Just occurred to me that there might not be one
Saiyan saga has kaioken which isn’t technically a form but may as well be Frieza saga has super Saiyan, cell saga has super Saiyan grades and super Saiyan 2, buu has super Saiyan 3, bog has god, then blue, blue evolved and ui
Am I missing one?
I always viewed Kaioken as a martial arts technique. Like breathing helps martial artists strike harder. I’m the same breath Kaioken uses the user’s energy up at a much higher pace like breathing to perform a strike would. I think Kaioken though flashy, still respects the classic Dragon Ball, martial arts and techniques are important line of thinking. Even to the point one of the core themes of that arc is hard work(Goku learning new techniques) trumps natural born talent(Vegeta). But after that martial arts and techniques mean very little it becomes what colour is your hair and the original message is lost…
I kind of liked Ultra-Instinct at the end of Super for this reason. It’s not some transformation or unlocked racial boon. It’s positioned as a genuine technique achieved by removing conscious thought from the equation and allowing each part of the trained body to react on its own. Yes, we’re in the divine arc, and the gods try to position the technique as divine power, but the unique simplicity of how it functions brings us back to ground from the world of legendary transformations and cyber-biological enhancements. It fits in a martial arts anime, even if the series isn’t quite that anymore.
I think at least in the anime, kaioken serves the exact same purpose as forms of just granting Goku a massive power boost to overcome a strong enemy and much like forms is more or less forgotten about once a newer shinier one comes around (until ssb kaioken much later on anyway)
To each there own but Kaioken didn’t defeat Vegeta and Gokeu basically went lol SS I win to Friesa… Though it was great in the moment.
I think the core theme of hard work doesn’t just die it becomes the opposite and Goku is special. If you are anyone but Goku you are just the delaying tactic until he shows up.
Only person sorta following the old hard work theme is Tien as he seems to follow the be better than you were yesterday and don’t worry about the people better than you mantra.
No, except for maybe the Trunks from the future arch, super sayian 2 was kinda new at the moment, but still already seen on the main series. (edit, I think on that arch Trunks doesn’t get SS 2 but SS1. I don’t remember well)
Dragon Ball has the curse of needed to introduce new forms and raise the power level in order to continue the story.
They get SS2 in the time chamber. I think there’s 4 SS2s?
Spoiler alerts, obviously:
None of DragonBall introduced new forms.
Beyond that it’s a little more dicey on what you would call a new “form”. A lot of archs had a power increase pre ssj1, but no form change. The radditz saga didn’t have one. The vagita saga didn’t have one, but the kio-ken burst move was implemented. The namek/Ginyu saga had no form changes but Goku became super strong while training under 100g gravity while going to Namek. The Dr.Gero saga had no new forms, but Vagita became a ssj1. Garlic Jr saga didn’t have any but I wouldn’t call that a major arch. It was more like filler. Ssj2 popped up at the start of the Bobbidy saga but flat lined there until the Buu saga. The otherworld tournament had no new ones.
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
I think that depends on what you consider an arc. I would consider the entire time they’re on namek the frieza saga
The android arc before cell is introduced, vegeta and trunks were shown to go SS but not SS2 until well into the cell arc
i guess the first z arc? it has kaioken but thats not a form its a technique
