Why Super Saiyan 2’s design is terrible

One of the most notable aspects of manga author and self-admitted sick **** (CTRL+F “old-timer”) Akira Toriyama’s wildly popular Dragon Ball franchise is the transformations. The most notable of these transformations is Super Saiyan. Plenty of people, inside and outside of the Dragon Ball fandom, know what Super Saiyan is. A character gets golden, spiky hair in an instant? That character just turned into a Super Saiyan. It’s a cultural phenomenon and probably the most well-known thing about the Dragon Ball franchise.

Also well-known are the many variations of Super Saiyan in the series. There’s the initial, regular Super Saiyan form, the most well-known of them all. There’s Super Saiyan 3, the one that increases hair length and removes the eyebrows. There’s Super Saiyan 4, the one that looks like a cross between a man and a monkey. There’s Super Saiyan God, the one that has red hair. There’s Super Saiyan Blue, the one that has blue hair. And then, there’s Super Saiyan Rose, the one that has pink hair. The forms I just named are the ones seen as the main Super Saiyan forms.

Wait, I missed one, didn’t I? Oh, that’s right. Super Saiyan 2. That form is actually pretty popular in the fandom. Fans like it for the so-called “subtle changes” it does to the original Super Saiyan form.  For a while, it was even my own favorite Super Saiyan form. As popular and well-liked as it is in the Dragon Ball fandom, though, it does have its fair share of criticizers. Many people, including Toriyama himself, find the form to be forgettable. And many people often get it mixed up with Super Saiyan 1, the original form.

It’s not difficult to understand why this is the case. Simply put, its design sucks. Contrary to what Toriyama apologists would tell you, it does not look truly distinct to Super Saiyan 1. This article goes into detail why.

“B-but it changes the hairstyle!”

Yes, a hairstyle change can make a specific character’s specific SS2 design look different to their specific SS1 design. But that still doesn’t make SS2 look different to SS1 in general. SS1 can be a variety of hairstyles. Despite all those different hairstyles, they still look like the same form in general.

This is the basic template to the physical appearance of a Super Saiyan 1: gold spiky hair, gold eyebrows and green or blue irises (the iris color shifts between these two colors for the irises in the franchise). If a character follows that design template, they look SS1 in general, regardless of what their specific hairstyle is. Any character’s SS1 design follows that template to a T. And any character’s SS2 design follows that template to a T. Therefore, any SS2 looks SS1 in general. Regardless of the hairstyle.

And that makes it very easy for someone to get SS2 mixed up with SS1. The only way someone is going to be able to identify a Super Saiyan 2 by looking at the hairstyle is if that person already knows what that character’s specific SS1 hairstyle looks like. A big problem with this is that it’s very likely that person isn’t going to know what that character’s specific SS1 hairstyle looks like. The average viewer isn’t going to know how every specific hairstyle a character has in each form looks like. The average viewer won’t have each one of them memorized. Show someone a picture of SS2 Kid Gohan. If that person knows what Super Saiyan 1 looks like in general but not what Kid Gohan’s specific SS1 hairstyle looks like, what will be their thought upon seeing this? They will assume Kid Gohan to be a Super Saiyan 1 here. Thus, there’s confusion. “That’s just that person’s fault for being ignorant”, you say? Get that BS elitist attitude out of here. When you’re trying to determine the form a character uses, you shouldn’t have to know what that character looks like in another form.

You can determine a character’s Super Saiyan 3 just by looking to see if that character has long, golden spiky hair and lacks eyebrows. You don’t have to know how that character looks like in other forms at all to determine when they’re SS3.

You can determine a character’s Super Saiyan 4 just by looking to see if they have black (for Goku and Gohan), dark brown (for Vegeta) or red (for Gogeta) spiky hair, yellow (for Goku and Gohan) or blue (for Vegeta and Gogeta) irises and red (for Goku, Gohan and Vegeta) or brown (for Gogeta) body fur. You don’t have to know how that character looks like in other forms at all to determine when they’re SS4.

You can determine a character’s Super Saiyan God just by looking to see if they have red hair, red eyebrows and red irises. You don’t have to know how that character looks like in other forms at all to determine when they’re SSG.

You can determine a character’s Super Saiyan Blue just by looking to see if they have blue, spiky hair, blue eyebrows and blue irises. You don’t have to know how that character looks like in other forms at all to know when they’re SSB.

You can determine a character’s Super Saiyan Rose just by looking to see if they have pink, spiky hair, pink eyebrows and gray irises. You don’t have to know how that character looks like in other forms at all to know when they’re SSR.

To determine a character’s Super Saiyan 2, you have to actually already know how that specific character’s Super Saiyan 1 hairstyle looks like. Because so many people won’t know how that character’s specific SS1 hairstyle looks like, there is confusion, and rightfully so. Having to already know how a specific character looks like in a form to identify another form is needlessly complicated. You should be able to identify a form just by looking at that one form. Just like how you can identify SS3 by just looking at SS3, SS4 by just looking at SS4, SSG by just looking at SSG, etc.

And speaking of “hairstyle changes”, only Kid Gohan and maybe Caulifla‘s SS2 hairstyles are significantly different from their SS1 hairstyles. Adult Gohan and Vegeta’s SS2 hairstyles aren’t different from their SS1 hairstyles at all. That obviously makes it much harder to tell their SS1 and SS2 designs apart. “B-but I can tell the difference!”, you said? First of all, no, you can’t and you’re a liar. The hairstyles are exactly the same; there is no difference. And more importantly, even if you somehow think there’s a difference, the average viewer can’t tell the difference.

Goku and Future Trunks’s SS2 hairstyles just have fewer bangs than their SS1 hairstyles (and that’s only in the Dragon Ball Super manga for Future Trunks. In the anime, he doesn’t lose any bangs whatsoever).

Oh, wow, they lose a few bangs as SS2s. Totally an easily noticeable difference, right? No. Losing a few bangs is a very minor difference. Something as minor as that can easily be looked over. Dragon Ball is probably the only series that tries to make such a big deal out of hair bangs. The average viewer isn’t going to give two craps about how many bangs a character has. Period.

“B-but it adds electricity!”

Means jack ****. Electricity does not make characters look like they’ve transformed. In Dragon Ball, electricity is an external substance that surrounds characters when they’re powering up or have already powered up. Electricity has the same function as aura in this regard; do people say characters look like they’ve transformed when they get an aura? No. If aura doesn’t make you look transformed, why would electricity make you look transformed? It doesn’t.

Characters get surrounded by external substances all the time in the series. They get surrounded by a flame-like substance. They get surrounded by bright, glowing lights. They get surrounded by a circular substance. None of those things make characters look like they’ve transformed. But when characters get lightning, they somehow look like they’ve transformed? They don’t. To argue that lightning somehow makes characters look transformed when other external substances don’t is arbitrary BS. Double standards. External substances never make someone look transformed. Lightning isn’t any different. Case in point, Nappa had lightning in the Saiyan arc. He didn’t look like he transformed; he just looked like he powered up.

Oh, and you see this picture of Nappa? A Toriyama apologist would respond to my argument with the following BS in the italics:

“B-but Nappa wasn’t even a Super Saiyan!”

Irrelevant. He still had lightning. Toriyama apologists say Super Saiyan 1 and Super Saiyan 2 look like different forms because one has lightning (Super Saiyan 2) and the other supposedly doesn’t (Super Saiyan 1). The logic in that boils down to “Having lightning makes someone look like they’re in a different form to when they don’t have lightning”. As the picture of Nappa shows, that logic is BS; lightning didn’t make Nappa look like he was in a different form to when he didn’t have lightning, just like lightning doesn’t make SS2 look like a different form to SS1. To argue Nappa doesn’t count because he wasn’t a Super Saiyan is nothing but double standards. Hypocritical BS. If you don’t understand why, then you clearly don’t know what double standards are.

“B-but Nappa only had lightning for a brief period of time!”

Also irrelevant. He still had lightning. Him having it for a short period of time has no effect on how he looked during the time he had it. How long something is present has no effect on how that thing looks. Wearing sunglasses for one minute isn’t going to make you look any different to how you’d look if you wore sunglasses for one hour. Likewise, someone having lightning for a brief period of time isn’t going to make them look any different to how they’d look if they had lightning for a long period of time. Simply put, lightning (and any other external substance for that matter) isn’t going to make someone look like they’ve transformed, regardless of how long the lightning is present.

This is a really bad argument Toriyama apologists come up with. Let’s look at it further. “Lightning didn’t make Nappa look transformed because he only had it for a brief period of time”? By that logic, it’s not the lightning that makes someone look transformed. Instead, it’s how long they have it? So, when you see a character gain lightning, you actually wait and see how long the lightning is present to decide whether or not the character has transformed? Do you people actually think the average viewer thinks that way? When a character gains lightning, what do you think the average viewer will think?

-“Oh, he powered up”

-“Whoa, he has lightning! Let me wait and see how long he has it before I decide whether or not he’s transformed!”

It’s the former. If something doesn’t make you look transformed for one instant, then having it for a longer period of time still won’t make you look transformed. Having to wait and see how long a feature is present to be able to identify a transformation is needlessly complicated, because you should be identify a transformation with just one glance. You don’t have to wait and see how long things like golden spiky hair and green irises are present before you identify a Super Saiyan; one glance at those things would be enough to tell you someone transformed into a Super Saiyan. You don’t have to wait and see how long things like blue spiky hair and blue irises are present before you identify a Super Saiyan Blue; one glance at those things would be enough to tell you someone transformed into a Super Saiyan Blue. I’ll actually get back to this argument later in the article.

So, what is it that makes a character truly look transformed, you ask? Simple. Something about their physical appearance has to change. Whether or not a character looks transformed depends entirely on their physical appearance. A character’s physical appearance is the one thing viewers look at the most when they see a character; if nothing about the character’s physical appearance has changed, the average viewer is not going to think the character has transformed. A change in clothes isn’t going to make a character look transformed; the average viewer will just think the character has changed clothes. External substances like aura or lightning aren’t going to make a character look transformed; the average viewer will just think the character has powered up. A change in physical appearance, however, can easily get the message across that a character has transformed.

But of course, not just any change in physical appearance will get that message across. Characters gaining a small, tiny dot on their skin wouldn’t make it clear to most viewers that a character has transformed, because that’s such a minor change to begin with. And even if the change in physical appearance makes a specific character look different to how they looked before they got the change, that doesn’t mean the change will make the character look like they’re in a different form in general. Super Saiyan 2 provides a change in physical appearance to some characters; it changes their hairstyle, but such a change doesn’t make it look different to Super Saiyan 1 in general, as SS1 can be a variety of hairstyles. As I explained, that creates confusion. For Super Saiyan 2 to have looked truly distinct to SS1, it would need a unique template for a character’s physical appearance.

Most Super Saiyan forms have a unique template for a character’s physical appearance.

-SS3: Gold, spiky and long hair, green or blue irises with black pupils and no eyebrows.
-SS4: Black or red spiky hair, red or brown body fur, gold or blue irises with black pupils and black or red eyebrows.
-SSG: Red, spiky hair, red irises with black pupils and red eyebrows.
-SSB: Blue, spiky hair, blue irises and blue eyebrows.
-SSR: Pink, spiky hair, gray irises and pink eyebrows.

Because these templates are different, it is very easy to identify the forms.

The templates for SS1 and SS2, on the other hand?

-SS1: Gold, spiky hair, green or blue irises and gold eyebrows.
-SS2: Gold, spiky hair, green or blue irises and gold eyebrows.

Exactly the same. That makes it very easy for someone to get the two forms mixed up. The presence of lightning for SS2 isn’t going to help, because that has nothing to do with the physical appearance, the one thing viewers look at most.

The fact of the matter is, the average viewer isn’t going to give two craps about external substances. Case in point, look at Super Saiyan Blue. In addition to the blue, spiky hair, blue irises and blue eyebrows, it has a unique, blue aura. Despite the aura, however, the form is widely dismissed as just a blue recolor of Super Saiyan 1. And why is that? Because as far as physical appearance goes, it’s just a recolor of Super Saiyan 1. Most people don’t give a crap about the form’s aura, because it’s not part of the physical appearance. People care about the physical appearance, not external substances like aura or lightning.

Making matters worse, Super Saiyan 2 doesn’t even always have lightning, which makes it harder to tell it apart from SS1. There are scenes where the lightning is never present at all, like in Broly: Second Coming, Wrath Of The Dragon and Battle Of Gods. And even if there’s lightning at first, when characters power down, the lightning vanishes. “B-but that’s just because they powered down!”, you say? The only way you’d even be able to say “oh, they just powered down” is if you already saw them with lightning at an earlier point of whatever episode or chapter you were watching or reading. What if someone tuned in after that character already powered down? You wouldn’t have already seen them with lightning, so how are you going to know they’re SS2 without lightning? At that point, you’d only be able to tell they’re SS2 by looking at their hairstyle. You’ll have to already know what their specific SS1 and SS2 hairstyles are. As I already explained earlier in this article, though, there’s a good chance the viewer won’t know what those specific hairstyles are. And making matters worse, as I also said earlier, most characters’ SS2 hairstyles aren’t any different from their SS1 hairstyle, such as Adult Gohan and Vegeta. This means that unless you saw them at some point with lightning, you won’t be able to tell when they’re SS2.

“Oh, that’s just their fault for tuning in late?” More ignorant, elitist nonsense. The average person isn’t going to rewind an episode just to find out what form a character is using. A person tunes into an episode and sees lightning-less SS2 Vegeta?

What will they think?

-“Oh, he’s Super Saiyan”

-“Hmmm, let me rewind the episode before I decide what form I think he’s in”

It’s the former. You shouldn’t have to rewind an episode just to decide what form a character’s in. You should be able to tell with one glance. You can tell when someone’s SS3, SS4, SSG, SSB, SSR, etc with just one glance; you’d never have to rewind an episode to identify those forms. And how about screenshots and promotional artwork of lightning-less SS2s? Most people seeing those aren’t going to think, “Oh, I’m gonna look up the episode or chapter this screenshot is from before I decide what form the character’s in”. Most people seeing those aren’t going to think, “Oh, it’s just promotional artwork, so I can’t conclude what form the character’s in”. They are very likely going to assume the character to be SS1.

Also making matters worse is how Super Saiyan 1 often has lightning, which makes it harder to tell SS2 apart from it. By the way, remember that picture of Nappa with lightning I showed you and how Toriyama apologists dismiss it by saying “Oh, it doesn’t matter because Nappa only had lightning for a brief period of time!” A similarly stupid argument Toriyama apologists come up with is, “Oh, those moments in the series where a Super Saiyan 1 has lightning don’t matter because Super Saiyan 1 only had lightning for a brief period of time!” This, right here, is a very bad argument. These apologists actually seem to think that SS1 having lightning for a brief period of time shouldn’t result in people confusing it for SS2. Why? Because the lightning was only present for a brief of time. Their argument goes, “Super Saiyan 2 is supposed to have lightning, but Super Saiyan 1 can also have lightning for a brief period of time. Because the lightning is only present for a brief period of time, there is no reason for there to be confusion”.

Ahahaha. No. What a terrible argument. It doesn’t matter that SS1 only has lightning for a brief period of time. The fact that lightning appears at all creates confusion, and rightly so. I’ve already explained how external substances such as lightning don’t make characters look like they’re in different forms. As far as this series is concerned, however, lightning is meant to be one of the main features of SS2. In-universe, it’s meant to be part of what sets SS2 apart from SS1. If a viewer were to go by that logic, then when an SS1 appears with lightning, that character will look SS2 the viewer. It doesn’t matter if the lightning is only present for an instant. The SS1 still looks like how the series defines SS2 during the time the lightning is present. That’s understandably enough to create confusion.

What if there were scenes where an SS1 suddenly got blue hair, blue eyebrows and blue irises like an SSB for an instant? Or if there were scenes where an SS1 suddenly had long hair and no eyebrows like an SS3 for an instant? Do you actually think there shouldn’t be any confusion whatsoever just because the character would have only looked that way for an instant? Get real. It doesn’t matter if it’s only for an instant. Because the character looks that way at all, there’s going to be confusion. When a character looks like they’re in a form for an instant, the average viewer is going to assume they were actually in that form for that instant.

That’s why so many people thought Vegetto was SS2 against Boohan even though he was actually SS1. Why? Because he had lightning, looking like how the series defines SS2, no matter how briefly. That’s why so many people thought Goten and Trunks were SS2 in GT even though the Perfect Files say they never attained the form. Why? Because they had lightning, looking like how the series defines SS2, no matter how briefly. To argue that there shouldn’t have been any confusion whatsoever just because the lightning was only present for an instant is absolutely moronic. And even when the lightning vanishes after an instant, many people will still assume the character to be SS2 even after the lightning is gone. After all, SS2 doesn’t always have lightning; when a viewer sees lightning vanish, they will likely assume that the character powered down or is simply choosing not to emit lightning.

Furthermore, what about screenshots and promotional artwork of SS1 with lightning? It would be impossible to ascertain how long the lightning is present from the screenshot as it’s just a screenshot or promo artwork, which creates confusion. “B-but those are only screenshots and promo artwork! You wouldn’t be confused if you were actually watching the show or reading the manga itself!”, you say? More delusional, elitist nonsense. Actually watching episodes or reading chapters shouldn’t be the only way someone identifies a form. People look at screenshots all the time. If a screenshot looks similar to something they know, they’ll likely assume it to actually be that particular thing they know. Show someone pictures of SS1s with lightning, and if they’ve already been told SS2s are supposed to have lightning, they’ll likely assume those pictures are SS2.

“B-but it changes the aura!”

Another stupid argument Toriyama apologists bring up. In the original manga, SS2’s aura often appears to be wilder than SS1‘s. This still doesn’t make it look like a different form, though. I’ve already explained why external substances such as aura don’t make characters look like they’re in different forms. Furthermore, the difference in their auras isn’t even significant. It’s very easy to look over, and it’s not even something that’s even consistent in the series. There are many scenes, even in the original manga, where SS1 has a very similar looking aura to SS2. And in the anime, there’s literally no difference between SS1 and SS2‘s auras at all.

“B-but it changes the skin tone!”

Another stupid argument Toriyama apologists come up with. In some episodes and movies of the Dragon Ball Z anime, SS2 appears to make the skin tone slightly whiter than it is when someone is an SS1. This goes to show how desperately Toriyama fanboys reach to defend SS2. A slight change in skin tone is an extremely minor change that is easy to look over. And it’s another thing that’s not even consistent in the franchise. There are many scenes in the anime and movies where SS1 has that skin tone. There are many scenes where SS2 doesn’t have that skin tone.

“B-but it makes the hair spikier!”

This is actually false. The only change SS2 has ever done to the hair is change the hairstyle, and that’s only for a few characters, as the hairstyle doesn’t change at all for most characters. The fact of the matter is, there is literally no consistency to how spiky hair is drawn in the series. Hair spikiness constantly changes with the art style, and the art style has changed several times throughout the series.

But you know what? Let’s say I’m wrong. Let’s say SS2 does make the hair spikier from SS1. If that makes such a distinct difference, then by that terrible logic, why in the world do fanboys still argue day-and-night about whether Gohan was SS1 or SS2 against Dabra? If SS2 having spikier hair is indeed a distinct difference from SS1, it should be clear what form Gohan was using by looking at how spiky his hair was, right? Except it’s not clear to most people, as it’s something that’s argued about 24/7 in the franchise. “B-but that’s just because Gohan didn’t have any lightning!”, you say? That further proves hair spikiness doesn’t make a noticeable difference. If people need to look at something other than hair spikiness like lightning to make the distinction, then that goes to show hair spikiness does not make a noticeable difference to most people.

Another example I’ll use are the buff Super Saiyan forms. Those forms actually make the hair spikier. But the thing that makes the buff Super Saiyan forms easily distinguishable from the regular Super Saiyan form is simply the buffer physique, not the spikier hair. If the only difference they had to regular SS1 was the spikier hair, then it would be very easy to get them mixed up with regular SS1. The average viewer doesn’t pay attention to how spiky the hair is.

“Who are you to decide whether or not someone looks transformed! You’re not the author!”

Another stupid argument Toriyama apologists come up with. Toriyama is the author, but just because he says something doesn’t make it so. He could say nonsense like Goku has dark brown skin, but we’d know that’d be false as Goku clearly doesn’t have dark brown skin. You shouldn’t need an author (or anyone, for the matter) to tell you how a transformation looks like for you to realize something is a transformation. You should be able to tell something’s a transformation with just your own two eyes. It’s very easy to tell SS1, SS3, SS4, SSG, SSB, SSR, etc are different forms as they all look noticeably different to each other in general. Someone wouldn’t have to explain to you how these forms look like for you realize they’re transformations. With SS2, however, because of how similar it looks to SS1, it’s very easy to mistake it for SS1. Most people need to be explained how SS2 looks like for them to be able to distinguish it from SS1. If you need someone to explain to you how something looks like for you to think it looks like a transformation, then it doesn’t look like a transformation. Again, you should be able to tell with just your own two eyes, not someone making you biased by explaining nerdy crap to you.

“Hey, a lot of the pictures you used aren’t from the manga! They’re not canon!”

This is another stupid and particularly nerdy argument Toriyama apologists come up. Something doesn’t count just because it’s not from the manga? You mean to say we should disregard the anime entirely, even though far more people watch it than read the manga? Absolute nonsense. Not only does Dragon Ball not even have a defined canon, but the average viewer isn’t even going to give two craps about canon anyway. If something is part of the franchise, it’s official material. If it’s official material, it’s relevant to this discussion. Official material, be it manga, anime or promotional artwork, of forms like SS2 will affect the average viewer’s perception of the form, regardless of whether or not that material is “canon”.

Even the people behind the franchise agree it’s a forgettable form.

Why do you think that in all of these things, SS2 isn’t shown? Literally every other main SS form that existed in the eras these pieces of official material covered was shown. Why is it that SS2 was the only form each of these pieces of official material skipped? Common sense would tell you that because of how similar SS2 looks to SS1, whoever was making these pieces of official material felt it would be redundant to include SS2.

That, or they forgot SS2 existed, like Toriyama did. He could remember SS1. He could remember SS3. But not SS2. It says a lot about a form when its own creator can’t even remember it.

And funnily enough, shortly after I made this article, chapter 29 of Dragon Ball Super‘s manga came out. In that chapter, even the characters in this series acknowledge how forgettable SS2’s design is.

How could Super Saiyan 2’s design been improved?

Simple. By having something that makes it easy to distinguish from SS1 at any and all times. Something that makes it easy to distinguish from SS1 without requiring you to already know what a specific character looks like as an SS1. Something that makes it easy to distinguish from SS1 without requiring you to rely on arbitrary, inconsistent things like aura, lightning, skin tone or hair spikiness. Something that makes it look different to SS1 in general at any and all times it’s used. It doesn’t have to be a huge change from SS1, but it has to be a change that the average viewer can actually notice at any and all times SS2 is used.

Simply changing the eye color (to be more specific, the iris color) would have been enough to make SS2 look distinct to SS1. The iris color would be present at any and all times the form is used, even when there’s no aura or lightning, making it much easier to identify the form. One would be able to identify any character as an SS2 without having to know what that specific character looks like as an SS1; they would just have to look at the iris color to make the distinction. It’s a small change from SS1, but it’s one that would be noticeable at any and all times SS2 would be used. Red would have been a fine color for SS2’s irises, since red looks quite different to green and blue, the colors of SS1’s irises. It would be very easy to distinguish SS2 from SS1, as the templates for the physical appearance would be different.

-SS1’s template: Gold spiky hair, gold eyebrows and green or blue irises.
-My SS2 redesign’s template: Gold spiky hair, gold eyebrows and red irises.

For an example, Raging Blast 2’s boxart. Because SS2 Gohan follows the same template as SS1 Goku, SS1 Vegeta and SS1 Trunks, he looks like he’s in the same form as them in general. If one didn’t already know what his actual SS1 hairstyle was, they would assume him to be SS1 here. As I explained before in this article, that creates confusion. But if he had red irises? It would be much easier to tell he’s SS2 here. He actually has something that sets him apart from Goku, Vegeta and Trunks now: red irises.

Oh, and I’d add in pupils. Yeah, SS2 should have had red irises and pupils. That’s not to say making SS2’s irises red and adding pupils to it would have stopped people from mistaking SS2 for SS1 entirely, but there’d certainly be a lot less confusion.

How would changing the iris color work in a black-or-white manga, you ask? Simple. Ink the irises or shade them.

Conclusion?

If you actually read through this whole article and still think there is nothing wrong with SS2’s design whatsoever, then I got nothing to say to you. Regardless of what you may think of the form, plenty of people get it mixed up with SS1. Plenty of people feel it looks too similar to SS1. And if you’re gonna dismiss all these people as idiots, then there is probably something wrong with you. If anyone’s an idiot in that case, it would be you for being an elitist snob.

Feel free to sound off in the comments below.