This fight Changed me as a kid I had never seen anything like this fight up until that point. Literally watched it over and over non stop as a kid and never got bored of it.
I’ll never forget the time 1st form Cell walked through Piccolo’s last ditch-blast. Shit’s chilling. (More so surprising. I didn’t think the power gap was THAT big.)
@@mojaxon23 nahhh, 1st form Cell. (He interrupts Picc vs #17) You had it right. Cell walked through a. Light Grenade like it was the afternoon breeze. So sick
It's kinda amazing just how critical this one fight is for the identity of the Dragonball franchise. The buildup to this fight was laid out brilliantly with all the previous conflicts on Namek and even the Saiyan Saga prior. The use of so many techniques from both Goku and Freeza is beautifully choreographed, and the display of power is arguably the best in the series. It's questionable if Dragonball would've still become the global phenomena that it is if this fight wasn't as legendary as it was, and now this is the golden standard that all other shonen manga, and even some western media, bases itself upon.
I can tell you atleast personally, I started during the raditz arc and dragonball would come on before DBZ on Tunami every evening at 6-630 or 7-730. The half hour that DB was on I would usually spend eating my dinner and being mentally anxious and bouncing off the wall in my head wishing DB would hurry the hell up so we could get on to the main event which included big blue kei blast and that bitchin golden hair/ Ora lol 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Frieza to me when i first watched it was this terrifying being. The fact that he just toys with vegeta and piccolo and krillin and gohan. It was so insane. Then he would have killed goku, literally goku got plot armor just to win. If the super saiyan was just a myth.
Best thing is that Frieza destroyed an entire race to avoid the legend of the Super Saiyan only to be responsible for the birth of Son Goku the Super Saiyan.
This is without question one of the most iconic Anime fights in history. Its easy to look back at flaws in 1980's shonen tier writing...but even still, it holds up well till this day. Which is a testament to its influence
Ugh the writing is literally worse now. Shocking that today's writing would even hold up. The only Super Saga that held up to Z's story has been the Goku Black arc.
Frieza is a perfect and iconic villain similar to Emperor Palpatine: not just evil, *delightfully* evil. He revels in his own evil and this makes him the perfect opponent for Goku
Frieza is such an S tier villain/antagonist. Not every single one of them have to be some psychological antagonist, but if he’s so bad and powerful to the point it makes the character reach new heights and transform the way Goku did, Frieza did a spectacular job.
And quite sadly he just like Palpatine also suffered the issue of Villain decay due to over exposure and constant resurrections. Z was Frieza at his best and not yet over used, Mecha Frieza was interesting and showed how desperate He was for revenge, and it was a nice way to benchmark the new level of power we will see later and it gave a cool intro to Future Trunks . Resurrection F was already pushing it in my opinion and was unneeded really. Super turned him into a Joke and overused him so much he seems not like grand evil anymore but some Saturday morning cartoon villain, And we are meant to accept that Neither Goku or Vegeta would want to get rid of for good, Frieza still goes out and conquers worlds and kills billions. It feels just wrong really.
@@RomanHistoryFan476AD lmao just shut the hell up idk where u guys come from hating on DBS all I see when I see this is I think u guys must hate original DB since DBS is eons above db but not quite DBZ tier of greatness Frieza is DBS I love it becuase it truly shows how great of a villain he is and gives him some development showing as a villain he willing to train to extract revenge
Doesn’t get anymore classic DBZ than this. This will forever be one of my favorite moments in all of animation, where a super saiyan finally awakes after a thousand years and makes the emperor of the universe shutter in fear and beg for mercy.
Because it was such a long draw up to ssj...we got to see dragon ball first before Z we watched goku go from a baby to a kid to teenager to an adult who then unlocks what was thought to be a myth or legend. It was a shock to everyone who watched it for years and years beforehand.
CONTENTS: 0:00 Introduction 1:05 Part 1: Building a Rivalry 8:06 Part 2: Testing the Limits 15:01 Part 3: The Super Saiyan 22:12 Part 4: A Clash of Destiny 26:27 Part 5: The Legacy of Goku vs Frieza
To this day even after watching countless other anime, with animation far FAR better than Goku vs Frieza, this fight still remains the number 1 for me and always will.
This fight was good because it takes things slow and you can digest everything. Plus it weight to the story. Meanwhile the Gogeta Vs broly fight was so flashy and over the top, that I cant bare watching it. The fight with the old broly is how you handle a good fight.
The longest 5 minutes in television history is one of the greatest fights ever .Despite its problems Goku VS Freeza is a masterpiece with its themes and action scenes.
Its problems go back to the fact that its a japanese anime, ya know where they keep staring at eachother and talk for way too long. In the manga the pacing is much faster, it is drawn and structured to fit in a panel and comic format.
The rest of Dragon Ball is great and I'm glad we got more arcs then and now, but if the series ended at Goku vs Frieza you can't really complain cause it's the perfect story. You really feel like everything comes full circle...
I disagree, the series could have ended with cell The buildup was perfect, Gohans hidden potential , Gohan replacing goku, The androids and the cell saga story was also fabulous
@@aaryayt7747 however then he lost to be family man and scholar so there was no purpose... He only strong now because writer gave him a magical power up not from training
All things considered, although the Buu saga is undoubtedly the “weirdest” of the three, I think all of them are ultimately needed to tell the complete story. With Frieza, the tale of Goku’s journey from young man to adult is complete. With Cell, we get the tale of him learning what it truly means to be a father. And with Buu, we get a choral tale about the value of trust and friendship with a more lighthearted tone, thus partially returning Dragon Ball to its roots for the final act of the story.
When I was 19 I was a waiter. I had a regular crew that came in daily to watch DBZ and have drinks after work. When Frieza killed Killin the entire place was dead silent. I even stopped serving to watch. When Goku turned Super Saiyan the entire place erupted. You would have thought someone just won the Super Bowl. This show is powerful.
To me, this was the fight that pushed Goku to his limits. Even my mom was watching DBZ with me and my brother back when it aired on Toonami. She made jokes about Frieza but was interested just as we were.
Cool story about this fight here: In Italy they used to air Dragonball, Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT in sequence, for over a decade, right after school time, so we would all go back home and watched it religiously, that's why Dragonball is incredibly popular in Italy. After GT finished airing, they would just reboot from either Dragonball or Dragonball Z, and repeat, for years and years, at the same exact time. I've watched the show during my entire school period, primary, middle and high school. Goku transforming into super Saiyan was just the most important moment of the show for everyone. I remember one year in high school, I was a student representative and I had to attend an important meeting. I came up late and everyone was like WHY ARE YOU SO LATE, DON'T KNOW THIS IS IMPORTANT? And I was like: sorry, Goku turned Super Saiyan in today's episode
I had been watching DBZ since the Saiyan arc was in syndication but it was this fight and that made me an absolute maniac for the franchise. Watching Goku go SS for the very first time on Toonami - the first time they ever aired that episode - wow, I’m so glad I experienced that.
This is....without a doubt.... T H E B E S T fight in all of anine...and even in the movies....💯 over the entire arc start to finish when Goku begins to actually fight Frieza.... Especially in the raw Japanese version with no cuts or alterations...when blood is heavily prevalent... NO QUESTION.....BEST FIGHT OF ALL TIME...💯💯💯
@@kyledea187mdkjr5 booo!!! the extended fight scenes in its entirety is essential to how incredible it was...💯 the elongated stare downs and additional timing between the sections of actual battle are absolutely essential in building the overall length and context of how epic this fight actually was...💯
For over 20 years, this was the longest fight. It was awesome and jaw dropping back and forth action from start to finish. It’s crazy how it was only til Luffy vs Katakuri, again over 20 years later, where it took over as the longest fight in the history of anime. I think we should see a in-depth of Gohan vs Cell now following this one
I love that SSJ goku has sharp speech bubbles instead of rounded, just like every villain has in DBZ. So when in SSJ, goku was a stone cold killer like them.
One of my former co-workers from a job I used to work at put Goku Vs Frieza simply like this: "The reason Frieza hates Goku is because Goku is the only person that made Frieza actually have to TRY." Which I completely agree with since all Frieza's life; he's never had to put much effort into a fight before Goku.
When my mum injured her shoulder and had to recover at home in 2000, I took that chance to show her DBZ and we came to watch all of DB in its various series, and she became a fan. One thing she mentions is how Goku walked forward fearlessly towards Frieza that first time before their battle. An excellent and timeless battle, always!
Great video! Like a lot of people, this fight is the pinnacle of DBZ for me. The first episode where they battle, and then "Pathos on Freeza" are some of the best animated sequences in the entire series. Absolutely love it.
I know how you feel. I want a medium of art to influence me again. I want to feel something inside of me, but i guess in the mean time i can reexperience the stuff that has influenced me. Hunter x hunter was a great watch and i didn't see that until a while back
Goku's acceptance of his Saiyan heritage is the key to his UI as well. That's what Whis was telling him in the end of the last Maga Chapter. "Who are you" -Whis
I think the extremely long fight was what made anime so popular in the west. Everyone had a chance to get in to the series with all our friends talking about it instead of one amazing 2 episode fight and ending.
I’ll always appreciate the funimation dub for getting me into dragon ball but I’ve grown to respect Kai for being more accurate to the manga. Another excellent video from you geekdom
This is the fight that actually got me into dragonball my friends at school was onabout dragonball so I went home and said to my mom I wanted to watch dragonball z I put it on and never looked back I've now been a HUGE db fan for around about 20 years this fight will always bring me nostalgia I've just recently watched the whole goku vs freiza fight again and it still gave me the same feeling as it did all those years back
For me it's simply the greatest clash in all of anime and in the hall of fame of human fiction. My personal favourite fight in the whole Dragon Ball franchise 👌🏿
I just realized why Kales ssj is different. The original is based off anger. Kale is jealous. Jealousy caused her to lose control like that and it's stronger because it's more based on hatred. This explains the greenish tint to her hair
I'd have to disagree. Gokus was WAYYY more based on hatred than kales, he legit just watched his best friend get blown to bits infront of his face and murdered many namekians he was furious,pissed,hatred wasn't even the right word... Kale was a lil jelly cause her sis (best friend not biological) was fighting without her cause she wasn't strong enough...that's nothing compared to what goku was going through IMO despite the fact the entire universe was on the line. Because they never really mentioned or cared about that they just wanted to fight (atleast caulifla anyways)
This fight was also great metaphor for two different paths to power, one of ego, and one of genuine love for growth, and why one is not only more moral but also the path with the higher ceiling. Ego rests on laurels, love does not.
@@ludwigtheholyblade_777 ...MUTHAGUKA!!!!... YOU MADE ME SPIT OUT MY MT. DEW AND RUIN MY BRAND NEW PHONE.... ...YOU COMPLIMENT JUST COST ME A COUPLE HUNDRED DOLLARS...!!! 😆😅😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
Geekdom! That wasn't a bad video! One thing that stuck out to me was how you described frieza under pressure, in it made think of a quote by ROBERT MCKEE which says ." True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure, the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice of the character essential nature" goku was a true warrior at heart, in frieza a true slime and coward! Thanks for the video
It was different from any other fights on many levels. Took me some time to appreciate it, Goku had showed mercy before but this was deeper, he had every reason and plenty of opportunities to kill Frieza and chose to let him live, whereas Frieza would rather risk death by blowing Namek up, if it meant the pesky monkey would die. Edit - my favourite part of the fight is a bit after Goku goes SSJ and plays a bit of cat-and-mouse with Frieza just to prove he is way faster than him. Frieza's fear is tangible, he teleports quickly, hides behind a rock and Goku is already there 🤣😎
oh my gawd.... watching this arc from week to week hanging on every single episode one at a time was sooooo fustrating...but i watched it every episode with complete rewarding fullfilment after it was all said and done....💯
One thing I noticed in this fight was Goku before becoming a super Saiyan he preferred to fight on the ground cuz he's a martial artist but when he became a super Saiyan he quickly took the fight to the air and used ki blasts like Saiyans
Well I never forgot how epic and influential this fight is. It's always been my favorite of the DB franchise. Yeah, I prefer the manga's pacing over the anime filler (excluding Goku's SS transformation, of course), but that aside it still ranks at the top for me. And of course it served as the culmination of the epic story between the Saiyan Saga and Frieza Saga, which has always been the best of DBZ in my opinion (sorry to all you fans who prefer the Cell Saga).
i really think you skipped over a key difference in the transformation. The scream in the anime vs the sudden snap in the manga. I think these are key changes that change the SSJ transformation itself. Not to mention the music
@@jasonone8726 manga no but that's the point there was a scream in the anime vs no scream in the manga and it affects how people view the scene and transformation.
I remember reading this part of the story over and over again in my local library which had the goku vs freeza volumes. The SSJ transformation never gets old.
Also the number of techniques Frieza had in his arsenal was ridiculous to me during this fight. Goku only had the Kamehameha Wave, Spirit Bomb and Kaioken before SSJ and still whooped that ass
When you first saw Dragon Ball Z Frieza versus Goku on Planet Namek it was just an epic all the fights before that we're good but that fight was exceptionally great personally I would compare that fight to like when yusuke toguro or Ichigo fighting Aizen Naruto fight Pain or Madara
God tier fight. The impact of the hits, Moves we never seen from neither one of the them again The pure brutality of the fight (especially once Goku turned Super Saiyan) Love this fight
Two minor corrections: 4:45 Kaio-sama's English translated title is the Lord of Worlds. Lord of Lords is what the Viz manga uses as a translation for Kaioshin. 19:54 He did accept it prior though. He had no problem referring to himself as a Saiyan when Kaio noted his planet has the same level of gravity as the Saiyan's homeworld and also referred to himself as a Saiyan raised on Earth when fighting Butta and Jheese. What he hadn't accepted, however, was pride at his Saiyan heritage and embracing his Saiyan nature without any pretences. Though he asked Vegeta to lend him some Saiyan pride after his death and then said he'd defeat Freeza for all the Saiyans, it was after his Super Saiyan transformation that he truly embraced these values and merged them with his own tenants of budo. Another thing worth noting about Super Saiyan Goku, particularly brought out by Nozawa's performance in the anime, is this fight being one of the few cases where Goku acts pretentious and patronising with him making it clear he wants to tarnish Freeza's pride, fully showing Freeza elicited a personal grudge from Goku beyond any other villain in the franchise. What gets lost in translation is a character change that comes from the physical change of Super Saiyan. Goku always uses the informal "Ora" to refer to himself, but uses the proper "Ore" when in Super Saiyan in this fight and against 19, with him only using "Ora" in this form after mastering and fully making the form part of him in the Room of Spirit and Time.
Funny thing is I’m at this part and was bringing it up to myself also to add your point about accepting his heritage he tells Kuririn that it might be his Saiyan blood and that’s why he wants to spare Vegeta so he accepted it but Vegeta gave him a sense of saiyan pride on Namek
@@sincere0727 There is that, though it is worth noting that the tenants of his budo (that retroactively became tied to his Saiyan traits) did influence him in similar ways such as him being excited by the prospect of facing strong foes all throughout the series and his sparing of Piccolo being partially influenced by his desire for a strong opponent. This is likely a major reason why he only says it might be his Saiyan blood influencing his decisions rather than fully accepting it as the primary reason.
Thanks for the captions, it's the only way I can enjoy your "dragonball in deaf" series. Also, when you said this fight is analogous to white slave owners vs slaves, I shed a tear with my wife's black son. It was a beautiful moment, such a big-brained take!
The build up from the original dragon ball helped with this fight as well. Seeing Goku as a kid grow up, learn about his heritage, and live up to it is great tale.
I’m probably one of the few people that liked that it dragged on for an eternity. The length of the fight is what always draws me back to it from time to time and I have to watch the uncut dub with Faulconer score when I do. That said I will watch the Kai version soon with my son and eventually the original Japanese. Onto the length though I felt that it was appropriately spaced for different stages of the battle. It gave us Goku, who had previously stomped the Ginyu force, at a higher level than he’s ever been facing off against the ultimate bad guy. It starts off with the two just warming up and gauging each other though Frieza is definitely holding back significantly. As the battle wages on Goku ends up discarding the orange top of his Gi and we see hints of visible damage to his clothes as well as some dust/“bruising” on his body while Frieza remains relatively clean throughout. Frieza jumps it up to 50% and Goku is utterly wrecked for the duration of the fight with brief moments where he’s able to rise back up and have a chance. I personally love everything up until the Super Saiyan transformation and the pauses with the Faulconer score where they just stare each other down sticks with me to this days. After the transformation the battle takes it to a whole other level and now Goku has tipped the scales yet Frieza isn’t just quickly beaten and disposed of because of this. I love this fact and dislike this about some other series - the hero gets the power up, overwhelms the bad guy and either obliterates them or let’s down their guard resulting in being depowered. I’m fine with Gohan’s SSJ2 stomping Cell but for some series it’s over now that the hero’s unlocked their powerup. Anyways back to Goku and Frieza...another element about this fight other than the amazing design of SSJ shirtless and bloodied Goku is the crumbling planet around them. Turns into a real hellscape especially in the later half of the fight with Full Power Frieza. The ending is satisfying too in that it’s shocking how it came into play - I thought a beam struggle or some powerful attack would have finished it but it was Frieza’s own doing which was masterfully told his character arc in this fight. Knocked down from his prime and desperately resorting to tricks and his absolute bloodlust desire to kill Goku. All that aside I’m curious - Do people just generally not like long fights? I hold a lot of fights up to this one or similar lengthy battles and if they’re over and done with in 10-15 minutes I feel kind of cheated on the conflict. I love multi episode fights especially when it comes to the final villain of a saga/arc/season. Super didn’t tend to have much of this save for multiple battles between Goku Black/Zamasu and the heroes. Some other animes typically only go for 2-3 episodes tops before conclusion. There’s a few I’ve seen that push higher episode counts on the final fight and those I’m the biggest fan of. If I ever get around to writing/illustrating my story via a comic I definitely want the final battles against Part villains to be lengthy ordeals. I can already see myself taking inspiration from this fight and others I’ve seen in creating it. My mind already has a picture of how I want it to go but damn if people don’t like long fights am I really doing it for anyone other than myself?
This is one of the best fights in DBZ. The "this planet will explode in 5 minutes" and it take like 10 or 25 episodes never bothered me. I just go by no one can tell time in the DB universe. XD
I tuned in every day after school, from actually crying tears when Vegeta gives his speech to Goku on how he needs to make Freiza pay for everything he's done, to Goku showing Frieza mercy but still getting cut into pieces because of his shit thought process. It blew me away as a kid and made me a life long fan of the franchise
The Greatest Anime fight of all time everything was planned out perfectly and it blew my mind when Goku went ssj yet Frieza went 100% and still kept up and the blow for blow war ensued until Goku won
no other villain in all of dragon ball (correct me if im wrong) ever got the treatment that frieza got, a fight so carefully built up, because it was far from “oh you’re strong let’s fight” there was motivation for the encounter between both main characters of the saga, at some point got me thinking of how everything was leading to this moment, the whole life story of goku following the destiny it was meant to, but we do know that toriyama went with the flow, but oh god what a way to create as you go, this has got to be one of the best anime fights and i doubt anything else will top it off.
Dbz Kai best adaptation Chris Ayer’s (rip) did a phenomenal job as playing frieza and Sean schemmel in his prime voice acting as goku. can’t forget “i am the super saiyan son goku!!!!!!” Sent chills down my spin when I was 11-12
Still my favorite fight after everything we have seen in Dragon Ball. The build up to Goku finally becoming Super Saiyan, and Freiza finally getting his ass handed to him.
This battle made such an overwhelming impact on my childhood imagination. I was 4 years old screaming "KA-ME-HA-ME-HAAAA!!!!" and throwing paper balls. So glad I experienced this masterpiece.
Watching this when it first aired on Toonami in the 90s was a true experience. You only got one episode per day, and if you missed it you had to wait until the story wrapped back around to that same spot over a year later. If these episodes were available on the internet, none of my friends knew about it. We would talk about the story every day at lunch, so hype to see the next episode.
I mean, the whole arc with Frieza felt like the culmination of years and years of training put to the test against the most powerful evil known in the galaxy. Everything Goku had learned, from his childhood to Namek, came to fruition in this struggle for survival. It felt like the final battle. Two mighty warriors battling on a dying planet. The steaks had never felt higher. I don't think the Frieza arc will ever be outdone. It was just so well written and wrapped up the story of Goku nicely.
i had the vhs of goku turning super saiyan as a kid. I used to rewind and watch that episode and over until i had the entire episode memorized lol. It changed my life
awwe man...i had a friend who managed to procure a shitty ass bootleg version (which was like 6 cds bootleg recordings from most likely a terrible conversation from vhs of the full Japanese no subtitle version, where the quality was sooooo grainy you could barely make anything out. we were able to watch Goku go SSJ for the first time many weeks if not months before it aired on Toonami...🤘 i still have those cds in an old NES rental case from some video store....still got it....still awesome!!!!🤘💯
3:04 I m so so so happy that someone talked about this. Even as a kid i loved the scene of gohan krillin hiding in cave when frieza force ran through them from above the sky. The build up was so good
It was the first boss fight I ever watched when Dbz Kai first aired. So around that time is when I started dragon ball. Before then I actually didn't dragonball lol now it's an addiction. I do love the frieza fights though. Just frieza not my favorite. Some fights individually against frieza are my top 10 though. Especially goku prior to when it dragged on. Like before everyone Got teleported off of namek. Once it was ssj goku and frieza. It just got annoying in the original. Dbz kai was fine. Dbz remastered music the best though. Vegeta theme song just perfect
“Freeze must die by Saying hands!” That got me pumped. And to think Freeza was embarrassed and destroyed by the prince of the Syans son in the end. Great fight and surprising epilogue.
27:23 calling the literal monkey guy who turns into a blonde, blue-eyed super-person an analogy for African slaves rising up against their white enslavers is a very bizzare take that honestly comes off as kinda unintentionally racist.
Always going to be one of the most Goated moments in anime history happened with that battle. Haters will disagree but it’s an absolute fact. Such a beautiful moment that will remain in our hearts and minds for years to come.
Goku vs Freeza is a metaphor for the regular Joe with heart fighting an almost invincible foe. Yes DBZ had A LOT of filler but some filler was really good for this saga. The filler parts where vegeta, Nappa and Raditz shown taking orders from Freeza, vegeta planning to rebel and immediately after Freeza being defeated Vegeta hooping from Freeza conquered planets looking for signs of Goku. It honestly helps the lore of how expensive Freezas grasp was on the universe and how every alien believed freeza to be the top dog.
This is the greatest 1v1 fight I have ever seen in all media. So many stories have a backstory about these grand ancient battles in the past where the Gods or Titans clashed and shook the world. But it's just that: backstory. Goku vs Freeza was the first time I remembered *seeing* something of that scale actually play out. The length was simply part of that. Of course a battle between the most powerful beings ine the universe would not be short. Goku vs Freeza is not just epic in the modern slang use of the term but *Epic* in the classical sense too, in the same way real life Ancient Myrhs and Legends are referred to as grand *Epics*
25:49 I like the “at least for a little while”. Future Trunks is one of my favorite characters because he almost never lost sight of what was at stake. Cutting up Frieza and blowing the bits to ash is one of the most metal things in DBZ.
Hey Geekdom, well done my dude. This video is honestly one of my favorite pieces of your work. It was brilliantly made. With the release of DBS: SuperHero, would you consider a similar video for the Gohan vs Cell and the Cell games?
I think one of the things that is very confronting for Goku is that when he spared oponnents like piccolo or vegeta he got the impression everyone can be redeemed. Once he learned that freeza couldn't he still didn't have what it took to finish him off. But once he came back from yardrat while noticing he would have been too late to save his friends cause of him showing mercy he decided he wasn't fit to be earth's protector so started searching for a successor in the android/cell saga.
Great video Geekdom! Hands down this fight still is the most legendary animated fight of all time. Goku going SSJ for the first time probably is the most globally recognized moment in anime history. The entire build up from the Saiyan saga till this moment pretty much has never been topped by any anime, the cell saga is probably the closest thing to this. Just goes to show how brilliant Toriyama's mind was when he wrote the DBZ manga.
While I always loved this fight, this video made me want to rewatch it and even gained some more respect for Revival of F due to the information in this which further explains Frieza and what what happens in RoF
