Dragon Ball Super Artist Explains the Origin of Vegeta’s Ultra Ego

A new interview with Dragon Ball Super artist Toyotarou explains how Vegeta got his Ultra Ego form.

In the interview, which was translated by DBS Chronicles, Toyotarou revealed that he was the one who came up with Vegeta's latest transformation. "It was me who came up with the name and design," the artist said, adding, "After that, when I showed it to [Dragon Ball creator Akira] Toriyama-sensei, he gave me a greenlight." When asked why he named the form "Ultra Ego," Toyotarou responded "It has a similar meaning and feel on Ultra Instinct, but with a different undertone... Plus "Ego" fits the character so well, and that's how we got Ultra Ego." He artist later admitted, "I did worry calling it "Ultra Ego" was a bit too obvious."

Toyotarou elaborated further on the mental differences between Goku's similar Ultra Instinct form and Vegeta's Ultra Ego. "The original Japanese words for "Instinct" and "Ego" are similar, but depending on the kanji or the reading, Instinct becomes "Your body moves on your own, right?" So that's Ultra Instinct... On the other hand, even though the Japanese for "Ego" is similar to "Instinct," if you look closely at the kanji, you could explain it as "Doing as you please," right?... In short, it's the difference between "your body moving freely" and "moving your body freely."

As for Ultra Ego's appearance, the artist explained that since the form was inspired by the Gods of Destruction, he wanted Vegeta to take on an appearance that was inspired by the cat-like Beerus. "Fundamentally, I was trying to capture Beerus' appearance... I envisioned how Vegeta would look like if you incorporated a little of Beerus' design."

So far, Vegeta's Ultra Ego form has only been seen within the black-and-white pages of the Dragon Ball Super manga, but Toyotarou also confirmed the officially colored version of Vegeta's latest form will make its debut at this year's Jump Festa, which is being held in Chiba, Japan on Dec. 18. Jump Festa is yearly festival held by publisher Shuiesha, the publisher behind the Weekly Shonen Jump and V Jump, the manga magazine where Dragon Ball Super is serialized. A number of other new announcements have been teased for this year's event, including new details about the return of the Bleach anime, a new trailer for the upcoming Spy x Family anime adaptation, and new information about the upcoming Black Clover movie.

Source: Twitter