is the best-known manga and anime series in the world, completely changing the course of th🥂e medium forever. It inspired countless artists and captured the attention of countless people who had never even heard of anime before and made the term Super Saiyan part of the public consciou🍷sness.

It's a battle-focused series where people can shoot energy beams at each other, simple, right? Until you realize that there are aliens, gods, alternate dimensions, and a whole host of other things to keep track of. We're here to break down one of the most important of all, the Saiyans themselves.

What Is A Saiyan?

A Saiyan in Dragon Ball is a kind of alien, hailing from another planet than Earth. They mostly resemble Humans but do have a few key differences. The most notable are their tails, prehensile monkey-like appendages sprouting from the area of their tailbones.

These tails are especially sensitive, grabbing onto them is a way to cause a Saiyan debilitating pain and defeat them. Saiyans can train themselves to overcome this weakness, but it's never shown how.

Akira Toriyama, the late great creator of Dragon Ball, eventually phased out Saiyans having tails. He did ꦚit purely because drawing their tail♔s along with clothing was too much bother for him, so he opted for cleaner designs instead.

Almost all Saiyans have black hair and black eyes, altho🌞ugh a few differences have been seen. Their hair also🏅 never changes from the day they are born, maintaining exactly the same style and shape for their entire lives.

Although their hair doesn't change in shape or style, Saiyans can still go bald as seen with Nappa.

Characters who are half S▨aiyan and half Human have been shown to be able to have alternate hair colours, like Trunks, and have their hair grow and change just like a Humans. Gohan has multiple hairstyles throughout his life.

Compared to Humans, Saiyans are practically superhuman. Their aging slows 🔴as they mature, their bodies are resistant to extreme temperatures and they naturally become stronger as they get older, far beyond what is natural for Humans.

Even as children Saiyans can typically lift several times their own weight and can withstand bullets from small firearms, seen as early as the original Dragon Ball seri🃏es. They can also gain dramatꦆic boosts in power by surviving defeat.

The ability to recover quickly from injury and grow stronger is called Saiyan Power, mistakenly referred to as Ze༺nkai by the Western ✨fandom.

It is a type of rapid evolution, the Saiyan body adapting to the harm it endured so it won't suffer the same thing again. This generally presents as improved reflexes, strength, and hardiness.

What Is Saiyan Culture Like?

Despite looking very close to Human, the Saiyan culture isn't the same at all. Their focus is almost entirely on strength and battle prowess, with a caste system based on an individual's strength from an early age.

A warlike people, they regular🐓ly attack and take over other planets, showing no hesitation in suppressing or even wiping out the local population. Because of their natural strength and dedicated training, they rarely run into trouble in their attacks.

Pride was always a key part of the Saiyan culture and identity, both on an ind♍ividual level and as a civilization. Each Saiyan was proud of their own abilities but also of their s𒉰pecies as a whole.

The Saiyans are ruled by strength, with the most powerful member of the strongest clan taking on the title and role of King. Even without the backing of a clan, a stro𓂃ng enough Saiyan coul🗹d wrest the title for himself, as King Vegeta feared Broly might do.

What Happened To The Saiyans?

Despite their military power, the Saiyans were conquered by Frieza's empire. Their territory was claimed and the soldiers drafted into Frieza's army, were sent to conquer planets in Frieza's name to either be occupied or sold.

Although Frieza saw them as useful warriors, he grew concerned by their ability to gain great strength. He determined it was better to eradicate them, rather than 🌠face the risk of one growing powerful enough to defeat him.

Frieza destroyed the Saiyan homeworld, along with all of the Saiyans present. This was, at the time, thought to leave only four Saiyans left alive. Raditz, Nappa, Prince Vegeta, and Goku who had been sent to infiltrate Earth as a baby.

It was unknown, even by himself, that Goku was a Saiyan for the entirety of the original Dragon Ball manga. It was only with Drag💙on Ball Z that the truth was revea𝓡led.

These few were allowed to live, and viewed as valuable soldiers that Frieza would closely monitor for signs of threat. They were told that theirও homeworld had been destroyed by an aster🅠oid, giving no reason for them to turn on Frieza.

Other survivors have been revealed over time, some considered canon and others not. They include Turles, from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Tree Of Might movie, and Vegeta's brother Tarble from the Dragon Ball: The Return of Son Goku and Friends Special!

Tarble was considered a non-canon character for many years, but Vegeta mentions him in Dragon Ball: Super, confirming tha𓆉t he is an offic🥂ial part of the Dragon Ball setting.

Across all sources so far, only nine full-blooded Saiyans are known to have survived. Broly, Goku, Nappa, Onio, Paragus, Raditz, Tarble, Turles and Vegeta. Not all of the👍se have surviv🥀ed as time has gone on, but the Saiyan legacy continues.

Saiyans are able to produce children with Humans, with both Goku and Vegeta having done so. These hybrid Saiyans are shown to have many of the same abilities𝔉 as full Saiyans, and in some instances show even greater potential.

What Is A Great Ape?

One of the most remarkable features of the Saiyan people, and the key to much of their military success, is their ability to transform. Under the light of a full moon, they can become something called a Great Ape, also known as Ōzaru.

It is a giant ape, not dissimilar to King Kong, which multiplies the power of the Saiyan transformed by a fac﷽tor of ten. It also typically causes them to lose their ability to reason, reverting to a raging beast-like state.

It was normal for Saiyans to send weak babies to planets they sought to conquer. The strategy was that under the full moon, they would transform into a Great Ape, making even the weakest Saiyan capable of softening up a planet's defenses for future conquering.

The practice of sending babies to planets was how Goku came to be on Planet Earth. It was only a combination of a knock to the head and the influence of Son Gohan, the man who raised hi🌜m, which led t♐o him becoming the good-natured child we first see in Dragon Ball.

He is taught by Son Gohan 🍨never to go out during, or look at, the full moon. Unfortunately, he does so by accident, transforming and killing Son Gohan.

The weakness of the Great Ape form is their tail. A Saiyan without a tail cannot transform into a Great Ape at all, and o🐽ne who is already transformed can be♚ turned back to normal by cutting off their tail.

What Is A Super Saiyan?

Probably the most🦩 famous thing to come from Dragon Ball is the idea of a Super Saiyan, something even people with no knowledge of Dragon Ball are vaguely familiar with. They might not know what it is, but they know the term.

Super Saiyan is a transformation a Saiyan can undergo, dramatically raising their power level. It's visually recognizable by spiking the Saiyan's hair and turning it blonde, as well as changing their eye colour to blue and surrounding them in a golden aura.

Super Saiyan popularised the concept of a power-up transformation, an idea that has appeared in countless forms of media 🌺🍷ever since.

It's a difficult state to achieve, having been lost to the Saiyan people for generations and passing into legend until Goku rediscovered the transformation and proved it was indeed real, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:making him the♎ most powerful character in the series shown at that point.

After Goku achieved the Super Saiyan state, many others were able to follow in his footsteps ♏such as Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, and Goten. Vegeta even made a ൩point of helping the Saiyans of another Universe, Universe 6, discover the form.

Multiple tiers and variations of the transformation have been discovered. The main ones would be considered Super Saiyan 2, a🀅 direct upgrade, and Super Saiyan 3 which increases power even further but has some drawbacks.

One of the most visually distinct variants is Super Saiyan 4, introduced in Dragon Ball GT. It causes pink or red fur to sprout across the Saiyan's torso, as well as growing out their hair. It is considered non-canon outside of GT.

More and more 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Saiyan transformations have beenꦉ introduced as the series has gone on, allowing characters to achieve even greater heights of power, but the standard Super Saiyan form remains the most famous and iconic.