Dragon Ball Super: Why Doesn't Gohan Go Super Saiyan? His Ultimate Form Explained

There's a long history in anime and manga of the world's strongest warriors and heroes passing the torch to a new generation. In more modern times, that's what it means when the "Naruto" series moves on to "Boruto," or when All Might (Kenji Miyake/Christopher Sabat) gives his powers to Deku (Daiki Yamashita/Justin Briner) in "My Hero Academia." However, as usual, it was one of the OG hit anime, "Dragon Ball Z," that started this trend.

From the start of the series, Gohan (Masako Nozawa/Stephanie Naoldny) is set up as Goku's (Nozawa/Sean Schemmel) successor. However, the popularity of a character like Goku can make it a bit of a tough sell to sideline him altogether. Still, after the half-human, half-Saiyan ascended to Super Saiyan 2 and then to his Ultimate Form, the legendary fighter seemed to be well on his way to taking his father's spot as the franchise's premier fighter.

That having been said, given that Gohan's Ultimate form isn't nearly as flashy as other transformations he's experienced throughout the series, some "Dragon Ball Z" fans might wonder how it works. The simple truth is that the Ultimate form gives Gohan the same power level as Super Saiyan 2 does, but without putting nearly as much strain on his body.

Though Gohan's Ultimate form, generally called Ultimate Gohan, initially gives him the equivalent of Super Saiyan 2 power, he is eventually able to grow his power through his training to surpass Super Saiyan 3 and become an even match for Super Saiyan Blue. The Ultimate form also brought with it a change in Gohan's personality, as was the case with his father, resulting in Gohan becoming more hard-edged and ruthless.

However, in "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero," Gohan surpassed even this form, moving on to his current final transformation, Gohan Beast. While that could mean that we'll be seeing less of Ultimate Gohan down the line, it also seems like "Dragon Ball Super" may finally allow Goku to once again begin passing the torch to his son.

This is compounded by an end credits sequence that sees Vegeta (Ryo Horikawa/Sabat) finally defeat Goku in a sparring match, which could signal that the ultimate warrior may finally move down the "Dragon Ball" universe's roster a bit in terms of raw power. All the same, with characters like Krillin (Mayumi Tanaka/Sonny Strait) still showing up as backup, we probably don't have to worry about Goku being written out of the series altogether.