When did the Super Saiyan stop becoming sacred for you?

[Soppa Saia People]

Trunks when first watching it, now it's a badass moment but the first time I saw it, I was like "This random kid can turn SS ? ". Same with Goten and Trunks but we didn't get to see why and it doesn't feel earned.

[LightBing]

When the characters start talking and acting on surpassing SSJ. It was trashed so fast, that all the mysticism was quickly lost. We had Tenshinhan and everybody else going insane about how amazing SSJ was, only for a few chapters to pass and be deemed useless after Vegeta lost to Lazuli.

It was never given a chance to be a significant point in the characters progression. Compared it with Super Saiyan God, that is still relevant a couple of arcs in. Super Saiyan should've gotten the same treatment.

[TheMikado]

Definitely when Goten and Kid Trunks got it. Watching Trunks, Goku, Gohan and Vegeta obtain it through rage/tough training, I disliked how those two brats got it so easily.

I agree with you on this. Vegeta's reaction to it encapsulates the entire situation: "When has the legendary Super Saiyan been reduced to a child's play?" and "Naturally, its a Super Saiyan bargain sale."

These are literally the most Meta words ever written.

[Zephyr]

It didn't help that FUNimation's "Rock the Dragon" opening used a later animation where Goku drops down and explodes into Super Saiyan, so even if you were blindly following JUST the dub in syndication, you saw it coming a mile away.

You know, I wonder if that in itself actually added to the significance of the moment. You knew what the Super Saiyan was, you knew it was coming, but you didn't necessarily know when or where or how.

As an example: For anyone who's watched/read HunterXHunter, I had been watching the 2011 version mostly blind a few months ago, and...let's just say I had seen pictures of a certain version of Gon many months beforehand. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it would be a part of the series eventually. So there were episodes where I was just thinking, "is the moment going to happen yet? Is it going to happen yet?" And when it DID happen, it felt incredibly significant. Like, something the entire arc had been building up to (even if that wasn't the author's original intention).

It did remind me of what it'd be like for people watching dubbed DBZ. Knowing Goku was going to go Super Saiyan eventually, knowing what it looked like, but not necessarily knowing when or the context behind it. While, for that audience, the transformation wouldn't have the shock factor of, say, the people reading it Jump for the first time. It had something else. Expectations.

That's actually how a lot of things in the series were for me, most notably Super Saiyan 3. I'd seen it on the back of the box of one of the DBZ action figures I'd gotten. Later still, I saw a complete overview of the future transformations in an issue of Beckett. Made me extremely hyped to see the form. So much so that I was expecting Vegeta to reach the form after coming out of the RoSaT and fighting Cell, because his hair was starting to grow a bit during the transformation sequence into his Grade II form. When it finally happened on the air for me, it was amazing.

[TheatreStyleKai]

For me it was the introduction of No. 17 and No. 18. Watching future Gohan and Vegeta struggle and get beat down I couldn't help think "damn, these are just two human teenagers with machine parts, and they're beating the crap out of guys even stronger than Freeza". And then came questions of how a single human scientist managed to create technology far more advanced than anything from Freeza's empire, despite the advantages of FTL travel, regeneration technology, etc. I enjoyed the story arc over all, but I feel like it was a step backwards in story telling.

[TheMikado]

^ that's a fair assessment.

[lancerman]

The minute future Trunks got it. Didn't take a rocket scientist to realize what it was going to lead to.

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

It was well before I ever got to that point in the series, because so many types of media and merchandise had spoiled the fact that tons of characters eventually got it. One need only look at the back of any issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly in the mid-90s to have the "secret" or "surprise" ruined.

Right here. Echoing my story again, Iwent through the series with FUNimation's dub, but did not stop watching with any great regularity until just before Buu, and had read about future events in print a little ways before. I didn't have time to form an attachment left to bronze- a bit hard to when the first transformation you saw in context was Super Saiyan 3. Which leads me also to Vegetto's conclusion; never "sacred", but that lets you enjoy the highlights and sideline Goten and Trunks.

[Vijay]

The minute future Trunks got it. Didn't take a rocket scientist to realize what it was going to lead to.

Reallly? I mean, did you figure out Future Trunks would curbstomp Frieza & Cold, only to be curbstomped by some random Androids that far ahead?

Unless your a seasoned anime fan, I dont think you can exactly pin-point the direction Toriyama was headed with Android Arc to be honest

[SaiyàBitō]

For me, the Super Saiya-jin isn't as "sacred" as I thought anymore.

Literally DISLIKED how Son Goten and Torankusu (Kid) obtained the form just out of the blue

Now I can see why Son Gokōu, Son Gohan, Bejita and Torankusu (Future) achieved such a form... But them....no...just no.

[Xeztin]

For me is was as soon as Vegeta got it. I think I felt that there should be only one Super Saiyan in existence at a time since the legend was so hyped up about this powerful warrior. I got the vibe from the story that Goku was a descendant of the first Super Saiyan, which is why not just anyone can attain it. I guess i felt like it was a sharingan - Uchiha thing only type of deal. Meaning it was only possible for Goku's bloodline, but boy was I wrong!

[KidGoku>3]

When they decided to give it to everyone else not named Goku. With him it was a looong but tense buildup. You felt it. The others ? Felt like Oprah just giving everyone one for the sake of it.

Which is a shame.

[KameRule]

When Gokuu got his arse handed to him in the legendary form by a random clown robot built on Earth. For me, that was when the mystique kind of faded.

[TheMikado]

The minute future Trunks got it. Didn't take a rocket scientist to realize what it was going to lead to.

Reallly? I mean, did you figure out Future Trunks would curbstomp Frieza & Cold, only to be curbstomped by some random Androids that far ahead?

Unless your a seasoned anime fan, I dont think you can exactly pin-point the direction Toriyama was headed with Android Arc to be honest

Well to be far Trunk pretty much stated everyone was going SS in his timeline.

[Vijay]

The minute future Trunks got it. Didn't take a rocket scientist to realize what it was going to lead to.

Reallly? I mean, did you figure out Future Trunks would curbstomp Frieza & Cold, only to be curbstomped by some random Androids that far ahead?

Unless your a seasoned anime fan, I dont think you can exactly pin-point the direction Toriyama was headed with Android Arc to be honest

Well to be far Trunk pretty much stated everyone was going SS in his timeline.

Really? Trunks only said the Androids killed everyone, with only Son Gohan escaping but even him..whike Goku never even fought the Androids as he died from heart disease.

Where did the everyone going SSJ line came from?

To add to the topic, its not that SSJ stopped being sacred or anything at all for me. Its a majestic state. Most iconic & distinguishable state in anime history. Just one glance at Naruto or Ichigo or Adult Gon & you can instantly recollect the borrowed traces of SSJ

With that being said, I kinda felt this sometime when watching M8. Looking at LSSJ Broly's form & display of brutality (an obvious trait of Saiyan race), kinda felt other "regular" SSJ states as ASSJ, USSJ, FPSSJ to be "less sacred".

Maybe dats got to do with my general perception of LSSJ form being represented by Broly so perfectly, while with Goku & others it was watered-down.

[Draconic]

When Vegeta got it. Not because he achieved it, but the fact he got it while having a hissy fit about being weak just showed that it wasn't that big a deal to do it.

[Esfír Dedragón]

Interesting question.

The Super Saiyan transformation has always been memorable for me; it's simplicity yet significant change in a character's personality/strength was something that I deeply loved when I was young.

Growing up watching both anime, Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, at the same time, I got to see bits and pieces of all the sagas that were ever made years after their original syndication. DBZ's Android Saga opening and the Latin American commercials already "ruined" the surprise for me, but not knowing the chronological context behind it made me curious as to when/where/how Goku and Co. would eventually achieve it. I was surprised and pleased watching the Frieza saga for the first time and finding out that it was during that time when the transformation first occurred. Storywise, it made sense. "Of course Goku would transform during his fight with Frieza" was my thought process at the time.

I would have to say, however, that it was Super Saiyan 4 that made me feel that the transformation became "cheap". The design, while looking cool, was too radically different. That and combine it with GT's storyline made the experience worse.

As for Goten and Trunks, I never found it to be cheap. I reasoned that they were most likely conceived when their fathers were already stronger than Frieza. Stronger sperm=stronger child?

[Dr. Casey]

It was probably around the time that Vegeta became a Super Saiyan. I'd actually say that the Super Saiyan form stood out the most during the early Android stuff; I'd kind of become desensitized to Goku's new form by the end of the Frieza battle, but seeing SSJs among the much brighter and more varied color palate of the Cell arc rather than the murky greens of Namek and amongst a wider variety of characters restored much of the luster and appeal for me. So for me, the Super Saiyan form probably seems its most impressive and special during the return of Frieza to SSJ Goku vs. Android 19 and 20 stretch. By the time Gohan becomes a SSJ, the form seems about as mundane as it does anywhere else in the franchise ala the movies, GT, or Super. "Yeah, it's Dragon Ball, of course there's going to be Super Saiyans, whatever."

Of course, the impact would be muted somewhat eventually by sheer episode count, even if Goku had remained the only Super Saiyan. Vegeta's transformation kind of diminishes things for me because all eyes are no longer on only Goku and Trunks, but the impact might have started becoming diluted not too much longer afterwards because the SSJ form was already about 35 episodes old by that point, and probably maintained its freshness only as long as it did because most people had gone through close to 250 pre-SSJ episodes.

On a random note, I always liked Vegeta's role in the Garlic Jr. arc. Served as a nice extension to his Frieza self's villain status and a small bridge to the android arc. Garlic Jr. actually helped the SSJ form to feel more impressive to me by expanding the amount of time that Goku was the only SSJ, and returning the focus to characters who'd never seen a Super Saiyan and could only wonder what it was like and feel lesser in comparison.

[lancerman]

The minute future Trunks got it. Didn't take a rocket scientist to realize what it was going to lead to.

Reallly? I mean, did you figure out Future Trunks would curbstomp Frieza & Cold, only to be curbstomped by some random Androids that far ahead?

Unless your a seasoned anime fan, I dont think you can exactly pin-point the direction Toriyama was headed with Android Arc to be honest

I mean you have this big power up. Only 1 character can do it. Another character shows up confirming that anybody in the race can do it. The next bad guys are worse than the old bad guy who you needed the power up to beat. There are two other people that have the capability to do it and one of them is obsessed with it. Not hard to see the tease there.

[Darkton]

I'd say I stopped caring when Vegeta, Trunks, and Goku did it all in a row during Rock the Dragon.