Toriyama conceived Dragon Ball after finishing his previous series Dr. Slump. In interviews, he credited Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master" as a primary influence, saying he'd watched it "dozens of times"2. His editor Torishima suggested he try a kung-fu manga, leading to a one-shot called "Dragon Boy" that tested well with readers2.

For the serialized version, Toriyama turned to the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West as his structural backbone1. Goku is directly based on Sun Wukong, the Monkey King. The parallels are obvious: a supernaturally strong monkey-like character with a tail, a magic extending staff (the Power Pole), and a flying cloud (the Flying Nimbus)1. Even Goku's full name is the Japanese reading of "Sun Wukong"1.

The first chapter, "Bulma and Son Goku," introduced a wild boy living alone in the mountains who joins a girl named Bulma on a quest to find the seven Dragon Balls5. Other early characters mapped to Journey to the West figures too. Bulma parallels the monk Tang Sanzang, Oolong mirrors pig demon Zhu Bajie, and Yamcha echoes the sand demon Sha Wujing1.

As the series shifted into Dragon Ball Z, Toriyama drew from martial arts cinema for Goku's iconic Super Saiyan transformation. He based Goku's fierce stare after transforming on Bruce Lee's eyes, telling an interviewer for a Dragon Ball Z guidebook: "His eyes from right after he transforms for the first time and looks up at Freeza... I based those off of Bruce Lee"3. Toriyama added that Lee's glare was "paralyzing" and that once Goku gave that look, "as far as I was concerned the story arc was over"3.

Goku's reach extends into music, professional sports, and official government recognition.

Hip-hop adopted Dragon Ball Z as a shared cultural touchstone. Artists from Chief Keef and Chance the Rapper to J. Cole and Childish Gambino referenced the franchise in their work11. NBA players like DeMarcus Cousins, Joel Embiid, and Brook Lopez were public fans11. This crossover kept Dragon Ball relevant in pop culture conversations well beyond the anime community.

The Japanese government's recognition of May 9th as Goku Day through the Japan Anniversary Association made Goku one of the few fictional characters with an officially registered holiday7. Annual celebrations include exclusive merchandise, crane game figures, commemorative stickers, and events across Dragon Ball video games8.

In a Goo Ranking poll of Japan's favorite characters across all media, Goku placed 6th9. Multiple Western outlets including IGN and Screen Rant have ranked him among the greatest anime characters1012. Dragon Ball's influence on the shonen genre shaped how an entire generation of manga creators approached action storytelling.

Dragon Ball's playground culture in the 1990s and 2000s gave Goku memes a physical, real-world dimension that most internet humor lacked. If you were a kid during that era, you either replicated the Kamehameha hand motion yourself or watched someone else do it a million times6. This participatory element, kids literally pretending to fire energy blasts at each other, created a generation-spanning shared experience that primed Goku for meme immortality.

The cultural crossover went well beyond internet forums. In hip-hop, Dragon Ball Z became a shared language among artists. Chief Keef, Chance the Rapper, J. Cole, and Childish Gambino all referenced the franchise publicly11. Athletes like DeMarcus Cousins, Joel Embiid, Brook Lopez, and De'Aaron Fox were vocal fans, as was actor Michael B. Jordan11. This organic adoption by celebrities outside the anime world helped keep Dragon Ball in the cultural conversation between major releases11.

In Japan, Goku's official status was cemented on May 9, 2015, when the Japan Anniversary Association certified "Goku Day" as an annual celebration7. The date works as a pun in the Sino-Japanese counting system: the fifth month (go) and ninth day (ku) combine to form "Goku"7. Toriyama had foreshadowed this in the original manga, where the villain King Piccolo declared May 9th "Piccolo Day," a joke likely intentional given the reading6. Goku Day now features exclusive crane game figures, commemorative stickers, video game events in Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle and Dragon Ball FighterZ, and global social media campaigns8.

The shift in how the internet treats Goku's strength is one of the more interesting arcs in meme history. In the 2000s, championing Goku felt like championing anime itself, since Superman and Western comics needed no defenders4. By the 2010s, with anime widely accessible through Crunchyroll and Netflix, the script flipped. Polygon described the current moment as "post-Goku," arguing the medium no longer needs an all-powerful champion4. The minority of fans who still take powerscaling debates too seriously tend to overlap with those gatekeeping anime's growing audience, which turned the joke about Goku's strength into a tool against elitism4.

The "Grandma Goku" meme is a smaller but persistent format. In the Japanese version, Goku is voiced by Masako Nozawa, who was in her fifties when she started the role6. For Western fans used to Sean Schemmel's deeper English performance, learning that adult Goku is voiced by an elderly woman creates genuine surprise that feeds recurring meme content6.

A Goo Ranking poll of Japan's favorite characters across all media placed Goku at #6, behind Doraemon, Pikachu, Mario, Anpanman, and Hello Kitty, but above Godzilla, Gundam, and Sailor Moon9. Western anime publications routinely place him at or near the top of their rankings1012. The franchise itself, with roughly 20 movies, 148 video games, and multiple sequel series including Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super, keeps producing new material for the meme ecosystem11.