Every Version of Super Saiyan Blue Explained, From Its 2015 Debut to Perfected Blue

Super Saiyan Blue has become the modern equivalent of the original golden Super Saiyan form, the poster transformation for everything Dragon Ball Super has turned into. Back in 2015 when Akira Toriyama first introduced what was then called Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, even he could not have fathomed how many variants of it would eventually appear across the manga, the anime, and material Toriyama himself had nothing to do with.

How Super Saiyan Blue got its name and its origins in Resurrection F

The roots of this form go back to the release of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods in 2013, which kicked off the Dragon Ball Z renaissance and eventually led to Dragon Ball Super as both a television series and a promotional manga. Before any of that, there was fan art circulating of a hypothetical Vegeta Super Saiyan God form with blue hair. It is unclear whether Toriyama actually borrowed from that fan art, but during pre production for Resurrection F he decided to introduce a new level of Super Saiyan beyond just God.

When Toriyama submitted his notes to Toei Animation, he drew Goku and Vegeta with Super Saiyan style hair colored blue and labeled it Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan in Japanese. That name stuck for a few months and is still used in the majority of video games and other promotional material. Later, during the Dragon Ball Super manga, it was likely the corporate office that decided to rename the form Super Saiyan Blue because Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan is redundant. Both names are official and both are accurate.

Toriyama has explained that the form fuses past and present, representing a Saiyan with the power of Super Saiyan God inside them and knowledge of God Ki transforming into a Super Saiyan, essentially an upgraded, stronger version of Super Saiyan God. There were years of debate among fans over whether God was actually stronger than Blue due to misinformation from what were, in blunt terms, bad Dragon Ball websites, but it has since been confirmed that Blue is the upgrade. Toriyama chose blue hair specifically to express that Goku had learned to be a more balanced, tranquil fighter rather than dropping in power the way he did as Super Saiyan God in Battle of Gods. He had also considered making the hair white but settled on blue because he felt white would clash with the next enemy's coloring, though he never clarified whether he meant Frieza or Zamasu.

How the base Super Saiyan Blue form actually works for Goku and Vegeta

Goku got his first taste of God Ki through the ritual in Battle of Gods, while Vegeta achieved godly power through training with Whis, a different path that has been confirmed multiple times. When a Saiyan uses God Ki correctly, they become a Super Saiyan God, but with enough knowledge and training, combining that with the old golden Super Saiyan transformation produces Super Saiyan Blue. As of this compiling, the only characters to achieve Super Saiyan Blue have been Goku and Vegeta and their fusions, Vegito and Gogeta. Goku Black has his own separate version, which falls outside this rundown.

Super Saiyan Blue lets Goku and Vegeta maintain their energy without it leaking out, creating a stable form for combat, unlike forms such as Super Saiyan 3 that can break down. They can also increase the form's power through training and combat, which is why Blue keeps getting stronger across Goku's fights with Frieza, Goku Black, and Jiren. But it is not without cost: the Dragon Ball Super manga reveals the form drains stamina on transformation, and repeated use can drop the user's power and speed by close to 90 percent, which is why Vegeta struggled against Hit in the manga while Goku fared better. Goku even stated the form requires too much power to open a battle with, which is why fighters start in their non-god forms before switching to conserve stamina.

During the Goku Black arc in the manga, Goku and Vegeta figured out how to switch consistently between God and Blue in an instant, using Super Saiyan God for speed and power boosts but switching to Blue right before a blow landed for concentrated impact. This does not mean God is faster or stronger than Blue, only that God places less strain on the body. That specific rapid-switch tactic was never shown in the anime and does not appear to have been used again after the Goku Black arc, though Super Saiyan God and Blue both return in the Tournament of Power and Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

Why Super Saiyan Blue Evolution belongs to Toei Animation, not Toriyama

Super Saiyan Blue Evolution shares some ideas with what Vegeta later does in the manga, but as far as is known, Toriyama had nothing to do with this transformation. It was created by Toei Animation and originally conceived and illustrated by Dragon Ball Super chief character designer Tadayoshi Yamamuro, who has worked as an animation supervisor and director on Dragon Ball projects since the 1990s. Blue Evolution has never been mentioned outside the anime and possibly Heroes; it has not appeared in the manga, in recent movies, or in anything Toriyama has revealed, unlike Ultra Instinct and the newer forms in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, which do carry his illustrations.

The concept behind Blue Evolution mirrors the idea later explored with Ultra Ego in the manga: Vegeta wanting to go his own way rather than chase Goku. Vegeta spent the character's arc trying to catch up to Goku, building resentment over why a low class warrior like Goku could surpass an elite like himself, until the Boo Saga taught him it is not about the power level you are born with but what you do with your time. That realization carries into the Tournament of Power, where Vegeta, after watching Goku reach Ultra Instinct Omen and failing to replicate it himself, instead mutated his Super Saiyan Blue into Blue Evolution.

The first glimpse of Blue Evolution came in a Dragon Ball Super ending sequence showing Goku in UI Omen next to Vegeta in what looked like Blue with a glossier, more royal blue coloring. In the actual Tournament of Power fight, Vegeta tapped into Blue Evolution by drawing on his pride, specifically his memory of Cabba and the fighters of Universe 6 being wiped out, and his refusal to let that happen to more people. Pride is not the same as arrogance: "you can be proud for your friends your family your loved ones," which is the distinction that makes this transformation work for Vegeta without simply repeating his old ego-driven outbursts against characters like Cell.

The Dragon Ball Super director who directed episode 131 revealed in an interview that Blue Evolution is relative in power to Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken, meaning Goku and Vegeta were roughly equal when facing Jiren, not at the level of Ultra Instinct. Blue Evolution also gave Vegeta a second wind rather than the instant power surge Super Saiyan God gave in Battle of Gods, and unlike Kaioken it does not appear to burn out the user's body afterward, which is why Vegeta could stand against Toppo's Hakai energy. Blue Evolution has not been shown used by Goku, and it seems set to remain Vegeta's specialty going forward, functioning as a precursor to Ultra Ego even if that connection was not necessarily planned from the start.

What Perfected Super Saiyan Blue is and why it is exclusive to the manga

Perfected Super Saiyan Blue is not a form used in the Dragon Ball Super anime; it appears to be exclusive to the manga, and it is not the same as Blue Evolution. Base Super Saiyan Blue's big drawback was stamina, and Whis had already taught Goku and Vegeta about containing God Ki inside the body rather than letting it leak out. Over time, Goku learned to build his body's endurance using both regular Ki and God Ki, eventually finding a way to tap Blue's maximum power without the stamina cost, which became Perfected Blue, comparable to how full power Super Saiyan worked back in Dragon Ball Z.

Visually, Perfected Blue looks like regular Blue except there is no aura and no visible energy, because Goku has learned to suppress and contain it inside his body through concentration, letting him fight at full power without switching between God and Blue to save stamina. Using this form, Goku was able to fight evenly with Merged Zamasu, which confused fans since previously only Vegito Blue had managed that. The likely explanation is that Vegito Blue had already worn Zamasu down before Perfected Blue took over, rather than the two forms being equal in raw power. Vegeta also figured out Perfected Blue, using it during the manga's Tournament of Power, and Beerus states that Vegeta is gaining enough power that he could be a candidate to become a God of Destruction for another universe, which is high praise for Vegeta's growth as a fighter.

There is some fan debate over whether Gogeta used Perfected Blue in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, but based on the animation style, that does not look like Perfected Blue was being used there. In the Moro arc, Goku uses Perfected Blue against Zago specifically to conserve his stamina for Ultra Instinct Omen, continuing the pattern seen throughout Dragon Ball Super of Goku discovering a form, hitting a stamina drawback, and then finding an upgraded version to overcome it, first with the original Super Saiyan forms, then with God and Blue, and now with Perfected Blue. There is also a colored manga panel showing Goku using what looks like Super Saiyan Blue Kaioken that has fueled debate about whether it is actually Perfected Blue, but based on Jiren's comments about Goku being visibly strained rather than contained, that panel does not appear to represent Perfected Blue.

Which of these Blue variants, Evolution or Perfected, do you think will get more use going forward?