Summary
- Frieza's Death Beam is iconic for its piercing power and lack of charge-up, making it a deadly and accurate attack.
- Frieza frequently uses the Death Beam to eliminate characters in Dragon Ball, showcasing his mastery over the attack.
- The Death Beam has variations like Death Laser and Death Bullet, with Golden Frieza's Great Death Beam being the strongest.
Almost every single hero and villain in the Dragon Ball franchise has come with some amazing and powerful signature attacks that are synonymous with the characters themselves. From Goku's Kamehameha to Omega Shenron's Negative Karma Ball, both the canon and non-canon spaces of the series are filled to the brim with these iconic techniques.
However, at least for the villains, no attack reaches the same level of infamy as Frieza's Death Beam. Although it isn't even his most powerful move, it is the one he has used the most over the course of his many appearances in Dragon Ball. So, let's go over the Death Beam and see why it's so iconic and such an integral part of Frieza's arsenal.
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What Is The Death Beam?
Frieza's Signature Move
|
First Appearance |
Dragon Ball Z, Episode 70, "Frieza Approaches" |
|---|---|
|
Debut Date |
December 5, 1990 |
|
Story Arc |
Namek Saga |
As Frieza's most iconic move, the Death Beam is a Ki attack that perfectly reflects its creator's cruel and sadistic nature. This is essentially a thin and highly concentrated beam of Ki that emphasizes pure piercing power, making it strong enough to thrust through anything, similar to Piccolo's Special Beam Canon. However, it's not as strong as the Namekian's signature ability, although it makes up for this with the lack of charge-up required.
As such, Frieza can shoot out the Death Beam at a moment's notice and even in rapid succession, making it an incredibly dangerous attack. Although it isn't even his strongest technique, it is definitely his most iconic and most used, as many characters have met their demise at the hand of Frieza's Death Beam!
How the Death Beam is Performed
This attack is one of the most straightforward in the entire series since it requires virtually no charge-up and can be performed instantly. To do it, Frieza simply lifts his hand and points at his target with his index finger. The Ki is then focused on the tip of his finger and fired off in a thin and straight line capable of effortlessly piercing through armor. This also makes it one of the most accurate attacks in all of Dragon Ball!
Notable Uses Of The Death Beam
The Deadly Success Rate of the Attack
As stated earlier, the Death Beam seems to be Frieza's preferred method of directly disposing of an individual, since he has been shown to kill many characters using this attack. The first time that it is used in the anime is a little after the Galactic Tyrant's introduction, where he uses it to effortlessly dispose of a random Namekian warrior, showing just how incredible his mastery over the attack is, even in his weakest form.
During the Namek Saga, Frieza also used the Death Beam to kill Dende, and yet again, when he used it to kill Vegeta after losing his composure to the Saiyan Prince's taunts. This was the perfect moment to show just how accurate the attack was, since Frieza was able to aim precisely for Vegeta's heart despite standing a good distance away from him. The Death Beam that he used here showed the deadly nature of this move as well, since it comfortably pierced through Vegeta's armor.
Don't worry, it won't hurt too bad. Really... Death is my specialty!
Frieza would use this attack again to injure Goku and Piccolo, though he was unable to kill them. However, each time he used it against Super Saiyan Goku, the Death Beam proved to be ineffective due to the gap in their power. Much later on, the attack was seen again in the hands of Perfect Cell, who used it in his fight against Gohan.
After Frieza's resurrection in Dragon Ball Super, the Death Beam continued to see frequent usage. After unlocking an even stronger transformation with Golden Frieza, the attack also saw a massive upgrade. Now, the color changed from a pinkish-purple hue to a much more notable red, which also increased its size and strength considerably. The move was used very frequently throughout all of Super and was now more of a traditional Ki wave due to the exponential increase in strength that Frieza got after unlocking his Golden form.
Variations of the Death Beam:
- Death Laser: A slightly thicker and stronger version of the attack used by Frieza and Cooler.
- Death Bullet: A version of the attack that fires a single projectile at high speeds rather than a beam. It was used by Frieza in his third and fourth forms.
- Crazy Finger Beam: A variation of Death Bullet used in Frieza's third form that sees him using both hands in rapid succession to fire off many bullets, one after another.
- Barrage Death Beam: Similar to the Death Bullet but a rapid fire of the attack from one finger. Used by Frieza and Perfect Cell.
- Great Death Beam: The strongest variation of the attack used by Golden Frieza, where he fires the beam from all fingers of both hands instead of one to create a net of Ki blasts.
Dragon Ball can be streamed on Crunchyroll.
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- Release Date
- 1989 - 1996
- Network
- Fuji TV
- Directors
- Daisuke Nishio, Shigeyasu Yamauchi, Osamu Kasai
- Writers
- Akira Toriyama, Neil Bligh, Hiroshi Toda, Katsuyuki Sumisawa, Aya Matsui, Keiji Terui, Reiko Yoshida, Toshiki Inoue
- Franchise(s)
- Dragon Ball
Cast
-
Masako NozawaSon Goku / Son Gohan / Son Goten (voice) -
Ryo HorikawaVegeta (voice)
Dragon Ball Z is a Japanese anime series produced by Toei Animation and a sequel to the 1986 Dragon Ball series. It continues the adventures of Son Goku as an adult while also paralleling the life of his son Gohan. Son Goku typically defends the Earth from villains like Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, and Majin Buu. The series is followed by Dragon Ball GT and then Dragon Ball Super.
- Creator
- Akira Toriyama
- Number of Episodes
- 291
