Raditz's Zanzouken

[Bardock the Mexican]

I just thougt of somthing when I saw the episode where Goku first meets Raditz and he first gets struck by Raditz. The one where Raditz does a double image move and hits him in the stomach. This shouldn't have worked because Goku learned how to track an enemy with ki sense and movement of air ec cetra from Kamisama and Mister Popo. The double image illusionary move should have been a transparent ploy that Goku would have seen through. If he had used the abilites he obtained in Dragonball, he would have been able to get a strike in on Raditz. I don't get how this could be, unless he was unaware of the blow. That even doesn't make sense because he was aware that Raditz was about to attack and even was about to attack Raditz to protect his son! What is up with this? Does anyone have another theory as to why this happened?

[Payne222]

I just thougt of somthing when I saw the episode where Goku first meets Raditz and he first gets struck by Raditz. The one where Raditz does a double image move and hits him in the stomach. This shouldn't have worked because Goku learned how to track an enemy with ki sense and movement of air ec cetra from Kamisama and Mister Popo. The double image illusionary move should have been a transparent ploy that Goku would have seen through. If he had used the abilites he obtained in Dragonball, he would have been able to get a strike in on Raditz. I don't get how this could be, unless he was unaware of the blow. That even doesn't make sense because he was aware that Raditz was about to attack and even was about to attack Raditz to protect his son! What is up with this? Does anyone have another theory as to why this happened?

Maybe because Raditz was a new, super-crazy, powerful villian. Toriyama-Sensei probably just wanted to get the fact out that he was strong.

[ect5150]

...he would have been able to get a strike in on Raditz.

Simple... Raditz strength AND speed were far greater. He's just faster. I think you're looking into it too much. Inconsistencies do exist within the series, but I don't think this is one of them.

[Saiyan]

Hmm..are you talking about some after-image technique or something? Sorry for not being clear, I haven't seen the actual episode in a while.

Anyway, in the manga, Raditz just moves really fast, catching Goku off guard, and knees him in the stomach, not really tricking him by using an after-image.

Maybe it was just a wrong interpretation by Toei or something, similar to what they thought with Nico Robin's devil fruit powers were when she first appeared in One Piece.

[mAcChaos]

Raditz dwarfed Goku in power and speed; even if he knew it was going to happen his reaction time wouldn't be fast enough to do anything.

[Tyro]

I believe anything about him using an after-image is filler. There's your explanation.

[Lavender Saiyan]

What everyone else said...plus even in the Anime, we do see an after image, but Goku is not fooled & we see Goku turning around & Raditz thrusting his knee up in slow-mo. Then Raditz nails him.

[Kajika]

Well, if you think about it, Goku did learn how to avoid this, but like everyone else said, he was faster and stronger, and in an anime, you can't really show him going faster than that.

[Mr.Piccolo]

In short, it was just to show how horribly strong the new foe was. You could compare this to certain battles with Cell, Buu, and Vegetto after transformations. Exaggeration to make things more interesting, I guess.
-Rick