Dragon Ball Super Finally Confirms the True Nature of Gohan's Beast Form (2024)

Warning: Spoilers for Dragon Ball Super chapter #103.One of the biggest mysteries in Dragon Ball Super has been the nature of Beast Mode, Gohan’s powerful new technique from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Beast Mode bears a lot of similarities to Gohan’s original Super Saiyan 2 form, its debut even being a deliberate homage to the iconic scene, but it’s never been clarified if Beast Mode was a form of Super Saiyan or not.

The true nature of Beast Mode has been a big mystery for the past two years, but Dragon Ball Super’s manga has finally explained it. Chapter #103 continued the fight between Goku and Gohan, and near the end of the fight, the Dragon Ball Super manga finally confirmed the true nature of Gohan’s Beast Mode.

Granted, the full nature of Beast Mode hasn’t been explained yet, but what has been revealed about it fully capitalizes on Gohan’s character arc and gives him a surprising parallel to one of Dragon Ball’s biggest villains.

Dragon Ball Super Officially Makes Gohan’s Beast Form His Own Power

Original story created by Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou

Dragon Ball Super still hasn’t revealed everything about Beast Mode, but it does explain what it is on a basic level. In chapter #103, after Gohan hit Goku so hard that he knocked him out of Ultra Instinct, Whis remarked that Gohan was using neither Super Saiyan nor a Divine technique, but “a singular talent, all his own.” That means that Gohan’s Beast form is officially an extension of Gohan’s personal talent as opposed to his Saiyan abilities, thus making it far more unique than it would have been if it was just another form of Super Saiyan.

Beast Form’s True Nature Completes Gohan’s Arc In Dragon Ball

Gohan's Beast Form gave him an identity all to himself, and a major leap in development

Gohan’s Beast form being an extension of his personal talent is a great reveal, and that’s especially because of how it ties into Gohan’s character arc in Dragon Ball. A constant problem with Gohan over the years has been that he’s always had people doing things to unlock his potential, only to quickly neglect his training and become too weak. Now, however, Gohan’s current use of Beast Mode is noted by Goku to come from Gohan working to harness his potential, so it’s clear that he’s accepted that he needs to maintain his training to stay as strong as possible.

The confirmation of Beast Mode’s true nature also plays into Gohan’s character arc in the Dragon Ball Super manga. In the manga version of the Tournament of Power, Gohan told Kefla that he wanted to evolve as a human instead of a Saiyan, but that idea wasn’t elaborated on in the years to follow. With Beast Mode explicitly not being a form of Super Saiyan, however, the most recent events of Dragon Ball Super finally complete Gohan’s arc of evolving as a human instead of a Saiyan, and that’s the best direction for his character to go right now.

Gohan’s True Power Makes Frieza His Ultimate Foil

His wholly unique powers make him remarkably similar to the famous foe

One of the most interesting things about the reveal of Beast Mode’s true nature, however, is how it connects Gohan and Frieza. Both Gohan and Frieza were characters with a lot of raw power that they never put in the work to master, and similarly, both have had character arcs that have forced them to finally take their training seriously, resulting in the powerful forms of Beast Mode and Black Frieza. It’s unknown when Dragon Ball Super will continue, but when it does, the story will hopefully further explore how much Beast Mode’s true nature makes Gohan parallel Frieza.

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Dragon Ball Super

Action

Sci-Fi

Animation

Fantasy

Dragon Ball Super is a sequel to the original Dragon Ball series as well as the fan-favorite Dragon Ball Z anime. Dragon Ball Super takes place ten years after Majin Buu is defeated and follows Goku and his friends on all-new adventures. Much like its predecessors, Dragon Ball Super was praised throughout its 131 episodes.

Cast

Sean Schemmel , Jason Douglas , Christopher Sabat

Release Date

July 5, 2015

Streaming Service(s)

Hulu

Franchise(s)

Dragon Ball

Writers

Tatsuya Nagamine

Directors

Tatsuya Nagamine

Showrunner

Tatsuya Nagamine