Goku Coloring Pages

Goku spends most of Dragon Ball doing one of three things: training, eating or fighting. These Goku coloring pages give each its fair share, with the kid in the orange gi and the grown fighter side by side.

Kid Goku comes first, with his monkey tail: riding the Flying Nimbus over a mountain valley, carrying buckets of water on a shoulder pole, running over the peaks with a backpack, pushing a boulder up a slope, hanging from a branch by his knees with a rock in his hands, and sparring with Krillin on a round platform. The Power Pole stands in his hands on a hilltop and lies across the Nimbus above a cliff.

Then the training, the part of the story Goku never tires of. He stands on a stone in front of a waterfall, does one-arm push-ups on a rock, punches a heavy bag, lifts a giant barbell, pushes a wheelbarrow of boulders, climbs a rope up a cliff, somersaults over a wall, meditates on a boulder at dawn and fights inside the round gravity chamber. He trains on King Kai's planet, small enough to walk around, and teaches young Gohan a punching stance beside a straw dummy.

The fights and the famous moves: a Kamehameha charging between his palms, the Spirit Bomb gathering above him, Goku and Krillin in the tournament ring, Goku palm to palm with Piccolo, clashing in mid-air with Vegeta, and facing Master Roshi on the beach in front of Kame House. And the quieter scenes: a tower of empty rice bowls, a giant fish caught in the river and another one to stand on, a campfire with Krillin and Bulma, and Goku holding four Dragon Balls. Three portraits, face on, in profile and a close-up, complete the set.

Seven balls and a wish

The story began as a manga by Akira Toriyama in 1984, loosely based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West, whose hero, the Monkey King, rides a cloud and fights with a staff that grows. That is where Goku's tail, his Flying Nimbus and his Power Pole come from. The Dragon Balls themselves are seven orange spheres, each marked with one to seven red stars; gather all seven and a dragon grants a wish. The page with Goku holding four of them makes a counting game: count the stars on each ball before coloring them.

The colors of Goku

Goku's look barely changes, which makes him easy to color right:

• His gi is orange, with a blue undershirt, blue wristbands, a blue sash and blue boots.
• His hair is black, except in his Super Saiyan form, when it turns golden yellow and his eyes turn teal. Any of these pages can become Super Saiyan Goku with a yellow pencil.
• Krillin wears the same orange gi and has six dots on his forehead; Piccolo is green with a white cape and turban; Vegeta wears blue with white gloves and boots and armor over it.
• The Kamehameha and the Spirit Bomb are pale blue light: color them from white in the center to light blue at the edges, and leave a white halo around the hands.

Several pages already have black hair filled in, which makes a good contrast: leave it black, and color the rest bright.

Portraits for beginners, gyms for the dedicated

The collection spreads from simple to busy. The easiest are the portraits and the Flying Nimbus, big shapes with little around them, which suit a young fan. Quick to color, above the grid, starts with:

• Goku profile portrait
• Flying Nimbus and Power Pole
• Goku head-on portrait

The densest pages are the scenes with a full setting, the gym, the tournament ring and the river under the giant fish, and they suit an older fan with fine pencils. Lots of detail opens on:

• Goku standing on a giant fish
• Goku and Krillin at the tournament
• Goku lifting a giant barbell

From kid to Super Saiyan

Goku grows up across the series, and the pages follow him. The kid pages, with the monkey tail and the Flying Nimbus, come from the original Dragon Ball; the grown fighter with the Spirit Bomb, Vegeta and Piccolo comes from Dragon Ball Z, where he becomes a father and Gohan appears. Sorting the pages into two piles, kid and grown-up, is an easy first step for a young fan, and a good excuse to talk about how Goku changes: he never loses his appetite, his smile or his love of a good fight.

A training program on paper

Goku's training pages make a fun challenge for an active child: pick one page a day, color it, then try a small version of the exercise, five push-ups, carrying two water bottles up the stairs, balancing on one foot like the meditation page. Pin the finished pages in a row as a training log. By the end of the week, the child has a full wall and has done more exercise than they noticed.

Printing the pages

The files are free 300 dpi PDFs, drawn for A4. A4 prints at 100 %; US Letter needs "fit to page", about six percent smaller, with every spike of hair still there. Screenshots of the setting are in the printing guide. Add to pack under several pages prints them as one document. The anime coloring pages, One Piece coloring pages and Gojo coloring pages carry on for other anime fans.