Gohan's New Form In Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Explained

For longtime fans of the "Dragon Ball" franchise, viewers have seen power levels go from simple strength and speed enhancements to almost world ending powers and everything in between. From the start of the original series of "Dragon Ball," the young Goku (Stephanie Ann Nadolny) accidentally taps into the cataclysmic power of his own Saiyan birthright by transforming into a giant, blood thirsty ape. This form is known as Oozaru, and although is provides incredible strength, all logic and reasoning is tossed to the wind, but this primal power forms the basis of the Saiyan's skills. It is this ability that allows Saiyans to attack and subjugate other species, and acts as a mechanism in which to expand their universe-spanning empire. Even the very youngest of Saiyans can lay waste to entire worlds by simple exposure to moonlight.

Luckily for us Earthlings, Goku doesn't share the world-conquering hunger as his fellow Saiyans, though he does share their love of intense combat. This is often reflected in his questionable decisions to let bad guys get away, or reach their greatest power level, in order to test his own skill and push his own power levels further. Eventually, Goku starts his own family, and his first born son is known as Gohan. Young Gohan (also voiced by Nadolny) at first doubts his own power because of his half human, half Saiyan blood, but it is soon revealed that his power can dwarf even that of Goku, as displayed by the juvenile Gohan absolutely trouncing Cell (Dameon Clarke) at the end of the Cell Saga. Since then, Gohan has unlocked even greater power, and his latest transformation is one for the books, but what kind of abilities does Gohan now possess?

Now an adult, Gohan (Kyle Henry Herbet) has spent a good deal of time avoiding conflict and attempting to focus on business and family, but the latest movie, "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero" has decided to once again allow Gohan to do what he does best, and that doesn't involve his Saiyan Man persona. For context, during the final saga of "Dragon Ball Z," Gohan trains with Old Kai (Kent Williams) to unlock a new ability. It is established that Saiyans channel and waste a tremendous amount of power while transforming in a Super Saiyan, Super Saiyan 2, or even Super Saiyan 3 forms, but Old Kai's technique teaches Gohan to have access to the greatly enhanced speed and strength of Super Saiyan transformations without the needless build up.

Although Gohan is able to effectively stand toe-to-toe with the malevolent entity known as Super Buu (Josh Martin) in "Dragon Ball Z," he eventually retires from fighting to instead focus on his home life and burgeoning family, which soon sees his combat prowess begin to fade from his lack of training. However, this is the "Dragon Ball" universe we are talking about, and "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero" sees the spotlight cast back onto Gohan and Piccolo (Christopher Sabat). This particular movie kicks off with the reconstituted Red Ribbon Army, who are longstanding villains in the franchise, deciding that they want vengeance against Piccolo and Gohan, and their plan is to kidnap Gohan's daughter in order to lure him into a trap and unleash the devastation of the killer android Cell Max (Dameon Clark).

Luckily for fans of the series, both Piccolo and Gohan receive some rather potent power upgrades during the course of "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero." Piccolo uses the power of the Dragon Balls to unlock his orange form, which grants him tremendous fighting abilities that Piccolo hasn't displayed in quite some time. Typically, Super Saiyan transformations see the practitioner's looks change to reflect the increased power level, and this generally means more muscles and spikier hair. More often than not, most Saiyan transformations come about from intense training, but Gohan has a reoccurring trend of seeing his friends get hurt, and that is what forces him to tap into the awesome power of his birthright.

As such, upon believing that Piccolo has been slain while fighting Cell Max, Gohan unlocks a new power level called "Gohan Beast," which resembles his Super Saiyan 2 look when he defeated the original version of Cell in "Dragon Ball Z." The difference here, however, is that his hair is silver instead of the stock yellow color from a Saiyan transformation, and that his eyes turn red and his aura is augmented with red arcing lightning bolts that hum and crackle with power. He doesn't gain any new abilities from the Gohan Beast transformation, but it does push his fighting capabilities into stratospheric levels. "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero" sees Cell Max fight many assembled heroes, but Gohan Beast is easily able to defeat the powerful villain.

The fact that Gohan is finally able to once again catapult to the upper echelons of power among the Z Fighters has not been lost to series creator Akira Toriyama. A statement released on the official Japanese Twitter account for "Dragon Ball Super" (via Comic Book) featured Toriyama explaining his own thoughts regarding Gohan's latent power by saying, "Gohan is actually stronger than anyone...or so it's said, but lately he hasn't really gotten a chance to shine. In order to motivate Gohan, it takes his revered teacher Piccolo rather than his father Goku. I figured I'd try giving birth to a new superhero by putting these two in the spotlight through their intense battles with the Gamma androids."

This really is a return to form for Gohan, who in "Dragon Ball Z," is considered one of the strongest fighters, although that hadn't been seen in quite some time. Both Goku (Sean Schemmel) and Vegeta (Christopher Sabat) have absolutely dominated the power rankings of "Dragon Ball Super" with their recently acquired God powers, but it seems as if Gohan's latest transformation, which is really just the next stage of power unlocked by Old Kai's original training, is currently the strongest and highest level of power currently possible in the "Dragon Ball" franchise. Hopefully this means that fans will be seeing Gohan facing off against incredibly powerful foes once again, and that this isn't simply a one-off occurrence.