Along the way of this exciting adventure of getting the Dragon Balls before Pilaf, we meet new and interesting characters. The first person they meet is Umigame, a turtle that had lost its way. Goku helps him find his destination and it is there where he meets Master Roshi. It is Master Roshi that gives Goku his "Flying Nimbus". Only those that are pure in heart are able to ride on this cloud, and Goku is just that and more. This cloud is a means of of transportation for Goku through out the series. Later they go to a city where there is a being that is scaring everyone away. This person is Oolong, a pig that can change the way he looks, after being defeated by Goku he tags along for the excitement as well. Their next soon to be friend is a highway robber named Yamcha and his sidekick Pual, he too is able to change his appearance. Bulma and Yamcha have a "thing" going from that point on. The next to come are The Ox King (he was a martial arts student of Master Roshi) and Chi-chi (his daughter), who live and are the rulers of a mountain top called Fry-pan, where they gather a Dragon Ball. The mountain top has caught on fire and Master Roshi helps The Ox King by blowing off the fire with a "Ka-me-ha-me-ha". After seeing Master Roshi do this Goku attempts it and does it for the first time, something that took Master Roshi fifty years to do!

Goku and the others go to the palace of Emperor Pilaf to gather the Dragon Balls that Pilaf has collected. On their way there they are trapped and Emperor Pilaf now has all seven of the Dragon Balls and is about to make a terrible wish. He wants to rule the entire world! Pilaf has all of the Dragon Balls and is summoning the dragon. Goku makes a tiny hole on the wall of the room that they are trapped in by using his new technique the "Kamehameha". Since the hole is too small for any of them, Goku, Bulma, or Yamcha, Oolong and Puar convert into bats and go flying towards Pilaf to try to stop him. Right as Pilaf is making his wish Oolong saves the day by interrupting the wish and making a wish of his own. A pair of women's underwear! As a result the Dragon Balls are once again spread across the face of the Earth and will activate again until another year. After this they are all recaptured and are place in a room where they are going to fry the next morning. It is a full moon outside and Goku is telling everyone about a monster that comes out during the full moon. No one believed him and he told them that his Grandfather Gohan was killed by one of those monkeys in the full and with his dying words told Goku never to look at the full moon. Goku said that he slept through the whole thing so he didn't remember the monster. The rest of the team are getting scared and hoping that it isn't Goku that turns into a monster by looking at the full moon. So Bulma points at the moon and tells Goku not to look over there, which causes Goku to turn.

And to their surprise Goku changes into a waremonkey called Oozaru right before their eyes. As he turns into Oozaru and goes on a rampage and destructs everything in his sight, so in a way they were all saved from the room where they were destined to die the next morning, but were not saved from Goku. So to try to stop Goku they cut of his tail and it works, he changes back to his normal self and does not remember anything again. His friends decide not to tell him because it would hurt him to much to find out that it was he that killed his grandfather. Goku decides to train with Master Roshi, while everyone else decides to live in the city. Bulma gives her radar to Goku because she doesn't need it anymore, because she already has her wish. A BOYFRIEND!!! (This is when her and Yamcha really hook up) They say good bye with the hope of seeing each other again.

When Goku arrives at Master Roshi's island he meets a young munk, one year older than Goku, named Krillin. Krillin wants to train with Master Roshi, but Master Roshi says that he doesn't want any disciples. Krillin gives Master Roshi a dirty magazine and he changes his mind. He tells them that the one to bring him the 'Sleeping Princess' will get to be his student. They go there, but find out that the princess was not a person, but a jewel. During this quest Goku saves Krillin's life and since then become best friends (as Goku and Krillin met you can see that he didn't like Goku, but later changes his mind). Instead they meet up with a girl named Lunch and take her instead. Master Roshi is pleased and decides to take them both as students. There is only one problem with this girl, that is that when she sneezes she becomes totally the oposite, from being a nice and sweet girl to a very aggressive one, her hair color also changes from blue to blonde. After a very hard and long training they enter a Tenkaichi Budokai tournament (a martial arts tournament). This is where they were going to show all that they had learned.

In this tournament Goku finds his old friends, since Yamcha signed up for the tournament also. Goku, Krillin, and Yamcha qualify for the finals. In the finals both Krillin and Yamcha are beaten by a guy that goes by the name of Jackie Chun, which is Master Roshi in disguise. Goku passes to the final match against Jackie Chun, no one is aware that it is Master Roshi. During the fight Goku turns into Oozaru, but Jackie Chun solves this by destroying the moon with a Kamehameha. Goku loses the battle and gets second place, but decides to train harder to win the next tournament in another three years and heads off to find his grandpa's four-star Dragon Ball.