Akira Toriyama Reveals How He Created The Super Saiyan God Form

Dragon Ball Super has introduced a ton of new concepts to the series, and few of them have been bigger than Super Saiyan God. The form went live in the anime’s first arc, and Goku pushed it further when Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan was introduced. These days, plenty of fans find it hard to think of the hero without his go-to form, and it turns out Akira Toriyama wanted the new mode to be a course correction of sorts.

After all, there are plenty of fans who felt like Super Saiyan God needed to look manlier. The form strips Goku down to his base physique, so there aren’t any raging muscles or bulging biceps. In fact, the form makes Goku even lankier than usual, and the creator of Dragon Ball did that on purpose.

“I was resistant to [the idea of] Goku getting more and more macho, or having a flashy transformation, so I wanted to make a course-correction,” Toriyama said in an interview for the Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods manga (via Kanzenshuu).

“Except, visually-speaking, a Goku who doesn’t have any change at all would be difficult to understand, so I changed just his hair color and his eyes.”

As you can see, Toriyama intended for Goku to try a totally new mode with this Super Saiyan God shtick. It is hard to imagine how the form may have looked if its design were in line with Super Saiyan 3 or even Super Saiyan 4. Goku would have probably become too swole for even Nappa to handle, so Toriyama felt it was time to explore a different design option. And if he wants to buff up the hero, he can find a way to do so through Ultra Instinct down the line!

Do you like the Super Saiyan God form…? Or do you prefer plain ole’ Super Saiyan? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB.