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Directory: TechniquesSupportive Techniques

"You haven't stopped me! I have Piccolo's Namekian DNA as a part of my design...I can regenerate something so minor as a tail."
Cell explaining to Android 16 after losing his tail in "Power Unknown! Android 16 Breaks His Silence!"

Regeneration[9] (再生 Sai Sei, lit. "Rebirth") is the ability to regrow certain body parts or cells that have been dismembered or destroyed and replace them with brand new cells, or simply regrouping all of their separated parts back together. Piccolo is the first one to use this, displaying it during his battle with Goku.

Types of Regeneration[]

Namekian Regeneration[]

All Namekians are able to use the regeneration technique. Although generally used to regenerate immediately after suffering wounds, the regenerative abilities can also be delayed if the user has a need to delay it, such as when Piccolo avoided healing his bite marks from an infected Bulma, Roshi, and Yamcha until after stealing Kami and Popo's vials from Garlic Jr., as well as when his arm was drained by Cell and regenerated it only after learning everything he could from Cell about his origins and goal. The ability appears to require a great amount of effort, as all Namekians appear to exert a great amount of energy prior to the limb fully regenerating, usually appearing exhausted afterwards.

This ability is first fully seen during the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament after Goku redirects Piccolo's own Chasing Bullet back at Piccolo, which severely damages Piccolo's arm. Piccolo then proceeds to tear the injured arm off, to the horror of all the spectators, and immediately regenerates a new one.

Namekians are able to use their regenerative abilities to alter their bodies' volume, allowing them to utilize Demon Hand or achieve Great Namekian form, however these are abilities of the Demon Clan.[10]

NailRegenerationTechnique

Nail regenerates his hand during the fight with Frieza

In the Raditz Saga, the technique is seen again after Piccolo loses another arm from Raditz's Double Sunday which he regenerates after Raditz is defeated. During the Frieza Saga, Nail has his arm torn off by Frieza but regenerates it, much to the surprise of Frieza; in the English dub only, after seeing Nail regenerate his arm, Frieza decides that he will make a copy of the power to regenerate pieces of his anatomy and records it on his scouter. During the fight with Cell, Piccolo has his arm drained by Cell leaving an emaciated brown stick. But Piccolo manages to distract Cell long enough to regenerate his arm back without losing too much energy. Later on, when Imperfect Cell blasts a hole through Piccolo and throws him in the ocean, he can still recover thanks to his regeneration ability. Later still, in the Majin Buu Saga, Piccolo demonstrates that he can regenerate from any wound so long as his head is intact. Cell acquired the ability by being created in part by Piccolo's cells, absorbing that part of his Namekian makeup. On several occasions Cell regenerates from extremely severe wounds, including one which left no part of his body except for a single cell intact, implying that his regenerative nucleus exists in each one of his cells (this was not only thanks to this ability, as it a combination of Sai Sei, Saiyan Power, and Frieza's ability to survive horrifically severe wounds and still live, even function). The head is where the "regenerative nucleus" (i.e., the regenerative organ) is located. In Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Cell reveals he was lying about the location of his core.

SlugRegeneration

Lord Slug's regeneration

Lord Slug uses regeneration in Dragon Ball Z: Lord Slug. After transforming into a golden aura form of a Super Saiyan resembling a glorified Kaio-ken, Goku damages Lord Slug's arm. He then shocks Goku by tearing it off and regenerating a new one. Similarly, in the same movie, Piccolo rips off his own ears to avoid hearing Gohan's whistling tune (unbearable to Namekians' sensitive ears) but later uses Sai Sei to instantly grow his ears back, to everyone's amusement. This shows that Namekians can regenerate other body parts such as ears.

During the Tournament of Destroyers, Frost blasts a hole through Piccolo to knock him off the ring, after using his illegal Secret Poison technique. When Piccolo is declared eliminated, he gets back up and regenerates the hole.

Later, in the Tournament of Power, when Piccolo and Gohan are fighting the sniper duo Harmira and Prum, Piccolo is shot in the arm by a blast. Piccolo then proceeds to quickly regenerate his arm.

It is unknown if the regeneration is a basic part of all Namekians, since it may take some physical and mental training before Namekians can use it consciously. It also appears to be quite an exhausting procedure, every time after it is performed the user is breathing extremely heavily from the effort and strain and requires absolute concentration of mind and body. It has been pointed out that regrowing limbs causes a severe temporary drain on the power level of the Namekian.

Biological Regeneration[]

Frieza's tail regenerates when he transforms from his third form to his final form, with the end that was cut off by Krillin's Destructo Disc growing back to its normal length. Members of the Frieza Race also recover fully from injuries upon taking on the Golden Frieza form.

According to Daizenshuu, if a Saiyan's tail is removed, it will suddenly grow back if they are in danger, indicating that they have form of regeneration limited to their tails. Goku has regrown his tail several times throughout the course of the series, the first time was during the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament in his match against Giran and another during Dragon Ball GT where, after being turned into a child by Ultimate Shenron, his tail was growing back in, but needed help pulling it out. Gohan's tail also grew back during his battle with Vegeta.

Broly's stomach regenerates the hole that was punched through it by Goku seven years ago. In video games, when he returns as a Super Saiyan 3 after his second defeat, he is shown to have regenerated the injuries caused by the Family Kamehameha and the Sun. As Broly was never shown to regenerate on-screen, it is possible he found means other than regeneration to heal his injuries while in space. His regeneration factor was also indicated as early as when he was a baby, where he managed to survive a near-fatal stab wound in his chest enough to allow himself and his father to escape Frieza's destruction of Planet Vegeta.

Akami, the main threat in the Dream 9 Toriko & One Piece & Dragon Ball Z Super Collaboration Special, is able to regenerate its tentacles when they are damaged.

Bio-Mechanical Regeneration[]

The Return of Cooler - Cooler regenerates

A Meta-Cooler regenerates a lost arm

The Meta-Coolers have a similar ability, though it is more mechanical in nature and which is called Auto-Repair Ability (受動修復能力 Judōshūfuku Nōryoku) in Daizenshuu 7, Rebirth in the Budokai Tenkaichi series, and Revive in Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2. In addition to repairing any damage inflicted on themselves, their regeneration also corrects whatever design flaw allowed the injury in the first place and incorporates the correction in every subsequent unit. It should be noted that Meta-Cooler (the first encounter) is not the "real" Cooler (he is revealed to be one of many mechanical copies of the original Cooler; these "Meta-Cooler" bodies were created by the Big Gete Star), the "real" Cooler is the still living disembodied-head of Cooler that had merged with the Big Gete Star, with Cooler's head becoming one with its core. Like Frieza, Cooler has the ability to survive virtually any wound (like being sliced in half or decapitation) and function (as seen with both Frieza and Cooler). In addition, the real Cooler demonstrated a similar ability to Rebirth during their final battle, using wires to fashion for himself a new body during his final fight with Goku.

CellsBody

Cell about to regenerate his right arm

Cell is another bio-mechanical creature with regeneration. This is because he is programmed with the cells of Piccolo and Saiyan Power obtained from his Saiyan cells. These abilities combined with Frieza's ability (obtained from Frieza's cells) to survive and function even while severely injured makes Cell's regeneration extremely potent as it allows Cell to survive, regenerate, and grow stronger so as long as at least one of his cells survives. However, it is also implied that similar to Namekians, Cell's regeneration also results in a severe temporary drop in ki due to the stress of regenerating, although to a significantly lesser scale, as evidenced when, shortly after Cell regenerated from having most of his body being blown apart by Goku's Instant Kamehameha, Goku comments on Cell's ki decreasing in response to Cell's statement that Goku's ki had dropped from using the Instant Kamehameha. Cell can regenerate due to his Namekian cells, and thanks to Dr. Gero's gene-splicing and augmentation of his natural genetic abilities. Cell was shown to be able to take the destruction of his whole upper body at one point, and then later his entire body save a single cell, from which he was completely regrown. Due to his Saiyan cells, if Cell regenerates after a near death injury, his power will increase, which is shown when he transformed into Super Perfect Cell following the use of his self-destruction (interestingly, Cell is able to receive Saiyan Power despite his injuries being self-inflicted).

Bio-Broly has a similar ability to regenerate, as seen when Krillin makes a direct hit to Broly's head with Destructo Disc, but it regenerates and reattaches to the body.

Universe 3's modified warrior Maji-Kayo is able to regenerate his entire body instantly.

Gt-20-1(fixed)

Hyper Meta-Rilldo absorbs metal to regenerate

General Rilldo regenerates when transforming from his base form to his Hyper Meta Rilldo form. When in his Meta-Rilldo form, Rilldo possess regenerative powers that can match the likes of Majin Buu as long as he is on Planet M2, this ability is called Metal Mending in the Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game. Baby's ability to liquefy grants him a form of regeneration similar to that of Cell, which allowed him to survive being seemingly obliterated by Goku, Trunks, and Pan on M-2. However, he is destroyed completely when Goku blasted him into the Sun. Oren and Kamin both possess regeneration like that of Baby's.

Ghost Warrior Regeneration[]

Ghost Warriors is able to constantly regenerate from any attack as long as there is Destron Gas in the area. While regenerating, they turn into Destron Gas, move away, and then take their physical form back on.

Magical Regeneration[]

Garlic Jr. successfully wished for immortality, and thus could not be killed under any circumstances. Any wounds he did take were healed rapidly as shown when a hole blown through his stomach regenerated in seconds with no hindrance to him whatsoever. Future Zamasu also possesses this form of regeneration after wishing for immortality using the Super Dragon Balls. Fused Zamasu also possesses this form of regeneration, though in the anime, it is lowered due to fusing with the mortal Goku Black, causing him to regenerate only the left half of his body completely, while the right half reforms as purple goo. In the manga, Infinite Zamasu has this regeneration as well. Due to his regeneration going into overdrive to try and compensate after the Potara Fusion ran out and they started to divide up while their immortality would not let them, he now possesses the greatest regeneration in the franchise, as whenever he is blown into pieces, he can reform exact copies of himself that are all equal in power to the original from each individual piece, something that not even Majin Buu can do. Using this regeneration, he was able to form an army of himself out of his atoms after Vegeta blew him to pieces.

FatBuuRegeneration

Majin Buu regenerating

Majin Buu has the greatest level of regeneration in the anime (second greatest in the manga due to Infinite Zamasu), allowing him to regenerate lost appendages, holes in his body, recover from being blown to pieces, or even being blasted to vapor so long as he is not completely atomized. In his case though, his entire body is in an unstable form and each singular piece of him, even as a fine dust, is able to reform back to his original shape. Super Buu's regeneration allows him to survive and regenerate after his Revenge Death Bomber. Buu's regeneration is not Namekian in nature, since he was able to regenerate wounds long before he absorbed Piccolo. However, Buu's regeneration has its limits, as after being beaten repeatedly, he starts to exert more to regenerate, while suffering from the wounds more.

Janemba is able to heal almost instantly from the injuries Pikkon inflicted on him by insulting him.

Rage Shenron is also shown to be able to regenerate via Electric Slime in a very similar fashion as Majin Buu. Omega Shenron also gains the ability when he absorbs the Five-Star Dragon Ball which contains Rage Shenron's abilities.

Godly ki Regeneration[]

Goku Regen

Goku regenerating a hole in his chest.

After being impaled through the chest by Beerus, Super Saiyan God Goku was able to regenerate himself when his godly ki manifested over the wound.

Immortal Regeneration[]

Regenerate Zamasu

Fused Zamasu regenerates

Immortality granted by the Dragon Balls grants unlimited regeneration to the one who possesses it. By far the strongest form of regeneration as it makes the user virtually invulnerable and incapable of being killed. However, it is not foolproof, as it doesn't prevent the user from being sealed. Additionally, it seemingly offers no protection from the Erase technique used by Zeno and Future Zeno which appears to be able to even erase immortal beings from existence.

Due to it making the user unable to die or be destroyed under most circumstances, it is well sought-after ability that has led many to seek the Dragon Balls in hopes of obtaining it such as Vegeta, Nappa, Frieza, Garlic Jr., and Future Zamasu. However, only Garlic Jr. and Future Zamasu have ever succeeded in doing so, while Frieza has obtained immortality in some video game what-if scenarios. In the manga, Fused Zamasu gains immortality from Future Zamasu, while in the anime he only possesses partial immortality due to Goku Black being mortal, thus is only semi-immortal which impairs his regenerative abilities. In the manga, Goku Black also acquires it inadvertently after Fused Zamasu's faulty de-fusion causing both fusee to become merged on the cellular level. Due to their immortality, Goku Black and Future Zamasu eventually become Infinite Zamasu after being blown to pieces. However, Infinite Zamasu was erased by Future Zeno, becoming the only immortal to be erased from existence.

While Garlic Jr. was immortal, he inadvertently contributed to both his defeats when he used the Dead Zone twice in an attempt to defeat his opponents only to be swallowed and imprisoned in the Dead Zone through the portals he created after being defeated by Gohan.

Character Meaning[]

  • 再 (Sai) = "Again" / "twice" / "re-"
  • 生 (Sei) = "Life" / "living" / "birth"

Video Game Appearances[]

In Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors, when Frieza gains immortality in his scenario, he restores his body to how it was prior to his injuries from his battle with Goku.

In Dragon Ball Z: Shin Budokai, when Super Janemba's physical form is completely destroyed, he is able to regenerate with a new body once enough evil energy clump together.

In Dragon Ball Heroes, the ability Regeneration used by Piccolo, Cell, Nail and Majin Buu restores 500 HP to the user's team each round that they are a supporter. Meta-Cooler's regeneration is represented by the ability Self-Repair that restores 3000 HP the first time his team's HP goes under 30%, and Hyper Meta-Rilldo's regeneration is represented by the ability Auto-Repair that heals his team by 20% of the damage taken that round. The immortal regeneration used by Garlic Jr. is represented by the ability Immortal Body which heals 30% of his team's max HP the first time it drops under 10%. The ability Ghost Warrior used by Frieza, Cooler, Slug and Turles will restore 70% of the damage from the first attack they are hit by. The boss version of Broly (Super Saiyan 4 Full Power) who appears in the Dark Demon Realm Saga has the ability Immortal Demon that regenerates 5000 HP after every successful Charge Impact.

In Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z, Kid Buu's regeneration is used to illustrate the Super Regeneration on a card.

In Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Namekian characters such as Piccolo or a Namekian Future Warrior will start regenerate health once it falls below 70%. The Majin Future Warrior can regenerate their body after blowing themselves to pieces using Ill Bomber.

In Dragon Ball Fusions, Regeneration comes in several forms. Some characters have passive Skills that allow them to regenerate HP every turn which functions automatically. There are also Special Skills which can be used to restore HP as well though they function manually. When a Regeneration special move is used, the user is shown regenerating their arm which restores HP by a certain amount. These forms of Regeneration can be used by Namekians, Majins, Cell, Cell Juniors, the Cells, Meta-Cooler, Zamasu, and Janembu. Tekka can regenerate if they are a Namekian or by performing EX-Fusion with any character capable of regeneration by Special Moves and/or passive Skills. Metamoran and EX-Fusions inherit the ability to regenerate if one or both fusee can regenerate via either Skills or Special Moves.

In Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Namekian characters such as Piccolo, Nail, Lord Slug, or Namekian Future Warrior will start regenerating health once it falls below 70%. The Majin Future Warrior can regenerate regenerate their body after using Ill Bomber.

DB Legends Legends Limited Kid Buu (DBL32-02S) Destruction Blaster (Legendary Finish - Majin Regeneration)

Legends Limited Buu: Kid regenerating as part of Destruction Blaster's Legendary Finish in Dragon Ball Legends

In Dragon Ball Legends, certain characters can regenerate health and there is even a Character Tag called Regeneration which categorizes characters capable of regeneration such as Piccolo, Majin Buu, Zamasu, Fused Zamasu, etc. During the main story, Majin Buu, Super Buu, and Kid Buu use their regeneration to survive various attacks. Also, Legends Limited Buu: Kid (DBL32-02S) uses regeneration during the Legendary Finish for his Destruction Blaster Ultimate Move Arts, where he regenerates after blowing up the stage, himself, and the opponent with Planet Burst like he did when he blew up the Earth in the main series.

Gallery[]

References[]

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