Dragon Ball follows Goku’s journey from an isolated boy in the mountains who is adventuring and learning more about the world to a powerful warrior who is capable of being renowned on the multiversal level.
Over the years, a lot has changed as the family Goku built grew a lot bigger, he has two sons, Gohan and Goten, and even a granddaughter. Despite this, Goku’s youthful appearance remains unchanged, much like Vegeta’s. Do Saiyans just have extremely long lifespans?
Dragon Ball felt like a generational series with Gohan taking the reins for a while, but now that Goku is back in the limelight, there is a question that plagues the minds of the fans- Why does Goku not seem to age? Worse even, what will we do when he starts aging?
The secret of the Saiyan longevity
Saiyans are known for maintaining their youthful appearance far longer than humans. This can be clearly seen in Vegeta and Goku. If we take account of the time properly- by the end of Dragon Ball Z, Goku and Vegeta are 44 and 46 years old respectively.
Yet, they show little to no signs of aging. This led many to believe that Saiyans have extremely long lifespans, far more than that of humans. But this theory was debunked by the legendary creator, Toriyama himself.
In the Dragon Ball Super Exciting Guide, Toriyama answered many questions of the fans, including why Goku and Vegeta do not seem to age at all. This is how the unique life cycle of Saiyans was revealed.
Saiyans are a warrior race, so their aging slows once they reach an age suitable for fighting, and they maintain great strength for a long time.
The Saiyans, unlike humans, are not a normal race. They are a lineage of galactic warriors, born and bred for battle. They have evolved to be able to give their all for war. For this, they couldn’t get old and lose their battle prowess!
So, in contrast to a human who grows older and weaker, Saiyans retain their prime appearance and combat state as they grow old. This means, their rate of aging is only comparable to humans to the extent of growing to maturity (as seen by Goku’s growth and, later on, Gohan’s).
The undefeatable enemy in Dragon Ball
After they reach their peak state, assuming they do at twenty years old, they will remain at that age even when they are eighty. But this might not be such a good thing for our Saiyan warriors. Only when one is getting older will he have some semblance of an idea about how to take care of himself or what affairs to take up.
But for a battle-yearning race like the Saiyans, it is easy to become confident in one’s abilities and not realize that they are aging, even without any physical changes. Toriyama has revealed an even more shocking fact.
Saiyans do not live longer than humans; their lifespans are about the same. This means that the duo of Saiyans have very little lifespan left. While Saiyans stay young for much of their lives, their aging process continues. Once the Saiyans reach an advanced age, their bodies decline quickly.
However, their lifespan is not much different from Earthlings’, and when they reach a certain age, they rapidly grow frail.
This makes a lot of sense, Toriyama might have thought of this a long time back. This might be why we have never seen an elderly-looking Saiyan. Even characters like Broly do not seem to age. Saiyans are like bright stars, losing their radiance only when they are coming to an end.
This means the most terrifying enemy for the Saiyans is not an invader or any other warrior but time itself.
The Dragon Ball series is available on Crunchyroll.
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