Does the anime really imply that Kid Buu is the strongest?

[Diotor]

I thought it was implied that Kid Buu was in essence the "most evil" form of Buu, without any form of conscience or good nature taken from Fat Buu. Even Super Buu isn't fully destruction incarnate but Kid Buu is just a wrecking ball of destruction.

[Tectorman]

I thought it was implied that Kid Buu was in essence the "most evil" form of Buu, without any form of conscience or good nature taken from Fat Buu. Even Super Buu isn't fully destruction incarnate but Kid Buu is just a wrecking ball of destruction.

That's how I took it.

Now, to play Devil's Advocate from a different angle. In the manga, after Goku and Vegeta escape from Buu's head, we see Buu reverse-transforming. When he gets to the bulked-up form, Goku's comment is that Buu was getting stronger.

So maybe the anime was just taking that line from the manga and running with it.

The odd thing is, when he gets to Kid Buu, both Goku and Vegeta think of him as a manageable shrimp. Implying his chi went back down.

Was that our first hint at divine chi? Kid Buu had less chi than Bulk-Buu or Super Buu but it was mortal chi bordering on divine chi, so it registered less but accomplished more? If so, then it would go towards explaining how Goku could fight against that. In BoG, he absorbed the realm of divine chi as he was fighting against it. Maybe all of his fighting against Buu's various forms was doing the same thing, just with half-divine chi.

Just a pet theory that I wouldn't swear to.

[RandomGuy96]

Goku specifically mentions Kid Boo's power, speed, and powers of recovery being on a different level in comparison to the previous Boo's. Pretty sure that means he's more powerful, faster, and has better regeneration than any other version of Majin Boo.

And he says that while fighting Buu in SS2.

I think it should just be regarded as an anime plot hole like Piccolo blowing up that spaceship. Pure Buu > other Buus is stated twice in the anime. Super Buu and his various forms > Pure Buu is stated or outright shown (e.g. Super Buutenks vs SS3 Goku, Super Buu vs SS2 Goku, Mr. Buu vs Pure Buu, SS2 Vegeta vs Pure Buu) dozens of times, and even in the anime, the story stops making even the tiniest bit of sense if Pure Buu is stronger than any form of Super Buu.

[dprez]

Yeah, nobody's claiming it makes sense, but you know how Toei does things. Gotta make ~*~Goku~*~ look good, and all internal logic to the contrary is discarded. It's like they were getting in some practice for GT with the anime version of the Pure Boo fight.

Made me laugh. Love it.

I felt the same way when I finally watched that episode. I then saw why *that* debate had any ground to stand on...

[sintzu]

No, because Goku, after fighting Kid Buu, still thought he could kill him if he gathered power for a minute.

But Kid Buu was toying with both him and Vegeta so wouldn't that have showed a smaller power level ?

[rereboy]

No, because Goku, after fighting Kid Buu, still thought he could kill him if he gathered power for a minute.

But Kid Buu was toying with both him and Vegeta so wouldn't that have showed a smaller power level ?

Goku is one of the best, if not the best in the whole universe, at evaluating his opponents' true power even when they are holding back, and Kid Buu never increases in power enough for anyone to comment on that, so, no.

[ulisa]

I was always under the impression that power-wise, Kid Buu was weaker but he was the most DANGEROUS. I believe my initial interpretation was that while Kid Buu lacked the power of the merged versions, he was utterly insane and lacked the rationale (what little there was) of the other forms. I'm of the opinion that when a villain lacks power, if they have a dangerous personality, that can make them a harder foe to cope with. That's how I would categorize Kid Buu.

[Darkprince410]

No, because Goku, after fighting Kid Buu, still thought he could kill him if he gathered power for a minute.

But Kid Buu was toying with both him and Vegeta so wouldn't that have showed a smaller power level ?

The only time that it was ever suggested that Buu was toying with Goku was after Goku fired a Kamehameha at him and blew his lower body apart. Rather than instantly regenerating, Buu just sort of wiggled and danced around a bit, and Goku says this

Goku: “That bastard…Even though he can quickly return to normal, he’s playing around by purposefully drawing it out…”

That's it. There's nothing suggesting he was holding back or toying with Goku during the entire course of the fight. It's just that instance, when he decides to dance around and not regenerate himself back completely, where it's suggested that he's playing around.

[rereboy]

I was always under the impression that power-wise, Kid Buu was weaker but he was the most DANGEROUS. I believe my initial interpretation was that while Kid Buu lacked the power of the merged versions, he was utterly insane and lacked the rationale (what little there was) of the other forms. I'm of the opinion that when a villain lacks power, if they have a dangerous personality, that can make them a harder foe to cope with. That's how I would categorize Kid Buu.

That's essentially correct. That is pretty much implied by Kaioshin and demonstrated when Buu casually destroys the Earth.

[dbgtFO]

And he says that while fighting Buu in SS2.

Furthermore Vegeta also said that Goku far surpassed his power.
Even without SS3, Goku got a good deal of hype.