Super Saiyan Third Grade

"I know I look like I can, Gohan, but these bulky muscles make it hard to move fast, and if I'm going to beat Cell, I can't have anything slowing me down. I may have great power, but what good is it if I can't catch my enemy? It takes more than brute strength to win a fight."
— Goku ("The Cell Games")

Super Saiyan Third Grade (超サイヤ人第３段階, Sūpā Saiya-jin dai san-dankai, lit. "Super Saiyan Stage 3"), also called Super Saiyan 1.5, is the second branch of advanced Super Saiyan forms, achieved through intense training in the Super Saiyan form. This form is not related to the mastery of the Super Saiyan form (Super Saiyan Full Power). Like the Super Saiyan Second Grade stage, it is a forced increase in the power output of the initial Super Saiyan transformation. All natural inhibitions of the body are completely removed in this state, resulting in 100% utilization of strength and stamina reserves.

Overview

Appearance

USSJGoku — Goku as a Super Saiyan Third Grade

In this stage, the Saiyan is similar in appearance to the Legendary Super Saiyan form though smaller. The skin of the Saiyan may become slightly redder due to increased blood flow, and muscle size is increased to the point of impracticality. The Saiyan's hair grows bigger, spikier and spreads in different directions. The aura no longer flows upward, but flails outward, with surges of bio-electricity becoming more frequent and prominent. Sometimes, the pupils and irises may temporarily vanish during the transformation. A notable difference between the two forms, however, is that unlike the Legendary Super Saiyan state, the Super Saiyan Third Grade retains the user's height after bulking up, which is especially evident with Future Trunks, where after accessing the form, he is about the same height as Cell like before he transformed, yet with Broly transforming, he was significantly taller than even his standard form, not to mention much taller than the various Saiyan opponents even compared to beforehand. Caulifla's version is slightly less bulky than male Saiyans, though she still has a heavily muscular feminine physique with an hourglass figure and pronounced abs, traits which would presumably apply to other female Saiyans in their Super Saiyan Third Grade form. Though Caulifla has slightly less bulk than a male Saiyan in this form, her muscles still have enough mass that it impairs her movements showing that female Saiyans can still be effected by the excess weight of their muscles despite having slightly less bulk than the males as showing that the increased muscle mass is proportional between males and females.

In the series, the Super Saiyan Third Grade form is discovered as an advanced stage of Super Saiyan Second Grade (itself an advanced stage of the Super Saiyan transformation) that further increases the physical strength of the Super Saiyan form. However, due to this form making the body so muscular and heavy, the ability to move freely is impaired and whatever speed boost the power up could have given is negated, making the Saiyan much slower than his ki would suggest. Due to this distorted proportion of speed and power, this transformation is useless against foes who were faster than the Saiyan to begin with - as is shown in the case of Trunks, whose brute strength exceeds Cell's own at the moment, but his speed remains inferior to that of his foe. In addition, the Saiyan's energy rapidly depletes due to the effort needed to simply maintain the transformation. Altogether, the negatives of this stage outweigh the positives.

Usage and power

Trunks SS Third Grade — Future Trunks after transforming into the Super Saiyan Third Grade form

According to one source Super Saiyan Third Grade is weaker than Super Saiyan 2,^[3] which is 2x stronger than Super Saiyan, while according to another source, Super Saiyan Third Grade is 10x stronger than the previous form,^[4] though slows the user substantially. Believing that he surpassed his father Vegeta in strength, Future Trunks ascended to the Super Saiyan Third Grade form to combat Perfect Cell immediately following Vegeta's defeat. Although he managed to hold his own for some time, with Cell even admitting that Trunks surpasses him in terms of pure strength, Future Trunks was also unable to defeat Cell because of his inability to maintain equality in speed. Because of his inexperience with these transformations, Future Trunks did not realize that his bulky form would be an inhibitor of his ability to battle, a characteristic that was later noted by both Goku and Cell. Future Trunks was told by Cell that Vegeta was aware of this disadvantage as well and it was the reason Vegeta did not use the 3rd Grade Super Saiyan form. Also because of the weight of the muscles, it takes tremendous force and effort to move them. As such, the user will tire out very quickly in this form.

File:Dai San 5.jpg

Cell transforms into his Power Weighted form after losing his temper

Cell has his own version of the form. He bulks up his muscles when he mocks Future Trunks for using the Super Saiyan Third Grade form. When Perfect Cell fights Super Saiyan 2 Gohan in the Cell Games, he ends up losing his temper and resorts to using his Power Weighted form to increase his physical power, which fails to raise his speed proportionately and help him win the battle.

Third Grade to Anger — Trunks takes on the Third Grade as part of his transformation into Super Saiyan Anger

The form appears in Dragon Ball Super, being used by Future Trunks in his sparring match with Vegeta. Vegeta gets disappointed to see Future Trunks still relying on the form, calling it primitive, but is surprised and realizes that Future Trunks only pretended to use the form in order to trick Vegeta to attack and catch him off-guard, re-assuming his Super Saiyan 2 form afterwards. Future Trunks uses this form again as part of his transformation into his Super Saiyan Anger state when preparing to fight Black and Zamasu at their house.

Fused Zamasu possesses his own variant of the Super Saiyan Third Grade form), which he uses when fighting against Vegito and Future Trunks in the alternate timeline. Fused Zamasu, however, utilized this form while in the Super Saiyan Rosé state.

Caulifla muscle 7 — Super Saiyan Third Grade Caulifla in *Dragon Ball Super*

Caulifla attains the transformation simply by powering up after learning she is not yet ready to learn Super Saiyan Blue from Goku. Despite being way drastically stronger than before, Caulifla cannot hit Goku as she loses speed due to her massive muscles and reverts to the regular Super Saiyan form.

Video Game Appearances

SSDSD1 — Super Saiyan Third Grade Cell in-game of *Dragon Ball Heroes*

In Dragon Ball Z: Supersonic Warriors 2, this form is known as "Super Saiyan 1.5" and can only be used as Super Saiyan Future Trunks' ultimate move, which sees him simply using its massive power output to fire a powerful Finish Buster before reverting as soon as the move is complete. In Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, Super Saiyan Third Grade Future Trunks is called "Super Trunks 2" (as his 2nd Grade Super Saiyan form is called "Super Trunks"). This form also appears in Budokai Tenkaichi series and Raging Blast series, in them "Super Trunks" form is accurately portrayed, as body movement and the ability to charge energy are slow to the point of being hindrances, and comes complete with a signature technique called Inexperienced Power Up that mirrors Future Trunks' constant attempts at powering up. Both Future Trunks and Cell are playable in the Japanese arcade game Dragon Ball Heroes with this transformation.

Trivia

Krillin once referred to this form as Super Super Saiyan in the manga.
It is hypothesized by Future Trunks that Vegeta is capable of using 3rd Grade Super Saiyan form, but refrained from using it against Perfect Cell, since he knew of its disadvantages. This is likely, as Goku immediately realized the drawbacks of the form after attaining it. In the English version of the manga, Trunks states "So that's why dad chose not to transform this way..." after Perfect Cell defeats him in his Super Saiyan Third Grade form, implying that Vegeta was capable of the transformation, but realized (as Cell and Goku did before him) that a transformation that only gives you brute strength is nothing if you cannot hit your opponent.
- Dragon Ball Super also supports this statement as Vegeta was disappointed when he sees the transformation.
Krillin once compared Future Trunks' Super Saiyan Third Grade form to a Great Ape, as he said that Future Trunks should not scare him with the transformation since as far as Krillin knew, Trunks was going to go 'Great Ape' on him.
The Trunks anime comics list Cell as a user of this form and Daizenshuu 2 speculates about Cell's power-weighted form when talking about Super Saiyan Third Grade users, due to the similarities between the two forms.^[5] ^[6]
Super Saiyan Third Grade and Super Saiyan 3 are similar in the sense that both forms were equally as powerful if not more powerful than their opponents, in this case Cell, Majin Buu, and Kid Buu, but the forms caused too much stress on the body and required too much ki consumption, and as a result, the form was not used to defeat the villain.
The anime version of this transformation's hair in Dragon Ball Z is not as tall or spiky as depicted in the manga. However, in the video-games and in Dragon Ball Super, the hair looks exactly the way it was depicted in the manga.
Caulifla is the first female Saiyan to achieve Super Saiyan Third Grade as well as the first Saiyan in Universe 6 to achieve this form. Interestingly, she is the first Saiyan to achieve this form after attaining the Super Saiyan 2 form which is superior to Super Saiyan Third Grade.