Dragon Ball Reveals Gohan’s Most Shocking Form Yet

Warning! Massive spoilers to follow for Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero! Dragon Ball is now in the midst of celebrating its 40th anniversary, and with it comes the release of two massive projects offering new looks at the series.​ Not only are fans being treated with a brand new TV anime with the release of Dragon Ball Daima, but video game fans are being treated with the release of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero. As the newest entry in the long dormant Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi franchise, Sparking! Zero does what its predecessors did and offers some special “What If?” stories for fans. 

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero offers different story paths for each of the characters involved in its Episode Battle mode​, and like many fans had hoped, these story paths can branch in different ways if you achieve certain tasks in your battles. Gohan’s path offers the most significant change to his story in Dragon Ball Super, and with it comes the debut of a brand new form that makes him the villain of the Future Trunks saga instead. As further revealed in a new video from Shueisha’s V-Jump magazine and seen in the game itself, the villain of the Future Trunks saga can change from Goku Black…to Gohan Black instead. 

Who Is Gohan Black? 

In Gohan’s Episode Battle, things can really shift during the events of the Resurrection F arc​. If you can hold off Frieza as Gohan to the point where the villain recognizes his power (as seen at six minute mark in the video above), Gohan will even be able to reach his Ultimate Gohan form and fully defeat Golden Frieza. Rather than be fully defeated by the villain as seen in the original canon, this leads to a whole new path where Gohan is recognized that the strongest warrior in Universe 7 (even going as far as fighting against Hit in the Tournament of Destroyers and getting the attention of the multiverse). 

If you go down this version of the story, it leads to Gohan then being the one intercepted by Future Trunks. Trunks comes back from his timeline and he immediately attacks Gohan. Noting that a new villain has started to cause trouble in his timeline, it’s revealed that it’s actually an evil version of Gohan known as Gohan Black (as seen in the ten minute mark in the video above). Because in this version, it’s Gohan that Beerus takes to fight Zamasu and it’s Gohan that inspires the evil god to enact his Zero Mortals Plan. 

Does Gohan Black Transform? 

Gohan Black’s role in the story from that point on plays out much like Goku Black’s does in the original canon. Except this time, Gohan is the main figure in the fights alongside Goku, Vegeta, and Trunks. Gohan Black reveals that his power up is actually a pink hued aura form of Ultimate Gohan. It doesn’t have a different name like Super Saiyan Rose, unfortunately, nor does it change his hair color. Rather it’s a more aggressive look for Gohan much like the Ultimate Gohan transformation gives him. There is a change to Fused Zamasu as a result of all of this, however. 

Gohan Black, like Goku Black, is revealed to be a past Zamasu that took over Gohan’s body with the Super Dragon Balls and killed Videl and Pan as a result. Fusing together with Zamasu, Fused Zamasu’s hair changes to be more like Gohan’s in the final transformation. To defeat this invincible villain, Gohan trains with Piccolo to use the Evil Containment Wave and he and Trunks are able to hold down the god long enough to seal him away completely to save Trunks’ timeline.​ 

This one change not only makes Gohan much more significant, but further showcases what Gohan would have been capable of if he had continued to train his body after the fight with Frieza. It’s a much different kind of story that eventually sees him winning the Tournament of Power, but this new villainous form is the biggest shift in the canon by far.