For most people, when they think of Goku, they think of someone that's more about food and fighting than anything else. Any attempt they've made to have him accomplish anything else has often turned comedic. The character is nowhere near the top of anyone's smartest protagonist list, but that's not always true.
RELATED: 10 Clichés That Don't Make Sense In Harem Anime
WhileDragon Ball's main character may not be great at most things, one thing he excels at is fighting. He's a genius in combat, and a lot of times his victories come down not only to being better than his opponent, but being able to outthink them as well thanks to all of his combat experience.
10 Bouncing The Spirit Bomb Back At Vegeta With Faith In Gohan
After giving Vegeta everything he had in the most memorable beam struggle in all of Dragon Ball Z, Goku’s energy was shot. He hadn’t defeated Vegeta, and Vegeta came back as a giant ape ready to destroy everything. Yajirobe got him back to normal size, but the only hope any of them had was Goku gathering the energy for the Spirit Bomb. He did a great job gathering that energy, but Vegeta still managed to dodge it, and it was only him believing in Gohan’s ability to bounce it right back that caused them to ultimately win the day.
9 Kicking The Grenade Back At Mercenary Tao
Goku’s first real challenge in Dragon Ball that wasn’t his trainer was Mercenary Tao. After having beaten everyone in the World Martial Arts tournament and mostly handling the Red Ribbon Army, the only people who were able to challenge him were those who could outsmart him. Mercenary Tao on the other hand easily defeated him, but in their rematch, things were much more in Goku’s favor. He easily defeated Tao and brought the fight to an end by kicking Tao’s grenade right back at him.
8 Kicking Nam Out Of The Arena
Early Dragon Ball featured Goku up against the wall quite often during the Martial Arts tournament. Goku’s second major match was against Nam, someone who actually fought on the same level as he did. Nam’s Cross Arm Dive was powerful enough to keep Goku down for the nine-count, and Nam actually thinks he can try it again. In mid-air, Nam tries to go for the Cross Arm Dive, but Goku lands a split second before Nam and leaps into a kick immediately to knock Nam out of the arena.
7 LearningThe Strength Of His Tail & Using His Superspeed Against Krillin
Goku and Krillin's fight is a match that’s pretty fun to watch this early into the series. They’re much more evenly matched than these days, where it feels almost abusive to even suggest that fight. Nonetheless, eventually,Krillin is forced to rely on tricks just to stay in the battle.
RELATED: 10 Anime Characters Who Could Destroy The Universe If They Wanted To
Eventually, he distracts Goku long enough to grab his tail, thinking that would get him the win. However, by this point Goku had learned to strengthen his tail against the weakness of being grabbed and proves he's still able to fight back. Later still, Goku uses his superspeed to appear invisible, knocking Krillin out of the ring with a flurry of kicks and punches.
6 Using The Solar Flare Against Tien
In the third World Martial Arts’ tournament, Goku goes up against Tienwho’s developed a new technique: the multi-form. Unfortunately, the ability splits his strength in four as well, making it easy for Goku to outfight them all. But what really makes Goku able to take this fight is he took advantage of Tien’s vision and used the Solar Flare, blinding him so he could eliminate all four clones at the same time.
5 Tricking Frieza With Ki Blasts
So much of the Goku vs. Frieza fight early on was Goku simply being a better fighter than Frieza. Frieza was used to brute-forcing every fight he had, so he’d never applied himself. Goku used his superior experience and the fact that he was near Frieza in power to make Frieza look foolish. Probably the most obvious case of this was the underwater Kamehameha, where Freiza knocked him into the ocean and Goku used a pair of ki blasts to trick Frieza into not recognizing his location, allowing him to get the drop on Frieza.
4 Tricking Ginyu To Swap Into A Toad's Body
Ginyu got the drop on Goku with his body swap technique, and this was nearly the end of things for the group. Without Goku, they had no chance of beating Frieza after all. So after Vegeta beat Goku’s body hard enough to make Ginyu try to switch, Goku jumped in front of Ginyu’s body swap technique to get back his own body. Then he used a toad to make Ginyu’s technique fail again, making Ginyu irrelevant for good.
3 Convincing Buu To Kill Babidi
Goku went up against Buu largely to test his strength. Though Goku wanted to get rid of Buu, once he realized Majin Buu was too powerful to do so, he came up with another plan.
RELATED: 10 Anime Heroes Who Are Terrifying When They're Mad
He gave Goten and Trunks the opportunity to learn how to do the Fusion Dance but knew Babidi wouldn’t give them the time to defeat Buu. So rather than allow Babidi to control Buu, he brought up that Buu shouldn’t be letting someone like Babidi control him, giving Buu the idea to kill Babidi off and allowing Buu to wander without any smarter mind to guide him.
2 Using Super Saiyan 2 To Make Yakon Explode With Too Much Energy
In the attempt to get to Babidi beforehe could absorb enough energy to wake Majin Buu up, the Saiyans ran into multiple threats that Babidi had collected. One of them was Yakon, who absorbed light and used it for his own energy. He absorbed Goku’s Super Saiyan light, which wouldn’t have been insurmountable, but Goku decided to defeat him without actually fighting him seriously. He powered up into Super Saiyan 2 and gave Yakon too much energy, causing him to explode.
1 Using Instant Transmission Kamehameha Against Cell
Goku used the Instant Transmission Kamehameha multiple times in the series, but the best time readers ever saw it used was against Cell. There, Goku fought against Cell as hard as he could in one of the best fights he had in any of the Dragon Ball Z series. It was an even match, and Goku should’ve won after he used the Kamehameha, but he teleported at the last second to make Cell take all of it directly to the face. If anyone else had been hit with it, this would have been an instant victory. Unfortunately, Cell started the trend of villains who could regenerate from any hit.
NEXT: 10 Worst Mistakes An Anime Adaptation Ever Made, Ranked
