…………………………………Yeah. I didn’t want to use something cliche like “Back in Black” or anything like that, but also wanted to make sure that it told you that he’s back and stronger than ever before. So now we’re right back to where we were when the Z portion of the series. He says like spoilers and the official haven’t come out since he started writing this. Yeah, Frieza’s back on top again. I don’t know what’s gonna happen next, but I do know that they’re gonna need a plan of attack. At least I would hope they’re smart enough to think of something like that. Dragon Ball Super Chapter 87: “The Universe’s Strongest Appears.”
REVIEW
Picking up where the last chapter left us: Granolah- with the help of the Saiyans- manages to defeat Gas and stop the Heeter’s. Or so they think, as we’ll see in a minute. Whatever the case; the attack took up a healthy portion of Granolah’s lifespan- which wasn’t very long after his that wish of his, as he explains to Goku and Vegeta. As they speculate how much time Gas should have left; Monaito comes up to try and heal Granolah. Because he just so happened to “Strengthen” his healing powers to the point where he can heal the(until recently) “Strongest Warrior In The Universe” to Full Health after using his powers a bunch in 1 day. Because that’s how healing powers in this series have ALWAYS worked.
With the enemy now magically at full health; Elec blames Gas’ failings on the Dragon Balls and tries to make his escape- ditching his siblings to save himself. Goku calls him out on his cowardly behavior, but Elec doesn’t want to listen; he says that “Gas Will-” and then gets cut off when someone shoots Monaito through the f*ckin’ back. Gas is back up, and he’s stronger than he was before- but he’s also decaying more and more than before. To the point where, while fighting him; Goku and Vegeta’s attacks- even when they connect(and they connect a Vast Majority of the time)- don’t even register to Gas. And these attacks are taking of flesh. He’s so “into” his own power that he’s completely unaware of the damage being done to his body- even flying through his own attack unprotected just to hit the Saiyans!
Meanwhile; Granolah tries to keep Monaito alive. But the old man is more than ready to go; Granolah’s all grown up now, and he’s learned an important lesson- “he’s got no regrets.” Goku and Vegeta keep fighting the Zombie to no aveil, which makes Elec very happy. But Maki and Oil don’t want this; they see what Gas is doing to himself, and more importantly- what Elec is making him do. So they tell Elec to stop this. So he slaps Maki, and reminds them that there “is no next time” for Gas- his life is about to run out. He’s been gradually getting older and dying since the wish was made, as was necessary to make to make him the “Strongest In The Universe.” And then it finally hits Gas what’s happening to him. He looks at his reflection in the lake; he sees his face falling apart. No time to take it in, though- Frieza Finally Shows Up.
When the Evil Emperor Of The Universe drops into the scene; the whole battlefield stops and looks in awe. But he ain’t here just to flex on everyone- he’s here on “business.” He got a call from Elec that Gas wants to speak with him. So Gas tells him flat out: “I’M GONNA KILL YOU!!!” He forgets all about what’s happening to his body, and leaps at Frieza head on. Frieza puts his hand through his chest and Gas disintergrates. Very Gruesome scene, honestly- it’s actually one of Toyotaro’s better moments making this manga. Perfectly violent without being overly edgy, and keeping in the character of Frieza. Nice one. Especially with Frieza crushing his skull.
With that all said and done, Frieza turns his attention to Elec to find out what this “business” is. Elec tries to lies his way out of the situation, but Frieza- being the “Evil Emperor” and all- sees through Elec’s bullcr@p. He knew all about the Heeter’s plotting against him; he just let them work under him for 40 years ’cause they were “useful.” I mean, it’s not like they were ever a “threat-“ especially Elec. “Evil Emperor Of The Universe” people- Nothing Goes On That He Isn’t Aware Of. As such; he knew about their plan, and about Elec being the weakest one among them(as I’m sure we all suspected). It comes as a surprise to Maki and Oil, and it p!sses off Elec enough that he actually tries attacking Frieza!! He is then properly disposed of. That’s 2 and he JUST got here.
Frieza then looks past Maki and Oil to see the 2 people he despises most in the Universe standing beaten. Goku asks how he was able to defeat Gas so casually. Vegeta explains to him the wish that was made, and Frieza is surprised……. Sort Of. You See: Frieza was not in the Universe when the wish was made. A distant, conquered planet of his held a doorway to another dimension- a dimension where time “flowed differently” in comparison to ours. His own “Hyperbolic Time Chamber.” In that room; he trained for 10 WHOLE YEARS, and leveled up to keep up with the Saiyans. Ladies and Gentlemen- I present to you the Strongest Warrior In The Universe: BLACK Frieza.
You can probably guess what he does next. But just for fun: He kicks their @$$e$ up and down Cereal. Okay, it’s just the 1 hit- but know that it looks like it hurt. Now that they know what he can do; he considers his business on Cereal finished. But then he remembers something: His ship needs a chef and a waiter. He “offers” the job to Maki and Oil, and they accept. Off they go.
With their @$$e$ thoroughly kicked; they can only limp over to where Granolah and Monaito are. It looks like this is gonna be it for Monaito. Whis Ex Machina. Monaito is healed up, and the typical end of arc stuff. Beerus doesn’t know how to heat up instant ramen so they gotta go do that. They offer Granolah training under Whis, but he declines- he wants to look for the Dragon balls to undo all the damage done to Cereal during the battle. After they do that; Monaito sees it fit to seal these Dragon balls away for good. Vegeta gives Granolah the Dragon Radar(because he so had it on him this whole time), and Monaito hands over Bardock’s scouter to Goku- something to always remember his father by.
As they prepare to leave; Vegeta tells Granolah to stop by Earth if he ever wants to “do battle with a Saiyan.” Granolah says he’ll take him up on the offer- and win. The Saiyans leave with Whis, and talk about the Oracle Fish’ prophetic dream. They now think that he was talking about Frieza, but Whis says they may have cropped up elsewhere in the Universe. As such; Goku and Vegeta want to get right back to training- after eating Yakisoba. Dragon Ball Super Chapter 87 END!! Dragon Ball Super Will Be Going On Hiatus To Plan For The Next Arc. If you can do everything that the Moro arc did without the ending, fix the pacing from this arc, and deliver us a Decent, Quality story- Take the next 2 Years For All I Care. I……. I don’t mean that, but yeah- take as long as you need!
Analysis
…………… There’s a lot that I want to say about this chapter- about this arc in general. I am working on an arc review, so the series going on hiatus actually kind of works in my favor- I’m not in any sort of hurry to get that out before the next arc starts. I don’t think it’ll come back this year. Or, at the very least; not until December. I suspect they’ll give us some sort of teaser at Jump Festa, because they only said they’ll announce what it’ll be sometime in September……….. I think. I also forgot the Jump Festa is in December.……….. Ignore me for a minute…………..
POINT IS: That review will come out sooner rather than later(along with the review for “Super Hero”). As for THIS chapter…………. I actually like it more now than I did first reading it. In large part due to the the mere presence of Frieza. Come on- THIS WAS PRETTY METAL.
You can’t deny that Frieza made this chapter better! His dialogue; his entrance; the way he DOMINATED the battlefield- All of It Cool. Just focus on that for a minute; did you guys pick up on the parallel to what happened on Namek? The way he came onto the scene a direct parallel to Goku when he got out of that Healing Chamber; the way he turned back at them after he knocked them flat; even the way he begins to leave. Toyotaro is- like you and I- a fan of Toriyama’s work. Sometimes to the detriment of the story- sometimes just cute little nods that fans will pick up on every now and then. The imagery in this chapter was an example of references not being “story critical;” he didn’t just retread old moments to trigger the Member berries- it was just something he threw in because he’s a fan. More of this- less of that other thing.
And yeah; Frieza really did save this arc’s ending, I feel. I was certainly surprised with how far the imagery with Gas was allowed to go(but then; the manga’s always been a bit more “graphic” than the anime- even back with Z era), and it was a shock that he even got back up. I really did think that the “Battle” portion of the arc was over last month, and this month’s chapter would give us a full wrap up, leading into the next arc. So color ME surprise that Gas got back up an continued to fight, now stronger than ever. It made me unsure of how this arc would end- would it be an “immense power up” for Granolah, Goku, or Vegeta. In my mind; that was the ONLY thing that could happen. And then Frieza showed up. I didn’t get it at the time, but I now think I know what Frieza was to this arc.
Frieza arriving like this tells me that they had an “idea” for how the arc would end. But the longer that it went on; the less and less likely Toyotaro felt that he’d be able to end it the way he wanted. Whether or not this was due to the postponement of the movie is anyone’s guess, but the arc definitely started “spinning its wheels” at some point- probably around chapter 81 or so when the Heeter’s “Instincts” were introduced. I don’t think they planned a lot of that. CERTAINLY Bardock and Gas’ history, but not that part.
Frieza was always a part of this arc- just not physically. He was more like the “mcguffin-” the thing that Granolah and Gas- the Central Characters in this arc- strove for. Him coming back into the story probably wasn’t intended to happen until the next arc, depending on how they chose to do with Gas. If Gas had lived, then this probably would have happened- just not in this arc. Gas died, and Frieza would have killed Elec and given Maki and Oil the same fate. An “idea” that came about, but not as was intended- if that makes sense. But Frieza essentially taking the initiative to do scenario 1 was Toyotaro’s way of……….. “cleaning up.”
He took out the actually threat in Gas and the “Master Planner” Elec, and then reduced Maki and Oil to his personal chefs. He took out the main villains and made their lackey’s his, and put them in an even lower position than they were before. He got rid of the problem, and insured that the remaining 2 wouldn’t be of any sort of threat. Or so he thinks. Remember from chapter 71: Maki and Oil specifically went to Lord Zuno to ask questions. Because he was attracted to Maki, they were given 10 Questions opposed to Bulma’s 3. We don’t know what those questions were. But THEY do. And they just have that knowledge sitting there to do with as they pleased. Which Frieza could use for himself. Or dispose of them if they ever try to use that knowledge against him. 1 or the other.
Black Frieza. I HAVE to say something about that. I know I’m praising Frieza a lot this time around, but I cannot stress enough how much better he’s been since coming back for the Tournament of Power. He’s like the old Frieza, but with a level of character development that’s putting his seemingly LIMITLESS potential to use!! Can you IMAGINE if Frieza had trained lightly every day leading up to Namek? Or even just every other day? He wouldn’t have needed to take his second form even if Goku had went Super Saiyan 2.
It was revealed that he actually chose to make his new form Golden in “Resurrection F” to mock the Super Saiyan transformation. Could he have chosen Black this time around to mock them Saiyan’s in general? That’s just something I think he did on purpose. Though something else I could talk about is that he didn’t take the opportunity to kill Goku and Vegeta- once again; THE 2 PEOPLE IN THE MULTIVERSE THAT HE HATES THE MOST– on the spot. Had this been “Resurrection F” Frieza- or even Namek Saga Frieza- he’d have done without blinking. But no; he didn’t even hit them multiple times- he just punched em square in the guts and left. He wasn’t trying to “kill” them; just make sure they knew: He’s Back On Top. An action that he will OH SO VERY MUCH REGRET in the future, but a sign of growth and maturity. He’ll get them later, I’m sure. Perhaps he’s trying to become stronger than either Fusion so he can kill them both at once? Eh, probably not; he probably wants to watch them both suffer individually so he can keep the mental image in his mind forever. It’s still Frieza……………..
For all the “Good” that I can say about this chapter- That Thing With Monaito SUCKED. “I used my powers so much that they leveled up?” Look: I SUPPOSE 1 could look at it as a type of “training………..” I guess. As with anything you do- driving; swimming; cooking; running- the more he did it; the better he got at it. In terms of how things work- it makes sense. Except Healing Powers Were Never ONCE stated to work like that in the context of “Dragon Ball.” If that WERE the case, then Dende should be able to heal characters like Beerus, Jiren, Broly, Goku, Vegeta, and Granolah like that(he says like you can hear or even see him snap his fingers). But even with the Sound(ish) logic; it’s still PRETTY DARN CONVENIENT that he was able to do that as Granolah was dying right there. Who then proceeded to do nothing the entire chapter.
Like, seriously. I would have thought that he’d slip back into his “old” habits for a minute there. These are things that he JUST started getting over- something that’s still taking Vegeta- his thematic counterpart- over 2 decades to realize he needed to. And then the object of his hatred- the person that sent the Saiyans to Cereal in the first place. This is the person he LEAPT at the chance to get revenge on. Right there. But we don’t even get a moment of him looking over at Frieza hatefully. He just sticks by Monaito the whole time. I don’t know if you guys are getting what I’m saying; I just feel like it was a missed character opportunity.
Conclusion
…………………….. I think that’s all, folks. I’ve said all that I wanted to, really. It was a better chapter than I remember it being. The arc had a few problems- a lot of them being to pacing(which is a problem in and of itself)- but it wasn’t………. bad. I certainly like the ending more than the Moro arc, but I’ve given that arc enough sh!t. And really it was that one thing; the rest was pretty cool. Though that was also a case of Toyotaro’s “fanboy” showing in a negative light, too. I’ll dive into all of this and more when my Arc review comes out.
Let me know your own thoughts in the comments, people. Until next we meet; Have A Magically Wonderful Day. By~~~~e!!
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