Gohan
Son Gohan is a fictional character in the Japanese franchise Dragon Ball created by Akira Toriyama. The elder son of Son Goku and Chi-Chi, he made his appearance in chapter #196 "Kakarrot", published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on October 8, 1988.
Chi-Chi is a strict and protective mother to Gohan, forcing him to focus on school and forbidding him from practicing martial arts. However, due to the various threats to the Earth, she reluctantly allows him to fight. Gohan is initially trained by his father's former nemesis Piccolo, ultimately becoming one of the strongest characters in the series due to his hidden potential, awakened by his rage.
Akira Toriyama originally aimed for Gohan to succeed Goku as the series' protagonist, but such idea was scrapped in the manga's final arc. Nevertheless, Toriyama used him as a lead in the film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, to reuse his dynamic with Piccolo. In Japanese, he is voiced by Masako Nozawa in all animated appearances and most media.
Gohan has been well received by both fans and critics, the latter usually citing the character's growth from his initial appearance to his defeat of Cell. However, his characterization after the Cell arc has received a more mixed reception. His return as a protagonist in Super Hero earned a better response for his continuous growth and role as a family man, aided by Piccolo.
Creation and design
Gohan's name comes from the Japanese word, a continuation of the naming scheme of foods by Toriyama. Rice, being a grain, is not normally considered to be a vegetable, even though it is a common food. However, as the word "vegetable" is a culinary term, and not a botanical term, the name can also continue the naming scheme for Saiyan characters, which derives names from puns on vegetables. In conceptualizing for Gohan's character, Toriyama originally included glasses or a jacket in his apparel, and commonly, his hair is spiked up as seen in the final design. With the ending of the Cell arc, Gohan was meant to replace his father as the protagonist. However, Toriyama later decided against it, finding the character unsuited for the role in comparison to his father.In contrast, Gohan is the main focus of the film Super Hero. The movie is meant to change the focus of overpowered characters like Goku and Vegeta against Broly in the previous film, and instead focus on Gohan and Piccolo as leads and thus bringing a change of pace. One of the main fights is between Gohan and Gamma 1, which takes place during the rain. Director Tetsuro Kodama found that this setting would be appealing. The narrative will further explore human drama, most notably the characterization of Gohan being a warrior as well as a scholar at the same time. Toriyama said that he wanted the plot to focus on the dynamic between Gohan and Piccolo due to how their close relationship is the one thing that motivates the former even more than his father, Goku, to be determined to fight. The film reveals the full awakening of Gohan's power through yet another instance of pure rage. This "Beast" form is a culmination of his history of volcanic awakenings throughout his life. Toriyama feared it would come across as scary due to his angry expression, but tried balancing it with the hair, ultimately settling on a more simplistic approach.
In an interview featured in the second Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files, a companion book released in December 1997 by Shueisha's Jump Comics Selection imprint, Masako Nozawa, Gohan's voice actress, stated that her favorite episode voicing Gohan was "Sorry, Robot-san - The Desert of Vanishing Tears". Saffron Henderson, Gohan's original English voice actor, has stated she felt protective of the role and considers it to be one of her favorites. In addition, Gohan's original Funimation voice actor, Stephanie Nadolny has said that playing Gohan was a unique and much-loved experience.
Voice actors
Gohan is voiced in the original Japanese anime and all other media by Masako Nozawa. Nozawa, who also voices Goku, revealed that she did not know she would be playing Gohan until receiving the script on the day of recording his debut episode. Despite having to voice Gohan, Goku, Goten, and Bardock, Nozawa claims she can instantly get into the respective characters simply upon seeing their image.In the Funimation and Saban Entertainment initial 1996 English dub of Dragon Ball Z, Gohan is voiced by Saffron Henderson. Henderson reprised her role in AB Group and Westwood Media's alternate dub for the UK and Canadian markets in 2000. Jillian Michaels replaced Henderson in the latter part of the Cell arc, while his adult version is voiced by Brad Swaile. Henderson believed her experience playing Goku in Dragon Ball made it simple to develop Gohan's voice, though she stressed performing as him was "tiring" due to the action of the series requiring louder volumes. She also remembered scheduling conflicts thanks to her wedding, setting the stage for the studio to audition other voice actors for the part of Gohan, and being disappointed at the role being recast.
In Funimation's in-house dub, Gohan's child incarnation is voiced by Stephanie Nadolny for various media until 2010 and Colleen Clinkenbeard for Dragon Ball Kai and later media while his adult incarnation is voiced by Kyle Hebert for almost all various media and Dameon Clarke as "Future Gohan" for some episodes and the History of Trunks TV special. Nadolny was called in to audition in 1999, when the English dub of Dragon Ball Z was recast. She said her most challenging time voicing the character was during his fight against Cell, where she had to make him sound as "deep, tough, and as much like a man as possible." Nadolny's voice was strained during the recordings, causing her to sometimes leave the studio in pain. Hebert said that his roles as Gohan and the narrator of Dragon Ball Z are close to him as they kickstarted his career. He also found Battle of Gods to be "genuinely touching" outside of its fighting, citing Gohan finding out that he was going to be a father among the moments he found sentimental and was happy to return to the franchise when reprising his role in Resurrection 'F', also expressing interest in redoing his lines in Dragon Ball Kai as he had more experience.
In the English dub of Dragon Ball GT produced by Blue Water Studios, distributed in Canada, he was voiced by Scott Roberts. In the English dub of movies distributed in Europe by AB Groupe, Gohan was voiced by Jodi Forrest, with David Gasman voicing Gohan as an adult in The History of Trunks. In the Toonami Asia dub produced by Bang Zoom! Entertainment of Dragon Ball Super, Gohan here is voiced by Chris Hackney.
In a rare English dub of the anime produced in the Philippines by Creative Products Corporation, Gohan was voiced by Ethel Lizano, who also directed that dub. In the 1996 dub of the double feature combining Cooler's Revenge and The Return of Cooler also by Creative Products Corp.; young Gohan was voiced by E.J. Galang, who was 12 years old at the time he voiced Gohan.
Abilities
Gohan possesses superhuman strength and durability, as well as superhuman speed and reflexes, as seen during his training with his younger brother Goten. As a child, Gohan is depicted with an immense amount of hidden potential, which at first only revealed itself when he experienced fierce rage or distress. The vastness of this potential is shown consistently throughout the series as he ages and learns to master his powers from constant training and battles, the earliest example was during his short fight with Raditz. Gohan's potential was unlocked twice in the series: first by the Namekian Grand Elder, and then further unlocked by the Old Kaiō-shin, which sees his power level rise to new heights, capable of easily overwhelming the seemingly invincible Majin Buu.As a Half-Saiyan, he can become an Oozaru, a gigantic ape-like creature, by absorbing waves from a full moon. He lost this ability after his tail was cut by Piccolo, and later Vegeta. He was the third youngest Saiyan to achieve the Super Saiyan transformation at the age of nine whilst training and surpassing his father Goku in the Room of Spirit and Time and as a display of his hidden potential which he unlocked during his training with his father, Gohan becomes the first Saiyan in the series to become a Super Saiyan 2 during his battle against Cell. Though Gohan had gotten much weaker due to making the mistake of not training after the Cell Games, he became stronger than he ever had after his potential was unlocked from Old Kaiō-shin. Gohan, with this power up, was stronger than Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks since he was able to dominate Super Buu with ease without transforming.
Ever since this fight, Gohan has given up on fighting and has continually gotten weaker to the point that he can't use his Super Saiyan transformations without straining himself. Gohan can still hold his own against Frieza's soldiers, Shisami, and Tagoma in his base form and overpower them when he transforms into a Super Saiyan. After Frieza attacked Earth, Gohan returned to training with Piccolo. During his training with Piccolo before the start of the Tournament of Power, Gohan is pushed beyond his limits and manages to unlock his hidden power once again, becoming stronger than ever before. After this, he has shown that he is now able to combat foes of God-level might, having been able to hold his own in a sparring match against his father Goku in his Super Saiyan Blue form, and hold his own against Frieza in his Golden Frieza form. In the manga, Gohan manages to stalemate the fused fighter, Kefla.
Once again awakening his power through immeasurable fury, upon unlocking the so-called "Beast" state, Gohan was completely unaffected by Cell Max's attacks and easily defeated him. Gohan in this new form was stated to be the strongest fighter on Earth, and is said to be even stronger than Broly. In the Manga, Gohan's Beast form is shown to allow him to fight on even terms with Goku in Ultra Instinct.
Gohan can freely manipulate a life-force energy known as ki to fly using Bukū-jutsu. He can also concentrate his ki to fire blasts of energy, such as the Kamehameha, inherited from his father, or the Masenko, taught to him by Piccolo. In addition to this move, his training with Piccolo inherited Gohan his other techniques, such as the in several video games, before properly using it in the main series continuity, against Cell Max. He has displayed the use of his ki in a defensive manner, such as generating protective energy shields. Both as a child and an adult, Gohan is known to be a capable swordsman, as well as an adept teacher.