news culture “Goku with primal power”: The recipe for Dragon Ball GT’s Super Saiyan 4 finally revealed
With the arrival of Dragon Ball Super, the franchise created by Akira Toriyama now has a slew of super transformations, each one crazier than the next. But for a long time, Goku and Vegeta’s ultimate power stage remained the Super Saiyan 4 form, loved by many fans and introduced in the Dragon Ball GT series. A transformation that was not born from the mind of the master himself. Explanations.
No, Toriyama didn’t create the SSJ4!
If Dragon Ball GT is not the series most loved by fans of the universe created by Akira Toriyama, the animated series that started in 1996 at least has the merit of presenting one of the most famous super transformations of the franchise: Super Saiyan 4 . Looking like a monkey referring to the origins of the Saiyans, red fur and long black hair: the SSJ4 is one of Dragon Ball GT’s finest achievements to date. A creation that did not come from the mind of Master Toriyama, but from a key member of the series’ animation team. And it was Toriyama-sensei himself who admitted it in one of the bonus interviews included in the Dragon Ball DVD boxes.
(Katsuyoshi) Nakatsuru is incredibly skilled and mastered the idiosyncrasies of my paintings in no time, to the point that sometimes I couldn’t even tell if I drew a specific character design or if it was a specific character design for him. For example, one of Nakatsuru’s designs from Super Saiyan 4 is (…) – Akira Toriyama
Knighted by Master
Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, the main animator and director from the beginning of the 1986 Dragon Ball anime to the end of Dragon Ball GT, also returned to his immense contribution to the work of Akira Toriyama. For him, the biggest challenge was to create a design that showed an even greater power than the Super Saiyan 3 form. He therefore returned to the origins of the Saiyans and the first transformation: Oozaru or giant gorilla.
The idea behind (SSJ4’s hairstyle) was to take a different direction from Super Saiyan 3 and make it wild. I made the fur red because it exudes an air of power. (…) From the conception of the designs, my idea was to mix the Oozaru and Super Saiyan forms of Goku. Goku with primal power, something like that. – Interview of Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru dance Dragon Ball Anime Illustration Collection: The Golden Warrior, 2010
Looks like nothing, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru had just created one of Dragon Ball’s most emblematic transformations, an exceptional contribution approved by the master himself. Since then, Akira Toriyama has been drawing the SSJ4 himself, which has not failed its creator, also a big fan of the work and the author.
Goku Super Saiyan 4 drawn by Akira Toriyama
I was deeply moved that Master had the elegance to draw an “anime only” character. At that time, there was a celebration to commemorate the completion of the anime, and Toriyama-sensei was kind enough to draw Little Goku from Dragon Ball GT on colored paper for me, so I’m also very attached to this Goku. I was like “I’m such a lucky fan”. -Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru
