Freeza

Freeza (Japanese: フリーザ, Hepburn: Furīza), spelled Frieza in Funimation's English anime dub, is a fictional character in the Dragon Ball manga series created by Akira Toriyama. Freeza makes his debut in Chapter #247: Dark Clouds Swirl Over Planet Namek (暗雲うずまくナメック星, An'un Uzumaku Namekkusei), first published in Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on November 6, 1989,^[1] as a galactic tyrant feared as the most powerful being in the universe.

Despite not appearing until the manga's second half, Freeza is widely considered to be the most iconic antagonist from the series due to effectively serving as the catalyst of many of the events depicted in the story, such as Goku's arrival on Earth, the Saiyans landing on Earth, and subsequently the main characters going to planet Namek. He is also directly responsible for the murder of Burdock, the genocide of the Saiyan race, and the second death of Kuririn, arguably making him Goku's most personal and significant enemy.

Creation and conception

Freeza, a broker who forcibly takes over planets to resell them, was created around the time of the Japanese economic bubble and was inspired by real estate speculators, whom Toriyama called the "worst kind of people."^[2] His physical appearance is an amalgamation of what Toriyama thought monsters looked like in his childhood.^[3] His name is a pun on freezer, and because of this the members of the Ginyu Force are named after items one would normally put in a refrigerator.^[4]

Freeza possesses four transformation forms, each one being quite different and more powerful from the others. It is implied that Freeza's fourth form is actually his basic form, with the other three being transformations that suppress his power in order to conserve it.^[5] Although his fourth and final form is not as menacing or as large as his previous forms, Freeza is capable of boosting his power to the max, bulking him up.

Appearances

Dragon Ball

Before the start of the series, Freeza destroys Planet Vegeta out of both fear of a potential uprising by the Saiyans due to their increasing power and the prophecy of the coming of the legendary Super Saiyan. Freeza spares only Vegeta, Nappa and Raditz, offering them wealth for their loyalty. However, when Raditz's father made a final stand when Freeza destroyed Planet Vegeta, he did not notice the Saiyan's second son being sent to Earth where he became known as Goku.

Freeza makes his official appearance in the story after Vegeta's defeat on Earth at Goku's hands, having traveled to Planet Namek to find the seven Namekian Dragon Balls to wish for immortality. He and his men massacre Namekian villages one after another, until Son Gohan, Kuririn and Vegeta begin to hamper his efforts in their own way. Though Freeza manages to gain the Dragon Balls with the Ginyu Force dealing with the interlopers, his inability to speak Namekian forces him to find the Great Elder of Namek. Freeza ends up fighting Namekian warrior Nail whom he beats repeatedly until Nail reveals that their fight was only to buy time for Dende to give the words needed to activate the Namekian Dragon Balls to the warriors from Earth. With his entire army killed by Vegeta and the Ginyu Force defeated by Goku, Freeza intercepts Vegeta and the others personally.

After Freeza briefly battles Vegeta, the Saiyan Prince goads him into transforming and revealing his true power. Freeza transforms into his second form and takes on Piccolo, who has at this point fused with Nail. Although Piccolo appears to be even with him, he transforms into his third form and dominates the powerful Namekian. Following a brief tussle with Gohan, Freeza decides to transform into his final form. He kills Dende to stop him from healing the others and mortally wounds Vegeta just as Goku arrives, who just recovered following his fight with the Ginyu Force. Freeza fights Goku before critically injuring Piccolo and murdering Kuririn, which sends his opponent over the edge to assume Super Saiyan form for the first time.

Freeza starts to realize that he is outmatched and damages the core of Namek in an act of desperation with Goku managing to defeat him. Though Goku spares the crippled Freeza while leaving for his ship to escape the planet's destruction, he ends up seemingly killing Freeza when he makes a final attempt on Goku's life. But in reality, Freeza survives both the attack and Namek's explosion, drifting through space until he is found by his father King Cold (コルド大王, Korudo Daiō) and rebuilt with cybernetic prosthetics. A year later, Freeza and King Cold travel to Earth in order to exact revenge on Goku and his friends, but they are confronted by Trunks, Vegeta and Bulma's son from the future. After a brief battle, Freeza is sliced to pieces by Trunks and blasted into smithereens, with his father following shortly afterwards. Despite finally being dead, his cells are used as a catalyst for the future villain Cell.

Abilities

Freeza is capable of moving at superhuman speeds, flying, and has quick reflexes.^[6] Like most characters in the series, he can harness a supernatural energy known as Ki and manipulate it into powerful and devastating concussive beams of said energy, with which he is able to destroy planets with relative ease. Some of Freeza's signature ki techniques include the Death Beam (デスビーム, Desu Bīmu), a sharp piercing beam from his finger, and the Death Ball (デスボール, Desu Bōru), a large energy sphere he used to destroy planet Namek. He is capable of surviving in the vacuum of space, and also seems to possess some form of telekinesis, being able to lift opponents without touching them and cause them to explode.

Freeza's power is so great over time, that his body could not comfortably contain it and a series of physical transformations were developed that limit his actual strength.^[7] While changing shape from his "first-form", each alteration builds on the previous. In all, Freeza has three transformed states, each with increasing power, some larger than others and each resulting in different physical attributes.

First form

Freeza's first three forms, from right to left.

In his weakest form, Freeza is a relatively short humanoid with a large chestnut-shaped skull and two horns. He also has a tail with a spiked end, as well as having three talon-like toes.^[8] Freeza wears the same upper-body armor and shorts that many of his subordinates are shown to wear, and while traveling, often gives the appearance of weakness by exclusively using his hoverchair for transportation, leaving his henchmen to do his "dirty work". Though frail in comparison with his succeeding forms, Freeza still boasts sufficient force to destroy planets.^[9] While shifting to his next stage, Freeza breaks his battle-jacket, revealing a natural white armor covering his chest and shoulders.

Second form

His second form is much larger, both in height and muscle mass. He grows longer horns, which now instead of protruding sideways from his head curve sharply upwards into near right angles.^[10] Freeza does not have any trouble taking out Vegeta, Kuririn and Son Gohan. However, Freeza notices that Piccolo's power level is about equal to his own level, leaving Freeza with no choice but to transform again. This form largely resembles his father King Cold.

Third form

Freeza's third form is again more brutish, with an extremely elongated skull (like an Alien). His facial features contort and change, with his nose melding into his mouth to form a crude beak. His original horns recede and are now white in color, erupting in pairs along the length of his head. His tail tip, which had been cut off by Kuririn, did not regenerate and he now has a slight hunch. Although his tail was surprisingly not regenerated, the rest of his wounds disappeared as if nothing ever touched him.^[11]

Fourth form

Drastically differing from his previous transformations, in his final, true form Freeza instead regresses, becoming shorter and less bulky. His horns and spikes disappear with his physique becoming entirely streamlined and his skin is now a pure, solid white with purple sections on his head, shoulders, forearms, chest and shins. All injuries taken in other forms are healed. This is the form that allows him to release his full potential. Freeza is also able to attain 100% power of this form, his muscle mass becoming engorged compared to his previously sleek frame.^[12] This is the peak of Freeza's natural potential, and the maximum amount of power his body can output. However, to obtain this power his body is subjected to a muscle strain, which slowly lowers his energy, and slowing him down until he cannot compete with Super Saiyan Goku anymore. This transformation is therefore not suitable for prolonged combat, with Freeza trying to finish the fight as quickly as possible by destroying the planet Namek.^[13]

Mecha Freeza

After being cut in half by his own attack and being caught in Namek's huge explosion, what remains of the still-living Freeza is salvaged and rebuilt with cybernetic enhancements by scientists under the order of King Cold, this form is referred to as Mecha Freeza (メカフリーザ) in video games. The whole of the lower half of his body and right side of his face are replaced, as is his left arm from the shoulder down, with scarring and metal accoutrements covering what little was left of his organic self. It is stated that these enhancements have made him even more powerful. However, his full power is never shown, since he is easily destroyed by Trunks.^[14]

Golden Freeza

Freeza obtains another transformation in the 2015 film Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' and Dragon Ball Super. According to Freeza, his fifth transformation is achieved after undergoing intensive training for four months, enabling him to gain the strength to progress even further beyond his previous transformations by drawing out all of his latent power.^[15] In this form, Freeza's physique is similar to his previous fourth form except his skin is now a golden color as opposed to white, with purple sections on his head, chest, forearms and shins, thus he is known as "Golden Freeza" (ゴールデンフリーザ, Gōruden Furīza) in this form. This form however drains his energy much like when he used 100% of his power in his fourth form due to him not training himself further to become accustomed to the form, and thus is also unsuitable for prolonged combat, as he soon finds himself unable to compete with Goku and Vegeta in their Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan forms.

Appearances in other media

In numerous filler episodes of the anime and Dragon Ball GT, Freeza makes numerous cameo appearances, usually as comic relief, causing trouble in Hell, having somehow been permitted to keep his body despite his wrongdoings. In Hell, he is defeated and sent to prison by Goku and Pikkon along with Cell, his father and the Ginyu Force, and he is later seen watching Goku's final battle with Majin Boo in a crystal ball, comically hoping for Goku to lose. In Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, Freeza briefly escapes from Hell with an army of villains to attack Earth, but he is swiftly defeated by Gohan. In Dragon Ball GT, when Goku is sent to Hell by accident, Freeza and Cell confront him, their bodies having been rendered temporarily immortal due to the unbalance between the two worlds. Using a joint attack, Freeza and Cell send Goku to a lower level where he is frozen by a witch, but the two villains end up frozen themselves when they foolishly venture downwards to gloat at Goku. Goku accidentally breaks the ice holding Freeza and Cell and it shatters to pieces, implying that Freeza and Cell have been erased from existence. However, in a future scene, Freeza and Cell are seen being taken away in a jail cell with tape over their mouths. He appeared in a TV ad for Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, as he makes a non-speaking appearance in the film.^[16] Freeza is the main antagonist of the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' film, having been brought back to life by two of his henchmen using Earth's Dragon Balls.^[17]

He also appears in a chapter of Toriyama's Neko Majin manga, published in August 2003, which also introduces Freeza's son, Kuriza (クリーザ). He briefly appears in the 2006 Dragon Ball crossover chapter, "This is the Police Station in front of Dragon Park on Planet Namek" (こちらナメック星ドラゴン公園前派出所, Kochira Namekku-sei Dragon Kōen-mae Hashutsujo), of Osamu Akimoto's manga Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo.^[18] Freeza appears in Naho Ōishi's 2011 Dragon Ball spin-off manga Episode of Bardock, but it predominately features his ancestor Chilled (チルド). He also appears in Toriyama's 2014 Dragon Ball Minus: The Departure of the Fated Child special.^[19]

Freeza has made numerous appearances in other media. The Japanese nu metal/hardcore punk band Maximum the Hormone released the song "F" as part of a double A-side single on July 9, 2008.^[20] The entirety of the song references Freeza, with the single itself rising as high as number two on the Oricon music chart.^[21] The song was the source of reference used by Toriyama for the title of the film Fukkatsu no F and is featured in the movie.^[22] Seikima-II frontman Demon Kakka wrote and performed the song "Tada Kogoeru Elegy ~The Theme of Freeza~" (ただ凍える挽歌(Elegy)〜The Theme Of FREEZER〜) that appeared in two episodes of Dragon Ball Kai and on the 2009 Dragon Ball Kai Song Collection album.^[23]

In the manga Black Cat, the character Sven Vollfied is often seen using his cell phone with a wrist strap of a miniature-sized badge of Freeza's head.^[24] A caricature of Freeza mixed with a grey alien was parodied as a mech pilot in an episode of Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.^[25] The anime Yakitate!! Japan featured a spoof re-enactment of the fight between Goku and Freeza, with a character clad in a refrigerator representing the latter.^[26] The Cartoon Network show Codename: Kids Next Door had a parody of their own of the climactic fight and the Freeza character, with the Delightful Children From Down the Lane portraying him as a multi-headed monstrosity.^[27]

Video games

Freeza has been featured in many of the video games based on the series. Often, he's both a playable character and boss, though more frequently the latter. He is also usually able to transform into his many different forms.

Freeza appears in the Famicom game (and later Playdia remake) Dragon Ball Z Gaiden: Saiyajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku. Freeza seems to be somehow resurrected, and he and other past villains start attacking Goku and his friends. Once it's revealed these are merely ghost-warriors meant to distract the heroes, however, the false Freeza and his allies are easily dealt with. Other games highlight Freeza in alternate story paths; including those where he successfully attains immortality and goes on to threaten Earth such as Dragon Ball Z: Budokai, and Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 2 where Freeza and Cell are resurrected and controlled by Bobbidi as a distraction for the player.

Freeza also appears as a playable character in the crossover fighting games Jump Ultimate Stars, Battle Stadium D.O.N, and J-Stars Victory Vs.

Voice actors

In the original Japanese version, Freeza is voiced by Ryūsei Nakao in all media.^[28] In the PlayStation game Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout, he was voiced by Kevin Seymour in English. In the Ocean dub of the Dragon Ball Z series, he was voiced by Pauline Newstone. In the Blue Water dub of Dragon Ball GT, he was voiced by Maureen Jones. In the AB Groupe dub of Bardock – The Father of Goku, he is voiced by Ed Marcus.^[29] Freeza has been voiced by Linda Young in the Funimation dub of the Dragon Ball Z series, various video games, and other media of the series over the span of 10 years,^[30] until the role was re-cast and voiced by Christopher Ayres in Dragon Ball Z Kai (after episode 1) and all subsequent media.^[31]

Reception

Freeza was mentioned as one of the "most beloved characters" in an article by GamePro.^[32] The casting and direction of his English voices has often been criticized over the years, with IGN's Ramsey Isler writing that, coupled with the ambiguous physical features, the "old lady" voice lead to some gender confusion with fans.^[33] The Ledger's December 8, 1999 paper, names him as one of the reasons that Dragon Ball Z was listed as a violent show for children stating, "In one recent episode, beads of sweat form on the brow of a character named Vegeta, as he is nearly strangled to death by an evil foe named Freeza. In another, Freeza uses the horns on his head to impale a good guy named Kuririn through the chest." ^[34] As well as opinions on his appearance: "Little Gohan is abruptly in the icy metallic grip of one of his arch-nemeses [sic], Freeza, a silvery androgynous giant who looks like a cross between the monster in Alien and Batman's Mr. Freeze." ^[35]

References

Bibliography

• Dragon Ball Z manga, Volume 5 — ISBN 1-56931-934-0
• Dragon Ball Z manga, Volume 6 — ISBN 1-56931-935-9
• Dragon Ball Z manga, Volume 7 — ISBN 1-56931-936-7
• Dragon Ball Z manga, Volume 8 — ISBN 1-56931-937-5
• Dragon Ball Z manga, Volume 9 — ISBN 1-56931-938-3
• Dragon Ball Z manga, Volume 10 — ISBN 1-56931-939-1
• Dragon Ball Z manga, Volume 11 — ISBN 1-56931-807-7
• Dragon Ball Z manga, Volume 12 — ISBN 1-56931-985-5