Veteran fans of the Dragon Ball franchise are used to seeing character power levels skyrocket from mere physical boosts to apocalyptic god-level power.
With the latest film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, Goku’s firstborn son Gohan absolutely rips all our expectations apart.
DBS: Super Hero is the second DBS movie which was released on June 11 of this year. While the plot is pretty cool, the thing that steals the limelight is Gohan’s new form, which puts even Super Saiyan to shame.
Gohan’s new form in DBS: Super Hero is called Gohan Beast, which is an evolved form of Potential Unleashed, accessed through Gohan’s unique latent potential and awakened through rage. Gohan Beast makes Gohan the most powerful Dragon Ball character, surpassing Goku and Vegeta.
1. Why is Gohan’s new form called Gohan Beast?
According to creator Akira Toriyama, the name Gohan Beast stems from the fact that the wild beast latent in Gohan all this while has finally been awakened.
Gohan has always lacked a passion for fighting, but he is after all half-Saiyan. While most DBZ transformations have come about via training, Gohan’s power-ups need an emotional trigger.
In the original DBZ anime series, Gohan transformed into Super Saiyan 2 after witnessing Android 16’s tragic demise.
In DBS: Super Hero, Gohan witnesses Piccolo take a fatal blow from Magenta’s Cell Max. Consumed by rage and fury, Gohan transforms into Gohan Beast, letting his wild inner animalistic instincts take over.
Toriyama mentioned on Twitter that this new form is based off the kind of awakenings Gohan used to have as a child. Gohan Beast is a tribute to Gohan’s Saiyan Ape gene, but also proves that it is way more savage than any form the series has witnessed.
2. What does Gohan Beast look like? What does it mean?
Gohan Beast has the usual mane of upturned hair, but it is gray because Toriyama wanted it to resemble the silver-hair of Perfected Ultra Instinct Goku. Gohan’s voice goes down a notch in his new form, and gains a certain beast-like timber akin to the Super Saiyan 4 form.
Otherwise, the new form looks a lot like Gohan’s Super Saiyan 2, sans the gold hair. Gohan Beast also has red eyes with black pupils and his blue-white aura gains some red with spokes of magenta lightning. This aura is similar to Whis and Beerus’s UI and Ego forms respectively.
The appearance of this transformation is also meant to bear resemblance to how Super Saiyan is drawn in the DBZ manga. The gray hair is a testament to the limited colors of the manga.
All these similarities aren’t just coincidences. Toriyama is trying to tell us something.
Gohan Beast’s appearance directly corresponds to the fact that this form is similar to multiple legendary forms we’ve seen so far, but at the same time, is unlike anything we have seen.
Toriyama himself admitted during the film’s promotions that Gohan Beast is the strongest form in the all of Dragon Ball media. This means that Gohan Beast is stronger than Vegeta’s Ultra Ego and Goku’s Ultra Instinct.
3. Is Gohan Beast UI?
Gohan Beast is not Ultra Instinct, which is a divine transformation ability. Gohan’s new form is the next level of his Ultimate Form/Potential Unleashed, which accesses the hidden power within him.
Gohan Beast is the evolved form of Potential Unleashed – similar to how Goku transforms from Ultra Instinct Sign to True/Perfected Ultra Instinct.
This indicates that Gohan’s new form from DBS: Super Hero is unique to Gohan and is not UI.
4. How strong is Gohan Beast? How is it so powerful?
As I mentioned, Gohan Beast is the strongest transformation in the Dragon Ball franchise, surpassing the strongest forms of Goku as well as Vegeta.
In DBZ, Goku and Vegeta admit that Gohan’s potential is greater than either of theirs, even after they obtained Super Saiyan Blue.
In the final saga of DBZ, Gohan trained with Old Kai to unlock Potential Unleashed, which unleashes his dormant potential. This type of transformation runs parallel to the Saiyan transformations – with Old Kai’s unlock ability, Gohan can access the superhuman strength and speed without wasting any power lost during the transformation process.
Gohan Beast is basically the final transformation of this Ultimate Form, where Gohan focuses his potential to push his power well beyond its normal limits.
In the DBS character biographies, it was mentioned that if Gohan focused all of his time on training, he would surpass Goku and Vegeta. But with Gohan Beast he does this without even training.
This means that Gohan Beast is the highest level of power, higher than Goku and Vegeta’s DBS god powers.
5. Is Gohan’s new form canon? Where does it fit in the timeline?
Gohan’s new form Gohan Beast is canon since the film in which it features, i.e., Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, is canon. The first DBS film, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is considered canon, so it only makes sense that the second does as well.
The character of Broly wasn’t officially canon even though he had 3 movie appearances. But he was considered canon only after DBS: Broly, the story of which was outlined by Toriyama himself.
Canon is basically everything that takes place as part of the main timeline. DBS: Broly takes place right after the Tournament of Power saga anime. Further, Broly gets a manga appearance in the Galactic Patrol Prisoner saga, chapter 42, of the DBS manga where he fights Goku and Vegeta.
DBS: Super Hero which features Gohan Beast was confirmed by the creators at New York Comic Con to take place after the events of DBS: Broly. This means it happens post the Moro arc in the Galactic Patrol Prisoner saga as well as the Granolah the Survivor saga.
Additionally, certain aspects of the movie fit in perfectly with the main storyline.
For example, towards the end of the Dragon Ball manga, we see that Gohan, after his fight with Buu, stops training to focus on family and his research. This fact is addressed in the DBS movie, where Piccolo admonishes Gohan for giving up his training.
Also, Pan, Gohan’s daughter is said to be 4 years old, after the timeskip that happens in chapter 517 of the Dragon Ball manga. In the DBS movie, Pan is said to be about 3, which means the DBS: Super Hero movie happens within the 10-year timeskip.
Dragon Ball Super is known to be the official sequel to Dragon Ball Z and part of the Dragon Ball canon.
We can most likely expect a mention of Gohan Beast in upcoming manga chapters, in a similar way that Toyotaro promoted Broly when the DBS: Broly movie came out.
When the anime reaches this point of the timeline, they are bound to also break down not just Gohan’s new form but also Piccolo’s.
The biggest and most important reason the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero film is canon is that it is written by Toriyama himself, who is the literal creator of the Dragon Ball series.
6. About Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero
Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero is the twenty first film in the Dragon Ball series. It is a computer-animated martial arts fantasy/adventure film, directed by Tetsuro Kodama, produced by Toei Animation and written by Dragon Ball series creator Akira Toriyama.
It features successors of the Red Ribbon Army who were once destroyed by Goku. Now they have returned with androids, Gamma 1 and Gamma 2, to take revenge on the Saiyan.
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