Spirit Bomb

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Spirit Bomb
Manga name	Genki Dama
Alternate names	Spirit Ball Genki Dama Energy Sphere
Debut	Vegeta Saga
Inventor	King Kai
Users	Goku Krillin (Used Once) King Kai Perfect Cell (Used in DBZ: Budokai 3) Super Perfect Cell (Used in DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi) Super Buu (DBZ Budokai 2 with Perfect Cell abosorbed only)
Class	Energy Ball
Color	&       or

"And if the Sun happens to be up when you form the Spirit Bomb, you will be harnessing and trying to control a power of indescribable magnitude that could easily destroy the earth if even the slightest miscalculation is made in using it!" — King Kai - Counting Down

Spirit Bomb (元気玉, Genki Dama; Literally meaning "Spirit Ball"; Energy Sphere) is a powerful attack in Dragon Ball, widely considered to be the strongest attack in the series, but depends on the number of organisms supporting its use. In the manga, it is used only a total of three times. Its name is a pun on denki gama, meaning "electric rice cooker" in Japanese.

Contents 1 History and usage 2 Occasions it has been used 2.1 Against Vegeta 2.2 Against Frieza 2.3 Against Kid Buu (Super Spirit Bomb) 2.4 Against Omega Shenron (Universal Spirit Bomb) 3 Other appearances 3.1 Movie 2 3.2 Movie 3 3.3 Movie 4 3.4 Movie 7 3.5 In video games 4 Premature and advanced levels 5 Trivia 6 References

[edit] History and usage

Users of the Spirit Bomb gather huge amounts of energy from all chosen surrounding life forms, and conduct that energy into a massive sphere of astounding destructive power. Energy takes the visual form of sparkling, glittering wisps when adding to the mass. The creation of the attack promotes a calm breeze away from the bomb, which turns into a strong continuous gale and expels colorful bands or radiation of Northern Lights-esque aurora. When used it is quite swift, and if the user isn't careful of it, the Spirit Bomb could absolutely obliterate a planet.

Essentially, to use the Spirit Bomb, one must have a pure heart so they can manipulate and gather energy, otherwise the move can backfire and possibly hurt or kill the user. Likewise, once a Spirit Bomb has been fired, it is possible for one with a pure heart to deflect the technique, as Goku clarifies to Gohan and Krillin who subsequently demonstrates this in the Dragon Ball Z episode "Stop Vegeta Now!!". However, it should be noted that although you can be pure good, or pure evil of heart, a Spirit Bomb that is created by a Pure Good person can not be deflected by a Pure Evil person, the two opposite energies cancel each other out, and one engulfs the other. This is shown when Frieza, a being of Pure Evil, is not able to deflect the Spirit Bomb, although being able to survive it through brute force. However, in the video games (and in the anime), the Spirit Bomb can harm even a relatively good person or a pure good being. Therefore, the Spirit Bomb harms anyone, regardless of morality. In the Dragon Ball Z film Super Android 13!, Krillin reveals that Goku cannot gather the energy while in his Super Saiyan state. This is because the Super Saiyan transformation is inherently malicious and taints the heart and soul. In the feature, Goku manages to channel the Spirit Bomb energy directly into himself while he is in his Super Saiyan form, supercharging his power, giving him a Spirit Bomb-sized solar aura, and filling him with a straining fury.

The main disadvantage of the attack however, is the amount of time needed to complete the attack thus the attack is used very rarely. Goku, Krillin, and Gohan are the only characters known to have used this attack, although, it was Goku who gathered the energy before Krillin threw it, and Gohan only rebounded the attack. Cell also claims to be capable of using the attack (perhaps because of his having a pure evil heart, or by inheriting the ability from Goku, or even the more likely combination of both. Another possibility is that he was simply bluffing in an attempt to psych the Z fighters out). While Goku was in the afterlife, he was taught this move from King Kai (shortly before his first fight with Vegeta).

[edit] Occasions it has been used

[edit] Against Vegeta

During the battle against Vegeta, Goku had no choice but to use the technique King Kai taught him: the Spirit Bomb. But Vegeta transformed into a Great Ape, and due to the enormous disadvantage he was at against his now monstrous enemy, many of Goku's attempts failed. However, he eventually managed to collect the energy needed for his ultimate attack. Unfortunately, before he was able to unleash this attack on his foe, Vegeta thrashed Goku, reducing the amount of gathered energy and leaving him incapable of doing anything. Still, he managed to give what was left of the gathered energy to Krillin, and with some help from Goku's son, Gohan, the Spirit Bomb reached its target, Vegeta. Although a direct hit, the Spirit Bomb didn't finish the Saiyan prince, presumably due to having lost too much power although it did injure and weaken Vegeta.^[1]

[edit] Against Frieza

Similarly to his fight with Vegeta, Goku couldn't defeat Frieza even with his Kaio-ken's power increased 20 times, so he decided to once again use the Spirit Bomb. With some help from Piccolo, as well as Krillin and Gohan, Goku had enough time to collect energy from the remaining living beings of Namek, as well as some nearby planets, thus creating a bigger energy ball than the one that hit Vegeta. However, Goku's Spirit Bomb wasn't strong enough to bring an end to the galactic tyrant.^[2] This is speculated to be either because Goku underestimated Frieza's power (since he was only at about 50%), or because there was very little life left in the Namekian planetary system. Despite the fact that it failed, Frieza was still unable to reflect it.

[edit] Against Kid Buu (Super Spirit Bomb)

After seeing that Goku as a Super Saiyan 3 had not finished off Kid Buu to allow Vegeta a fair chance to fight, Vegeta came up with the idea to make the Super Spirit Bomb, by restoring the then destroyed Earth and immediately reviving everyone in the planet, so every human would give Goku most of their energy. However, only Goku's friends gave their energy at first, since everyone else had doubts about the voices they were hearing. But once Hercule talked to the people on Earth and convinced them to raise their hands, everyone's energy became part of the Super Spirit Bomb, which eventually obliterated the evil Kid Buu (Goku formed the Spirit Bomb in base form, but had to go SS1 as Kid Buu was deflecting it). ^[3]

[edit] Against Omega Shenron (Universal Spirit Bomb)

Having Goku and Vegeta lost both their fusion and their transformations as Super Saiyan 4s, the battle against Omega Shenron seemed practically lost. However they would not give up, and with a Spirit Bomb powered by the whole universe, the evil dragon was beaten and completely destroyed.^[4]

[edit] Other appearances

The Spirit Bomb has also appeared in several Dragon Ball Z movies.

[edit] Movie 2

Title: The World's Strongest After having decided that it was the only way to defeat Dr. Wheelo, Goku started gathering energy for a Spirit Bomb. Dr. Wheelo flew high into space, shooting a beam intended to destroy the whole planet. But just then Goku launched his energy ball and destroyed Dr. Wheelo once and for all.^[5]

[edit] Movie 3

Title: The Tree of Might Seeing that Turles had gained an incredible power after eating the fruit of the tree of might, Goku once again recurred to the Spirit Bomb. But since the tree had absorbed all the energy from the planet, there was no energy left for Goku to use his technique. Still, he collected the energy inside the very Tree of Might and used it to destroy both Turles and the tree he had planted after a brief showdown.In the English version King Kai refers to this as a "Super Spirit Bomb"it could be considered the first one of its kind. ^[6]

[edit] Movie 4

Title: Lord Slug When Gohan whistles as Piccolo asked him to, Slug quickly loses his edge, and right after Piccolo gave his energy to Goku, the latter attacked Slug with the Kaioken. Goku then disabled the generator that was causing the Earth to freeze, so he could absorb energy from the sun. With that energy, Goku launched a Spirit Bomb at Slug, destroying him and his generator as well.^[7]

[edit] Movie 7

Title: Super Android 13 Although in this movie Goku does not actually throw a Spirit Bomb, he does gather the energy for it, except that, because he transformed into a Super Saiyan, he absorbed the energy, which ultimately he used to destroy Android 13^[8]

[edit] In video games

The Spirit Bomb appeared in several video games, such as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3. It appears as golden-yellow and red in some games, and light-green when Cell uses it in the Budokai games. It almost always inflicts extreme damage, being one of the strongest techniques in the games. In Budokai Tenakichi 2 & 3, when the user combines certain techniques, such as Give me your Energy! and Kaioken, together with Spirit Bomb, it inflicts a tremendous amount of damage.

[edit] Premature and advanced levels

The following Spirit Bombs are presented in order of size and strength, from the smallest to the largest. The more spiritual energy is contributed to the bomb, the huger and more potent it will become.

• Super Spirit Bomb: A much larger and more powerful Spirit Bomb. It was used against Kid Buu.
• Universal Spirit Bomb: The final and most powerful variation of the Spirit Bomb, its energy is gathered from the whole universe.

[edit] Trivia

• Though neither character creates a Spirit Bomb, both Gohan and Kid Buu are contacted by the attack, and manage to deflect it towards another target.
• At first, Goku could only create basketball sized Spirit Bombs. Later on, he can create ones that are the size of planets.
• Ironically, despite being the among the most powerful attacks in the series, in the manga canon, the only villain killed by a Spirit Bomb was Kid Buu, likely the strongest one.  It should be noted, however, that the Super Spirit Bomb used was more powerful than a normal one. 
• Even though he is not pure of heart Krillin was able to weild the Spirit bomb when Goku gave it to him to attack Vegeta. 

[edit] References