Raditz, long spiky black hair and a green scouter over his left eye, in brown and black armor with a red band on his arm, against a blue sky.

Raditz: Goku's Older Saiyan Brother

CharacterSaiyansGoku's Family

Raditz is the Saiyan from outer space who kicks off Dragon Ball Z. Goku's older brother, he lands on Earth to bring back his younger sibling, whom he calls Kakarot, reveals his origins to him and kidnaps little Gohan. Up against Goku and Piccolo together, he only goes down to the second Special Beam Cannon, which pierces both brothers. Here's a look at his arrival, his fight, his death, his appearances in Dragon Ball Minus, the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly and the Super manga, and the voices that brought him to life.

He only passes through about ten chapters of the manga, and yet everything changes with him: Raditz tells Goku that he, too, is a Saiyan. Here's the story of this brother from outer space, from his space pod to the Special Beam Cannon.

Contents

Raditz, Goku's older Saiyan brother

Raditz is a Saiyan warrior, Goku's older brother and the eldest son of Bardock; Dragon Ball Minus, in 2014, also gives him Gine as his mother. He's the main villain of the arc that bears his name, and the first villain of Dragon Ball Z.

He first appears in chapter 195 of the manga, published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on October 4, 1988, and titled “The Mysterious Warrior From Space” in Viz's English edition. In the anime, he makes his entrance in the very first episode of Dragon Ball Z, “The New Threat,” which aired in Japan on April 26, 1989, and also marks the debut of Gohan, Goku's son.

He's a tall, muscular man, recognizable by his spiky black hair, which is extremely long, and by the sharp widow's peak in the middle of his forehead. He wears brown and black battle armor, the same model as Frieza's soldiers, with boots, wristguards and two bands, white in the manga and red in the anime, tied around his left arm and his left leg.

Over his left eye, he wears a green scouter in the anime and in the full-color version of the manga, but a blue one in the illustration that opens chapter 196: the device measures power levels and also works as a transmitter. His rank in the Saiyan army is still debated: Akira Toriyama's Q&A answers make him a warrior of the same rank as Nappa, while the Daizenshuu 7 guidebook places him among the low-class warriors.

Raditz seen from a low angle against a blue sky, in brown and black armor, green scouter over his eye, red bands on his left arm and thigh.
Raditz in the first episode of Dragon Ball Z: extremely long black hair, a green scouter over his left eye, brown and black armor and red bands on his left arm and leg.

🎧 Hooked over Raditz's ear, his scouter relays everything that's said to his two comrades back in space; to protect the earbuds you slip into your own ears, dress their case in one of our Dragon Ball AirPods cases.

His arrival on Earth and the Kakarot revelation

Raditz arrives on Earth aboard a spherical space pod, looking for a man named Kakarot. A farmer shoots at him: the Saiyan catches the bullet and flicks it right back at him. In the manga, the farmer drops dead; in the anime, he's only wounded and thrown against his pickup truck.

As early as chapter 195, he runs into Piccolo, whose attack has no effect on him; picking up a higher power level on his scouter, he takes off, leaving his opponent paralyzed with fear.

In chapter 196, after arriving at Kame House, he sends Krillin flying through the house with a swipe of his tail: his monkey tail had been wrapped around his waist like a belt. On landing on the island, he had immediately recognized Kakarot, even though he was now an adult, because Goku is the spitting image of their father.

In chapter 197, he introduces himself: his name is Raditz, he's Goku's older brother, and both of them were born on Planet Vegeta and belong to the warrior race of the Saiyans. According to him, Goku was sent to Earth as a child to wipe out all life there with the help of the moon, so that the Saiyans could sell the planet. Furious to see that his younger brother no longer has his tail, he accuses him of trying to blend in with the humans he was supposed to exterminate.

He claims there are only four Saiyans left since a meteor struck their planet, the version he believes, and asks Goku to help them conquer a tough planet. Goku refuses, then tries to protect his son: Raditz drops him with a knee to the stomach, kidnaps his nephew, Gohan, and demands a hundred corpses lined up on the beach at Kame House by the next day, or else he'll kill the child.

He locks Gohan in his space pod. In chapter 199, when his scouter gives the child a power level of 710, he assumes the device is malfunctioning.

Raditz, standing near a Kame House sign, holding a crying child in a red hat at arm's length above Goku, who lies on the ground.
Outside Kame House, Raditz holds up Gohan, whom he has just kidnapped, while Goku, floored by a knee to the stomach, lies at his feet.

🎒 Raditz's space pod carried him from space all the way to Earth, before serving as a cell for little Gohan; to carry your own things, choose from our Dragon Ball backpacks, including a set featuring Goku, Piccolo, Raditz and Nappa.

Against Goku and Piccolo: the fight and his death

Goku and Piccolo team up to face him. Raditz proves far stronger than both of them and, in chapter 200, blasts off Piccolo's left arm. Piccolo's first Special Beam Cannon misses: Raditz dodges it, but the beam pierces one of his shoulder pads and wounds his shoulder.

In chapter 202, Goku grabs him by the tail, which leaves him in terrible pain and immobilizes him. Raditz begs his brother to let go and, as soon as his tail slips from Goku's hands, knocks him back with an elbow, then stomps on his chest to pin him to the ground.

At the end of chapter 202, Gohan, mad with rage, bursts out of the space pod; at the start of chapter 203, Raditz's scouter reads his power level at 1,307. The boy charges at his uncle and delivers a headbutt square in the chest, cracking his armor.

Still in chapter 203, Goku locks Raditz from behind in a full nelson hold, and Piccolo fires a second Special Beam Cannon, which pierces both brothers. Raditz dies in chapter 204: lying on the ground, he reveals that his scouter is also a transmitter; far off in space, his two comrades have heard everything, and they'll arrive in a year. Fed up, Piccolo finishes him off, shortly before Goku dies.

In that same chapter 204, Vegeta and Nappa make their debut: Nappa suggests reviving Raditz with the Dragon Balls, but Vegeta considers that a wasted wish and would rather have eternal life. In the anime, Raditz's death is shown in episode 5 of Dragon Ball Z, “Gohan's Rage,” which aired in Japan on May 24, 1989.

In chapter 205, in Other World, King Yemma tells Goku that he sent Raditz to Hell: the Saiyan put up a fight, but the king subdued him. Back on Earth, Bulma has Krillin retrieve the scouter from Raditz's body, with the idea of tinkering with it to find Yamcha and Tien Shinhan.

Much later, in chapter 303, Frieza guesses that Gohan is a Saiyan and notices a resemblance to Raditz. In episode 104 of Dragon Ball Z, an anime-only flashback shows Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz conquering a planet in three days, only to be mocked by Frieza, Zarbon and Dodoria.

Raditz, green scouter and mouth open, held from behind by Goku in a tattered orange gi; a yellow beam ringed with blue lightning passes through them both.
In episode 5 of Dragon Ball Z, Piccolo's second Special Beam Cannon pierces Raditz and Goku, who is holding his older brother from behind.
Figure of a shirtless Goku pinning Raditz from behind while Piccolo, in a purple outfit, fires a spiraling yellow beam that passes through them both.

For fans of Raditz

Dragon Ball Figure - Goku and Piccolo vs. Raditz

Goku pins his older brother and Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon pierces them both: relive this scene with the Goku and Piccolo vs. Raditz figure.

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Minus, the Broly movie, Super and GT: Raditz's other appearances

Raditz doesn't appear in the 1990 TV special devoted to his father, Bardock – The Father of Goku, though Funimation's dub slips in a line that fans read as a nod to him. In Dragon Ball Minus (2014), Akira Toriyama's chapter revisiting Goku's departure for Earth, Raditz appears in just a single panel: on another planet, he asks Prince Vegeta whether they should head back, and Vegeta decides to act as if they never received Frieza's order.

In Minus, Gine tells Bardock that Raditz is already a fighter and works alongside Prince Vegeta. Above all, the chapter reveals that, contrary to what Raditz and the other surviving Saiyans believed, Kakarot wasn't sent to Earth to conquer it: his parents were shielding him from Frieza.

In the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018), Raditz is on a mission with Vegeta, Nappa and two other Saiyans when Frieza destroys Planet Vegeta and leads the survivors to believe a meteor struck it. Asked about his little brother, he answers that Kakarot doesn't count, since he's a weakling, but that his mother had let him know he'd been sent to another planet. The movie shows him as a child: a production drawing unveiled in October 2018 had announced his return, along with a younger Nappa who still had his hair.

The Dragon Ball Super manga revisits his childhood in the Granolah the Survivor arc. In chapter 77, a flashback shows young Raditz with two other little Saiyans, holding a beetle and fascinated by a second beetle; in the same memories, Gine asks Bardock whether he thinks Raditz will be jealous when he finds out he has a little brother. In chapter 83, Monaito asks Bardock what wish could be granted for him: Bardock replies that he'd like to see his sons thrive, and, in chapter 84, Vegeta notes that Goku and Raditz survived the destruction of Planet Vegeta partly thanks to that wish.

In the Dragon Ball GT anime, during the Super 17 Saga, Raditz makes a brief cameo among the villains escaping from Hell, seen on a TV news report; no fight is shown.

Young Raditz, long black hair and a green scouter over his left eye, looking up with a sulky expression, in black and yellow armor, among rocks.
In the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Raditz appears as a child; asked about his little brother, he answers that Kakarot doesn't count, since he's a weakling.

Name, voices and video games: behind the scenes of Raditz

Like most Saiyan names, his is taken from a vegetable: “Radittsu” (ラディッツ) comes from the English word radish. The word “Saiyan” itself derives from Saiya-jin, where “saiya” is an anagram of yasai, Japanese for “vegetable.”

In Japanese, Raditz is voiced by Shigeru Chiba, who also voices Pilaf in Dragon Ball and Garlic Jr. in the Dragon Ball Z TV series, and who reprises the role of Raditz in the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly. Unlike Goku and their father Bardock, Raditz isn't voiced by Masako Nozawa.

In English, adult Raditz is voiced by Justin Cook in Funimation's dub of Dragon Ball Z, then in Dragon Ball Z Kai; as a child in the Broly movie, he keeps Cook's voice, just as he keeps Shigeru Chiba's in Japanese. His very first English voice was Jason Gray-Stanford, in the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z.

Video games give him what the series never shows. He never turns into a Great Ape in either the manga or the anime, even though he has a tail; he takes that form in games like Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3, Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle and Super Dragon Ball Heroes, the last of which even takes him all the way to Super Saiyan 3. His techniques there are named after days of the week, such as “Saturday Crush.”

Raditz at a glance

Key fact Raditz
Japanese name ラディッツ Radittsu, from the English word radish
Family Bardock (father), Gine (mother), Goku (younger brother), Gohan (nephew)
First appearance Chapter 195 of the manga, October 4, 1988; episode 1 of Dragon Ball Z, April 26, 1989
Death Chapter 204 of the manga; episode 5 of Dragon Ball Z, May 24, 1989
Equipment Brown and black armor, green scouter, spherical space pod
Voices Shigeru Chiba (Japanese); Justin Cook, plus Jason Gray-Stanford in the Ocean dub (English)

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Who is Raditz?
    He's a Saiyan warrior, Goku's older brother and Bardock's eldest son. He arrives on Earth at the start of Dragon Ball Z to bring back Goku, whom he calls Kakarot.
  • Why does Raditz come to Earth?
    He's looking for his brother to take him along to conquer a tough planet with his two Saiyan comrades. Goku refuses, and Raditz kidnaps Gohan to force him to give in.
  • How does Raditz die?
    In chapter 203, Goku holds him in place and Piccolo's second Special Beam Cannon pierces both brothers. Raditz dies in chapter 204, finished off by Piccolo, shortly before Goku.
  • Does Raditz appear in the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly?
    Yes: the movie shows him as a child, on a mission with Vegeta, Nappa and two other Saiyans when Planet Vegeta is destroyed.
  • Does Raditz turn into a Great Ape?
    Not in the manga or the anime, even though he has a tail. He's only seen in that form in video games, such as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 and 3.
  • Who voices Raditz?
    In Japanese, Shigeru Chiba. In English, Justin Cook in Funimation's dub of Dragon Ball Z and in Dragon Ball Z Kai, as well as for young Raditz in the Broly movie; before him, Jason Gray-Stanford in the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z.

🔖 Raditz's debut is in volume 17 of the manga; to keep your place between two fights, slip one of our Dragon Ball bookmarks into yours.

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