Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Z is still as popular as the day it was aired for the first time. The show is often seen as one of the most popular Shonen series and is primarily responsible for making anime so popular back in the day. Toriyama’s series features Kakarot as its protagonist, and a majority of DBZ is driven by him and the Z Fighters training themselves and getting stronger to stop the lifeforms that pose threats to planet Earth.
Toriyama-Sensei has decided to keep the story more Goku-centric, where he is given more iconic moments such as him turning SSJ 1 for the first time during his climactic battle with Frieza on Planet Namek. Despite giving so many iconic moments to Kakarot, the mangaka has also given him the most useless Saiyan transformation, which was hated ardently by the editors.
Akira Toriyama Gave Fans The Most Useless SSJ Transformation for Son-Goku
When Akira Toriyama featured Goku as Super Saiyan for the very first time in episode 95 titled Transformed at Last of the Planet Namek Saga, it marked an epic landmark in the history of the series. After that, the manga artist did not have to look back and gave Son-Goku an SSJ transformation as well, which is still the strongest in DBZ.
Ironically, the strongest SSJ transformation in the series was also the most useless one, as it was featured only a couple of times. If you have not still guessed, it is the SSJ 3 transformation, which was unveiled for the first time during the Buu Saga.
The transformation was striking as Kakarot’s hair extended dramatically, and his eyebrows disappeared, giving him a more fierce and determined gaze. Needless to say, his power level also sky-rocketed.
However, it is allegedly believed that the show’s animators struggled to draw the character in SSJ3 form because it was quite difficult to retain Kakarot’s recognizable appearance without his eyebrows. Hence, it can be said that despite being one of the strongest transformations of Son-Goku, it is quite useless, as Toriyama-Sensei struggled to even draw the protagonist.
Even though Akira Toriyama had never commented on featuring the transformation so rarely in the series, it remains one of the coolest and most epic transformations that the mangaka had come up, with for the Z Fighter.
Weekly Jump Editor Explains Why Toriyama-Sensei Decided SSJ Hair Would be Blond
During an interview with Japanese TV via Kotaku. Hiroyuki Nakano, the Weekly Jump Editor shared how the creator of the Dragon Ball series decided that when a member of the Saiyan race would transform into an SSJ, their hair would go from black to blond.
This is because the manga is black and white and the mangaka “wanted to eliminate the time spent coloring in black [hair].” The editor emphasized that coloring the hair is “tough work.” Leaving the hair untouched in a manga translates as blond, which gave less work to Toriyama-Sensei. He said,
“For a serialization that’s published weekly, each minute and every second is precious. Even trimming only a little bit of time means more time can be spent on the story and drawing cool art.”
Interestingly, the original SSJ transformations still remain one of the most fan-favorite transformations in the fandom.
Dragon Ball Z can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
