Creation and conception

Early concept art of a teenage Gohan. Gohan's name comes from the Japanese word "gohan" ( "cooked rice" or "meal of any sort"), is a continuation of the naming scheme of foods by Toriyama. Rice, being a grain, is not normally considered to be a vegetable, even though it is part of a plant. However, as the word "vegetable" is a culinary term, and not a botanical term, the name can also continue the naming scheme for Saiyan characters, which derives names from puns on vegetables (Saiya being an anagram of the word yasai, meaning "vegetable"). In conceptualizing for Gohan's character, Toriyama originally included glasses or a jacket to his apparel, and commonly, his hair was not spiked up as seen in the final design. With the ending of the Cell arc, Gohan was meant to replace his father as the main protagonist; Toriyama thought that he was unsuitable for that part so he avoided doing that.

Appearance

As opposed to full-blooded Saiyans, whose hair stays the same from birth, Gohan's is drawn at varying lengths, and changes markedly in style. Many of Yamcha's hairstyles are used by Gohan at various points in his life. Initially, Gohan is illustrated garbed in a Hanfu-like surcoat with the Chinese character, fixed on the front and the four-star Dragon Ball fitted on top of his hat. Piccolo later supplies him with a keikogi fashioned after Goku's, but substitutes it with the demon character as a sign of his admission into the Demon Tribe. Normally thereafter, Gohan is drawn with a keikogi modeled after Piccolo's own, with the anime recoloring his wristbands from blue to red and, during the Cell Games tournament, his obi from red to blue, despite reverting to the original colors for the former. On Namek, Gohan is portrayed in battle armor worn by Frieza's henchmen, having been given it by Vegeta in preparation for their encounter with Frieza. Prior to his second fight with Majin Buu, Gohan asks Kibito for an outfit resembling his father's, and is then drawn in a keikogi identical to Goku's.

Plot overview

Main articles: Saiyan Saga, Frieza Saga, Cell Saga, and Majin Buu Saga Premiering in the manga chapter #196 Kakarrot ( Kakarotto) first published in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine on October 24, 1988, Gohan is introduced as the four-year-old son of the series' main protagonist, Goku. Described as well-mannered and reserved, Gohan's story begins following his abduction by the Saiyan named Raditz, Goku's older brother. Later, while Goku is pinned to the ground, Gohan's extreme distress exploded with the release of his dormant power, which allowed him to injure Raditz. Piccolo, startled by this, then takes Gohan away following the fight and Goku's death, and trains him for the upcoming battle against the two other Saiyans, Vegeta and Nappa. His tutelage under Piccolo forms a deep bond between the two characters, with Piccolo ultimately sacrificing himself to save Gohan during their fight with Nappa. After the defeat of Vegeta, Gohan, Bulma and Krillin travel to Namek to use the Dragon Balls there, as the Dragon Balls on Earth had turned to stone due to the Earth's guardian Kami's death. After succeeding in gathering the Dragon Balls, Gohan and the others wish Piccolo back to life, causing Kami and the Dragon Balls to be returned. Gohan, along with Krillin and Vegeta, are then forced into an encounter with Frieza, who seeks the Dragon Balls for immortality. Later, after Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan and defeats Frieza, Gohan is shown to settle back into school life on Earth, waiting for Goku to return home from Namek. A year later, Future Trunks kills a cybernetic Frieza and his father, King Cold, and informs Gohan and the others of the upcoming threat of the androids arriving in three years time. Gohan then commits himself to training with Goku and Piccolo until the arrival of the androids. Following the appearance of Cell, Gohan is taken to the Room of Spirit and Time (Hyperbolic Time Chamber) by Goku. Goku then reveals his intentions: to train Gohan to become a Super Saiyan, and to have Gohan surpass him in strength. Following Gohan's emergence from the Room of Spirit and Time, Gohan is depicted as a Super Saiyan, with Piccolo shown thinking to himself that he barely recognized him before granting Gohan's request to give him an outfit resembling his own. At the Cell Games, Gohan, after stating his reluctance to fight out of fear of being consumed by anger, is tormented by a curious Cell, forced to watch Cell's Cell Jr.'s attack the others in Cell's effort to bring out Gohan's latent power. Following Android #16's death, Gohan, infuriated, ascends to Super Saiyan 2, and later defeats Cell in a Kamehameha struggle, counseled by Goku from the afterlife and winning with the assistance of Vegeta. Gohan, during the consequent peace that follows, is said to have continued his studies, and later, a sixteen-year-old Gohan is shown enrolling at Orange Star High School in Satan City. On his first day, he foils a bank robbery as a Super Saiyan, and, with help from Bulma, adopts a superhero identity that he dubs the "Great Saiyaman". Participating in the 25th World Martial Arts Tournament, Gohan is depicted as having grown weaker, which the Daizenshū World Guide book explains as due to a lack of training and anger in transforming. Gohan, after having his chi absorbed by Spopovich and Yamu, pursues the two and enters Babidi's spaceship with the Supreme Kai, Goku and Vegeta, where Gohan later fights with Dabura. Following Buu's release and Gohan's defeat at his hands, Gohan is taken to the Planet of the Kai by the Supreme Kai and Kibito. After pulling out the Z Sword and accidentally breaking it in a training session, Gohan unwittingly releases the Elder Kai, who then performs a prolonged ceremony to unlock Gohan's latent powers. Gohan then returns to Earth and confronts Buu for a second time, and defeats him. However, he, along with Gotenks and Piccolo, are later absorbed by Buu. Once revived, Gohan is able to aid Goku's Super Spirit Bomb by lending his chi. Following Buu's defeat and a ten year gap at the end of Dragon Ball Z, Gohan has finally become a scholar and is depicted with a wife, Videl, and a daughter, Pan.

Future Gohan

Future Gohan in Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 Main article: Dragon Ball Z: The History of Trunks Future Gohan (Mirai no Gohan, Gohan of the Future) appears in the alternate timeline presented in the volume #33 sidestory of the original manga, Trunks the Story, in which he is shown to be the only surviving fighter; the others have all died at the hands of the androids (Goku, having died from a heart virus following the defeat of Frieza and King Cold, being the exception). Gohan is shown training Bulma's half-Saiyan son, Future Trunks, to assist him in battling androids #17 and #18. In this timeline, Gohan has become a Super Saiyan, and is depicted wearing a uniform similar to his father's, one with his own kanji symbol on the back, Han, 飯. Gohan states he wears it in hopes of becoming as strong as his father one day, and Trunks mentions that his mother, Bulma, finds Gohan bears a striking resemblance to Goku when donning it. In appearance, Gohan's hair is cut much shorter than his present counterpart's, as well as having a scar running down the left side of his face, and is implied to have had lost his left arm fighting #17 and #18. He is eventually killed by the two androids in a battle trying to defend Pepper Town, with #17 boasting that, in previous encounters, the most he had ever used was half his strength; Gohan reacts with alarm at this statement, with #18 chuckling before the manga cuts away to an unconscious Trunks, who cannot feel Gohan's chi upon waking.

Voice actors

Like his younger brother and Goku, Gohan is voiced in the original Japanese anime by Masako Nozawa in all media. In the Ocean dub of the series he would be voiced by Saffron Henderson and later by Jillian Michaels as a child and Brad Swaile as an adult. In the Funimation dub Gohan would be voiced by Stephanie Nadolny as a child and Kyle Hebert would voice him as an adult throughout the series with the exception of the Trunks TV special where he was voiced by Dameon Clarke. Currently Nadolny and Hebert voice him in all video games with the exception of Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, where he was played as a teenager by Lex Lang. In the English dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai, Gohan is voiced by Colleen Clinkenbeard.

Abilities

As a child, Gohan is depicted with a seemingly limitless dormant power, which at first only revealed itself when he experienced fierce rage or distress. Gohan unleashes this great power which he possessed within him when he fights Cell in the Cell Saga. Due to his mixed heritage, Gohan's character also exhibits unusual abilities, possessing power that surpasses that of regular Saiyans. Vegeta suggests that mixing human and Saiyan blood begets powerful hybrids, which Nappa refers to as a Super Saiyan. On Namek, Saichoro, or Guru, helped unlock a portion of his untapped potential, unable to bring out the fullest of his tremendous latent abilities. Gohan can also freely manipulate his chi for the use of abilities such as the Bukû-jutsu. "lighter than air skill" or "sky dancing skill"), enabling him to fly, or concentrate it into beams of chi energy blasts, such as the Kamehameha or Masenko (Masenkō. "Demon Flash"). Gohan also possesses enhanced strength, as well as superhuman speed and reflexes (as seen during his training with Goten). He is able to ascend to Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2 levels, and later, his ultimate form unlocked by Elder Kai which allows Gohan to access his full potential.