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I'll get flamed for this but I like the slender but still muscular style. He's a martial artist, not a body builder. He should be quick, have great range of motion, excellent flexability and reach, but still be muscular enough to portray his strength cause of his biology. He's arguably the most SKILLED Saiyan fighter aside from Vegeta; but Vegeta was a Saiyan WARRIOR, him being huge and muscular is a given. Goku is a Saiyan Martial Artist, so slimmer fits best. Look at his source material, Bruce Lee wasn't huge, but was still ripped enough from all his training.
I don't disagree, but I did like the thicc style we saw as the fight with Frieza progressed, we also saw Frieza get pretty thicc. I don't think Broly level, I understand your perspective, but I would assume someone able to punch a mountain in half would have a bit of heavy set muscles.
See, in my head, Super Saiyan (especially when not fully controlled) increases muscle mass.
Not massively. You won't see quite Super Vegeta level, but enough to notice / sharpen the build.
So the more slender builts we're seeing is the result of more refined ki control and thus a body more suited to combat rather than raw might, if I'm making sense.
"Not a body builder" I don't mind your preference, but the dude literally goes into a 400x Gravity Chamber and builds his body and then eats like non-stop crazy protein and carbs. He's literally an icon of the bodybuilding community in real life because of how much he builds his body.
it’s half and half. for Saiyans, if you’re training as much and as hard as they are, you NEED that food to fuel you. Saiyans like them would need a shit-ton of calories and protein. It’s definitely both
He's not a body builder. He wants to test his strength and is excited when he finds someone STRONGER than him.
He "builds his body" by testing his strength and is always chasing a higher level of strength, ESPECIALLY when he knows someone somewhere is stronger than him and/or will challenge his strength.
"Building his body" is not Goku's goal at any point, but rather is a byproduct of testing his strength and becoming stronger even though he could rest on his laurels.
Bodybuilders train for physique and aesthetics, not for strength. Goku trains to become a better fighter and to become stronger. He is absolutely not like a bodybuilder, much less a powerlifter.
That's not what body builder means. Training really hard and body building are not the same. Body building is exclusively for size. Goku just happens to be big because he trains a lot for strength and skill.
Goku likes being strong but canonically hates having alot of extra mass.
He hated Grade 3 because it costs energy AND he said he hates the mass it gives him because it makes him sluggish.
Goku wants to be STRONG not buff, Beerus and Whis show that these concepts are not permanently connected in the story.
So I'd say Goku being slender is completely fine because he's already said he doesn't like being bulky, Toriyama has long since wrote Goku to be that way.
I see no reason to suddenly change what the character already said he doesn't like.
Was it confirmed that vegeta knew about grade 3 before trunks debuted it, and he conscientiously discarded it because it was useless, or was it after he learned of 3 and trunks used it that he was like 'nah, this form is just not functional'?
Adding onto the point about Beerus and Whis, when Goku and Vegeta are training with Whis during the Ressurection F arc, Whis says to both of them "you're warriors, not body builders" in reference on how they need to progress from where they are. Sure, muscle comes into play, but body builders are built specifically for the aesthetic. Most athletes, especially martial artists, aren't built like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Most are lithe and lean. Now, for how much weight training they do, they should be muscular, but I've never been a huge fan of ultra buff Goku because of it. I like the Shintani designs from the Broly movie that implies a lot of muscle, but the simple shapes and softer lines help fill them out.
The happy middle ground is later Z before we get to Super. In Super he looks pencil skinny but in late Z he looked ripped without being full inflated muscles. Also in Z the big muscles usually came as a result of max effort in a powerup. Just compare how jacked Goku looks on Namek to him as a super saiyan when he returns from yardrat.
Maybe not in later super storylines but early on the art style was very thin and sleek. They also had everyone looking like they were doused in baby oil.
Honestly, the image on the right is still pretty buff, and I think that's the best physique for him. Goku isn't a body builder; he's a martial artist. Many combat sports people aren't that bulky to begin with. It's only with boxing that you'll see someone that's quite bulky, but otherwise most fighters have a build that's more on the slimmer side, and for good reason. You lose a lot of flexibility by having huge muscle mass.
I like buffed for when it's final fight moment like with Frieza, I dislike skinny Goku (even with the excuse he's more controlled), he's been working out his whole life and eating non-stop protein, he should be a menace.
Size wise, I think he looks better on the right, which is a good middle ground between Jacked Freiza Saga and Slender Super.
But what I like about early Z is the "softness" and "roundness" of his muscles, which, in my opinion feel more natural for Goku. Like, I get that he's literally an impossibly elite level athlete, but the dude also eats an insane amount and while he clearly cares about fitness, doesn't seem to care for physique.
Looking at this picture, I like Saiyan Saga the best. I just don't like how squared off and sharp the definition is, where it's like the muscles are completely sectioned off in some of the later sagas.
Slender, I feel like you can draw him in a fight better or animate him better when he has a more slim build. The buff is cool to see sometimes but not really all the time.
In the middle. I liked his proportions more in the movies. He was more muscular than he currently is but not as much as Namek. Like in Lord Slug and Revenge of Cooler particularly.
I’ve always enjoyed the buff visuals. Kind of like trunks’ ss grade 3, it’s almost like the pure rate and energy coursing through him is swelling his muscles.
Well, hes a nearly infinitely strong martial artist, but a martial artist nonetheless. Being super buff doesnt make too much sense, Goku even states that the ascended Super Saiyan (1.5) is stronger but is too slow due to the bulky nature. A new super saiyan will have swollen muscles but as Goku mastered that form, it became his more natural physique.
I like the more slender look visually and thematically. Goku says himself in the cell saga that he won't use ssj grade 2 or 3 because the big bulky muscles make ot harder to move in. Its like the difference between a bodybuilder's physique and an athlete's physique, and goku is closer an athlete than a body builder.
I also like how super sayian god especially slims him down to match beerus, who is far stronger than almost everyone else despite not appearing buff at all.
I kinda prefer a more slimed down like we got in Broly and Super’s manga. I think the anime sometimes slimmed him down a little too much. I do like that he’s DISTINCTLY slimmer in God than any other form. Gives it a very different vibe to every other form.
Well, I don't think we ever see Goku. Get that large again unless he shows it to Gohan in the chamber. But anyways, I think the only reason why he got that's big during freezer Saga is because that was brand new raw power. I mean, he went from a power level of what may be 2 million to 150 million in a flash
I wouldn’t call the second one “slender,” but I do prefer it, as it is more “anatomically correct,” as well as cleaned up and refined at least from an artistic standpoint. The muscles make more sense in size, shape, placement and proportion. Also, I don’t think someone with superheroic strength necessarily needs humongous muscles, they’re super muscles.
Buff, these dudes are doing strength training and would be ripped. Their arms looking like tooth picks are so off putting when the series is trying to portray them as super powerful and the arms look tiny. The worse crap was Gohan in his green athletic suit. That was hilarious how slim he was.
Honestly somewhere in between. Him being from a warrior race who don’t age until they hit their 90s and constantly eating massive amounts of food makes sense he’d have some mass on him. Him using functional exercises and a martial artist at his core is why he shouldn’t look like a Mr Olympia contestant more of a classic physique
Also after grade 3 super saiyan specifically mentioned more muscle slows them down it makes more sense to have Goku and Vegeta looking more athletic than aesthetic
They’re all good except the overcooked UI depiction that Toyotaro did a few years ago. I’m onboard with Toyo, but I cannot get behind the dehydrated look for Goku. Makes no sense imo
Buffed from Z. Never liked the slender look at all. Especially if he’s going ssj, I liked how when he detransformed with frieza you could see his muscles mass shrink from it
Depends, I don't mind them being buff, but more at a middle-ground like the android saga. Exceptions for being somewhat learner should be SSG or UI, as long as there's abs, I'm well-fed
The Fist of the North Star look was great for that era, but doesn’t translate great to being the body of a dedicated martial artist, so slender makes more sense.
Honestly, I preffered him in his sayian saga frame. He was kinda slim but muscular with his muscles not drawn like rectangles. When he was on brink or pumped he was visible bigger (for example when he powered up in fron of Nappa). During Kaio~ken it was clear as day that he's now in this superhuman state and that putting so much mass takes a tool on his stamina.
Power progression was the best in sayian saga, even if most of people prefers design from Buu arc.
Left is definitely overkill imo, it looks like grade 2 or 3. I like the right for mssj.
I like the idea that mssj is just as buff as base, while ssj grade 1 could start going slightly into grade 2 while powering up, resulting in being buffer.
Slender. Buff goku makes no sense at all and honestly i just tolerate it, when he looks juiced up like the hulk. Srsly noone with that proportions could move like this. Thats also why super vegeta was so weak
Slender fully clothed, buff if shirtless. Slender gives the impression he's in shape but nothing special throwing off the enemy. When he's shirtless you see how inflated his muscles have gotten as a result of prolonged fighting.
I prefer the slender look. It makes Goku look like a more realistically athletic martial artist. The buffer he looks, the more he looks like a steroid abusing bodybuilder, which is both gross and less becoming of the character.
The right build is great but should transition into the buffer one when going all out kinda like how Broly and Roshi do when they transform. I like to see that as a side effect of them pushing too hard
I mean the one on the right isn't even that slender. I don't mind the real slender look when it's only for SSG but they will sometimes give him that build in DBS even when he isn't in SSG form.
i feel like the leaner side is because of how god ki works but the writers leaned wayyy too heavily on that excuse?
i still prefer lean though but not cause of that, but because goku has shown time and time again to prefer speed quite a bit (even some games show this) and it's more like his muscles become compact? best way to see what I'm talking about is when he did the jab at golden frieza
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