Goku’s Mother Revealed
Akira Toriyama has revealed the name of Goku’s mother in the latest issue of Saikyō Jump in Japan, for March 2014.
Her name is Gine (ギネ)!
Gine’s Story
As discussed in the Kanzenshuu.com forums, Akira Toriyama provides a short explanation of Gine’s back story in the article.
He says that unlike other Saiyans, Gine has a gentle nature that is unfit for war. She is part of Bardock’s squad, and after being saved by Bardock on the battlefield several times they start to develop feelings for eachother. This type of sentimentality is rare for Saiyans, who normally don’t develop such relationships except when breeding.
Here is the exact quote of Toriyama, courtesy of Kanzenshuu.
“As for her appearance and such, you’ll find out if you read the bonus comic in the collected release of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. Her name was Gine, and a long time ago, she fought on a four-person team together with Bardock.
Gine had a gentle personality and wasn’t cut out as a warrior, being repeatedly saved from danger by Bardock. At that time, a special emotion was born between them. Normally, Saiyans don’t have much of a notion of romance or marriage, and apart from the royal family of Vegeta, they aren’t particular about blood-relationships. Being in among all that, I suppose you could say that the pair of Bardock and Gine were those rare Saiyans who were joined by a bond other than for the purpose of reproduction. Incidentally, Gine, who was not cut out as a warrior, would go on to work at the meat distribution center on Planet Vegeta.”
So there you have it!
Goku’s mother will appear in a bonus manga packaged together with Toriyama’s one-shot manga titled Jaco the Galactic Patrolman when it is released in a tankobon print collection on April 4.
It took 30 years for Goku’s mother to finally be revealed!! 1984 to 2014.
Gine’s Name
All of Toriyama’s names for his characters in Dragon Ball have a double or triple meaning. The Saiyans are named after vegetables, so what does Gine mean?
The answer may not be revealed until Jaco’s publication in April, but there are some fan theories already.
The most logical guess is that Gine is a rearrangement of Negi (葱), which is Japanese for Spring Onion.
Gine could also be named after the English word of Aubergine, another word for Eggplant. The Japanese name for eggplant is Nasu (茄子), but Aubergine rendered into Japanese could be written as Aberugine (アベルギネ). However, this word does not exist in the Japanese language, so it’s a bit of a stretch for Toriyama to use.
Toriyama has a perverted side to him, so my theory is that an additional reason she was named Gine is because the word Gine (ギネ) is the Japanese shorthand term for gynecology. She is the mother of Goku and the one who brings life to the savior of the universe through her “gine.”
This use of Gine (ギネ) is a buzzword among health professionals in obstetrics and gynecology. It is derived from the German Gynecology and rendered as Gainekorojii (ガイネコロジイ). The shorthand term of Gine then emerged and was even used for the title of a recent television drama that premiered in 2009, seen here on the Japanese Gine website, with it’s URL romanized as “gyne.” Though the drama was not a big hit, it may still have inspired Toriyama to pick this particular name among all possible vegetables.
We’ll have to wait and see what Toriyama says.
Gine’s Appearance
Gine’s appearance is unknown since the character has only just been announced, but she will be drawn in the bonus pages of Jaco.
What do you think Gine will look like?
Goku resembles Bardock without the scars, so maybe Gine will look like Raditz, with super long and wild hair?
Exciting Mysteries
What does this mean for Goku’s character?
It was believed that he became good natured because he bumped his head as a child and was then raised to be kind by Son Gohan. But is it possible that his compassionate personality was inherited from his good natured mother, alongside his father’s fighting instincts?!
Discuss in the comments below.
Related News: Akira Toriyama says Vegeta should be the hero in the next Dragon Ball Z movie
Further Reading: If you’d like to learn more about Goku’s upbringing and how it made him a kind warrior, please read my book, Dragon Ball Z “It’s Over 9,000!” When Worldviews Collide, available across the world in English and Spanish.
Can’t wait to know more!! I’m curious why it has taken so long to come out! Did he feel it was of no importance, or was he holding it back on purpose?
I’m not sure, but it’s exciting!
The revealing of Goku’s mother’s name also puts to bed the long lived rumors of Goku’s mom being Seripa (Fasha in the FUNimation dub), the female soldier in Bardock’s team.
I always thought that too when I was younger but ya it makes sense that his true mission was altered at arrival .. amnesia for lack of better words I guess, goku deff retained all his natural emotions and instincts from his parents .. Him being raised by gohan sure as hell accentuated his compassion and remorse from his mothers side .. So to speak
I think he just didn’t find it important. Especially in the case of mothers. I mean…we saw hardly any of the character’s parents and when we did, it was only the father. We still don’t know Vegeta’s mother and he’s a bloody prince!
I feel like he’s only adding it in now for the fan’s sake.
Yes, good point on that. It would be a good question as to who Vegeta’s mother is.
Goku was a wild child until he bumped his head. Raditz even asked Goku if he bumped his head. This means Goku was not good natured until the bump.
True, but what I mean is, his overall compassion and propensity to offer a chance of redemption to his opponents may have been inherited from his mother, while his Saiyan fighting instincts were inherited from his father. I imagine that’s where Toriyama is headed with this. He didn’t lose his fighting instincts from the bump, so the compassion may not have been lost either.
This used to be explainable through the head bump and Goku’s kind-hearted adoptive grandfather, Son Gohan, teaching him how to be kind. But now we have a new variable in the equation.
It could just be that his “evil” was really only the programming given
to the Saiyan infants, so he knew he was supposed to destroy Earth.
Makes more sense when you think about it, for hitting his head to have
wiped his programming rather than made him good.
I concur. Good insight, Shadow Wolf.
This is a great way to look at it. in any case it is definitely a more than one thing working together to make Goku who he is.
ill tell you what i believe ppls i think that goku yes was gonna destroy earth but he had some good intentions from his mothers side the point is maybe its just that hitting his head only made that side stronger so its just boosting his mothers side not completely changing him if you get what i mean
Actually we did’t know if he was a good natured person before the bump because after birth all Saiyans were later brainwashed by the Space Pods voice commands and all the bump really did was make him forget the brainwashing plus it’s natural for any baby to be as wild at that age (minus the extra strength). Now think about if a Saiyan if they hadn’t gone through the brainwashing plus at the time all of them were frequently under threat by overwhelming threat of Freeza, his family and they couldn’t even stand up to Freeza.
I always wonder why the demonic entities are so powerful?
Wasn’t it also implied that there was some programing into why goku was wild, maybe not only was the saiyans able to analyze fighting potential but also personality and they programmed Goku to be vicious to override his good nature. The nock on the head deactivated the brainwashing.
Or was the programing stuff just apart of the Amercian mis translation?
I have no idea. I never paid that close attention to things. But the fact that new things are coming out years later reminds me of how awesome dragon ball and it’s fans are.
I don’t recall any of that being in the original or in the FUNimation dub. Perhaps that was a fan explanation? Or maybe it was one quick sentence that I cannot remember at this time.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WWWAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
So it wasn’t Fasha after all.
No, and this theory was proven false in my mind a long time ago. It’s clear in the original Japanese version of the Bardock Special that Seripa was surprised that Bardock didn’t want to visit his own kid. She says something like, “Didn’t you just have a kid recently?” Thus proving she wasn’t the mother.
The English dub is to blame for all this confusion because of the way it handled the script.
For some reason Funimation just didn’t care when it came to translating Dragon ball!
The producers at FUNimation wanted to make it simple and easy for American children to understand so it would be more entertaining. They argued it was a good financial decision. Personally I would have preferred they maintain the author’s original artistic integrity, as I believe this would have made it even more successful. Ce la vie.
thus why we have the uncut orange bricks and the kai version.
I have a question about Broly. Would they evey tell us who his mother was? Because I don’t ever recalling them ever saying really anything about his mother in the trilogy of Broly.
Yeah that’s one other thing Bardock was indifferent that he had a son.
Well this is surprising news. Can’t wait to see more info about Goku’s mother. Have to wait for April I guess.
Wasn’t it also implied that there was some programing into why goku was wild, maybe not only was the saiyans able to analyze fighting potential but also personality and they programmed Goku to be vicious to override his good nature. The nock on the head deactivated the brainwashing.
Or was the programing stuff just apart of the Amercian mis translation?
the programming wasn’t what was making him wild, it was just planting a subliminal need to destroy the native population. i’ve had many accidental head injuries over the years and everyone i know can tell you i’ve become a good deal more passive after the last one that actually did some damage.
very good nature ?? that explain the story of good and evil saiyans in “Battle of God”…
Thank the green alien gods that the “Fasha is Goku’s mom” theory is finally put to rest. Yet, I’m slightly disappointed that Gine wasn’t all aggressive…
But perhaps it also shows that there’s more to the Saiyans than their bloodthirst and Saiyan pride. Bardock was one example of this to a certain extent, but it could be that he learned how to care for people beyond their worth as his teammates due to being with his future wife/mother of his kids.
Yes, we’ll have to wait and see how this rewrites some of the Saiyan’s history. Before it was always the case that the Saiyans as a whole were ruthless and brutal, with Goku as the lone exception, a “kind-hearted Saiyan,” as Vegeta said. But then Bardock showed compassion in The Episode of Bardock, and now we have Gine in her bonus manga who also sounds kind-hearted.
It seems like this means Goku’s personality could be a result of his genetics in addition to his environment and successive martial arts masters who were a positive influence. This may be a game changer for how people perceive the character.
In my opinion they really messed up by giving Goku another set of parents like that and depicting him as bad in his younger years which reminds me of the infant gospels of Christ that depict him in a negative light. One other thing Raditz was anything but kind in fact even Bardock and his men were anything but kind. Goku is supposed to be pure hearted and adding to it just messes everything up. Think about it the reason dbz was so great was all because of who Goku is and to change that would undermine the storyline?
My eyes are fuckin ready!
I so exited for this notice and i wait april with so much emotion.
waaa que chevere no puedo esperar mas ya quiero que salga (solo por el aparecimiento de la madre de Goku me leí todito con punto y coma y eso que a mi no me gusta leer) :3
Is this a sort of retcon or does he give a date for her inception?
It’s a retcon, but she is now canonical since Toriyama writes her into Dragon Ball Minus. There is no specific date for her birth in the manga, but I’d guess that she’s in early 20’s when she gives birth to Goku.