While Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball franchise has delivered some of the biggest, best fights in the entire anime medium, it's also showcased some genuinely bizarre battles across its numerous series. From Krillin using his body odor to win fights to an invisible fighter being exposed and defeated by a strategically placed bloody nose, Dragon Ball has never been afraid to embrace its strange and wild sides.
Yet perhaps the oddest canonical fight in the entire franchise is also one that often remains unspoken by the fans: the amazing adventure of Candy Vegito taking on Super Buu.
After Majin Buu absorbs Gotenks, Piccolo and Gohan to add to his own power, Dragon Ball Z's final antagonist seems more unstoppable than ever. Hopelessly outclassed, Goku and Vegeta agree to set aside their differences and fuse together using the Potara earrings to form the composite Saiyan warrior Vegito. The tables quickly turn as an increasingly desperate Buu uses one of his signature attacks to transform Vegito into a piece of hard candy, with the intention of eating him -- just as he had done to countless victims before. However, much to Buu's horror, Vegito somehow maintains his power even as a piece of confectionary and mercilessly batters Buu until the villain reverts Vegito back into his humanoid form.
Amazingly enough, Buu transforming Vegito into a living piece of candy is actually the second bizarre event to happen in this showdown. Prior to this, Buu transforms himself into liquid and leaps into Vegito through his open mouth, attempting to burst him from the inside out. Vegito focuses his immense power inward, isolating the liquid Buu into specific points of his body and striking them until Buu decides to escape and return to a solid-state. And in transforming Vegito into a piece of candy, Buu didn't count on one key detail: Vegito is so powerful that, even in his edible form, he retains his sentience and agency to actively fight back.
When Buu previously transformed his victims into pieces of food -- Dabura into a cookie, Chi-Chi into an egg, and Krillin and the Z Fighters into pieces of chocolate -- they remained helpless as he gobbled them up, killing them. He expected this tried-and-true technique to yield similar results against Vegito but was sorely mistaken -- literally. Not only is Vegito able to move and fight, he verbally taunts Buu despite visibly lacking a mouth. And for a villain who quickly regenerated from some of the most devastating attacks in all of his previous battles, the beating that Buu endured from Candy Vegito was so bad, it actually led Buu to change the Saiyan back to his normal form.
A lot of Dragon Ball's more offbeat moments -- including Goku and Piccolo attending driving school and the surprise crossover with Toriyama's other franchise Doctor Slump -- are some of the most beloved moments for fans. One such moment that hasn't received as much discerning attention is Vegito's brief turn as a piece of candy, primarily composed of sugar but no less formidable or cocky in his temporary state. No other Dragon Ball character has managed to maintain their faculties while transformed as food -- not even Majin Buu or Majuub. Vegito's distinction of being the only exception to this rule is a moment that definitely deserves more discussion from fans.
