Super Saiyan Blue Evolution Explained: How Vegeta Chose His Own Path Instead of Ultra Instinct

Super Saiyan Blue Evolution exists because Vegeta decided he would not follow Goku into Ultra Instinct. During the Tournament of Power he saw that amazing transformation, wanted it for himself, and over time realised that becoming an Ultra Instinct expert was not his forte, so he went down his own path instead. Here is everything we knew about the form as of September 2022.

Vegeta turned away from Ultra Instinct and forged Blue Evolution

Blue Evolution is an interesting one. It may share some similarities with Perfected Blue from the manga, but it is not quite the same thing, and neither are its origins. I have already covered both the base Super Saiyan Blue and Perfected Blue in separate transformation guides, so this piece focuses on Blue Evolution alone.

What I find interesting is that there are obvious ideas in this form that were taken from things Vegeta did in the original manga, yet as far as we know Akira Toriyama had nothing to do with it.

As far as we know, Toei Animation, not Akira Toriyama, created Blue Evolution

This form was created by Toei Animation. It was originally conceived and illustrated by Dragon Ball Super chief character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro, who was also an animation supervisor and a director on various Dragon Ball projects going all the way back to the 90s.

When I looked at it in 2022, there had never been any mention of Blue Evolution outside of the anime and maybe Heroes. We had not seen it in the manga, we had not seen it in any of the recent movies, and Toriyama himself had not revealed anything about it. We had, however, seen Toriyama's illustrations for Ultra Instinct and for the new forms in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Based on the fact that we had only seen Yamamuro's designs, that led us to believe it was a Toei Animation exclusive form that may or may not get adapted into future episodes, manga or movies, depending on where they wanted to go with it.

The concept behind Blue Evolution, though, is one the Dragon Ball Super manga revisited with Ultra Ego: the idea that Vegeta wanted to go his own way.

Vegeta's long chase of Goku set the stage for the form

From the very beginning of the Vegeta character arc, he has been trying to play catch up to Goku. Of the two, Goku was always the one to achieve new levels of power and new transformations while Vegeta was trying to catch up. In many ways that built up a lot of resentment inside Vegeta, born of envy and confusion as to why Goku could achieve this power despite being rated a low class warrior at birth while Vegeta was a super elite. It did not make sense to him.

Then, in the Buu saga, Vegeta finally realised that "it's not about what power level you're born with it's about what you do with the time you are given while you're alive." Goku's hard work and fighting genius are what allowed him to discover these new levels of power.

That runs all the way into the Tournament of Power. Before we saw Blue Evolution, we saw Goku tap into Ultra Instinct, and at that time it was Ultra Instinct Omen, not the silver haired version, at least not yet. Vegeta, seeing Goku's incredible speed and power in that form, wanted to match him and learn Ultra Instinct, but it did not work out. The more he fought Jiren and the other members of Universe 11, the more he realised he could not follow in Goku's footsteps at that point, so he chose his own path and mutated his version of Super Saiyan Blue into Blue Evolution.

A royal blue hint in the credits foreshadowed Vegeta's pride powered form

It has been a while, but the first time we ever saw Blue Evolution was in one of the Dragon Ball Super credit sequences. There is a shot of Goku and Vegeta next to each other, with Goku in Ultra Instinct Omen and Vegeta in what looked like Super Saiyan Blue, except the colours were slightly different. He seemed a bit more glossy, and it was more of a royal blue. And why not royal blue? He is of the bloodline of royalty. That was our first hint of what was to come.

As the fight in the Tournament of Power progressed, we saw that Goku could not maintain Ultra Instinct for much longer. So rather than going down that road, Vegeta tapped into Blue Evolution by drawing on what has always driven him to be a great warrior: his own pride.

This idea was revisited in the manga version of the Granola arc with Ultra Ego Vegeta, which I have covered separately and which is based on pride and ego. It is almost like Blue Evolution was possibly inspiring for Toyotaro to write, and maybe for Toriyama to help out with, or perhaps it is just similar ideals based on Vegeta's character. I have also talked a lot about Vegeta's similarities to Beerus, and how Beerus is a much more fitting trainer for Vegeta while Whis is a far more fitting trainer for Goku, although both share training duties for the two fighters. Blue Evolution suits Vegeta better.

Blue Evolution let Vegeta break his limits and survive Toppo's final explosion

Although Blue Evolution has never proven to be as useful as Ultra Instinct, it still allowed Vegeta to break his limits, go beyond and fight at his best, shattering what he could previously do. That made him a more competitive fighter.

It also allowed him to survive the final explosion he used on Toppo in the Tournament of Power. I do think Blue Evolution, and Vegeta making himself stronger, had a hand in that. The Grand Priest himself states that Vegeta appeared to have broken through his shell, and that allowed him to tap into higher levels of power.

The form closely resembles Vegeta's Super Saiyan Grade 2 against Cell

When I said the form references material from the original manga and Dragon Ball Z, I meant it. Blue Evolution very much resembles Vegeta's transformation against second form Cell, when he tapped into what was called Super Saiyan Grade 2, known in the Western world as Ascended Saiyan thanks to what I consider a quite frankly incorrect English dub.

When Vegeta taps into Grade 2, he gets really buff. He literally doubles in muscle mass, gets larger and gains power, but does not sacrifice speed. That is unlike Grade 3, which Trunks used against Perfect Cell and which unfortunately gave him a handicap. The same goes for Blue Evolution: as far as we can see, there is no drawback to using it.

Cabba and Universe 6 gave Vegeta's pride a selfless purpose

So there are similarities, but what makes Blue Evolution different from Ultra Ego or Grade 2 is that, although it is based in Vegeta's pride and his never give up attitude, it was not just about him and his loved ones. In the anime, Vegeta was reminiscing about his new friends from Universe 6, Cabba, whom he had become something of a mentor to since the Universe 6 arc. He remembered what they stood for and was bummed out that they had been wiped out in the tournament, with no idea they would ever be brought back.

That triggered his deeper rooted anger and pride: he could not allow this to happen to any more people, and he had to fight for his universe. That is a very noble and, quite frankly, a very Goku or Gohan reason to transform, but it works for Vegeta because, believe it or not, it is not about him.

I have noticed that a lot of people think ego and pride are synonymous with arrogance. There are similarities, but it is not the same thing. You can be proud of your friends, your family and your loved ones, of hard work on a project or a weight loss goal, and even of your heritage, your race, your country or your religion. That is an aspect of pride, not arrogance. Ego is also rooted in confidence. Vegeta's pride here is not the arrogance it has been in the past, especially against Cell. It is him finding something inside to pull from to get through hard times. Goku achieved Ultra Instinct, Vegeta's body was not ready for that power, so he focused on the passing of his friends and used that to fuel him.

Director Megumi Ishitani said Blue Evolution was on par with Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken

Dragon Ball Super director Megumi Ishitani, who directed episode 131, was interviewed shortly after the episode aired and revealed that Blue Evolution was an anime only form, as I noted above, and that it is relative to Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken. So when we see Goku and Vegeta side by side facing Jiren, they are at roughly the same level of power, which means it is not quite at Ultra Instinct.

In the Granola arc, one could argue Ultra Ego is a bit closer. As of 2022 we did not really know the exact differences between mastered or true Ultra Instinct Goku and Ultra Ego, especially since Vegeta had not used that form often while Goku had more experience with Ultra Instinct. One would assume that if Vegeta used Blue Evolution in the future it would likely get stronger, but as of the Tournament of Power it is equal to Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken.

Goku never reached Blue Evolution, and it gave Vegeta a second wind

Blue Evolution is also one of the transformations we do not see Goku achieve. Could Goku ever hit it? Probably, since he has enough experience and is strong enough. But would we ever see him do it? At the time, I said no. I think this form is going to be Vegeta's specialty, and the fact that we never saw Goku use it is rare, because "Goku gets everything."

Beyond the extra power, Vegeta also seemed to get a second wind. It was not like he was magically healed, like what Super Saiyan God did in the Battle of Gods arc, something I am not sure we ever saw again. But Blue Evolution seemed to give him a lot more energy. He was tired after fighting non stop for quite some time, and the form gave him power and stamina. And while Kaioken can often leave your body burnt out, Blue Evolution does not have that issue.

Fighting Toppo's Hakai energy makes Blue Evolution a precursor to Ultra Ego

On top of that, Vegeta faced off against God of Destruction Toppo and, in Blue Evolution, was able to combat him and his Hakai energy. To me that says, without question, that Blue Evolution is a precursor to what we would come to know as Ultra Ego.

Granted, I do not think it was done on purpose or planned out this way. I think it just happened to come out like this because multiple stories are being told from multiple perspectives by different writers, and Toriyama is not the only person writing the story now. With different cooks in the kitchen, "you're going to have different flavors but ultimately the flavors tell the same story": Vegeta ultimately chose to go his own path.

Do you think Goku could ever unlock Blue Evolution, or should it stay Vegeta's alone?