Why does Beast Gohan have red eyes in Dragon Ball? Explored

Modified Aug 31, 2024 18:03 GMT

Why does Beast Gohan have red eyes in Dragon Ball? Explored — Beast Gohan as seen in Dragon Ball anime (Image via Toei Animation)

While it has been some time since the Beast Gohan form was revealed in the Dragon Ball Super movie and manga, fans still have several doubts about the form, especially regarding its appearance.

As evident from the manga, the Beast form is unlike any other form as it seemingly neither follows the Super Saiyan route nor the Ultra Instinct/Ego route. Instead, the power-up is completely new, leading to a never-before-seen form for the Saiyan.

This has led fans to question the choice of color for Gohan's eyes in the Beast form. So, why does Beast Gohan have red eyes?

Dragon Ball: Beast Gohan's red eyes likely stems from his Saiyan biology

Goku Super Saiyan God as seen in the anime (Image via Toei Animation)

As all anime fans know, the Super Saiyan transformation from the Dragon Ball franchise features different hair and eye colors. While the hair is yellow, the eyes are greenish-blue in color.

However, the same format isn't followed in future transformations, especially in the case of the Saiyan God transformations like Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue. This is evident from how both transformations saw Goku and Vegeta don the same colored hair and eyes.

Gohan's red eyes from Beast form (Image via Toei Animation)

However, following the God transformation, it seems like the franchise has gone back to its roots with Beast Gohan as both his hair and eyes were different in color. While his hair was white, his eyes turned out to be red.

The manga never explained the colors for the new transformation. However, the red eyes most likely stem from Gohan's Saiyan biology. This is because unlike the Super Saiyan transformations that relied on S-cells, the new transformation could be solely based on rage. Hence, the Beast form could have adapted the red eyes from the Oozaru transformation.

Gohan depicted to be in rage (Image via Toei Animation)

The eyes' design is also reminiscent of Cumber's eyes from Super Dragon Ball Heroes, leading one to believe that Gohan's new form was the manifestation of an animalistic power, depicted in human form.

The reason one can relate the Beast form to rage is because red is the color of power and intensity. Hence, the red color might have been chosen to portray the form's origin. Hilariously, even Gohan's mother, Chi-Chi, when angry, has been depicted with a red aura. While such moments were shown for comic relief, they confirmed that red was used to depict the intensity of one's rage and fury.

Goku Super Saiyan as seen in the manga (Image via Shueisha)

Besides that, Beast Gohan looks very similar to how Super Saiyan was depicted in the manga’s limited color pages. In those pages, Goku was shown to have white hair and red eyes, very similar to that of the Beast form.

Considering how rageful Goku was after Krillin's death, there is a good chance that the white and red were used to depict rage. Similarly, Beast Gohan's transformation sequence saw Gohan attain a form with white hair and red eyes. But in his case, the transformation wasn't a flicker of rage but a whole new power-up.