Goku v One Punch Man. Who Would Win?

 

Everyone has their favorite anime hero.  They feel strongly about how awesome he/she is and how they could easily kick anyone else’s ass.

 

It’s kind of like having a favorite football team (which I don’t give a shit about personally).  Even when your team looks like they suck or make a bad play, the fans stand by them!

 

But this is a good thing.  It’s perfectly fine to have a favorite hero, and to even overlook some of their flaws.  Because sometimes the power of the fans will LITERALLY dictate what happens to them in the series.  Just like the roaring crowd at a football stadium in “real life”.

 

You may not know this, but Goku was never supposed to live on and be the greatest hero.  He was supposed to die for good after the Cell fight, and to be replaced by his son Gohan. 

 

But fans of the series loved Goku so much that the writer decided to bring him back.  Over and over again, to keep the fans happy.

 

Side note: I wish he didn’t decide to make Gohan such a little B**ch.  But at least we got to keep Goku.

 

Goku V Saitama

This is always an interesting question to me.  Mostly because ‘One Punch Man’ was supposed to be entirely satire.  The whole idea of the anime was to poke fun at how ridiculously overpowered every other main character is (Goku being a great example of literally ascending to ‘God’ form and beyond).

 

But this gem of an anime about a man who defeats all the bad guys with ONE PUNCH was so damn popular, that fans started to compare Saitama to other heroes.

 

Seeing as DBZ is so incredibly popular throughout the world, it’s no wonder they would compare him to Goku.

 

Now I know what you’re probably thinking…

There is NO WAY a regular ass dude with a shiny head and a fist could possibly take on one of the greatest heroes of all time.

 

And you’re probably right….

 

But it’s still fun to look at some of the specifics and see how these two would actually match up in a fight.

 

 

The Ground Rules

Okay so let’s get to it.  But first we have to establish a set of ground rules here.

 

1. Each character’s strength is respective to their own anime.

What I mean by this is we should think of the fight more like an actual fighting video game. Why?  Because if we don’t it’s too easy to use bullshit examples.

 

For instance “ Goku can just instant transmission Saitama to the moon and leave him there to run out of breath”.

And you wouldn’t be completely wrong for saying this.  But that’s a boring as shit example of a fight.  So for the point of this article, think of a video game in which you could play as the two of these characters.

 

Saitama would have wicked strong resilience and punches…

And Goku would... well he would be Goku.  Same as every other DBZ game.

 

2. The character is only as strong as we have LITERALLY seen them be in the anime. 

 

What do I mean by this?

There will be no speculation on what a character is possible of.  For instance, saying something like “Saitama could punch the ground and explode the earth because he’s so strong” won’t hold.

Again, you would probably be right.  But to keep everything easy, I am only going to use examples from the anime itself.

3. The setting is an even stage.

Think of the stadium of the Cell fight in DBZ.  Similar rules and similar size.  Winner is determined by a TKO, or literally getting knocked out of the fight ring.

 

 

 

 

The Actual Fight

 

Okay let’s get to it!  We’ve established the ground rules.  So now we get to have some fun.

 

So quite obviously there are thousands of ways this fight could go, each with having a different victor depending on the circumstances. 

So lets take a couple things at face value here.

 

In Goku’s world he is one of the strongest if not THE strongest being.  He’s super fast, super strong and has Ki blasts that can obliterate almost anyone.

 

Saitama in his universe is also unmatched (so far).  His whole gimmick is that he can beat anyone in “one punch”.  He also can track almost anyone’s speed an flashy moves with the ability to dodge it.

 

Since for this fight we are saying that “each character’s strength is respective to their universe”, let’s assume the same.  Meaning that Saitama would still have a beastly punch that Goku would need to avoid, and he would also have the ability to at least partially keep an eye on Goku’s incredible speed.

 

So one of the biggest arguments I hear about this fight is that “Saitama has never been injured” or that “ he defeats everyone in one punch so if Goku gets hit he would die”.

 

Both of these are wrong.  And there are examples in the anime that prove it.

 

1. “Saitama has never been injured”

This is incorrect.  He has been, even though it was slightly.   In the anime the character Tatsumaki used psychic powers on Saitama.  She is able to lift him up into the air with this.

 

Now if you’ve seen the anime you’re probably saying “ but she didn’t hurt him and it was only for a few seconds”.

But that’s not the point…

Saitama mentions that his muscles “twitched” during this time.  The important thing to take away is NOT that he was mostly unhurt, but that he is not COMPLETELY indestructible.

 

What you CAN still argue is that perhaps he can’t be hurt by regular punches or kicks.  But he can at least still be phased.

 

And luckily for Goku, he has more than punches and kicks in his arsenal.

 

2. Another thing to note is that there have been several times that Saitama did not defeat an enemy with only just one punch.  Here are two of them:

 

1:  Garou

2: Orochi

 

Now I would still be willing to say, for the sake of argument, that Goku wouldn’t survive an infinite blow of punches from Saitama.  But if characters in Saitama’s universe have, then it’s fair to say that Goku could take at least 2 hits.  Even if he were to be injured after one.

 

So Who Would Win?

 

Even at their respective strengths I would still give the W to Goku.  Why? Because I like Goku more.

 

Just kidding….

 I mean I do like him more but I am trying to be somewhat unbiased here in order to have some fun with this post.

 

I think the real answer is this:

Does Goku have a Senzu bean?

 

Assuming that neither of these people know who the other one is or what they are capable of, I think either one of two things would happen.

1. Goku underestimates Saitama and gets a quick punch in the gut. Gets the wind knocked out of him and can’t power up.

 

Goku REPEATEDLY loves to “test” how strong his opponents are.  He’s notorious for letting the villain get as strong as possible, and keeping his own power level at bay.  I see no reason to think it would be any different here.

 

There have also been plenty of times in DBZ when Goku is beat up so badly he “runs out of energy” to transform.  So its certainly possible that if Saitama’s punch is strong enough to knock the wind out of him, he could lose the ability to go super Saiyan.

 

2. Saitama get’s that first hit but Goku has a Senzu Bean.

 

In almost every fight in the DBZ the Z fighters have Senzu beans.  For those who don’t know, its basically a snap pea that if you eat it, you pretty much “heal” to full.  And it’s not like this is a one-off thing.  They are pretty common in the universe and the fighters almost always have a small pouch of them on hand.

 

So in this scenario if Goku were to get hit (and again, it’s safe to say he wouldn’t totally obliterate), he would then try to avoid Saitama’s punches in the future.

 

My guess is that he would use the Senzu bean, heal to full, and try Ki blasts in order to keep some distance from that deadly fist.

 

Since a character in Saitama’s own universe was able to “twitch” his muscles using a form of energy,  I would be willing to bet that a full forced Super Saiyan Ultra instinct Kame-ha-meha would be enough energy to throw some serious amounts of damage on Saitama. If not, it would probably at least knock him out of the ring.

 

Now you might say “but Saitama’s first punch could knock Goku out of the ring too”.

 

Sure, that’s another possibility.  But the difference is that Goku (unless knocked out) would be able to stop himself in the air with energy. 

This is a frequent use of power in DBZ.  The Ki energy kind of “surrounds” the fighters and they are able to stop and turn mid air, even if injured.   I would be wiling to bet that is what would happen in this scenario as well.

 

Needless to say, I bet this fight would be over rather quickly either way.  Either Saitama’s punches are strong enough to defeat Goku in one or two hits, or they aren’t and Goku eventually wears him down.

 

Now for my biased answer….

 

Goku all the way.

If this wasn’t some “special scenario” on an equal playing field like a fighting game, I don’t think Saitama stands a chance.   Like I mentioned before, he could just instant transmission him to some distant black hole in space and leave him there to run out of oxygen.

 

But see?  That’s boring.  It doesn’t make for a good fight.

 

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