Does anyone use energy nullification/cancellation?

[DragonBallFoodie]

Giorno Giovanna from JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE has the ability to null, or cancel out, any attack thrown at him, which includes time-based attacks. He is effectively the strongest fighter that series made and so did not make any further appearances.

Given how a lot of DB uses energy attacks, such an ability would be of great importance, maybe even make its wielder the most powerful. Is there anyone who can use his ability in the Dragon Ball saga?

[theherodjl]

Of course. Beerus cancelled out the combined Ki blast that he & SSJG Goku made at the beginning of DBS. There's also Hakaishin Toppo eliminating Freeza's planet-busting blast with a small piece of destructive energy. Even back in DBZ, Goku demonstrated the ability to cancel out a Ki blast with his bare hands(in a filler scene) while fighting Majin Vegeta. If we want to get really technical about it then by definition, anyone who can simply tank a Ki blast with minimal effort cancels said-energy out. Kid Goku did that to Krillin's kamehameha just by putting his palm up way back in the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai.

[DragonBallFoodie]

Ah, but nobody actually uses cancelling itself as a fighting skill.

Maybe someone might someday.

[theherodjl]

Ah, but nobody actually uses cancelling itself as a fighting skill.

Maybe someone might someday.

They might not use it regularly...but they can use it, which I do believe was your question. Its sort of like how Superman has demonstrated certain abilities for one time only(like vibrating his body so fast that he became intangible to physical blows) but then decided not to whip it out ever again...for reasons.

[Polyphase Avatron]

Ah, but nobody actually uses cancelling itself as a fighting skill.

Maybe someone might someday.

They might not use it regularly...but they can use it, which I do believe was your question. Its sort of like how Superman has demonstrated certain abilities for one time only(like vibrating his body so fast that he became intangible to physical blows) but then decided not to whip it out ever again...for reasons.

He's actually done that many times... it's just that there are so many comics that for every time he's done it, there are a dozen times he didn't do it when it would have been useful.

I don't suppose you can really blame the writers for not memorizing all of his powers, though.

[DBZ Macky]

The best example of energy nullification I can think of is Tenshinhan (before he gets reduced to Mr. Kikoho)

Spoiler:

I think this is the closest we've gotten to pure energy nullification, but it's nothing as broken as GER.

Though, when you have Goku and Jiren breaking out of Hit's techniques just by being strong enough, they could probably nullify some stand abilities unless they're incredibly broken like the over heaven stands. But that's a whole separate discussion.

[Polyphase Avatron]

There are several different ways to "nullify" energy attacks in the series.

Off the top of my head:

- Overpowering it with your own ki, like the Tenshinhan example above. This can be done by anyone who knows how, and has ki greater than or equal to that of the attack. This can also take several forms, like using a kiai like Tenshinhan did there, catching it in your hands and crushing it, using a ki blast of your own, etc.

- Absorbing it. This can only be done by certain characters (Androids 19 and 20, Yakon, Super 17, etc.) If the attack is too powerful you can run the risk of overloading, though.

- Hakai it. Using Energy of Destruction you can erase things including the ki attacks of your opponents. We saw Toppo do this in the ToP, and even coat himself with a layer of it to cancel out attacks. This can still be defeated, though, if your opponent throws so much ki at you at once that you can't erase all of it in time, as seen with Vegeta's Final Explosion.

- Whatever Beerus was doing in his fight with Goku in the DBS anime. He stated that he could 'cancel out all of Goku's ki', and we didn't see any of the telltale signs of Energy of Destruction like when Toppo was using it, and Goku was able to physically hit him, so he wasn't covered in a layer of the Energy of Destruction (otherwise Goku would get erased when he made contact). It's possible that Beerus was just so much more skilled and experienced using it than Toppo was that he was able to do it without any clear signs, and make sure not to use it offensively against Goku, or it might be a different technique altogether.

- Botamo's barrier. This is one of, if not the, best defensive technique in the series, able to nullify both kinetic damage and energy attacks by sending the energy to another dimension. If it wasn't for the possibility of ringing him out both times the Z senshi faced him, Botamo might have been a practically unbeatable enemy. We don't know what the limit of this ability is, or if it could do anything to stop more exotic attacks like Hakai, Mafuba, Devilmite Beam, etc. We do know that it didn't save him from being erased by Zeno, though.

- Probably the closest thing to the GER Stand actually appeared in the SDBH anime, strangely enough. All 12 Hakaishin were preparing Energy of Destruction attacks against Tokitoki, but he simply flapped his wings and caused the energy spheres to shrink and vanish. Since Tokitoki's power is over time, we can presume that he locally reversed time to cancel the attacks. Unlike GER though, this ability doesn't seem to be automatic, and Tokitoki isn't really a fighter or skilled in any type of combat. But if a character who could actually fight could use this ability it would be insanely powerful, like imagine aging your opponent to dust or reverting them to an embryo in the middle of combat.

There might be other examples, but these are just the ones that come to mind.

[mmg86]

I've been a HUUUUGE fan of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure since 2006, and felt like being nitpicky here... calling Giorno's Gold Experience Requiem "the ability to null, or cancel out, any attack thrown at him" (and implying with the title of the topic that it's "energy nullification/cancellation") is underselling it quite a bit. I also take issue with you calling him "the strongest fighter that series made" when "fighter" is a very unfitting term for most Stand Users, but pay me no mind there, hahaha.

I feel that Botamo's ability is the one thing in DB that most closely resembles GER, but it's still quite different. If a character copied/stole that, plus had the ability to "nullify energy" that Beerus used in DBS Battle of Gods arc AND what Polyphase Avatron mentioned Toki Toki did in SDBH, combined... it would be a reasonable approximation to GER. Even then, unless it's a character that's not meant to fight anybody (such as Zenoh), you probably won't ever get a DB character with that powerset... it's very unfitting of a series revolving so much around fighting to have characters that can't actually be, well, fought.

[Kaywayk]

There's a scene in the anime where SSj2 Goku just "nullifies" Vegeta's chi blast:

https://youtu.be/te02cP5zGNQ?t=151

The sequence starts at around 2:31

It's filler, I'm pretty sure, but at the very least there is precedent of characters being able to do it.

[Polyphase Avatron]

There's a scene in the anime where SSj2 Goku just "nullifies" Vegeta's chi blast:

https://youtu.be/te02cP5zGNQ?t=151

The sequence starts at around 2:31

It's filler, I'm pretty sure, but at the very least there is precedent of characters being able to do it.

I think that falls under category 1 in my post.

[SupremeKai25]

Fused Zamasu's Barrier of Light was stated to be able to nullify any attack thrown at him. The same goes for Toppo's hakai aura.

[Galan007]

Goku also appeared to do something similar when he fought Nappa:

Spoiler:

[Polyphase Avatron]

https://dragonball.fandom.com/wiki/Kiai