Years ago, long before the arrival of Dragon Ball Super, there was one eternal debate among fans of Goku and his fighting style: would it be possible for Goku to use Kaioken while in the Super Saiyan form? Though a filler arc of the Dragon Ball Z saw Goku employ a “Super Kaioken” move against the deceased warrior Paikuhan, it was a flash in the pan and was considered “filler”. With Super, Goku managed to seemingly do the impossible and use the power of Super Saiyan Blue with the power boosting technique of Kaioken. Now, we take a look back at the technique and just how it changed within the Dragon Ball series.
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Kaioken, of course, first appeared in the Saiyan Saga of the Dragon Ball Z franchise, with Goku learning it on King Kai’s planet following his death to his brother Raditz. The “Fist of the World King” was instrumental in the defeat of Nappa and Vegeta, with Son Goku implementing the technique to give him up to four times his normal power. Though the technique clearly was a powerful one, it came with a serious drawback in that it took its toll on the user’s body and would drain one’s stamina astronomically once it was done.
When Goku arrived on Namek, he was able to use Kaioken to mulitply his power up to twenty times, thanks in part to the additional gravity training he underwent in preparation for his fight with Frieza. When the Super Saiyan transformation arrived, Kaioken became no longer necessary and the technique hadn’t been seen until the aforementioned “Other World Tournament” mentioned earlier.
When Dragon Ball Super set up the tournament between Universe 6 and 7, it shocked nearly ever Goku fan when the Saiyan warrior managed to combine the powers of Super Saiyan Blue with that of Kaioken in episode 39 of the series. Multiplying his power level to astronomic levels, Goku pulled out a win against the assassin Hit and satisfied a number of fans in the process who had been waiting to see if Kaioken could be used in such a way. Of course, Goku also used the power against Jiren in the Tournament of Power when he needed a Trump card, but it once again gave way to an even more powerful transformation in Ultra Instinct.
The notable thing about the anime versus the manga is that this big Kaioken moment existed in the former but did not in the latter. The manga instead would mostly allow Goku to power up by simply continuing to master the Super Saiyan Blue form and never had him access Kaioken while in that state. To this day, throughout the Tournament of Power and into the current “Moro Arc”, such a possibility hasn’t even been hinted at for Goku, who is instead simply using Super Saiyan Blue and continuing his attempts to master Ultra Instinct.
The anime explained that Kaioken could specifically be used with Super Saiyan Blue thanks in part to the different emotional state that “Blue” gave its users versus the “normal” versions of Super Saiyan. Kaioken was simply too dangerous of a move for the “emotional” state of the Super Saiyan, but worked well in conjunction with that of “Blue”. It seems as if this might not happen in the manga, but we would imagine it will appear in the anime when it eventually returns.
So what did you think of the first time that Goku used Kaioken in Super Saiyan Blue form? Do you think we’ll see the technique used again in the future of the franchise? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and Kaioken!
The Japanese-language and English dub releases of Dragon Ball Super are now complete and available to stream with FunimationNOW and Crunchyroll. Viz Media is releasing new chapters of the manga at a monthly rate that can be read entirely for free through the Shonen Jump digital library, and Dragon Ball Super’s big movie, Dragon Ball Super: Broly, is now available on Blu-ray and DVD. Fans in Japan are also able to enjoy fresh non-canon adventures from the franchises with new episodes of Super Dragon Ball Heroes’ promotional anime series.
