Dragon Ball’s Goku flies into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time ever

Dragon Ball’s Goku will join the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time ever. The legendary Super Saiyan will be getting his very own balloon version to join the likes of Snoopy, Ronald McDonald and SpongeBob SquarePants, floating along the New York City skyline this Thanksgiving. The long-running parade will be celebrating its 92nd year, taking on the fresh character for its promenade of floating balloons.

This iteration of Goku will appear in his Super Saiyan Blue form, representing a new era of Dragon Ball. The balloon is formidable in size, at 70-feet long, 36-feet wide and 56-feet tall. For reference, according to HowStuffWorks, the average Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon is around 60-feet long. Clearly, Goku goes above and beyond — we wonder just how much helium he’ll need to power up.

The franchise has been around since 1984, but this will be its first representation in the iconic American tradition that is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day. It comes right ahead of the North American release of the feature film Dragon Ball Super: Broly this January.

Also joining the parade this year are four characters from Netflix’s The Christmas Chronicles.

The 92nd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 22, on NBC. Check out a rendering of the Goku balloon below.

Funimation

Update (Nov. 20): Working closely with Toei Animation, the studio behind Dragon Ball, the artists in Macy’s Studio designed the model of the Goku balloon, making adjustments to get the figure just right. Goku will be the first Japanese manga character in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

Check out the Goku modeling process in this cool video released by Macy’s.