Dragon Ball Asks Scientists To Explain The Anime's Fusion IRL

Fusion might be best known in the Dragon Ball series via the Fusion Dance and the Potarra Earrings, but various kinds of fusion has been seen in the shonen franchise. Whether it be via Piccolo absorbing Nail and Kami or Majin Buu taking in the likes of Gohan and "Good Buu", the shonen series has had more than a few examples of two beings becoming one. In a new interview, the official Dragon Ball website asked a real-life scientist to explain how it would be possible for fusion to take place in the real world.

Dragon Ball's Official Website chatted with Naoki Wada, Assistant Professor at the Laboratory of Molecular Plant Breeding in the Division of Bioscience and Bioindustry at Tokushima University's Graduate School of Technology, Industrial, and Social Sciences. Wada took the opportunity to explain what he believes happens when Dragon Ball characters fuse, "Well first off, fusion in the natural world occurs when both parts of the fusion are single-celled. I don't think there's ever been a case where two multicellular organisms have fused in the way that Trunks and Goten do. There's something called "grafting" that some people may have heard of before. Grafting is a technique that joins two plants together into one. But rather than just mixing the entirety of two plants together, they are joined so that the top portion comes from the 1st plant and the bottom portion comes from the 2nd plant."

The Fusion Dance Explained

Naoki Wada discussed his thoughts on the Fusion Dance that created the likes of Gogeta and Gotenks, "My first hypothesis was that the cells within the two individuals mix completely without actually fusing. But, in that case, I think the fused individual would have mosaic-like results for color and such. For example, in terms of eye color, the new individual should have a mix of Goten's black eyes and Trunks' blue eyes. But Gotenks' eyes are completely black, so that hypothesis wouldn't work. Dragon Ball's Fusion involves a process where each person touches the other's fingers after doing a unique movement, and then there's a burst of light. In that instant, the two trying to fuse each returned to their single-celled zygote (or fertilized egg) state, and then the two zygotes fuse to become one fused cell, which then grows rapidly, becoming a single individual."

The Potarra Earrings in Real Life

Wada then took the opportunity to discuss the fusion objects known as the Potarra Earrings, "If we assume that Fusion is a skill that allows things with similar characteristics to fuse, I think the Potara Earrings are an item that forcibly fuses things that cannot perform a Fusion. The cellular fusion of a human cell and plant cell I performed, I used a reagent called polyethylene glycol to weaken the cell membranes of each of the cells. This allowed them to stick together. This "forcing them together" aspect may be a characteristic that is shared between my research and a Potara Earring-based Fusion."

Via Official Dragon Ball Website