The 10 Most Overhyped Dragon Ball Transformations Ever, Ranked

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Akira Toriyama’s work is incredibly popular, largely because of its memorable action scenes, thrilling fights, and surprising combat strategies. The series also often shows characters gaining immense power through dramatic transformations.

Watching *Dragon Ball* evolve, it’s amazing how central transformations have become. It wasn’t always this way, but now I can barely picture the series without characters constantly powering up mid-battle. Some of these transformations, like Super Saiyan, Ultra Instinct, or Perfect Cell, are genuinely incredible and really deliver. But other times, a transformation that fans are hyped about just doesn’t quite live up to the expectation, and that can be a letdown.

Super Saiyan Blue Does The Bare Minimum With The Concept

Dragon Ball Super introduced new Super Saiyan transformations that incorporate divine energy. Super Saiyan God was a successful and relatively restrained step forward, with a simple design and striking fiery aura. However, its follow-up form feels like a less inspired and ultimately underwhelming improvement.

Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan – often just called Super Saiyan Blue – looks like a regular Super Saiyan, but with a bright, light blue hair and aura. Switching from ranking Super Saiyan forms with numbers to identifying them by color isn’t straightforward. It makes sense that *Dragon Ball* would introduce transformations that aren’t just more Super Saiyan forms after Super Saiyan Blue, to avoid repeating a limited creative path.

Kid Buu Is A Strange Step Back From Super Buu’s Bold Nature

It’s typical for villains in *Dragon Ball* to get stronger by transforming into different forms. Buu is unique because some of his transformations are caused by strong feelings, like with Evil Buu, and others happen when he absorbs other people, creating forms like Super Buu. Super Buu proves to be incredibly powerful, easily defeating many of *Dragon Ball*’s heroes, and he becomes even more dangerous as he absorbs fighters like Gohan, Piccolo, and Gotenks. Buu ultimately reaches his final form when Goku and Vegeta forcefully break free from inside his body.

Now that Good Buu is gone, Super Buu transforms into Kid Buu, a much smaller and more primal form. This was a surprising choice for the final villain of *Dragon Ball Z*, and it’s still debated among fans which version of Buu is actually the strongest. While the series aimed to be unexpected by making the final villain smaller, the change doesn’t quite live up to its full potential.

Golden Frieza Sets A Lazy Precedent For The Villain’s Future

Frieza is a major villain in the *Dragon Ball* series, and he’s well-known for being one of the first villains to use multiple transformations during a fight. *Dragon Ball* makes the most of this, giving each of his forms a unique look while still maintaining a consistent style. He returns in *Dragon Ball Super* with even more transformations, allowing him to challenge the increased power of Goku and Vegeta. His ‘Golden Frieza’ form is essentially his fourth form with a golden color scheme.

This new development feels less like a meaningful addition to the Dragon Ball story and more like a simple power-up from a video game. Unfortunately, it sets the stage for Frieza’s future form, Black Frieza, which offers more of the same. These transformations don’t showcase the creativity Dragon Ball is known for and sadly reflect a lack of ambition in recent installments. It’s especially frustrating because Cooler’s fifth form was a fantastic design that Frieza could have easily incorporated and improved upon.

Super Saiyan Rage Comes Out Of Nowhere & Is Hindered By Plot Armor

Future Trunks is a popular character who takes center stage again in the “Future” Trunks Saga of *Dragon Ball Super*. He’s become more powerful since we last saw him, having trained with Shin and Kibito and mastered Super Saiyan 2. Trunks bravely teams up with Goku and Vegeta to fight Future Zamasu and Goku Black, hoping to save his timeline. The battle becomes even more challenging when these villains fuse into a single, incredibly powerful being called Fused Zamasu.

It feels right that Future Trunks is the one who breaks Fused Zamasu’s connection and forces him to react. However, the introduction of Super Saiyan Rage feels unexpected and like a one-time power-up. It slightly diminishes the impact of that moment because it relies on this unusual transformation. Many fans were expecting Future Trunks to achieve a more established form like Super Saiyan 3 or Super Saiyan God instead.

Super Saiyan 3 Gets Out Of Control & Verges On Parody

Watching a show like *Dragon Ball* for so long, I’ve noticed it constantly has to up the ante with its characters. If *Dragon Ball Z* ended with Gohan’s Super Saiyan 2 form as the ultimate power, it would feel incomplete. But the way the Buu Saga played out almost broke the whole idea, eventually leading to a complete overhaul of the Super Saiyan transformations with Super Saiyan 4 in *Dragon Ball GT*. It’s interesting because each new Super Saiyan level makes the character’s hair longer, but Super Saiyan 3 takes it to an extreme – it gets so long it almost looks silly, especially on a shorter character like Gotenks.

I’ve always felt something a little strange about Super Saiyan 3. It just never really clicked in *Dragon Ball Z* or *Dragon Ball Super*, and it surprisingly never managed to actually beat any of the bad guys. It wasn’t until much later, in *Dragon Ball DAIMA*, that Vegeta finally used the form in a way that felt truly effective. Before that, it always seemed out of place, almost like it was shoehorned in for the sake of it.

Ultimate Gohan Changes From A Pivotal Power To A Bland Boost

A major theme in *Dragon Ball Z* is Gohan’s hidden power, and the story eventually delivers on that promise with a huge increase in his abilities. When Gohan first becomes a Super Saiyan 2, it’s a pivotal moment, and the subsequent fight with Buu tries to raise the stakes even higher. Gohan receives special training with the Old Kai on the Sacred World of the Kai, allowing him to reach his full potential and become Ultimate Gohan. He immediately puts this new power to good use, decisively defeating Super Buu upon his return to Earth.

Gohan’s Ultimate form is a bit underwhelming. While he gets a strong, white aura, his hair doesn’t change, making it subtle and hard to notice when he’s using it – almost like it doesn’t showcase the form’s power. Thankfully, Gohan Beast, a much more impressive transformation, seems to be a natural progression from this weaker state.

Super 17 & Super Android 13 Go Too Far & Uniquely Miss Their Marks

The *Dragon Ball* series is known for powerful transformations, sometimes achieved through fusion. Two notable examples are Super 17 from *Dragon Ball GT* and Super Android 13 from the seventh *Dragon Ball Z* movie. However, Super 17’s transformation is strange and doesn’t feel very impressive. He simply becomes more muscular and wears different clothes, which is odd since Android 17 and Hell Fighter 17 look alike. In fact, some of Super 17’s changes, like his machine gun arms and energy-absorbing parts, seem like a downgrade.

Super Android 13’s change is particularly strange. He takes in the microchips from Android 14 and 15, turning him into a large, blue, orange-haired monster. It’s one of the most unusual transformations in *Dragon Ball*, feeling more based on feeling than actual reasoning. Both of these transformations were intended to create thrilling final battles, but they end up feeling clumsy and ineffective as villains.

Omega Shenron’s Transformation Feels Like An Empty Afterthought

It’s a shame when a cool idea doesn’t quite match how strong something actually is. I remember watching Goku in *Dragon Ball GT* fight through a series of tough enemies in the Shadow Dragon Saga, leading up to the last one, Syn Shenron. Syn Shenron was already a major threat, but things really escalated when he absorbed the other six Dragon Balls. He became Omega Shenron, and at that point, he was unbelievably powerful – far stronger than even Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Vegeta, combining all the abilities of the other Shadow Dragons with a huge power boost.

It’s difficult to even see much of a design change when Syn Shenron transforms. The Dragon Ball moves from his head to his stomach, and his spikes and horns grow a little, but that’s about it. It’s a surprisingly simple transformation for the final villain of *Dragon Ball GT*, and it’s a letdown. A more impressive transformation would have incorporated design features from all the other Shadow Dragons.

Zarbon’s Monstrous Form Boils Down To A Simplistic Premise

Zarbon and Dodoria were Frieza’s top soldiers, but Zarbon was the more powerful of the two. He easily defeated Vegeta when they first fought, only sparing him because Vegeta knew about the Dragon Balls. Vegeta managed to fight back for a while, but Zarbon then transformed into a much more brutal and monstrous form. This transformation was a way for the series to play with the idea of inner beauty versus outward appearance, and it also showed that Zarbon was concerned with how he looked.

Zarbon doesn’t stay relevant for very long after revealing his powered-up form, so it ultimately doesn’t matter that he was hesitant to use it. In fact, his second form is actually more impressive and he shouldn’t be ashamed of it. It would be more logical if his stronger form *softened* his personality, making him seem more refined – that’s what he should be embarrassed about, not its power.

Giant Gomah Is A Garish Final Form That’s Unearned, Irritating & Easily Disarmed

As a long-time fan, I think what makes a transformation *really* work isn’t just the new look, it’s about whether it *feels* right. It’s super important that the character has earned it, and that it happens to someone who deserves the power-up. That’s why I’m finding *Dragon Ball DAIMA* so interesting! The whole ‘Evil Third Eye’ thing is building this great tension, and when Gomah finally gets his hands on it, wow! Seeing him go from this little, helpless bully to this massively powerful warrior is just awesome. It’s a transformation you really feel is justified, and that makes all the difference.

The transformation into Third Eye Gomah kicks off a significant change, though it’s frustrating to see such an annoying character become so strong. It feels unfair that someone like Glorio or Majin Kuu didn’t have to deal with the Evil Third Eye instead. The design of Giant Gomah is also very basic and doesn’t quite look right. Aside from its overwhelming power, the transformation is surprisingly vulnerable – just three quick hits to the back of the head will defeat it.

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2025-10-19 19:42