In Dragon Ball Z Episode 201, “I Am Saiyaman,” Trunks was initially interested in the idea of becoming a superhero. He saw the watch Gohan got that would change his outfit and asked his mom for one like it. When he saw the Saiyaman outfit, however, he was appalled by how geeky it looked; swapping the helmet out for a bandana and sunglasses didn’t help. His respect for superheroes and Gohan seemed to go down a lot s a result.
His opinion changed significantly by the time of Dragon Ball Super’s Super Hero Saga. He and Goten have not only become the next generation of Saiyaman heroes, but they also donned outfits that are equally as garish as their predecessor’s. They even spout basic lessons about cleaning up like they’re in a PSA. If kid Trunks had seen what he would become, he probably would have been embarrassed beyond words. Something big must have happened to make him decide that Saiyaman was cool enough to imitate.
What Could Have Influenced Trunks to Emulate Saiyaman?
Funnily enough, of all the possible reasons Trunks could have had to change his mind about Saiyaman, Goten couldn’t have been one of them. One might think Goten’s adoration of Saiyaman’s outfit in DBZ would have eventually led Trunks to warm up to the idea; however, it was revealed in DBS Episode 71, “Goku Dies! An Assassination That Must Be Executed!,” that Goten had come to see the costume as lame. This means that, if anything, Trunks had to be the one to warm Goten up to loving Saiyaman again.
At the very least, though, his opinion on posing has changed a lot since he was a kid. This might have to do with his learning the Fusion Dance; he initially considered the associated poses of this technique weird, but now it’s his and Goten’s most powerful weapon. He never made a big deal of the Saiyaman poses in the past, but if he did have a problem with them, his desensitization to the Fusion Dance’s silliness may have fixed it.
In all likelihood, Trunks’ newfound appreciation of Saiyaman may have come from a modern influx of Superhero interest. Much like in the real world, the Dragon Ball world may have experienced a period where superheroes became more commonplace and created an admiration for them within mainstream culture. Part of this has to do with Saiyaman, but there’s also a man named Cleangod making the rounds; Trunks and Goten even admitted they got the idea to become superheroes due to the popularity of Cleangod and modeled some of their modus operandi off of his. They might have seen this superhero’s popularity as an opportunity to dust off the old Saiyaman mantle and try out the hero lifestyle for themselves.
Now that Trunks has embraced the superhero lifestyle, he’s not likely to let it go. He could end up like Gohan and continue to don his Saiyaman costume every once in a while even in his adult years. As long as he yearns to beat evildoers in style, he’ll use as many gaudy outfits and sentai poses as it takes.
