Dragon Ball's Rarest Super Saiyan Form Was Only Ever Achieved By One Person

After "Dragon Ball Z" introduces Goku's Super Saiyan transformation, learning more powerful forms becomes key to just about every major character's arc as the franchise progresses. That said, most subsequent Super Saiyan transformations are attainable by multiple characters, like Gotenks going Super Saiyan 3 shortly after Goku in the final "Dragon Ball Z" saga. The rarest Super Saiyan form, then, is one of the few only ever achieved — and likely only ever attainable — by just one character in particular.

Despite its impact, DBZ is only one part of this Broly-sized success story. The Dragon Ball franchise has spawned four anime series (five if you count Dragon Ball Kai), 19 movies, over 500 chapters of manga, nearly 100 video games, multiple Universal Studios rides, and all kinds of ridiculous memes and debates about power levels. Shenron has finally answered your wish, so chug your Hetap, because it's time to take a Grand Tour through the untold truth of Dragon Ball Z.

Since he launched his long-running manga series in 1984, the property has blossomed into hundreds of television episodes, cartfuls of video games, handfuls of movies and an unquenchable fan appetite for his super-powered alien fighters. Over the course of decades, fans have gradually learned more and more about the mysterious Saiyans at the heart of the series, with each new iteration growing the index of these ape-humanoid warriors at the same rate as their soon-to-be meaningless "power levels." It's simply not possible to keep everything the manga, television series and movies have told us about the Saiyans in your head. Some of it is bound to fall out over time.

Genre descriptors used for anime are one thing that might require some explaining. Anime can cover basically any genre, and obviously Americans will know what to expect if they hear an anime is, say, a comedy or a science fiction drama. But then there are other genre descriptors that are unique to Japanese media, or terms that have different implications in the context of anime versus in other media.

From shonen, seinen, and shoujo to mecha, harem, and the ever-popular isekai, there really is something for everyone in the world of anime. However, there's a handful of special shows that transcend the trappings of their genres, and it's those universal crowdpleasers we're going to look at today. From seminal shows that inspired generations of fans and creators to the modern-day classics that stand as a shining example of the medium, we're ranking the 50 best anime series of all time.