Dragon Ball Super Chapter 80: Elec Removes Gas's Seal and Gas Unlocks a New Form

Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 80, titled Granolah vs Gas 2, showed that Gas's power had been suppressed by a seal. Once Elec removed it, Gas went berserk, then learned to control that rage and unlocked a new form. The chapter closed with Elec calling him little brother. Back in 2015 I never would have thought this manga would reach chapter 80, but it kept going, and the battle between the Heeters and Goku, Vegeta and, above all, Granolah continued here.

The title isn't very creative, but it's a very different chapter. I feel it probably has about as much action as the last one. The difference is how much we finally learn about what Gas can do. We got a lot more information on Gas here than we had before.

Gas slowly catches up to a Senzu restored Granolah

I covered the first part of this chapter when the original draft pages came out. Gas begins to catch up to Granolah little by little. He learns Granolah's movements, finds ways to increase his own strength, and basically evens the odds against a Granolah who had been powered back up with a Senzu bean.

Reading the previous month's chapter, I often wondered whether this was really the height of Gas's power. As this chapter shows, it really isn't. At one point Granolah basically uses telekinesis to lift a bunch of rocks and then blows them up, turning them into little grenades. That was kind of a cool idea, but I feel that by this point powers like that aren't going to work on Gas.

Goku and Vegeta are quick to sense that Gas is catching up. They talk about how Granolah didn't finish Gas off quickly enough, which is similar to what may have happened earlier with Granolah, Goku and Vegeta, since Granolah was kind of toying with them for a while. That's funny to me, because letting an opponent live too long is a mistake both Goku and Vegeta have made. Gohan made it against Cell too, which let Cell grow tremendously large and blow up and led to Goku sacrificing himself for the second time. It's a mistake the good guys and the bad guys of Dragon Ball make over and over.

Toyotaro's clone and ki blast panels stand out

I'll give Toyotaro credit: this chapter has a lot of great panels, and some I thought were pretty spectacular. I love seeing Granolah and Gas going at it with their combined powers and the fury behind their strength. It all looks good to me.

Granolah tries different things, including making a bunch of clones of himself that all attack Gas. I really love that panel. Toyotaro draws the Granolahs surrounding the center with Gas in the middle, and I love the perspective art there. I also really love the sideways panel from the V Jump magazine where Gas fires a ki blast at all the Granolah clones, piercing every one of them through the stomach and chest. It was a great panel, and I literally pictured the classic old Dragon Ball Z sound effects as he did it. I enjoyed that quite a bit.

Elec removes the seal holding back Gas

As the battle goes on, Granolah tries a variety of tactics, and Gas still isn't doing that well, though he's doing better than before. The first big twist comes when Elec shows up. We find out that Gas's power has indeed been suppressed by the little headdress he wears, a sort of necklace on his head that holds some kind of power or seal over him.

We don't know its origins yet. I hope we find out soon, maybe in a future chapter or a guidebook. What we do learn is that Gas can get a lot stronger than he's shown so far if it's removed. Elec, being the agent of chaos that he is, removes it, and Gas goes into a rage mode.

Gas's rage feels more like the Great Ape than Broly

When I covered the spoilers, I compared this to Broly, and it certainly is like Broly going into a rage mode. We've seen that a million times. After reading the actual chapter and seeing how it plays out visually, though, I think it's more like the Great Ape. We saw that with Gohan in Dragon Ball Z, and later in GT with Golden Great Ape Goku, which led to Goku getting another transformation. That happens to Gas too.

The key difference is control. Broly, especially the old Z Broly, has awareness of what he's doing. Gas is just totally out of control. There's even a panel where he accidentally attacks those around him.

Monaito never saw how Bardock beat Gas

At one point the others ask Monaito what the secret was to beating Gas, the thing Bardock, Goku's father, figured out. Monaito says he doesn't know because he passed out and didn't see it. So we thought we might get that reveal in this chapter, and the chapter told us no, we aren't getting it. Whatever Bardock did, the heroes have to figure it out for themselves this time.

Gas smashes Granolah into Cereal's crust

Gas goes absolutely berserk, headbutting rocks and walls and going completely nuts. There's a really cool scene where he takes Granolah and smashes him into the crust of planet Cereal. It's awesome, and it reminded me of the Superman and Doomsday fight from The Death of Superman storyline in the 90s. That seems like something Toyotaro may have been inspired by.

Gas also grabs Granolah by the forehead, which really comes off like the moves Broly would do in Dragon Ball Super: Broly and as the old Z Broly. He's a complete savage, choke slamming Granolah until he's bloodied and getting smashed. I called him Gas smash when I covered the spoilers because he really is like the Hulk. He also goes after Vegeta with a big flying kick, flying right between Goku and Monaito, and Vegeta is injured.

Again, I have to give credit to Toyotaro. The art in this part of the chapter is phenomenal. It made me wonder how he would draw Broly. Will we ever get Broly in this manga, maybe raging out in a complete story drawn by Toyotaro? Who knows, but if this is any indication, I think he can pull it off.

Goku's punch triggers a flashback to Bardock

While Gas is smashing Vegeta, Goku shows up to protect him and throws a punch. Gas blocks it, but seeing Goku face to face for the first time, combined with Elec removing his head piece, leads to a PTSD like flashback of Bardock. We get a little mini flashback of their fight, with Bardock firing a ki blast that's the same as, or very similar to, the one he used against Frieza in both the special and Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

What we don't see is what it hits. Is it one of Gas's tusks? What exactly does Bardock try to use on him? Either way, Gas loses it and can't handle himself.

The sky never went dark for Elec

I have a couple of points to raise about Elec. When he came back into the scene, the sky hadn't gotten dark, and the sky gets dark when the Dragon Balls are summoned. That tells me Elec hasn't made a wish to the Cerealian dragon after the first one, unless it happened off screen or the rules are different.

So I'm wondering what Elec's private business, teased in previous chapters, actually was. Did he leave the planet? Did he go meet up with Frieza? Did he go get Seven-Three? That remained to be answered.

My other question is about the transformation itself. Can the other Heeters do something similar? Do they all have their own special abilities, or is this a Gas only thing? At the end of the chapter we find out he's related to Elec, who calls him little brother. That was a big revelation to me, and it makes me wonder about the others too.

Gas takes control and Elec calls him little brother

Elec tells Gas to control himself, and he manages it, unlocking a new form. He keeps the tusks and keeps control of his power while still having access to that rage power. Again, it's very reminiscent of Golden Great Ape Goku rampaging, then controlling himself and becoming Super Saiyan 4 in GT. Whether it was inspired by GT remains to be seen, but Toyotaro grew up watching the anime, so he would have seen those episodes. If you've read his work before Dragon Ball Super, you know he has an affinity for taking from older material, so I could totally see that being an inspiration.

With control, Gas gets new powers and manifests new clothes on himself. Then Elec commands him to finish them off, calling him little brother, the big revelation that they're related by blood. Does that mean Elec can transform too? That remained to be seen. The cliffhanger is Elec setting Gas at max power on Granolah and the others, and I think it's going to take Goku, Vegeta and Granolah together to defeat this unleashed Gas.

Which do you think fits Gas's rage best: Broly or the Great Ape?