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by peoplefromibiza 838 days ago
> Son Goku, is one of the faces of the hero with thousand faces

Son Goku from Toriyama is probably one of the best adaptation of the legend of Sun Wukong [1], one of my other favorites is Jan Kugo from Starzinger [2] and of course The Monkey from no other than the master Osamu Tezuka [3]

EDIT: it definitely also fits the definition that Campbell gives of the hero

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_King

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starzinger

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gok%C5%AB_no_Daib%C5%8Dken

1 comments

was "Goku" a transliteration of wukong ? wu -> go, kong -> ku ?
孫悟空 is how it's written in both Traditional Chinese and Japanese. That's Son Gokū, as read in Japanese. For some reason it became Sangoku in France. While we're on names, did you know all names fell in themes. Vegetables for the saiyans (saiya-jin, vegetable in Japanese is yasai). Goku is Kakarot (carot), Vegita (vegetable), Raditz (radish), etc. Underwear: Bulma (bloomers), Trunks. Chinese(ish) foods: Yamcha (yumcha), Tenshinhan (tenshindon), Chaozu (jiaozi), and many more themes.
To add to the list for the interested. Not exhaustive, but showing more themes!

Food: - Garlic Jr, his henchmen: Shu, Mai, Spice, Vinegar, Mustard, Salt - Captain Ginyu (牛乳 Milk), Recoome (pun for Cream), Guido/Gurudo (pun for Yogurt), Bonyu (母乳), Jeice/Jisu (Cheese), Burter (Butter) - Beerus (Beer) - Oolong and Puer (Teas) - Chichi (milk) - Pan (Bread)

Temperature: - Chilled, King Cold, Freiza, Cooler

Animals: - Namek (蛞蝓 Namekuji, slug), Dende: (Denden-mushi, snail) - Master Roshi/Kame Sen-nin (亀仙人 "Turtle Hermit) - Tsuru-Sen'nin (鶴仙人, "Crane Hermit")

Instruments: - Piccolo - King Piccolo's children: Banjo, Bell, Mandolin, Maraca, Marimba, Conga, Cymbal, Drum, Harp, Organ, Piano, Tambourine, Ukelele

Colors: - Red Ribbon Army: General Blue, Tao Pai Pai (桃白白 white), Colonel Brown, Colonel Silver, General White, Captain Dark, Captain Yellow, Colonel Viiolet, General Copper

Cinderella: - Bibidi, Babadi, Buu

Devil/Satan: - Mr. Satan - Videl (anagram of Devil)

The vegetable link yeah I knew, the clothing too (they were a bit more obvious), but not saiya per se, nor the other food named chars.

side note, imported mangas were my entry-point to non European languages, I went into a deep rabbit-hole to decipher the Japanese writing system. And the pair trunks/dragon was my first seed to solve that, except I didn't really know how they were spelled there torankusu / doragonu so it took a little while to associate consonants with vowels.

AFAIK "Goku is the Japanese way of saying Sun Wukong"
thanks