Dragon Ball GT: is Golden Great Ape the true Super Saiyan?

Golden Great Ape is one of my favorite transformations in Dragon Ball. It's one of the more underrated forms, and I think it's cool no matter which way you slice it. It appeared in Dragon Ball GT, the anime series that began in 1996, and the whole concept traces back to a single flashback in an old Dragon Ball Z episode that aired years earlier.

Many people don't like Dragon Ball GT. One thing it did that I always found cool, though, was take references from Dragon Ball Z, even small ones, and turn them into full story arcs or concepts. When the Old Kai warned people about overusing the Dragon Balls, that became the story idea that led to the Shadow Dragon arc of GT. Golden Great Ape works the same way.

Golden Great Ape started with Vegeta's Super Saiyan legend on Namek

Akira Toriyama's involvement in GT has been very much misunderstood by fans. He was involved in the early stages of the project, but as the series progressed he took a step back and other people took the reins of the creative direction. What I find fascinating is that the Golden Great Ape idea still has its roots in Dragon Ball Z.

When Goku shows up on Namek, Vegeta is freaking out and talks about the last Super Saiyan. I believe that was a thousand years before, even though I think the old English dub said three thousand, which was a mistake. Vegeta had heard through the legends, since he was a child, that the form could only be maintained while in Great Ape form, and that it could only be done in golden form. I'm not getting into the debate about who the legendary Super Saiyan was. You could argue Bardock, Yamoshi or Broly, but that's a different topic.

When Dragon Ball GT came around, it took that concept and materialized it into an actual transformation. Goku became the first one outside that original Super Saiyan to achieve this power.

The theory that Golden Great Ape is the true Super Saiyan form

When I was a kid watching the first run of Dragon Ball GT, I always assumed Golden Great Ape was the true Super Saiyan transformation. A theory went around for years, one I kind of agreed with, that Super Saiyan 1, 2 and 3 were just mutations and the true form was the Golden Great Ape.

Obviously that doesn't hold up, because the form did not come from Toriyama to my knowledge. It's a bad retcon and not one I want to think about. But it's a popular theory and one that does make sense within the confines of GT. If you follow the Dragon Ball timeline and include GT in your personal continuity, it does kind of make sense that this is the true Super Saiyan form, and it all started with that one flashback.

The form goes by Golden Great Ape, Golden Oozaru and its Japanese name, Ōgon Ōzaru. Some people call it Super Saiyan Great Ape, but that's more of a fan term than anything else. The Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files does validate the legendary status of this form.

How Goku became a Golden Great Ape in the Baby arc

What's interesting is how the form is achieved. You cannot become a Golden Great Ape through training, and I like that about it. During the Baby arc, Goku is a kid again because of Pilaf's wish at the very beginning of the series, and he is battling Baby on the resurrected Planet Vegeta.

GT goes back to the early Dragon Ball Z lore about a Saiyan's biggest strength being his tail. The Kais decide to regrow Goku's tail, thinking it might give him a new power, and the gamble works. You have adult Goku in a child's body, still retaining most of his strength, and he stares not at the full moon but at the full Earth. The Blutz Waves from the Earth reach Goku, and the full Earth's power seems to be astronomically higher in potency than even the moon. It triggers the transformation.

Since he is a Great Ape, Goku loses control of his mental faculties. He rampages around as a Golden Great Ape, not sure who he is or who his enemies are. We first see it in Dragon Ball GT episode 33. Once Pan calms him down, he gains control of himself, mutates once again and becomes Super Saiyan 4.

I don't recall ever seeing a written multiplier for this form, but it's safe to say it isn't the traditional 10 times multiplier of the regular Great Ape form. It has to be much higher, because this version of Goku is very powerful.

Do you need Super Saiyan to unlock Golden Great Ape?

Among the fandom, it's been talked about for many years that Goku could tap into this form not just because of the potency of the Blutz Waves, but because he was Goku after Super Saiyan. Remember, once the characters achieved Super Saiyan they didn't have to go back to Great Ape. Super Saiyan is a much bigger multiplier anyway, so why would you?

There's no clear answer to whether you need knowledge of Super Saiyan, or the ability to transform into one, unless you go to an interview in the December 2003 issue of Anime Insider. Anime Insider is an American magazine, and the questions were answered by staff who worked on the series in North America, not Shueisha or anyone in Japan. Those who have studied the history of the English dub know Funimation made many mistakes during this time, so what they say should not be taken as gospel.

In that issue, a reader from Phoenix, Arizona asked about the long blonde hair of Super Saiyan 3, Super Saiyan 4's body hair and the form in between. Funimation's answer was that this is a special mode only achieved after the Super Saiyan 3 level. That might make some sense to me, but it really doesn't, because Vegeta was able to do it without Super Saiyan 3. You do not need Super Saiyan 3 to achieve this power.

There's no official statement from any guidebook I have found saying you have to be a Super Saiyan to unlock Golden Great Ape. Still, it does make sense. It's almost like he's going Super Saiyan inside the Great Ape form.

Baby Vegeta's Golden Great Ape kept full control

After Super Saiyan 4 Goku obliterates Baby, Baby decides he needs a power up. Bulma, who at that point is under Baby's control, magnifies her Blutz Wave machine and shoots a huge amount of Blutz Waves at him, which evolves him into a Golden Great Ape. Baby does this in Dragon Ball GT episode 35.

So the real secret of Golden Great Ape is the amount of Blutz Waves going into a character. The Earth and these machines are way stronger than the moon, which makes you wonder about other planets Saiyans may have inhabited throughout their history, and whether this transformation was triggered elsewhere.

Unlike Goku, Baby Vegeta pretends to rampage but has full control of himself. That's because in Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta trained in his Great Ape form before fighting Goku, so in their first fight he had complete control. Because Baby is inside Vegeta's body, he retained that ability. Golden Great Ape for each of them mirrors how Great Ape worked in Z: the rampaging, untrained monster in Goku and the trained, more knowledgeable Vegeta. That's one thing GT did: it repeated many of the formulas from Dragon Ball Z.

Vegeta's own Golden Great Ape in episode 59 supports the theory

Just because Baby Vegeta could do this does not mean Vegeta by himself could, and he couldn't until Dragon Ball GT episode 59. Bulma's Blutz Wave machine returns and blasts Vegeta in his regular humanoid form. He transforms into a Great Ape again, but this time it's the brown, original Great Ape, not the golden one.

Shortly after, Vegeta transforms right away into a Golden Great Ape and then right into Super Saiyan 4. To me, Vegeta's version validates the theory that Golden Great Ape can be achieved from a regular Great Ape if you have Super Saiyan knowledge. There's never been an official statement on it, but it makes sense here.

Golden Great Ape in the 1997 Dr. Slump series

Here's some trivia many fans probably don't know: a version of the Golden Great Ape form appears again outside Dragon Ball, and I'm not talking about Heroes. In the 1997 Dr. Slump reboot series, there's an episode where Goku becomes a Great Ape and then goes Super Saiyan.

It happens only in that anime. There's no version of it in the Dr. Slump manga, because the manga came out in the early 80s, well before Toriyama came up with the original Great Ape form. It's cool that the series brought back the Golden Great Ape, even if it was short lived. It's a fun little Easter egg that I always loved.

Why I think Golden Great Ape should have been the strongest Saiyan form

Unfortunately, in Dragon Ball GT the Golden Great Ape was only used in these instances. We never saw Gohan or anybody else use it. Even though it has popped up again in Heroes with Cumber and other characters, it was short lived.

I always felt this should have been the strongest Saiyan form, even more than Super Saiyan 4. The way it looks and the concept behind it should equal incredible power. I think we got shortchanged, because wouldn't it have been awesome if Golden Great Ape Goku fought Golden Great Ape Baby Vegeta? Two Super Saiyan Great Apes pummeling each other on a planet, destroying stuff like Godzilla, would have been the most awesome thing ever, and we never saw it.

Still, Golden Great Ape will always be one of my favorite concepts GT did. I think it's so cool, and it's a great throwback to where Dragon Ball first started, with the transforming Goku.