The inspiration for Super Saiyan.

     

The most well-known aspect of the massively successful Dragon Ball franchise is the iconic Super Saiyan transformation. Debuting in the three hundred and seventeenth chapter of the manga published on March 19, 1991 in Weekly Shounen Jump, the first Super Saiyan transformation had Son Gokuu's hair spiking upward and changing color. Also changing the color of his eyes and giving him a prominent fiery aura, the transformation made Gokuu significantly stronger as he could finally defeat the evil Freeza, who had just killed his close friend Kurilin in front of him. Gokuu's rage from seeing his friend slaughtered triggered the transformation, and it's one of the most iconic anime/manga moments of all time. There would be many other Super Saiyan transformations in Dragon Ball and the concept would often be homaged or parodied in many other works. But the question is, what truly inspired series creator Toriyama Akira to come up with such a flashy transformation?

    Toriyama's usual explanation for its iconic design was that he wanted to save ink. His assistant would often complain about having to always ink Gokuu's usual black hair, so Toriyama wanted to make his job easier. Appearing as white in uncolored pages of the manga, Toriyama said he eventually made it blonde because he wanted it to look glamorous (here's a translation). In addition, the hair flowing and spiking upward was an exaggeration of piloerection. As for why he decided to have Gokuu transform at all, he said it was the most effective way of showing that Gokuu had gotten stronger, and also because he was inspired by a TV show with a hero who would transform when he'd fight; Toriyama would watch this show with his son. These were the answers Toriyama himself had given, but was there more to it than he let on? To get the answer, we'll have to rewind time a bit. In 1964, during the "Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc of the iconic Astro Boy manga (known as Tetsuwan Atom in Japan, literally "Iron-armed Atom" or "Mighty Atom"), titular protagonist Astro Boy (or Atom) undergoes a transformation when he's upgraded to have 1 million horsepower. His synthetic "hair" (or whatever it is that looks like his hair) begins glowing and he becomes significantly stronger, becoming able to challenge his enemy Pluto. This transformation would never be used again after this story arc, not even in any of Astro Boy's many adaptions.

    Tezuka Osamu's Astro Boy is widely considered to be the most influential anime/manga franchise of all time. Toriyama himself admitted to being a fan of it as a child, so could Astro Boy have been the inspiration for Super Saiyan? Perhaps he had the read the "Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc as a child, but it doesn't look like Astro Boy was the one to popularize the trope of characters changing their hair to get stronger. As said before, Astro Boy's 1 million horsepower transformation would never be seen again. Although I'm not too knowledgeable on manga from back then, it doesn't seem like there were other notable examples of character changing their hair to get stronger during the 1960s. In that case, what series popularized the trope? From what I can tell, it was possibly Cutie Honey. Created by Nagai Goh and first serialized in 1973 by Weekly Shounen Champion, this manga stars the android Kisaragi Honey, who uses a device from inside of her body to transform into her alter-ego, Cutie Honey. Turning into Cutie Honey makes her go from a blonde to a redhead, and as Cutie Honey, she has many other transformations, many of which have different hair colors.

    Cutie Honey is an ecchi manga, and it's hard to find transformation pages that are safe for work. It seems like she gets naked whenever she transforms. I'm not trying to get this blog flagged. I'll take a risk and post a gif from the 1973 anime that gets the point across. These are some of her transformations in the anime. The show apparently did well in ratings, but was cancelled due to the salacious content. Now who could have seen that coming? Shounen is stupid as hell. Anyway, it makes sense that a series starring women would popularize hair transformations, because hair care is traditionally seen as a feminine interest. But since Cutie Honey starred women, it probably influenced Shoujo series more than Shounen, which normally star boys or men; for example, Sailor Moon is a Shoujo and it was very influenced by Cutie Honey. And Cutie Honey itself is obviously influenced by Shoujo (it was even originally going to be one); I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Shoujo works had hair transformations before Cutie Honey existed. The Dragon Ball character Lunch transforms whenever she sneezes; her hair color changes between blue/black and blonde (or red/orange/ginger/brown in some colored illustrations), and this was probably an influence from Shoujo, if not a female-led Shounen like Cutie Honey. As far as female-led Shounen go, though, Cutie Honey was influential. Since Dragon Ball doesn't star women, however, this raises the question of whether there was a male-led Shounen predating Dragon Ball with hair transformations, one other than Astro Boy as mentioned before. And as it turns out, yes, there was, and it was also created by Nagai Goh.

    Serialized from 1976 to 1978 by Weekly Shounen Magazine, Shutendouji (the kanji 手天童子 translates to "Heaven-Handed Child" or "Child Handed from Heaven". It's a pun on 酒吞童子, which is also pronounced as "Shutendouji", but means "Alcohol-Drinking Child". "Shutendouji" in this kanji refers to a legendary figure in Japanese folklore) was an action manga that combined traditional Japanese folklore with science fiction. The protagonist was Shutendoh Jiroh aka Shutendouji, a 15-year-old high school student who turns out to be a demon (or "oni", colloquially translated as an ogre. It later turns out he's a humanoid made up entirely of photonic energy, or the energy of light. It's a really convoluted story, lol). When his demonic powers first awaken, his hair flows up and he grows horns on his head. Later on, his anger from seeing his comrades die triggers a transformation that makes him significantly stronger and causes his hair to change color (or at least, it looks like that way on the B&W pages). He gains an aura that makes him glow brightly, and he even gets a sword that he uses to fight. 

    Nobody can look at those pages and not think of Dragon Ball, and this series predated Dragon Ball by 8 years. In colored illustrations, we even see that he has golden/blonde hair (although I don't think his hair color actually changed in the manga. In the 70s, he seemed to almost always be colored with red hair. He was given yellow/blonde/golden hair when the manga was first rereleased in 1985, but on these colored pages, he seemed to have blonde hair even when he's not in the glowing transformation. We can see on the original B&W version of these pages that his hair was shaded like it is when he's in his normal state, so if he's given blonde hair on the colored version of these pages, that would suggest his regular hair color is blonde. Note this colored illustration of him with blonde hair in his normal state, too. In any case, his hair color started turning from brown to blonde as far back as at least the second OVA in 1990, which you'll see in the next paragraph). He looks just like a Super Saiyan, and this series predates Super Saiyans by 15 years. Admittedly, though, while a number of Nagai's other works like Devilman, Mazinger Z, and Violence Jack are well-known among anime/manga fans, Shutendouji is considered to be one of his more obscure works. 

    Toriyama said he stopped reading manga after graduating elementary school (although this is questionable, because he also said he was in a manga club at his high school. While he may not have read manga as much, it's probably safe to say he still checked them out occasionally as a teenager). It wasn't until after he already became a professional mangaka in 1978 that he started reading them more often again, in order to get a better understanding of what Shounen readers wanted. He'd mainly just read the series that were serialized in Weekly Jump, so he may have not caught eye of Shutendouji back then. However, fast-forward to 1989. Not only is this the year that Dragon Ball Z began airing in Japan, but it's also when Shutendouji was adapted into a series of OVAs that were released until 1991. Here's a scene from the second OVA, released on July 1, 1990. There's no way you can see this without thinking of DBZ ... and it came out almost a year before Super Saiyans debuted in 1991. The chapter in which Gokuu turns Super Saiyan came out on March 19, 1991. Technically, this wasn't the first appearance of a Super Saiyan; it was just 10 days earlier on March 9, 1991 that Gokuu turned into a Super Saiyan in the fourth DBZ movie Super Saiyan, Son Gokuu (better known as Lord Slug in America). The Super Saiyan form that appeared in the movie still spiked the hair up and had a golden aura, but it kept the hair black. Because it doesn't look quite the same as the Super Saiyan that appears in the story proper, it was retroactively labeled "Pseudo Super Saiyan". 

    Some people dismiss it as a non-canon transformation that Toei made up, but Toriyama was involved in the development of the movie. He designed Slug and his henchmen, and most importantly, he was the one who suggested having Gokuu's hair spike up as a Super Saiyan in the movie. It can probably be said that the movie's version of Super Saiyan was the prototype design before Toriyama decided to make it blonde in the manga. The second Shutendouji OVA came out on July 1, 1990, a week before the third DBZ movie Super Decisive Battle for Earth (better known as Tree of Might in America) came out in theaters on July 7, 1990. The fourth DBZ film entered development around the time the third one was released in theaters in July 1990, which also happened to be around the time the second Shutendouji OVA was released. Less than a year later, in March 1991, Gokuu turns into a Super Saiyan both in the manga and a movie, basically looking just like Shutendouji (minus the horns) in the former. It seems highly likely that Toriyama or someone at Shuiesha or Toei saw the Shutendouji OVA and got the idea to have Gokuu get golden, upflowing hair in his Super Saiyan form. Another thing, Future Trunks debuted and turned into a Super Saiyan in the manga on July 2, 1991, not long after the form debuted in March of that year. He uses a sword like Shutendouji did. Now where could Toriyama have gotten the idea for a teenage swordsman who transforms by getting golden hair that spikes/flows upward? It all points to Shutendouji. 

    While Shutendouji may not be one of Nagai's most popular works, it still had OVAs coming out from December 1989 to December 1991, and as well as a videogame in October 1990. Clearly, it had a fair amount of popularity from the late 80s to early 90s, so it's very likely Toriyama or somebody he was working with saw it. The similarities are too strong to ignore, and the timing is too convenient. Also of note is the anime Creamy Mami, the Magic Angel, which aired from 1983 to 1984. Episode 45 "The Psychic Boy of Sorrow" featured a psychic boy named Makoto whose hair spikes up and turns yellow when he gets angry (his skin would turn red, too). This anime came out after Shutendouji's manga, but before Dragon Ball and long before Super Saiyans. With not one, but two series that predated Dragon Ball in having yellow hair transformations, it's plausible to theorize that there could be even more. Note that it's not even just the appearance of the characters when they transform; it's also the fact rage serves as the trigger to their transformations. Also, remember that piloerection has been a trope in anime/manga for the longest time; it's meant to convey intense emotions such as anger and shock. Sometimes, when a character with black or darker hair undergoes piloerection while in stress or shock, their hair also turns white (and note that Shutendouji's glowing transformation and Super Saiyan are white in the standard black and white pages of their respective manga). It's normally done for the sake of gags, but it makes sense that this would lead to someone playing it straight and using it for a genuine transformation. Toriyama was evidently not the first to do it. 

    Now, to be fair, you could make a case that the strong visual similarities Super Saiyan has to Shutendouji are coincidental. Hair color transformations, even rage-triggered ones that also make the hair spike or flow up, had already been done pretty often by the 1990s, so it's possible Toriyama wasn't inspired by anything specific when he designed Super Saiyan; it was already a known trope in anime/manga. Sure, the fact Super Saiyan turns Gokuu's hair golden and gives him a golden aura makes it seem likelier that Shutendouji was the inspiration, but keep in mind that Toriyama rarely colored Super Saiyan's aura (this 1994 illustration of Gohan seems to be the only documented time he gave it a golden aura); Toei were the ones who gave it a golden aura first. It's possible Toei was inspired by Shutendouji when they first gave Super Saiyan a golden aura in the Lord Slug film, but Shutendouji was far from the only series to have golden auras.

    The hair itself turning golden is a bigger similarity, and factoring that part in makes it likelier the other commonalities (rage trigger, hair spiking up, and golden aura) were also inspired by Shutendouji. But remember that Toriyama had the character Lunch transform into a blonde when she debuted back in 1985. It's possible that when Toriyama decided to make Gokuu's hair change color as a Super Saiyan, blonde came up in his mind because he had already done it with Lunch. Or maybe Toriyama decided to give it golden hair after he saw that Toei was gonna give the Super Saiyan form in the Lord Slug film a golden aura. I don't think Shutendouji should be ruled out, because the visual similarities and timing are strong factors in favor of it, but they don't quite amount to a smoking gun. Since Toriyama has passed away, Kondoh Yuu (Toriyama's editor during the Freeza arc) and Matsuyama Takashi (Toriyama's assistant for all of Dragon Ball) may be the only people who can set the record straight. Or maybe someone at Toei might know something, whatever.

    Well, there you have it. I gotta say, though ... Nagai's works are fucking disgusting. Goddamn, I thought Toriyama was bad, but this guy is even worse. Not necessarily in terms of writing, but there's so much fucked up, nasty shit in his works. "Look, here's another woman getting violently raped or murdered!" Dude was literally drawing women getting fucked by dogs. o_0

    Bonus: Komatsuzaki Ran, protagonist of the manga series Crimson Fang (serialized from 1975 to 1986) by Shibata Masahiro, has her hair go up and turn red when she unleashes her psychic powers as the eponymous Crimson Fang. This series was adapted into OVAs from July 1989 to June 1990. Her transformation into the Crimson Fang is quite Super Saiyan-like. Although the manga was serialized in a Shoujo magazine, it featured a lot of action and violence akin to Shounen.

     Another bonus: Benten, a character in Urusei Yatsura (Annoying Aliens) by Takahashi Rumiko (better known for Ranma and Inuyasha), has a rage-induced "power-up" in the second OVA released in 1988. Although she didn't actually transform at all and it's only a gag scene, she kinda looks like a Super Saiyan here.

    Another bonus: In a 1984 chapter of Toriyama's manga Dr. Slump, character Tsukutsun Tsun has a rage-induced power-up that causes his hair to spike up. His hair doesn't change color at all, but you can see that Super Saiyan wasn't the first time Toriyama came up with a rage-induced transformation that spikes a person's hair up.

    Another bonus: The protagonist of the 1966 manga series The Shadowman by Saitoh Takao (better known for Golgo 13) transforms by turning his hair white and his skin dark after being subject to a weird science experiment that makes him super strong. Apparently, his hair is yellow in colored illustrations. Since his skin turns dark, though, it just looks like Blackface. What the hell am I reading? Uhhhh. This shit is weird.