37 Years Ago This Week, Dragon Ball Quietly Set Up Goku’s Greatest Training Arc

Exactly 37 years ago this week, Dragon Ball Z premiered on television. This anime holds a massive legacy today. It established the foundational rules for combat in the universe, power scaling, and plot progression that defined modern action anime for decades after this.

The original Dragon Ball anime focused on martial arts tournaments and adventures on Earth itself. The new era shifted the focus to cosmic threats. The initial conflict of DBZ was specifically designed in a way that could introduce Goku to a much larger scientific and mythical world. So, let’s dive into the details on how the DBZ anime changed the franchise forever.

How Goku Defeated His Brother Raditz

The theme started to shift immediately after the introduction of Raditz, an alien who is Goku’s brother. There, we are introduced to Saiyans, a warrior race that uses a device called a Scouter to read the power levels of people. It was clear that Raditz was far more powerful than both Goku and Piccolo at the time.

Raditz’s goal was to recruit Goku, his brother. However, Goku refused, and eventually they ended up fighting each other. There was no way Goku could win in that fight, so he decided to employ a way of self-sacrifice that would kill Raditz as well.

Goku used his own body to restrain Raditz from behind, which allowed Piccolo to take his time to properly charge and fire his beam that killed both of them. However, many fans believe that Raditz shouldn’t have died so early.

This was a plot twist that would’ve made fans who watched this anime drop their jaws more than three decades ago. By killing the protagonist, Goku, Akira Toriyama bypassed the Earth-based limitations that were holding Goku back. That is because Kami, the guardian of Earth, preserved Goku’s physical body instead of letting him pass on as a standard spirit. This allowed Goku to advance his strength further in mystical ways.

Goku’s Million Kilometre Journey on Snake Way

Snake Way from Dragon Ball Z | Credit: Toei Animation

After dying, Goku must reach his new master and get stronger before Vegeta, one of the greatest Dragon Ball villains, arrives on Earth. King Yemma, the judge of the afterlife, directs him to King Kai, whose planet is located at the very end of Snake Way, which is a narrow, winding stone path suspended directly above Hell, which is about one million kilometers in length.

Goku must travel this enormous distance on foot and by using his limited flight capabilities. The journey itself is a prolonged physical endurance test. That means, if he can’t even cross this path, he doesn’t deserve the strength that is waiting for him on the other end. In the anime, this travel takes Goku almost six months to complete.

The Best Training Arc in the Dragon Ball Franchise

Goku from Dragon Ball Z | Credit: Toei Animation

The training under King Kai remains the best training arc in the franchise, as it is the first time Goku started training in an environment that allowed him to surpass the limits of what he could do on Earth. King Kai’s planet is extremely small, but it possesses ten times the gravity of Earth. Goku must first acclimatize to this harsh environment before learning any techniques.

He is tasked with catching a monkey named Bubbles and hitting a cricket named Gregory with a heavy mallet. These exercises force Goku’s body to adapt to extreme gravity and permanently increase his muscle density, muscle endurance, and reaction speed (as everything will also fall fast on that planet).

Once his body adapts to the gravity, King Kai teaches him two techniques. The first is the Kaio-ken, a precise ki multiplier that drastically increases the user’s speed and strength, but places a heavy physical strain on the body.

The second is the Spirit Bomb, an attack that gathers external energy from living things into a concentrated sphere, which is one of the most iconic things Goku has ever done. Then, Goku goes on to unlock many forms, growing stronger and stronger.

Did this article bring you any nostalgia? Let us know in the comments.

Dragon Ball Z is streaming on Crunchyroll