Dragon Ball: Explaining Every Goku Lookalike

Key conclusions

• Mess, Goku's father, was the first character to appear as Goku with the X-shaped scar on his cheek.
• The appearance of Thurles as Goku's doppelgänger was pure coincidence, not because they are related.
• Goten is Goku's second son, who resembles him, but his appearance changes as he matures, unlike Goku.

Goku's face isn't just the most recognizable Dragon ballbut in all anime in general. So it can get really confusing when characters like him just start appearing out of nowhere. This could be a character who is a member of Goku's family, a villain who steals the body, or someone who just happens to look like him. It seems both allies and villains just want to look like Akira Toriyama's golden boy.

This list will include characters from the original Dragon ball series to Superand will also include non-canonical ones Dragon ball Z movies and GT. There are technically alternate timeline Gokus from games and other media, as well as alternate versions of Goku-obliterators, but this article won't cover them yet.

Characters that are just born look like Goku

Bardock: Goku's father

Mess is Goku's father, or perhaps more appropriately Kakarot's Saiyan father, who died when Frieza destroyed Vegeta's planet. Technically, you could say that Messy isn't copying Goku, and if anything, it's the other way around, since Messy was obviously born before Goku. However, Toriyama never intended to give Goku an alien heritage during the original Dragon ball series. Bardak's concept and appearance came long before Goku, and the only reason Bardak looked like that was because Goku looked like that.

One way to tell the difference between father and son is that Bardock has an X-shaped scar on his left cheek. It is not known what exactly he got this scar from; Saiyans had to fight practically every other day, so it could be anything. Another way to tell them apart is their outfits: Bardock wears classic Saiyan battle armor and is sometimes seen with a Scouter. Another iconic feature is his red headband, soaked in the blood of his friend Tori who fell to Dadoria.

Is Thurles' appearance completely random?

Not as iconic as Bardak, and not even canon to the main series, Thurles is a Saiyan who left Frieza's army, allowing him to survive the destruction of Vegeta's planet. He discovered the Tree of Power, which required the life force of entire planets to produce a fruit that made all who ate it extremely strong. He traveled to Earth hoping to plant the Tree of Power there, but was confronted by someone similar to him, the Saiyan Kakarot. The main difference between the two is that Thurles' hairstyle includes “devil horns”, where some of the spiky parts of his hair curl up slightly, and the black Saiyan battle armor he wears.

Turles is not related to Goku, although the old release of V-Jump and some localizations Tree of power The movie mistakenly says they are brothers. The reason Turles looks like Goku is because low class saiyans were raised the same way and so some of them grew up to look the same. But clearly, not all low-class Saiyans are like Goku, and not all Goku doppelgangers are low-class warriors. In particular, the next Goku lookalike could give Namek Saga Frieza a run for his money even as a child.

Goten is Goku's second son

First appearing at the beginning of the Buu saga, Goku's second son and Gohan's younger brother, Goten is the spitting image of his father. Not only do their faces look the same, but Goten also wears an orange gi, very similar to what Goku always wears, except Goten's gi is missing the symbol on the chest and back. However, viewers will no longer be confused when Goten grows up, as his appearance is shown to change when he appears at the end Dragon Ball Zwhere his hairstyle looks more like Yamchi's than Goku's. U Dragon Ball GTGoten resembles Gohan, but with longer and lopsided hair. This makes Goten unique in that he is the only Goku lookalike whose appearance changes after reaching puberty.

“Hey, I think there's a little me hiding behind your leg, Chi-Chi!” – Goku when he first meets Goten

Goku Jr. is a descendant of Goku

The second non-canon character to appear on this list is Goku's descendant 100 years after the events Dragon Ball GTGoku Jr. Aside from being descended from Goku, very little is known about Goku Jr. as he only appeared at the end series. Like Goten, he looks exactly like young Goku, but instead of the orange gi on Goku Jr., the outfit that Goku wore for most of GT with the addition of a red ribbon.

Characters that look like Goku because they stole his body

Ginyu is the elite of Frieza's powers who swapped bodies with Goku

During the Namek Saga, Frieza realized that he needed reinforcements to help him collect the Dragon Balls and achieve immortality; and so he called upon his most elite squad, the Ginyu Force. The leader of the team, Ginyu, possessed the unique ability to switch bodies with anyone, and after seeing the fighting potential of a certain Saiyan from Earth, he decided to switch bodies with him. Since it's literally Ginyu in Goku's body, there's almost no way to physically tell him apart from regular Goku. The only difference is that Ginyu is carried by a scout in Goku's body because he lacks the ability to detect ki signatures.

Goku Black is a Supreme Kai trainee turned evil

Zamasu, the next in line Supreme Kai of Universe 10, viewed mortals as a plague on the multiverse and must be purged. Ironically, he met Goku, a mortal who somehow had the power to keep up with the gods and sometimes even surpass them, including him. Wanting Goku's power to help him achieve his goal of destroying all mortal life, Zamasu collected the Super Dragon Balls and wished to switch bodies with him. While in Goku's body, Zamasu earns the nickname Goku Black due to his change of clothes, which, as you might have guessed, was mostly black.

Dragon Ball Z is now available to stream on Crunchyroll.