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This article is about Goku's son. For other uses, see Gohan (disambiguation).

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"In order to protect those important to me, I need to get more and more powerful."
— "The Earth Explodes?! A Decisive Kamehameha!"


Son Gohan (そんはん Son Gohan) is a half-breed Saiyan and one of the most prominent characters in the Dragon Ball series. He is the elder son of the series' primary protagonist Goku and his wife Chi-Chi, the older brother of Goten, the husband of Videl and father to Pan. He is named after Goku's adoptive grandfather, Gohan.

Unlike his father, Gohan is a brilliant scholar and lacks a passion for fighting, preferring to do so only when his loved ones are threatened. Nevertheless, he spends much of his life participating in the defense of Earth, often helping to turn the tides when the dormant depths of his power are unleashed.[6]

Appearance

Gohan forms

Most of Gohan's appearances throughout the series

Gohan resembles his father, inheriting Goku's hair, facial features, and dark eyes. At the same time, he has his mother's light peach complexion rather than his father's light tan. Also taking after his father, Gohan inherited a Saiyan tail, which was long and prehensile with brown fur. It was removed and regrew a few times during his childhood until removed permanently by Vegeta in their first battle.

When first introduced as a young child, he had short and spiky but relatively well-kept hair. He wore a white sleeveless shirt and green pants with black boots with white lacing, this outfit was covered in a Hanfu-style top that was yellow with green sleeves and on the front his family name, 'Son', written in kanji within a large white circle with black lining. He also wore a red cap with the Four-Star Dragon Ball attached to the top. He later removes the Hanfu-style top to show his outfit when he is ready to train with Piccolo.

GohanDebutNV

Gohan as a child

While training with Piccolo, after losing his previous outfit from transforming into a Great Ape, he wears an outfit similar to Goku's original, consisting of an orange gi and black belt with a black undershirt, blue wristbands, and black boots with yellow lasing. In the Anime, his uniform is the same as Piccolo's consisting of a purple gi with a red sash and armbands, bronze grass shoes, and a white collar around his neck. At the same time, he wore with the 'Ma' symbol (魔) and his hair grew out more into a mullet-style that reached his shoulders. By the fight against the Saiyans, Gohan grows noticeably more muscular for a child and dons a similar attire to the Namekian warriors. He also sported a white bandana. Gohan's hair has been cut short and has three thick fringes on his head. Before going to Namek with Krillin and Bulma, Gohan is initially seen wearing an outfit worn in private elementary school and later his Namekian outfit. During his battle against Frieza, Vegeta gave Gohan a Battle Armor, which consisted of a blue jumpsuit with white gloves and boots, and a white torso protection with yellow shoulder pads.

GohanIBC01

Gohan as a young adolescent in Bojack Unbound

During the Androids Saga, his hair grew even longer, reaching his thighs, and his Namekian outfit was modified to include black kung-fu shoes and white shins. While training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, he wore a similar Battle Armor from Planet Namek, which lacked shoulder pads. After leaving the Time Chamber, he grows noticeably taller (roughly Krillin's height), trimmed the back of his hair to nape-length, and also quite muscularly developed for his age. He reverts to Piccolo's clothing for the Cell Games, with the addition of Piccolo's white cape and weighted shoulder pads. During this time his hair is spiky much like Goku's. Gohan's outfit in Bojack Unbound which looks exactly like the one Goku wore in the Androids Saga and Majin Buu Saga.

As a young adult, he becomes similar in height to his father. His hair is much shorter and stands on end in a spiky formation, with a single bang hanging over the right side of his forehead. Having slacked off in training, he looks noticeably skinnier and leaner in frame, though still respectfully muscular. Also similar to his father, Gohan is noted as being very attractive by many females such as Erasa and Angela. He alternates between a school uniform, his Great Saiyaman costume, and a blue gi. His gi also has a red obi tied at his left hip. His wrist bands and shin guards are red but in Dragon Ball Z: Broly - Second Coming, the shin guards are white. During the Buu Saga, he wears Kai clothing given to him by Kibito. In his fight against Super Buu and reuniting with his father and Vegeta after they defeated Kid Buu, Gohan wears an outfit identical to his father. At the party for the celebration of the defeat of Kid Buu, he wears a blue suit as part of his formal clothing.

As an adult in the end of Dragon Ball Z, Gohan's hair would be similar to how it was in the Buu Arc minus the bang which resembles Yamcha's hairstyle from the Androids Saga. In Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, Gohan wears glasses, a blue vest with a long white undershirt, and brown slacks with black shoes.

In Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’/Dragon Ball Super, having since retired from fighting completely and slacked off in his training, Gohan became very scrawny in build. His hair is also smoother and much flatter. Gohan tends to wear formal clothing as he studies to become a professor consisting of a grey collared shirt with a blue vest and red pants. On Frieza's arrival on Earth, he wears a green tracksuit because he forgot where his gi was. After he resumes training with Piccolo, Gohan slicks up his hair again to have spiky ends. By the time of the Tournament of Power, Gohan's training with Piccolo reconditioned his body, becoming basically as muscular as Goku. When battling, he would slick his hair back up again and removes his glasses. Also, for the tournament, in the anime Gohan dons the same style gi he wore against Super Buu, while in the manga he dons a gi virtually identical to what he wore at the Cell Games, minus the white cape and shoulder pads.

In Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Gohan reverts back to wearing the Piccolo clothing with the white cape and shoulder pads and also wearing eyeglasses. He can also remove the white cape, shoulder pads and eyeglasses if the battle becomes tricky. He also has black wristbands instead of red or blue like before and they are slightly longer. He wears similar shoes to his outfit from the Cell arc, but are rounder at the tips, have gray soles at the bottom, and are more of an olive brown color. His hair also appears to be slightly longer.

Gohan in Dragon Ball GT

Gohan in Dragon Ball GT

In Dragon Ball GT, he retains his hairstyle from the end of Dragon Ball Z with the only difference being it is a little longer and is fully swept up, not having any hanging bangs. He is usually seen dressed like a professor or a businessman, in a suit and a tie. He also wears eyeglasses, though he apparently only needs them for reading, due to the fact that he showed no impairment without them for battle. When facing Syn Shenron, Gohan wears a gi resembling that of the ones Goku used to wear throughout Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super.

In the Assault on the Hell Gate Saga, GT Gohan wears a gi identical to Piccolo's, though without the cape and turban.

Personality

As a child, Gohan was a shy, studious, intellectual child who lacked a Saiyan's raw fighting spirit, so he had to utilize his incredible half-breed Saiyan potential and emotional reserves to protect those he loves. As an adult, he achieves his dream career of becoming a great scholar.

Being only half-Saiyan, Gohan is unusual in his values and personality compared to most full-blooded Saiyans in regards to the fact that he does not derive much pleasure from combat. However, when he is forced to fight, he shows special interest in protecting his family and friends. Like his father, Gohan has a pure and gentle heart, as well as possessing the typical Saiyan appetite that will compel to eat anything.[2]

While he claims he does not share the love of fighting Goku has, Gohan does indeed love martial arts and adventures. It is also clearly obvious that he enjoys his superhuman powers, especially when utilizing them as a superhero. However, he dislikes receiving the fame and attention that comes with it and prefers to keep a low profile, which is why he created the Great Saiyaman persona, in order to keep his identity a secret. This is even more evident when he didn't acknowledge Cell's defeat at his hands to the public after Mr. Satan falsely took credibility for it. During the Zeno Expo, he admitted that his Saiyan half was getting excited from the challenge shown by Top of Universe 11, demonstrating that even though he despises senseless violence, he actually does enjoy fighting as a sport. It is possible that he prefers not to fight due to the many gruesome and painful battles he experienced in the past as a child, which may have led Gohan to have negative emotions associated with fighting.

However, even though he is naturally smart, humble and kind, Gohan himself has been a victim of his own power in the past. Whenever Gohan gets a gigantic power boost, he becomes arrogant and cocky, essentially becoming drunk in his power, often acknowledging and even enjoying his superiority over his opponents, as he did when he first became a Super Saiyan 2 against Cell, and later in his life when he achieved his Ultimate form and fought Super Buu. This fatal flaw of his warrior-personality might be an actual side-effect of his Saiyan-heritage, since Saiyans such as Vegeta, or Nappa, have been known to act similarly when drunk in their own power while fighting. This has led him to the brink of defeat on several occasions and has later had to deal with the consequences of his actions, such as the death of his father at the hands of Cell, or Super Buu absorbing him and endangering the entire universe in the process. However, thanks to Piccolo, Gohan works on overcoming this flaw of his, to not let his own superior power blind him on the battlefield ever again. By the time of the battle with the resurgent Red Ribbon Army and Cell Max, Gohan was shown to have overcome this flaw to a degree: upon assuming his Beast form, despite the level of power it brought him, he showed no hesitation in taking down Cell Max.

Besides concerning himself with his family (and his studies), Gohan has a strong attachment with his mentor: his father's former arch-rival Piccolo. After the death of Goku, Piccolo chose to train Gohan as he sensed the boy's massive in-born potential, which would be harnessed to help defend the Earth from the attack of the Saiyans. At first, the relationship with Piccolo is a frightening one, but after just one year, Piccolo admits his change because of the friendship he develops with Gohan and even sacrifices himself to save the boy from Nappa. Gohan has even openly come to think of Piccolo as a surrogate uncle to him. Krillin also has an influence on Gohan, as almost an uncle/nephew relationship, mainly because Krillin is Goku's closest friend. While Gohan does care about his mother, he is like his father in the way that they both have a fear of her temper to the point in Dragon Ball Super he informs his mother that Goku planned to leave to train under Whis, stating that he had to tell her for his own safety, though fortunately Chi-Chi surprisingly calmed down after Goku left with Whis. However, Gohan will defy his mother if it is important as he tells his mother off after she refuses to let him go to Namek to revive Piccolo using the Namekian Dragon Balls, due to feeling responsible for Piccolo's death at the hands of Nappa.

After the battle with Cell, Gohan gives up martial arts to focus on his studies and only resumed his training at the behest of his little brother Goten. Although he acknowledged he had fallen out of practice and lacked the fighting expertise of his father and Vegeta, Gohan gave all that he had as he fought Majin Buu and was eager to kill Buu for murdering his family and friends. In the years to come, he continued to train on-and-off while having a career and being a family man. He marries Videl, with whom he fell in love despite her being Mr. Satan's daughter, and has a daughter named Pan. Gohan proves to be a loving husband and doting father who takes delight in lavishing his daughter with attention and affection.

Unlike his father, Gohan demonstrates interest in girls such as Videl though he is generally shy when it comes to girls around his own age and is respectful more towards girls and women due to his mother's influence (as Chi-Chi ensured that he and his brother had better manners and education than their father). However he can be at times just as oblivious as his father when it comes to romance as he is good natured personality as shown when he suggested Videl cut her hair for practical reasons though she assumed it was because he preferred girls with short hair and angrily told him off when she learned his true reasons as she herself was slowly developing a crush on him at the time and mistook his obliviousness as a sign that he wasn't interested, though she later followed his advice much to his utter confusion. However, he too slowly developed feelings for Videl after spending time with her and was deeply angered when she was brutalized by Spopovich to the point he rages caused him to involuntarily transform into a Super Saiyan causing him to lose his bandana, while doing everything he could to restrain himself from interrupting the match. He was even determined to avenge her by defeating Spopovich in the tournament though this ultimately did not occur and Spopovich was killed by Babidi. He also hid his role in Cell's defeat from her out of respect for her and her father, though later came clean during the conflict with Majin Buu though she herself was actually relieved as she had always secretly questioned the validity of her father's claims and only made her feelings for Gohan stronger as she recognized he was truly an awesome guy as he was humble about his achievement and never sought to profit from his defeat of Cell as he could have easily refuted Mr. Satan's claims had he wanted to by simply defeating him in a show of power.

Gohan Yelling at Goku

Gohan angrily yelling at his father for suggesting Videl when trying to bribe Elder Kai to unlock Gohan's potential

Gohan's feelings for her were so strong that during the Fusion Saga he angrily opposed his father suggestion of using her to bribe the perverted Old Kai to unlock his potential. In fact, his angry reaction to his father's questionable yet well-meaning suggestion is not unlike Chi-Chi's temper, indicating that he inherited his temper from her which due to his Saiyan genetics likely contributed to his berserker-like rage as a child. However, he is somewhat bashful about his feelings for Videl due to his shyness. In Xenoverse 2, while working as an Instructor with Videl his oblivious personality is still present despite his feelings for her (as they are from a time period after the Kid Buu Saga, though still in the early stages of their relationship) as he obliviously asks the Future Warrior to join them when Videl suggests they go to the movies unaware that she was subtly asking Gohan out on a date causing her to angrily uninvite him stating she and the warrior would go to the movies without him out of frustration (she however enlists the Future Warrior's assistance in learning what Gohan likes in an effort to impress him as her attempts have been frustrated by Gohan's well-meaning but pure-hearted obliviousness). However he and Videl managed to bond and grow closer even fighting crime together as the Saiya Squad with Videl even donning her own alter-ego Great Saiyawoman and developing a fondness for heroic posing despite finding it ridiculous at first, though in Xenoverse 2 it is implied that she reluctantly agreed to pose at Great Saiyaman's insistence and found that she actually enjoyed it which apparently increased their bond with one another. After his marriage to Videl, he became a devoted husband. He felt terrible when Videl was injured during Bulma's birthday due to his drunken overconfidence causing him to recklessly defect a bullet shot by Mai, though fortunately neither Videl or the unborn Pan were seriously hurt and Dende was on hand to heal the injury. Videl later revealed she was pregnant much to Gohan and their family's joy, with Gohan excited at becoming a father. An equally devoted father, though due to his job and family life he neglected his training which left him unprepared for Frieza's revenge.

In the anime, after witnessing the death of Piccolo, Videl and Pan at the hands of Frieza before it was undone by Whis' Temporal Do-Over, Gohan realizes that he must get much stronger in order to protect them. Because of this, he asks Piccolo to train him once again.[7] His devotion to protecting his new family helped him regain his strength and he even returned to fighting crime as Great Saiyaman. However while working as a stunt double for Barry Kahn for the Great Saiyaman film after Mr. Satan got him the job (allowing him to ensure the film portrayed his alter-ego accurately so to protect Great Saiyaman's image as a heroic crime fighter), his identity as Great Saiyaman was discovered by pop idol Cocoa Amaguri, after she overheard Gohan talking about it to Bulma, who blackmailed him to fly her around town and do a rehearsal with her (as she was portraying Great Saiyaman's fictional love interest and damsel in distress in the film) though the rehearsal was something that Barry Kahn forced her to do as he planned to blackmail Gohan (and unbeknownst to Cocoa ruin her career at the same time) though Cocoa tried her best to avoid the planned set up by changing the location of the rehearsal as she had developed a crush on Gohan after recognizing how devoted he was to his wife and daughter, though she innocently kissed him on the lips to thank him for his kindness and words of encouragement, unaware that Barry Kahn had secretly followed them and took a picture though Barry's plan was thwarted by Videl seeing through his show of concern in an attempt to woo her after providing her with the photo as evidence that Gohan was unfaithful (when in reality Cocoa had kissed him without warning). After Barry was possessed by Watagash, he kidnapped Pan causing Gohan as Great Saiyaman to become Super Great Saiyaman and defeat the possessed Barry to protect his family from the possessed actor, managing to separate Barry from Watagash. During this confrontation, both Videl and Pan both had the faith Gohan would protect them showing they both know Gohan would do everything in his power to ensure their safety.

By the time of the Tournament of Power, Gohan has become considerably more powerful than before, however, despite reawakening his power, Piccolo points out his tendency to become arrogant and let his guard down could prove disastrous for Team Universe 7 during the tournament so he tries to discipline Gohan in order to break this dangerous habit. In the anime, after witnessing his son's newfound power, fighting instincts and keeping in mind his keen intellect, Goku makes the decision to step aside from the role of Team Captain and appoints Gohan as the Captain of Team Universe 7 after their fight, stating Gohan's power is similar to his own and his intelligence makes him ideal for the role. Ultimately, Gohan’s goal to grow stronger has taken a unique path compared to other Saiyans. While desiring to surpass his father, he wishes to do so by his own terms and methods, choosing to focus on empowering his natural and unamplified power rather than depend on any Super Saiyan transformations; in the manga, he views this as relying more on his individual nature than just his Saiyan aspect.[8] During the anime version of the tournament, Gohan proved to be a very capable leader coming up with numerous strategies on the spot to defeat troublesome opponents. Even Frieza, who detests all Saiyans, actually compliments Gohan's leadership skills, calling him a worthy leader.

Gohan's work

Gohan's work on insect studies

In Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, it is revealed that Gohan has become extremely devoted to his scholarly work, spending multiple days alone in his room working on a project on "Sai-ants", much to the chargrin of Piccolo, who believes he should be acting more as a family man and keeping up with his training.

In Dragon Ball Online, it is shown that as a scholar Gohan became devoted to studying and researching the nature of ki and begins researching the martial arts of the past, organizing them in his book Groundbreaking Science in Age 804. The book became extremely popular and introduced the concept of ki to the general population of Earth sparking a renewed interest in the martial arts and fighting. One of the articles, "Katchin Can Be Cut!", had an immense influence on his brother and Trunks leading them to study swordsmanship which allowed them to develop their natural potential via intense training and as adults Goten and Trunks founded the Kikoukenjutsu Sword School. The renewed interest in the martial arts also had to lead to the founding of the New Turtle School by Krillin and New Crane School by Tien Shinhan. As Goku and Vegeta had left Earth to settle their rivalry in Age 801 after Goku realized his death was imminent, it was left to the remaining Z Fighters Gohan, Goten, Pan, Trunks, Krillin, and Tien to defend the Earth after the remnants of the Frieza Force invaded Earth following the death of Gohan's father-in-law Mr. Satan whom the Guard Troops that lead the army assumed had defeated Frieza. Like he had in the past, Gohan resorted to using his old alter-ego Great Saiyaman to defend the Earth and managed to convince Pan, Goten, Trunks, Krillin, and Tien to disguise themselves with Saiyaman-like suits as well to hide their identities while combating the Frieza Force, however their ki-based fighting style became a hot topic and global interest in ki escalated. As a result, Gohan in his role as a scholar and Z Fighter ended up sparking a martial arts revolution on Earth and secretly continued to defend Earth with his family and friends as he had done for most of his life.

References

  1. Daizenshuu 2, 1995
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Dragon Ball: Super Exciting Guide, 2009
  3. Dragon Ball GT: A Hero's Legacy, 1997
  4. Dragon Ball chapter 517, A Happy Ending... And Then...
  5. Dragon Ball Z episode 289, Granddaughter Pan
  6. Dragon Ball Z episode 182, "Gohan's Plea"
  7. Dragon Ball Super episode 27, "The Earth Explodes?! A Decisive Kamehameha!"
  8. Direct translation.: "オレはサイヤ人としてではなく、1人の人間として進化する道を選んだ" ("I chose to evolve as my own person.")

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