The passage of time plays a crucial and constant role throughout Dragon Ball, to the point one could successfully argue that it’s one of the story’s natural themes. The series chronicles roughly three decades of Son Goku’s life and that time can very much be felt. Characters come and go, ideals change, and the status quo is shaken up more often than fans give the story credit. Dragon Ball Z owes so much of its narrative and thematic weight to the fact that it allows time to pass.

Dragon Ball time skips are common throughout its run, with most of them fast-forwarding years into the future in between story arcs. The series first started playing around with the passage of time during the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai, blitzing through Goku and Krillin’s training, but the first major Dragon Ball time skip wouldn’t occur until the end of the Red Ribbon Army arc.

Updated on January 4, 2024, by Ajay Aravind: The Dragon Ball franchise follows Goku, his friends, his enemies, and countless other characters. The story spans Goku's entire life. While the anime and manga certainly boast enough chapters and episodes to cover nearly all of Goku's life story, some Dragon Ball timeskips are necessary to properly tell the story and add dramatic weight to certain reveals and character progressions.

Goku Undergoes Training For The 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai

3 Years

While the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai has its own internal timeline, Dragon Ball’s first three arcs nonetheless tell one coherent story that isn’t fractured by any major leaps. The Hunt for the Dragon Balls arc seamlessly transitions into the 21st Tenkaichi Budokai which eases right into the Red Ribbon Army arc.

At the end of the arc, however, Roshi reveals that the next Tenkaichi Budokai will take place in three years. He instructs Goku to go out into the wild and train on his own with the promise that they’ll meet again at the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai. While the anime does dedicate a few episodes to Goku’s training, the manga immediately flashes forward three years.

Goku Masters The Art Of Ki With Kami's Guidance

3 Years

As the end of the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai also serves as the start of the Demon King Piccolo arc, there’s basically no time for the timeline to jump ahead in between arcs. After defeating the Demon King and avenging his fallen comrades, Goku scales Korrin Tower yet again, this time with the intent of training with God, a.k.a. Kami.

Piccolo’s double, Kami reveals that the Demon King left behind a son before he died. Kami informs Goku that this reborn Piccolo will be fighting in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai within three years. Although most of his training goes unseen in both the anime and the manga, Goku spends the next three years mastering the art of Ki and ironing out his childish impulses. The next time Tien, Yamcha, Krillin, and the gang see Goku, he's significantly older, taller, and more mature.

Goku's Fight With Piccolo Leads To A Pre-Saiyan Peace

5 Years

While Majunior gives Goku the fight of a lifetime, his divine training with Kami is more than enough to allow him to subdue the reborn Piccolo. Flying into Piccolo’s body at full strength, Goku knocks his opponent out of bounds and is crowned "Strongest Under the Heavens." Immediately flying off to start his life with Chi-Chi, Goku ends the arc as a man who’s achieved all his dreams.

However, he becomes softer in the process. To be fair, Goku manages to still be stronger than Piccolo with minor training, but five years of raising a family leaves him unable to handle Raditz. Goku is forced to give his life just to stop the Saiyan and rescue Gohan. Fortunately for Goku, this ends up being a blessing in disguise.

Goku Trains For The Arrival Of The Saiyans

Half A Year

Death isn’t the end for Son Goku. Where most bodies become souls, Kami pulls some strings so Goku can keep his body in the afterlife. This proves crucial as it allows Goku to go train with King Kai, the master martial artist who eventually teaches the Saiyan both the Spriti Bomb attack and the Kaioken power boost.

While Goku trains with King Kai, Gohan trains with Piccolo — all the Earthlings train with Kami on his lookout. The anime spends a bit more time in this section than the manga does, but this Dragon Ball time skip lasts about half a year or so, until Vegeta and Nappa's arrival during the Saiyan invasion.

Goku Defeats Frieza On Namek And Returns To Earth

Nearly 2 Years

Despite being one of the longest arcs in Dragon Ball, not much time actually passes in the Namek arc until the very end. Considering all the mass death that littered the Saiyan and Namek arcs, the aftermath of Goku’s fight with Frieza requires the cast to use the Dragon Balls more than once.

Triggering the Namekian Dragon Balls twice and the Earth’s Dragon Balls once in order to revive everyone who had died up to this point, nearly two years pass between Goku finally defeating Frieza on Namek and him returning to Earth at the start of the Androids arc.

The Cast Spends A Long While Training To Fight The Androids

3 Years

Trunks comes from a future where the main characters were helplessly slaughtered by Androids 17 and 18. He comes back not only with a warning for Goku, but medicine that would combat the heart virus destined to kill him before he can ever fight the artificial humans. With this heads up, the main cast spends the next Dragon Ball time skip training to fight the Androids.

Trunks’ time traveling ends up creating a butterfly effect where Dr. Gero and Android 19 intervene instead of Androids 17 and 18. While it’s possible they existed in Trunks’ future as well, 16’s appearance is a serious anomaly. These three years aren’t in vain, but they're not enough to give the Z Fighters the edge they need.

Goku Chooses To Stay Dead After Cell's Massive Explosion

7 Years

The Cell arc doesn’t even resemble the conflict in Trunks’ future by the end of the Cell Games. A fellow time traveler, Cell seems to be the true cause of the butterfly effect in the main timeline. Tragically, fate seems to have its grasp on Goku as he ends up dying regardless of the heart virus. Son Goku is killed while teleporting Cell off-world to prevent planetary disaster.

Cell survives, of course, but he’s put down by a Super Saiyan Ascended Gohan. When it comes time to revive Goku, he politely declines and chooses to stay dead. With Gohan now the lead character, this Dragon Ball time skip lasts seven years into the future, where Gohan attends high school and secretly trains his newly-introduced younger brother, Goten.

The Dragon Ball Z Epilogue Is The Longest Time-Skip

10 Years

Gohan doesn’t stay Dragon Ball’s main character, but it's for the best. As messy as the Majin Buu arc is, it does end on a high note. Following the defeat of Kid Buu, the story skips ahead a full decade into what’s become Dragon Ball Z’s epilogue. Everyone’s noticeably older, Gohan’s eased into a life of academics, and Goku’s found himself bored with the peace they’ve all been festering in since Buu’s defeat.

The end of the series centers itself around the 28th Tenkaichi Budokai with Goku flying off to train Buu’s reincarnation, Uub. This final Dragon Ball Z time skip offers a fascinating look at the growth some characters received while also showing that some characters never change. Goku will forever seek a stronger opponent and new, greater challenges.