When Dragon Ball first began being serialized, Goku debuted in his child form. He is an extremely cute chibi character and fans love him for it.
However, the manga started to gain popularity after the Martial Arts Tournament arc was introduced. This means that the number of fight scenes will increase compared to the previous comedy genre. Suddenly, chibi Goku became an obstacle for fight scenes.
Why did Akira Toriyama change Goku's character design in Dragon Ball?
The first Goku is a cute chibi boy with an adorable tail, making him different from any other character. While this setup fits the comic comedy that Dragon Ball is intended to be, once it starts moving into the action genre, adjusting the body in different fighting positions becomes difficult. .
In an interview, Akira Toriyama confessed: “His head/body ratio made fighting difficult, so I said if the series was going to start focusing more on battles then I needed to make him an adult.”
However, this decision was not taken without serious opposition. Changing the main character's design was already a taboo in the industry, but Toriyama remained adamant. Everyone doubts that change will bring any good.
However, the author still made the decision. In fact, the author even used sneaky tricks to get the design approved.
Super Saiyan may never have existed unless Goku grew up
If Goku never received an adult character design, the manga may not have implemented the action aspect so well. After the Martial Arts Tournament was introduced, many sequels introduced larger and more powerful enemies.
The most famous of them is definitely Frieza. But would Frieza exist if Toriyama still had trouble getting chibi Goku to fight?
Akira Toriyama is famous for changing elements in Dragon Ball, whenever something doesn't suit his purposes, and the author has proven it many times. For example, removing Goku's tail and changing Goku's hair color when transforming.
Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan for the first time
There is a high possibility that if Goku had always been a child, Toriyama would never have introduced the Frieza Saga and the Super Saiyan form. After all, how can you expect a child to fight against an alien monster?
Toriyama gave Goku villainous facial expressions in his Super Saiyan state, which worked on Goku Jr. In the end, the mangaka did what he thought was best and it worked for Dragon Ball.
