WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Super Chapter #72, by Akira Toriyama, Toyotarou, Caleb Cook and Brandon Bovia, available now in English through Viz Media.
After escaping Planet Namek following his battle with Frieza in Dragon Ball Z, Goku found himself on Planet Yardrat, where he learned one of his signature techniques: Instant Transmission/Instant Teleportation. Using this ability, Goku has been able to teleport across vast distances of space in the blink of an eye — provided there’s a ki signature onto which he can lock on. Now, Dragon Ball Super Chapter #72 has revealed some of new character Granolah’s abilities — and he’s able to move faster than Instant Transmission.
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After arriving on Planet Cereal to fight Granolah, an unseen opponent fires a blitz of energy blasts at Vegeta and Goku. They’re narrowly able to avoid the attacks, but when they get to the place from which they should be coming, they find nothing. The attacks then start up again — this time from above. Goku and Vegeta quickly discover that whoever is attacking them is moving at incredible speeds, even by their notably high standards.
After Vegeta gives a Senzu Bean to Goku following a sneak attack, Granolah reveals himself. Goku tries to fire a blast at his opponent, but the Cerealian teleports behind the duo. “Instant Teleportation,” Goku exclaims. “No, it’s even faster than that!” As the conversation progresses, Granolah explains that he doesn’t have a name for the technique he used. Instead, he says, “It’s just a small fraction of the power that elevated me to the strongest in the universe.
The entire sequence is a bit confusing, due in large part to Instant Transmission having never really been clearly defined. While Instant Transmission has never quite happened instantaneously, the movement’s exact speed isn’t totally clear. The dubbed Dragon Ball Z anime erroneously had Goku claim that Instant Transmission took place at the speed of light. However, he’s clearly able to move light-years in seconds, which means the move is significantly faster than the speed of light. So really, as far as the anime is concerned, Instant Transmission causes Goku to go as fast as he needs to go so as to show up at his destination quickly.
It’s entirely possible that Granolah is using a form of Instantaneous Movement, which Kibito Kai and several others were able to use in Dragon Ball Z. That technique’s user is able to move to any location instantaneously and without Instant Transmission’s limitation of having to lock onto a particular ki signature. This makes some sense, as Granolah also seems to have some mastery of a technique similar to Beerus’ Destruction. It’s likely that the Cerealian’s move is, as per the limits of his planet’s Dragon Balls, the closest that a mortal can come to such moves without actually being divine. Still, “instant” in the Dragon Ball Universe seems to be a very relative term, and Granolah’s unnamed technique proves that fact.
Dragon Ball Super Chapter 73 will release on June 20 through Viz Media.
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