Found out how many times Goku died across all Dragon Ball media

I was reading an old wiki page about character deaths in shonen anime. It said Goku has actually died four separate times across the original series, Z, and the movies. I always thought it was just the two big ones everyone knows. The fourth one was in a movie I never saw, where he gets hit by a special attack. It made me look up a bunch of other characters too. How many times do you think a main character has to die before it stops being a big deal?

3 comments

3 Comments

kai6572mo ago

Ever notice how death just becomes a plot device after a while? It loses all impact when you know they'll be back by next season. Makes you wonder why they even bother writing it in anymore.

troy_palmer761mo ago

Used to roll my eyes at death fakeouts back when I was younger, but this actually changed my mind a bit. Like @ivanprice said, seeing how mad people get proves the writers still know how to get a reaction. Goku dying in a random movie nobody saw kinda proves the point though - four deaths and only two actually mattered to the story. Vegeta blew himself up trying to kill Buu and that hit harder than any of Goku's deaths combined. Makes you realize impact depends on the writing, not the body count.

ivanprice2mo ago

My buddy got so mad when his favorite character "died" last season. He was yelling at the screen, but I just laughed. We all knew the guy would be back by the finale anyway.