Frieza - Character Overview

Character Overview

Frieza is an alien, introduced 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 Shonen Jump magazine on November 6, 1989. Here he is portrayed as a powerful galactic overlord on a personal mission for immortality and conquest. He is said to control seventy-nine or more planets. Frieza creates armies from the planets that he conquers, his most utilized race were the Saiyans. Frieza had heard about the legend of the Super Saiyan, a being with unrivaled power, but dismissed it as simple mythology; however, after several Saiyans emerged with rapidly evolving strength, Frieza began to fear that the legend would indeed come true, so as a result, destroyed the entire Saiyan race, along with their home planet, Vegeta. His actions and lust for power eventually bring him into conflict with the heroes of the series when he learns of the wish-granting Dragon Balls on Planet Namek from Vegeta's scouter and tries to take possession of them alongside his henchmen Zarbon and Dodoria, plus his special mercenaries, the Ginyu Force. Frieza's fears were realized when he was defeated by Goku, who in turn had become a Super Saiyan.

His character would return shortly thereafter, having survived the encounter with Goku but had been left with multiple metal prosthetics as a result of lost limbs/organs. Though accompanied to Earth by his father, King Cold, Frieza is unable to avenge his loss. Frieza and his father are killed with relative ease by a newcomer to the series: the half-Saiyan time traveler, Trunks. Blood sample taken before his ultimate fate would later become a catalyst for the next arc's featured villain, Cell, a warrior genetically engineered to be "perfect".

Toei Animation would continue to make use of the character in their anime adaptation, with Frieza making brief cameo appearances during later episodes of the series, animated features and Dragon Ball GT. He is last referenced in the manga as a measure of the strength of the four Supreme Kais, as "each of whom could have felled Frieza in one blow". In Toriyama's self-parody of his earlier work, Neko Majin Z, Frieza sends Vegeta, serving as his henchman, on errand to retrieve his missing son, Kuriza, on Earth.