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At no point in the history of Dragon Ball has Goten ever been used well. His role in the story was rendered irrelevant shortly after he debuted in DBZ, and he’s been nothing more than Trunks’ sidekick ever since. It’s only because of Goten’s obvious potential, and the cuteness of both his design and his friendships with Trunks, that fans have always looked forward to the day he’s given any development.
New comments from Toyotarou indicate that Goten will have a major role to play in the future of Dragon Ball Super. Citing his dissatisfaction with how he wrote Goten during the High School Saga, the now lone writer of the DBS manga wishes to do better with him when the series returns from hiatus. While it’s possible his new plans for Goten will only be revealed in the distant future, it would make far more sense for the second son of Goku to have a prominent role in the Black Frieza Saga.
Goten Has Been Given Zero Significant Attention by Dragon Ball Super
The High School Saga Only Really Gave Focus to Trunks
In Dragon Ball Super, most characters not named Goku or Vegeta get underserved. However, among the core Z-Fighters, there’s an argument to be made that this applies more to Goten than anyone else. Yamcha may be the butt of jokes, Tien Shinhan may get belittled every time he appears, and Chiaotzu might be as irrelevant as ever, but they’re all at least treated as members of the group, with Tien having even been included in the Tournament of Power. Despite becoming two of the most important characters during DBZ‘s Buu Saga, the same cannot be said for Goten and Trunks. And while Trunks has continued to get bits of independent focus, as he always has, Goten has remained as nothing more than Trunks’ dumb, happy-go-lucky best friend.
Throughout all of Dragon Ball Super, Goten gets a few funny and cute moments here and there, but he’s never fleshed out as a character, and he never engages in any serious fights. Even when Goten does fuse with Trunks to form Gotenks for combat, Gotenks always just ends up being used as a gag. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, at long last, allowed Goten to grow up into a teenager, but he was still one of the least relevant characters in the film.
The DBS manga’s adaptation of the Super Hero should have been an opportunity for Goten to become his own. Not just because of the expanded time Toyotarou had to work with, but because an entire, original prequel arc, the High School Saga, was included. This arc, while short, was meant to be a Goten and Trunks-centric story that developed their characters, and set up a new status quo for them. In practice, however, only Trunks benefited at all from this arc, and the same goes for the arc’s follow-up, Chapter 104. Nothing new about Goten was learned, and no new story avenues for him were opened up.
Toyotarou Has Expressed Interest in Doing More with Goten
Toyotarou Acknowledges That He Failed Goten During the High School Saga
While the Dragon Ball Super manga may be on hiatus, its writer and artist, Toyotarou, has continued to give interviews about the series, and has been attending various anime conventions. Recently, he made an appearance on a panel at Paris Japan Expo 2025. Here, Toyotarou made a number of interesting comments, including one specifically about Goten. As it turns out, just as fans were disappointed by the handling of Goten during the High School Saga, so too was its writer.
During Japan Expo 2025’s Dragon Ball Super panel, Toyotarou acknowledged that he didn’t utilize Goten as well as he could have, and that he regretted not doing so. It’s always nice to see a creator be capable of acknowledging flaws in their own work, but what he said immediately afterward is the exciting part. Namely, Toyotarou wants to correct his mistakes and do more with Goten in the future.
The idea of Goten finally getting attention on an individual level has fans abuzz, including those who’ve never cared about him, but wished they could. This is especially the case when taking into account the Saiyan battle royal at the end of the Super Hero Saga, which proves Goten is more than strong enough to be relevant in the main storylines, not just side-stories. Seeing who he is outside his relationship with Trunks should be a treat, and it’ll be interesting to see what, if any, inspiration Toyotarou takes from Dragon Ball GT’s unique depiction of Goten.
Goten is Primed to Be the Underdog Hero of the Black Frieza Saga
Goten's Potential as a Character Moving Forward is Limitless
If Toyotarou really wants to do a better job of fleshing out Goten, then there’s no reason for him not to get started right away. That means including Goten in a prominent role in the next arc of the Dragon Ball Super manga, the Black Frieza Saga. Everyone is expecting this arc to primarily focus on Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Broly, and Piccolo, but it wouldn’t at all be out of place for Goten and Trunks to be heavily involved as well. After all, they’ve had featured roles in the manga’s most recent arcs, and were included with the other four Saiyan powerhouses during the battle royal on Beerus’ planet. And with the end of the Super Hero Saga having been Trunks-focused, it would make for a natural transition for the story to now turn its attention to Goten.
Goten is currently more of a blank slate than ever. His child-self was never developed beyond being a dumb, silly kid, and his teenage-self is now even more of a mystery. If the manga is finally ready to do right by Goten, this is actually a good thing, because it means that the story can do anything with him. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo have all developed as much as they can, meaning it’s important that the Black Frieza Saga features characters who still have room to evolve. This is why Broly’s addition to the main cast was such a spectacular choice, and it’s also why Goten’s inclusion could make the arc substantially better than it would otherwise be.
Goten taking on the role of the young hero surrounded by older friends, growing and changing as he fights against evil, would echo Goku and Gohan’s past roles in Dragon Ball. Most specifically, and fittingly, it would echo Gohan’s role in DBZ‘s Frieza Saga. Goku may be the one to fight Frieza at the end of that arc, and he may have a subtle arc about accepting his Saiyan roots, but it’s Gohan, outclassed by everyone around him and doing everything he can in the face of impossible odds, who drives the story for most of its run.
While it could be fun to see Goten behave like his dating-obsessed GT counterpart, the fact that Toyotarou is actively inspired to do more with him means it’s probably for the best if he puts his creativity to use, and maps a brand-new direction for him. Toyotarou can’t do anything too radical with him, due to the Black Frieza Saga likely being set before the events of DBZ‘s epilogue but, apart from that, the only direction for Goten that couldn’t conceptually work would be making him as training-focused and battle hungry as Goku, as that’s already Pan’s territory.
Whatever new personality Goten is given could also be thematically tied to the new transformation he’d practically be guaranteed, given the way Super handles its main characters. DBS has moved the central cast away from sharing Super Saiyan transformations, in favor of giving them all their own individual, personalized forms. It might seem unfair to some to give a new transformation to Goten, and not Trunks, but since Future Trunks already has his exclusive Super Saiyan Rage form, that could easily be adopted by his main timeline counterpart as well, without the story needing to give him as much focus as his best friend.
Goten has always deserved more love from Dragon Ball than he gets. The second and third Broly movies and Dragon Ball GT gave a taste of what he could be, and now it’s up to Toyotarou to finally deliver on the potential fans have always seen in him. Seeing Goten rise to the situation and play a major part in the defeat of Black Frieza would be a great way to get more readers invested in him, and it would show him truly following in Goku and Gohan’s footsteps.
Dragon Ball
Dragon Ball tells the tale of a young warrior by the name of Son Goku, a young peculiar boy with a tail who embarks on a quest to become stronger and learns of the Dragon Balls, when, once all 7 are gathered, grant any wish of choice.
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Dragon Ball Super
TV-PG Animation Action Adventure Anime Fantasy 186
Cast
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Masakazu Morita Whis (voice)
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Masako Nozawa Son Goku/Goku Black/Son Gohan/Son Goten (voices)
With Majin Buu defeated half-a-year prior, peace returns to Earth, where Son Goku (now a radish farmer) and his friends now live peaceful lives.
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