How to Do the Fusion Dance: Goten and Trunks' 4 Steps

The Fusion Dance is a sequence of four poses that two fighters perform as mirror images of each other to merge into a single warrior far stronger than either of them. It takes a few seconds: the starting stance, three side steps on "Fu", fists and a raised knee on "sion", then the lean with touching index fingers on "Ha!". The hard part is doing it perfectly. Get one finger wrong and instead of Gotenks you end up with a wheezing, flabby fusion.

Who invented the dance

The technique comes from the planet Metamor. The Metamorans never actually appear in the series, but Goku learns the dance from them while he is in the Other World, between the Cell and Majin Buu arcs. When he returns to Earth for a single day during the Buu saga of Dragon Ball Z, he teaches it to Goten and Trunks, and Piccolo takes over their training once Goku leaves. The manga introduces the dance in chapter 469, the anime in episode 240.

There is one detail that gives away its alien origin: anyone fused through the dance wears Metamoran clothing, a cropped vest with puffy yellow shoulder padding, baggy white pants, a blue sash and black wristbands. Gotenks, Gogeta and even the botched fusions all dress this way.

The 4 steps, one by one

Before you start, stand side by side on the same line, a few steps apart: just enough room to take exactly three side steps and end up close together. Whoever stands on the left does everything to the left, whoever stands on the right does everything to the right. You are each other's reflection.

1. Starting stance. Legs straight, both arms stretched out horizontally to the outside, away from your partner. Your inner arm crosses in front of your chest so both arms stay parallel. Hands open.
2. "Fu..." Three little side steps toward your partner, up on your toes. Meanwhile your straight arms sweep in an arc over your head and end up pointing at the other person.
3. "...sion..." A sharp snap: your arms swing back to the outside and your hands close into fists, palms down. At the same time your outer leg comes up, bent at a right angle, with the foot at the height of your other knee.
4. "...Ha!" Lean in toward your partner. Your outer leg shoots out straight to the side while the inner one bends and takes your weight. Both arms reach toward the other person, one high above your heads and one at chest height, and your index fingers touch at two points, tip to tip.

In the movie Fusion Reborn, Goku describes the dance with an image: two rivers flowing toward each other and meeting at just two points. Those two points are exactly the pairs of index fingers.

The most common mistakes

The series has plenty of fun with failed fusions, and they are also the best way to see where people trip up.

• Open fingers on "sion". On their first attempt Trunks extends his fingers instead of making fists halfway through the dance. The result is a fat Gotenks who runs out of breath after a few steps.
• Fingers that don't meet. On the second try the boys' fingers cross instead of touching, and out comes a bony, wrinkled Gotenks. Master Roshi cheers because "he's my age", and Krillin corrects him: older.
• The forgotten index finger. In Fusion Reborn Vegeta fails to extend his index finger and, together with Goku, becomes Veku, a fat fusion whose only real skill is running away.
• A different lean. In Dragon Ball Super: Broly Goku and Vegeta fail twice: first Goku's finger slips below Vegeta's, then one leans at 45 degrees and the other at 60. Two failed fusions in a row, a whole hour wasted.
• Rusty moves. In Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero Goten no longer remembers the steps properly, and the fat Gotenks is back to face Cell Max.

Did you know? The Japanese original and the English dub use "Fu-sion-Ha!", but the Italian dub turned it into "Fu-sio-ne!", with the last syllable landing as the fingers touch.

The rules of fusion

• Similar power. Both fighters need an almost identical power level: Trunks, a year older than Goten, has to hold back his aura to match his friend's. A similar build helps too, although according to Toriyama what really matters is performing the technique flawlessly.
• Total symmetry. Identical, mirrored movements, synchronised right down to the breathing.
• Thirty minutes. The fusion lasts about half an hour, and transformations burn through it faster: Super Saiyan 3 Gotenks only holds out for a few minutes, and Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta in Dragon Ball GT just ten. To see why some forms are so draining, read our guide to the Super Saiyan transformations.
• An hour's rest. After a successful fusion it takes about sixty minutes before the pair can fuse again; after a failed dance, though, they can try again as soon as they split.
• No shortcuts. A failed fusion still lasts its full thirty minutes. The exception is Dragon Ball GT, where a sloppy dance simply produces nothing.

Fusion Dance or Potara earrings?

The other way to fuse is with the Supreme Kais' Potara earrings: each fighter wears one on the opposite ear to their partner, and the two bodies are pulled together into one. No dance, no symmetry to keep. For Supreme Kais the merge is permanent; for everyone else, as Dragon Ball Super explains, it lasts an hour. The outfits differ too: Potara fusions mix the two fighters' clothes, while dance fusions always wear the Metamoran uniform.

Goku and Vegeta have used both methods. The dance creates Gogeta, the earrings create Vegito (Vegeth in the Italian manga, Vegetto in Spanish). Official sources have never agreed on which of the two is stronger, and today they are treated as two equally powerful trump cards.

The most famous fusions

Gotenks remains the face of the dance: he is the series' first successful fusion, he reaches Super Saiyan 3 and he has an attitude all of his own, half Goten and half Trunks. Gogeta, created for a movie, returned to the big screen more than twenty years later.