Let’s examine what the ki blasts do in the world of Dragon Ball.
I think we’ve all tried to do a ki blast attack from Dragon Ball like Goku’s signature move the kamehameha. But in what ways does it hurt people? If you were to be hit by a blast and somehow walk away from it, how would you describe the pain? A sharp pain? Or does it feel like getting hit by a bulldozer?
What is ki?
It’s a type of intrinsic energy that is in everyone. Practitioners of martial arts will have greater ki than those who don’t practice. It’s a life force. I can keep going on about defining the word, but to put it simply: ki is energy.
In the world of Dragon Ball, almost every main character has ki that is bigger than an average mortal. I use this word instead of human because there are characters in the series who are animals. The bigger their ki reserve is, the stronger they are. In fact, they’re so strong that they can draw energy from their bodies and conjure a shape they can hold, and use it to physically hit someone as if it were a beam when they choose to release that power.
Most of the ki blast moves in Dragon Ball are used to physically hurt someone upon contact with their opponent. However, there are many ways in how each person is affected by these energy attacks.
Heat and Physical Force
There are a few examples throughout the series where someone who is hit by a ki blast has steam emitting from parts of their body in the aftermath. One of the best examples of this is when Piccolo shields Gohan from Nappa’s attack during the Saiyan Saga. There are some noticeable scorches throughout Piccolo’s body in addition to his clothes being torn… which I’m assuming was burned off.
In addition to that, there’s a physical force with intense weight behind that energy beam. The ground underneath Gohan and Piccolo is paved, meaning Nappa’s attack was so big and wide, it affected the field they were fighting on. Since the Namekian stood his ground, we can assume that the damage was similar to being hit by a moving truck. Only worse because not only did Piccolo have to get hit by it, he had to stand his ground and use every ounce of his body just to hold it back.
Lastly, both the anime and manga depicted some kind of explosion of energy, but not of a fire property. Which I think was a sign of Piccolo containing the force onto himself; since energy just doesn’t disappear (I say this with no actual knowledge of science in my mind), it collapsed onto itself and exploded.
Therefore, I think Piccolo died for the following reasons:
- he exhausted himself holding back a beam of intense physical force
- he used all of his ki trying to hold back that force and stand his ground
- energy hot
Pushes People Away
As mentioned earlier, there are ki blasts that hit you with a physical force. Although they may not be hot enough to disintegrate you, they are strong enough to push you far away. A good example of this is when Goku used his Kamehameha blast to stop Vegeta’s Galick Gun from destroying the Earth.
We can see that Vegeta easily escapes from Goku’s blast by just flying out of the way and avoided being sent to the vacuum of space. I’m sure it still hurt upon impact though.
Disintegrate
Cell is one of the toughest opponents villains throughout the series. He can regenerate himself as long as one bit of himself remains. Therefore, Gohan had to use a Kamehameha strong enough to disintegrate his opponent.
This is one of those rare cases where we get to see a beam attack completely obliterate an opponent, leaving no trace of them behind. Good job on your first kill, Gohan.
Also I think the only time the Spirit Bomb actually ever killed someone was against Kid Buu by disintegrating him completely. Movies don’t count.
I’m guessing that, like other ki blasts, the Kamehameha wave is just an energy beam with physical force and heat. Let’s take a look at other interesting techniques throughout the series.
Implode
Remember when Vegeta killed Nappa? I do. It was pretty graphic and it demonstrated one of the most interesting ki blasts in the series. I have no idea what the name of this attack is in the Prince of Saiyan’s arsenal, but it looks like an invisible force trapped his bald partner in a ball and literally crushed him. You can see his eyes popping out and his limbs contorting in a grotesque way. The attack doesn’t stop there, because it looks like he is blown to Kingdom Come with no traces of him left.
You know who else did this? Freeza… when he blew up Krillin.
This tells us that ki can be controlled in a way where one can manipulate what the attack does. Kind of like customizing your own weapon.
Piercing Attacks
Now that we know ki can be controlled and customized to fit a person’s arsenal, let’s look at piercing blasts. These particular attacks are thinner and look more like a small concentrated beam than a large blast like the kamehameha.
Freeza uses them to pierce holes into people. RIP Vegeta.
Piccolo also has a piercing attack called makankosappo (or Special Beam Cannon for the English Dub folks). In fact, he spent years developing this technique that looks like a medium sized beam with a swirl outside that makes his ki blast look like a drill. I have no idea what the point of its appearance is, but it’s pretty cool that he can shape his own attack. I guess that’s what makes it special.
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