Highlights
- Goku’s growth as a character and fighter in Dragon Ball is due to his Saiyan genetics and mentors like King Kai.
- The Spirit Bomb is a powerful attack gathering energy from living things to create a destructive force.
- Goku mastered the Spirit Bomb to defeat powerful foes like Vegeta, Frieza, Buu, and even used it in tournaments.
Throughout the runtime of the Dragon Ball franchise, Goku has grown a lot as a character, both in terms of personality and strength. Owing to his Saiyan genetics, as well as the exceptional teachers he has had over the years, Goku has grown from a lowly orphan boy to one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, capable of taking down even the strongest villains the series has to offer.
Goku’s move set has also seen quite a change from when he was young. As he grew older, he learned powerful new techniques, chief among them being the iconic Spirit Bomb. This attack allows Goku to channel the life force of other living things into a massive ball of Ki that has the power to completely obliterate those that are evil, so let’s break down this move and see the impact that it has had on the Dragon Ball franchise.
What Is The Spirit Bomb?
|
First Anime Appearance |
Dragon Ball Z, Episode 21, “Counting Down” |
|---|---|
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First Manga Appearance |
Dragon Ball Z, Chapter 18, “Closer… Closer…” |
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Notable Users |
Goku, King Kai, Gohan, Krillin, Trunks |
First seen in the early days of Dragon Ball Z, the Spirit Bomb was taught to Goku by King Kai after he died in the battle against his brother, Raditz. After dying, Goku made the journey across the Snake Way to King Kai’s planet, where he would undergo very difficult training to learn new and powerful techniques. Among these techniques were two of King Kai’s signature moves; The Spirit Bomb and the Kaio-Ken. Goku, being the martial arts genius that he is, would eventually learn and master both techniques, which would prove to be indispensable in his eventual battle against Vegeta.
Remember that the Spirit Bomb is a martial arts discipline that allows you to borrow energy from the grass and trees, from people and animals, from inanimate objects and the atmosphere… And then to concentrate them and release them.
How The Spirit Bomb Is Performed:
To perform this attack, the user must stand with both arms raised to the sky. While not necessary, Goku often says something akin to ‘share your energy with me’ as a way to begin gathering the energy that is used to make the Spirit Bomb. This is then followed by every willing living thing sharing some of their power and life force with Goku to be formed into the attack, due to which this attack takes the greatest amount of time to charge up, leaving the user open to damage.
This is the main point that makes the Spirit Bomb arguably the most powerful attack in the series. It is also a move that cannot be used repeatedly since it takes an incredible amount of energy from not only the user but also from other beings. Much like Vegeta’s Final Flash, this move exists as an all-powerful trump card in Goku’s arsenal due to its destructive power and the toll it takes to perform. King Kai also stated that this move can only be done by someone pure of heart and that a pure-of-heart person can also deflect the move.
Notable Uses Of The Spirit Bomb
Goku learned this move after he died in his battle against Raditz and went to King Kai’s planet to train. He knew that after Raditz, two more Saiyans were headed to Earth who were even more powerful than his evil brother, so he trained extensively and acquired the Spirit Bomb technique. Its first usage was against Vegeta, where it took on a far smaller appearance compared to its iconic look, similar to Yamcha’s Spirit Ball. Though the energy was gathered by Goku, the attack was carried by Krillin and even deflected by Gohan.
This small Spirit Bomb was used on Vegeta and, although it did significant damage to him, it did not kill him. After this, the attack was seen when Goku used it against Frieza during their iconic fight on the dying Planet Namek. Much like Vegeta, Frieza suffered grievous injuries because of the attack but ended up surviving, after which the villain would go on to kill Krillin, forcing Goku to unlock his Super Saiyan form to kill the villain.
The next showing of the Spirit Bomb was against Majin Buu during the final battle on Other World. With Vegeta distracting the monster, Goku was able to gather the energy of many living beings to use in the attack to obliterate the villain. This was quite an interesting instance of the attack, because when asked to share their energy, all beings gave the energy immediately, which caused the Spirit Bomb to swell up to its massive size in seconds. Though it still took time to charge, it was far quicker than other showings of the attack.
After this, the move was seen in the Goku Black arc, where, surprisingly, it was used by Trunks in a very unexpected way. After gathering energy from all the people around him, Trunks unlocked his Super Saiyan Rage form, which he used to infuse the Spirit Bomb energy into his sword, which cut Zamasu in half, a feat so impressive because even Super Saiyan Blue Vegito couldn’t manage this.
The last time the move was shown in the anime was in the Tournament of Power, where Goku used it against Jiren. However, the villain was able to deflect the attack back to the Saiyan, almost killing him in the process. Immediately after this, Goku unlocked Ultra Instinct Omen, which many theorize to be the result of Goku infusing the energy of others into himself.
Variations of the Spirit Bomb:
- Small Spirit Bomb: The version of the attack that was used against Vegeta. Much smaller in size due to only having half the energy of the world.
- Large Spirit Bomb: The version of the attack used against Frieza during the Namek Saga. Much larger and stronger than the small one.
- Super Spirit Bomb: The strongest version of the attack, used against Kid Buu. After dealing the first blow, Goku transforms into a Super Saiyan to give it an extra boost of power to obliterate the villain. A stronger variation of this was used in the Tournament of Power arc with Goku’s Super Saiyan Blue form.
Dragon Ball can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
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