The disbelief:
Just a note, I'll not use any data-book as source alone. Only Manga + Interviews from Toriyama.
Most people argue that Buhan must be stronger for a couple of reasons:
- Buutenks had the infamous statements about being the strongest Majin.
- Goku is weaker than Gohan and Gotenks.
- Goku fought Kid Buu and he fused for Buuhan.
- Kid Buu is even weaker than Super Buu because Goku and Vegeta do not panic as much as they did against Super Buu or Buff Buu.
So Kid Buu is weaker than Buhan.
This is good logic, and it is a correct inference. I bet that all the Kid Buu supporters here used to believe that too. We were all Buhan fans.
But there is a problem: this chain of thought is superficial, and it does not take into account 1) proper translations, 2) interviews, 3) narrative logic for the final boss in Dragon Ball, 4) basically every other official medium’s interpretation, which goes against this, and 5) Toriyama simply doing what he liked more.
But let’s go step by step.
Debunks of the 5 points:
1:
Buutenks explicitly places himself as the strongest Majin in that precise moment and in the future, so yes, it is a good statement. And if you do not try to read more than this one line in the entire work, then this can still mean Buutenks > Kid Buu. However, to do that, you have to basically ignore
everything about Buu.
The reason why this statement is not a proper correlation between Buutenks and Kid Buu is that the
term “past” is never stated in the raw, so Toriyama actually
avoided using it.
The fact that past is not mentioned is important because, the term past would have been a strong indicator Buutenks talks about kid buu's past lore, even if it was never even introduced in the manga.
But the term is avoided and Super Buu has no proper idea of Kid Buu. He is scared because he literally loses himself, so
how can he know how strong he is if he loses himself and loses control over his thoughts? And this is just logical inference from the dialogue.
Buutenks strongest Majin can only refer to his previous "known" forms, such as Super Buu.
On top of this, Toriyama explicitly stated that
Buu has no idea how strong he is. Not to mention that Kid Buu himself had never even appeared once at that point in the story; he is a
full plot twist that appears later.
It is pretty blatant that, after a proper analysis, using that statement to confidently put Buutenks > Kid Buu is very much
wrong.
Conclusion: no relation between Buutenks and Kid Buu, meaning no relation between Buhan and Kid Buu either.
2:
Goku has
never been stated to be weaker than any of these people in the manga, and yet again, he is stated to be the strongest in both the manga and by the author.
People really underestimate this Number 1 narrative, but it is no joke. Gohan had the potential to be stronger than Goku, and he showed it in the Cell Saga, but Toriyama envisioned Gohan as a student, not as a warrior stronger than Goku.
Gohan trained and managed to become extremely powerful only to
lose, and that is the
end of his character as warrior in the canon manga. Goku, on the other hand, is the
main fighter of the final battle of the manga, and the Number
1 narrative was created for
him because he is Number 1 and
strongest.
Toriyama explicitly
correlated “Number
1” with being the
strongest in the universe. This is blatant.
You still disagree? The
anime does the same thing. It correlates Goku being Number 1 with “
Goku is the strongest after all.” So again, why would everyone be
wrong?
In DBS, yet again, Vegeta states that Goku is the undisputed Number 1. Sounds familiar.
So at this point, it is not even a matter of disbelief.
And please, let’s stop with this ridiculous take that Goku is equal to Fat Buu;
the author literally places Goku above him.
Not accepting that Goku is the strongest means you think your interpretation of the events is 1) better than the mangaka’s and 2) better than
everyone else who works on Dragon Ball.
It is not even about the anime being
canon, so please do not
strawman me. I am just showing
how Japanese people who worked with Toriyama and with the brand literally interpreted these things.
3:
Goku fought on par with Kid Buu, but
did he really? Well, Goku did put up an impressive fight. But for anyone who actually analyzes the fight properly, Kid Buu was stated to be
having fun, and it is also stated that his KI “
never goes down.”
However, we know that if you are strong enough, Buu’s ki can drop as well, he can be pushed near death, and he can be pressured through his regeneration. That never happened to Kid Buu. Goku himself also conceded that he should have used the Potara. Even Bullets goes through Buu, but the only way to damage him is being strong enough to halt his regen and drop his ki to zero = death.
Goku didn't got close to anything and his
KI never dropped.
This is proved here: Vegeta notice the fat buu is saying because his
Ki is dropping, because both Buu are regenerating difference is
one is not showing any drop on KI, the other is
dying.
Notice, how despite Kid Buu fought Goku + Gohan + this Buu
his Ki was never stated to drop and Goku actually point out he is
having fun?
So not only was Kid Buu having fun with Goku, but Goku never managed to lower his KI at all, meaning all the damage he tried to do was completely worthless. So how can anyone in their right mind think Gohan has remotely any chance against Kid Buu, when basically
the whole narrative was that if Goku loses, everyone loses? With his KI stated to not be enough.
Also, Goku here suggests bringing both Gotenks and Gohan to fight.
Why would Goku even bother asking for the kids to fuse if Gohan alone were enough?
Why didn’t he just say to bring Gohan? Goku was so
desperate that he wanted to bring both.
Key word: 悟飯やゴテンクス (Gohan ya Gotenks)
And this links to the next point.
4:
"Kid Buu got weaker."
No,
he did not. His ki was stated only to rise and never go down, and people just wrongly assume it went down because of Goku and Vegeta’s reactions.
But
Toriyama wanted to trick the audience about smaller characters getting stronger, and always hint how their size is very important.
But this is clearly debunked by the fact that Goku and Vegeta’s reaction is proven wrong two seconds later, and by the actual lore explaining that the absorptions reduced his power and that he became more powerful after those were undone.
People claiming Buff Buu is stronger as well, would have to assume
Buff Buu KI increase comes form the south kaioshin,
but the South kaioshin was removed and fully detached, so
where the hell would buff buu get his KI? Guys
KI need energy sources, everyone knows it.
The only justifiable reasons
why the Ki increase, is exactly what was stated in the manga, and explained in guides too,
it increase because of the removal of absorptions, Kid buu > Buff buu > Super buu
So how strong is Kid Buu?
Let's ask DBS manga:
悪い方の魔人ブウ
- 悪い = “bad,” “evil”
- 方 = “side,” “one,” “version,” “the one that is …”
Which was 浄化され = “was purified”
Clearly talking about Kid Buu, since he is saying the "evil part of him that got purified" is explicitly referring to Kid Buu.
My analysis
using only Manga + Interviews is done. Please,
debunk this with only Manga + Interviews as well.
Now I am saying:
why is that so strange to believe, when an enormous amount of sources do indeed say he is the strongest?
Buhan is not
even 2x Gohan, so you would have to claim that Kid Buu did not even get a 2x boost from his power-up.
I think people need to acknowledge that Kid Buu being the strongest is not something we made up. This whole argument exists because he is repeatedly stated to be so.
And he is also stated to be so by
the author, Dragon Ball Super manga and anime, KAI included.
It also feels ridiculous to me that
a source created as an official product by the brand, created with the sole reason to be faithful to the manga, just gets dismissed.
Also, the most recent guidebook,
the Shonen Jump 50th Anniversary one, which shows all the villains, states that he is the strongest Majin.
I know people do not like guidebooks, but I want to point out that this is the most
RECENT one, from 2019.
Most of the others, are much older and date back to the manga and anime era, or to 2009.
So from what I see, We use Guidebooks? Kid buu has many more.
We use interviews? Kid Buu has more, Buhan has zero.
We use the anime? Kid Buu has an enormous amount.
We use whatever source you pick? Kid Buu will always have more or equal.
The manga? as explained in depth
here, the manga
never contradict this notion and never say Buuhan > Kid.
And it is
undeniable the amount of time he's being called the strongest by external sources.
