Hyourinjutsu
is a YouTube animator who is known for his What-If series, which pits different Dragon Ball characters against one another. These videos can either be one-off shorts or instead form a longer saga. They include characters from Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball GT, and even Dragon Ball Heroes. He also occasionally does videos with other franchises, like The DCU, Marvel Comics, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
He currently has around 350,000 subscribers.
Hyourinjutsu's What-Ifs provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Quite a few cases of this occur in comparison to canon thanks to the nature of the What-Ifs, for example: characters like Teen and Future Gohan along with Broly end up attaining Super Saiyan 3, Frieza acquiring a Fifth Form in the style of Cooler's Final Form that he stacks on top of Golden, or Vegeta attaining an Evolution variant of Super Saiyan God.
- All for Nothing: Goku Black's entire journey ended up being this in the end, despite being able to attain Super Saiyan Rose and refine it to the point that he was able to wipe out the main timeline's Goku and Vegeta as well as Future Trunks on his own, he ultimately ends up being defeated and erased by the GT timeline's Beerus after his and Baby's fight with Broly.
- Ambiguously Evil: What-If #20 has Babidi wondering if his brainwashing of Piccolo was ruined by Kami's influence. The ending reveals this to not be the case, as Piccolo still has plans to Take Over the World.
- Badass Boast: In What-If #14, Goku Black has one of these when he transforms into Super Saiyan 4 against Vegeta's Super Saiyan God.Vegeta: In terms of pure power, such a form pales against Super Saiyan God.Goku Black: I couldn't agree more. Which is why beating you like this is going to be all the more satisfying.
- Bittersweet Ending: What-If #19, the finale of the Goku Black saga, is definitely more bitter than sweet. Goku from the GT timeline is dead, the Earth is still mostly possessed by Baby's Tuffles, Universe 7 in Black's timeline saw its mortal population wiped out after Black killed the Z Fighters, Giru is destroyed by Beerus, the latter of whom lacks the comedic side and respect for Earth his DBS counterpart had, and assuming the GT timeline is the same as the original, nothing is stopping Dr. Myuu and Dr. Gero from coming back with Super 17 to conquer the universe (though Beerus being awake means he could be the one to stop them). On the sweet side, Goku Black, whose omnicidal ambitions saw him murder millions of people and attempt to kill billions more, is erased from existence, Baby is also gone thanks to getting Hakai'd by Beerus, GT Vegeta is unconscious but alive after defusing from Goku Black, and the Black Star Dragon Balls are destroyed, meaning not only will the evil dragons from the original GT timeline likely not be able to devastate Earth as they did in the anime, but Piccolo won't have to die. Furthermore, the original Dragon Balls are still intact, meaning whoever finds them (possibly Vegeta due to being closest) can use them to fix the damage Black caused as well as bring Goku back to life.
- Brains Versus Brawn: What Demon King Piccolo against Dabura ends being. Both men are smart, but Piccolo is shown to be more tactical and more willing to go for dirty moves, while Dabura is stated as being as strong as Cell and can take more punishment. In the end, Piccolo has to end things with a sneak attack that Dabura wouldn't be able to take without being damaged and couldn't avoid - in this case, a Special Beam Cannon against Babidi, which wounds him enough to being finished by the subsequent Light Grenade.
- In the battles of GT Goku and Manga!Super Goku, this ends up being their dynamic. Super Goku has a higher power ceiling with his God Forms, while GT has a few more years of experience in battle alongside better technique overall. This allows him to eek out a win against his younger counterpart, as he's forced to use the exhaustive Mastered Blue to keep up with his older self, leading to him become more tired quickly, along with the fact that Super Saiyan 4 is more conservative in it's energy usage.
- Chekhov's Gun: In What-If #9, Broly attains the form of a Golden Great Ape and fires powerful blasts at Goku Black and Baby Vegeta, forcing the latter to destroy the moon to stop his rampage. In What-If #19, Baby Vegito Black - the fusion of the two - realizes that one of those blasts from Golden Great Ape Broly destroyed Dende's Lookout and, by extension, the Shadow Dragon Balls, which Black hoped to use as a backup to escape in the event he lost to Beerus.
- Curb-Stomp Battle:
- What-If #1 sees Super Saiyan Blue Goku wipe the floor with Broly, even when the latter becomes a Legendary Super Saiyan 3 during the fight.
- What-If #9 plays with this trope throughout the video:
- The first part is a blatantly lopsided affair, with Legendary Super Saiyan 3 Broly being soundly beaten even by a Base Goku Black powered by Zenkais from previous fights.
- It's then subverted when Broly, being powered up by a Zenkai power boost thanks to recovering from near-death becomes a Golden Great Ape. Goku Black and Baby Vegeta, as a Super Saiyan, are forced to dodge his attacks and have to destroy the moon to beat him.
- Once Broly goes Super Saiyan 4 (powered up by another Zenkai), then he's the one inflicting the Curb-Stomp Battle. Super Saiyan Rose Black and Super Saiyan Baby Vegeta can do nothing to remotely harm Broly as he steamrolls them. Even a point-blank Kamehameha from Black and Third Form Baby Vegeta's Revenge Death Ball does nothing to stop him.
- It finally ends by flipping the curbstomping back against Broly, with Goku Black and Baby Vegeta fusing to become Baby Vegito Black, and the new fusion dominates Super Saiyan 4 Broly to the point of ultimately annihilating him. Then again, if Black was right, Broly could have reached Super Saiyan 5 with another Zenkai power boost, so a quick and decisive victory was a pragmatic decision.
- What-If #13 sees Golden Frieza, having spent 10 years in Hell training, dominate Super Saiyan 4 Goku. Even Kaioken x20 and Senzu Beans do nothing to close the gap, and the video shows exactly how screwed Goku was in this fight from the start.
- Downer Ending:
- What-If #7 ends with Goku Black being victorious in his fight against Future Gohan, as despite the latter using Super Saiyan 3, the former unlocks Super Saiyan Rose and puts a quick end to the future warrior, leaving Goku Black free to wreak havoc on numerous timelines.
- An absolutely horrific one in What-If #13 to the point Hyourinjutsu claims it's the darkest timeline yet: Goku, in spite of his tricks such as Kaioken x20 and a Zenkai Boost whilst in Super Saiyan 4, is still horrifically outclassed by Golden Frieza, who has spent a full decade training in Hell, resulting in his power having increased to overwhelming levels. Cell, having also attained and mastered the Golden Form, attacks Goku from behind, then absorbs him to keep him stuck in a limbo forever, fulfilling his and Frieza's long-awaited revenge. Meanwhile, Super 17 kills everyone on Earth despite a heroic Last Stand from Vegeta, Uub, and the other Z Fighters.
- In What-If #16, Captain Ginyu, who has stolen Bardock's body before Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta, kills Goku on Namek with his Super Saiyan form, which he gained during the 25 years of training he spent with his Saiyan body.
- From What-If #20, the episode ends in an Evil vs. Evil situation as a result of Babidi's magic fully reincarnating Piccolo into the Demon Lord, and after killing Dabura and Babidi and sealing away Buu, Piccolo makes it very damn clear he plans on conquering Earth once again.
- Evil vs. Evil:
- In What-If #9, Broly, who in this timeline survived his defeat in the film Broly - Second Coming, fights Goku Black and Baby Vegeta. All three of them are cruel and sadistic sociopaths who hate Goku with an undying passion, but the latter two work with each other against Broly since he's a full-blown Saiyan, whereas Black and Baby are both merely possessing the body of a Saiyan to attain greater power in spite of their shared loathing of the Saiyan race.
- From What-If #20, we have Piccolo VS Dabura as a result of Babidi's magic causing Demon King Piccolo to fully reincarnate, as the end of the episode makes it very clear the Babidi-empowered Piccolo plans on taking over the Earth once he has done away with Dabura, Babidi, and Buu.
- Face–Heel Turn: Courtesy of What-If #20, Piccolo ends up undergoing this as a result of Babidi's magic causing him to fully convert back to Demon King Piccolo.
- Failed a Spot Check: In What-If #19, one of Baby Vegito Black's contingency plans to deal with Beerus, Instant Transmissioning to kill Shin, the last Supreme Kai in the world, fails due to Baby Vegito Black being unaware of Shin's fusion with Kibito which was never undone in the GT timeline, resulting in an energy signature he's unfamiliar with and thus unable to track and Instant Transmission to. Not to mention the fact that prior to the fight, Beerus had sealed Kibito Kai away.
- Fatal Family Photo: Giru in What-If #19 ends up falling into this, as prior to going out on his quest to gather the Dragon Balls at Baby Vegito Black's orders, the last thing he sees is a shattered picture frame of all of his friends, and eventually he's destroyed by Beerus before he can fully gather all of the Dragon Balls.
- Fatal Flaw: Goku Black had Pride. After many hops between timelines, defeating powerful foe after powerful foe, then fusing with Baby Vegeta to create Baby Vegito Black, he eventually gains the attention of GT!Beerus, and tries to fight him off, thinking all the power and knowledge he gathered would suffice to end him. If he had retreated while he still was winning, maybe he could have become powerful enough to do so - instead, Beerus destroyed him bit by bit, before erasing Black right before he could get the Dragon Balls to bail himself out.
- For Babidi, it was impatience and Greed. His insistence for Dabura to keep fighting Demon King Piccolo to gather energy faster for Buu's revival makes things harder than it should be for his warrior and leads to their deaths and to Buu's further sealing.
- Godzilla Threshold:
- In What-If #6, due to Cell gaining enormous power after regenerating from a near-death experience and absorbing Godly Ki, Goku and Vegeta are forced to fuse into Gogeta. The Fusion then proceeds to effortlessly wipe out Cell with a Big Bang Kamehameha.
- In What-If #9, seeing that Super Saiyan 4 Broly has survived a Revenge Death Ball and his power still continues to increase to no end, Black proposes to fuse with Baby utilizing the Potara Earrings. Baby Vegito Black emerges from this merging, and he proceeds to dominate Broly. The Legendary Super Saiyan is then finished off by having a Ki explosion detonated inside his body.
- In What-If #12, after Gogeta is told by Krillin that there's only one minute left before the Tournament of Power comes to a close, he decides to risk it all: he combines Vegeta and Goku's strongest form, Super Saiyan Blue Evolution and Blue Kaio-ken respectively, in order to attempt to push Jiren off-stage and eliminate him. He correctly deduces that the massive energy he'll produce by using this transformation will make him defuse almost instantly.
- Grand Finale: Beerus VS Baby Vegito Black marks an end to Hyourinjutsu's Goku Black storyline, ending with all of Goku Black's plans failing and Baby being Hakai'd before Black himself is finally Hakai'd as well, putting an end to his timeline-hopping schemes.
- Horrifying the Horror: In the short What-If #5, Cell, having achieved a Golden Form like Frieza did, gets this when Goku assumes the titular form, a mixture of Super Saiyan Blue and Super Saiyan 4. It's almost an exact repeat of how Cell reacted when Gohan went Super Saiyan 2.
- Infodump: One of these usually comes up Once per Episode to explain the extent of the new transformations acquired, either a huge chart of transformations or a detailed graphic to explain what's going on with the subject's transformation and/or power.
- The Juggernaut: When Broly turns into a Super Saiyan 4 in What-If #9 (aided by 3 Zenkai power boosts), he is borderline unstoppable. He effortlessly beats down Super Saiyan Rose Goku Black and Super Saiyan 2 Baby Vegeta (keep in mind earlier his Super Saiyan 3 got easily beaten by Base Form Goku Black). None of their attacks do any damage to him, with Broly tanking Black's Kamehameha and neutralizing Baby's Revenge Death Ball, forcing Black and Baby to fuse into Baby Vegito Black to defeat him before Broly could possibly attain an even more unstoppable form.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Per usual, Goku Black wants to enact his Zero Mortals Plan. This time, however, he wishes to go to all timelines in existence, and according to Hyourinjutsu, he considers using Baby's possession powers to brainwash other gods into helping him on his mortal-murdering campaign.
- Retraux: The opening sequence for several modern What-Ifs take the style of an old video game menu, fitting with the sprite animation the episodes usually take. The less detailed Super-Deformed Gogeta VS Jiren's opening even takes the style of a Mega Man like menu.
- Role Swap AU: Two of the What-Ifs so far have provided this:
- What-If #14, one of the episodes of Goku Black's saga, is focused around the idea of Vegeta becoming the Super Saiyan God that faces Beerus instead of Goku.
- What-If #20 has Piccolo and Vegeta swapping roles for the encounter with Babidi and Dabura, with Vegeta being the one Taken for Granite and Piccolo as the one who's enhanced by Babidi's Majin magic.
- Sequel Episode:
- What-If #9 is one to What-If #7, as Goku Black, having achieved the form of Super Saiyan Rose after killing an alternate version of Future Gohan in the latter episode, teams up with Baby to achieve his goals. They work together against Broly, and they ultimately fuse into Baby Vegito Black to take him down. What-If #14 is a prequel to #9, serving to show what Black was doing right after #7, how he got stronger, and how he accessed the GT timeline. What-If #19 serves as a true sequel to #9, and Goku Black's existence erasure makes it the final chapter of Hyourinjutsu's Goku Black saga.
- What-If #15 serves as one to What-If #12, featuring Xeno Vegito facing the Goku and Vegeta from the latter episode after they had fused into Gogeta to defeat Jiren.
- Spanner in the Works: Baby ended up being this for Goku Black near the end of What-If #19; In his attempt to possess Beerus, Baby took most of the energy sustaining Baby Vegito Black with him which went to waste thanks to Beerus erasing him before he could succeed. While this allowed Black full control of the fusion with GT Vegeta being unconscious, the fusion quickly ran out, with Black realising what Baby did, much to his horror and now being significantly drained, devoid of his time ring so he could escape and a much stronger God of Destruction after him.
- Spoiler Title: Numerous cases of this occur with various episodes, usually to advertise the main event/transformations of the What-If.
- The Stinger: Quite a few cases:
- What-If #9: Beerus and Whis sense the sheer power of Baby Vegito Black's creation, with the former ready to see just how powerful this new being is.
- What-If #12: Xeno Trunks and Xeno Vegito are alerted of a time distortion from Gogeta and Jiren's fight, with Xeno Vegito being entrusted by Trunks to investigate the distortion.
- What-If #14: A two-fold case: The end credits reveal the 15th What-If fight between Xeno Vegito and Gogeta, and this episode is revealed to be a Stealth Prequel, as Goku Black escaping his fight with Vegeta leads to the former arriving at GT Goku's fight with Baby, leading into the events of the 9th What-If.
- Villainous Breakdown: As the battle rages on between Baby Vegito Black and Beerus in What-If #19, Baby Vegito Black is left constantly scrambling as all of his plans to deal with Beerus and continue his own plans fall flat, in order: Losing his Time Ring, Baby's Metal Cannon proving useless to Beerus' Hakai, being unable to locate Shin for Instant Transmission due to him still being fused with Kibito (Plus Beerus having sealed the fused Kai away), Giru getting destroyed before he could gather all of the Dragon Balls, Baby getting Hakai'd after he tried to possess Beerus which left Goku Black piloting Vegito with an unconscious GT Vegeta, Vegito defusing, and finally Black himself being at the mercy of Beerus, having a full on Freak Out at his complete and utter loss before the God of Destruction uses Hakai to finally put an end to the false Saiyan. By the end of it, Beerus notes that Black could have at least died with some dignity.Goku Black: This can't be happening. Go away! I can't be killed right now! Get away from me! It wasn't supposed to go like this.
- Villain Protagonist: Goku Black, despite being a sadistic Omnicidal Maniac obsessed with killing all mortals, provides the main focus in several episodes, detailing his encounters with the likes of Future Gohan, Vegeta, and Broly in various timelines on his quest to better utilize his Saiyan body, gain more strength, and spread the Zero Mortal Plan to all dimensions and timelines. But in What-If #19, his saga comes to an end when Beerus erases him from existence, all of his plans having never reached fruition.
- Wham Shot: In What-If #13, as the battle between GT Goku and Golden Frieza is growing more and more desperate for the former, Frieza reveals one more trump card: He has a Fifth Form like Cooler's that he can use alongside Golden, revealing just how hopelessly outmatched Goku is. And then towards the end of the fight as Goku is preparing to beam clash with Frieza, Golden Cell is briefly seen behind the former firing a Death Beam, which meets Frieza's in Goku's soon to be opened wound.
