The introduction to a brand new category of forms and abilities enthralled fans as the vintage series Dragon Ball Z made a comeback with its sequel way back in 2013. Starting with the movie “Battle of Gods”, we’ve seen a lot of Gods or God-like characters in the series.

With the tradition of Dragon Ball, a new set of forms were introduced for the Saiyans like Goku and Vegeta as the Gods or God-like beings started to become significant in Super. Just like the Super Saiyan transformations, Super Saiyan God and its other succession forms are exclusive to the Saiyan Race and no other species can acquire these forms.

The Super Saiyan God form:

Super Saiyan God is basically a Saiyan’s base form combined with God Ki. It’s a form much stronger than Super Saiyan 3 and its preceding forms. According to the Namekian Book of Legends, the Super Saiyan God is a Saiyan Deity who is temporarily created by gathering 6 purely righteous Saiyans. If five pure-hearted Saiyans hold hands together and pour their hearts/energy into the 6th Saiyan to summon the Saiyan God; that Saiyan will become a Super Saiyan God.

In Dragon Ball Super, Goku was the first to achieve this transformation with Gohan, Videl (along with the quarter Saiyan Pan in her womb), Trunks, Vegeta (Doubt he was purely righteous. More like pure un-adulterated ego. Yes, this is a TFS reference) and Goten infusing their power onto Goku.

Vegeta achieved this form after his training with Whis. But, he didn’t require the ritual to acquire the red haired form. Although Shenron says it is temporarily created, they have learned to adapt and ingrain the feel of Super Saiyan God and transform at will with no specific time limit.

However, Goku wasn’t the first to unlock this form in the series’s history. The details on who was the first Super Saiyan God are described in another article.

Concept and Appearance

The concept of the Super Saiyan God was suggested by the movie’s scriptwriter and the form’s appearance is explained by Toriyama in an interview:

I was resistant to [the idea of] Goku getting more and more macho, or having a flashy transformation, so I wanted to make a course-correction. Except, visually-speaking, a Goku who doesn’t have any change at all would be difficult to understand, so I changed just his hair color and his eyes.

Akira Toriyama, Jump Comics, 4th October 2013

According to an interview with the Battle of Gods character designer, Tadayoshi Yamamuro, the original concept for Super Saiyan God had the form being more muscular and wearing a cape. The hairstyle looked like an intervention between Super Saiyan 3 and Super Saiyan 4. However, Toriyama came with a completely different look as he was insistent on the form not being too different from Goku’s regular appearance, specifically not being really muscular.

In this form, Goku possesses magenta-red hair (identical to his fur as a Super Saiyan 4) while Vegeta possesses crimson red hair. The overall body structure appears to become younger and thinner in frame and build. The aura of the Super Saiyan God resembles a raging fire.

Some fans were a bit disappointed with the look of the God form as it looked just like Goku in his base form but with red hair dye. They couldn’t but conclude that the non-canon Super Saiyan 4 looked a lot better.

Toriyama, when asked whether Goku will transform into Super Saiyan God in the future, said there’s no need for him to do so. His reason was that Goku has already absorbed Super Saiyan God’s power and made it his own. This directly contradicts what Goku and Vegeta later on as they do transform into the red haired form whenever there was a need to do so.

Traits and Power

Strengths

Since this is the first form in which a Saiyan develops God ki, It allows the user to sense other beings who have God ki as well. This isn’t possible with the preceding forms. Goku is shown to:

• Absorb and nullify attacks of Beerus
• Heal himself after a blow to the chest
• Paralyze Broly in the Dragon Ball Super Broly movie.

These feats aren’t replicated later by him in the series.

The power of this form is great enough to allow Goku to compete against the non-fully-powered Beerus who effortlessly defeated Super Saiyan 3 Goku. The sheer power of Goku and Beerus’ fists colliding sent ripples throughout the universe. Old Kai commented that if they continue to collide more and more, they could wipe out everything in the universe without proper control. Since the body has thinner build, it is a lot faster than the regular Super Saiyan.

Dragon Ball Super Broly Movie Director Nagamine mentions the God form relies on predicting and dodging the opponent’s movements. It also relies on godly techniques rather than power. This is different from Super Saiyan Blue which relies on bulldozing the opponent with brute force.

Weaknesses

It requires some time for the user to fully tap into its power and it drains the user’s energy reserves fairly quickly. If the user does not undergo training like what Vegeta did, the form can be only achieved through the ritual. This will be hard for Saiyans in general, as the number of living Saiyans is very few. So, gathering up 6 Saiyans is a rarity.

Opportunities

Both Goku and Vegeta seemed to have learned to transform into this form at will, without the need for the ritual, with its full capacities and no known time limit.

This form proved very useful to Goku and Vegeta as they switched between SSJ God and SSJ Blue in an instant. This utilized Super Saiyan Blue’s power to its full potential. During the Tournament of Destroyers, Goku was able to do this only once against Hit. But, Vegeta was able to pull this off numerous times in the fight against Goku Black.

Threats

If not accustomed to the form, its power will quickly vanish as it appeared. This happened to the first Super Saiyan God, whose powers vanished after he defeated the evil Saiyans. His body couldn’t handle the power and that is why he vanished, along with his power.

Super Saiyan Blue

Imagine a Super Saiyan God who further transforms into a Super Saiyan. That, in short, is Super Saiyan Blue. Originally, it was called Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, but Whis shorted it to Super Saiyan Blue to avoid a tongue twister.

Both in the Manga and the Anime, we see Goku transforming into this form for the first time against Frieza. However, it is not certain whether it was Goku or Vegeta who chronologically achieved this form first. The first glimpse of its power was first shown while Goku and Vegeta’s punches collided. This happened as they trained in a void like world, similar to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, where they were teleported by Whis.

Concept and Appearance

In an interview, Toyotarō asks why the form has blue hair to Toriyama:

In Battle of Gods it was red, so I figured for Revival of “F” I should go with blue. That’s all (laughs). Well, actually I was thinking about having it be white, but then it would color-clash with the “next enemy”… so I figured I should save it for another occasion (laughs).

Akira Toriyama, V-Jump, April 2016

This form is slightly bulkier than Super Saiyan God and is nearly identical to the first Super Saiyan form. The only main differences being that the hair and the eyes are cyan-ish in color. The user is covered with an electric glittering blue aura which has a darker shade at the edges, contrasting to the orange aura of its preceding form. In both the forms, there is a tinge of yellow aura mixed, indicating that the remnants of the original Super Saiyan form is still there.

Traits and Power

Strengths

It is the successor of both Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan. Being a hybrid of both these transformations, the user’s physical strength and speed are tremendously upgraded. It also sharpens the user’s senses and reflexes, fine-tuned to match even the best of warriors in the Tournament of Power.

In the anime, its power is heavily underrated as characters like Android 17 went toe to toe with Super Saiyan Blue Goku. In the Manga however, that is not the case as power levels are more accurately described.

Weaknesses

It takes a lot of energy from the user than the God form, meaning it can be used only a few times in a day. The reason it takes a lot of energy because, the power keeps leaking out of the user’s body. Which is why more the amount of time the user stays in the form, the weaker the user becomes.

Opportunities

This weakness can be bypassed by learning to perfectly switch back and forth between Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue in an instant. This enables the user to use the best of both of these forms without his stamina dropping at all, if trained sufficiently.

Another way to bypass the weakness is to keep the power from leaking out and containing within his body to use the form at 100% capacity.

Threats

By containing the energy within the user’s body, it takes a huge toll on the body. This is kind of similar to Kaioken. The power multiplier increases the user’s traits ‘x’ number of times, but it damages the body so much so it could very well destroy the user’s body. The same thing applies to Perfected Super Saiyan Blue. If the body is in a bad shape, it makes it even more difficult to contain the power of Blue within the body.

In chapter 40 (During the Tournament of Power), Vegeta seems to have achieved another variation of Super Saiyan Blue called Super Saiyan Blue Evolved. He achieved this transformation when he angered by the fact that Goku broke his limits once again when he used the Ultra Instinct technique. More information about Perfected Super Saiyan Blue and Super Saiyan Blue Evolved is given in another article.

Super Saiyan Rosé

The definition of Super Saiyan Rosé differs in the Anime and in the Manga. In the Anime, it is Goku’s Black version of the standard Super Saiyan. In the Manga, it is defined as the form which is achieved when a Deity becomes a Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan. In other words, it is the divine counterpart of Super Saiyan Blue. Normally Super Saiyan forms are exclusive to the Saiyans. However, this form is acquired by Goku Black and it is his exclusive form as the being is Zamasu in Goku’s body, meaning a divine soul within a Saiyan body.

We see it for the first time as Goku Black attains this form by having his regular Super Saiyan form evolve into it. The more the damaged cells of his body regenerate (and recovered by Future Zamasu), the more the body becomes for his to control. As he became more and more accustomed on using Goku’s body, Black’s power had risen to new heights, enabling him to achieve Super Saiyan Rosé.

Concept and Appearance

In both the anime and the Manga, the aura and hair turns light crimson instead of blue.

In contrast to the anime version, the face looks more sinister and the hair is spikier. The aura is more jagged and flame-like than the aura of Super Saiyan Blue. The form looks slightly bulkier in the Manga. It is theorized by Future Zamasu that this form is pink in color due to it being the result of a deity surpassing Super Saiyan God (with Blue being the result of a mortal surpassing it).

When Goku Black fused with Future Zamasu, the resultant Fused Zamasu retained the transformation with a few noticeable differences. Instead of bright pink hair, Zamasu had pure white hair that mimicked Super Saiyan Goku’s hairstyle. The aura also changed into a white, sparkling outline, though he could make the original aura reappear whenever he powered up.

Traits and Power

Strengths

It provides the user with the precise ki control needed to properly utilize and maintain this form. Unlike its mortal counterpart, the ki control of Super Saiyan Rosé is so precise and efficient, (due to Black’s status as a divine being) that the user is able to manipulate ki far greater than previous forms.

The user can paralyze his opponents, and use a technique that materializes portals. He can position the portals next to his target and throw a punch on his opponent through the portal (Similar to Janemba’s technique).

Weaknesses

This form has similar weaknesses to its mortal counterpart. In addition, Rosé seems to require an immense degree of mental fortitude. When overcome with rage, and badly injured, the user can lose control of Rosé’s power. This can cause his energy to leak from his damaged body, thereby losing the ability to compensate for the stress the form puts on his body.

Opportunities

Unlike Super Saiyan Blue, which needed additional training to fully master it, this form does not display any sort of stamina decrease. Due to its upgrade in ki manipulation, the user can create various energy weapons like the Scythe attack – Violent Fierce God Slicer. It is an evolved version of Zamasu’s God Slip Cut.

Threats

When the energy leaks from the body, it may result for the power to explode without recovering stamina. As a result, the form will damage his body even further, which puts the user at risk despite being immortal.

With the advent of new forms, there always comes a need for power comparisons. We shall be going over which of these Super Saiyan God forms is stronger in a different post. So be sure to stay tuned and not miss it!