Akira Toriyama’sDragon Ballboasts some ofthe most powerful anime characters of all time. From the mighty Saiyans to the show’s excellent cast of villains, it can sometimes seem as though power levels in the series are constantly increasing, but this isn’t always the case. In fact, sometimes, certainDragon Ballcharacters have actually been known to get weaker over time.
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At various points over the past few decades, someDragon Ballcharacters have had their power levels nerfed. Sometimes, this is done for the purpose of advancing the story, while on other occasions it seems to be done mainly for comedic effect. Whatever the reason though, theseDragon Ballcharacters all became weaker at one point or another, albeit temporarily in most cases.
Gohan
There was once a time when series creatorAkira Toriyama wanted Gohan to replace Goku as the lead ofDragon Ball, as evidenced by the former’s prominent role during the Cell Games saga. However, fans just never really took to Gohan in the same way that they did Goku, leading to Toriyama rethinking his plans during the Majin Buu saga; at the beginning of which Gohan has grown noticeably weaker than he was when he fought Cell.
There’s probably some old adage about people growing soft and weak during times of peace which explains Gohan getting nerfed, and this would certainly make sense given the lack of conflict during the seven years that separated the Cell and Buu sagas. Despite opting to walk the path of an academic rather than the path of a warrior though, Gohan does have his true power awakened during the Buu saga, and, eventually,far surpasses his childhood power levelsduringDragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
Majin Buu
Like Gohan, there was a point duringDragon Ball Zwhen Majin Buu was the show’s strongest character. He eventually comes unstuck though; both figuratively and literally, with the character being split into good and evil forms toward the end of the series. The latter is defeated by Goku’s Universal Spirit Bomb, but Good Buu remains on Earth and decides to live out his days with Mr. Satan at Satan House in Satan City.
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By the timeDragon Ball Superrolls around, however, Buu has become a bit of a joke, with his eating and sleeping serving as the punchline to many of the series' jokes. At one point, it does look like he’s ready to take things seriously again as he trains himself up to a level above that of even Goku’s, but he once again falls asleep and misses out on the Tournament of Power. He does help out withthe fight against Moro in theDragon Ball Supermanga, but offers very little during the early stages of the series.
Krillin
When Krillin is first introduced during the original run ofDragon Ball, he’s shown to be almost as strong as Goku. In any other setting, two similarly aged people having similar power levels would likely come as no surprise, but, givenGoku’s Saiyan heritage, it’s actually an incredibly impressive achievement on Krillin’s part. It’s one that Tien can lay claim to as well, but neither he nor Krillin can come close to keeping up in the long run.
Some will argue that it’s more a case of the people around them growing stronger while their power levels simply stagnate, and this is certainly true to a certain degree. However, in the case of Krillin, he completely drops off after his death on Namek, with Tien at least offering some resistance in the fight against Cell. Krillin does get his redemption eventually though, with the chrome-domed hero managing toeliminate Majora from the Tournament of Powerwith a little help from his dirty shoe.
Hit
The Universe 6 saga ofDragon Ball Superintroduced plenty of powerful new characters, but none more so than Hit. The interdimensional assassin was able to go toe-to-toe with Goku despite being restrained by the tournament’s rules on lethal force, suggesting that his true power went far beyond that of Super Saiyan Blue. In fact, viewers already knew this to be true as Goku was forced to use Kaio-Ken together with the Super Saiyan Blue transformation during the pair’s showdown.
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Fast forward just a little to the Tournament of Power though, and Hit’s power levels seemed to have taken a massive hit, with the legendary hitman initially struggling to keep up with Dyspo. Granted, he is eventually able to get the better of the supersonic rabbit andeven gives Jiren a run for his moneya little later on, but this remains yet another example of aDragon Ballcharacter being nerfed for the sake of creating tension and suspense.
Goku
Despite his many years at the top of theDragon Ballpile, Goku is no more immune to having his power levels nerfed than anyone else. However, unlike with other characters, Goku becoming weaker is more down toDragon Ball GTnot being considered canon, with the Super Saiyan 4 transformation that he attains during the much-malignedZsuccessor effectively being wiped from existence whenDragon Ball Superbecame a thing.
It’s worth noting that Goku achieves Super Saiyan God form very early on inDragon Ball Superand so his power levels aren’t nerfed for all that long. Even so, upon its creation,Super Saiyan 4 was clearly intended to be more powerful than Super Saiyan 3, which is Goku’s most powerful form when Beerus first arrives on planet Earth. Had he truly been able to master the Super Saiyan 4 transformation inGT, the drop off in Vegeta’s power levels would have been even greater, as the Saiyan Prince never actually obtained the Super Saiyan 3 form in either the anime or the manga.
