New Simplistic Transformations Are Good, Actually

[JulieYBM]

In Dragon Ball Super comic Chapter #87 a certain someone we all know and love returned to the forefront of the story with a new transformation in tow. The transformation was another simply change that retained the "oh, this is that character" factor while also showing off a marked change in their appearance. Dragon Ball has always had a thing for simplistic designs and I believe that's a really strong core decision to make in a illustration-based medium for several reasons!

1. Drawing is Hard: drawing is hard enough to accomplish for anyone, so creating a design that is easy for an artist—and the children at home—to replicate is good design work. It also leaves more room for an artist to add or remove details about having to worry about the drawing becoming 'off model'!
2. Too Many Lines: too many lines makes a design hard to look at. Some people have sensory processing issues so when a design has less lines it's easier to focus on the illustration, whether it's moving or not. This makes it easier for more people to understand your visual-based storytelling.
3. Time is Precious (and Money): Spending all day on a single drawing because your boss says so is a real drag, especially when you're not being financially compensated enough for it. I look at Dragon Ball GT's Super Saiyan 4 designs and am flabbergasted as how hard even a single one of those drawings must be to replicate, let alone trying to make those move! I know many fans are into seeing Dragon Ball replicate American comics' artists' super-detailed art or trying to go for hyper-realism like we see in action films coming out of Hollywood. Trying to make designs with a lot of shading and lines move is so much work for the illustrators involved. Your average Japanese comic artist is working two-thirds of the day as it is, asking them to do even more work is just not good for their health.
4. Colors Are Cool: Colors are cool! Combining a simple color change with a simplistic set of lines instantly tips off to the audience's brains "this is the same character, but different" which is a very useful tool for creators to get an idea across without taking seven years of explanation (like a Tolkien novel or some shit). Colors also bring to mind a certain tone or emotion that the audience will be able to associate with the new form.
5. Speed is Good: Conveying as much information as possible in as quick a manner is such a useful technique and helps an audience easily digest your work. With Super Saiyan God we got the feeling of "he looks smaller and less of a threat but the red hair indicates his fierce strength!" and with Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan we got a sense of "he has a disarming calm to him". In Chapter #87 the new 'Black Freeza' form might indicate a new level of evil or fierceness to Freeza or perhaps the opposite? He looks evil but he's really become nice! Black is also such a repeatedly used color in our manufacturing, our art and our lives that the brain automatically associates it with a 'basic' feeling or a 'default' feeling, so perhaps that's meant to be a hint at a meta joke? Freeza's new transformation is as basic as possible while also being a clear and bold indication of a change?

I really like the more simplistic transformations that we've seen in Dragon Ball Super because they don't get too bogged down in trying to impress with a ton of extra lines or shading that looks like a pain to replicate. Art should belong to everyone and be an easily understood language unto itself, not a competition to try and be a part of or to even understand. Accessible art like the simple design philosophy that Toriyama engages in is definitely underrated!

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

I agree, though I'd add simplistic designs with unique concepts are the best of both worlds. I liked that Super Saiyan God was introduced as a form where mortals can't sense the warrior's ki, so there was more to it than just being "the most powerful form yet". Ultra Instinct was also neat because it involved more mental strategy into battles, rather than just being an increase in physical strength and abilities.

I hope this new form of the emperor in the next chapter will be more interesting than the previous one but I'm not too optimistic.

[MasenkoHA]

I still prefer Super Saiyan God to Super Saiyan 4 which always felt over the top and not in a fun way.

[TheGreatness25]

I look at Dragon Ball GT's Super Saiyan 4 designs and am flabbergasted as how hard even a single one of those drawings must be to replicate, let alone trying to make those move!

I don't know--I never really thought that this was hard. The Super Saiyan 4 models are humanoid, so drawing them is pretty much the same as any other form. For manga, for example, they could be drawn with dark outlined eyes, a tail (which isn't that crazy), a slightly different shape to the anbs (to represent that the bottom of the four-pack is covered by fur), and just do little fur spikes off their shoulders in a couple of places. Now, I'm not sure what's going on with Goku's hair and why it seems like his hair looked different in every scene, but that's besides the point.

I think that the only true difficult thing about Super Saiyan 4 is coloring it, which really isn't much these days either. I think that the Ōzaru form is way, way more complex to draw. Heck, I think Piccolo is more complex to draw (particularly his arms).

Sorry to have gone on a tangent. I can tell you why I didn't like the recolor transformations. I think that I was so at-peace with Dragon Ball's retirement, that if it had to return, it would have to be a grand event. Amazing story, incredible art, amazing addition to the lore. So, the first recolor was for the Freeza movie and it was confirmed that DB would continue. So it was like they're resurrecting the series for a fan-ficy Freeza return story with a "new" transformation that looks the same as an old one.

It just felt underwhelming, I guess.

[Kaboom]

Simplistic designs are generally good, yes. But there's a line where "simplistic" crosses over into being just plain lazy, and much of what we've seen in Super has enthusiastically pole-vaulted over that line.

Super Saiyan God? That's a good and "simplistic" form design. It has more going on than JUST a color-swap, what with the slim physique and the changes to Goku's eyes. Those details are subtle, but when together with the color change they add up and actually make the overall design interesting.

But then Super Saiyan Blue? That's a bad and lazy design, without question. Those extra little traits that made SS God somewhat unique are gone, and now it's literally just "Super Saiyan but blue." Same for stuff like Ultra Instinct, which I can best sum up as "Super Saiyan God with all the color literally sucked out of it."

And it boggles my mind that Super Saiyan 4 is now so commonly knocked on for being a supposedly complicated form design. It's no more visually complex than something like half of Freeza's forms with the stripes and spikes, and probably less busy than any of Cell's forms with all the spots. As someone who actually free-form draws SS4 a lot, I can tell you I'd much rather knock out a half-dozen of those at once than draw even one Perfect Cell.

I genuinely believe that this new era of bland color-swaps has skewed people's impressions of what "over-designed" actually means.

[MasenkoHA]

and now it's literally just "Super Saiyan but blue

Super Saiyan is pretty much Saiyan but without their hair colored in.

Super Saiyan 2 is Super Saiyan but their hair has an erection. Toriyama completely forgot that form even existed because it's barely distinguishable from the first level.

And it boggles my mind that Super Saiyan 4 is now so commonly knocked on for being a supposedly complicated form design. It's no more visually complex than something like half of Freeza's forms with the stripes and spikes, and probably less busy than any of Cell's forms with all the spots. As someone who actually free-form draws SS4 a lot, I can tell you I'd much rather knock out a half-dozen of those at once than draw even one Perfect Cell.

It's not that it's "complicated" it's that it looks like its trying too hard. It looks like something 1996-2005 era Funimation would have come up with as part of their rebranding to make Z and GT hardcore.

I think a lot of fans still like it. Super Saiyan 4 and the ending seem to be the most universally praised parts of GT. But it's not for me.

But I prefer Z movie 4's version of Super Saiyan over the canon version so I can't talk!

[TheGreatness25]

and now it's literally just "Super Saiyan but blue

Super Saiyan is pretty much Saiyan but without their hair colored in.

Super Saiyan 2 is Super Saiyan but their hair has an erection. Toriyama completely forgot that form even existed because it's barely distinguishable from the first level.

And it boggles my mind that Super Saiyan 4 is now so commonly knocked on for being a supposedly complicated form design. It's no more visually complex than something like half of Freeza's forms with the stripes and spikes, and probably less busy than any of Cell's forms with all the spots. As someone who actually free-form draws SS4 a lot, I can tell you I'd much rather knock out a half-dozen of those at once than draw even one Perfect Cell.

It's not that it's "complicated" it's that it looks like its trying too hard. It looks like something 1996-2005 era Funimation would have come up with as part of their rebranding to make Z and GT hardcore.

I think a lot of fans still like it. Super Saiyan 4 and the ending seem to be the most universally praised parts of GT. But it's not for me.

But I prefer Z movie 4's version of Super Saiyan over the canon version so I can't talk!

I think that it drew in a lot of fans--where it was one of the highlights of the series to the fans that generally didn't like GT--because it stepped away from yet another gold form and incorporated the Ōzaru form a bit, calling back to their Saiyan heritage. This form didn't feel like an even stronger, more trained version of Super Saiyan, but a totally separate transformation that happened to be more powerful than Super Saiyan 3. It was definitely more ambiguous and intriguing than the alternative.

[Hellspawn28]

I still prefer Super Saiyan God to Super Saiyan 4 which always felt over the top and not in a fun way.

I feel the same. I like SSj4's desgin, but not as a Super Saiyan "4". It should have been its own transformation than a 4th form of Super Saiyan. Maybe call it "Primal Saiyan Form" or something.

[Grimlock]

Super Saiyan 2 is Super Saiyan but their hair has an erection.

With lightnings added. There, you've just created the best Super Saiyan (and overall speaking) transformation. No lack of eyebrows to make it weird and long-ass horrible hair. No ugly color scheme (that thankfully Heroes fixed it). And no ugly recolor. A very simplistic change from the original transformation was all that was needed to reach perfection.

Toriyama completely forgot that form even existed because it's barely distinguishable from the first level.

What's your point? It's rather irrelevant whether the author forgets it or not. Ask anyone and they will remember Super Saiyan 2. Better yet, ask Toriyama right after the serialization concluded and I bet he would remember it.

Toriyama often says he forgets stuff, so I don't see the point in using that as an argument. Super Saiyan 2 loses nothing just because its creator forgot about it decades later.

[JulieYBM]

Simplistic designs are generally good, yes. But there's a line where "simplistic" crosses over into being just plain lazy, and much of what we've seen in Super has enthusiastically pole-vaulted over that line.

Who defines 'lazy'? Why is it 'being lazy' and not, say, operating within the boundaries of one's neurodivergence? Why is it not "this accomplishes my needs" or "yeah, this looks good" and instead "you should feel bad for creating a character design that fits your needs"? I don't understand the point you're trying to make, because as someone that has worked in grueling conditions before and in general has health issues as well as not being neurotypical I think you're buying into a false idea. 'Laziness' as a concept was supposedly coined in 1540, so this makes me wonder, how, why, when, what and where? In 1540 we didn't exactly live in a time of great justice or understanding of the human condition. I think we should step back from the term and evaluate why we use it. I know as I've gotten older and learned more about my fellow humans and experienced the affects of full-time labor and bigotry on my mind and body I've come to hate that term. I think it shrugs off and ignores the very real effects daily life has on the human mind and body and the fact that we don't always recover quickly or fully.

My criticisms of Toriyama Akira as a person and creator aside, this is not an area I can criticize him. Toriyama faces the effects of who knows what mental scars working sixteen hour days and sleeping only a few hours a night for years at a time can do to one's body. Toriyama himself has gone on record as stating that not only did writing and drawing the Jako comic like he used to actually put him out of condition for a while he also had an adverse reaction to ink, hence his switching over to digital art. Taking an approach to design that prevents these reactions and also fulfils his design philosophy seems like a very healthy move on his part.

I know that in society we have a tendency to continually re-enforce what is a 'proper way to live' and deign anyone who does not live that way as 'lazy' but I believe that that is not a healthy way of living, having lived that way myself for my teens and twenties. This is a mentality that ultimately leads to burn out both physically and mentally. I can speak of my anecdotal evidence but why not point towards the aforementioned Toriyama or Togashi Yoshihiro-sensei, who himself is so thoroughly broken from his old production schedule that he can no longer shit on his own. The idea that anyone should feel a need to push themselves like those two did and on occasion still do is very unhealthy and something I think we should change about society.

Why do we deign to make a character judgment about what someone might physically and mentally simply not be able to bring themselves to do?

And it boggles my mind that Super Saiyan 4 is now so commonly knocked on for being a supposedly complicated form design. It's no more visually complex than something like half of Freeza's forms with the stripes and spikes, and probably less busy than any of Cell's forms with all the spots. As someone who actually free-form draws SS4 a lot, I can tell you I'd much rather knock out a half-dozen of those at once than draw even one Perfect Cell.

Super Saiyan 4 has a lot of extra lines and detail, not as many as Cell, but I am also more than willing to say characters like Cell are probably the reason Toriyama is now psychologically traumatized by drawing with ink and paper. Both designs had to have been hell to animate and are quite clearly the reason why neither form ever had particularly great fight scenes.

Like, imagine drawing Super Saiyan 4 once, then multiple times in a single shot. Then imagine having to do that again, all in the same day because key animators typically do two shots a day and tweeners typically do 20-30 tweens in a day. Sounds tough, right? But wait, you have to do that seven days a week for years on end now because you never make enough money to safely take time off! And now they introduced a fusion character with that fucking vest with those extra details you have to draw decently or else they don't look right! And this just a few episodes after having to animate Cell again!

God, don't even get me started on how Yamamuro just adds weird extra lines to his designs for Gokuu's pants since 2008! How are you supposed to draw all that, let alone multiple times in a day?

I genuinely believe that this new era of bland color-swaps has skewed people's impressions of what "over-designed" actually means.

My impressions of simplicity are influenced by more things than simply (lol) Dragon Ball. I've been doing the Dragon Ball fangirl thing since 1998, my views have definitely changed over time as I've experienced new things in life and interacted with other creators, too. I would not describe my experience with these 'modern era' forms to be any kind of negative, because I'm able to understand the ideas or even gleam from them any number of potential possibilities for why the decision to design them the way they were designed.

Web gen animators like Ryou-Chimo, Yamashita Shingo and others definitely changed my perception of what one could accomplish through simplistic drawings. Nakano Satoshi and Yasuda Shuuhei's designs for Pokemon Sun & Moon also changed my perception of how one could better utilize more simplistic drawings to make animation better for a long-running animated series. Nishio Tetsuya and Suzuki Hirofumi's designs for NARUTO also really place a part in that. Series like Evangelion in its simple (but structured) approach to its directing also have their own take on a "less is more" mentality.

I've also found through writing and writing and writing and reading and reading and reading over the years that sometimes even after all the turmoil of trying to decide how to phrase a sentence sometimes breaking form and just using a very simplistic wording is far more refreshing.

With Freeza's designs we saw Toriyama adding lines and body parts the more he transformed until he took all those things and removed them and used just a few lines to define his features. I think he underwent a similar approach for the Super Saiyan transformations, deciding that the hairstyles everyone knew best for Gokuu (base and Super Saiyan) worked best as-is and then simply changed the meaning of the forms through color. If Gokuu can say that forms like Grade II, Grade III and Super Saiyan 3 are no-good because of the flaws of their designs I don't see why we can't take a similar approach to the designs from an out-of-universe perspective. Not only is Super Saiyan 3 is pain in the ass to draw but it also takes forever trying to perfectly replicate the lines all the time, especially on a short amount of time as is afforded under capitalism.

[SupremeKai25]

I think that those who complain about "simplistic transformations" are being very superficial themselves, ironically.

For instance, Super Saiyan Rosé is "just a recolour", but it might just be the deepest Super Saiyan form ever in its symbolism. Why is it pink? Because pink has historically been associated with grace, elegance, nobility, and beauty, all traits that describe the vainglorious Zamasu. Why is it connected with the idea of roses/flowers? Because roses/flowers are all of the above, but they can also be dangerous, thorny, lethal. Just like Zamasu, who looks like your average, innocuous Supreme Kai, but is actually hiding a very shadowy and twisted nature.

You know, it's funny. Both Black with his Super Saiyan Rosé and Goku with his Ultra Instinct get praise by the fandom for these badass and cool forms, and all they had to do was change hair colour. Meanwhile SS4 over there is adding 30 different details compared to Base Goku just to achieve the same thing. Some forms just try too hard to look cool and badass.

As you know, Zamasu is my favourite character, so I spent a lot of time talking about Rosé. But really, you can make a similar argument for the other forms too. God forms in general are recolours, but in being "just recolours", they are also elegant. There is elegance in simplicity, and that's what God forms are all about really. They are the forms of the Gods, so they must convey the elegance, nobility, and grace of these Divine beings.

You can see why SS4, a literal half-naked tantrum monkey man, wouldn't work as a God form. As opposed to the calm, composed, and clean Super Saiyan God from BoG.

So basically people waste too much time on the fact that it's a recolour and they ignore all the themes, messages, and general aesthetic that the designers are trying to convey. When people say "oh i wish Goku's SSG looked more like SS4!", my instant reaction is "Why would a God form look like a primitive monkey man?"

[Majin Buu]

I don't outright dislike Super Saiyan God/Blue anymore, but I'll always prefer Super Saiyan 4 over it from a design perspective (also in concept, but this is about design). Not because its design is more complex, but because when I look at it I feel like I'm actually getting something new and different as opposed to Super Saiyan Blue (Super Saiyan God does have enough unique details to make it feel like a new thing), which just feels like a recycled version of something I've already seen (though in that sense it perfectly represents Super itself). The design being simplistic isn't the issue for me, it's that the design isn't different enough from regular Super Saiyan to feel like a new thing to me.

[JulieYBM]

I really like the red and black color matching for Super Saiyan 4. The hair style is also a nice touch and feels sort of feral in its length and such. Including the tail is also a nice touch. Gokuu's Ten-Times Kamehame-Ha is also a cool looking attack. Ooh, and the eyeliner-esque look is really neat, too!

[Wrigglything]

I guess the real issue is that some of these transformations have little narrative build up or intrigue, making the designs feel worse than they really would be I feel, though this sub series has also been good to build up its new forms too. For example, God had been built up throughout Battle of Gods as this powerful, nearly godly form of power in a way that hasn't been explored since the original Super Saiyan, if I can remember well, and Ultra Ego had at least Vegeta pondering on finding his own strength through his apprenticeship with Beerus' destruction power and running parallel to Goku through Whis' apprenticeship with his angelic power. But there are others like Blue just being given a rather throwaway and forgettable gain in the TV anime, and Blue Evolved having a sudden and not that well built up thing about forging his own path. In other words, Evolved walked so Ultra Ego could run.

The naming convention certainly doesn't help it too, being pretty blunt on the appearance and transformation it is iterating from, like Rosé and Blue, though on the other side of the coin we'd be getting equally silly names like Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan.

Overall, though, I do prefer to make things simpler, especially in an industry where artists have been known to be treated like crap and be essentially given peanuts for their hard work, as well as a long running franchise where creativity becomes stifled due to brand guidelines and the whole been there done that thing. And I'd say that none of the designs, Black Freeza and Evolved included, at least looks presentable, can look pretty cool and not too much an eyesore. Heck, black is my favourite colour and I am a sucker for dark coloured evil lord designs, so over time I might appreciate his design more. Though I'd just like it to really he meaningful for the characters and the world they live in I guess.

[Majin Buu]

I really like the red and black color matching for Super Saiyan 4. The hair style is also a nice touch and feels sort of feral in its length and such. Including the tail is also a nice touch. Gokuu's Ten-Times Kamehame-Ha is also a cool looking attack. Ooh, and the eyeliner-esque look is really neat, too!

Totally agree on the hair and eyes. They're a large part of what gives the form its fierce, primal look. And yeah, seeing Goku with a tail again is great. It's easy to forget that the tail was once a core part of his appearance so I love that the form brings that back.

I also like what the form does with Goku's eyes in particular. The yellow eyes it gives him combined with that eye-liner take it to a point where Goku's version of the form makes him look kinda evil; adding to the overall fierce look. I love it.

Conversely, it's telling that Vegeta's version of the form doesn't change his look as radically; but then that's always been the case with his versions of Super Saiyan.

[90sDBZ]

I like Super Saiyan God and Ultra Instinct because they both have interesting concepts behind them, and look distinct enough to not just be palette swaps.

I don't hate Blue, but it did feel lazy how it was just thrown in there with zero buildup, and it really is just Blue SS1 appearance wise. SS1 looked best on characters like Goku and Trunks, because it made their hair stand up more than normal.

I've always been a fan of SS4. It looks cool and unique, and resembles a caveman, while also tying back to the Great Ape form.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Blue was both lazy and badly planned because it was only added at the last minute to sell more toys and only undid what made Super Saiyan God unique and interesting. Its very telling that the original name Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan was so absurd it had to be retroactively named after the colour, making the sequence of God transformation names inconsistent.

[JulieYBM]

There's nothing 'lazy' about creating art, let alone writing a script and designing new characters and forms. You might think bad choices were made--I certainly do--but to say he's lazy despite spending weeks of his life working on the story and characters is more than a little poorly thought-out an argument.

[dva_raza]

like Ultra Instinct, which I can best sum up as "Super Saiyan God with all the color literally sucked out of it."

I think the designs should be coherent first and "creative" second.
SS4 looked cool but I can’t take seriously a transformation that somehow generates or changes clothes, like Goku's belt.
Ultra Instinct's 'sucked out colors' and glowing aura represent the concept of it perfectly. A clear, pure, simple state.
Honestly it looks great, and I don't see why expect more if transformations are most of the times just about hair/body color and very slight body changes.

[MasenkoHA]

I don't hate Blue, but it did feel lazy how it was just thrown in there with zero buildup, and it really is just Blue SS1 appearance wise. SS1 looked best on characters like Goku and Trunks, because it made their hair stand up more than normal.
.

My real problem with Blue is it retroactively cheapens Super Saiyan God. You don't need a ritual to surprass a Super Saiyan God? What was even the point? Vegeta never even became a Super Saiyan God. At least GT gave a good excuse for how Bulma helped him bypass level 3.

If it was written to be an intermediate form that does away with the ritual by not being as powerful (Super Saiyan Demigod) that would have been better but Bandai obviously wouldn't allow the newest toy they were advertising to be weaker than the old toy.

Design wise it's fine. If nothing else, the IP owners have done a great job at branding Super Saiyan Blue as the face of Dragon Ball Super.