How do you view the racial/ethnic appearance of Saiyans?

[Esfír Dedragón]

This question has long been in the back of my head for a long time.

Given that Saiyans and Humans share many similar appearances, we wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

Besides having tails, we are only told that pure-blooded Saiyans have black hair. We've also seen that they have dark eyes and vary in skin tone.

So far, we have never received any official word if Saiyans are meant to be "Asian-looking aliens".

Notwithstanding the whole "Why do manga-characters look 'white'?" issue, I'm curious to know how the fanbase has viewed Saiyan characters in Dragon Ball.

Ever since Cabba showed up in the franchise, I quickly noticed (to me, at least) that he's more "Asian-looking" than, say, Goku or Vegeta. The "Female Broly" that we saw in the Universe Survival trailer also had Asian features, such as slanted eyes.

It's purely subjective, given the source material that Dragon Ball was based on, but I've always viewed Goku as a Chinese-Asian character, while Vegeta and Nappa being more "Caucasian." I could see Tullece being "Indian", while Broly and Paragus being tan-skinned Hispanics.

Anyone else have similar views?

[Gog]

I've actually never once thought of Goku as being Chinese-Japanese, in appearance. Call me racist, but this is literal biology here. His eyes were just too big to be Japanese in my opinion. Don't actually mean to offend anybody here, always assumed he was American. Like superman

[Israelite Wolfman]

There's no issue for "race" (white/black/Asian) for characters in the Dragon Ball franchise - the vast majority should be viewed as East Asian looking people cuz that's how the target audience looks like (even Tagoma has slanted eyes). This ofc doesn't includes Mr. Popo/General Black/Killa who are black, Nam & Uub who are Indians, Bora & Upa who are Native Americans and Caucasians like Mr. Satan or General Blue. That's kinda makes me wonder if your question reflect the inner-feeling that led Donald Trump to be the new USA President.

[mute_proxy]

I've actually never once thought of Goku as being Chinese-Japanese, in appearance. Call me racist, but this is literal biology here. His eyes were just too big to be Japanese in my opinion. Don't actually mean to offend anybody here, always assumed he was American. Like superman

Practically every anime character out there has big eyes. Do you see all of them as americans too?

[Gog]

Practically every anime character out there has big eyes. Do you see all of them as americans too?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Akira Toriyama has three different ways of drawing eyes, he never used the two on Goku. So that leads to me too believe that he's not Japanese. Or at the very least, he's got some America' in him

[TheZFighter]

Not appearance related, but I think it is great Saiyans speak the same language as all the Earthlings. Very handy for the story.

[mute_proxy]

Practically every anime character out there has big eyes. Do you see all of them as americans too?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Akira Toriyama has three different ways of drawing eyes, he never used the two on Goku. So that leads to me too believe that he's not Japanese. Or at the very least, he's got some America' in him

Toriyama uses Vegeta's/Trunks's eyes style on characters who have an aggressive/angry demeanor, it has nothing to do with race. Goku has the same eyes when he's in Super Saiyan.

[Gog]

Practically every anime character out there has big eyes. Do you see all of them as americans too?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Akira Toriyama has three different ways of drawing eyes, he never used the two on Goku. So that leads to me too believe that he's not Japanese. Or at the very least, he's got some America' in him

Toriyama uses Vegeta's/Trunks's eyes style on characters who have an aggressive/angry demeanor, it has nothing to do with race. Goku has the same eyes when he's in Super Saiyan.

I know, its just something I think. It's not actually true

[floofychan333]

I guess they're mostly supposed to be Asians because almost every anime character is supposed to be Asian but is drawn as white because the artists don't feel the need to make their characters look Japanese because everyone in Japan automatically assumes the characters are Japanese.

[Zephyr]

[precita]

They're supposed to look like Neanderthals.

[Gog]

*drinks some wine* so it seems that the saiyans are more built for battle compared to a human. So I would imagine that the females would have smaller breasts, and larger muscles compared to ours

[mabalia]

I imagine that sayans look similar to asians. In a possible hollywood movie I'd like to see asian actors to play the role of sayans.

[Esfír Dedragón]

Nice find!

Was this in the manga or from the Daizenshuu?

In reference to Gog's comment on Goku's appearance, I suppose that, depending from what angle you're looking at and what skin color Toei chooses (because in the anime, he's not really "Yellow"), he can be either.

I would prefer he'd have Asian features, but that's my opinion.

[Zephyr]

Was this in the manga or from the Daizenshuu?

Daizenshuu 7, I believe.

[swimtrunks]

I've always found it odd that the same people who were adamant Goku be white "because he's an alien" are the same people who claim Chi Chi and Yamcha should be Asian. Am I the only one who sees no difference between the three, feature-wise? Am I really to believe if Yamcha was revealed to be a lost Saiyan, people would be like "nah, he looks too Asian to be a Saiyan." When I first started watching DBZ I thought Goku and Yamcha were cousins.

[precita]

I've always found it odd that the same people who were adamant Goku be white "because he's an alien" are the same people who claim Chi Chi and Yamcha should be Asian. Am I the only one who sees no difference between the three, feature-wise? Am I really to believe if Yamcha was revealed to be a lost Saiyan, people would be like "nah, he looks too Asian to be a Saiyan." When I first started watching DBZ I thought Goku and Yamcha were cousins.

Chi-Chi wears chinese dresses and attire, and her personality is based on the stereotypical, "Asian Tiger Mom."

Toriyama clearly designed Chi-Chi to look Chinese.

[Rubens]

What is told about them in cannon is:

- All have dark hair (and possible sometimes slight shades of red or brown, like Vegeta sometimes was/is portrayed);
- Their hair is usually spiked and doesn't grow (possibly similar to animals, if you trim it it will grow back to its default size);
- Their bodies are more resilient than earthlings, since they originally come from high gravity environments;
- They have tails, like monkeys (that apparently fall off and/or stop growing when saiyans get too strong);

Considering that saiyans were rather low populated (in the hundreds, according to DB-), my personal theory is that in their original planet - planet Sadla - they were scattered around the planet in small tribes, or clans, or something resembling it. Similar to us, they evolved to adapt the regions where they live but since they are capable of easily using ki to fly (and other uses), it was easy for them to mingle so whatever racial traits they might have developed eventually mixed up. With the destruction of their home planet, which forced them to invade and later conquer planet Plant, they were probably reduced to very low numbers and repopulated with whatever they had, so these traits became less clear.

My conclusion is that after generations of miscegenation, these saiyans could be born with any types of features that resemble different etnicies on Earth.

[emperior]

What is told about them in cannon is:

- All have dark hair (and possible sometimes slight shades of red or brown, like Vegeta sometimes was/is portrayed);
- Their hair is usually spiked and doesn't grow (possibly similar to animals, if you trim it it will grow back to its default size);
- Their bodies are more resilient than earthlings, since they originally come from high gravity environments;
- They have tails, like monkeys (that apparently fall off and/or stop growing when saiyans get too strong);

Considering that saiyans were rather low populated (in the hundreds, according to DB-), my personal theory is that in their original planet - planet Sadla - they were scattered around the planet in small tribes, or clans, or something resembling it. Similar to us, they evolved to adapt the regions where they live but since they are capable of easily using ki to fly (and other uses), it was easy for them to mingle so whatever racial traits they might have developed eventually mixed up. With the destruction of their home planet, which forced them to invade and later conquer planet Plant, they were probably reduced to very low numbers and repopulated with whatever they had, so these traits became less clear.

My conclusion is that after generations of miscegenation, these saiyans could be born with any types of features that resemble different etnicies on Earth.

Very good post. Let's hope we will learn more of Saiyans thanks to Planet Sadla and U6 Saiyans

[Gog]

What is told about them in cannon is:

- All have dark hair (and possible sometimes slight shades of red or brown, like Vegeta sometimes was/is portrayed);
- Their hair is usually spiked and doesn't grow (possibly similar to animals, if you trim it it will grow back to its default size);
- Their bodies are more resilient than earthlings, since they originally come from high gravity environments;
- They have tails, like monkeys (that apparently fall off and/or stop growing when saiyans get too strong);

Considering that saiyans were rather low populated (in the hundreds, according to DB-), my personal theory is that in their original planet - planet Sadla - they were scattered around the planet in small tribes, or clans, or something resembling it. Similar to us, they evolved to adapt the regions where they live but since they are capable of easily using ki to fly (and other uses), it was easy for them to mingle so whatever racial traits they might have developed eventually mixed up. With the destruction of their home planet, which forced them to invade and later conquer planet Plant, they were probably reduced to very low numbers and repopulated with whatever they had, so these traits became less clear.

My conclusion is that after generations of miscegenation, these saiyans could be born with any types of features that resemble different etnicies on Earth.

A population in the low hundreds? Jeesus Freeza killing them off was a mercy, because a population with those low numbers is doomed to die. So its ironic that the saiyans were doomed to die either way.