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* ''Anime/IGPX'': [[spoiler: Team White Snow's final tactic for the final battle with Team Satomi, that being turning their machines into a single CombinedMecha like something out of ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]''. It's massive, imposing, and has tons of CombatTentacles, making for a strong offense and defense. That said, it turns White Snow into a single giant target, essentially a giant moving wall. The Satomi mechs meanwhile, while smaller and separate, are much faster and much more maneuverable. Not to mention being able to triple-team White Snow's combined form. After Team Satomi manages to overcome this tactic, another flaw is exposed; White Snow needs to separate from this form for the final lap of the race. Thus, they're slower to enter Speed Mode compared to their opponents. Team Satomi ends up winning in a landslide as a result.]]

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* ''Anime/IGPX'': ''[[Anime/IGPXImmortalGrandPrix IGPX]]'': [[spoiler: Team White Snow's final tactic for the final battle with Team Satomi, that being turning their machines into a single CombinedMecha like something out of ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]''. It's massive, imposing, and has tons of CombatTentacles, making for a strong offense and defense. That said, it turns White Snow into a single giant target, essentially a giant moving wall. The Satomi mechs meanwhile, while smaller and separate, are much faster and much more maneuverable. Not to mention being able to triple-team White Snow's combined form. After Team Satomi manages to overcome this tactic, another flaw is exposed; White Snow needs to separate from this form for the final lap of the race. Thus, they're slower to enter Speed Mode compared to their opponents. Team Satomi ends up winning in a landslide as a result.]]
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* ''Anime/IGPX'': [[spoiler: Team White Snow's final tactic for the final battle with Team Satomi, that being turning their machines into a single CombinedMecha like something out of ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]''. It's massive, imposing, and has tons of CombatTentacles, making for a strong offense and defense. That said, it turns White Snow into a single giant target, essentially a giant moving wall. The Satomi mechs meanwhile, while smaller and separate, are much faster and much more maneuverable. Not to mention being able to triple-team White Snow's combined form. After Team Satomi manages to overcome this tactic, another flaw is exposed; White Snow needs to separate from this form for the final lap of the race. Thus, they're slower to enter Speed Mode compared to their opponents. Team Satomi ends up winning in a landslide as a result.]]
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*** [[spoiler: Hell, Rukia's Shikai alone falls under this. In the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, she realizes the true function of Sode no Shirayuki: to lower her body temperature to ''absolute zero''. In other words, to use her Zanpakuto's full power, Rukia has to temporarily ''kill herself.'' In both cases, however, it's somewhat {{Downplayed}} in that they're mainly impractical due to Rukia's inexperience with her true power.]]

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*** **** [[spoiler: Hell, Rukia's Shikai alone falls under this. In the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, she realizes the true function of Sode no Shirayuki: to lower her body temperature to ''absolute zero''. In other words, to use her Zanpakuto's full power, Rukia has to temporarily ''kill herself.'' In both cases, however, it's somewhat {{Downplayed}} in that they're mainly impractical due to Rukia's inexperience with her true power.]]
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*** Even Uryu's ultimate attack in the Soul Society arc functions this way. Tearing off the Sanrei Shuto glove triggered what's called "Quincy: Letzt Stil", briefly gave him immense spiritual power, after which his powers are drained to nothing. Awesome. His grandfather had warned him about its effects, but his fight with Mayuri pushed him to call upon it. [[spoiler: The Thousand-Year Blood War arc then PlayedWith this example, revealing Vollständing, a Quincy transformation that's essentially a perfected version of Letzt Stil, being stronger and removing the drawbacks, retroactively making Letzt Stil a FlawedPrototype.]]

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*** Even Uryu's ultimate attack in the Soul Society arc functions this way. Tearing off the Sanrei Shuto glove triggered what's called "Quincy: Letzt Stil", which briefly gave him immense spiritual power, after which his powers are drained to nothing. Awesome. His grandfather had warned him about its effects, but his fight with Mayuri pushed him to call upon it. [[spoiler: The Thousand-Year Blood War arc then PlayedWith this example, revealing Vollständing, a Quincy transformation that's essentially a perfected version of Letzt Stil, being stronger and removing the drawbacks, retroactively making Letzt Stil a FlawedPrototype.]]
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*** [[spoiler: Hell, Rukia's Shikai alone falls under this. In the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, she realizes the true function of Sode no Shirayuki]]

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*** [[spoiler: Hell, Rukia's Shikai alone falls under this. In the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, she realizes the true function of Sode no Shirayuki]]Shirayuki: to lower her body temperature to ''absolute zero''. In other words, to use her Zanpakuto's full power, Rukia has to temporarily ''kill herself.'' In both cases, however, it's somewhat {{Downplayed}} in that they're mainly impractical due to Rukia's inexperience with her true power.]]
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*** The deadly Sprenger, which requires him to set up a pentacle of Seele Schneiders around his opponent and detonate their stored spiritual energy in a focused blast. He remarks that the attack takes so long to set up that it's impossible to use it in battle without a partner to distract the enemy.

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*** The deadly Sprenger, which requires him to set up a pentacle of Seele Schneiders around his opponent and detonate their stored spiritual energy in a focused blast. He remarks that the attack takes so long to set up that it's impossible to use it in battle without a partner to distract the enemy. The non-canon ''Hell Verse'' movie actually showed a simpler version of this technique called Geldschrank, which worked the same, but required only one Seele Schneider.

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** Uryu Ishida possesses an attack like this -- the deadly Sprenger, which requires him to set up a pentacle of Seele Schneiders around his opponent and detonate their stored spiritual energy in a focused blast. He remarks that the attack takes so long to set up that it's impossible to use it in battle without a partner to distract the enemy.
** Even Uryu's ultimate attack in the Soul Society arc functions this way. Tearing off the glove briefly gave him immense spiritual power, after which his powers are drained to nothing. Awesome.

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** Uryu Ishida possesses an attack like this -- the Ishida:
*** The
deadly Sprenger, which requires him to set up a pentacle of Seele Schneiders around his opponent and detonate their stored spiritual energy in a focused blast. He remarks that the attack takes so long to set up that it's impossible to use it in battle without a partner to distract the enemy.
** *** Even Uryu's ultimate attack in the Soul Society arc functions this way. Tearing off the Sanrei Shuto glove triggered what's called "Quincy: Letzt Stil", briefly gave him immense spiritual power, after which his powers are drained to nothing. Awesome. His grandfather had warned him about its effects, but his fight with Mayuri pushed him to call upon it. [[spoiler: The Thousand-Year Blood War arc then PlayedWith this example, revealing Vollständing, a Quincy transformation that's essentially a perfected version of Letzt Stil, being stronger and removing the drawbacks, retroactively making Letzt Stil a FlawedPrototype.]]



** Soi Fon's Bankai is basically a FantasticNuke, capable of wiping out entire city blocks. Unfortunately, it's also so big she can't properly move or fight with it active (which is especially bad because her preferred fighting style involves being a FragileSpeedster), she has to anchor herself before using it because of its tremendous recoil (and she'll still get hurt even if she does take precautions), and she can only properly use it once every three days. She much prefers to use her Shikai, which allows her to take advantage of her speed and precision in one-on-one combat, even if it doesn't have nearly as much destructive power.
** Then there's Ikkaku's Bankai, two massive swords attached to an even larger blade on Ikkaku's back. The weapon gradually gains power as Ikkaku fights, and is incredibly strong when it reaches full strength, but the problem is that his Bankai is very brittle and unsuitable for prolonged usage. Made perhaps the king of this trope for ''Bleach'' in that with the reveal that Bankai very rarely naturally repair themselves, having a Bankai with the side effect of "becomes easy to break" essentially means he has the self sacrificing price of the above abilities... but a power boost that only puts him at about the level of a lieutenant at first and he needs to work up to a power boost equal to a captain.
** Komamura's Bankai summons a massive armored giant that mimics his movements and possesses incredible strength and durability, which is the "awesome". The "impractical" part comes from how any damage the giant takes [[{{Synchronization}} is transferred to Komamura]], and while any enemy strong enough to damage the giant could likely hurt him anyways, that means he just summoned a second, massive target to aim for. In addition, because the giant mimics his movements, a skilled or fast enough opponent can read and dodge it easily, forcing Komamura to rely on using it for a OneHitKO usually via a quick surprise attack. He does have an advantage in that his Bankai is one of the few that heals naturally on its own without weakening thanks to this, however, [[spoiler:and late in the series he undergoes a DeadlyUpgrade that removes the "impractical" part of his Bankai completely since it can no longer be physically damaged and he himself is NighInvulnerable as long as his [[BeatStillMyHeart heart]] is safe, but it's an HourOfPower that when it's over leaves him a powerless wolf, making it a whole new level of impractical.]]
** Kyoraku's Shikai leaves him BlessedWithSuck, as the 'games' apply to him and can be exploited by his opponent. And, while not shown, it's reasonable to assume it would be problematic if he were to use it in the company of allies, because anyone [[BattleAura nearby]] is said to be subject to Katen Kyokotsu's rules. And she appears to change those at whim, with multiple sets in effect at once. His Bankai is even worse, since the curses it casts can also affect allies and himself, which is why he usually sticks to Shikai.
** Shinji's Bankai is never seen in the original manga (it debuts in a later novel and was [[AdaptationalEarlyAppearance shown in the anime]]), because of this. It inverts perception of ally and enemy within its range, meaning that most groups of opponents will tear each other apart and no longer fight him. However, since only Shinji is immune to this power, he can't use it when any allies are around. Even worse, because it simply inverts perception of ally and enemy, enemies [[TeethClenchedTeamwork who were already barely on good terms with each other]] are less likely to be affected nor does it actually affect their other priorities.
** [[spoiler: Rukia's]] Bankai is a FantasticNuke of cold that one-shots As Nodt when used. However, it leaves the user a frozen statue, and if they defrost too quickly or try to move in this state, their body will shatter, leaving them easy pickings for any enemy who comes by while they're defrosting.
** Urahara's Bankai is never seen in the series until near the very end because it's yet another one that's too dangerous to use with allies around. Specifically, it has the ability to "[[RealityWarper restructure]]" anything within its range, including Urahara himself. While defensively this allows him to fix his injuries and strengthen his own body such that he can recover from any attack that doesn't down him the first go around, offensively it's basically a "kill-only" weapon (it can flat-out ''disassemble'' its victims), which is why he refused to use it to train Chad since he could legitimately kill him ''by accident'' with it.

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** *** Soi Fon's Bankai is basically a FantasticNuke, capable of wiping out entire city blocks. Unfortunately, it's also so big she can't properly move or fight with it active (which is especially bad because her preferred fighting style involves being a FragileSpeedster), she has to anchor herself before using it because of its tremendous recoil (and she'll still get hurt even if she does take precautions), and she can only properly use it once every three days. She much prefers to use her Shikai, which allows her to take advantage of her speed and precision in one-on-one combat, even if it doesn't have nearly as much destructive power.
** *** Then there's Ikkaku's Bankai, two massive swords attached to an even larger blade on Ikkaku's back. The weapon gradually gains power as Ikkaku fights, and is incredibly strong when it reaches full strength, but the problem is that his Bankai is very brittle and unsuitable for prolonged usage. Made perhaps the king of this trope for ''Bleach'' in that with the reveal that Bankai very rarely naturally repair themselves, having a Bankai with the side effect of "becomes easy to break" essentially means he has the self sacrificing price of the above abilities... but a power boost that only puts him at about the level of a lieutenant at first and he needs to work up to a power boost equal to a captain.
** *** Komamura's Bankai summons a massive armored giant that mimics his movements and possesses incredible strength and durability, which is the "awesome". The "impractical" part comes from how any damage the giant takes [[{{Synchronization}} is transferred to Komamura]], and while any enemy strong enough to damage the giant could likely hurt him anyways, that means he just summoned a second, massive target to aim for. In addition, because the giant mimics his movements, a skilled or fast enough opponent can read and dodge it easily, forcing Komamura to rely on using it for a OneHitKO usually via a quick surprise attack. He does have an advantage in that his Bankai is one of the few that heals naturally on its own without weakening thanks to this, however, [[spoiler:and late in the series he undergoes a DeadlyUpgrade that removes the "impractical" part of his Bankai completely since it can no longer be physically damaged and he himself is NighInvulnerable as long as his [[BeatStillMyHeart heart]] is safe, but it's an HourOfPower that when it's over leaves him a powerless wolf, making it a whole new level of impractical.]]
** *** Kyoraku's Shikai leaves him BlessedWithSuck, as the 'games' apply to him and can be exploited by his opponent. And, while not shown, it's reasonable to assume it would be problematic if he were to use it in the company of allies, because anyone [[BattleAura nearby]] is said to be subject to Katen Kyokotsu's rules. And she appears to change those at whim, with multiple sets in effect at once. His Bankai is even worse, since the curses it casts can also affect allies and himself, which is why he usually sticks to Shikai.
** *** Shinji's Bankai is never seen in the original manga (it debuts in a later novel and was [[AdaptationalEarlyAppearance shown in the anime]]), because of this. It inverts perception of ally and enemy within its range, meaning that most groups of opponents will tear each other apart and no longer fight him. However, since only Shinji is immune to this power, he can't use it when any allies are around. Even worse, because it simply inverts perception of ally and enemy, enemies [[TeethClenchedTeamwork who were already barely on good terms with each other]] are less likely to be affected nor does it actually affect their other priorities.
** *** [[spoiler: Rukia's]] Bankai is a FantasticNuke of cold that one-shots As Nodt when used. However, it leaves the user a frozen statue, and if they defrost too quickly or try to move in this state, their body will shatter, leaving them easy pickings for any enemy who comes by while they're defrosting.
** **** [[spoiler: Hell, Rukia's Shikai alone falls under this. In the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, she realizes the true function of Sode no Shirayuki]]
***
Urahara's Bankai is never seen in the series until near the very end because it's yet another one that's too dangerous to use with allies around. Specifically, it has the ability to "[[RealityWarper restructure]]" anything within its range, including Urahara himself. While defensively this allows him to fix his injuries and strengthen his own body such that he can recover from any attack that doesn't down him the first go around, offensively it's basically a "kill-only" weapon (it can flat-out ''disassemble'' its victims), which is why he refused to use it to train Chad since he could legitimately kill him ''by accident'' with it.
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Game Breaker is a YMMV trope for video games.


* In ''Manga/InuYasha'', Miroku's potentially phenomenally powerful wind-tunnel, which sucks anything and everything in the vicinity into a void in his hand, is rendered utterly useless by a permanent swarm of lethally poisonous insects called Saimyosho which constantly buzz around the main antagonists. There are a few instances in which Miroku uses the curse anyway as a last resort, but the vast majority of the time he is prevented from using it. To be fair, without the Saimyosho to balance the field, his power would be quite a GameBreaker. Also later on in ''The Final Act'', [[spoiler:Naraku orders the Saimyosho to stop protecting Hakudoshi, allowing Miroku to use the wind tunnel to destroy him]].

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* In ''Manga/InuYasha'', Miroku's potentially phenomenally powerful wind-tunnel, which sucks anything and everything in the vicinity into a void in his hand, is rendered utterly useless by a permanent swarm of lethally poisonous insects called Saimyosho which constantly buzz around the main antagonists. There are a few instances in which Miroku uses the curse anyway as a last resort, but the vast majority of the time he is prevented from using it. To be fair, without the Saimyosho to balance the field, his power would be quite a GameBreaker.game breaker. Also later on in ''The Final Act'', [[spoiler:Naraku orders the Saimyosho to stop protecting Hakudoshi, allowing Miroku to use the wind tunnel to destroy him]].



* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' is full of varied and powerful Stands, some of them are [[GameBreaker hilariously broken]] but have major weaknesses or requirements.

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* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' is full of varied and powerful Stands, some of them are [[GameBreaker [[StoryBreakerPower hilariously broken]] but have major weaknesses or requirements.
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** The Dash grants superspeed but only for short distances.

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* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Sleeping Giant Zushin, a monster that can't be beaten in battle, or spells and traps, and can destroy any monster it battles. Only problem? You can summon it only if you have a LV 1 Monster on the field for '''20 TURNS'''. In an anime where duels rarely get past 7 turns , this is nearly impossible. It's never been summoned past Team Taiyou.

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* ''Anime/YuGiOh5Ds'' has Sleeping Giant Zushin, a monster that can't be beaten in battle, or spells and traps, and can destroy any monster it battles. Only problem? You can summon it only if you have a LV 1 Monster on the field for '''20 TURNS'''. In an anime where duels rarely get past 7 turns , turns, this is nearly impossible. It's never been summoned past Team Taiyou.Taiyou, and they were only able to pull it off by playing in a three-on-three relay format, meaning they were effectively playing three duels consecutively.
* In ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL'', Charlie [=McCay's=] entire Deck consists of gamble-based cards. They have powerful effects, such as destroying all opposing monsters or removing their stats or massively increasing his LP, but in almost all cases, they only work properly if their user rolls a six on a six-sided die. He's only able to play a functional Duel at all because he has a ParanormalGamblingAdvantage where his Number allows him to always get the most favorable result--the moment that advantage stops working, his entire deck falls apart.
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* ''Anime/CardcaptorSakura'':
** On paper, The Move sounds like an extremely useful card, given that it has the ability to teleport things from one place to another. However, it can only move one object at a time, it can't move heavy objects, it can't move objects any bigger than a book or pencil, and it can only move non-living items. Given all these limitations, the card is essentially useless.
** The Through allows the user to pass through walls, but if they're too thick, then the user runs the risk of being stuck forever. Kero dismisses its use when trying to find Tomoyo during one of Eriol's trials when Syaoran suggested it.

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** At one time, All Might had a suit of PoweredArmor. However, it was too cumbersome for the hero and he abandoned it. It lasted for such a short time that Midoriya, who is a huge All Might fan, had no idea he even had it and went nuts trying to find any shred of evidence of its existence.

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** At one time, All Might had a suit of PoweredArmor. However, it was too cumbersome for the hero and he abandoned it. It lasted for such a short time that Midoriya, who is a huge All Might fan, had no idea he even had it and went nuts trying to find any shred of evidence of its existence. [[spoiler:It resurfaced or was remade and used in his final battle against All For One, where it lasted slightly longer due to having quirk-inspired weapons]]
** Mirio Togata has the ability to go intangible and pass through solid objects. The trouble is, he can’t see, hear or even breathe until he turns solid again. And until he got a costume made of his own hair, he would lose his clothes and end up naked when he re-materialized.
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Everythings Better With Spinning has been renamed Spectacular Spinning. If attacks are involved, it should be Spin Attack.


** Luffy's Gear Third, as soon it has been used, will reduce Luffy's size, turning him into a midget or toddler. His power is also limited, and he loses the ability to use his Devil Fruit powers. This requires Luffy to run and hide until the effects wear off. This lasts for the same amount of time that was needed to use Gear Third, so Luffy generally only uses it for a single powerful attack meant to finish off his opponent. However, after [[spoiler:the TimeSkip]], he seems to be now able to use it without shrinking at all, and can use [[spoiler:the Color of Armarments Haki]] to make it even stronger.
** Even before that, he had the Gum-Gum Pinwheel. He plants his feet in the ground, [[RubberMan winds himself up, then expends his arms]] [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning rapidly unwinds, clearing the battlefeld of]] {{Mooks}}. The problem? He doesn't really have a good way of dislodging his feet from the ground, so he's nearly helpless afterwards. [[InUniverse Luffy himself seems to consider it]] AwesomeButImpractical, as he has only used it once. That one ended with [[CombatPragmatist Arlong]] uprooting the [[CementShoes large flagstone he had stuck himself in and throwing him into the sea]].

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** Luffy's Gear Third, as soon it has been used, will reduce Luffy's size, turning him into a midget or toddler. His power is also limited, and he loses the ability to use his Devil Fruit powers. This requires Luffy to run and hide until the effects wear off. This lasts for the same amount of time that was needed to use Gear Third, so Luffy generally only uses it for a single powerful attack meant to finish off his opponent. However, after [[spoiler:the TimeSkip]], he seems to be now able to use it without shrinking at all, all and can use [[spoiler:the Color of Armarments Haki]] to make it even stronger.
** Even before that, he had the Gum-Gum Pinwheel. He plants his feet in the ground, [[RubberMan winds himself up, then expends his arms]] [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning [[SpinAttack rapidly unwinds, clearing the battlefeld of]] {{Mooks}}. The problem? He doesn't really have a good way of dislodging his feet from the ground, so he's nearly helpless afterwards. [[InUniverse Luffy himself seems to consider it]] AwesomeButImpractical, as he has only used it once. That one ended with [[CombatPragmatist Arlong]] uprooting the [[CementShoes large flagstone he had stuck himself in and throwing him into the sea]].
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** Even before that, he had the Gum-Gum Pinwheel. He plants his feet in the ground, [[RubberMan winds himself up, then expends his arms]] [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning rapidly unwinds, clearing the battlefeld of]] {{Mooks}}. The problem? He doesn't really have a good way of dislodging his feet from the ground, so he's nearly helpless afterwards. [[InUniverse Luffy himself seems to consider it]] AwesomeButImpractical, as he has only used it once. That one ended with [[CombatPragmatist Arlong]] uprooting the [[CementShoes large flagstone he had stuck himself in and throwing him into the sea]].
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** In the StealthSequel of ''Manga/UQHolder'', Negi's grandson Touta also inherits Magia Erebia. Yet even at the very end, he still requires some of his own allies casting their spells onto him in order to even be able to use it. [[spoiler: Like in the final battle, where he requests Negi to use a [[ShockAndAwe Thousand Thunderbolt]] spell on him before he can even activate his OneWingedAngel form.]]

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This part was getting pretty big, so I gave it a dedicated page.


* ''AwesomeButImpractical/DragonBall''



* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' features several examples to show that, sometimes, power isn't everything;
** One of the earliest examples in the franchise is the [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent Oozaru, or Great Ape form]] exclusive to the Saiyan race. On the positive side, Saiyans get a 10x power boost in this form and can decimate entire planets in a single night. However, the negatives far outweigh these upsides; it requires a full moon to activate, and the transformation itself causes most Saiyans to become mindless, savage beasts that won't stop until everything in their path is destroyed. On top of that, [[AttackItsWeakPoint its tail is just as much of a weak spot as ever]], even becoming a far bigger target, and either cutting off the tail or blowing up the moon will halt the transformation. For that reason, the Great Ape is only used as an extreme tactic for when normal invasions won't suffice. Goku's own use of the form [[Manga/DragonBall as a child]] was only ever useful for getting him out of being trapped, and upon basically unlocking the Great Ape's power boost as his ''base'' power level through the Ultra Divine Water, Kami had his tail permanently removed in exchange for bringing the moon back. [[Anime/DragonBallZ Later on]], Saiyan Elites like Vegeta make better use of the form by A) being able to create a Power Ball that acts as a good substitute for the moon, and B) being able to actually ''control'' the form. The part about his tail still applies, however.
** Goku's massively powerful Spirit Bomb attack, an attack which draws energy from all nearby life-forms; it's so ponderous it takes ''several episodes'' to fully charge (though this is partially the fault of real-life episode padding) and leaves him wide open to attack, with the added risk of wasting all that energy if he loses concentration. And after all that, it only finishes off a single opponent in the manga's run; Vegeta survived it, Frieza tanked it, and the character it ''did'' kill, Kid Buu, was able to push it back before Goku got his strength back through Porunga. Even outside of the original canon, its track record is hit-or-miss; Jiren in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' outright ''deflected'' the Spirit Bomb, and its only victories are against [[NonSerialMovie movie villains]] ([[Anime/DragonBallZTheWorldsStrongest Dr. Wheelo]], [[Anime/DragonBallZTheTreeOfMight Turles]] and [[Anime/DragonBallZLordSlug Lord Slug]]) and Omega Shenron from ''Anime/DragonBallGT''.
** Another King Kai technique, the Kaio-ken, multiplies the user's power several times for a short period, but places a severe strain on the body afterwards (to the point where Yajirobe giving Goku a congratulatory slap on the back afterwards caused him intense pain). It's not surprising that he stopped using it after the battle with Frieza, at which point he had the more reliable Super Saiyan form. Interestingly, Kaio-ken ''is'' useful and not that bad... at lower levels. King Kai [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique specifically tells Goku not to go above Kaio-ken x2]]. However, his battle against Vegeta forced him to crank it higher and his subsequent fight with Frieza even further, thus the severe strain. The technique was so impractical and difficult to pull off that ''King Kai himself'' couldn't manage to do it properly despite having created it, and didn't bother trying to teach it to the other Z-Fighters after watching Goku almost kill himself with it.
*** Speaking of the impractical, we have the Super Kaio-ken, the combination of [[SuperMode Super Saiyan]] and Kaio-ken. Which was initially seen only once during Goku's filler arc battle against Pikkon. This technique sounds very awesome, but it is so dangerously impractical that it results in ''instant death'', and as a result Goku could only use it in Other World since he was ''already'' dead at that point. However, in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' Goku was able to use Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken, as his Super Saiyan Blue form didn't have the same limits as the base form.
** Similar to the Spirit Bomb, Vegeta's Final Flash is this at its most powerful. Vegeta has to spend a while charging it to get it to full power and the enemy has to wait for it. Vegeta uses it against Cell, who he taunts to take it to the face. It very nearly kills Cell, who had to dodge at the last second to not be completely annihilated, instead it "only" vaporized half of his torso, though he quickly regenerates that. Later in ''Super'', he similarly taunts Jiren to tank it, and Jiren has to block at the last second, but sustains more damage than he had yet received in the tournament, being knocked to the ground, and far more damage than Goku's Spirit Bomb had done to him.
** Krillin's Kienzan/Destructo Disc is one of the deadliest techniques ever created in all of ''Dragon Ball'' as it was confirmed by WordOfGod that [[AbsurdlySharpBlade it can cut through anything]]. ''Anything''. It's essentially a OneHitKill, but it has one fatal and significant flaw... [[BlessedWithSuck Krillin can't control it once he throws it]].[[note]]It also has another flaw due to CallingYourAttacks, but that one is Krillin's fault, not inherent to the attack itself. And yes, calling it ''does'' allow his target to dodge the perfect assassination skill.[[/note]] Also, Toriyama negated his own WordOfGod when a canonically ambiguous ''mook'' was able to catch it and throw it back, and again much later when a much more powerful Krillin tried it on Cell, who could ignore it entirely. The Destructo Disc's flaw is highlighted when compared to Frieza's Death Saucer attack, which not only creates two discs, but also allows the user to mentally control them to home after their target. This attack ''does'' wind up backfiring on Frieza far, far worse than Krillin's inferior version ever did, but only due to his own lack of attention.
** Piccolo's Makankosappo/Special Beam Cannon, at least at the beginning of the series when it takes an inordinately long time to charge. It's because when he uses it, he's in the middle of [[AnArmAndALeg not having an arm]]. According to Piccolo, having both of his arms would've let him charge faster, which he proves against Nappa. Sadly, the Saiyan sees it coming and dodges.
** The iconic Scouters are small digital computers that can locate things from far away and calculate power levels, but they are easily broken, can be flat-out blown up by trying to read a strong enough aura, can be easily fooled by those able to hide their true strength, and can't take an opponent's skills, speed, or experience into consideration.
** Another prime example are the Power Stressed forms, which greatly bulk up the user and increase power and speed but drain stamina, as first shown by Roshi during the 21st World Tournament using his MAX Power form and a Kamehameha to ''destroy the Moon'' but completely exhausting his strength in the process, and then, much more dramatically, by Frieza on Namek using a similar power-up to match Super Saiyan Goku but quickly weakening into helplessness. Even worse in Frieza's case because he needs to go through a lengthy power-up sequence in-universe just to release that form, which was only possible on Namek because Goku ''wanted'' to fight Frieza at his strongest to humiliate him, while [[CombatPragmatist Future Trunks]] doesn't let him get that chance.
*** {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with the Super Saiyan Third Grade, an "advanced" Super Saiyan form created during the Cell Saga, that increase the bulk, and thus the available power and the energy and stamina consumption, even more than normal Power Stressed forms, with the bulk being so much it actually ''reduces speed'' which makes it useless since all the power in the world does you no good if you can't hit your opponent. Goku and Vegeta figured that these forms were useless on their own,[[note]]Vegeta stuck to Super Saiyan Second Grade, a more usual Power Stressed Form, while Goku, after achieving both forms during training, opts to master the initial transformation and try and surpass Super Saiyan entirely, resulting in Full Power Super Saiyan (a normal Super Saiyan form where the perfect control allows to use more power than Second Grade gave him previously) and Super Saiyan 2 respectively. Vegeta would decide to imitate him the moment he realized what Goku did[[/note]] but the less savvy Trunks found out the hard way when fighting Cell. Way later on in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Caulifla tries to use Super Saiyan Third Grade on Goku, with just as poor results.
** Super Saiyan 3 itself also counts. It's the most powerful Saiyan transformation seen in ''DBZ'', but consumes an enormous amount of energy, which has a number of drawbacks attached to it. For example, Gotenks using [=SS3=] shortens his normal FusionDance time limit from 30 minutes to 5, while Goku using the form as a delaying tactic against Fat Buu reduces the amount of time he has left during his once-in-an-afterlife visit to the mortal world. Later on, after Goku is brought back to life, he finds out that Super Saiyan 3 puts an incredible strain on the body that causes him to tire out quickly during the fight with Kid Buu. Goku later on manages to minimize these drawbacks, but by the time he does, Super Saiyan 3 has become SoLastSeason.
*** As of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Akira Toriyama has [[WordOfGod declared]] that both Super Saiyan 2 and 3 fall under this trope, draining stamina at an increased rate while not offering enough of a power increase to justify it, plus Super Saiyan 2 causing an extreme increase of aggression and sadism. As a result, Goku and Vegeta have mostly abandoned these forms, using them only on rare occasions and instead focusing on increasing their power in their normal states and the original Super Saiyan transformation. When stakes get high, Goku and Vegeta use Super Saiyan Blue instead, which is far more powerful than Super Saiyan 2 and 3 but with none of the flaws. Goku also has the added bonus of ''combining'' the Kaio-ken technique with Super Saiyan Blue, which was virtually impossible with his other Super Saiyan forms.
** Now we have Super Saiyan ''God'', a form that requires five good-hearted Saiyans donating energy to a sixth and has such a high power drain, Goku barely has time to use the thing. The next movie introduces Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, or Super Saiyan Blue, which is essentially an improved and more efficient version without all the drawbacks. The Super Saiyan God seen in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' lessens the Impractical by giving it an extended duration and making it more of a challenge for Beerus, and further lessens it in the Universal Survival Arc by making it a less strenuous power-up, allowing Goku to have an edge in battle while not draining himself as fast as Blue.
** Speaking of ''Resurrection F'', Frieza's new Golden form also qualifies. While it gives him speed and power surpassing the improved Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan/Super Saiyan Blue ''while holding back to torture Goku as slowly as possible'', he practically bleeds stamina, meaning that he can only maintain it for a couple of minutes at full strength before it starts weakening, after which it quickly peters out and leaves him completely gassed out afterwards. This is entirely Frieza's fault; as Vegeta surmises, once he achieved the form he immediately rushed to Earth to take his revenge, rather than undergoing any further training in order to address the flaw. ''Dragon Ball Super'' makes it less impractical as Frieza can control his power in the form, allowing him to last a while longer than in the film while holding back (although he still kicks Goku's ass, and he is still burning Ki at an accelerated rate), but conversely, he burns out after only a minute of using his full power. In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'''s Universal Survival arc, we find out that Frieza spent his time back in Hell ''[[RemovedAchillesHeel fixing]]'' [[RemovedAchillesHeel that problem]], making him ''so much stronger''.
** Most of the techniques Gotenks comes up with are flashy, but ineffective. His SignatureMove, the [[ActionBomb Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack]], initially appears to be very powerful and effective, creating sentient manifestations of his ki that explode with incredible force and with little provocation. Notably, no other technique like this has ever been seen in the entire series. When Buu uses it against Vegito; however, even demonstrating another layer to it by having the ghosts unleash ki attacks of their own, Vegito demonstrates the attack's FatalFlaw by detonating the ghosts from a safe distance using regular Ki Blasts, showing that ''anything'' can prematurely stop them before they do anything. And that's saying nothing of the difficulties Gotenks himself has with the technique such as the ghosts being incredibly dim-witted to the point two of them accidentally ''blew themselves up'' by doing a high-five. Vegito then mocks Buu for thinking that an attack created by two kids could actually defeat him.
** Really, Gotenks' very ''existence'' is a case of this. While he's undoubtedly one of the most powerful characters in the series, he's far too arrogant and childish to be very dependable. He could have defeated Buu in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but was more concerned with showing off and looking cool; by the time [[LetsGetDangerous he got serious]], Buu had already killed almost everyone and he wasted too much time at Super Saiyan 3. It's precisely for this reason that Trunks and Goten are DemotedToExtra and left out of the Tournament of Power in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.
** Gogeta, the fusion of Goku and Vegeta, can also verge into this at times, depending on what level of power they're using. At base Super Saiyan, they tend to take things rather seriously. The higher the tier of SuperMode they use, the more of a SmugSuper they become. In the non-canon ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta ends up taking his battles ''even less seriously than Gotenks''. Sure, they're insanely powerful but the Fusion strain also applies to them, meaning that the Fusion can only last for ''five minutes'' while using Super Saiyan 4. Vegito also falls into this in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' since the Potara earrings have been {{retcon}}ned into being an HourOfPower deal for mortals like the FusionDance. Even though Super Saiyan Blue Vegito is ''even stronger'' than Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta and takes his battles mildly more seriously when the threat level is high, the Potara earrings also end up having the same drain problems the fusion dance has. This is very much a {{downplayed|Trope}} example though; even with all these limits, Vegito still manages to cause a good deal of damage against the villain of that arc thanks to being ''[[StoryBreakerPower just that dang powerful!]]''
** The original FusionDance itself: it grants an awesome lot of power, but has a 30 minutes time limit ''at most'' before ending, needs a 1 hour pause between uses, needs a dance that an enemy can interrupt (as Super Buu demonstrated out of sheer impatience), and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking is embarrassingly ridiculous]]. Also, if the dance is not executed perfectly, the resulting fusion can end too fat and out of shape to fight or incredibly ghoulish and weak.
** Guldo of the Ginyu Force is able to [[TimeStandsStill freeze time]] for as long as he holds his breath... but he can't hold his breath for very long, and doing so uses up a lot of his energy. As shown when he uses it against Gohan and Krillin three times in a row, he ends up so drained that he can't even fire basic Ki Blasts. He's also so clumsy and cowardly that he wastes much of the time he does gain either panicking or tripping on terrain.
** The Ginyu Force's poses and setups for their attacks. Lampshaded by Goku who points out they take too long and leave themselves wide open.
** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' gives us the Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken, the fusion of Super Saiyan Blue and the Kaio-ken. It's a technique powerful enough to battle the deadly assassin Hit, who is one of the strongest warriors in Universe 6, and [[OhCrap gives Beerus major pause]]. However, the technique is totally incomplete - the skill only lasts a few minutes (on-screen, it's shown to be only two minutes), has a 90% failure rate and, if performed wrong, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique could kill Goku]]. Not to mention, it has an extended charging time. This is why he considers it [[GodzillaThreshold his ultimate trump card]]. A few episodes after its introduction, we find out that using it in this way causes "delayed onset ki disorder", which [[PowerIncontinence throws off his whole ki potential]] without proper rest. However, by the Universal Survival arc, Goku perfected the Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken and eliminated its drawbacks. But by that point, Super Saiyan Blue was beginning to get [[TheWorfEffect worfed]], resulting in...
** Goku's new Ultra Instinct form achieved in the Tournament of Power. It is substantially stronger than Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken and has near immeasurable power beyond the Gods. However, it has some crippling limitations. For starters, Goku can't even reliably access the form freely (he even comments that he achieved it by total accident) as it is a DefenceMechanismSuperpower that requires the removal of all mental and physical control and [[EleventhHourSuperpower only appears in times of desperation]]. He also [[PowerIncontinence cannot control Ultra Instinct]] once he achieves it, as it will involuntarily burn out on him and the resulting burnout leaves him in tremendous pain. While Ultra Instinct is substantially more powerful than Super Saiyan Blue, Blue remains Goku's most reliable go-to transformation.
*** Following the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga, Goku has attained a degree of control over Ultra Instinct, to the extent that he can activate and deactivate the transformation at will... However, Whis informs him that Ultra Instinct still firmly falls within this territory for Goku. He explains that while the transformation is indeed powerful, the drawbacks are quite severe, mostly that the transformed state causes Goku to bleed stamina like crazy. He further explains that Angels such as himself are ''always'' in the Ultra Instinct state and don't need to transform in order to utilize the power and that Goku will need to learn the same if he wishes to truly avert this trope. In the following arc we see Ultra Instinct's weakness further: as the user bleeds more stamina, Ultra Instinct's precision in attacking and dodging drops, eventually causing Goku to fall to Granolah.
*** In the Granolah The Survivor Saga, Vegeta receives his power-up answer to Ultra Instinct: Ultra Ego. This power gives him the powers of a God of Destruction and has limitless power, and the bonus of the [[CriticalStatusBuff user getting stronger]] when more damage is taken. Vegeta brutally beats down Granolah when the latter gave Ultra Instinct Goku problems, but Ultra Ego has a caveat: It makes the users' ego and battle lust swell up to insane levels, causing them to lose track of the fight, taking hits instead of dodging and resulting in them taking more unnecessary damage. Vegeta is so caught up in his new power and abusing Ultra Ego's buffs more that he doesn't even take notice of the incredible damage his body is taking. He nearly breaks down before he can even use its power!
** The Dragon Balls themselves are this trope. Seven balls that when brought together can summon a magic dragon to grant nearly '''any''' wish at all? Awesome! The fact that they scatter across the world each time they're used, that they can only be used annually, and that it usually takes ''generations'' to gather them all without a Dragon Radar? ...not as much. On top of that, the Dragon Balls are unable to grant the same wish twice, meaning anyone that dies a second time is KilledOffForReal (at least until the Namekian Dragon Balls come into the picture). They're made even more impractical in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', where it's revealed that the Dragon Balls are only meant to be used every hundred years, and overusing them over the course of the series causes their negative energy to eventually corrupt Shenron and split him into the seven Shadow Dragons, who then proceed to wreak havoc on Earth. At the end of ''GT'', Shenron decides that the Dragon Balls are more trouble than they're worth and leaves for Other World with the set in tow.
*** The Namekian Dragon Balls and Super Dragon Balls manage to make an already impractical in-story cheat code even ''more'' impractical simply by being too big to fit in one's pocket. Namekian Dragon Balls are roughly the size of dodgeballs, while Super Dragon Balls are roughly the size of entire ''planets''. And while the Namekian Dragon Balls ''can'' grant the same wish more than once, those wishes need to be slightly smaller ones (for instance, they can only revive one person at a time instead of multiple people). The latter have an additional problem: namely, they scatter across the ''[[SerialEscalation multiverse]]''.
*** The situation is much more severe with the Black Star Dragon Balls in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', which scatter across the entire '''galaxy''' and will destroy the planet they were last used on should they not be collected and brought back to said planet within a year's time (which did happen thanks to Baby's interference). The upside? Ultimate Shenron, the Black Star Dragon Balls' dragon, is more powerful than the Earth and Namekian Eternal Dragons and thus has a far greater amount of wishes that he can grant. In the same way, Super Shenron is effectively TheOmnipotent.

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* ''Franchise/DragonBall'' features several examples to show that, sometimes, power isn't everything;
** One of the earliest examples in the franchise is the [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent Oozaru, or Great Ape form]] exclusive to the Saiyan race. On the positive side, Saiyans get a 10x power boost in this form and can decimate entire planets in a single night. However, the negatives far outweigh these upsides; it requires a full moon to activate, and the transformation itself causes most Saiyans to become mindless, savage beasts that won't stop until everything in their path is destroyed. On top of that, [[AttackItsWeakPoint its tail is just as much of a weak spot as ever]], even becoming a far bigger target, and either cutting off the tail or blowing up the moon will halt the transformation. For that reason, the Great Ape is only used as an extreme tactic for when normal invasions won't suffice. Goku's own use of the form [[Manga/DragonBall as a child]] was only ever useful for getting him out of being trapped, and upon basically unlocking the Great Ape's power boost as his ''base'' power level through the Ultra Divine Water, Kami had his tail permanently removed in exchange for bringing the moon back. [[Anime/DragonBallZ Later on]], Saiyan Elites like Vegeta make better use of the form by A) being able to create a Power Ball that acts as a good substitute for the moon, and B) being able to actually ''control'' the form. The part about his tail still applies, however.
** Goku's massively powerful Spirit Bomb attack, an attack which draws energy from all nearby life-forms; it's so ponderous it takes ''several episodes'' to fully charge (though this is partially the fault of real-life episode padding) and leaves him wide open to attack, with the added risk of wasting all that energy if he loses concentration. And after all that, it only finishes off a single opponent in the manga's run; Vegeta survived it, Frieza tanked it, and the character it ''did'' kill, Kid Buu, was able to push it back before Goku got his strength back through Porunga. Even outside of the original canon, its track record is hit-or-miss; Jiren in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' outright ''deflected'' the Spirit Bomb, and its only victories are against [[NonSerialMovie movie villains]] ([[Anime/DragonBallZTheWorldsStrongest Dr. Wheelo]], [[Anime/DragonBallZTheTreeOfMight Turles]] and [[Anime/DragonBallZLordSlug Lord Slug]]) and Omega Shenron from ''Anime/DragonBallGT''.
** Another King Kai technique, the Kaio-ken, multiplies the user's power several times for a short period, but places a severe strain on the body afterwards (to the point where Yajirobe giving Goku a congratulatory slap on the back afterwards caused him intense pain). It's not surprising that he stopped using it after the battle with Frieza, at which point he had the more reliable Super Saiyan form. Interestingly, Kaio-ken ''is'' useful and not that bad... at lower levels. King Kai [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique specifically tells Goku not to go above Kaio-ken x2]]. However, his battle against Vegeta forced him to crank it higher and his subsequent fight with Frieza even further, thus the severe strain. The technique was so impractical and difficult to pull off that ''King Kai himself'' couldn't manage to do it properly despite having created it, and didn't bother trying to teach it to the other Z-Fighters after watching Goku almost kill himself with it.
*** Speaking of the impractical, we have the Super Kaio-ken, the combination of [[SuperMode Super Saiyan]] and Kaio-ken. Which was initially seen only once during Goku's filler arc battle against Pikkon. This technique sounds very awesome, but it is so dangerously impractical that it results in ''instant death'', and as a result Goku could only use it in Other World since he was ''already'' dead at that point. However, in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' Goku was able to use Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken, as his Super Saiyan Blue form didn't have the same limits as the base form.
** Similar to the Spirit Bomb, Vegeta's Final Flash is this at its most powerful. Vegeta has to spend a while charging it to get it to full power and the enemy has to wait for it. Vegeta uses it against Cell, who he taunts to take it to the face. It very nearly kills Cell, who had to dodge at the last second to not be completely annihilated, instead it "only" vaporized half of his torso, though he quickly regenerates that. Later in ''Super'', he similarly taunts Jiren to tank it, and Jiren has to block at the last second, but sustains more damage than he had yet received in the tournament, being knocked to the ground, and far more damage than Goku's Spirit Bomb had done to him.
** Krillin's Kienzan/Destructo Disc is one of the deadliest techniques ever created in all of ''Dragon Ball'' as it was confirmed by WordOfGod that [[AbsurdlySharpBlade it can cut through anything]]. ''Anything''. It's essentially a OneHitKill, but it has one fatal and significant flaw... [[BlessedWithSuck Krillin can't control it once he throws it]].[[note]]It also has another flaw due to CallingYourAttacks, but that one is Krillin's fault, not inherent to the attack itself. And yes, calling it ''does'' allow his target to dodge the perfect assassination skill.[[/note]] Also, Toriyama negated his own WordOfGod when a canonically ambiguous ''mook'' was able to catch it and throw it back, and again much later when a much more powerful Krillin tried it on Cell, who could ignore it entirely. The Destructo Disc's flaw is highlighted when compared to Frieza's Death Saucer attack, which not only creates two discs, but also allows the user to mentally control them to home after their target. This attack ''does'' wind up backfiring on Frieza far, far worse than Krillin's inferior version ever did, but only due to his own lack of attention.
** Piccolo's Makankosappo/Special Beam Cannon, at least at the beginning of the series when it takes an inordinately long time to charge. It's because when he uses it, he's in the middle of [[AnArmAndALeg not having an arm]]. According to Piccolo, having both of his arms would've let him charge faster, which he proves against Nappa. Sadly, the Saiyan sees it coming and dodges.
** The iconic Scouters are small digital computers that can locate things from far away and calculate power levels, but they are easily broken, can be flat-out blown up by trying to read a strong enough aura, can be easily fooled by those able to hide their true strength, and can't take an opponent's skills, speed, or experience into consideration.
** Another prime example are the Power Stressed forms, which greatly bulk up the user and increase power and speed but drain stamina, as first shown by Roshi during the 21st World Tournament using his MAX Power form and a Kamehameha to ''destroy the Moon'' but completely exhausting his strength in the process, and then, much more dramatically, by Frieza on Namek using a similar power-up to match Super Saiyan Goku but quickly weakening into helplessness. Even worse in Frieza's case because he needs to go through a lengthy power-up sequence in-universe just to release that form, which was only possible on Namek because Goku ''wanted'' to fight Frieza at his strongest to humiliate him, while [[CombatPragmatist Future Trunks]] doesn't let him get that chance.
*** {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with the Super Saiyan Third Grade, an "advanced" Super Saiyan form created during the Cell Saga, that increase the bulk, and thus the available power and the energy and stamina consumption, even more than normal Power Stressed forms, with the bulk being so much it actually ''reduces speed'' which makes it useless since all the power in the world does you no good if you can't hit your opponent. Goku and Vegeta figured that these forms were useless on their own,[[note]]Vegeta stuck to Super Saiyan Second Grade, a more usual Power Stressed Form, while Goku, after achieving both forms during training, opts to master the initial transformation and try and surpass Super Saiyan entirely, resulting in Full Power Super Saiyan (a normal Super Saiyan form where the perfect control allows to use more power than Second Grade gave him previously) and Super Saiyan 2 respectively. Vegeta would decide to imitate him the moment he realized what Goku did[[/note]] but the less savvy Trunks found out the hard way when fighting Cell. Way later on in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Caulifla tries to use Super Saiyan Third Grade on Goku, with just as poor results.
** Super Saiyan 3 itself also counts. It's the most powerful Saiyan transformation seen in ''DBZ'', but consumes an enormous amount of energy, which has a number of drawbacks attached to it. For example, Gotenks using [=SS3=] shortens his normal FusionDance time limit from 30 minutes to 5, while Goku using the form as a delaying tactic against Fat Buu reduces the amount of time he has left during his once-in-an-afterlife visit to the mortal world. Later on, after Goku is brought back to life, he finds out that Super Saiyan 3 puts an incredible strain on the body that causes him to tire out quickly during the fight with Kid Buu. Goku later on manages to minimize these drawbacks, but by the time he does, Super Saiyan 3 has become SoLastSeason.
*** As of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', Akira Toriyama has [[WordOfGod declared]] that both Super Saiyan 2 and 3 fall under this trope, draining stamina at an increased rate while not offering enough of a power increase to justify it, plus Super Saiyan 2 causing an extreme increase of aggression and sadism. As a result, Goku and Vegeta have mostly abandoned these forms, using them only on rare occasions and instead focusing on increasing their power in their normal states and the original Super Saiyan transformation. When stakes get high, Goku and Vegeta use Super Saiyan Blue instead, which is far more powerful than Super Saiyan 2 and 3 but with none of the flaws. Goku also has the added bonus of ''combining'' the Kaio-ken technique with Super Saiyan Blue, which was virtually impossible with his other Super Saiyan forms.
** Now we have Super Saiyan ''God'', a form that requires five good-hearted Saiyans donating energy to a sixth and has such a high power drain, Goku barely has time to use the thing. The next movie introduces Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, or Super Saiyan Blue, which is essentially an improved and more efficient version without all the drawbacks. The Super Saiyan God seen in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' lessens the Impractical by giving it an extended duration and making it more of a challenge for Beerus, and further lessens it in the Universal Survival Arc by making it a less strenuous power-up, allowing Goku to have an edge in battle while not draining himself as fast as Blue.
** Speaking of ''Resurrection F'', Frieza's new Golden form also qualifies. While it gives him speed and power surpassing the improved Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan/Super Saiyan Blue ''while holding back to torture Goku as slowly as possible'', he practically bleeds stamina, meaning that he can only maintain it for a couple of minutes at full strength before it starts weakening, after which it quickly peters out and leaves him completely gassed out afterwards. This is entirely Frieza's fault; as Vegeta surmises, once he achieved the form he immediately rushed to Earth to take his revenge, rather than undergoing any further training in order to address the flaw. ''Dragon Ball Super'' makes it less impractical as Frieza can control his power in the form, allowing him to last a while longer than in the film while holding back (although he still kicks Goku's ass, and he is still burning Ki at an accelerated rate), but conversely, he burns out after only a minute of using his full power. In ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'''s Universal Survival arc, we find out that Frieza spent his time back in Hell ''[[RemovedAchillesHeel fixing]]'' [[RemovedAchillesHeel that problem]], making him ''so much stronger''.
** Most of the techniques Gotenks comes up with are flashy, but ineffective. His SignatureMove, the [[ActionBomb Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack]], initially appears to be very powerful and effective, creating sentient manifestations of his ki that explode with incredible force and with little provocation. Notably, no other technique like this has ever been seen in the entire series. When Buu uses it against Vegito; however, even demonstrating another layer to it by having the ghosts unleash ki attacks of their own, Vegito demonstrates the attack's FatalFlaw by detonating the ghosts from a safe distance using regular Ki Blasts, showing that ''anything'' can prematurely stop them before they do anything. And that's saying nothing of the difficulties Gotenks himself has with the technique such as the ghosts being incredibly dim-witted to the point two of them accidentally ''blew themselves up'' by doing a high-five. Vegito then mocks Buu for thinking that an attack created by two kids could actually defeat him.
** Really, Gotenks' very ''existence'' is a case of this. While he's undoubtedly one of the most powerful characters in the series, he's far too arrogant and childish to be very dependable. He could have defeated Buu in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, but was more concerned with showing off and looking cool; by the time [[LetsGetDangerous he got serious]], Buu had already killed almost everyone and he wasted too much time at Super Saiyan 3. It's precisely for this reason that Trunks and Goten are DemotedToExtra and left out of the Tournament of Power in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''.
** Gogeta, the fusion of Goku and Vegeta, can also verge into this at times, depending on what level of power they're using. At base Super Saiyan, they tend to take things rather seriously. The higher the tier of SuperMode they use, the more of a SmugSuper they become. In the non-canon ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta ends up taking his battles ''even less seriously than Gotenks''. Sure, they're insanely powerful but the Fusion strain also applies to them, meaning that the Fusion can only last for ''five minutes'' while using Super Saiyan 4. Vegito also falls into this in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' since the Potara earrings have been {{retcon}}ned into being an HourOfPower deal for mortals like the FusionDance. Even though Super Saiyan Blue Vegito is ''even stronger'' than Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta and takes his battles mildly more seriously when the threat level is high, the Potara earrings also end up having the same drain problems the fusion dance has. This is very much a {{downplayed|Trope}} example though; even with all these limits, Vegito still manages to cause a good deal of damage against the villain of that arc thanks to being ''[[StoryBreakerPower just that dang powerful!]]''
** The original FusionDance itself: it grants an awesome lot of power, but has a 30 minutes time limit ''at most'' before ending, needs a 1 hour pause between uses, needs a dance that an enemy can interrupt (as Super Buu demonstrated out of sheer impatience), and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking is embarrassingly ridiculous]]. Also, if the dance is not executed perfectly, the resulting fusion can end too fat and out of shape to fight or incredibly ghoulish and weak.
** Guldo of the Ginyu Force is able to [[TimeStandsStill freeze time]] for as long as he holds his breath... but he can't hold his breath for very long, and doing so uses up a lot of his energy. As shown when he uses it against Gohan and Krillin three times in a row, he ends up so drained that he can't even fire basic Ki Blasts. He's also so clumsy and cowardly that he wastes much of the time he does gain either panicking or tripping on terrain.
** The Ginyu Force's poses and setups for their attacks. Lampshaded by Goku who points out they take too long and leave themselves wide open.
** ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' gives us the Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken, the fusion of Super Saiyan Blue and the Kaio-ken. It's a technique powerful enough to battle the deadly assassin Hit, who is one of the strongest warriors in Universe 6, and [[OhCrap gives Beerus major pause]]. However, the technique is totally incomplete - the skill only lasts a few minutes (on-screen, it's shown to be only two minutes), has a 90% failure rate and, if performed wrong, [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique could kill Goku]]. Not to mention, it has an extended charging time. This is why he considers it [[GodzillaThreshold his ultimate trump card]]. A few episodes after its introduction, we find out that using it in this way causes "delayed onset ki disorder", which [[PowerIncontinence throws off his whole ki potential]] without proper rest. However, by the Universal Survival arc, Goku perfected the Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken and eliminated its drawbacks. But by that point, Super Saiyan Blue was beginning to get [[TheWorfEffect worfed]], resulting in...
** Goku's new Ultra Instinct form achieved in the Tournament of Power. It is substantially stronger than Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-ken and has near immeasurable power beyond the Gods. However, it has some crippling limitations. For starters, Goku can't even reliably access the form freely (he even comments that he achieved it by total accident) as it is a DefenceMechanismSuperpower that requires the removal of all mental and physical control and [[EleventhHourSuperpower only appears in times of desperation]]. He also [[PowerIncontinence cannot control Ultra Instinct]] once he achieves it, as it will involuntarily burn out on him and the resulting burnout leaves him in tremendous pain. While Ultra Instinct is substantially more powerful than Super Saiyan Blue, Blue remains Goku's most reliable go-to transformation.
*** Following the Galactic Patrol Prisoner Saga, Goku has attained a degree of control over Ultra Instinct, to the extent that he can activate and deactivate the transformation at will... However, Whis informs him that Ultra Instinct still firmly falls within this territory for Goku. He explains that while the transformation is indeed powerful, the drawbacks are quite severe, mostly that the transformed state causes Goku to bleed stamina like crazy. He further explains that Angels such as himself are ''always'' in the Ultra Instinct state and don't need to transform in order to utilize the power and that Goku will need to learn the same if he wishes to truly avert this trope. In the following arc we see Ultra Instinct's weakness further: as the user bleeds more stamina, Ultra Instinct's precision in attacking and dodging drops, eventually causing Goku to fall to Granolah.
*** In the Granolah The Survivor Saga, Vegeta receives his power-up answer to Ultra Instinct: Ultra Ego. This power gives him the powers of a God of Destruction and has limitless power, and the bonus of the [[CriticalStatusBuff user getting stronger]] when more damage is taken. Vegeta brutally beats down Granolah when the latter gave Ultra Instinct Goku problems, but Ultra Ego has a caveat: It makes the users' ego and battle lust swell up to insane levels, causing them to lose track of the fight, taking hits instead of dodging and resulting in them taking more unnecessary damage. Vegeta is so caught up in his new power and abusing Ultra Ego's buffs more that he doesn't even take notice of the incredible damage his body is taking. He nearly breaks down before he can even use its power!
** The Dragon Balls themselves are this trope. Seven balls that when brought together can summon a magic dragon to grant nearly '''any''' wish at all? Awesome! The fact that they scatter across the world each time they're used, that they can only be used annually, and that it usually takes ''generations'' to gather them all without a Dragon Radar? ...not as much. On top of that, the Dragon Balls are unable to grant the same wish twice, meaning anyone that dies a second time is KilledOffForReal (at least until the Namekian Dragon Balls come into the picture). They're made even more impractical in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', where it's revealed that the Dragon Balls are only meant to be used every hundred years, and overusing them over the course of the series causes their negative energy to eventually corrupt Shenron and split him into the seven Shadow Dragons, who then proceed to wreak havoc on Earth. At the end of ''GT'', Shenron decides that the Dragon Balls are more trouble than they're worth and leaves for Other World with the set in tow.
*** The Namekian Dragon Balls and Super Dragon Balls manage to make an already impractical in-story cheat code even ''more'' impractical simply by being too big to fit in one's pocket. Namekian Dragon Balls are roughly the size of dodgeballs, while Super Dragon Balls are roughly the size of entire ''planets''. And while the Namekian Dragon Balls ''can'' grant the same wish more than once, those wishes need to be slightly smaller ones (for instance, they can only revive one person at a time instead of multiple people). The latter have an additional problem: namely, they scatter across the ''[[SerialEscalation multiverse]]''.
*** The situation is much more severe with the Black Star Dragon Balls in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', which scatter across the entire '''galaxy''' and will destroy the planet they were last used on should they not be collected and brought back to said planet within a year's time (which did happen thanks to Baby's interference). The upside? Ultimate Shenron, the Black Star Dragon Balls' dragon, is more powerful than the Earth and Namekian Eternal Dragons and thus has a far greater amount of wishes that he can grant. In the same way, Super Shenron is effectively TheOmnipotent.
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** Shinji's Bankai is never seen in the series (it debuts in a later novel), because of this. It inverts perception of ally and enemy within its range, meaning that most groups of opponents will tear each other apart and no longer fight him. However, since only Shinji is immune to this power, he can't use it when any allies are around. Even worse, because it simply inverts perception of ally and enemy, enemies [[TeethClenchedTeamwork who were already barely on good terms with each other]] are less likely to be affected nor does it actually affect their other priorities.

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** Shinji's Bankai is never seen in the series original manga (it debuts in a later novel), novel and was [[AdaptationalEarlyAppearance shown in the anime]]), because of this. It inverts perception of ally and enemy within its range, meaning that most groups of opponents will tear each other apart and no longer fight him. However, since only Shinji is immune to this power, he can't use it when any allies are around. Even worse, because it simply inverts perception of ally and enemy, enemies [[TeethClenchedTeamwork who were already barely on good terms with each other]] are less likely to be affected nor does it actually affect their other priorities.

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* Uryu Ishida from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' possesses an attack like this -- the deadly Sprenger, which requires him to set up a pentacle of Seele Schneiders around his opponent and detonate their stored spiritual energy in a focused blast. He remarks that the attack takes so long to set up that it's impossible to use it in battle without a partner to distract the enemy.
** Even his ultimate attack in the Soul Society arc functions this way. Tearing off the glove briefly gave him immense spiritual power, after which his powers are drained to nothing. Awesome.

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* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'':
**
Uryu Ishida from ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' possesses an attack like this -- the deadly Sprenger, which requires him to set up a pentacle of Seele Schneiders around his opponent and detonate their stored spiritual energy in a focused blast. He remarks that the attack takes so long to set up that it's impossible to use it in battle without a partner to distract the enemy.
** Even his Uryu's ultimate attack in the Soul Society arc functions this way. Tearing off the glove briefly gave him immense spiritual power, after which his powers are drained to nothing. Awesome.
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** Goku's massively powerful Spirit Bomb attack, an attack which draws energy from all nearby life-forms; it's so ponderous it takes ''several episodes'' to fully charge (though this is partially the fault of real-life episode padding) and leaves him wide open to attack, with the added risk of wasting all that energy if he loses concentration. And after all that, it only finishes off a single opponent in the manga's run; Vegeta survived it, Frieza tanked it, and the character it ''did'' kill, Kid Buu, was able to push it back before Goku got his strength back through Porunga. Even outside of the original canon, its track record is hit-or-miss; Jiren in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' outright ''deflected'' the Spirit Bomb, and it only killed one other antagonist, that being Omega Shenron in ''Anime/DragonBallGT''.

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** Goku's massively powerful Spirit Bomb attack, an attack which draws energy from all nearby life-forms; it's so ponderous it takes ''several episodes'' to fully charge (though this is partially the fault of real-life episode padding) and leaves him wide open to attack, with the added risk of wasting all that energy if he loses concentration. And after all that, it only finishes off a single opponent in the manga's run; Vegeta survived it, Frieza tanked it, and the character it ''did'' kill, Kid Buu, was able to push it back before Goku got his strength back through Porunga. Even outside of the original canon, its track record is hit-or-miss; Jiren in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' outright ''deflected'' the Spirit Bomb, and it its only killed one other antagonist, that being victories are against [[NonSerialMovie movie villains]] ([[Anime/DragonBallZTheWorldsStrongest Dr. Wheelo]], [[Anime/DragonBallZTheTreeOfMight Turles]] and [[Anime/DragonBallZLordSlug Lord Slug]]) and Omega Shenron in from ''Anime/DragonBallGT''.
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** Kakashi's Chidori was this when he first developed it. The extra speed and power the technique grants its user also cause tunnel vision, making it impossible to avoid counterattacks. His teacher Minato (the future Fourth Hokage) warned him not to use it again since it was an incomplete technique. A Sharingan can remove the tunnel vision, making the Chidori more practical in the hands of a Sharingan-user.

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** Kakashi's Chidori [[ShockAndAwe Chidori]] was this when he first developed it. The extra speed and power the technique grants its user also cause tunnel vision, making it impossible to avoid counterattacks. His teacher Minato (the future Fourth Hokage) warned him not to use it again since it was an incomplete technique. A Sharingan can remove the tunnel vision, making the Chidori more practical in the hands of a Sharingan-user. But even then, it uses up a ''lot'' of chakra, so Kakashi can do it up to four times a day, while Sasuke can only do two after learning it. After the TimeSkip, Sasuke comes with variations that are less deadly but also use less chakra.
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** One of the earliest examples in the franchise is the [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent Oozaru, or Great Ape form]] exclusive to the Saiyan race. On the positive side, Saiyans get a 10x power boost in this form and can decimate entire planets in a single night. However, the negatives far outweigh these upsides; it requires a full moon to activate, and the transformation itself causes most Saiyans to become mindless, savage beasts that won't stop until everything in their path is destroyed. On top of that, [[AttackItsWeakPoint its tail is just as much of a weak spot as ever]], even becoming a far bigger target, and either cutting off the tail or blowing up the moon will halt the transformation. For that reason, the Great Ape is only used as an extreme tactic for when normal invasions won't suffice. Goku's own use of the form [[Manga/DragonBall as a child]] was only ever useful for getting him out of being trapped, and upon basically unlocking the Great Ape's power boost as his ''base'' power level through the Ultra Divine Water, Kami had his tail permanently removed in exchange for bringing the moon back. [[Anime/DragonBallZ Later on]], Saiyan Elites like Vegeta make better use of the form by A) being able to create a Power Ball that acts as a good substitute for the moon, and B) being able to actually ''control'' the form. The part about his tail still applies, however.
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* ''Anime/FinalFantasyUnlimited'': Kaze’s Magun can summon powerful monsters, and is one of the few things able to stand up against the likes of Chaos or Omega. However, it is cumbersome, takes a long time to activate, cannot fire regular bullets, and suffers from PowerIncontinence.
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* This trope is the reason Homura Akemi uses [[BoringButPractical guns]] in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica''. Originally, her signature weapon was a variety of explosives, which are very effective at finishing off witches quickly once her teammates clear a way for her. However, one of her original teammates, Sayaka Miki, was a swordswoman with no ranged options for combat, so she risked friendly fire quite often. Switching to guns was done in an attempt to avoid hurting Sayaka by accident, and even when they no longer fought together she kept it because guns are very practical weapons.
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** Similar to the Spirit Bomb, Vegeta's Final Flash is this at its most powerful. Vegeta has to spend a while charging it to get it to full power and the enemy has to wait for it. Vegeta uses it against Cell, who he taunts to take it to the face. It very nearly kills Cell, who had to dodge at the last second to not be completely annihilated, instead it "only" vaporized half of his torso, though he quickly regenerates that. Later in ''Super'', he similarly taunts Jiren to tank it, and Jiren has to block at the last second, but sustains more damage than he had yet received in the tournament, being knocked to the ground, and far more damage than Goku's Spirit Bomb had done to him.
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** Gaara's Armor of Sand that coats him in a skin-tight, impenetrable armor capable of blocking high-speed taijutsu, but drains his chakra much faster than his active defenses and significantly limits his movement.

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** Gaara's [[ElementalArmor Armor of Sand that Sand]] coats him in a skin-tight, impenetrable skin-tight armor capable of blocking high-speed taijutsu, anything fast or strong enough to get past his usual sand shield as a last-line of defense, but drains his chakra much faster than his active defenses and it significantly limits his movement.movement, is actually weaker than his standard sand shields and thus relies on them softening any attacks that penetrate, and most damningly of all costs a good chunk of chakra because it's not an automatic defense like the sand shield and needs a constant upkeep to both maintain it and repair any damage it takes. Kankuro even went so far as to call it one giant weakspot.
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** Now we have Super Saiyan ''God'', a form that requires five good-hearted Saiyans donating energy to a sixth and has such a high power drain, Goku barely has time to use the thing. The next movie introduces Super Saiyan Blue, which is essentially an improved and more efficient version without all the drawbacks. The Super Saiyan God seen in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' lessens the Impractical by giving it an extended duration and making it more of a challenge for Beerus, and further lessens it in the Universal Survival Arc by making it a less strenuous power-up, allowing Goku to have an edge in battle while not draining himself as fast as Blue.

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** Now we have Super Saiyan ''God'', a form that requires five good-hearted Saiyans donating energy to a sixth and has such a high power drain, Goku barely has time to use the thing. The next movie introduces Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, or Super Saiyan Blue, which is essentially an improved and more efficient version without all the drawbacks. The Super Saiyan God seen in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' lessens the Impractical by giving it an extended duration and making it more of a challenge for Beerus, and further lessens it in the Universal Survival Arc by making it a less strenuous power-up, allowing Goku to have an edge in battle while not draining himself as fast as Blue.
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** The Dragon Balls themselves are this trope. Seven balls that when brought together can summon a magic dragon to grant nearly '''any''' wish at all? Awesome! The fact that they scatter across the world each time they're used, that they can only be used annually, and that it usually takes ''generations'' to gather them all without a Dragon Radar? ...not as much.
*** The Namekian Dragon Balls and Super Dragon Balls manage to make an already impractical in-story cheat code even ''more'' impractical simply by being too big to fit in one's pocket. Namekian Dragon Balls are roughly the size of dodgeballs, while Super Dragon Balls are roughly the size of entire ''planets''. The latter have an additional problem: namely, they scatter across the ''[[SerialEscalation multiverse]]''.
*** The situation is much more severe with the Black Star Dragon Balls in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', which scatter across the entire '''galaxy''' and will destroy the planet they were last used on should they not be collected and brought back to said planet within a year's time. The upside? Ultimate Shenron, the Black Star Dragon Balls' dragon, is more powerful than the Earth and Namekian Eternal Dragons and thus has a far greater amount of wishes that he can grant. In the same way, Super Shenron is effectively TheOmnipotent.

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** The Dragon Balls themselves are this trope. Seven balls that when brought together can summon a magic dragon to grant nearly '''any''' wish at all? Awesome! The fact that they scatter across the world each time they're used, that they can only be used annually, and that it usually takes ''generations'' to gather them all without a Dragon Radar? ...not as much.
much. On top of that, the Dragon Balls are unable to grant the same wish twice, meaning anyone that dies a second time is KilledOffForReal (at least until the Namekian Dragon Balls come into the picture). They're made even more impractical in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', where it's revealed that the Dragon Balls are only meant to be used every hundred years, and overusing them over the course of the series causes their negative energy to eventually corrupt Shenron and split him into the seven Shadow Dragons, who then proceed to wreak havoc on Earth. At the end of ''GT'', Shenron decides that the Dragon Balls are more trouble than they're worth and leaves for Other World with the set in tow.
*** The Namekian Dragon Balls and Super Dragon Balls manage to make an already impractical in-story cheat code even ''more'' impractical simply by being too big to fit in one's pocket. Namekian Dragon Balls are roughly the size of dodgeballs, while Super Dragon Balls are roughly the size of entire ''planets''. And while the Namekian Dragon Balls ''can'' grant the same wish more than once, those wishes need to be slightly smaller ones (for instance, they can only revive one person at a time instead of multiple people). The latter have an additional problem: namely, they scatter across the ''[[SerialEscalation multiverse]]''.
*** The situation is much more severe with the Black Star Dragon Balls in ''Anime/DragonBallGT'', which scatter across the entire '''galaxy''' and will destroy the planet they were last used on should they not be collected and brought back to said planet within a year's time.time (which did happen thanks to Baby's interference). The upside? Ultimate Shenron, the Black Star Dragon Balls' dragon, is more powerful than the Earth and Namekian Eternal Dragons and thus has a far greater amount of wishes that he can grant. In the same way, Super Shenron is effectively TheOmnipotent.

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