The Dragon Ball series is an important media among the large spectrum of shounen anime out there. It successfully introduced a plethora of tropes that are till to date prevalent in the media.
One of these tropes being transformations, Dragon Ball took it to a new heights influencing pop culture to a huge extent.
Below we have put together a list of seven transformations in the series history that we think are some of the most powerful ones. We are looking into transformations of the Z warriors that are canon to the main Dragon Ball timeline and anime.
Strongest Z Warrior transformations that you will see in the Dragon Ball series
Beast Gohan
Goku’s oldest son Gohan, was a fan favorite for the longest period. But the show took a turn after this with time skip after Cell saga, and made the odd decision to make Gohan’s character a highschool teenager and later, a working father with comic relief moments.
It wasn’t until the recent movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, that his character suddenly saw a new transformation named ‘Beast Gohan’.
The transformation sequence was a throwback to his original Super Saiyan 2 transformation when fighting Perfect Cell, only this time he was fighting Cell Max.
Gohan in this form also looks very similar to his Super Saiyan 2 form but with the spiked hair even more exaggerated in size. Till date Beast Gohan is the character’s most powerful form.
Orange Piccolo
The only character in this list who is not a Saiyan is Piccolo, a Namekian and also one of the strongest Z warriors ever. Originally a villain in Dragon Ball who was defeated by Kid Goku, but managed to reincarnate as Piccolo Jr.
He eventually had a change of heart after spending time with Gohan training him and in the end turned out to be an endearing character.
In the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie, Piccolo just like Gohan gets a new form that is orange in color and also literally called ‘Orange Piccolo’.
This form also buffs up piccolo in size, and the newly found powers are strong enough to help him handle Cell Max in a fight, bringing him up to speed in terms of power scaling as of the recent events in Dragon Ball super anime.
Super Saiyan God SS Vegeta
The only other pure blooded Saiyan among the Z warriors, who similar to Piccolo originally was introduced in the franchise as a villain, but later went through a lot of character development that changed him as a person.
Vegeta, even though being one of the most powerful mortal beings in the series, is always a step behind Goku in terms of power scaling.
His last most powerful form in the anime so far has been Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, which is a mouthful but shortened later to simply, Super Saiyan Blue.
This is a Super Saiyan form beyond gods that a Saiyan can achieve by training with gods. Vegeta first revealed this form during the movie Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’ when fighting against Golden Frieza.
Although Vegeta has gained a newer transformation recently in the manga, it is yet to appear in the anime.
SSJ 3 Gotenks
Gotenks is a child Super Saiyan formed out of the fusion between Goku’s youngest son, Goten, and Vegeta’s son, Trunks.
Through a special type of flawlessly synced dance between two individuals that ends at the connection of their index fingers, two beings can fuse to form a power powerful for exactly thirty minutes.
Gotenks first appeared in the Buu saga when the Z warriors were training to fight Super Buu. Piccolo taught both Trunks and Goten how to perform the fusion dance, and after a lot of trial and error both the kids were able to successfully fuse.
The highest transformation Gotenks ever achieved was Super Saiyan 3, and it gave him some interesting abilities that we never saw any other character do again in the franchise. Buu Buu Volleyball, Super Ghost Kamikaze and Galactic Donut were some of the unique moves of Gotenks.
Super Saiyan Blue Gogeta
Similar to Gotenks, Gogeta is a powerful Saiyan born out of the fusion of Goku and Vegeta. The character’s first ever appearance was in the movie Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn.
In the movie, both Vegeta and Goku face a foe who was way powerful for them to take on separately. After a lot of convincing, Vegeta agreed to perform the fusion dance with Goku, which they did successfully after a few failed attempts.
Gogeta, just like Gotenks, gets a number of new special abilities: Spirit Sword and Meteor Smash. Gogeta was never seen transforming into Super Saiyan 3, but years later in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, he did transform directly into Super Saiyan blue.
We also see Gogeta in Super Saiyan 4 form at the end of Dragon Ball GT, who introduced a few abilities like the big bang kamehameha which Gogeta blue later inherited.
Although It is heavily debated in the community on which of the two are the strongest forms of the character, Dragon Ball GT transformations are mostly considered non-canon to the franchise now.
Super Saiyan Blue Vegito
Just like Gogeta, Vegito is another form of fusion between Gogeta and Vegata. But instead of fusion dance technique, Vegeta was formed out of potara earring fusion.
This is a more reliable type of fusion compared to the fusion dance technique, due to the method involving simply putting on the potara earrings. But the downside of potara fusion results in a permanently fused being if it involves Supreme kai.
Vegeto first appeared in the Buu Saga which was a permanent fusion, later undone by Super Buu. He reappears in Dragon Ball Super during the Goku black arc while fighting Fused Zamasu.
Unlike the last time this Vegito was not a permanent fusion, but we did see his most powerful transformation in the franchise history so far, Super Saiyan blue Vegito, also called Vegito blue. He introduced a few new abilities in the show, including the spirit sword and banshee blast.
Ultra Instinct Goku
It is no news to fans of Dragon Ball that the face of the franchise, Goku, has always been the first one in the series to receive the strongest power ups and transformations.
Starting with the first ever appearance of the super Saiyan, through to the appearance of the first ever Super Saiyan god, Goku has done it all. Except for Super Saiyan 2, his son Gohan, beat him to it first.
The recent strongest power up that Goku received in the series goes beyond the Super Saiyan God forms, but it also is less of a transformation and more of an ability that allows him to attain a powerful state of existence.
Ultra Instinct allows the user to separate themselves from their conscious body and fight while independent of any emotion and thoughts.
An ability used by angels and gods, usually impossible for mortal beings to master, but not for Goku. Through rigorous training with Whis, Goku was able to unlock the potential to tap into ultra instinct properly when fighting Jiren in the tournament of power.
