As the main character, and also possibly the best fighter in the series, Goku has tons of iconic and powerful moves within his arsenal, such as kamehameha, spirit bomb, and the most recent one, the ultra instinct. EveryDragon Ballfan knows that move, and we can also see a parody of that move, particularly Kamehameha,in other anime, such asGintama, Reincarnated as Slime, and many others. That is the testament of how iconic those moves are.
That being said, Goku actually has other techniques that rarely get the same amount of love as his other iconic moves. It may not be as flashy asKamehameha or Spirit Bomb, but this particular technique has saved him, and the people that he cares about, on countless occasions. It’s called the Instant Transmission, and this is by far Goku’s most underrated movie.
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Goku’s Instant Transmission
As the name suggests, Instant Transmission is a teleportation technique. This move allows Goku to travel to great distances instantly. There are countlesscharacters inDragon Ballthat can move at super speed. After all, most of them are super humans that can fly and move absurdly fast. But all of those super fast movements are still just a type of movement. That means you need to move your body in order to travel from point A to point B. When using Instant Transmission, however, Goku doesn’t even move a muscle. He just stayed still, and instantly teleported to another place. That is why no matter how fast the other characters move, Instant Transmission allowed Goku to be faster than them.
Goku learns Instant Transmission after he beats Frieza in Planet Namek. AfterFrieza destroyed the planet, Goku escaped by using one of the Ginyu Force’s Pods. That particular pod has been programmed to go to Yardrat, a planet under Frieza’s jurisdiction. The people of Yardrat don’t really have a strong physique, but they have various nifty spiritual techniques. One of which is Instant Transmission. Goku spent a year on that planet, not only to recuperate his strength and fix the pods, but also to learn Instant Transmission. Since it requires a great amount of focus and concentration, both of which are not Goku’s forte, it took him quite some time to learn that technique. Once he masters Instant Transmission, Goku finally hop into the pods, and fly back to Earth.
How Instant Transmission Works
Instant Transmissionworks by teleporting its user to a specific place, marked by a certain Ki signature. Since every living thing has a unique Ki signature, this technique effectively transfers its user’s physical existence to another living being that is designated as the target. So generally speaking, Instant Transmission works in three stages. First is locating a certain Ki signature and pointing it as the target. Then the user initiates the technique and enters a dimension that exists outside of time and place. And finally, the user exits the dimension and appears into the predetermined target ki signature. All of these processes happened in a fraction of a second.
Locating a specific Ki signature is one of the hardest parts of this technique. Goku is immensely talented and sensitive when it comes to sensing other people’s ki, but even he needs to fully concentrate to locate certain Ki. That is why when he wants to use this technique, Goku will place his index and middle finger to his temple, in order to help him concentrate.
That being said, this is also the thing that makes these moves so powerful. Because as long as you can locate the Ki signature that you want, then you can teleport to any places in the universe. You can even travel to other dimensions or other universes. That is why Goku can freely travel toKing Kai’s domain, despite it being in another realm of existence.
Unfortunately, he still can’t travel to the other universes yet, because he can’t locate a Ki signature that is located that far away, at least for now. Another nifty feature of this move is its ability to transport people or things that are in direct contact with its user. Though the amount of people or things that can be teleported depends onthe user’s innate ability. At his current strength, however, it shouldn’t be impossible for Goku to transport a whole city.
Instant Transmission In Combat
We’ve talked about how Instant Transmission is a superior way to travel and escape, but is it any useful during actual combat? The answer is a resounding yes. There have been a couple of effective ways Goku incorporated Instant Transmission into his combat. The first and most obvious one is a way to ambush an enemy. After all, Instant Transmission allows its user to appear out of nowhere from the other side of the world without any chance of being detected. That’s basically howGoku intercepts the big Buu’s planto destroy cities and stall him to give more time for Goten and Trunks to master their fusion technique.
Other than appearing out of nowhere, Goku also likes to teleport his enemy into the battlefield of his choosing, either to avoid unnecessary destruction in urban areas, or to save the planet from a deranged enemy, which is exactly what he does during his final fight with Cell. But the most exciting use of Instant Transmission is the instant point-blank attacks. One of the best examples of this application is the Instant kamehameha. It started out with Goku charging up the kamehameha as usual, but just before he released themassively condensed ball of energy, Goku uses Instant Transmission to suddenly appear behind, above, or below his opponent and blast the kamehameha into their back.
So as you can see, Instant Transmission is one of the most useful and versatile moves that Goku has within his arsenal. Not only that, other than the people of Yardrat, there’s only a handful ofpeople that can use this techniquein the entire multiverse. That is why this underrated move is undoubtedly Goku’s signature move.
