Dragon Ball: 6 Best Designed Black-Haired Forms, Ranked

Transformations have been a part of Dragon Ball since Goku became a Great Ape at the end of the series' first saga. Usually, though, new forms in Dragon Ball come with a major visual change. Between yellow, blue, red, purple, and green, there's a Dragon Ball form for every color of the rainbow. Every now and again, though, Dragon Ball keeps things simple with a black-haired transformation.

Dragon Ball's black forms are some of the slickest designs in the franchise, whether they're coming from Akira Toriyama or other artists. The fact Dragon Ball's so willing to shake up a character's color makes it, in a way, special when their hair color doesn't change. Since the Saiyans always have black hair, it's striking to give them a new form that offers subtler changes. Dragon Ball already has enough recolors as is – keeping a Saiyan's hair black forces a form to be more dynamic to stand out.

6 Ultimate Keeps Things Simple

At the end of Dragon Ball Z, Gohan gets his potential unlocked in order to fight Super Buu. Gohan's Ultimate form brings out all his latent power, and then some, giving him a massive edge in power over Buu. Ultimate is activated like any other transformation, but doesn't have any stamina, Ki, or focus issues since the user functionally remains the same. As a result, Ultimate Gohan's design is really just an edgier version of Gohan's base form.

Gohan's eyes are sharper, his bang is more pronounced, and his hair is spikier (especially in Super Hero, where his base form has wavy hair). Ultimate doesn't look bad by any means, but it's a simple design. It looked best visually in the Buu arc, where its simpler design felt like an intentional way for Toriyama to contrast Ultimate with Super Saiyan 3 artistically. Although most associated with him, Ultimate is hardly exclusive to Gohan. Piccolo gets his own version of Ultimate in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. Ironically, his Ultimate form is yellow.

5 Evil Saiyan's Black & Red Design is Striking

The Evil Saiyan is a dark mirror to the Legendary Super Saiyan transformation, to the point the form is called Legendary Evil Saiyan in-universe. Along with the huge power boost the form offers the user, Evil Saiyan takes on a hazy blood-red aura, known as Evil Aura. Evil Aura can actually infect other fighters, taking over their senses fully. In Super Dragon Ball Heroes, both Cumber and Turles can use Evil Saiyan.

Cumber is the strongest Ancient Saiyan in Dragon Ball, and one of the most powerful fighters in the multiverse. Cumber uses his Evil Saiyan form both in base, and in SSJ. His red shirt and black hair pair rather nicely with the form's red Ki. Interestingly, Turles grows long hair as an Evil Saiyan, resembling Super Saiyan 3 Goku if he had eyebrows. Evil Saiyan Turles doesn't pop as much as Evil Saiyan Cumber, but they both look great.

4 Wrathful's Green Tint Really Helps Broly's Design Pop

Broly was finally made canon in Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and gained a few new transformations in the process. Wrathful is an advanced version of the Oozaru transformation where, even without his tail, Broly is able to tape into the full power of a Great Ape while still controlling his body and senses (for the most part). Wrathful is also the first step towards Brolly becoming a Legendary Super Saiyan, as evidenced by its green aura.

Wrathful makes Broly's hair look considerably more wild, as a green aura starts glowing around him. In a way, Wrathful visually resembles Evil Saiyan, right down to the colorful Ki. The green around Broly in Wrathful looks great against his black and green armor, green sash, and purple pants. Broly looks best with his yellow Super Saiyan hair, but the black hair and green Ki make a great visual duo.

3 Kaioken is Visually Genius

Kaioken is just as much a black-haired form as it is a red-haired form, especially in the Dragon Ball manga where Akira Toriyama shades Goku's hair in black. In fact, Kaioken sharing Goku's hair color is used for a twist during the Frieza Saga, when it's revealed Goku is already using his strongest version of Kaioken against Frieza (but readers obviously can't tell, since the manga was published in black and white).

In the anime, Dragon Ball Z gives Goku an aggressive red aura, much like how Toriyama colors Kaioken in the manga's color pages. While Kaioken often has red hair in DBZ, there are multiple instances where Goku's hair is clearly black, just outlined red. Kaioken sports this design most regularly in the Saiyan Saga, and first two Dragon Ball Z movies. While simple, it's still one of Goku's best looks and the red really sells how much strain Kaioken puts on Goku's body.

2 Ultra Instinct Sign is Ultimate Done Right

Goku unlocking Ultra Instinct Sign during the Tournament of Power was the most exciting moment in Dragon Ball history since Goku first turned Super Saiyan on Namek. Visually, Ultra Instinct Sign is simple, but it's still one of Akira Toriyama's greatest designs. Ultra Instinct Sign flips some of Goku's hair, while running silver streaks through it, as well as giving Goku a blueish-silver glow and aura. Perfected Ultra Instinct gives Goku striking white hair, but the black hair really stands out.

Interestingly, Ultra Instinct Sign resembles the same design philosophy as Ultimate Gohan. In Dragon Ball Super, transformations kept being simple recolors. To make the first step towards Goku's ultimate form the save color as his base hair is a nice way of showing, visually, that Goku's full power is inside him. Goku's hair once again turns black and silver when he uses True Ultra Instinct in the Granolah the Survivor Saga.

1 Super Saiyan 4 (GT) is One of the Best Designed Forms in Dragon Ball

Akira Toriyama's Super Saiyan 4 might have red hair, but the original version of SSJ4 Goku from Dragon Ball GT had black hair. Not onlly does the black hair on Super Saiyan 4 pair wonderfully with Goku's red-pink fur, it's a great way of treating SSJ4 like a full circle form. This is Goku in his purest state as a Saiyan, and at his most powerful. He had to become a Great Ape just to unlock the transformation, so it's fitting he get to keep his hair color.

The red outlines around Goku's eyes are a nice touch, as are Goku's yellow pants and blue belt, both of which play off his red fur perfectly. While Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta and Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta have brown and red hair, respectively, Xeno Vegito and Xeno Broly both share Goku's black hair when they turn SSJ4. For Vegito, he's inheriting the color from Goku, while Broly is just following the same logic as Goku, where his hair doesn't change color. As far as black-haired forms go, Super Saiyan 4 Goku in Dragon Ball GT is a top tier design.