Dragonball Goku

Toriyama's Goku finds his origins in one of Toriyama's earlier characters named Tanton, a fictional protagonist who appears in a one-shot series called Dragon Boy. In this story, Tanton's odd physical characteristic was a pair of wings. When Toriyama decided to create Dragon Ball, he used author Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West as inspiration for his own series. The name Toriyama adopted for the character is the Japanese romanization of 孫悟空 (Sun Wukong), who is the central character in Journey to the West. To be creative with the character, Toriyama stated that he designed Goku not as a monkey like the Journey to the West character, but as a human-looking boy with a monkey tail. Though Goku is treated as a person from another planet, Toriyama initially had the idea to give him the identity of person from Earth, but with the introduction of adding fighters from other planets it was established that Goku is a Saiyan. In order to advance the story in faster way, Toriyama made Goku learn to teletransport to allow the characters to move to any planet in just a second.

Dragonball Goku

Dragonball Goku

Toriyama explained that Goku's gi uniform is modeled after the robes worn by the Shaolin monks of China, being that he wanted Dragon Ball to take on a Chinese feel. During early developments of the manga, various readers commented that Goku was rather plain, so the author changed his appearance and added several characters like Master Roshi and Krillin, then created martial arts tournaments to give the manga a more fighting style. Since it was commented that Goku would sure win the tournaments, he made him lose in the first two tournaments though he also wanted Goku to be the champion. With the ending of the Cell arc, Son Gohan was meant to replace his father as the main protagonist; Toriyama thought that Gohan was unsuitable for that part so he avoided doing that.

Dragonball Goku

Dragonball Goku

Pokemon

The Pokémon anime series and films are a meta-series of adventures separate from the canon that most of the Pokémon video games follow (with the exception of Pokémon Yellow, a game based on the anime storyline). The anime follows the quest of the main character, Ash Ketchum (known as Satoshi in Japan) a Pokémon Master in training, as he and a small group of friends travel around the fictitious world of Pokémon along with their Pokémon partners. The original series, titled Pocket Monsters, or simply Pokémon in western countries (often referred to as Pokémon: Gotta Catch 'Em All to distinguish it from the later series), begins with Ash's first day as a Pokémon trainer. His first (and signature) Pokémon is a Pikachu, differing from the games, where only Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle could be chosen.

Pokemon

The series follows the storyline of the original games, Pokémon Red and Blue, in the region of Kanto. Accompanying Ash on his journeys are Brock, the Pewter City Gym Leader, and Misty, the youngest of the Gym Leader sisters from Cerulean City. Pokémon: Adventures in the Orange Islands follows Ash's adventures in the Orange Islands, a place unique to the anime, and replaces Brock with Tracey Sketchit, an artist and "Pokémon watcher". The next series, based on the second generation of games, include Pokémon: Johto Journeys, Pokémon: Johto League Champions, and Pokémon: Master Quest, following the original trio of Ash, Brock, and Misty in the western Johto region.

Pokemon

The saga continues in Pokémon: Advanced Battle, based on the third generation games. Ash and company travel to Hoenn, a southern region in the Pokémon World. Ash takes on the role of a teacher and mentor for a novice Pokémon trainer named May. Her brother Max accompanies them, and though he isn't a trainer, he knows large amounts of handy information. Brock (from the original series) soon catches up with Ash, but Misty has returned to Cerulean City to tend to her duties as a gym leader. (Misty, along with other recurring characters, appears in the spin-off series Pokémon Chronicles.) The Advanced Battle series concludes with the Battle Frontier saga, based on the Emerald version and including aspects of FireRed and LeafGreen. The most recent series is the Diamond and Pearl series, with Max leaving to pick his starter Pokémon, and May going to the Grand Festival in Johto. Ash, Brock, and a new companion named Dawn travel through the region of Sinnoh. In addition to the TV series, eleven Pokémon films have been made, with a twelfth to be released in Japan in July 2008. Collective bonuses, such as promotional trading cards, have been available with some of the films.

Pokemon

Pokemon