Goku

Goku (孫 悟空, Son Gokū) is the main protagonist of the Dragon Ball metaseries created by Akira Toriyama. He is the husband of Chi-Chi, the father of Gohan and Goten, the grandfather of Pan, and later great-great grandfather of Goku Jr. Goku is a defender of Earth and informally leads the Z Fighters. Throughout his life, he trains hard and strives to be the greatest warrior possible, while at the same time using his amazing strength and skills to uphold peace. These qualities make him the perfect example of a hero, though not necessarily the perfect role model, due to his lack of education.

Creation and Concept
Goku means aware of emptiness (The 'Go' syllable means enlightenment, and the 'Ku' syllable means Sky or Emptiness). Goku's full name (Son Goku) is the Japanese name for Sun Wukong, main protagonist in the Chinese legend Journey to the West, off of whom Goku is loosely based. Goku himself started off as more or less a parody of Sun Wukong, and as the manga continued its run he was able to develop differently, eventually turning out to have similar origins.

Goku's design was based off of Tanton, of Toriyama's prototype manga Dragon Boy and Tongpoo, from his other manga The Adventures of Tongpoo. When Akira Toriyama started his first draft of Dragon Ball he originally planned on making Goku full monkey to make it faithful to Journey to the West. During Toriyama's second draft he wanted to make Goku a full human dressed in sailor clothes that rode a flight mecha instead of the Flying Nimbus. Toriyama's 3rd and final draft of Goku was to have him human looking with a monkey tail.

Appearance
Goku is the main character in the entire Dragon Ball series. With spiky black hair and his trademark orange/red/golden and blue clothes.

Personality
Goku is known for his cheerful, energetic personality and his love of competition (specifically sport fighting and eating). He has remarkable intuition at seeing the good in others in spite of their actions, though his capacity for forgiving his enemies has occasionally been criticized as excessive; Goku, for the most part, only fights to win, and spares his enemies after defeating them only for them to attack him when his back is turned. His staggering power is simultaneously reined in and enhanced by his fierce loyalty and morality. He has a simple, practical view of the world and is somewhat naive to the world around him. Because of this, many characters incorrectly assume him to be somewhat stupid, although once he has a basic understanding of things, he learns very quickly. His most remarkable ability is his will to succeed, pushing himself beyond his limitations, and never giving up even when the odds are stacked against him.