Dragon Ball Officially Reveals Goku’s Wild Alternate Ride That Never Made It to the Manga

We are all familiar with our little Goku riding his Flying Nimbus, aka Kinto-un. It appears as a yellow cloud with magical powers to carry others on top of it and lets Goku travel using it in Dragon Ball. But guess what? Akira Toriyama once reimagined the Kinto-un as a flying mecha device, as officially revealed via the Dragon Ball Official Site.

The site reveals one rare, hard-to-find image from the Dragon Ball series every other day and keeps it live for the next 24 hours. Today’s illustration is Akira Toriyama’s official reimagination of Goku riding a mecha Kinto-un. Previously, he also drew something similar, reimagining an old Goku.

Now, since the page is refreshed every 24 hours, the official image will disappear from the website shortly.

Why Goku Riding a Mecha Is Peak Fantasy for Dragon Ball Fans

Akira Toriyama’s reimagination of Goku on a mecha Kinto-un | Credits: Dragon Ball Official Site

This feels like a fever dream. Mecha is the farthest thing you would imagine from Goku’s eccentric childhood in the Dragon Ball series. Lore-wise, Goku has no shot of flying on a mechanical Flying Nimbus. And that’s exactly why it fascinates the fans.

The image itself is particularly phenomenal if you look closely. We are talking about Akira Toriyama, after all. The serious expression on Goku’s face while holding onto his Power Pole in his left hand, while using reins with his right hand to wrangle a mecha that even has bird-like legs, is just absolute cinema!

The device itself looks straight out of a sci-fi series. It even has two small jet engines on its wings, which means Goku can probably control the speed of the mecha using the reins. So, the overall backdrop of the illustration gives us a sense that Goku is heading toward a dangerous mission, with the mecha Kintoun helping him reach his destination as fast as possible.

Will Akira Toriyama’s Concept Illustrations Ever Become Reality?

Honestly, it’s highly unlikely that fans will ever see a canonical Goku riding on a mecha Flying Nimbus. It’s a concept illustration at the end of the day. In fact, even the real Flying Nimbus has slowly been phased out of the series after Goku learned how to fly. Also, the bitter truth that Toriyama isn’t here with us anymore further diminishes the possibility of it ever becoming a reality.

If Toriyama were still here, then we could hope for some sort of spin-off series where he would come up with a storyline to bring the illustration to life. But since the creative responsibilities for the Dragon Ball series are now on Toyotarou‘s shoulders, the idea becomes even more unlikely to happen.

What are your thoughts on the image, though? Feel free to share with us.

The Dragon Ball anime is currently available to watch on Crunchyroll.