Ginyu's Body Change: why couldn't he control Goku's body?

When Goku arrived on Namek, Captain Ginyu was the first opponent to give him a real physical and mental challenge. Goku made a mockery of the rest of the Ginyu Force, but their captain was a bit stronger than them.

As the fight went on, Ginyu knew he was toast. Goku wasn't even getting close to his max power, and Ginyu had never expected him to be so strong. So when he realized he couldn't defeat Goku in battle, he used his coup de grâce, his secret technique: the Body Change. Here's everything we know about the move, what the guidebooks say, and why I think Dragon Ball Super got it wrong.

Where Captain Ginyu first uses the Body Change on Goku

If you want to go back and see the scene for yourself, it's Dragon Ball chapter 286, which is from August 7, 1990. That correlates to Dragon Ball Z episode 71.

The Daizenshuu guidebooks cover the technique on page 212 of Daizenshuu 2 and page 58 of Daizenshuu 4. In the English dub the move's call was changed to "Change now," but in the Japanese version Ginyu simply says "Change." According to the guidebooks, he fires a dazzling light at his opponent from his entire body. After the opponent is covered in this light, they're drawn into his body through the mouth, and the two exchange bodies.

The Body Change has two parts, and the first freezes you in place

Before going further, notice that this technique has two parts. Ginyu uses the first phase of the move to freeze you in place. That's something that isn't talked about much: the first part of the move holds his opponent still.

It's hard to deduce how he's able to do this. It could be ki manipulation. Or it could be a situation where the Dragon Ball manga and anime are slowing down time so we can process what's happening, like the five minutes with Frieza and other moments of that nature that Dragon Ball tends to do.

The guidebooks then explain that to exchange consciousness with his opponent, the user has a ball of his consciousness invade the opponent through the mouth. It spits out of Captain Ginyu and goes into the mouth of whoever he's changing bodies with, and he obtains their body.

Why Ginyu couldn't control Goku's body after the switch

The guidebooks also say it takes some time for both people to get used to their switched bodies, and during that time they're unable to further control their power. That's exactly what happens to Captain Ginyu. He takes over Goku's body and sees how much power he can tap into, with the Kaioken and so on. But he struggles to control Goku in the Kaioken because he has no knowledge of the move, and he also struggles to control Goku's body in base form. He doesn't know how to use it.

Goku at this point is extremely experienced. He shows mastery of the martial arts, he's been through so many battles and so many trainers, and he has extreme control of his body. Captain Ginyu is also impressive, very strong and well equipped for fighting, but he doesn't have the same experience Goku has, and he doesn't understand that body the way Goku does.

That adjustment time is why you see Gohan and Krillin performing so well against Goku, and why even Vegeta beats him up. It's not really Goku. It's Goku's body, and Ginyu has no idea what to do with it. I've talked in the past about how the more you train in the martial arts, the more you're able to control your ki, understand yourself, and have discipline and body control. This is like hitting the reset button and getting a new body.

Ginyu as a frog, and why the word has to be "Change"

The guidebook also talks about the anime's extra material, where Captain Ginyu, while he was a frog, used an animal translator to cry "Change" and switch bodies with Bulma. That only happened in the anime. The guidebook says he can't use the technique by shouting change in the frog language, so he has to shout "Change."

I think that's comical, because he isn't saying the word change in Japanese. He's saying the English word "change" in the Japanese version. I find it funny that for some reason it has to be that word. It can't be another word, even in the frog language.

That's the core of the technique: changing bodies with your opponent because you feel you can't defeat them in battle. If you can't beat them, join them, literally.

Is this Captain Ginyu's original body?

As far as we know, Captain Ginyu is the only person to have developed this technique. He may have been the one to come up with it, or maybe he learned it from some weird alien race. Who knows. That leads to a long-running mystery: if he knows this technique and has mastered it, is the body we see his original one?

That was answered a long time ago. I went through it on November 23, 2018, looking at a Toriyama drawing and at something revealed in the pages of Jump magazine back in 1991. That article says Salza was at one time in competition with Captain Ginyu to become the armored squad leader. According to that story, Captain Ginyu at one time didn't even want to work for Frieza. He wanted to work for Cooler. Salza is one of the few people who knows Captain Ginyu's true form.

Before anybody says that's from a movie and isn't part of the manga or anime continuity, I understand that. But I want to give you all the information, so you have it.

A rare soul technique that's hard to block

Captain Ginyu's Body Change is a very spiritual technique. He somehow uses his ki to put his soul into it, because that's what really happens. His consciousness, his soul, goes into a ball of energy and trades places with his opponent.

That's a pretty big deal. Think about how many techniques in Dragon Ball manipulate your soul or mess with your spirit or consciousness. There aren't many. We have the Devilmite Beam, and we have Gogeta's Soul Punisher and Stardust Breaker. There's only a handful, and Ginyu is able to do this.

On top of that, it seems to be a move that isn't blockable unless another living being gets in the way of the beam, which is what happens with the frog in Dragon Ball Z. When you break it down like that, it's a really underrated and powerful technique.

Dragon Ball Super's Tagoma scene broke Toriyama's rules

Dragon Ball Z wasn't the last time we saw the Body Change. Dragon Ball Super reintroduced it in its Resurrection F TV arc. That isn't the Resurrection F movie. That TV arc wasn't written by Toriyama. It took the Resurrection F story and added material from Toei Animation, and the scene where Captain Ginyu changes bodies with Tagoma was not written by Toriyama whatsoever. That was all the Toei team.

It created a bit of a retcon. Originally, only Captain Ginyu could say the word "Change" when he wanted to switch bodies. Those have always been the rules: Ginyu has to be the one to say it. But in this version, Ginyu as a frog, who somehow survived all these years, writes the word "change" into the ground. Tagoma says the word, it triggers the Body Change, and Ginyu somehow takes over Tagoma's body. That never made sense to me.

What made it worse is that Captain Ginyu learned to use Tagoma's body within seconds, when it was already established that he had problems learning Goku's body. Tagoma at that point was so much more powerful than Namek era Goku. It's ridiculous, and I think it's one of the stupidest things Toei Animation added. I'm guessing they did it to have Vegeta kill Ginyu in Tagoma's body and be the one who killed the entire Ginyu Force, adding some padding and fun to the series. To me it wasn't fun, and it took away from the original established Toriyama lore.

Zamasu's body swap and the original English dub

Dragon Ball Super also showed another kind of body change with Zamasu. That's totally different, because he used the Super Dragon Balls to do it.

In the original Funimation dub, Captain Ginyu didn't shout "Change" at all, which I see as one of those classic unnecessary dub changes they were making in 1999, because they had no idea what they were doing. They didn't realize he has to say the word for the move to work.

What happens if Ginyu body changes with a fused character?

One question always comes up: what would happen if Captain Ginyu used the Body Change on a fused character, whether a Potara fusion like Vegito or a Fusion Dance character like Gogeta or Gotenks, and then the 30 minute timer ran out and they defused?

There is no answer. Anybody who tries to give you one isn't being honest with you; they're theorizing. Toriyama has never given a direct answer, and there's never been an explanation in any of the guidebooks or magazine releases.

Presumably, one of two things could happen. Either the Body Change is countered and Ginyu gets his body back, or his consciousness is somehow split between the individual characters after the defusion, so Ginyu would control both Goku and Vegeta, or Goten and Trunks. That would be like how there were multiple Majin Buus with different consciousnesses, or the Cell Juniors, who all thought alike but each had their own brain. It's one of the most frequently asked questions in the history of this franchise, and there's no straight answer, because Toriyama himself has never gone on record. Maybe someday he will.