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Gohan’s signature ki blast technique in DBZ is easily identifiable to hardcore fans, but who was it that originally taught him the move and when?
The Dragon Ball franchise is responsible for a number of tropes, trends and even running gags that persist in anime and manga today. Aside from the wild hairdos and even wilder battle cries, one of Dragon Ball‘s most prolific contributions is the popularization of the “signature move,” a technique that’s indicative or derivative of the user’s personality.
Where Dragon Ball is concerned, signature moves are typically some kind of take on a fireball attack. Son Goku has the Kamehameha Wave, Vegeta has his Galick Gun, and even Krillin has the Destructo Disk. However, one incredibly popular character’s signature move isn’t in fact his own.
Son Gohan’s Masenko blast is one of the most popular original moves to come out of the entire franchise. Although he’s used it numerous times against some of Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super‘s biggest villains, he isn’t the technique’s original creator. That credit belongs to another fan-favorite character: the brooding, Namekian, villain-turned Z-Fighter Piccolo.
All the way back in the original Dragon Ball, a newly hatched Piccolo used a two-handed ki blast (that kind of ability was considered a big deal at the time) against an attacking dog. This was both the first use of the Masenko attack, and the moment in which young Piccolo understood how powerful he truly was. However, the technique wouldn’t be popularized until years later, when Piccolo taught it to his first pupil.
In the wake of Goku’s death at the hands of his evil-invader brother Raditz, Piccolo took young Gohan under his tutelage. He had witnessed the child’s incredible potential firsthand, understanding such power would be essential to defeat the soon-to-arrive Saiyan nemeses.
Piccolo’s training regimen was brutal beyond imagining. In its earliest phase, illustrated in Episode 7 of Dragon Ball Z, the Namekian simply left Gohan — who was all of four years old — in the wild to largely fend for himself. Later in Episode 17, “Pendulum Room Peril,” Piccolo began to teach Gohan the principles of hand-to-hand combat, strategy and how to control his immeasurable strength.
Although viewers are never shown the specific moment he learns the attack from Piccolo, it’s safe to assume the technique is a result of the year Gohan spent surviving both the wilds and his unrelenting teacher. When Piccolo is killed by the Saiyan Nappa, Gohan uses the Masenko for the first time against the villain. Given the timeliness of its first appearance, and the fact Gohan had no knowledge of ki attacks (let alone a signature move) before his training with Piccolo, there’s no other period of time during which he could have learned it.
In the years since that first Masenko, Gohan has used the attack in almost every Dragon Ball Z arc, including the oft-forgotten (and Dragon Ball Z Kai-neglected) “Garlic Jr.” saga. That said, it’s been some time since fans have seen Gohan fire off a Masenko. Since the promotional footage for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero shows Gohan sporting a classic, Piccolo-inspired outfit, hopefully the film will also revisit and revive his signature technique.
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