How to not ripoff Super Saiyan?

[SSJ Human]

So basically I was thinking about the impact that the Super Saiyan transformation had on the franchise and I was writing a series that at one point I wanted to include a transformation in. I wanted the hair color to change and strength to be gained, but I don't want it to be seen as a ripoff of Super Saiyan. Any suggestions?

[Kamiccolo9]

Don't have strength gain go along with a change in hair color.

Not the answer you're wanting, I know. but Super Saiyan is more or less ingrained in popular culture now.

[SSJ Human]

Don't have strength gain go along with a change in hair color.

Not the answer you're wanting, I know. but Super Saiyan is more or less ingrained in popular culture now.

I just want there to be some indication that they are different. I was thinking maybe they could have an aura, but that's another characteristic of Super Saiyan.

I know right? It's as though anything that I watch that has characters which are superhuman in ability have a power up that is similar to it.

[fadeddreams5]

Try to think of changes in other aspects of the physical body, rather than hair and muscles. Skin, veins, eyes, etc.

[TheGmGoken]

Have only the eyes change. No muscle change. Just eye change. Whateva it's colour, shape, or design

[fadeddreams5]

Have only the eyes change. No muscle change. Just eye change. Whateva it's colour, shape, or design

I think Naruto did that. lol.

[SSJ Human]

Try to think of changes in other aspects of the physical body, rather than hair and muscles. Skin, veins, eyes, etc.

I don't think I'll mess with skin but I could definitely see eyes being altered, but again, that's something else that Super Saiyan does. The eyes won't turn green though. That's for sure.

Have only the eyes change. No muscle change. Just eye change. Whateva it's colour, shape, or design

Didn't Naruto already do that? I like the idea, but I couldn't use red like they did or green like Super Saiyan does so I've got fewer options.

[Lord Beerus]

It's kind of hard to come up with a transformation that doesn't somehow relate to Super Saiyan. Because Super Saiyan covers every basis of change in appearance that comes with a transformation; hair, eyes, aura, muscle mass etc.

Maybe you could do a change of skin colour.

[Bullza]

Yeah maybe something more akin to Luffy's Gear Two mode or the Hulk.

[SSJ Human]

Yeah maybe something more akin to Luffy's Gear Two mode or the Hulk.

You could argue that, but I had an idea of doing something similar to Kaio-ken where it would be an aura around them that was a different color than red.

[Kamiccolo9]

I don't see how a Hulk ripoff would be any less recognizable than one of a Super Saiyan.

[SSJ Human]

I don't see how a Hulk ripoff would be any less recognizable than one of a Super Saiyan.

That's a good point especially if it causes them to not act like themselves.

It's kind of like Super Sonic from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. We know it is inspired by Super Saiyan but there's a level of originality to it.

[Bullza]

There is? He powers up and turns into a pointy haired Gold being. It's 100% a Dragon Ball Z ripoff.

A character transforming, getting stronger and having a difference in appearance especially with the hair is just synonymous with DBZ now.

It might work if you also drastically changed the rest of the characters appearance too like with Ichigo Kurosakis Final Getsuga form.

[Pantalones]

Yeah, any "hair change, aura, power boost" transformation is going to be seen as Super Saiyan-like. The hair turning gold, though, is the aspect that people associate most strongly with Super Saiyan -- so if you avoid "hair changes to some bright, unusual color," or avoid hair changes altogether, you should be fine. Alternatively, a very subdued hair color change (like a brunette's hair becoming lighter brown, or darkening until it's near-black) could possibly work without resembling Super Saiyan that much -- the drastic change from black (...or purple) to gold is a big part of why Super Saiyan's color change stood out so much.

Just an aura without a hair change, though, I think can work without seeming too "Super Saiyany"... so long as the aura's at least a bit different from the standard "gold swooshy energy" that Super Saiyans get. Maybe it's just wind swirling around then rather than an actual visible aura, maybe it takes a shape rather than the general "big flame-like swooshes around the whole body" thing (like "wings" or "claws" or "arms/fists" of energy forming around the appropriate parts of the character's body, rather than a general full-body aura.) If you do want a full-body aura, well, an aura taking the form of armor -- like not actually becoming solid armor, just taking the shape of it and surrounding the appropriate body parts -- has probably been done before somewhere, but it's certainly different from Super Saiyan to the point where nobody in their right mind would associate them just based on appearance. Or how about rather than the wide aura that Super Saiyans show, it's an aura that's condensed right around the surface of someone's body, so you can only see a silhouette of their original shape and the rest is all the glowy stuff? They'd basically look like they were made of some weird energy all of a sudden. That's definitely different from Super Saiyan.

Speaking of armor, transformations that create armor can be a thing, too. Either "organic"-ish armor (bug shells, scales, fur -- people aren't going to think Oozaru or SSj4 right off, I'd imagine most people's minds are much more likely to hover toward werewolf if a human suddenly sprouts thick fur over their body) or full-on metal armor (or Power Ranger spandex-metal?) appearing out of nowhere could work.

Glowing eyes have been a "transformation thing" long before Dragonball Z, so as long as the change isn't just a "pupil/iris region of eye changes color" thing like Super Saiyan's, I don't think an eye change will automatically draw cries of "Super Saiyan ripoff" -- and if does, the people saying so will either be dumb, or stretching things a bit much.

Having the effect of the transformation be different than just a generalized power boost would probably help differentiate them, too.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Pretty much every type of transformation has been done in one series/fictional story or another... hair/eyes/aura changing, bulking up, growing wings/extra arms, turning into a monster, etc. Perhaps one way to make it different would be to make the transformation permanent and irreversible.

[Fionordequester]

Honestly, I wouldn't even worry about it. Like others have said, transformations of all sorts have been done so much, that trying not to "rip off" any transformation is a little like trying to write a story that does not resemble ANY other story that ever existed. It's either not going to happen, or the end result isn't going to be that great.

That said though, be careful not to "rip off" TOO much from anything. Put your own unique spin on it. That's what most artists do I think.

[Godo]

Face change. The more powerful they become, the more distinct shape their face gets. Like a boy transforms, and he suddenly has the face of a grown-up man. A geezer becomes bishônen.
If you are writing a comedy series, that would be funny as hell.

[Doctor.]

How about you change up the fighting style? I really haven't seen that kind of stuff before outside of transformations that modify the user's entire body (like Luffy's Gears).

[SSJ Human]

How about you change up the fighting style? I really haven't seen that kind of stuff before outside of transformations that modify the user's entire body (like Luffy's Gears).

Right. I remember that transformation. I just thought the hair color change would be the easiest to point out and be distinct from the regular appearance more than their eyes as was suggested earlier.

[Doctor.]

How about you change up the fighting style? I really haven't seen that kind of stuff before outside of transformations that modify the user's entire body (like Luffy's Gears).

Right. I remember that transformation. I just thought the hair color change would be the easiest to point out and be distinct from the regular appearance more than their eyes as was suggested earlier.

You can still give him a hair colour change, just instead of giving him a huge boost in power as a result, his fighting style changes somehow (how it's written, you'll have to figure it out, I'm afraid).