakness Is… Needles

For someone as powerful as Goku, the sight of a needle should be nothing. Yet, as soon as he lays eyes on one, he’s reduced to a blubbering mess of cowardice. While not included in the manga, the phobia adds a bit of relatability to his anime counterpart. It’s never explained why he’s so scared of them, but most fears aren’t rational. Let’s just hope none of Dragon Ball‘s villains find out about it.

We’ve watched Goku grow up from a tiny 12-year-old to a towering powerhouse over the span of Dragon Ball and its sequels, and yet there are still mysteries about how his and other Saiyans’ anatomy works. Between the various power-ups and the monster appetite, it’s unclear why they, of all other alien races, make such great fighters. And even among Saiyans, Goku is still a one-off.

Super Dragon Ball Heroes is continuing through the second season of its promotional anime series, and the next episode for the Big Bang Mission arc has revealed its synopsis. The Big Bang Mission arc has taken the fight against Fu to a new level when a stronger and beefed up version of the Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn villain Janemba was introduced. This meant that the Xeno versions of Goku and Vegeta had a tough fight on their hands that pushed the limits of their Super Saiyan 4 powers to a new stage.

The Big Bang Mission arc is really only beginning as the next episode of the series takes the fight to a couple of new foes. Episode 7 Super Dragon Ball Heroes’ Big Bang Mission arc is titled “Rampaging Terror! The Evil Aura Returns!” The synopsis for the new episode (as translated by @DBSChronicles on Twitter) teases the return of some foes we had seen teased at the beginning of the arc along with Gohan and Android 17’s return to the fight.

The synopsis begins as such, “Goku and co. invade the cracks of time where the universe tree grows. There, Gohan and 17, who were already brought there by Fu, fight their fated enemies, Bojack and Super 17. Thanks to Towa, the Time Patrollers disappear, leaving behind Goku and Vegeta to fight Fu.” These aren’t the only major returns, however, as like the title of the episode implies we’ll be seeing a much more prominent return.

The final piece of the synopsis teases the return of Evil Saiyan Cumber (who we had last seen fighting Golden Cooler in the first season of the promotional series), and more ominously, the return of his evil aura, “During the fierce fight, the evil aura of Cumber controlled by Fu attacks Goku and co. and causes therm to go berserk…”

The next episode of the Big Bang Mission arc is scheduled for a release sometime in September, but no concrete release date has been revealed as of this writing. What did you think of the newest Super Dragon Ball Heroes episode?

Excited to see what’s next for the Episode 7 of the season? What have you thought of the first few episodes of the Big Bang Mission season so far?

Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods was not only exciting because it was the first new Dragon Ball anime content in a long time, but that it opened up the franchise to godly new levels of power. Over the course of Dragon Ball Super we have seen Goku and Vegeta inch their way towards these godly new levels with Goku even breaking through at the end of the original anime series. But is it possible that the two of them have hit their power ceiling? Did Dragon Ball Super just limit how strong Goku and Vegeta can get? And if it did, is it a bad thing?

The fight against Planet Eater Moro has been a difficult one in that Goku and Vegeta have been dealt their most decisive loss in the series to date. Much like their fight against Fused Zamasu, the two of them have been defeated so soundly that it’s going to take divine intervention to save them. But the difference here is, Goku and Vegeta have trained to near god level abilities — yet could not quite get there.

The more the Dragon Ball franchise runs on, the stronger Goku and Vegeta have seemed. But the fight with Moro is just a cap on Dragon Ball Super’s bringing them back down to Earth. Although they do have all these fantastical new power ups at their disposal, it’s all essentially meaningless as both Goku and Vegeta continue to confront their limits with each fight. It’s always been this way as losing is built into a Saiyan’s blood, but it feels especially poignant with the loss to Moro.

Mastered Ultra Instinct currently seems like the strongest transformation in the Dragon Ball world, as even the Gods of Destruction honored its arrival with Goku, but Goku currently cannot reach it on his own. This could have been a fluke as Goku just reached it under the pressure of saving his universe, but if it’s not it has yet to be proved at the time of this writing. Even with his training with Merus, Goku could not magically do it through training like his reaching other forms in the past. It almost as if Vegeta realized too.

Instead of following Goku’s path in the no longer fruitful chase for power, Vegeta trained to use his current strength in creative ways. Vegeta chose to fight smarter, not harder, yet it still was not enough to defeat Moro despite how much stronger this training made him. So the major question being, is this really it for how strong they can become? Will Goku and Vegeta remain at this level and not potentially take on the entire multiverse?

If this turns out to be the case, it would not be the worst thing. Not only would it fall back in line with canonical end of Dragon Ball Z (which this is still supposed to lead into apparently), but it would change the scope of the fights from here on out. The two Saiyans will have to find new ways to defeat their opponents and come face to face with their own mortality. This too, would bring us back to End of Z with Vegeta deciding to ease up on fighting and Goku starts training those who could surpass him.

What do you think? Will Goku and Vegeta still find a way to get stronger and defeat Moro? Will the loss here make them fight differently? Could this even be the final arc of the series?

Viz’s twelfth collected volume of the Dragon Ball Super manga will be released 02 March 2021, covering chapters 53-56 (as well as a two-page bonus chapter) a la its Japanese counterpart:

” The villain Moro has released vicious criminals from the Galactic Prison, and now they’re ravaging the galaxy in their search for planets with exceptional life energy! Meanwhile, back on Earth, members of the Bandit Brigade have shown up, including Seven-Three, who has the ability to copy other fighters’ powers. How will Piccolo and the others fare against this new threat without Goku around?”

Print editions retail for $9.99 MSRP. Digital editions of each will also be available at various retailers, including Amazon, Comixology, and direct from Viz.

The Dragon Ball Super “comicalization” began in June 2015, initially just ahead of the television series, and running both ahead and behind the series at various points. The manga runs monthly in Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine, with the series’ sixty-second chapter coming last week in the magazine’s September 2020 issue. Illustrated by “Toyotarō” (in all likelihood, a second pen-name used by Dragon Ball AF fan manga author and illustrator “Toyble”), the Dragon Ball Super manga covered the Battle of Gods re-telling, skipped the Resurrection ‘F’ re-telling, and “charged ahead” to the Champa arc, “speeding up the excitement of the TV anime even more”. Though the television series has completed its run, the manga continues onward, entering its own original “Galactic Patrol Prisoner” arc. Viz is currently releasing free digital chapters of the series, and began their own collected print edition back in 2017. The next collected volume — the tenth — is due out this September (followed by the eleventh in December, and now the twelfth in March).

The Dragon Ball Super television series concluded in March 2018 with 131 total episodes. FUNimation owns the American distribution license for the series, with the English dub having wrapped its broadcast on Cartoon Network, and the home video release reaching its tenth and final box set back in January.

Dragon Ball Super Chapter 61 reveals a new upgrade for Moro, and now he’s stronger than ever.

Millions of years prior to even the original Dragon Ball series, the Grand Supreme Kai and South Supreme Kai united to take down Moro, a powerful wizard and energy-absorbing villain that posed a major threat to the universe. Grand Supreme Kai eventually defeated Moro, taking the villain into the custody of the Galactic Patrol. Moro remained in custody until the events of Dragon Ball Super. Shortly after his escape, the villain used the Namekian Dragon Balls to restore his original power and further boosted that by absorbing energy during a rampage across the universe. If that wasn’t enough, Dragon Ball Super Chapter 61 gives him another upgrade — and now he’s stronger than ever.

At the start of Dragon Ball Super Chapter 61, Moro faces off against Vegeta. At first, the villain has the advantage over the Saiyan Prince, and looks like he’ll win despite Vegeta’s latest power upgrade. This isn’t particularly surprising, as Moro was able to defeat Goku despite that Saiyan using the godly Ultra Instinct Sign transformation. However, things turn against Moro, as it’s revealed Vegeta learned a technique called Forced Spirit Fission on Planet Yardrat. This move separates Moro from all of the power he absorbed, and the villain eventually reverts back to his emaciated state from before when he used the Namekian Dragon Balls.

With Moro at his mercy, Vegeta gets permission from Jaco to finally put the powerful villain — who was previously unkillable — down for good. However, Moro has one more trick up his sleeve: Magic. The villain escapes back to his spaceship, where he kills Shimo-Rekka while Seven-Three watches on in horror. Still, Seven-Three — whose powerful copy ability allowed him to duplicate his master’s abilities during a battle with the Z-Fighters — doesn’t have to ruminate long on his ally’s death. Instead, Moro literally eats Seven-Three to absorb his powers.

Vegeta, who pursues the villain, is shocked by what happens and ends up getting knocked out by Moro in his new form. As the Z-Fighters look on from Earth, Goku remarks Moro is now even stronger than he was before. When the villain does finally touch back down on Earth, Moro has a new form, which is something of a fusion between himself and Seven-Three. The villain then reveals Seven-Three held a complete back-up of Moro and his abilities. Plus, by absorbing Seven-Three, Moro now has access to that henchman’s copy ability.

Thanks to this turn of events, Moro is deadlier than ever. While Vegeta’s Forced Spirit Fission may still be able to sap the villain’s power in some way, the Saiyan Prince is seemingly down for the count, so it’s unlikely he’ll be able to compete with Moro in earnest anytime soon. This is also a particularly bleak outcome for the Z-Fighters. Prior to Vegeta’s return, the group seemed destined to lose to Moro. Nothing has changed for them, and now they’re even more hopelessly outclassed. Still, Goku is one fighter who, when faced with a challenge, always finds a way to break past his limits, so it may just be that he accesses a higher form of Ultra Instinct to take down Moro. It may also be that the Angel Merus finally gives into his instincts and interferes in the battle, despite the fact such an action will violate his vow of neutrality and cost him his life.