He has silver hair. It’s long—really long—flowing down his back like a wilder version of Super Saiyan 3. His fur is silver-grey, covering his torso and arms, a clear nod to the Great Ape roots of the Super Saiyan 4 form we saw in Dragon Ball GT. If you grew up on the early-2000s internet, you know exactly who I’m talking about. Super Saiyan 5 Goku is arguably the most successful "fake" character in the history of fiction. He’s the face of a million Geocities sites and Angelfire blogs. He’s the reason kids used to swear they’d found a "secret" episode of a show called Dragon Ball AF.
But here’s the thing. Super Saiyan 5 Goku isn’t real. He never was.
Despite being a total fabrication, this version of Goku has more staying power than many official forms. Why? Because it tapped into a specific moment in pop culture. It was the Wild West of the web. Rumors traveled faster than facts. You’ve likely seen the grainy image of Goku looking like a silver deity. Honestly, most of us believed it for at least a week or two back in 1999. It’s a fascinating case study in how fan creativity can actually outshine official marketing for decades.
Where did Super Saiyan 5 Goku actually come from?
It wasn't a leak. It wasn't a discarded sketch from Akira Toriyama’s desk.
The origin of Super Saiyan 5 Goku is actually quite humble. It all started with a single piece of fan art. A Spanish artist named David Montiel Franco, known online as "omada," drew a character he called "Tablos." He wasn't even trying to draw Goku. He was creating his own story, an original concept. But because the art style was so dead-on for the Dragon Ball aesthetic, the internet did what the internet does. Someone cropped it. Someone slapped a "Dragon Ball AF" logo on it. Someone else uploaded it to a forum.
Suddenly, the world thought Goku had a new level.
This was 1999. Dragon Ball GT had recently ended in Japan. Fans were desperate. They wanted more. The vacuum left by the end of the series was filled by this image. It’s weird how a single drawing can spark a global myth. People started writing fanfiction. They created elaborate backstories about how Goku achieved this form by training in the Spirit Realm or by fusing with the Dragon Balls. It’s honestly impressive how much lore was built around a drawing that the artist didn't even intend to be Goku.
The Dragon Ball AF hoax explained
You can’t talk about Super Saiyan 5 Goku without talking about Dragon Ball AF. "AF" stood for "After Future" (or "April Fools," depending on who you asked back then). It was the ultimate urban legend of the anime world.
Think back to how we got information in 2000. There was no Twitter. There was no official Crunchyroll news feed. We had magazines like Animerica and message boards. If someone told you their cousin in Japan saw a new episode where Goku turned silver, you kinda had to take their word for it. The rumors claimed Dragon Ball AF was a sequel to GT. It supposedly featured a plot where Goku Jr. or a returned Goku faced off against a villain named Xicor.
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It was all fake.
Why did we all believe it?
- The timing was perfect. GT was divisive. Fans wanted a "correction."
- The art was high quality. Montiel Franco’s art looked professional. It looked like something that could be on a TV screen.
- Language barriers. Most of the "info" was coming from Japan or Europe. If you didn't speak the language, you relied on "translations" that were often just made-up stories.
The hoax grew so large that it eventually birthed real content. Not from Toei Animation, but from fans. This is where things get really interesting. Some of the biggest names in the industry today actually got their start with this fake transformation.
The Toyotarou connection
This is the part that usually blows people's minds. The current artist of the official Dragon Ball Super manga, Toyotarou, was one of those kids obsessed with Super Saiyan 5.
Before he worked for Shueisha, he went by the pen name "Toyble." He actually created a fan-manga based on the Dragon Ball AF rumors. His work was so good, so detailed, that it helped keep the Super Saiyan 5 Goku myth alive long after the original hoax was debunked. It’s a wild full-circle moment. The guy who used to draw non-canon silver-haired Goku is now the guy drawing the official Ultra Instinct Goku.
There’s a clear visual lineage there. Look at the silver hair of Ultra Instinct. Look at the flowy locks. While Ultra Instinct is much sleeker, the DNA of that "Ultimate Transformation" vibe—the silver, the divinity, the power—clearly traces back to the fan designs of the early 2000s.
Is there any way to play as Super Saiyan 5 Goku?
Sorta. But not officially.
Bandai Namco and Dimps have never put Super Saiyan 5 in a game. You won't find him in Dragon Ball FighterZ or Sparking! Zero. But the modding community? They’ve kept the dream alive for twenty years. If you go to any mod site for Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 or the old Budokai Tenkaichi 3 on PC, Super Saiyan 5 Goku is usually the first or second most downloaded mod.
It’s a badge of honor for the community. Fans have even created custom move sets for him. They’ve given him techniques like the "Spirit Cannon" or "1000x Kamehameha." It’s a testament to the character’s design that people still want to play as him even though he’s not "canon."
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Why Toei won't make it official
Look, Dragon Ball is a multi-billion dollar business. They have their own roadmap. When they decided to bring the series back with Battle of Gods, they went in a different direction. They chose "God Ki." They chose Blue. They chose Red.
Super Saiyan 5 is too "90s." It’s bulky. It’s hairy. It looks like an evolution of the GT style, which the official brand has distanced itself from in recent years. While they’ve brought back elements like Gogeta and Broly, the Super Saiyan 4 aesthetic is currently relegated to Super Dragon Ball Heroes, the promotional anime.
Even in Heroes, which is basically official fan-service, we haven't seen a "Super Saiyan 5." They prefer "Super Saiyan 4 Limit Breaker." It’s as close as we’re ever going to get.
The design philosophy: Why it worked
Why do people still care? It's the silver.
In the Dragon Ball universe, colors matter. Gold meant power. Red meant divinity. Blue meant control. Silver? Silver felt like the end of the road. It felt like a character who had transcended everything. Super Saiyan 5 Goku looks like a warrior who has become a myth.
The contrast of the white-silver hair against the darker, charcoal-grey fur created a visual that was both intimidating and elegant. It was a step up from the red-furred Super Saiyan 4. It felt like a "mastered" version of the primal Saiyan energy.
Also, it’s just cool. Sometimes it’s not deeper than that.
Addressing the "Ultra Instinct" rumors
A lot of people claim that Akira Toriyama took inspiration from Super Saiyan 5 when creating Ultra Instinct. There is zero evidence for this. Toriyama famously didn't spend much time looking at fan art or internet rumors.
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However, we can say that the collective consciousness of the fanbase was primed for a silver-haired Goku. When Goku finally debuted Ultra Instinct (Sign) and then the Mastered version with the silver hair, the internet exploded. It felt like the fan theories from 1999 were finally becoming real, even if the mechanics of the form were totally different.
Super Saiyan 5 is a physical transformation based on power. Ultra Instinct is a state of mind based on technique. They aren't the same thing. But visually? They are cousins.
Practical steps for Dragon Ball fans
If you’re still fascinated by this piece of internet history, there are a few things you can do to see it for yourself.
First, go find the original artwork by David Montiel Franco. It’s important to give credit to the artist whose work accidentally fooled the world. Search for "Tablos Dragon Ball AF" and you’ll find the roots of the legend. It’s a great piece of art that deserves to be seen outside of the context of a hoax.
Second, check out the fan-manga. Toyble’s Dragon Ball AF and Young Jijii’s version are the two big ones. They are incredibly well-drawn and offer a "what if" look at a world where Super Saiyan 5 was real. The storytelling in these fan projects is surprisingly deep, dealing with the consequences of Goku’s god-like power and his absence from Earth.
Third, if you’re a gamer, look into the Dragon Ball modding scene. Sites like Video Game Mods or the various Discord servers dedicated to Xenoverse 2 have incredibly high-quality models of Super Saiyan 5 Goku. You can see how the form looks in motion, with custom animations that really capture that "primal" feel.
Lastly, stop waiting for it to become canon. It won't happen. And that’s okay. Super Saiyan 5 belongs to the fans. It belongs to the era of dial-up internet and blurry JPEGs. Making it official would almost ruin the magic of it. It’s the ultimate "what if," and sometimes the things we imagine are better than the things we’re given.
Super Saiyan 5 Goku is a reminder of a time when the internet was smaller, more mysterious, and a lot more fun. It shows that even a "fake" idea can have a real impact if it captures people's imaginations. Goku might never turn silver and grow grey fur in a movie, but in the hearts of millions of fans who grew up in the 2000s, he already did.
To really appreciate the legacy of this form, look at how modern Dragon Ball designs handle "ultimate" power. You can see the echoes of the SSJ5 myth in everything from the silver hair of the angels to the primal "Beast" form of Gohan. The fans were ahead of the curve. They knew silver was the future. They just had to wait twenty years for the official series to catch up to their fanfiction.