Dragon Ball's Super Saiyan 2 Form Finally Explained

Ask any "Dragon Ball Z" fan worth their salt, and they'll tell you there's nothing cooler or more powerful than a Super Saiyan in full bloom. They can punch their way through mountains, fly higher, and run faster than any other being when in this superpowered state. But it turns out there's a whole level to being a Super Saiyan that takes the cake when it comes to performance and power. It's called the Super Saiyan 2 format, and only a handful of characters have been able to master it across the entire "Dragon Ball" universe. Its existence hints at a whole new level of power that every single character can potentially access in a moment of crisis.

But what is Super Saiyan 2?  Who's managed to attain that power level, and in which manga and anime? And are there variations to Super Saiyan 2 powers? Here's a complete guide to everything a Super Saiyan 2 practitioner can do when they reach the upper levels of their seemingly unlimited potential.

The Super Saiyan form of existence is a power level that's frequently seen throughout the "Dragon Ball" manga and anime. It can be achieved in multiple different ways: as a result of feeling intense emotions, because of intense training, or simply because the user finally reaches the right peak of emotional enlightenment. As Goku notes, it's something the universe decides will happen to you versus something you decide will happen to you.

When a warrior becomes a Super Saiyan, they gain a large amount of power, speed, and strength. Characters become strong enough to defeat gods or alien forces all by themselves. They can punch through mountains or throw others great distances. Becoming a Super Saiyan also changes the personality of the one who ends up transforming; Goku, for instance, becomes aggressive and even cruel when he's in Super Saiyan mode when under normal circumstances he's genial, lazy, and easygoing — just one of the many interesting facts about Goku's very strange life in "Dragon Ball Z."

Super Saiyan transformations are also notable for the way they change the physical characteristics of their practitioners. It invariably mixes up the outfit the Saiyan is wearing and makes their hair blond and spiky. It can be difficult to attain this form, and it's alleged that the first Super Saiyan who achieved it could only maintain control of his powers by staying in Great Ape mode.

In spite of the danger simply entering Super Saiyan mode poses to any Saiyan who attempts it, a few warriors have found themselves with this level of greatness thrust upon them. The first character to attain Super Saiyan 2-level powers is Gohan. He takes on the form during the episode "Cell Juniors Attack!" in "Dragon Ball Z" (definitely not a filler episode you can skip). As with other Super Saiyan transformations, Gohan's comes about due to him becoming extremely emotionally upset. When his father and friends are being attacked by the titular Cell Juniors and Android 16 has been killed by Cell, Gohan has no idea how to help until the transformation overtakes him.

Once he achieves Super Saiyan 2, Gohan is powerful enough to kill off all of the electronics around him and take out the Cell Juniors. In a one-on-one battle with Cell himself, he nearly defeats the seemingly all-powerful villain, causing him to devolve. This undeniably cool fight is one reason why some fans wish they could change "Dragon Ball Z" to make Gohan the series' main focus. Unfortunately, Cell chooses to blow up Earth instead of accepting his defeat, forcing Goku to sacrifice himself. Ultimately it takes the combined might of father and son to bring Cell down.

Gohan technically experienced this form while training with his father in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber in a previous episode, but it lasts only briefly as he's too tired to hold on to it. In the manga, Gohan also becomes the first character to attain this power level in "Dragon Ball Z: Gohan Unleashed," the story arc upon which the anime is based. Gohan completes the transformation for the first time in a "Dragon Ball" movie in "Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound," while Vegeta, Goku, and Future Trunks have all since attained this level either in the manga or in the anime series.

The Super Saiyan 2 variation looks strikingly similar to its parent transformation. Basically, a Super Saiyan 2 does everything a Super Saiyan can do  — only those abilities are cranked up to the tenth power. Super Saiyan 2 practitioners are haloed by lightning, an energy that can easily be used to make their opponents even more miserable. Super Saiyan 2 practitioners can harness so much energy with their Kamehameha blasts that they can destroy entire planets, let alone organic matter, like human beings. It's the kind of energy that can create canyons and deep depressions in the planet's surface with a wave of the hand. They are deadly strong, sharp-witted fighters who could take a whole army on with a smile, and they don't sacrifice much of their bodies to bulkiness in the process. Technically speaking, Super Saiyan 2 practitioners are 100 times stronger than your average Saiyan.

Super Saiyan 2 powers can be harnessed and accessed in the same ways a Super Saiyan's can — via a strong burst of emotion, through intense training, as a reaction to a loved one being threatened, or through rage. And, incidentally, they keep their blond manes, though their outfits generally change.

There are plenty of ways to enhance a Super Saiyan, so it makes sense that Super Saiyan 2 practitioners can improve their forms in multiple ways. The ultimate version of the power has only been attained by Gohan in the manga "Supplemental Daizenshuu" and is so specific to him that it is referred to as the "Gohan-type Super Saiyan 2." But outside of the Ultimate form, hybrid combinations can add more power to the Super Saiyan 2 state.

In a form that's strictly exclusive to the "Dragon Ball" video game world, if a Super Saiyan 2 absorbs a Spirit Bomb, it will increase the individual's power in incredible ways. But most levels related to upping the Super Saiyan 2 power levels are dangerous to the practitioner, stemming from a lack of control and usually resulting in destruction for both the opponent and the person in mid-Saiyan thrall. And that's not even the most powerful leveling up a Super Saiyan can do.

Vegeta may seem like an uncaring, self-absorbed kind of guy, but over the course of "Dragon Ball's" long history, he's evolved into a loving husband and father as well as an ascended Saiyan warrior. While Vegeta's powers might be hard to explain, he has worked hard to attain all he has. A shocking moment that double-underlined his growth occurs in the "Dragon Ball Super" episode, "How Dare You Hit My Bulma! Vegeta's Furious Mutation!?" 

During said episode, the God of Destruction, Beerus, shows up in the middle of a party being thrown by Vegeta's wife, Bulma, to challenge Vegeta to a fight. Vegeta ends up on the losing end of the interaction until Bulma intervenes, demanding Beerus leave. When the combative god responds by striking her, Vegeta cries out the episode's titular phrase and is so worried about her safety that his Super Saiyan 2 transformation is triggered.

While Vegeta had previously leveled up to Super Saiyan 2 status thanks to his hard training after the Cell Saga and fought in this form before, it's touching that all it took was the sight of the woman he loved being threatened for him to transform again into an all-powerful fighting machine. But even Vegeta at his angriest is weaker than the next most powerful Super Saiyan variation.

The Super Saiyan 3 level is the next step up from Super Saiyan 2, and only Goku, in the Majin Buu storyline, has attained it thus far. Super Saiyan 3 is four times as strong as a second-level Super Saiyan, but this enhanced performance aside, another distinctive change-up from the Super Saiyan form is that anyone who attains the third level experiences some big-time hair growth. They end up sporting a thick mane of blond spikes that makes them look not unlike, well, Shadow the Hedgehog.

While Super Saiyan 3 may be the most powerful Super Saiyan form, it also manages to basically be useless for the user because it thoroughly sucks the physical energy from them, slowing their actions down and preventing them from utilizing the unfathomable strength at their fingertips to its full potential. While the Super Saiyan 3 level might feel like a nerfing gesture toward this higher state of existence, both versions of Super Saiyan-hood are referred to by the same label: Ascended Saiyan. Super Saiyan 3 is currently the most powerful ranking a Super Saiyan can reach, but there are plenty of non-canonical Super Saiyan forms that have been made popular by things like fan art.

Super Saiyans may appear to be completely indomitable, but if you're as super-powered as Cell — especially in his Perfect Cell form — there's always a way to defeat them. One overpowered form can take down another in the "Dragon Ball" world, so if you're just slightly faster, stronger, or more stealthy, then you can ensure that even the most powerful warrior in the world meets their doom.

As noted above, it takes Goku and Gohan working together to kill Cell, and without the help of his friends and father acting from the great beyond, Gohan wouldn't have even been able to get that far. He initially holds his own against Cell until the villain dies and is reborn in an enhanced state. Of course, Cell's reformation is clearly a type of Super Saiyan growth in and of itself — which is probably why he easily outmatches Gohan until the whole team comes together to finish him off. That goes to show that, given the various levels we're currently aware of, even the toughest Super Saiyan can be humbled, no matter how powerful they become.