Does SSJ Grade 2/"Ascended Saiyan" suffer from slowdown?

[Nineteen]

Quick question, and not one I've seen answered in other threads on the subject of the Super Saiyan "grades". If there was a slowdown, it wasn't enough to make the form disadvantageous against Semi-Perfect Cell.

[Savage68]

According to daizenshuu #7:

A power-up where every nerve is concentrated, sending ki throughout the body and inflating the muscles. This is capable of raising both power and speed much higher than a Super Saiyan.

[Herms]

Daizenshuu 7 and the Perfect Files both say that the form's power and speed are greater than regular Super Saiyan. The Perfect Files says it increases power and speed through ki, so if ki increases both power and speed, while big muscles increase power but decrease speed, maybe it's a question of balancing ki increase with inflated muscles.

I just made this up, but I like to think it works something like this:

Regular Super Saiyan
Power: 1
Speed: 1
This is the most balanced form, as Goku says.

Super Saiyan Grade II
Ki increases by 2, and muscles by 1.
Power: 1+2+1=4
Speed: 1+2-1=2
Not very balanced stats, but they've still both gone up.

Super Saiyan Grade III
Now ki increases by 2 again, while muscles increase by a whopping 4.
Power: 4+2+4=10
Speed: 2+2-4=0
So power goes through the roof, but now you can't move.

[SuperForteX]

Interesting theory, Herms, but I think the disadvantage to Grade 2 didn't have anything to do with speed, unlike Grade 3. I think the reason Goku favored regular Super Saiyan over Grade 2 as well, had to do with the energy exertion to maintain the form. Just my personal opinion, and I don't have anything to back it up, but nothing really indicates at all that anything bad was happening with Grade 2's speed.

It seemed to be a really stressful state to be in. Didn't Vegeta and Goku have a vein popping out of their forehead at all times while in Grade 2? Or is that just during transformation. Either way, it just looked really stressful.

[Super Vegito]

I think both speed and power increased in Grade 2, at the cost of Ki. Grade 3 was where the power increased even more, but speed suffered, with an even greater cost of Ki (the reason Vegeta didn't use it).

[Piccolo Daimao]

nothing really indicates at all that anything bad was happening with Grade 2's speed.

That's because it wasn't important in relation to Cell. Vegeta was beating Cell's ass because he was much stronger and faster than him, despite the imbalance in power and speed. But we see that after Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan Grade 2, he doesn't look pleased. After Gohan says that he can definitely defeat Cell, Goku doesn't reply and doesn't look pleased, with that speech bubble with "..." inside it, before saying that he can go a level higher and proceeds to transform into a Super Saiyan Grade 3.

[Super Saiyan Turlast x4]

I never read the entry on the Grade 2 form before. That's interesting.

I always assumed it increased speed since Trunks used it when it was clear he wasn't going to catch up to Cell in Super Saiyan.

[Fox666]

Well, technically Trunks can't move in Grade III because of the size of the muscles, that shouldn't slow down the Bukujutsu

[SylentEcho]

I've got to agree with Herms here. Grade II gets an enormous increase in power, but speed takes a huge back seat. We even saw Cell do this when he blew his top and he couldn't even touch Gohan.

[SuperForteX]

I've got to agree with Herms here. Grade II gets an enormous increase in power, but speed takes a huge back seat. We even saw Cell do this when he blew his top and he couldn't even touch Gohan.

That's Grade III, not Grade II.

[SylentEcho]

What's grade 2 then? I thought an ascended Saiya-jin was the bulky form. Are you referring to the controlled SSJ state that Goku and Gohan showed post RoSaT?

[Savage68]

Super Saiyan Grade 2 is the bulky form that Vegeta used on Cell. Super Saiyan Grade 3 is the even bulkier form that Trunks foolishly used. "Ascended" is just dub terminology, I believe.

[Herms]

The terms "Grade 2" and "Grade 3" are based on when Goku displays these forms to Gohan: he transforms into Super Vegeta's bulky form, then says he can transform one grade (dankai) further and promptly transforms into Trunks' super-duper bulky form. Daizenshuu 2 is the first place to formally label the forms Grade 2 and Grade 3. Viz translates Goku's line as "I can do one more notch!", so I guess in Viz terms they'd be Notch 2 and Notch 3.

[SuperForteX]

Does FUNimation distinguish between the two forms, or are they both refered to as "Ascended"? I'm curious how they're refered to in the anime by Toei as well.

[Rory]

Does FUNimation distinguish between the two forms, or are they both refered to as "Ascended"?

The only pieces of official FUNimation related media I've found with the Grade forms is in the original NA version of Budokai, an the Sparking! series in which they used the term "Super".
For example, in the original Budokai There is Trunks, Super Saiyan Trunks, Super Trunks 1, and Super Trunks 2.
Super Trunks 1 is the Grade 2 form, while Super Trunks 2 is the grade 3 form.
I'm sure in the Sparking! games they used similar terms for these characters, though instead of forms 1&2 for Trunks, there is only "Super Trunks", which is meant to represent both grades.
All these terms are trademarked by FUNimation, so I guess it's as official as you'll get.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I'm sure in the Sparking! games they used similar terms for these characters, though instead of forms 1&2 for Trunks, there is only "Super Trunks", which is meant to represent both grades.

No, in the Sparking! games, "Super Trunks" is meant to represent Super Saiyan Grade 3, because he looks just as muscular as he did in that form and it's used in the Cell arc story mode. He doesn't have Super Saiyan Grade 2 in the Sparking! games - he just skips straight to Grade 3.