‘Dragon Ball’ reveals the first-ever sketch of Goku drawn by Akira Toriyama before the manga was first released

The character design and their charismatic personalities are one of the strong points of Akira Toriyama, the late author of incredibly influential works like ‘Dragon Ball’ and ‘Dr. Slump’. So much so, that the protagonist of the first, Goku, has become an icon of pop culture since its presentation to the world in 1984, recognizable by almost everyone, whether they have any idea about manga and anime or not. And if we recently echoed the first drawing of Goku located on the wall of a restaurant frequented by Toriyama back in his day, today we’ve found one of the first sketches of the character before his presentation to the world, a drawing made in 1984 by the author and which already revealed many of the traits that would make Goku a unique character.

Shueisha releases first sketch of Goku

As part of an initiative of the official ‘Dragon Ball’ website in which every 48 hours they release a little-known graphic document by Akira Toriyama -only available during the following 24 hours-, recently we had the opportunity to see the first sketch of Goku before hisofficial presentation in 1984. A sketch made that same year before the publication of the first issue of ‘Dragon Ball’ that already allows us to see many of the traits that characterized Goku shortly after.

Full screen

This unpublished sketch of Goku shows us the character in combat pose, shirtless and barefoot, with a look that he would wear in the last arc before ‘Z’ in his mythical confrontation against Piccolo Jr. Furthermore, Goku already sports his characteristic hairstyle with spiked strands.

In this way, we have what is considered the first official sketch of Goku by Akira Toriyama, mangaka who remained closely linked to the franchise with the current publication of the manga ‘Dragon Ball Super’ and of which we even know its last correction before his death.