Roughly every month, Toyotarō provides a drawing of a Dragon Ball (or related…!) character — as well as an accompanying comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Following up on the wealth of characters already drawn, for his June 2026 entry, Toyotarō has drawn “Old Man” Son Goku:

(OLD MAN) SON GOKU

I based this on a drawing Toriyama-sensei made wondering how Goku would look like as an old man that was in an essay manga included in the 1989 Dragon Ball Z: Anime Special mook.

At the time, the serialization was still ongoing, so the drawing was accompanied by musings such as “I wonder when Dragon Ball will end” and “maybe Goku will even become an old man, like this”.

It’s been 37 years since then… and as of 2026, Dragon Ball hasn’t ended yet!

Toriyama-sensei! The day when Goku shows up like this might be yet to come!

The drawing that Toyotarō references here indeed comes from a Toriyama-penned comic within a special perforated pack-in with the 1989 Dragon Ball Z: Anime Special “mook” (magazine/book):

…the full contents of which we have translated and available in our archive!

This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.