Even though Super Saiyan 5 was completely fabricated with now-famous fan art, Dragon Ball basically made it canon and no one noticed.
While the real world legend of Super Saiyan 5 proved disappointingly non-canon within the Dragon Ball saga, the seemingly divine form was basically added to the series… and nobody noticed.
Super Saiyan 5 originated as fan art drawn by artist David Montiel Franco. When the image circulated on the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the current Dragon Ball the anime was Dragon Ball GT which launched in 1996 in Japan, a series that introduced fans to Super Saiyan 4. Seemingly following the Super Saiyan 4 aesthetic, Super Saiyan 5 depicts the Saiyan (one later revealed to be an original Franco character named Tablos ) in a more primitive form with long hair and fur covering most of its body. The form also gave the Saiyan white/silver hair.
Even though it’s just a fan-made image linked to a fake Dragon Ball series known as Dragon Ball AF, the Super Saiyan 5 image carries with it the promise of a power unlike anything fans have seen before. While Super Saiyan 5 ended up being something of a hoax, fans basically got a version of the current form. Dragon Ball story, or at least, the version that fans imagined they would have gotten with the ‘real’ Super Saiyan 5. dragon ball super by Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou, Goku and Vegeta have unlocked godlike powers, not only with the insanely powerful form of Super Saiyan Blue, but with levels of power that only gods and angels have wielded before. Vegeta has attained a power used by the Gods of Destruction known as Ultra Ego, but it is Goku’s achievement that is truly remarkable as he basically made canon Super Saiyan 5 through the use of Ultra Instinct.
Much like the power Super Saiyan 5 was imagined to have, Ultra Instinct gives one power that surpasses that of a god, demonstrated by Lord Beerus, who has yet to unlock that particular ability. Also, aesthetically, it’s not that far off. Rather than the long-haired, furry Super Saiyan 4 style that Super Saiyan 5 apparently stems from, Ultra Instinct keeps Goku’s form relatively the same. However, just as Super Saiyan 5 turns a Saiyan’s hair white/silver, Ultra Instinct changes Goku’s hair to a similar color, albeit a bit brighter/silver than Super Saiyan 5’s more prominent white.
While there are similarities, the differences between Super Saiyan 5 and Ultra Instinct are enough to prevent this comparison from being obvious, and perhaps even make the comparison unpleasant. However, the essence of Ultra Instinct has proven to be the pinnacle of power, a power that even gods struggle to access. When fans first saw Super Saiyan 5 fan art, the feeling it invoked gave one the impression that this was the final and most powerful form a Saiyan could achieve. While there will surely be an even higher power level than Ultra Instinct in the future, as it stands, it’s the end of all about how powerful a character can be in the game. Dragon Ball universe, and that’s enough to make it comparable to the fan-made legend of Super Saiyan 5.
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