Dragon Ball: Who is Yamoshi? The Legendary Super Saiyan, explained

One of the most confusing concepts in the entirety of the Dragon Ball franchise is the identity of the Legendary Super Saiyan, which for a long while was due to the lack of canon information on them. Although the Super manga and anime series have shed additional light on the character, there’s still plenty that’s not known about them.

What Dragon Ball fans do know about the Legendary Super Saiyan is that his name was Yamoshi, which was revealed thanks to a January 2018 Q&A session with franchise creator Akira Toriyama. In the process, Toriyama also gave some additional info on the Legendary Super Saiyan beyond his name, such as the context of his first transformation.

Likewise, given that Toriyama himself confirmed the character’s existence and their being the Legendary Super Saiyan, Yamoshi was officially canonized in the Dragon Ball franchise. Follow along as this article fully breaks down exactly who Yamoshi is and all the canonical information fans have about him currently.

---

Dragon Ball’s Yamoshi is a surprisingly unknown character for most of the fanbase

Who is Yamoshi? Explained

According to Toriyama from the aforementioned January 2018 interview, Yamoshi is the name of the Legendary Super Saiyan first spoken of in the Dragon Ball Z anime series. He’s described as a Saiyan with a righteous heart who lived long before the time when Planet Vegeta was considered the Saiyan’s home planet.

Yamoshi and his five comrades started a rebellion against “the evil Saiyans,” although exactly what was evil about them or their actions has yet to be elaborated on. In any case, Yamoshi eventually finds himself cornered, becoming a Super Saiyan for the first time. This transformation is also the awakening referred to in myths about the Legendary Super Saiyan.

Despite being the first to access the form in Dragon Ball’s canonical history, he is eventually cornered and defeated due to running out of energy. While he died a physical death here, Toriyama specifies that his spirit lived on and continued to search for six righteous-hearted Saiyans to find the Super Saiyan God.

Likewise, Yamoshi’s spirit is the one Beerus sees in his prophetic dreams during the Super anime’s God of Destruction Beerus saga and the Battle of Gods film. In the Super anime’s version of events, Goku hears the “Super Saiyan God power” urge him to keep fighting, replenishing his energy and strength as a result. It is presumed, but not confirmed, that this is Yamoshi’s spirit acknowledging and assisting Son Goku.

It’s also said that a Namekian elder discovered and sympathized with Yamoshi’s spirit, recording information about him in the Namekian Book of Legends. Unfortunately, this is all of the significant information Dragon Ball fans have on Yamoshi at the time of this article’s writing, including the Legendary Super Saiyan myth and its details.

However, with the Daima anime upcoming, fans could see the Super Saiyan God form return, given Goku and co’s small stature. Likewise, the Super manga is set to begin a new arc, which could see Goku and his allies need to learn more about Yamoshi and the Super Saiyan form’s origins to overcome Black Frieza. Unfortunately, both are purely speculative at the time of this article’s writing, so fans will just have to wait and see what’s in store.

---

Be sure to keep up with all Dragon Ball anime and manga news, as well as general anime, manga, film, and live-action news as 2024 progresses.