‘Dragon Ball Super’ Reveals a Major Super Saiyan Power Source Change

The latest episode of the Dragon Ball Super English Dub threw in the big twist of upending Universe 7’s team, hours before the Tournament of Power was set to begin. The team was counting on the power of Fat Buu to be one of their bedrocks – but the big guy dashed all of those hopes, when he unexpectedly entered one of his long slumbers.

While Universe 7 scrambled to find an alternate, we got to see what some of the other Universes in the Tournament of Power are doing to prepare – including the Saiyans of Universe 6, who are working on a major new strategy to give them an edge: mastering the Super Saiyan transformation!

“A State Of Emergency! Failure To Reach Ten Members!” brings back Cabba of Universe 6, who has ventured out to meet with Caulifla, a rambunkshus young female Saiyan who runs her own gang. Cabba wants to recruit Caulifla for his ToP team – but needless to say, she’s not all that interested with giving up her unsavory ways – until Cabba provides her with an incentive Caulifla can’t refuse: more power!

Cabba reveals the big secret that he learned from Vegeta in the Tournament of Destruction: how to transform into a Super Saiyan. Caulifla is mesmerized by the level of power she feels coming off of Cabba in his SSJ form, and she wants to know how to access it for herself. Cabba at first tries the classic way, by attempting to spark Caulifla’s rage, so that she can transform; only problem is, she just gets annoyed rather than enraged. That’s when Cabba drops an explanation of Super Saiyan power that’s vastly different (and somewhat controversial) than what we’ve been led to believe:

According to Cabba, the way to access Super Saiyan involves focusing “all of my power right here in the middle of my back…. if you want to do it, first you have to know what it’s like to get that tingle – something I’m guessing you’ve never experienced before.” This explanation seems to do the trick, as Caulifla is able to manifest Super Saiyan quickly and effortlessly once she hears the “tingly back” theory.

Ever since Dragon Ball Super’s original Japanese / Sub premiere of this episode, the fandom has been up in arms about how the Super Saiyan transformation process is explained by the canon mythos. It’s only mentioned here in this scene with Cabba, but is quickly growing to become an official part of the franchise. In fact, Dragon Ball Super: Broly movie director Tatsuya Nagamine has actually confirmed that “tingly back” Super Saiyan transformation was his inspiration for how Goku, Vegeta, and Broly go through their transformations in the film (see below), so haters are probably going to have something to hate on for a longtime to come. For our part, nothing will ever alter the clear and pure explanation of traumatic inspiration that first made Goku achieve that milestone transformation in Dragon Ball Z.

How do you feel about “Tingly Back Super Saiyan?” Let us know in the comments!

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is now in theaters in Japan. Funimation will be bringing the film to theaters in the United States on January 16th. Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 9:30 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll.