All Super Saiyan Forms, Ranked

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Dragonball? Whether it’s the iconic golden hair of the Super Saiyans or a “This isn’t even my final form!” meme, you’re probably thinking about one of the franchise’s myriad transformations — for better or for worse, they’ve come to define the series in the minds of the public.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Dragonball this year, between the death of creator Akira Toriyama, the upcoming Dragonball Daima anime, and the two separate Dragonball GT commentaries from YouTubers Team Four Star and Mistare Fusion that have been concurrently running. Specifically, I’ve been considering what it is that makes some Dragonball series work so well while others flounder or meander, and I think that transformations have a lot to do with it. An iconic transformation can make or break a Dragonball series, but they also tend to reflect the level of care and consideration being shown to any given story.

So, I thought it would be fun and revealing to rank all the Super Saiyan transformations from worst to best, and see what sort of revelations the exercise can turn up. What’s my criteria? Well, I’m certainly considering how cool any given form looks, but also if they’re properly explained and/or foreshadowed, how they’re used to explore character or theme, how consistent their abilities are, how unique their abilities are, how often and how consistently they’re used, how popular they are, and of course, most importantly of all, vibes.

Please note that I’m only exploring canon Super Saiyan transformations. This means I will not be including non-canon transformations (like Lord Slug’s “False Super Saiyan”), techniques (Kaio Ken or Fusion), one-off power-ups that are not transformations (Zenkai Boosts, Divine Water, released potential, etc), transformations from non-Saiyans (the various forms of Piccolo, Frieza, Cell, Buu, etc), or transformations used by Saiyans that are not specifically labeled as Super Saiyan (such as Ultra Instinct, Ultra Ego, or “Ultimate” Gohan).

If you’re shocked there are still enough transformations left after that to make a proper ranking, then you probably haven’t watched Dragonball Super, and you should strap in for some wild shit. If you’re up-to-date on Dragonball, then I’d love to hear your thoughts. And if you have no idea what these conflabbed Dragon Balls are, well, then maybe one of these images of impossibly muscled, golden-haired men will catch your attention — that’s how they get you, after all.

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10. (tie) Super Saiyan Rage (Future Trunks, Dragonball Super)
    Super Saiyan Blue Evolved (Vegeta, Dragonball Super)
    Super Saiyan Beast / Beast Gohan¹ (Gohan, Dragonball Super: Super Hero)

THESE. TRANSFORMATIONS. ARE. LAZY.

On the surface, these forms look quite different, each given to a different character with a distinct appearance, but functionally, they are identical. Each is a Dues Ex Machina, a last minute power-up given to a character with no effort on their part, with no foreshadowing, no explanation, and no downside. They are the poster children for all of the Dragonball franchise’s laziest and most hackneyed impulses.

Gohan’s “Beast” form is probably my “favorite” of these transformations, if I had to pick. Sure, it’s got a silly name and rather solidly rips off all those infamous Dragonball AF Super Saiyan 5 fan-art trends, but I find that endearing, in its way. It’s also the only of these three forms I expect to ever really see again, with it recently showing up in the Dragonball Super manga. It could, maybe, transcend its less-than-stellar origins. I can’t say the same for the other two.

It’s staggeringly difficult to decide which of the other two is lazier. Trunks’ Super Saiyan Rage is just his Super Saiyan 2 made strong enough to fight that arc’s villains — it barely even looks different — and the name is insultingly lazy (ALL SUPER SAIYAN FORMS REQUIRE RAGE TO ACTIVATE!! Why is this one special?! Why is this one different?!). Yet, Vegeta’s Super Saiyan Blue Evolved is just Super Saiyan Blue (already a dumb transformation, but we’ll get to that), only…bluer? It’s so buried by particle effects in the anime that it’s easily the ugliest of any Super Saiyan transformation, and it’s introduced only a few episodes before the finale of Super, making it barely a footnote in the story (and one already surpassed in the manga by Vegeta’s Ultra Ego form, rendering it even more redundant). It solely exists so Vegeta can fight evenly with Jiren and Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken Goku for all of two episodes, and a transformation deserves, nay, requires so much more.

9. Super Saiyan Rosé/Super Saiyan White (Goku Black/Fused Zamasu, Dragonball Super)

Zamasu is a God/Kai who stole the body of an alternate-universe Goku — and with it his Saiyan power and transformations — and turned it into an instrument of divine vengeance. So his so-called Rosé and White transformations aren’t just pale imitations of other Super Saiyan forms the way the previous entry’s forms are — they straight-up are Goku’s Super Saiyan Blue form, only palette swapped for…some reason? Since Zamasu was already a God before incorporating God Ki into his powers, maybe?

Frankly, I don’t think these should be counted as separate transformations, and I assume the only reason they exist at all is to sell more toys. Still, there’s more logic to their existence than the previous entry’s, and since they’re one of the only forms on this list used by villains, I’ll cut the writers some slack for wanting them to look visually distinct from the heroes.

8. Super Saiyan Grades 2, 3, and 4 (Goku, Gohan, Vegeta, Future Trunks, Dragonball Z)

I contemplated for a long time whether I wanted to include these at all, as I don’t personally consider them separate transformations but rather extensions of the classic Super Saiyan form. After all, there really is no separate transformation sequence or visual difference between Super Saiyan, Grade 2 (the form Vegeta and Trunks achieved in the Time Chamber and used to fight Semi-Perfect Cell) and Grade 4 (the “Perfected Super Saiyan” state Goku and Gohan achieved that allowed them to stay Super Saiyan 24/7 with no energy loss), nor do they fight differently, simply serving as a power boost.

However, I ultimately decided to include them for one reason: Grade 3, the hulked out form Trunks assumed to fight Perfect Cell. Not only did Trunks have to transform into this state after already being a Super Saiyan, but it fights entirely differently from any other Super Saiyan form on this list. Despite the transformation granting Trunks power on par with Super Saiyan 2, its massive muscles reduced Trunks’ speed so drastically that he couldn’t actually hit his opponent at all. It’s, essentially, a useless form, a failed transformation. I find that fascinating, but I don’t know if the logic holds up all that well. Speed has simply never worked this way in the Dragonball universe, before or since, with a character’s speed in any other circumstance being dictated by their ki/power level alone and having nothing to do with their unique body structure.

So, Grades 2 and 4 serve their functions well — allowing characters to advance in power throughout the Cell Saga the same way Zenkai Boosts did in the Frieza Saga — but don't really stand on their own as interesting transformations. Grade 3, meanwhile, is a really interesting concept for a transformation, but one that doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny. Altogether, eight place feels about right.

7. Super Saiyan 2 (Gohan, Goku, Vegeta, Dragonball Z / Future Trunks, Caulifla, Cabba, Dragonball Super)

Gohan’s first transformation into Super Saiyan 2 is easily one of the most iconic moments in the entirety of the Dragonball franchise. The circumstances behind it — the (permanent!) death of Android 16 finally pushing Gohan into action — felt urgent and gut-wrenching, and the transformation itself was so fulfilling and thematically resonant, bringing series-long story arcs about Gohan’s hidden abilities and his maturation from a scared child to a hero to a satisfying conclusion. It also looked sick as hell, a radical departure from Gohan’s typical appearance befitting this new level of power. If Super Saiyan 2 was just this one battle, it easily would be in one of the top two spots on this list. Unfortunately for the form, Dragonball continued after the Cell Saga, and Super Saiyan 2 was not treated very well at all in the aftermath.

Let’s compare and contrast how Super Saiyan 2 was treated after its initial introduction with the original Super Saiyan form. After Goku first became a Super Saiyan and defeated Frieza, the entire following arc revolved around the form: the various characters trying to attain it, trying to surpass it, honing the form until it was perfected…and only then, in the Cell Saga’s finale, did Gohan finally break through the Super Saiyan glass ceiling. Super Saiyan was thoroughly explored before the story moved on from it. On the other hand, after Cell’s defeat, Super Saiyan 2 became something of an afterthought. Goku achieved the form off-screen, and the only battle in the Buu Saga that truly spotlights it is Goku vs. Majin Vegeta; Buu is so immediately, devastatingly powerful that Super Saiyan 2 is never a serious option against him, forcing the Saiyans to seek out more powerful transformations and techniques right from the get-go. We never even see Gotenks use the form, skipping past it straight to Super Saiyan 3. From that point forward, Super Saiyan 2 is never treated as a goal worth achieving in and of itself, but as a hurdle that must be leapt if one is ever to achieve greater, better forms.

The form also suffered visually starting in the Buu Saga. The differences between Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2 were just too subtle in Goku and 18-year-old Gohan’s designs, and downright nonexistent in Vegeta’s, relying solely on the lightning to tell the difference². Whether certain characters were using Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan 2 in certain scenes was a constant source of debate among fans, something that wouldn’t be happening with a better designed form. Dragonball Super even poked fun at this, with a scene where Goku is showing off his various transformations to the mercurial, childlike Omni-King Zeno; Zeno can’t see the differences between Super Saiyan and Super Saiyan 2 and is so underwhelmed that Goku is urged to transform up to Super Saiyan 3 before Zeno loses his temper.

There are brief moments in Dragonball Super where the form feels relevant, especially amongst the Alternate Universe Saiyans — Cabba achieving Super Saiyan 2 during the Tournament of Power is the resolution to his character arc and is treated like a legitimately impressive feat and something to celebrate — but for the most part, Super Saiyan 2 is a transformation that had one beautiful, fleeting moment of transcendence before falling into sad mediocrity. It’s a shame.

6. Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan/Super Saiyan Blue (Goku, Vegeta, Vegetto Dragonball Super / Gogeta, Dragonball Super: Broly)

First of all, “Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan” is by far, without contest, the dumbest fucking transformation name on this entire list. Even Dragonball Super itself acknowledges it, with the characters quickly growing tired of saying it and deciding to just call it “Super Saiyan Blue” — another dumb fucking name in its own right, but certainly better.

The biggest compliment I can give this form is that its existence, at least, has an explanation that makes sense: a character who has undergone the Super Saiyan God ceremony then accesses his Super Saiyan form and combines the two powers together to create something new and far more powerful, yeah, that clocks. Unfortunately, in execution, the form is mostly just boring — at least in the Super anime. It’s supposed to be this staggering pinnacle of power hereto unknown to mere mortals, but in action its feats don’t look or feel any different from any other transformation’s. It doesn’t help that Blue becomes Goku and Vegeta’s go-to transformation for most of Super, robbing it of a lot of its novelty and impact; I was sick of it halfway through the series, but it just. Kept. Showing up. At one point Goku goes Super Saiyan Blue during a sparring match with Krillin! Why should I respect that?!

Outside of the anime, though, the form is a little more interesting. The Dragonball Super: Broly film saves the form until near its climax and throws its entire back into animating the transformation sequence, a moment that feels powerful, painful, and significant — you can feel Goku’s screams run through your body as he powers up. It does a lot to sell the form. The Dragonball Super manga, being printed in black and white, needed a way to differentiate Blue from other Super Saiyan forms, and landed on a visual appearance and aura far more pleasant, distinct, and interesting than the anime’s treatment. The manga also creates a real niche for the form; it’s incredibly powerful, but drains energy so quickly that it can’t be accessed often or for too long, meaning that Goku and Vegeta had to actually put some thought into using the form rather than just running around in Super Saiyan Blue all the time. I dig that a lot, and the manga’s treatment of Super Saiyan Blue is ultimately what saves the form for me (no way would it be above Super Saiyan 2 if I was basing this off the anime alone).

But don’t get me wrong, I still resent Super Saiyan Blue a lot, especially for essentially pushing Super Saiyan God out of the story after only one appearance. One! We don’t even get to see Vegeta use God form (outside the manga) until the Broly movie! After Super already ended! It’s ridiculous! It’s so much wasted potential, and frankly, Super Saiyan God just looks so much cooler than Blue! Bah.

5. Legendary Super Saiyan (Kale, Dragonbal Super / Broly, Dragonball Super: Broly)

What even is this form? The original non-canon Dragonball Z movies created Broly, The Legendary Super Saiyan, an incredibly popular character with a very cool design and a very, very stupid personality; the idea was that his Super Saiyan form was simply magnitudes more powerful than any normal Super Saiyan’s, but childhood trauma made him lose his shit at the mere mention of Goku. The Dragonball Super: Broly movie would eventually bring Broly into canon several decades later, reinventing him as a meek, sheltered, abused pawn who is a genetic anomaly, unable to control his vast power in battle — and his Super Saiyan transformation only makes it worse. In between these two takes on Broly, the Super anime introduced Kale, a Saiyan from Universe 6 who is her alternate universe’s Legendary Super Saiyan. Kale is actually fairly weak in her base form, and going Super Saiyan boosts her to massive levels of power but causes her to lose all control.

Despite the slight differences in approach, I love the basic theme here, the idea of a Super Saiyan transformation that’s just built different, but is also unpredictable and uncontrollable and which cannot be trusted. It opens up space for these really fun wild card characters in the series, and those can add a jolt to any story.

But the Legendary Super Saiyan is also somewhat narratively limiting. The ultimate destination for any of these characters is for them to eventually learn to control their abilities, but then what do you do with them? Find a way to write them out/push them to the sidelines? Have them immediately defeat any opponent? Continue to introduce more powerful villains, eventually risking making the Legendary Super Saiyan look as mundane as any other transformation?

There aren’t any great answers. So far, I think Super has handled these characters and their transformations well, but there may be only so much they can do with them.

4. Super Saiyan 4 (Goku, Vegeta, Gogeta, Dragonball GT)³

Like much of Dragonball GT itself, Super Saiyan 4 is a great concept poorly executed.

Seriously, the idea of taking the Saiyans’ original Great Ape/Oozaru transformation and combining it with Super Saiyan is so simple and ingenious that I’m shocked Toriyama didn’t think to use it himself. I have some minor quibbles with the design (why red? Why not Gold?!), but despite myself, have to admit that Super Saiyan 4 looks badass, and gets huge points in my book for trying something different. It’s not the increasingly-messy-golden-haired warriors who proceeded it, nor the palette-swapped hair colors that were yet to come, but something entirely new and unique — that’s so cool!

But GT as a series was notoriously awful with power scaling, and Super Saiyan 4 certainly suffered for it. It was never fully clear or consistent exactly how powerful Super Saiyan 4 actually was or how much energy or stamina it took to maintain — these fluctuated scene to scene in distracting, contradictory ways. I also don’t think Super Saiyan 4 Goku ever really faced a villain worthy of the form — in fact, some of the Shadow/Evil Dragons he needed the form to defeat only made it look less impressive.

Still, Super Saiyan 4 has gone on to become one of the franchise’s most beloved and recognizable transformations, despite the fact that GT is largely disliked by fans. The fact that the transformation is far more popular than the series that birthed it basically speaks for itself.

3. Super Saiyan God (Goku, Vegeta, Dragonball Super)

Super Saiyan God suffers a bit in retrospect from being the first of many Super-era transformations that just takes Goku and Vegeta and changes their hair color, but when first introduced in the Battle of the Gods movie its design was a breath of fresh air, a welcome return to basics after the initial, increasingly-convoluted Super Saiyan transformations, and I think it still holds up as looking really damn good even today. It’s not at all hampered by Super’s digital aura effects, and the streamlined design fits the unique traits the form would eventually take on.

God, unfortunately, was also almost immediately overshadowed by Super Saiyan Blue, but that only made its rare appearances moving forward all the more special. Super Saiyan God Goku’s clash against Beerus is a fan favorite battle, but it’s Vegeta and especially Goku’s use of the form in the Broly movie that really made me a die-hard fan of the transformation. Broly treats Super Saiyan God as a more defensive form, which is unusual for Dragonball. It is certainly immensely powerful and can be used to inflict great pain or violence, but when Goku and Vegeta fire blasts in the form, it looks more like they’re firing blasts of air or their own aura than they are energy. Super Saiyan God is the form Goku picks specifically when he decides Broly is not an enemy and tries to talk him down; he uses his aura almost like a telekinetic field to slow down and pacify Broly, to make him susceptible, and I think that’s brilliant.

More Dragonball transformations need to have unique capabilities and uses like this rather than just being magic “more powerful” buttons, and that helps rocket Super Saiyan God this far up my list. It’s a form I probably love more for its potential than its canon uses, but hey, its ability to ignite my imagination is just more points in its favor.

2. Super Saiyan 3 (Goku, Gotenks, Dragonball Z)

This is probably going to be a controversial pick for the #2 spot, but I stand behind it fully; in fact, Super Saiyan 3 is probably my personal favorite of all these transformations.

First of all, I think it just looks incredible. The long hair is such a cool choice, something that clearly denotes power, is immediately recognizable as “Super Saiyan,” yet is also distinct from all other forms. I also love the sloped brow and lack of eyebrows, a choice that connects Super Saiyan 3 to the race’s simian roots even without their formerly-signature monkey tail. The design has taken criticism over the years for being too over-the-top or for opening up the franchise to increasingly intricate and/or bizarre transformations over the years, but neither rings true for me: most of those designs were either fan-art or Super palette-swaps, and an over-the-top design is allowable, nay, fitting for the final Super Saiyan transformation of the original canon. This transformation wasn’t meant to be surpassed, and it looks the part.

It’s also a transformation with a unique niche, and by this point I think we all know how wild I go for those. Super Saiyan 3 has near unparalleled power, but using it drains so much energy that it can’t be sustained for long. The first time Goku uses it against Fat Buu it drains the rest of his day in the mortal realm and sends him back to the afterlife; Gotenks dicks around for too long in the form while fighting Super Buu and runs out of energy right before he can land the killing blow; Goku believes that the form’s full power can defeat Kid Buu, but the fight is so intense that he just can’t muster the energy to reach full power and burns himself out. This is a transformation with a cost, a form that demands respect from its user, and that’s rather unique for the world of Dragonball.

Also unique is the fact that Super Saiyan 3 has maintained its impact and mystique even as new forms have gone on to surpass it. GT wasn’t really interested in the form, only trotting it out once or twice as Goku’s ultimate last-ditch trump card, but this actually ended up painting Super Saiyan 3 as something powerful, dangerous, and for desperate situations only, creating a sense of intrigue around the transformation it may not have otherwise had if it had been used all the time. Super replaced the form far faster, but even it understood the transformation’s impact; Super Saiyan 3’s one appearance in the Tournament of Power was a show-stopping moment despite Goku not throwing a single punch, a scene that relied on the form’s gravitas and badass design to land, and absolutely nailed the execution.

My one actual criticism of the form is that it doesn’t really bring anything new out of the characters who use it, doesn’t complete any character arcs or explore any themes the way the initial Super Saiyan or Super Saiyan 2 transformations did. Hell, we never even get to see a single character discover the form, with both Goku and Gotenks first achieving it off-screen. Again, though, I’m inclined to cut it some slack since it was for quite some time the final canon Super Saiyan form; given that, it makes it more fitting that it was something Goku had to seek out and hone over a period of years rather than instantly unlocking in a moment of pure rage like the other transformations⁴. It also helps that the first appearance of Super Saiyan 3 — at least in the anime — was a half hour of pure spectacle, one of the most visually and musically stunning moments in the entire series. Seriously, the first time Goku went Super Saiyan 3 is one of the defining moments of my entire childhood. Sean Schemmel’s reading of “And this…IS TO GO EVEN FURTHER BEYOND!” will forever be imprinted on my brain. I’ll be reciting that shit on my deathbed.

As much as I love Super Saiyan 3, it will probably always be a divisive transformation, but frankly, that’s part of what makes it so fascinating to me. Was the form a narrative dead end, forcing Toriyama and Toei to pivot for future transformations? Or was it a form that humbled the Saiyans and forced them to refocus their training and start seeking greater power in new ways? Or perhaps both? There’s a lot of room for interpretation with this one, and I think that’s cool as hell.

1. Super Saiyan (Goku, Future Trunks, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, Goten, Gotenks, Vegetto, Dragonball Z/Cabba, Caulifla, Kale, Broly, Gogeta, Dragonball Super)

Of course — like there was any other choice for the top spot. I could argue that there are other iconic Super Saiyan forms, but there is no other transformation in all of Dragonball — perhaps in all of anime — that has achieved what Super Saiyan has, not just within the world of the story, but in real life as well. Super Saiyan has escaped the orbit of anime fans and rocketed into the wider world of pop culture and beyond. That blonde hair is recognizable to people who have never seen anime. People who have no idea who or what a Goku is understand that “going Super Saiyan” means leveling up, upping your game, breaking your limits. The power, the reach, the scope this concept has cannot be measured or underestimated. It’s taken on a life of its own.

Given that, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how damn well the concept of a Super Saiyan works within the story itself. I’ve given some of the other transformations on this list shit for just being a quick power-up and change of appearance with no weaknesses or unique traits and I stand by that, but that’s exactly what Super Saiyan — as the father of all shōnen transformations, as the transformation all others on this list built off of — needed to be! The simplicity of the concept matches the simplicity of the design, and works like gangbusters to sell Goku as the savior of an entire race that he needed to be during that climatic fight against Frieza. It’s real hero shit. Even the mechanic of rage unlocking the form was used so fucking well with the first batch of Super Saiyans, allowing Toriyama and Toei to take Goku, Future Trunks, Vegeta, and Gohan all to their breaking points before building them up stronger than ever. See, the mechanics of the transformation can be simple if they’re helping to advance and grow the characters!

Super Saiyan also benefitted from just how much it was used⁵. As I mentioned earlier in this piece, the entire Cell Saga thoroughly explores the form, and I think that embedded it in the minds of viewers. We spent so much time with this form that it started to feel like an old friend. For an entire subset of American millennials who grew up watching Dragonball Z during its original Toonami run in the late 90s/early 2000s, our defining DBZ image is that one shot of the four Cell Saga Super Saiyans (and Piccolo) all standing together looking badass that I used as a header for this entry. That was on all of our Trapper Keepers, right?

For us, that will always be Dragonball. Super Saiyan is Dragonball. And that’s lead to it being a form the franchise continually revisits and gives chances to shine no matter how many new transformations are introduced that surpass it. It’s easily the most-used transformation in GT. Dragonball Super: Broly devotes a significant portion of both Goku and Vegeta’s fights against Broly to them using their Super Saiyan forms despite their being significantly outclassed (before skipping over 2 and 3 entirely and straight to God). Super proper — despite being the Super Saiyan Blue Show, despite devoting its final arc to Goku learning to use Ultra Instinct — even allows plain ol’ Super Saiyan Goku the final hit of the entire series against its final enemy!

It’s clear that the fans still want to see Super Saiyans, even after all these decades, and I don’t think that’s going to be changing any time soon.

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ABOUT

“Do You Know What I Love the Most?” is a newsletter from Spencer Irwin about his relationship with the stories he loves. Spencer is an enthusiast and writer from Newark, Delaware, who likes punk rock, comic books, working out, breakfast, and most of all, stories. His previous work appeared on Retcon Punch, One Week One Band, and Crisis on Infinite Chords, and he can be found on Twitter at @ThatSpenceGuy. If you like this newsletter, please subscribe and share with your friends!

1. So in-between finishing and publishing this piece it came to my attention that this form hasn’t officially been confirmed to be a Super Saiyan transformation and is mostly being referred to as “Beast Gohan.” I decided to keep it on this list anyway, because:

1. I’d already written about it and liked what I’d written

2. This “Beast” transformation is a blatant reskin of Super Saiyan 2 — Dragonball Super: Super Hero is a modern retelling of the Cell Arc, and Gohan attaining his Beast form is the movie’s take on his first Super Saiyan 2 transformation against Cell, including identical shots of Gohan snapping before transforming — and thus deserves to be treated like the Super Saiyan form it’s so clearly ripping off

3. While there’s room for future stories to expand up on the form, so far it functions like a standard Super Saiyan transformation — a new appearance and a power boost with no drawbacks — rather than than something with more specific parameters and abilities like Ultra Instinct or Ultra Ego

2. And even this was inconsistent — in the manga, Toriyama sometimes forgot to draw in the lightning when a character was using Super Saiyan 2, while Toei’s anime often added the lightning into scenes where characters were just using the original Super Saiyan form for some visual flare. It’s a confusing mess.

3. I know, I said I wasn’t including any non-canon transformations on this list, and these days Dragonball GT is about as non-canon as it gets. Still, while it was never canon to the manga (and thus never canon to me), it was the official continuation of the anime for close to 20 years until Super came around, and a tentpole of the franchise in the way that the original Z movies, specials, and video games never were. For better or for worse, Dragonball GT and Super Saiyan 4 have to be acknowledged; it would be far weirder if I didn’t.

4. Gotenks, admittedly, seems to achieve Super Saiyan 3 in a relatively short window of time with minimal effort, but that’s part of the joke/theme of the character — everything comes so easily to him that he can’t take anything seriously — so I don’t think it hurts the transformation as a concept.

5. And yet, I criticized Super Saiyan Blue for the exact same thing, saying that it overstayed its welcome. All I can say is that both things can be true! Super Saiyan had the benefit of being unique during the Cell Saga, but it’s also just a more interesting, better executed transformation than Super Saiyan Blue, so we don’t mind seeing it as often as we did Blue. We generally knew something cool was going to happen every time it showed up. That’s not the case with Blue.