Super Saiyan 4 is one of the coolest upgrades in the Dragon Ball mythos, but another GT upgrade is easily way better, though it does have one flaw.
It is no secret that Super Saiyan 4 is hands down the coolest upgrade to come out of Dragon Ball GT, but that doesn’t mean it was strictly the best as there is one other that literally turned a non-sentient object that had been around since the first Dragon Ball installment into a full-on character–though that upgrade did come with one potentially fatal flaw.
Introduced in Dragon Ball GT, Super Saiyan 4 is one of the franchise’s coolest powerups. The transformation ties back into the Saiyans’ Great Ape form and actually ties it into the series’ larger mythos. With its raw power and unique ties to Dragon Ball’s earliest days, Super Saiyan 4 is an incredibly interesting and unique take on Saiyan transformations.
However, even though Super Saiyan 4 is undeniably awesome, there is another Dragon Ball GT upgrade that is even more so: the metamorphosis of the Dragon Radar.
Dragon Ball GT’s Greatest Powerup Came to the Dragon Radar
In Dragon Ball GT season 1, episode 11 (written by Masashi Kubota, directed by Osamu Kasai, produced by Toei Animation), Trunks, Goku, and Pan are trying to find a Black Star Dragon Ball that was stolen from them by the Para Para Brothers and delivered to a strange planet run by a cult.
After defeating the Brothers, Pan and the newly-sentient Dragon Radar, Gill, are separated from Goku and Trunks and are taken to the dangerous world all on their own. However, Pan is fearless and doesn’t mind going in head-first even if there is danger as her Saiyan heritage has given her all the power she needs. Unfortunately, Gill wasn’t so confident and when his built-in Dragon Radar said that the Black Star Dragon Ball was inside the cult’s temple, Gill refused to go with Pan as he was scared of the dangers inside.
Gill is the result of an alien robot consuming the Dragon Radar for energy and then merging with the technology to form a fully functional (if not more powerful) Dragon Radar on his back. The introduction of Gill effectively made the Dragon Radar–something that has been around since the very first chapter of Dragon Ball–an actual character. While that is interesting and definitely an unbelievable upgrade due to the fact that the Dragon Radar’s previous existence was that of a mindless tracker, it also comes with its fair share of challenges–including the one present in this episode.
Dragon Ball GT’s Gill Lost Functionality As a Dragon Radar
The Dragon Radar, Gill, simply refuses to do the one thing the Z-Fighters need him to do: track the Dragon Balls. Gill tells Pan that the Dragon Ball is inside the temple, but then doesn’t go in with her because he’s too scared. This leaves Pan directionless when she enters the temple, leaving her much more vulnerable than she would have been if she had a hand-held Dragon Radar on her. If Gill wasn’t sentient, Pan would have been much safer going into that temple, but since he was, Pan’s life suddenly became at risk all because the robot refused to do what it was designed for–proving that the one Dragon Ball GT upgrade better than Super Saiyan 4 has a seriously fatal flaw.
