Honestly, nothing in Dragon Ball Super has quite captured the raw, animalistic energy of that one moment in Dragon Ball GT. You know the one. After decades of glowing hair and blue dyes, looking back at when Goku turns Super Saiyan 4 feels like revisiting a fever dream that actually made sense. It wasn’t just a power-up. It was a return to roots.
The year was 1997 in Japan. Fans were watching GT, a show that—let’s be real—was struggling to find its footing after the cultural earthquake of Dragon Ball Z. Then came the Baby Saga. Goku was backed into a corner, his tail had been pulled out with pliers, and the stakes felt weirdly personal. When he finally made the jump from a mindless Golden Oozaru back into a humanoid form, it changed the aesthetic of the franchise forever. It wasn't just another multiplier; it was a total biological overhaul.
The Night Goku Turns Super Saiyan 4 and Redefines Saiyan Biology
To understand why this form hits different, you have to look at the mess that led up to it. Goku was stuck in a child's body. He was losing. The fight against Baby-Vegeta on the New Planet Plant was going south fast. Most fans forget that the transformation isn't a direct sequel to Super Saiyan 3. It’s actually a divergent evolutionary path.
The requirements are specific and, frankly, a bit of a nightmare. You need a tail. You need to achieve the Super Saiyan state. Then, you have to transform into a Great Ape while in that Super Saiyan form, creating the "Golden Oozaru." But that’s the easy part. The hard part—the part where most Saiyans would just stay a giant, golden Kaiju and wreck the planet—is regaining your consciousness.
Pan was the key. She cried. She showed Goku a picture of their family vacation. It sounds cheesy, but it worked. That emotional tether allowed Goku to internalize the literal power of a giant ape into a concentrated, human-sized frame. The result? Red fur. Eyeliner that would make a goth kid jealous. A voice that dropped three octaves. It was striking. Unlike the God forms we see now, which basically just swap color palettes, SSJ4 changed the physical model.
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Why the Design by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru Works
We have to give credit to Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru here. Akira Toriyama didn't design this one, though he famously gave it his seal of approval later. Nakatsuru wanted something that looked "heavy." Super Saiyan 1 through 3 are all about light—glowing hair, sparks, auras. SSJ4 is about mass and primal origins.
The fur is a callback to the Oozaru. The black hair (instead of gold) suggests that the user has mastered their base form’s power and fused it with the transformation. It’s also the only form where the clothes magically change—Goku gets those stylish yellow pants and a sash out of nowhere—which fans have debated for thirty years. Is it magic? Is it a byproduct of the transformation? The show never really explains it, and honestly, we don't care because it looks cool.
Breaking Down the Power Scaling of the Primal State
Let's talk numbers, or at least the logic behind them. In the Dragon Ball GT Perfect Files, the official databooks released in Japan, Super Saiyan 4 is described as the "ultimate" form. While Super has since introduced Ultra Instinct and Hakai energy, within the vacuum of the GT timeline, SSJ4 was the end of the line.
- It completely bypassed the stamina drain issues of Super Saiyan 3.
- It allowed Goku to stay in his adult body despite the Black Star Dragon Balls' curse.
- The "10x Kamehameha" became the standard, a move so powerful it had a delayed reaction time because of the sheer pressure.
People often argue about whether SSJ4 could beat Super Saiyan Blue. It's a fun debate for Reddit, but they function on different planes. Blue is about "God Ki" and calm control. SSJ4 is about "Primal Power" and raw instinct. In Super Dragon Ball Heroes, we actually see Xeno Goku (the SSJ4 version) fight CC Goku (the Blue version). The result? A stalemate. This suggests that the primal evolution is roughly equivalent to divine energy, just accessed through a different biological "port."
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The Emotional Weight of the Transformation
What really sticks with you isn't just the power. It's the stakes. When Goku turns Super Saiyan 4, he isn't just fighting for the Earth. He's fighting to stay himself. The Golden Oozaru is a state of pure destruction. If he hadn't come back, he would have been the very monster his Grandpa Gohan feared.
There's a subtle sadness in the form too. It looks mature. Serious. It’s a far cry from the "I'm just a guy who likes to fight" Goku we see in the early parts of Super. This Goku felt like a protector who had finally embraced the full, bloody history of the Saiyan race. He wasn't running from the monkey anymore; he was wearing it.
Common Misconceptions About the Form
One thing people get wrong is thinking Vegeta could have done it on his own. He couldn't. Vegeta needed the Blutz Wave Generator, a machine Bulma built, to force the transformation because he lacked a tail. This creates a neat bit of irony. Goku, the low-class warrior, achieved the peak of Saiyan evolution through pure heart and natural biology. Vegeta, the Prince, had to use science.
Another myth is that the form is "non-canon" so it doesn't matter. While it's true GT exists in a separate continuity from the Super manga, the impact of Super Saiyan 4 is massive. It’s the most requested character in every video game, from Dokkan Battle to Sparking! Zero. You can't ignore it. It's baked into the DNA of the franchise.
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The Legacy of the Red Fur
Looking back, that specific episode where Goku turns Super Saiyan 4 represents the last time Dragon Ball felt truly dangerous. There was a grit to the animation and a weight to the movements that defined an era. It’s why fans still lose their minds when they see the red fur in a trailer.
If you're looking to revisit this era, don't just watch the clips on YouTube. Go back to the original Japanese score by Akihito Tokunaga. The mechanical, synth-heavy music during the transformation sequence creates an atmosphere that the English "rock" dub missed. It feels alien. It feels like a transformation that actually hurts.
Practical Steps for the Modern Fan:
- Watch Episode 34-35 of GT: This is the core sequence. Pay attention to the transition from the Oozaru's eyes to Goku's eyes.
- Check out the "Perfect Files": If you can find translations of these 1990s guidebooks, they offer a deep dive into the "Blutz Wave" science that Super ignores.
- Play the Xeno Missions in Games: Games like Dragon Ball Heroes or Xenoverse 2 explore what happens when SSJ4 interacts with the modern "God" lore, which is basically the only way to see the form in a modern engine.
- Compare the Eyes: Notice that SSJ4 is the only form where the iris color changes to a piercing yellow/gold with red outlines. It's a visual cue for "focused rage" that hasn't been used since.
The beauty of the franchise is that there’s room for both the blue hair and the red fur. But if you want the peak of Saiyan aesthetic, nothing beats the moment the smoke clears and a grown-up, fur-clad Goku looks Baby-Vegeta in the eye and tells him his time is up.