Metamoran Fusion Explained: Who Really Came Up With the Idea, and How Toei Broke the 30 Minute Limit

Metamoran fusion, the finger pose technique that gave Dragon Ball both Gotenks and Gogeta, didn't start as a purely Akira Toriyama idea. Toriyama credits a fellow manga artist with suggesting it, and that artist tells a different story. The technique's own rules, especially its 30 minute time limit, have been bent many times since the original manga.

A long time ago I covered fusion in an explainer as part of my Dragon Ball in-depth series. Since then I started this technique guide, and I decided to do an updated version with a lot more detail and a lot more information than we had six or seven years ago. I already covered Namekian fusion, or assimilation, in an earlier technique guide, because I wanted to split them all up. This one is strictly about Metamoran fusion, the traditional finger pose fusion.

Characters combining was rooted in Japanese entertainment long before Dragon Ball's fusion

The concept behind characters fusing together is not a Toriyama idea. It's been rooted in Japanese entertainment for decades. There were mecha anime and manga where the mechs would combine to form a bigger, stronger mech, and the same thing happened with monsters. That bled into the live action Japanese shows known as tokusatsu, where all of this played out week after week and even year after year.

The inspiration is clear even in Dragon Ball itself, before the Z portion of the story. Who could forget when Pilaf, Shu and Mai's three battle robots fused together to create a bigger one to battle Goku? The first time one of the good guys fused was Piccolo and Nail doing the Namekian assimilation, but that technique belongs to a separate guide, so here I want to focus strictly on Metamoran fusion.

Toriyama credits Masakazu Katsura with the fusion idea, but Katsura says Toriyama wasn't listening

According to Toriyama himself, the man behind this idea, or at least the man who gave it to Toriyama, was fellow manga artist and writer Masakazu Katsura. The two would work together in 2008 on a special collaboration for Jump magazine, but they had been friends for decades before that. In the early 1980s they were introduced to each other because they had the same editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, who has been very influential in Dragon Ball, in other manga and even in video games.

Toriyama and Katsura also seem to have the same kind of sense of humor. Toriyama credits Katsura with coming up with the idea to have two characters fuse together in Dragon Ball, leading to the fusion technique. When asked, though, Katsura says it's only a rumor. He did in fact suggest it to him, but he knows Toriyama was not listening, and he claims Toriyama later thought it up on his own. That's wacky, but either way, no matter which story you choose to believe, the idea for fusion is not native to Dragon Ball.

Even in Journey to the West, which Toriyama took inspiration from for Dragon Ball, the only types of fusion you see are demons merging together, and that's not quite like this. When Toriyama began the Buu saga, he needed a way to make characters combine while facing an opponent so powerful they could not beat him one on one. That led him to the fusion pose and Metamoran fusion.

Goku learned fusion from the Metamorans, not the Yardrats

In the lore, the first time Goku ever mentions fusion is after the battle with Majin Vegeta and Vegeta's sacrifice. When everything calms down, they go up to the sacred temple, and Goku says the only chance they might have of beating Majin Buu is the fusion technique. At that point nobody on Earth had heard of it. Dende, who is from planet Namek, somehow knew of it according to the manga, maybe from the Namekian book of legends or from an elder.

Nobody on Earth knew it because the technique wasn't developed there. It was developed by the people of planet Metamor, and Goku met some dead members of that race, the Metamorans, in the Other World after the Cell saga, during the seven year time skip. Goku accomplished quite a bit in that time: besides learning the fusion pose, he also mastered Super Saiyan 3 and became a much better fighter. We never actually see the Metamorans or Goku learning it in the manga. Goku just explains it, and there's not much else about them.

I think a lot of people confuse the Metamorans with the Yardrats. I've seen people say Goku learned fusion from the Yardrats, and that's not true. He learned instantaneous movement from them, but fusion from the Metamorans, and both were learned off screen, which is why it gets confusing. Goku was determined to teach Goten and Trunks because they had the most potential at the time. Everyone thought Gohan was dead, so the boys were kind of their last hope, although later on we find out Goku just wanted to give them something to do.

The Daizenshuu rules: matching power, matching size and a deliberately embarrassing pose

The Daizenshuu guidebook describes fusion as an art where two humans can merge only if their power and body size are very close. Through merging, the two users give birth to a separate person who possesses power and techniques surpassing what they had on their own. The two must perform the fusion pose symmetrically, and the guidebook notes the pose is very embarrassing for two adults to perform. Toriyama himself talks about purposely making it look goofy to add comic relief, and at one point Goku and Piccolo embarrassingly show it off to Goten and Trunks so they can learn it.

Within the original 42 volumes of the manga, not counting the movies or anything after Toriyama's core work from the 80s and 90s, the only characters we saw successfully perform Metamoran fusion were Goten and Trunks. Daizenshuu 4, page 116, explains that they fail two times because their pose is slightly wrong. A failed fusion greatly changes the body type of the result, making them fat or thin, and weakens the two users instead of strengthening them. That's how we got fat Gotenks and skinny Gotenks. The fused name combines the two users' names, which is how Trunks and Goten became Gotenks.

The guidebook also says that after merging, their clothes are those of the citizens of planet Metamor. So if you've ever wondered why they get that vest and the baggy pants, those are Metamoran clothes, which I've always thought looked very cool. It never made sense how a technique can change your clothes like that, so let's just say it's magic, because really it is magic. Matching power matters too: while training them, Goku orders Trunks to lower his ki to match Goten's, so the stronger partner has to come down to the weaker one's level for the fusion to work properly.

Why I don't agree with the guidebooks on fusion's power, and how Gotenks reached Super Saiyan 3

The power of fusion has been a huge debate for many years, because I feel like so many people in the fandom either overrate or underrate it. Not everyone, just most people. I think even the guidebooks might have it wrong. In one of them, and I forget which, they say fusion is a multiplication of user one's and user two's power. I don't believe that's the case, and if that was the original intended idea, it's definitely been changed over the years, especially with Dragon Ball Super: Broly, because Gogeta himself says something different. It could be a multiplication of power, but there's obviously an extra boost from being fused.

The guidebook's own explanation says the fusion becomes a separate person. Gotenks is a combination of Goten and Trunks with similar memories, but he is a separate person, and that's why he could achieve Super Saiyan 3 while Goten and Trunks didn't know how to do it on their own. I see a couple of reasons. First, the power base of a fused character is much higher than an individual's, so you'll get a boost in power no matter what if you do the fusion right. Second, Gotenks has a different mind than Goten and Trunks and is a smarter fighter. The fused character gains a form of intellect and knowledge the individuals don't have, though there's no explanation for why.

In the anime version of Dragon Ball Z, there's a scene where Goku demonstrates Super Saiyan 3 in front of Trunks and Goten. That could lead to Gotenks remembering it and tapping into it with a higher power level. It's never explicitly explained, but that's my best guess.

Goku and Vegeta fused into Veku before Gogeta in Fusion Reborn, then reached Gogeta again in Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Goten and Trunks weren't the only ones to use the pose. In the anime only events, Goku and Vegeta used it in Dragon Ball Z movie 12, known in Japan as Revival of Fusion!! Goku and Vegeta and in the West as Fusion Reborn. According to the guidebook, Vegeta hated the idea of fusing with his rival Goku, but cornered by the evil enemy Janemba, he reluctantly went along with it. They fail once, which leads to Veku, according to Daizenshuu 6, page 142. Veku loses, and after the time limit runs out they try again, successfully create Gogeta and completely annihilate Janemba.

Later, in Dragon Ball GT, we saw Gogeta one more time as a Super Saiyan 4, and he was insanely powerful. Goku and Vegeta wouldn't fuse with the pose again until the Dragon Ball Super era. In Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Goku teaches Vegeta the fusion pose, they fail twice, and they finally achieve Gogeta. We see Gogeta in his base form for the first time in any official anime or manga material, and we later see that he can reach not only the regular golden haired Super Saiyan but also Super Saiyan Blue. Gogeta Blue versus Broly is the main event fight of that film.

Gogeta gave Broly a pummeling that neither Goku nor Vegeta could hope to achieve. The power of fusion can be debated, but there's no question it's extremely high. Goten and Trunks would have been smashed by Majin Buu had they not been able to fuse, maybe a one hit kill. Against Broly, Goku and Vegeta could probably take a few of his attacks, and they did, but beating him the way they did probably wasn't going to happen unless Goku could tap into Ultra Instinct. At that point he couldn't activate it at will, so they were stuck with fusing, and it worked out for them.

The 30 minute time limit, and how Toei's anime and movies broke it

In the original manga, we were told a fusion only lasts 30 minutes. That's the drawback: you get a great and powerful character, but there's a time limit. There's also another drawback. A character using higher amounts of energy can cut that 30 minutes all the way down to five, and once the time runs out or too much power is used, the fusion splits back into two people. We were also told that after defusing, they cannot fuse again for another hour. If we're being blunt, Toriyama obviously uses this to keep a fused character from finishing off an opponent, to prolong the story and add drama or unpredictability. I do feel like they've sort of overused that idea a bit, maybe with other forms, but there's a reason he put it there.

Interestingly, the rule has been broken a few times, and it's kind of annoying when it is. The 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! had Goten and Trunks accidentally fuse into fat Gotenks and then somehow defuse immediately, when you're supposed to stay in that form for 30 minutes. You could blame movie timing for why Gogeta was fat for a shorter time in the Fusion Reborn film, and in GT, Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta only lasted 10 minutes because it was way too much power. The TV version of the Resurrection F arc in Dragon Ball Super, written by Toei's writers rather than Toriyama, put Gotenks in and once again forgot about the time limit.

Time isn't the only thing that can break a fusion. In Dragon Ball Z movie 13, Goten and Trunks create Gotenks and go right to Super Saiyan 3, and the giant kaiju Hirudegarn knocks him away and they unfuse immediately. That means Hirudegarn is incredibly strong, and also that the writers wanted Gotenks in the movie just to get smashed to make Goku look better. In the manga it all kind of made sense, but in the anime filler and the movies, Toei kind of took liberties with the time limit and with the power of fusion. They never explained whether fused characters can manually defuse, as Gotenks seemed to in that 2008 special, which would be a simple explanation. We never got that, so it's a contradiction. The manga never really contradicts these rules; it's only the supplemental material.

Gogeta's design origins are still a mystery, and fusion spread through the games

Regardless of those problems, fusion has become iconic in this franchise, not just the pose but characters like Gogeta, who are immensely popular. Gogeta was a big part of why Dragon Ball Super: Broly sold so well, because it was the first time we saw Toriyama writing Gogeta into the series rather than leaving him as a hypothetical character from GT and one movie. At the time, I said we may see him again at some point and that time would tell.

Toriyama was one of many people involved in creating Gogeta, but we don't know how much involvement he had, because back then he would work with Tadayoshi Yamamuro to create the movie characters. Toriyama claims his first drawing of Gogeta is the one from the Dragon Box The Movies release. That doesn't mean he drew it then; it could be an old sketch from the 90s that he gave to Toei. It could be that this is what he designed for movie 12, and Yamamuro may simply have adapted it for the anime. There's still a lot of mystery there.

Fusion began in Dragon Ball manga chapter 469 and went on to become a huge hit with fans. In the manga we saw a hypothetical Goku and Mr. Satan fusion, which was very funny. Tenshinhan and Yamcha fuse in Budokai 2, and Piccolo fuses with Dr. Mashirito in Jump Superstars, which is rare because Mashirito is a non Dragon Ball character from Dr. Slump. Dragon Ball Heroes has Gohan and Trunks fusing, and there are tons of others. I think fusion will live on forever because people want to see more fusions, villains or good guys, and it's just synonymous with Dragon Ball. My next fusion technique guide was planned to cover Potara fusion and how it differs from this one.

Which Metamoran fusion would you most like to see again: Gotenks, Gogeta, or one of the game exclusive pairings?