Highlights
- Zenkai Boosts are a unique ability exclusive to the Saiyan race in Dragon Ball, granting them sudden and permanent increases in power and strength when they heal from critical injuries in battle.
- These boosts were used by the creators of Dragon Ball to advance the plot and explain the continuous growth and strength of characters like Goku, Gohan, and Vegeta without detailed explanations.
- In Dragon Ball Super, the concept of Zenkai Boosts became less prominent, with major fights relying more on new transformations rather than power-ups from healing, although one instance of a Zenkai Boost occurred during the Tournament of Power when Goku achieved the Ultra Instinct Omen form.
As Vegeta never fails to mention, the Saiyans are the ultimate warrior race who live for battle. Dragon Ball Z finally showed us the origins of Goku’s actual race in the Saiyan Saga, which culminated in the legendary battle between Goku and Vegeta in a fight which ended with both warriors bloodied. Despite their bodies being bruised and battered to the point where they couldn’t even stand up anymore, the Saiyans were both stronger at that stage of the battle than they were when it began.
This is where the concept of Zenkai Boosts comes in. As a trait that is entirely unique to the Saiyan race, these power-ups have made sure that the warrior continuously keeps growing stronger as the fight goes on and that they keep getting up each time they are pushed down. Due to this, the Saiyans are worthy of the title of ‘the ultimate warrior race’ as it is in their very DNA to keep fighting. So, let’s see what a Zenkai Boost is and how it has helped the Saiyans in Dragon Ball.
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What are Zenkai Boosts?
As stated previously, a Zenkai Boost is an ability that is unique to the Saiyan race. In summary, this Boost is a very sudden and permanent increase in the overall base power and strength of a Saiyan which happens whenever that Saiyan heals from a critical injury in a battle. As far as seen in the story, there is no limit to how many Zenkai Boosts they can receive and it’s even been seen that someone can undergo multiple Boosts within the same fight.
It was initially seen in the iconic battle between Goku and Vegeta at the end of the Saiyan Saga as they were both brought close to death multiple times. However, they continuously kept performing feats that exaggerated their strength more and more, ending with Vegeta crawling into his pod after the fight to heal. Upon showing up again in the Frieza Saga, we saw that his power level had increased from 18,000 to 24,000 since then. However, it wasn’t until the Frieza Saga that we would get an official explanation as to how these boosts worked.
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More than anything, these power-ups were used by Akira Toriyama as a way to keep furthering the plot of Dragon Ball Z without having a formal need to explain why the main characters of the story, namely Goku, Gohan and Vegeta, kept getting stronger and facing down even greater threats. This was especially exasperated when the Saiyans would suddenly get up and overpower even those enemies that they were previously losing to, eclipsing them in power after achieving the Zenkai Boost.
The nature of the Boosts coming into play to make the Saiyan stronger is best seen in the Frieza Saga when Vegeta tells Krillin to critically wound him. This leads to Krillin shooting a Ki Blast that penetrates Vegeta’s chest, but one that he could heal from. This allows Vegeta to fully capitalize on his Zenkai Boost and make him stronger than he ever was before though, from this point on, there is very little mention (if any) about Zenkai Boosts. In the Cell Saga, we see Cell regenerate into a far more powerful state after his self-destruction due to his Saiyan DNA but nothing more than that.
Zenkai Boosts in Dragon Ball Super
By the time Dragon Ball Super aired, the concept of Zenkai Boosts had almost completely disappeared. While we saw our heroes stronger than ever before, the scenes of them healing from a near-fatal injury only to come back even more powerful were barely present. So, this just meant that the outcome of each major fight in the beginning of Dragon Ball Super was often just solved with a brand-new transformation which essentially made the last one obsolete, removing the need for Zenkai Boosts at all.
However, both of these aspects came together in the Tournament of Power during Goku’s first proper fight with Jiren. After Goku formed the Spirit Bomb, he threw it at Jiren, only for it to be turned back against him, unloading all the strength of the attack on the Saiyan. This seemingly killed Goku for a time as he was nowhere to be seen and was close to being eliminated from the tournament until there was a massive shock which saw Goku come back with his new Ultra Instinct Omen form. This form was only achieved by Goku undergoing a Zenkai Boost under very specific circumstances which made him even stronger and gave him a new form to use in the tournament!
Dragon Ball Super can be streamed on Prime Video.
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