Highlights

Super Saiyan Full Power negates drawbacks of Super Saiyan, allowing for increased focus and control in battle.
By mastering this form, Saiyans can perform everyday tasks and push their power beyond normal limits.
Super Saiyan Full Power serves as a stepping stone to achieving Super Saiyan 2, showing the importance of mastering transformations in Dragon Ball Z.

One of the Cell Saga's most interesting contributions to the Dragon Ball Z canon, is a form that harnesses the raw strength of Super Saiyan, and refines it into something less turbulent and more focused. Super Saiyan Full Power — alternatively known as Super Saiyan Fourth Grade or Super Saiyan Beyond Super Saiyan — was a state achieved by Goku and Gohan during their stay in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.

In essence, this form negates the major drawbacks of sustaining the Super Saiyan transformation in Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z. As the mastered version of the original Super Saiyan transformation, it was the main form utilized by both Goku and Gohan for most of the Cell Games Saga. Further down the line, this form would set a precedent for how to fully master transformations while also paving the way for the introduction of Super Saiyan 2.

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What Is Super Saiyan Full Power?

Fundamentally, Super Saiyan Full Power is a state achieved by maintaining the first Super Saiyan transformation for extended periods. Goku initially discovered this approach while training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for the Cell Games, after noticing the inherent flaws of the Super Saiyan Second Grade and Third Grade states.

While the Super Saiyan form is generally attained when a Saiyan with sufficient power experiences intense emotional turmoil, the heightened aggression and bouts of rage associated with this state can hinder a user's ability to exploit its benefits. By contrast, Super Saiyan Full Power helps a Saiyan's body acclimatize to the physical demands of the transformation.

Visually, the form is very similar to Super Saiyan, aside from heightened detail in the user's hair, which takes on a yellow-white color as opposed to the traditional yellow-gold. This latter color returns once the user powers up and prepares for combat. Additionally, a Saiyan's facial features become softer, calmer, and more cheerful in this state, which reflects the balanced frame of mind linked to this transformation.

Finding Strength In A Tranquil Mind

Dragon Ball Z Super Saiyan Full Power Goku Gohan Krillin

A particularly important aspect of this transformation lies in how it overcomes the wild emotions of the Super Saiyan form, keeping the user's anger in check. This also serves to make them more level-headed and calculated in battle, allowing them to focus their ki with greater efficiency. Subsequently, this also reduces the strain of maintaining the transformation.

Those who are able to remain in this state for extended periods, will reach a point where they can perform everyday tasks or even sleep while still in the form. Despite there being an initial period of adjustment — as the user gets accustomed to reining in their strength — the long-term benefits are immeasurable, given how it permits the user to use the Super Saiyan form indefinitely. Hence, Super Saiyan Full Power negates many of the drawbacks of Super Saiyan, without compromising on its strengths.

Mastering The Power Of An Ascended Saiyan

By remaining a Super Saiyan for long periods of time, ranging from days and weeks to even months, Saiyans can subconsciously condition and optimize their bodies to deal with the physical stress of the transformation. This in turn allows them to remove the strain of undergoing the transformation while powering up for battle, and more importantly, it also permits them to push their power beyond the normal limits of Super Saiyan.

Since Super Saiyan Full Power eliminates the release of excess ki, users can suppress or increase their power level as required, just like they would in their base form. The heightened ki control attained through this practice enables a Saiyan to focus all their energy on attacks, without having their stamina depleted by the task of maintaining the transformation.

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Moreover, they can also power down to a level near their base state, to perform everyday tasks which would otherwise have been difficult at their maximum strength. The Dragon Ball Z anime demonstrated this when Goku and Gohan initially struggled to even drink juice from a glass, because the enhanced strength of the Super Saiyan form led them to break said glasses. Over time, they were able to control their power to a point where they could perform everyday tasks while still maintaining the transformation.

While using Super Saiyan Full Power, a user's aura radiates energy in a much slower and smoother pattern, as opposed to the fiery appearance of the normal transformation. After powering up at the Cell Games, Goku was able to keep up with Perfect Cell for a time, which was something that Vegeta and Future Trunks failed to do in their Super Saiyan Second Grade and Third Grade forms. Another unique hallmark of Super Saiyan Full Power was the positive effect it had on wildlife, as both Gohan and Goku attracted birds and animals towards them.

Transcending The Limits Of Super Saiyan

Beyond all these advantages of tapping into the form, Super Saiyan Full Power also functions as a good springboard to reach the next level in this line of Saiyan transformations — Super Saiyan 2. As the first character to achieve this transformation in the main canon of Dragon Ball Z, Gohan spent a great deal of time mastering Super Saiyan Full Power prior to his climactic showdown against Cell.

Since Super Saiyan 2 is attained by powering up the Super Saiyan form beyond a certain threshold with the aid of a strong emotional trigger, Super Saiyan Full Power is an effective intermediary step to build up to it. By forcing their body to get used to maintaining the Super Saiyan form, a Saiyan will likely find it easier to power up even further, which is where the real impact of this form can be observed.

Dragon Ball Z is available to stream on Crunchyroll.