Was Goku based on Superman?

Has Akira ever flat out stated that Goku was inspired by Supes in any way? There's to many similarities for it to be a coincidence.

Originally he was based off the Monkey King Sun Wukong from Journey to the West. In DBZ, Goku starts to get very Superman-y in his story though,

Journey to the West.

Kind of. His story is a lot like Superman to be a coincidence but I'm not entirely sure. But I am sure that Superman is based on Hercules.

yes

Yes, and that's why we have Goku Vs Superman.

Some aspects of him were (mainly his origin), but his core character doesn't come from Superman.

@nybreezy: Superman is based of the Golem of Jewish mythology. In the 1930s he used to go around beating mobsters, women beaters and crooked cops, like the Jewish Golem.

His origins come from Moses, since, you know, he's such a hardcore Jewish character.

Not even close

Look up journey to the west

Apparently the inspiration for Superman was the novel Gladiator.

Well there are a few superficial similarities, but Journey to the West has a lot more.

No. Goku is based on Kenshiro of Fist of the North Star and Ryu of Street Fighter. These guys. Who else would be cool enough?

@bluejay4: Belive me or not but Superman is based on Captain Marvel.

Pilasy:La Voix d'un homme

That is true. And both based on greek gods.

No he was based off Sun Wukong.

The differences between Superman and Goku out weight the similarities by so much I fail to see why people continue to say he was based off of Superman.

Yep, the dude came from being a Gladiator (Novel) based on to a Captain Marvel based on.

Pilasy:La Voix d'un homme

Nope he's is based off wet dreams

I believe Goku was inspired off of "Journey to the West". And Superman was inspired by the novel "Gladiator".

At the end of the day, creativity is derived from inspiration. It's almost impossible to have an original concept. But that doesn't mean you can't have an original idea.

No

And can we not call him by his first name?

Silly yanks haven't heard of Journey to the West.

I was literally going to make this thread today what the heck dude.

@darthaznable: This?

Not at all

@eisenfauste: Kinda. I was more so referring to this.

@darthaznable: I know I was kind of trolling :), I looked up the novel is it worth the read? Or does it just show the origins of a character like Goku?

@eisenfauste: Eh if you're into Chinese mythology and fantasy go for it. Goku is based off Su Wukong so if you liked Kid Goku, you'll like him. It's a little bit more ridiculous than DBZ.

@darthaznable: If it's more ridiculous than DBZ I'll take a hard pass lol, hated kid Goku he was written to be the epitome of annoying.

Sun Wukong has some crazy feats if your into OP characters, just look for battle threads involving him. The mythos is also highly interesting.

@eisenfauste:

Loosely.

@darthaznable: If there was any child I would ever decide to beat.......it would be him :P

But he would actually beat you, because you're a human.

@darling_luna: Best comment on here deserves a follow.

@mysticmedivh: I'm canadian. I AM no mere human...

@micah: Are we talking planetary level feats here?

More than that. Let's just say he quite literally took his fight to other planes of existence.....and beat the crap out of everyone there lol.

@micah: Well then he's pretty darn OP lol.

This.

He's quite explicitly based off sun wukong, really. Though the origin of exploding planet is same, everything else is different. He was sent here to slaughter the people and rule it..

There's similarities, but he was based off the Chinese god Sun Wukong. Aka The Monkey King.

Superman silly so no. Goku spirit good.

They're not even that similar.

I do think Gohan was probably partially based on Superman though.

He was based off Sun Wukong,at the beginning of dragonball,not very debatable really.

In dragon Ball z the only thing the two have in common is escaping an exploding planet,despite db minus trying it's best to change that

Nah, Journey to the west.

Sourman is the only Toriyama character explicitly based off of Superman

Sort of. Toriyama never wrote Goku with superman in mind, but the Funimation dub that I'm certain most of us are more familiar with changed Goku's personality to make him more like superman for the western audience.

• Well originally in the Dragon Ball Manga and early Dragon Ball Z manga he was based it off of Journey to the west..And Goku mainly off of Sun Wukong..There were obovius influences from Western culture, but few if none have been disclosed by Akira himself.
• But with the progression of the Dragon BallZ story particularly the funimation Dub Goku started taking more influences from Superman specifically his home planet heritage and infant origin and to a much lesser degree that pure of heart junk.
• But i still maintain that Akira was inspired by american comics since the begging conception of Dragon Ball and DBZ.