Grandpa Gohan (Extended Universe)

## Grandpa Gohan

**Son Gohan** (**孫悟飯**), usually referred to as **Grandpa Gohan** to differentiate him from Goku's son, is a male Earthling martial artist who was the adoptive grandfather of Goku that first appeared in Dragon Ball. Goku's son, Gohan, is named in honor of him.

## **Appearance**

Grandpa Gohan is a short, stubby old man with small dark eyes and a bushy white mustache and eyebrows and is also bald. He wears a Chinese martial arts uniform, which consists of a sleeveless orange jacket over a long sleeved black shirt, and wears a green hat.

## **Personality**

Grandpa Gohan is a kind and loving man, kind enough to adopt Goku when he found him in the woods. It is likely much of Goku's personality and morality came from him. Even though Goku was responsible for his death, Grandpa Gohan did not show any signs of resentment towards him as shown in their reunion where he expresses happiness at seeing him again.

According to Goku, Grandpa Gohan had good manners and acted very well towards ladies. Grandpa Gohan may have been popular with the ladies, or perverted just like Master Roshi, because he says "I've got a lot of friends, and most of them are brunettes" in the Fortuneteller Baba Saga.

## **Background**

Gohan was a martial artist who trained under Master Roshi with the Ox-King
 when he was younger. He was close friends with the Ox-King. According
to Master Roshi, Gohan and Ox-King both delivered milk, just like Goku
and Krillin did later as part of their training under Roshi. Gohan also wielded the Power Pole, which was given to him by Roshi.
When Gohan was an old man he lived by himself on Mount Paozu (in *Dragon Ball Z*, his old house is still next to Goku's house). He became the adoptive grandfather of Goku when he found him near the landing site of his space pod when he was a baby. When Goku first landed on Earth, his mission was to, in time, destroy the entire human race and sell the planet to another race. Being a Saiyan, who are known to be very aggressive and short-tempered, Goku was very uncooperative at first

After falling into a ravine, Goku hit his head, causing him to lose his memory, and became a regular happy, loving boy. Grandpa Gohan passed on his martial arts knowledge to Goku. He also warned Goku to never look at a full moon and to stay indoors on nights of one; implying that Goku had already transformed into a Great Ape before, and Grandpa Gohan managed to survive the first time. Goku followed his advice for sometime until one night (as Goku explained to Bulma, Yamcha, Puar and Oolong what happens when he looks at a full moon while they were held in prison at Pilaf's Castle) when Goku stepped outside to relieve himself. He then glanced at the full moon, transforming into a Great Ape, and went on a rampage, killing Grandpa Gohan, though because Goku did not remember what he did when transformed he was not aware of it.

From that time on, Goku believed that Grandpa Gohan was killed by a monster and that his soul was in the Four-Star Dragon Ball. In *Dragon Ball Z*, when Goku was battling Vegeta as he transforms into a Great Ape, Goku finally realizes that he killed Grandpa Gohan when he was little, and apologizes to his grandfather.

## **Jaco the Galactic Patrolman**

### ***Dragon Ball Minus***

In Mount Paozu, Gohan finds an alien so he then takes him to his home. Gohan feeds the alien and he questions where he came from. Since he doesn't know what his name was, he gives him the name, "Son Goku" because he came from the sky.

## **Dragon Ball**

### **Fortune Teller Baba Saga**

During the Fortuneteller Baba Saga, Goku, Yamcha, Master Roshi, Upa, Puar, and Krillin must fight Fortuneteller Baba's five fighters in order to find the last Dragon Ball. Goku is the last one left to fight and Fortuneteller Baba brings out a "special" fighter as her last. The last opponent is a mysterious man wearing a fox mask. Master Roshi then realizes that that man is Goku's dead grandfather, Grandpa Gohan.

Grandpa Gohan and Goku fight about evenly, until Gohan grabs Goku's tail (knowing his weakness as he trained and raised him) and beats him on the ground, back and forth, with Goku helpless. The others are baffled as to why he is just pounding and pounding on Goku. After unintentionally ripping Goku's tail off, causing Goku to go in a rage, Grandpa Gohan surrenders and explains that he was trying to make a point to Goku that he needs to train harder and make his tail work for him instead of against him, and through these words, Goku realizes his identity. Seeing no reason to continue concealing his identity, Gohan unmasks himself, leading to an emotional reunion.

Gohan and Baba go on to explain that Baba has the power to bring the dead back to life for one day only. Bulma then explains the Dragon Balls and her adventures with Goku to Gohan. Gohan is quite content with "life" in the Other World, and thus chooses to remain dead, vanishing after thanking Roshi for teaching Goku and giving his grandson a final farewell. It appears that Grandpa Gohan possesses some of Master Roshi's perverted traits, as he states "I've got a lot of friends, and most of them are brunettes."

### **Piccolo  Jr. Saga**

Grandpa Gohan makes another appearance in anime filler; in the final two episodes of *Dragon Ball* in which Goku and Chi-Chi have been in the middle of a quest to lower a new fire engulfing Fire Mountain with Ox-King trapped inside protecting Chi-Chi's wedding dress.

Goku and Chi-Chi come upon the gateway between the living world and the next, making their way past numerous illusions, they find themselves in the cave of the Spirit Furnace. They end up meeting up with Grandpa Gohan, whom Goku mistakes for being the legendary furnace keeper Annin.

Grandpa Gohan is actually a bodyguard for Annin, as well as protecting the lever that can turn off the Spirit Furnace. After a small scuffle with Annin, Goku is allowed to travel into the depths of the furnace where he is able to patch the leak. Goku bids a final farewell to his grandfather as he and Chi-Chi move on into the beginning of wedded bliss for many years.

## **Dragon Ball Z**

### **Vegeta Saga**

While seen only through flashbacks, Grandpa Gohan appears quite a few times throughout the *Dragon Ball Z* series. Out of three known flashbacks, the first is when Master Roshi tells Goku of Grandpa Gohan's story of finding him. Later, another flashback takes place where Goku recalls a pre-Dragon Ball moment of his grandfather warning him to never go outside on the night of a full moon after he sees Vegeta transform into a Great Ape. When Goku sees this, he came to realize that when he transformed, he was the one that killed Gohan. He apologized and promised to him that he would defeat Vegeta.

### **Kid Buu Saga**

The final flashback of him comes much later in the series wherein Goku fondly remembers being found by Grandpa Gohan (a sequence originally shown in the Bardock special, upgraded in animation in a sepia color-tone) followed by a short sequence of Grandpa Gohan's training that raised Goku into a boy "trained like steel".

## ***Dragon Ball Super***

### **Universal Survival Saga**

During the recruitment of Team Universe 7, Goku mentions Grandpa Gohan after recruiting Android 17. He says the reason he does his heroic actions is because of what his grandfather taught him.

Goku would later on reenact his fight with Grandpa Gohan as the former was waiting for Fortuneteller Baba to return with Frieza.

## ***Dragon Ball GT***

### **Shadow Dragon Saga**

Grandpa Gohan makes one small appearance during a flashback that Goku has at the end of the *Dragon Ball GT* series. Grandpa Gohan is seen holding Goku up in the air during Goku's final walk outside the World Martial Arts Tournament arena.

## Power

Gohan was a powerful fighter, having received training from Master Roshi. He was Baba's top fighter above the likes of Devil Man, who himself had won two previous World Tournaments. He was shown to be an equal match for Goku even after he had climbed Korin Tower and received training from Korin himself.

## Techniques

* **Kamehameha** – A whitish-blue energy wave shot from both hands, invented by Master Roshi himself.
* **Jan Ken** – The martial arts technique invented by Grandpa Gohan and translating rock-scissors-paper.
* **Turtle School Tranquility** – Grandpa Gohan kicks his opponent into the air and flies toward the enemy and kicks them down. While the opponent is falling, Grandpa Gohan performs the Jan Ken technique on them.
* **Turtle School Four Virtues** – A rush attack used by Grandpa Gohan. First, Grandpa Gohan says "Got you now!" as he kicks the opponent into the air. Then, he jumps behind the opponent and dashes to punch their feet making them fall. Finally, he hook kicks them away.
* **Thunder Shock Surprise** – One of the most powerful attacks invented by Master Roshi.
* **Explosive Wave** – He creates a weak burst of energy for protection, with himself serving as the nexus. If anyone comes in contact with the wave, they will be knocked away, and receive minor damage.
* **Afterimage Technique** – Grandpa Gohan moves so quickly that he leaves an image of himself behind.
* **After Image Strike** - a advanced version of the Afterimage. Most often, it is used to dodge an incoming attack and get behind the opponent to perform a counter-attack.

## Voice Actors

* Japanese: **Osamu Saka** (Most media), **Kinpei Azusa** (*Bardock - The Father of Goku*), **Jōji Yanami** (*DBZ* Episode 288) and **Shigeru Chiba** (*DB Kai*)
* English (FUNimation Dub) **Christopher Sabat**

## Trivia

* Grandpa Gohan apparently had an appetite similar to Goku's. In "Dress in Flames", Ox-King comments Goku shares his grandfather's fierce appetite, though since it would later be revealed Goku was a Saiyan. However it is not uncommon for highly trained Earthling martial artists to demonstrate superhuman appetite for food as Yamcha and Krillin have occasionally been shown to eat in a manner similar to Goku, usually for humorous effect.
* The mask Grandpa Gohan wears was originally seen worn by Nejishiki in *Dr. Slump*.
* Goku has grown up thinking that Gohan's spirit rests within the Four-Star Dragon ball. He thinks this because it was his most prized possession before he died.
* Goku's son Gohan is named after his Grandpa Gohan only because the baby went without a name for a while, until the name "Gohan" came into conversation, and the baby laughed because he liked the name, so then Chi-Chi, Goku, and Ox-King decided to name him that
* In the Japanese version, Gohan's name is chosen after Goku is unable to think up a name and states that he is hungry, and Chi-Chi yells they ate breakfast (*asagohan* (朝ご飯)) not long ago.
* Though not a Saiyan himself or even aware of Goku's Saiyan heritage, through observation of Goku, Gohan came to understand the nature of Goku's Great Ape form and that it was triggered by the full moon, leading him to warn Goku about going outside during a full moon. Presumably he did not explain the true nature of the transformation as he may not felt Goku was old enough to deal with it and may have planned to tell him about it once he was old enough, though unfortunately he was unintentionally killed during one of Goku's transformations, which may explain why Gohan never told Goku the truth when the met during the Fortuneteller Baba Saga or in the anime filler as he likely wanted to spare Goku the guilt of being responsible for his death, which Gohan knew was due to Goku's inability to control himself in said form and likely realized it would be too dangerous for him to even attempt to master said transformation or if he even could master said form. He also knew about Saiyan tails being their weak point as he advised Goku to train his tail to overcome his weakness, making Goku the only low class Saiyan know to have trained his tail, as Raditz never trained to overcome this weakness unlike comrades Nappa and Vegeta who were higher class. Goku would also use this weakness against his own brother, though he never revealed to Piccolo that Saiyans could train to overcome it though it is possible that he simply forgot it as it had been many years since Goku had trained his tail to overcome said weakness before it was removed by Kami.
* Ironically, Goku never trained his son and his grandfather's namesake Gohan to overcome this weakness, due to academically minded Chi-Chi forbidding him from training their son in the martial arts. Interestingly, even after Gohan was allowed to train, Goku never taught him to train his tail when it grew back sometime before *Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge* which presumably takes palace during the three-year wait for the Androids, as Gohan is weakened when Dore grabs his tail. However presumably the tail was removed to prevent the possibility of Gohan transforming into a Great Ape as Goku by that point was well aware of the danger presented by the form, despite Gohan demonstrating some control over the form during the battle with Vegeta.