Interview With Justin Chatwin!

[Coola Yagami]

When Goku is supposed to come from Asia, they can't cast someone from the west as the actor.
Imagine "My Name is Khan" with someone Chinese, or Brad Pitt. *Pukes*

Because humanoid aliens from other planets come from Asia. What does an "Asian environment" have to do with a character's race? If Superman landed in Mexico, should he have been Hispanic?

Actually.... had Superman been created by some Mexican dude and the comic was made in Mexico... most bloody likely. It just... works that way. Unless the aliens look completely inhuman, most humanoid aliens from US stuff will look like white dudes, and humanoid aliens from manga will look asian. Hell, in American stuff even green skinned women from planet whatever look just like white women with green skin. LOL

[Dr. Casey]

1. No one who knew Goku ever met Gohan, so they wouldn't know what race he was.

Quite a few of Goku's friends met Gohan. Roshi, Ox King, Bulma, Yamcha, Kuririn, Puar, Upa.

Or are we talking about the movie? I never watched Evolution.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I would say that Justin is so full of crap here. He didn't look a bit like Goku at all, except for his Gi.
When Goku is supposed to come from Asia, they can't cast someone from the west as the actor.
Imagine "My Name is Khan" with someone Chinese, or Brad Pitt. *Pukes*

There's no evidence to suggest that Saiyans should look Asian. Because they have black hair and dark eyes? Lots of races have those features. Futhermore, Goku couldn't have come from Asia, because Asia doesn't exist in the Dragon World.

[Goku100xKamehameha]

Or any places on the world!

[Innagadadavida]

There needs to be a "block" or "ignore" feature on this forum. There are a few users that I would just rather not see.

EDIT: Oh shit there is! You can "Add as Foe" and you'll never see a post by that person again. What a nerdy way of saying "ignore."

[Godo]

I would say that Justin is so full of crap here. He didn't look a bit like Goku at all, except for his Gi.
When Goku is supposed to come from Asia, they can't cast someone from the west as the actor.
Imagine "My Name is Khan" with someone Chinese, or Brad Pitt. *Pukes*

There's no evidence to suggest that Saiyans should look Asian. Because they have black hair and dark eyes? Lots of races have those features. Futhermore, Goku couldn't have come from Asia, because Asia doesn't exist in the Dragon World.

I'll repeat myself. In the first volume of Dragonball, Goku wasn't an alien. He was a human boy. Toriyama hadn't yet thought of Goku being a Saiya-jin.
Goku was derived from Sun Wukong from Journey to the West. In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong has to travel from China to India.
Since the story is derived from Journey to the West, thus Goku's character should indeed be thought of being Asian.
He lived in a Chinese-esque house, and he practiced Kung-fu. I think it was really clear that the story was intended to occur in China or some other Asian country in the beginning, like the inspiration of Dragonball.
This, however, changed later, but we can't ignore the roots of Dragonball.
Even though Asia doesn't exist in the Dragon World, there is nothing to negate that a similar race like exists there, just like we have Caucasian people, black people and obviously, Asian people there.

I'll rest my case. Honest to God, some of you people don't even read threads before replying.
This thread was a disaster to begin with, so I shouldn't be shocked.
I think that the main problem is that you think "I don't want Goku to be Asian", since neither one of you have replied with something valid enough to overrule my theories. It being a different world...well you can shove that up in your ass, since the race demographic is very similar to ours.

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I'll repeat myself. In the first volume of Dragonball, Goku wasn't an alien. He was a human boy. Toriyama hadn't yet thought of Goku being a Saiya-jin.
Goku was derived from Sun Wukong from Journey to the West. In Journey to the West, Sun Wukong has to travel from China to India.
Since the story is derived from Journey to the West, thus Goku's character should indeed be thought of being Asian.
He lived in a Chinese-esque house, and he practiced Kung-fu. I think it was really clear that the story was intended to occur in China or some other Asian country in the beginning, like the inspiration of Dragonball.
This, however, changed later, but we can't ignore the roots of Dragonball.
Even though Asia doesn't exist in the Dragon World, there is nothing to negate that a similar race like exists there, just like we have Caucasian people, black people and obviously, Asian people there.

You seem to be conviently ignoring the fact that Goku is an alien. He was an alien at the start of the Manga, he was an alien throughout the Manga and he was an alien at the end of the Manga. So what if he lived in a China-esque place and praticed Kung-Fu? I could do those things. Would that make me asian?

[Savage68]

I'll repeat myself. In the first volume of Dragonball, Goku wasn't an alien. He was a human boy. Toriyama hadn't yet thought of Goku being a Saiya-jin.

That's completely irrelevant, since Goku was retconned into being a Saiyan at a later point in time. That changes his race (regardless of which juncture in the story you're citing) from being a human to being an alien, and quite decisively so. The moment when Goku's alien heritage was confirmed was the same moment when any chance of Goku's race being anything other than 'Saiyan' dropped to 0%.

[Kendamu]

I'll repeat myself. In the first volume of Dragonball, Goku wasn't an alien. He was a human boy. Toriyama hadn't yet thought of Goku being a Saiya-jin.

That's completely irrelevant, since Goku was retconned into being a Saiyan at a later point in time. That changes his race (regardless of which juncture in the story you're citing) from being a human to being an alien, and quite decisively so. The moment when Goku's alien heritage was confirmed was the same moment when any chance of Goku's race being anything other than 'Saiyan' dropped to 0%.

Retcon may change a storyline's past, but it doesn't change the actual history of the real world where Toriyama was writing and drawing Dragonball. Goku wasn't originally intended as an alien, so that means that Goku in the first several volumes of Dragonball was some sort of odd-looking human (like Tenshinhan or Krillin). Considering that Dragonball had very heavy Chinese influences early on, it's safe to assume that Goku being Asian in an Asian setting wouldn't be too far-fetched.

Personally, I don't think Toriyama's ever going to draw Goku realistically so I really don't care. However, if Toriayam did so, I would be surprised if he was a white dude.

[Godo]

I'll repeat myself. In the first volume of Dragonball, Goku wasn't an alien. He was a human boy. Toriyama hadn't yet thought of Goku being a Saiya-jin.

That's completely irrelevant, since Goku was retconned into being a Saiyan at a later point in time. That changes his race (regardless of which juncture in the story you're citing) from being a human to being an alien, and quite decisively so. The moment when Goku's alien heritage was confirmed was the same moment when any chance of Goku's race being anything other than 'Saiyan' dropped to 0%.

I think that it should be pretty clear that I never intended to label the Saiya-jins for being of the Asian race from Earth. If you have actually read my posts carefully you would know that I was speaking about the phenotypes/features all along, not about the races exclusively...if you don't bother doing that, don't bother replying, I say.

And to try to give a simple explanation (since people don't seem to understand it yet after all this time): Goku went from an Earthling of the Asian race, to an alien with the features from the Asian race.
One more point: What is there speaking against the Saiya-jins having features similar to Asians? Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. In fact, with Goku's background, it's rather implied that they do.
I'm just keeping it simple. Goku's appearance didn't change, so his features and whatever race he looked like should have stayed the same.

So to summarize, your above post doesn't speak against mine one tiny bit.

[Savage68]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand what point it is you're trying to get across. Could you help me out with that?

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand what point it is you're trying to get across. Could you help me out with that?

He's saying that Saiyans look like Asians, which is rubbish because Saiyans are aliens and aren't said to look like a specific race.

[The Tori-bot]

How anyone can even distinguish Toriyama's character designs as being Asian is a mystery in itself... they have no defining features of any particular race. Look at Goku's eyes for Chrissakes, they're impossibly, inhumanly huge.

[Blue]

How anyone can even distinguish Toriyama's character designs as being Asian is a mystery in itself... they have no defining features of any particular race. Look at Goku's eyes for Chrissakes, they're impossibly, inhumanly huge.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT GLORIOUS NIPPON TORI-SAN!

[Super Sayian Prime]

DragonBall is a world where a talking dog rules over everything. Something tells me race doesn't matter.

[Godo]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand what point it is you're trying to get across. Could you help me out with that?

He's saying that Saiyans look like Asians, which is rubbish because Saiyans are aliens and aren't said to look like a specific race.

Really? What you are basically saying it that Saiya-jins are not looking like normal people. For all I know, no one ever reacted over how Goku looked, except for his tail. Noone asked him from where he was from. This dictates that he looked alike his fellow humans.
I am not speaking about DBZ, it's irrelevant whether he was found out to be an alien or not.
It's like you are denying that Superman has Caucasian features, since he is from Krypton, and is an alien. Do you see how stupid it makes you sound?

But I give up, really. It's pointless arguing with people that don't even know what they are talking about, and just debate for the hell of it, not to build something up.

[MR.Mark]

Goku must be based on a American, I mean, look how his race acted. Vegeta's elitist attitude was Toriyama's satire on this very subject!

Just kidding, Son Goku is clearly meant to be a black man and Bulma's Brazilian.

[Savage68]

I'm sorry, but I don't understand what point it is you're trying to get across. Could you help me out with that?

He's saying that Saiyans look like Asians, which is rubbish because Saiyans are aliens and aren't said to look like a specific race.

Really? What you are basically saying it that Saiya-jins are not looking like normal people.

This line of reasoning can only make sense if the supporting characters were actually Asian, or if there were good enough reason to assume that they are. Until then, your argument is nothing less than fallacious.

[Big Momma]

It's like you are denying that Superman has Caucasian features, since he is from Krypton, and is an alien. Do you see how stupid it makes you sound?

Well...that's the thing. Superman has those features. He looks white. Maybe it's just me...but Goku doesn't look Asian at all to me.

[Innagadadavida]

Well...that's the thing. Superman has those features. He looks white. Maybe it's just me...but Goku doesn't look Asian at all to me.

Does Krillin look Chinese (I think he's supposed to be Chinese based on his back story)? Does Yajirobe look Japanese (confirmed)? How about Yamcha (First normal Human fighter)? Tenshinhan (Clearly not white)? Roshi (Not white, he's a martial arts master)?

Dude, no anime characters look the way Caucasians stereotypically see Asians. But they are.

Kuwabara? Japanese. Sailor Moon? Japanese. Light Yagami? Japanese.

Another example is Samurai Champloo. The characters in that show do not have the over exaggerated features Asians typically have in Western animation, and there's a scene toward the end of the series essentially mocking that depiction. An American asks the reporter guy where he's from, the guy then uses his fingers to open his eyelids further vertically and with an accent says "I'm from America!"

It's funny.