May 9: Goku Day Explained

Fans of Dragon Ball around the world come together to commemorate May 9 as Goku Day, named after the multimedia franchise’s iconic protagonist Son Goku. This specific day isn’t arbitrary, though non-Japanese fans may be unaware why May 9th was selected as Goku Day.

To be clear, May 9 isn’t a major anniversary for the franchise as creator Akira Toriyama launched the original Dragon Ball manga series in November 1984. Similarly, the anime adaptation of Dragon Ball premiered in February 1986 while its even more popular sequel series, Dragon Ball Z, premiered in April 1989. Here is the real reason why May 9 is internationally recognized as Goku Day and if Dragon Ball itself addresses this in-universe.

Why Is May 9 Goku Day?

Goku Day earned its distinction because of a Japanese pun regarding the May 9 date and the numbers involved. May, being the fifth month of the year, and 9 obviously referring to the ninth day of the month, making the 5-9 distinction an important one for the purposes of this holiday. In Japanese, the word for “five” is phonetically pronounced as “go” while the word for “nine” is pronounced “ku”. Put together, this effectively makes the Japanese pronunciation of 5-9 as “Goku.” The official Dragon Ball website confirms this pun as the reason behind the holiday date.

In the original Dragon Ball, the evil King Piccolo declares May 9th as “Piccolo Day” when he sets out to conquer the world, though, after his defeat by Goku shortly thereafter, this villainous holiday is obviously discarded. In Dragon Ball Z, in the days leading up to the Cell Games, Goku ditches his usual martial arts outfit to wear a jacket that has a “59” emblem on the sleeve as a nod to the numbered name pun. So every May 9, consider watching your favorite Dragon Ball episodes and movies in celebration of Goku Day.