The world of Dragon Ball is filled with incredibly strong martial arts fighters who have the ability to channel their ki into super powerful concussive blasts. The strongest of them all is Goku, a member of the Saiyan alien race who was sent to Earth when he was just a child. The Dragon Ball manga and anime followed his adventures as a kid. In Dragon Ball Z, Goku is an adult and he introduces his young son Gohan to all his friends. At a very young age, Gohan displays hidden power, unlike anything anyone has seen before. It is believed that he could be even more powerful than his father.
Over the course of Dragon Ball Z, Gohan is trained by Piccolo, Goku, and the Kais so that he might tap into his seemingly limitless potential. It seemed everything had finally come into place when he ascended to Super Saiyan 2 for the first time. But things are not always that simple. Trained from the time he was a very young child, Gohan never had the fighting spirit that his father had. After years spent saving the Earth from endless threats, he finally decided to do what he really wanted—become a scholar. It might be disappointing to see all that fighting potential wasted, but it’s also good to see someone in the Dragon Ball universe actually settle down. That said, there are still a few things that don’t add up.
20 He Had Impossible Power
When it comes to Gohan, everyone always talks about his unlimited power potential as a small child. As the son of the already powerful Goku, it makes sense that he would also be a very gifted fighter, however, the fact that he’s only half-Saiyan should have been a factor. If Saiyans are so powerful, wouldn’t a half-Saiyan be less powerful due to all sorts of biological factors?
It’s certainly clear that Gohan’s powers aren’t just a matter of him having good genes, but Earth’s heroes aren’t exactly very strong. Guys like Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, and Chiaotzu are all from Earth and none of them can hold a candle to Goku for very long. How then is Gohan, who is half human thanks to his mother, able to nearly usurp his father as the ultimate fighter?
19 There’s No Way This Makes Sense
Gohan is a unique character in Dragon Ball Z because we see him grow up as the series moves on. We see him as a child in the Saiyan and Frieza Sagas before he grows up in the Cell Saga and Buu Saga. The weird thing about that, though, is the fact that no one seems to be aging proportionately to Gohan’s age at all.
It’s obvious that characters like Goku, Bulma, and Yamcha have grown since their time in Dragon Ball, but everyone basically stops aging by the time Gohan comes around. They might change their hair a bit, but does anyone actually know how old Bulma is supposed to be at this point? In Dragon Ball Super Gohan is an adult father, but no one has gotten older than their peak physical condition.
18 Someone Wasn’t Paying Attention
It is clearly established in Dragon Ball Z that Gohan is more of a pacifist than his father. This means that he prefers not to fight if he can avoid it, and he will absolutely not destroy someone unless he has no other choice (read: Cell). In the Dragon Ball movies, though, someone wasn’t paying attention and decided to make him eliminate people left and right, without anyone saying anything.
In the Garlic Jr. Saga, Gohan manages to take out all four of the Spice Boys in one big flurry of angry attacks. He eliminates a few minions in Plan to Eradicate the Saiyans, annihilates some of Bojack’s fighters, and takes out the man himself in Bojack Unbound. Sure, the movies can hardly be fit into the timeline of the show, but it’s not like his character should have changed all that much.
17 He Looks Awfully Familiar
OK, here’s a funny one. Have you ever noticed that as Gohan grows up, he starts to look more and more like someone very close to him? No, we’re not talking about Goku, here. He looks a lot like Yamcha. Adult Gohan seems to have the same hair as him, and even in the future, he gets similar scars to make him look even more similar.
How could this possibly be, though? Gohan and Yamcha barely ever interact, so it’s not like he could be trying to emulate his friend. It would be easy (and hilarious) to suggest that Yamcha is the boy’s true father, though the whole tail and Super Saiyan thing kind of make that impossible. It’s just likely that Akira Toriyama liked his designs for Yamcha and didn’t want them to go to waste.
16 This Seems Like A Massive Oversight
It is established in Dragon Ball that if a Saiyan has their tail cut off, it very rarely grows back. While Goku’s tail did grow back at one point, Vegeta’s never did following his attack on Earth. With Gohan, though, it looks like someone wasn’t paying attention because his tail managed to grow back a record-breaking four different times.
Gohan transforms into a Great Ape during his time training with Piccolo. This results in the moon getting blown up and Gohan’s tail is removed. In an anime filler episode, Gohan’s tail grows back and Piccolo removes it again. Then it reappears during the fight against Vegeta and is cut off by Krillin. We see it again in the movies Tree of Might and Cooler’s Revenge, though, so who knows what’s going on.
15 How Did Things Really Happen?
It’s obviously hard to figure out how the movies fit into the overall continuity of Dragon Ball Z. They are semi-canonical, though they don’t always fit perfectly into the show’s timeline. When it comes to the film Dead Zone, it introduces some irregularities into the life of Gohan that could be easily ignored if not for the fact that the film has its own sequel saga in the anime show.
Said to take place between the end of Dragon Ball and the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, the Z Fighters meet Gohan for the first time. However, they also meet the kid for the first time in the first episode of DBZ. Considering Gohan is out of it throughout most of Dead Zone, it explains why he wouldn’t remember anyone, but everyone else should already know Gohan.
14 He Had No Idea What He Looked Like
One of the biggest inconsistencies people like to point out when it comes to Gohan is his apparent ability to dream about Cell when he had no idea what the villain looked like at the time. While he was training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Goku tells his son to picture Cell hurting his loved ones in order to channel his power and become Super Saiyan. But Gohan says he has no idea what the guy looks like.
That apparently doesn’t matter for very long because soon after, Gohan has a dream where he sees Cell hurting his friends and family. It’s not really that Gohan needed to know what Cell looked like to have a nightmare about him, but the art shouldn’t have depicted the villain in his true form. We might know what he looks like, but the character didn’t, so this makes things confusing.
13 Who Does And Doesn't Have Tails
Dragon Ball Z has a lot of inconsistencies when it comes to Saiyans, likely because Toriyama had to rectify what he established in Dragon Ball with his new ideas later on. One thing that apparently got neglected was the fact that half-Saiyans were established to have tails. Gohan is shown having one, even though he’s half Saiyan half human, but other half-Saiyans don’t.
Did you notice that Trunks and Goten are never seen with a tail? Neither did Pan, even though she’s only a fourth Saiyan. That’s mostly because Toriyama forgot that half-Saiyans have tails, but also by that point they didn’t really play much of a role in the series anymore. By that point, he just decided that tails were a recessive gene in half-Saiyans, if that even makes sense.
12 That Was Quite The Role Reversal
The Dragon Ball Z anime certainly focuses on Goku, however, it also makes Gohan a major player as far as the show’s narrative goes. Dragon Ball Z establishes that Goku’s kid may be even more powerful than he is. We see Gohan’s training, his journey to outer space, and his training in preparation for the coming of Cell. Everything establishes that Gohan will soon take over his father’s role.
Then a funny thing happened and everything changed direction. After Gohan beats Cell and surpasses his father, Toriyama had a change of heart during the Buu Saga. Apparently, he didn’t really like Gohan as the series protagonist, so he returned to Goku. The switch is kind of messy and it makes Gohan’s character arc look extremely weird in retrospect, especially since he basically quits fighting soon after.
11 Did He Really Think This Would Fool Anyone?
Speaking of Gohan’s time as the protagonist of the series, what was up with his stint as the Great Saiyaman? It was bizarre and goofy, but worst of all it made no sense. It’s fine that he wouldn’t necessarily want people to know his identity, but why is that suddenly a concern? Goku and friends were never bothered by it and no one really remembers them anyway.
If he were going to hide his identity, it seems weird that he would choose to style himself after the Ginyu Force with all his poses. Yes, Super Sentai was an influence, but in-universe it seems like an odd thing to do after everything. It’s no wonder people have a theory that Gohan is dealing with PTSD. Also, if he wanted to conceal his identity, he can’t think that simply turning his hair gold will make him unrecognizable.
10 How Did They Avoid This?
Gohan was born with a tail, but somehow Goku and Chi-Chi managed to avoid their son looking directly at the full moon for four years. It’s literally the moon and kids are curious about their surroundings, so there had to be a moment where Gohan got a glimpse of the moon at some point. No one seems to mention it at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, so it can be assumed it hasn’t happened yet.
Goku didn’t know he turned into a Great Ape when he looked at the moon for a long time, so it’s possible his son may have avoided it as well. However, there’s no telling how many times Goku transformed without remembering. Considering the trouble Goku caused, you would think they would have Gohan’s removed early.
9 They Made Him Into A Soldier
At an early age, Gohan was trained to harness his amazing power potential. But did you ever really think about just how young he really was? He was four at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z and was then immediately recruited by Piccolo. By the time he’s asked to defend the Earth against the Saiyans, he’s only five years old. It shouldn’t be surprising that he’s actually terrified, and yet he’s yelled at.
And then he goes off into space right afterward. By the time he’s fighting Cell, he’s about 11 years old, and then by the Buu Saga, he’s finally a teenager at just 17. He certainly looks far older than he actually is. But even with all his potential, it makes no sense that anyone would rely on him like they did. They transform him into a child soldier, so be glad he found happiness.
8 He’s Younger Than He Looks
Speaking of Gohan’s age, thanks to his time as a child soldier, his age is completely out of whack with his physical body. When preparing to fight Cell, Goku, and Gohan enter the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, which allows them to train for a whole year in the matter of a day. It certainly allows them to increase their power in a short span of time. But it also ages him.
In the matter of one whole day, Gohan’s body ages a complete year, giving him increased strength, but also a bigger body. This is all for the sake of protecting the Earth. But what about Gohan’s personal life? When he goes off to school, he’s in the body of an older person, so does he go to school with kids his age or kids that are the same age as his body?
7 He Might Not Have Needed To Perish
There are always going to be some discrepancies when it comes to translating manga to anime. But the show corrected one major issue when it came to Future Trunks and his mentor Gohan. In the anime, Gohan knocks out Trunks in order to battle Androids 17 and 18 on his own, because he wanted to save the life of his protege. It was a heroic sacrifice.
However, in the manga, it is already established that Trunks can become Super Saiyan at this point in the story. At that point, there would be absolutely no reason to suggest that Trunks couldn’t handle himself in a fight. Instead, Gohan still sacrifices himself. But there was never any need to. In the anime, Gohan’s end is what makes Trunks go Super Saiyan. In the manga this was meaningless.
6 Continuity Errors Galore
Dragon Ball Z is loaded with continuity errors throughout the anime, and Gohan is involved in a few. During the Future Trunks Saga, it is shown that Gohan is attacked by the Androids from above. He takes their energy blasts to his chest, which is what ultimately ends him. However, when Trunks later finds him, he is lying face down in a puddle, which shouldn’t have happened.
Later on, in the Cell Saga, Cell creates seven small clones called Cell Juniors. After Android 16 is destroyed, Gohan ascends to Super Saiyan 2 and unleashes his fury on Cell’s offspring. The show depicts him taking out eight Cell Juniors. In actuality, there were only ever seven created. The animators messed up and it had to be fixed for Dragon Ball Z Kai.
5 Gohan Is Way Too Smart
It makes sense that Chi-Chi would want her son to focus on school over fighting, considering only one will ultimately pay the bills. However, Gohan shows himself to be far smarter than any kid should be at such a young age. We see him doing complex mathematical equations far more advanced than anything a four-year-old child should be capable of doing.
Given his clear natural gifts when it comes to books and training, it feels like there shouldn’t have been a debate over which he would focus on. As advanced as he was, he should have been able to do both without worrying about falling behind. Ultimately, Gohan writes a book and becomes a teacher. But he should be capable of far more. It’s almost like he’s never reached his full potential in anything he’s done.
4 No One Understands What These Words Mean
Gohan’s age can be difficult to track, but it certainly isn’t impossible. He looks older than he actually is. But that doesn’t mean video games should simply ignore the truth about this character. The latest video game, Dragon Ball FighterZ, has two versions of Gohan available to play. One is called Teen Gohan and the other one is Adult Gohan.
However, these two character names are inaccurate. Teen Gohan, modeled after his appearance during the Cell Saga, is not even a teenager yet. Adult Gohan is based on his look from the Buu Saga, and he was just a teenager. This isn’t a huge deal, but you do want to get these things right. There has to be some better way to differentiate them that is actually accurate.
3 Who Is The Real Chosen One?
Everyone has fawned over Gohan because he held all this amazing power at a very young age. But maybe we need to refocus our attention on Goten instead. It took Gohan years of intense training to finally unlock Super Saiyan at the age of 10, but Goten was only seven years old when he first managed to go Super Saiyan. Should that technically give him more potential?
It’s certainly possible that at this point Goku, Vegeta, and friends could teach any Saiyan how to go Super Saiyan since they have had so much time to master the transformation. People have also suggested that Goten was conceived by a Super Saiyan, allowing the transformation to come easier. Whatever the reason, this seems like a feat that easily outshines anything Gohan has done.
2 That’s A Big Kid
When Goku was just a kid living alone in the woods he was 12 years old. But he looked a lot tinier and younger than that. Fast forward a bunch of years and Gohan is about the same size...when he’s four. It’s not until the end of the Cell Saga that Gohan finally reaches the same age that his father was at the beginning of Dragon Ball. Oddly enough, at this point, he looks like a full-grown man.
So the question becomes, was Goku just an unusually small boy when he was a kid, or was Gohan gigantic? More intensive training could certainly result in his body growing more muscle, quicker. But the size difference is weird. Even if Goku was an unreasonably small kid, wouldn’t Gohan take after his father and grow at a much slower rate? It’s literally the opposite.
1 He Made A Lot Of Mistakes
There was a brief moment where Gohan was set up to be the new hero of Dragon Ball Z. It would have been a really odd time to have that happen, considering all the mistakes he made in battle. Gohan went Super Saiyan 2 and had the power to destroy Cell, however, instead of heeding his father’s advice, he decided to toy with his victim first, and it cost him.
Following Cell’s de-evolution, Gohan could have easily finished him off. He didn’t, and his father had to sacrifice his life to save the world. Cell came back from his self-destruct attack stronger than ever, resulting in the end of Trunks, and Gohan’s very near defeat. The idea that Gohan was now the new hero seemed premature because the maturity level was just not there.