Anime The TRUE Legacy of Goku

[Dragon Warrior]

If you ever thought, "How did Akira Toriyama think up Dragon Ball and it's characters?" well, this may answer your question. He definately didn't make them up by himself. He had a bit of help. the story Dragon Ball follows is called Stone Monkey; an ancient chinese tale of Gods.

It begins where Earth is struck by a giant meteor (like a saiyan spacepod). Inside, it reveals Stone Monkey (reminds you of Saiyans because of the monkey part). Stone Monkey was sent to Earth by his mother who is a Goddess. Stone Monkey, or just Monkey as some call him, wants to become a God and he does this by learning the ways of one.

He starts off traveling to an old hermit who's an old master of fighting and magic (Ahem... *cough*Master Roshi*cough*). The name of this guy I don't know, but it ISN'T Master Roshi. And so, this master trains many novices to see if they are worthy of learning his magic, but non prevail. That's when Stone Monkey comes along. Monkey is told the only way to learn how to shapeshift and learn the ways of his magic are to learn the password.

So, Monkey soon finds out the password and says it out loud then changes to what he wants. "Haha! It worked!" He screamed and said the password again to change. But little did he know, the other novices were close by watching and listening. They heard the password and wanted to show their master. Unfortunately, they were dumb and said their names before the password and became hideous monsters.

Monkey came to the old hermit master and told him the password. The master happily granted Monkey training. But first off, they had to find the novices and tell them of monkey's success. They soon found the creatures and the master turned them back, but only halfway so they were ugly humans. "That'll teach you." The master said.

And so, the hermit wanted to give Monkey some presents. But first off, he needed a new name for Monkey. So, he asked Monkey's mother to give him a new name. She said it shall be Goku (DING DING DING!!!). Goku was then given what looked like a stick (Hey! It's like the powerpole!). The stick, like the powerpole was able to extend to any length, but now had something the powerpole in DB didn't. It had the ability to change to any weapon. From sword, to axe. From bow to staff. That wasn't the only thing Goku had. Now the hermit wanted to teach him how to fly with a cloud (Nimbus!).

But Goku didn't scream out "NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMBBBBBBBBUUUUUSSSS!!!" in this one. What he had to do was much more difficult. He had to swirl the rod over his head like a helicopter until a cloud formed under him. Goku was a natural from the start. That was all the hermit had for Goku to do. Now Goku, with the ability to fly on clouds, shapeshift, and a weapon like the powerpole, set off to become a God. He snuck into the Gods world by using his shapeshifting ability and looking like a God. He then plucked a peach from the tree there and ate it (a lot like King Yama's fruit except it didn't double your power). That fruit gave him immortality.

But the Gods soon found out about Goku's newfound power of immortality and worked on trying to take it back. All they had to do was evaporate it from his body, but Goku wouldn't have it. The God of War emerged to get it out of Goku, but Goku lengthened his staff to full length and polevaulted out of the way. This led to one thing. A battle.

Goku fought the God of War and just like Goku's powerpole, the God of War's sword could become any weapon. The God of War's sword became an axe as did Goku's pole. They fought with them until the God of War turned the axe to a staff. Goku mimiced and they fought again. It went on like that until Goku came through victorious.

That wasn't the end and Goku knew it. The Gods of the North, South, East and West attacked him, but Goku easily toppled them all. But still, there were 2 Gods that Goku couldn't defeat. They were The King of Gods and the Goddess Serenity. Goku fought Serenity and he almost defeated her, but she came through and won. She sent Goku to The King of Gods and Goku sat in The KIng of Gods' open hands.

"Goku..." spoke the King of Gods, "You have been very bad. I will only forgive you if you can fly from my hands to the end of the universe and back." Goku immediately agreed to this and summoned his cloud and was off. He went to each of the 5 pillars at the ends of the universe and marked them then returned to the hand of the King of Gods. "Goku!" the king boomed.

"What?" Goku shook innocently.

"You never left my hand." Goku was shocked to see the markings he left on the pillars at the ends of the Universe were on each of the King of Gods' fingers. The King of the Gods was so big, his hands took up all of the universe. "Now you shall suffer the conciquences." and the King of Gods took his hand and smashed Goku into the Earth's surface and he was buried with rocks forever. The only way for him to be released from his prison was by a priest. Not just any priest. A priest who lived in India.

This priest was on his way to find the scriptures of Budda when he came across Goku. He released him and Goku immediately said he'd be his humble servant. And so, Goku went with the priest to find the scriptures. But the priest needed to know how to fight so they went back to the hermit and the hermit studied this priest. He then decided to ask his favorite Goddess Serenity if he should teach him. She said yes and the priest was taught.

After that was done, they left for the scriptures again. They travelled far to another land where it was ruled by two beings. The River Dragon and the River Eel. The true form of the River Dragon was a little girl, but she had the ability to change into almost anything. Of course, her dragon heart was taken away after she attacked a village and killed all who inhabited it.

Her father was the River Eel. He mostly blamed his sins on his daughter the River Dragon so he wouldn't be in trouble with the Gods. He too had the ability of a changling. When Goku and the priest came across the two beasts, the River Eel captured the priest and took him to his valcano lair where the River Dragon and her father stayed. Goku came to rescue his master and the River Eel told his daughter to watch over the priest for he was going to eat him and most likely blame her. But did she know he was going to blame her?

The River Eel fought Goku and easily lost and after the River Dragon told the priest that she was not to blame for all the terrible sins and it was her father, she was given back her Dragon Heart and the River Eel's eel heart was taken away forever. The River eel shriveled into a small eel and Goku stuck him in a bag and said, "Let's eat him. I bet he'd be tasty."

But the priest said "No. Then we'd be just the same as him." So Goku let the eel out into the river. The River Dragon thanked the two and agreed to join them on their journey. She changed into a horse and they rode off. They went against many other obstacles, but that just brought more companions like a half man-half pig (Oolong!) and another human who never had any feelings, never smiled, and seemed to anyways be very quiet (in a way, like Piccilo). Soon, all 5 of them found the scriptures and Goku became a God at last.


I found this interesting. My friend Josh and I looked into that story. Very cool legend.

[Guest SunRiZe]

It looks like Akira based his early Dragonball stories on this tale. Interesting....

[rMs]

That was interesting. thx for the info. I should check into the story.

[vegeta rocker]

yeah, i heard read about this in some magazine. But now i know more, thanks.

[Guest Altron Gundam]

There was a cartoon series(not DB/DBZ related) like that..concerning a monkey and that sorta same story..

[Rain]

The characters name was really Goku? Wow, I new DB was based on a myth or legend or something, but I didn't know it was based that closely on it.

Well, thanks, now I've been enlightened, lol.

[Transtic Nerve]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Saiyan_monkey [/i]
[B]The characters name was really Goku? Wow, I new DB was based on a myth or legend or something, but I didn't know it was based that closely on it.

Well, thanks, now I've been enlightened, lol. [/B][/QUOTE]

No the characters name wasn't goku.... it's was "Monkey boy" or somethign to that effect

If you want a more current reinterpretation of the Chinese myth, go watch that live action DragonBall movie. Apart from the space ships and junk, it's just another contemporary interpretation of the myth, seeing as how that movie is Chinese.

[Juu]

[color=deeppink] [size=1]Yeah, there was an anime a long time ago... like, 70-80's ish from what I'm told. When I was little my parents used to tell me that as a bedtime story. ^_^'

Well anyway, the anime's name was sonogong. (sohn-o-gong)[/color] [/size]

[Dragon Warrior]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Transtic Nerve [/i]
[B]

No the characters name wasn't goku.... it's was "Monkey boy" or somethign to that effect.[/B][/QUOTE]

Not Monkey Boy, but close. His name is "Stone Monkey", but most just called him "Monkey." And so, as I said in the tale, his mother named him Goku because he needed a better name. I've read a lot of versions of this story. Trust me. He's Goku.

[Transtic Nerve]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Dragon Warrior [/i]
[B]

Not Monkey Boy, but close. His name is "Stone Monkey", but most just called him "Monkey." And so, as I said in the tale, his mother named him Goku because he needed a better name. I've read a lot of versions of this story. Trust me. He's Goku. [/B][/QUOTE]

There are different versions of the story as you've said. In the story i know, his name was Monkey Boy. Actually, he did have another name, but it wasn't Gokou. I don't remember it though.

[Dragon Warrior]

Ah well, there ya go. I guess we've read different versions. Mine are where he's called Goku and yours he's Monkey Boy. Heh. Crazy times. But all together, it's the same story. I like it a lot.