He's the main character for most of the series (Gohan "takes over" the series when his father dies the second time). He starts the manga as a young and innocent boy with black spiky hair, a strange monkey tail and an expanding stick (nyoibo).
Incredibly strong for his age (which he claims to be of 14 years but later we find out that he canīt count), he has one of the Dragonballs which he refers to as his Grandfather (it was the only thing that his Grandfather left before dying, so he considers it to posses his soul). Goku while carrying his lunch home (a giant fish that he killed with one kick) literally bumps into Bulma. After a brief discussion, and Bulma explaining the power that lies in the Dragonball, both leave to search for the Dragonballs. It is in this way that the series of adventures begin. Soon after, both meet Kamessenin who then gives him his "first" magic cloud (he frequently has it destroyed, but later we find out there's a bunch of them), also known as Kintoen.
After some 17 mangas, Goku has had many adventures and friends and is already an adult, married (with ChiChi) and has a child (Songohan, he was given the same name as Gokuu's Grandfather). - On the TV series the name is changed to Dragonball Z- . By this time, with the coming of Gokuu's brother: Raditz, we find out that Gokuu isn't human. He was found by his "Grandfather"(SonGohan isnīt his real grandfather, but an adoptive one) inside a space capsule; Gokuu had been sent to Earth in order to conquer it, but due to a big fall he lost his memory thus, becoming the innocent boy that we meet at the beginning of the manga; we are told that Gokuu is really a Saiya-jín(-jin is used in Japanese to say that a person is part of the people that the "-jin" follows, therefore, Gokuu is part of the Saiya people; living the Saiya in planet Vejiita (they are not originally from this planet-this we find out in one of the films).
Later, Goku finds out that he can turn into Super Saiya-jin when he gets really angry (this occurs the first time when Freeza, one of the most dangerous enemies during the series, kills Kulilin, during the quest for the Namekian Balls). This transformation increases greatly Gokuu's power and gives him physical transformations (his hair becomes blond and more spiky, his eyes green, his face linear and an aura forms around him); afterwards, he finds that he can also turn into Super saiya-jin 2 and 3, which means an increase of all the caracteristics of the first stage.
