In the classic saga of Dragon Ball, Nappa and Vegetta revealed that the first super saiyan in history was Gohan himself, the son of Goku.
Although one has the impression that Goku was the first Super Saiyan from Dragon Ball, it wasn’t. In fact, that title actually goes to his own son.. Throughout its history, it has had heroes who become villains or villains who become the best friends of Goku and company, however, there are heroes that are built throughout the official canon. Before continuing, we recommend that you read the last chapters of this work that can be found available on the online service MangaPlus by ShueishaWell, we’ll cover some major spoilers..
In Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball chapter 204, Piccolo and Goku manage to kill Raditz and save Gohan, but at the cost of Goku sacrificing his own life in the process. As Raditz lay dying, he tells Piccolo and the other Z Fighters that he was the first of his kind to come to Earth, and that two more Saiyans, Nappa and Vegeta, were on their way there at that very moment (and that they were much stronger than Raditz). At that point, the manga shows Vegeta and Nappa talking to each other while in their separate space pods, basically going over the Raditz situation and analyzing all the data the Saiyan sent them via his Scouter about the Earth Warriors. A key piece of information that Vegeta and Nappa acquired was the existence of a half-Saiyan, half-human hybrid, a boy who readers know as Goku’s son, Gohan.
According to Raditz’s data, the offspring of a Saiyan and a human have the potential to be much more powerful than a full-blooded Saiyan, and when Nappa and Vegeta are discussing how to handle this anomaly, Nappa refers to Gohan as a “Super Saiyan” as his genes evidently make him superior.. Before the Super Saiyan transformation as known by fans today was established, the term ‘Super Saiyan’ simply referred to a human/Saiyan hybrid, as his power had the potential to surpass a normal Saiyan.
While at the time of this chapter’s publication it was as apt a name as any for this new type of ultra-powerful Saiyan, it’s absolutely insane to think that ‘Super Saiyan’ means anything different than it does today given the impact of the transformation. in Dragon Ball and all subsequent transformations stemming from the initial Super Saiyan form. Even though Goku unlocked the Super Saiyan transformation during his iconic battle with Frieza on Planet Namek, this pathic between Nappa and Vegetta changes his background within the scale of power.
Goku was not the first Dragon Ball super saiyan
He wasn’t actually the first Dragon Ball character to be considered a “Super Saiyan” in continuity, as that honor actually belongs to his son, Gohan. In the Frieza saga, the villain in turn invades Planet Namek with the full force of his army in an attempt to collect the planet’s Dragon Balls. Frieza hoped to use the Dragon Balls’ wish-granting magic to become immortal so he could rule the universe unopposed until the end of time. However, when the Z Fighters found out about Frieza’s evil plan, they rushed to Namek to stop him, something most of them would quickly regret. Frieza and his army cleaned the floor with them and the only saving grace of the heroes (apart from Goku) was Vegeta who, at the time, was also a deadly villain.
Once Frieza decided that he was done letting the Z-Fighters get in the way of his plans, the villain incapacitated the entire team and carried out the assassinations of Vegeta and Krillin. While Vegeta’s death was shocking, it was Krillin’s that left the most impact when Frieza killed the Z Fighter right in front of Goku, and the anger Goku felt at that moment was the spark he needed to unlock the legendary power of Super Saiyan.
Goku redefined what it meant to be a Super Saiyan in Dragon Ball lore once he achieved the first transformation while fighting Frieza, and then unlocked even more powerful versions of that form in the rest of the series, including Super Saiyan 2, Super Saiyan 3, Super Saiyan God, and Super Saiyan Blue. For that reason, Super Saiyan transformations have become as iconic as Dragon Ball, even though the title originally meant something else entirely, which is how Gohan, being the first half-human, half-Saiyan child born in this universe, technically claims the title. . as the first Dragon Ball Super Saiyan over Goku.