The Dragon Ball franchise has encompassed over 30 years of adventures for Goku and the Z- warriors. Over the course of the entire Dragon Ball franchise, Goku has aged from being a young child to a fully grown adult. Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball franchise has been largely about the coming of age of its main lead, Goku.
Goku in Dragon Ball
Goku when first discovered by teenage Bulma as she searches for the Dragon Balls, young boy reveals himself as 11 years old. Goku spends some of his eleventh year training under Master Roshi along with Krillin to prepare for the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament after stopping Emperor Pilaf and his forces from using Dragon Balls towards world domination accompanying Bulma, Yamcha, Oolong, and Puar in the adventure. In the martial arts tournament, he gets narrowly defeated by Roshi under the disguise of Jackie Chung.
Before the 22nd World Martial Arts Tournament, Goku dismantled the Red Ribbon Army before entering the tournament in the three years interim. He was defeated by Tien at the age of 15. Goku and his friends defeated the evil King Piccolo immediately after the tournament and got to know that his more powerful son will be entering the tournament next year afterward following his father’s footsteps on conquering the Earth. Goku entered the 23rd Martial Arts Tournament as an 18-year-old, defeating Piccolo and marrying CH.
Goku in Dragon Ball Z
5 years have passed since the end of Dragon Ball, which now makes Goku 23 years old with a five-year-old son Gohan. After learning about his true Saiyan heritage from his long-lost evil brother Raditz, Goku sacrifices his life to Piccolo to kill Raditz once and for all. Upon his resurrection through Dragon Balls, Goku physically remains 23 but chronologically ages to 24 when he helps defeat Vegeta and Nappa.
Goku spends 3 years in training with Z warriors for the arrival of androids, which was predicted by alternate future, Trunks. By this time Goku was 26 years old and on realizing the dire situation, Goku and Gohan train in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber-a chamber largely unaffected by time in the outside world – for a whole year now emerging as 27 years old. Goku was stated to be years old when he sacrifices himself to save the planet from Cell’s internal self-destruction device. After sacrificing himself against Cells, Goku was dead for seven years before his resurrection by Elder Kai to defeat Majin Buu.
Goku in Dragon Ball GT
At the end of Dragon Ball Z, Goku had gone to the Lookout to train with Kid Buu’s good reincarnation Uub. After Uub’s training is completed, Dragon Ball GT begins five years later. Goku is now 42 years old and 49 years old chronologically. However, Emperor Pilaf accidentally used the Black Star Dragon Balls to restore Goku to the age he was when he first met him, effectively turning him back into an eleven-year-old child with the intelligence of a 49-year-old man.
Goku In Dragon Ball Super
The whole storyline of Dragon Ball Super takes place between Majin Buu’s defeat at the end of Dragon Ball Z and the epilogue that follows. Super begins four years after the time jump, when Goku is 31 years old physically but 38 years old psychologically. Goku and Vegeta train for a year under Beerus and Whis after the series begins, before the events that will lead them to the end of the series begin.
Goku is physically 32 and psychologically 39 by the end of the anime series and sequel animated film Dragon Ball Super: Broly. While there has been a manga continuation of the series beyond the events of Broly and the end of the anime, the exact number of years has yet to be determined. However, because the events of Z’s epilogue have yet to occur, Goku has not yet reached the age of 40 — at least not physically.