Best Super era Transformation?

[Vegard Aune]

In terms of design, most of them are just color swaps and to be honest, they are mostly color swaps that I don't think work all that well... Like, when I first saw Super Saiyan Blue I actively thought it was just a terrible combination.

...Gonna say Ultra Instinct Omen wins for me, which is admittedly mostly due to how incredibly cool its introduction was. And the fact that, well... it barely even looks like a transformation. It's just... regular Goku with different eyes, an aura, and technically slightly lighter hair that still reads as black. I've come to just kinda prefer base Goku's design to his many power-ups, and when the completed Ultra Instinct turned out to be silver-colored I was honestly rather disappointed.

[LoganForkHands73]

Super Saiyan God deserves a shout because it certainly feels like the last transformation that had any real thought and effort put into its design, though people still criticised the final design as a Kaioken rip-off. Toriyama gave very specific instructions on how it should look and the ethereal vibes it should have, rather than being another bulky evolution of Super Saiyan 3 or 4. I think the form still manages to have a unique allure because it appeared sparingly in the anime until the Tournament of Power arc, then Goku and Vegeta both used it to style on Broly. I really loved its presentation in that movie, it still conveyed the sense that God is a very calm, serene sort of form. I also like how Toyotaro kept it more consistently relevant in the manga, where Goku and Vegeta bust it out in almost every arc and though it's weaker than Blue, it can still be very useful when used appositely.

However, if we're talking about the coolest, most unique and narratively effective form with the biggest pop culture impact and genre roots... it has to be Ultra Instinct. The only lame thing about it that many people agree on is how it just became another colourful transformation, though I think that was always gonna be the case. I, for one, kinda dig the direction Toyotaro took it in the manga, where he acknowledges the silver-haired form as a transformation, but Goku's training arc to master the form involves removing the transformation aspect and incorporating it into himself. We see in later arcs that Goku can use Ultra Instinct (albeit, a weaker version) without changing his appearance at all. It all circles back to what Elder Kaioshin said: Super Saiyan forms are depraved. The true pinnacle of Goku's training would be to perfect his own power and only use transformations sparingly, if at all.