Ginyu is first seen using this attack against Goku after seeing Goku's great increase in his power level through the Kaio-ken technique. Due to this special ability, only a few people have seen Ginyu's true form and Salza, the leader of Cooler's Armored Squadron, is among them. Ginyu's special ability originated during his childhood: when Ginyu first learned of his Body Change ability, he swapped bodies with the richest kid in his class. Ginyu after swapping bodies with the richest kid in his class This is made clear in the case of his swap with Goku, result in Ginyu bearing a relatively dim power level of 23,000. This is already problematic enough if the body in question is vastly different from his own, but in situations where the key to accessing the body's maximum power is not anything he knows, or even anything strictly working within the body itself, it can become crippling to his output in relation to what its usual host is capable of. While the Body Change gives Ginyu an advantage over powerful opponents by effectively swapping power levels from their new bodies, this is shown to have one drawback: any host changing bodies must take time to get used to their new body before they can use its full power. Later in Dragon Ball Super, it was shown that this technique can alternatively be activated by an opponent by writing 'Change' in the ground in the alien language and tricking his opponent into saying it, as Ginyu did on Tagoma.

In the anime, he does not need to use actually speak through vocal cords as Bulma's Universal Translator allowed him to change bodies with her. This technique appears to require the spoken component in order to work as shown he became trapped in a Namekian Frog. In preparation for this technique, Ginyu usually begins by injuring himself in order to give a damaged body to his opponent.

The individuals are shown to retain their own respective voices in their new bodies, making it harder for a person to impersonate the person they swapped with. When it is finished, Ginyu is in the opponent's body, while they are in his own body. Once shouting 'Change, now!' with his arms outstretched, Ginyu fires an energy wave from his mouth into the opponent's mouth.

Body swap 4chan