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Akira Toriyama has created one Erath-shattering villain after another inDragon Ball, but very few of them can come close to the influence of Frieza. First introduced inDragon Ball Z, Frieza has continued to bless fans with his presence multiple times throughout the franchise’s run.
No matter how many times he gets defeated or humiliated, Frieza just returns for more. It almost seems like the character has found his one true love in Goku and simply can’t stop stalking the character. But no matter how much Frieza is glorified, the inspiration behind his existence is darker than his motives.
Akira Toriyama created Frieza after the worst kind of people
Akira Toriyamacreated several powerful villains inDragon Ball, who Goku defeated one by one. But once Goku and co. became the most powerful entities on Earth, Akira Toriyama had to resort to intergalactic criminals. After even the Saiyans were defeated, the author came up with his masterpiece, Frieza.
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But the inception of Frieza should not be undermined. He isn’t just a villain that the mangaka cooked up all of a sudden. Instead, he is based on Toriyama’s idea of some of the worst people, land sharks. Inan interview, he revealed:
I came up with Freeza around the time of the Bubble2, and the land shark was the worst person of all. So I made him the #1 land shark in the universe.
Frieza debuted in theDragon Ballmanga series in 1989, in the era of Japan’s bubble economy. The bubble economy of the 1980s was an era marked by a tremendous soar in Japanese equity and real estate markets. Land prices in Japan increased with no checks in place and real estate agents or land sharks used this to their advantage.
These land sharks intimidated property owners into selling their lands and often employed unfair and illegal practices to get what they wanted. Oftentimes, thugs were involved and these land sharks took advantage of the booming real estate market and tried to buy as much land as possible so they could be sold at steep prices.
Frieza isDragon Ball‘s version of a land shark
Apart from hounding Goku and co. everywhere possible and showing up in new transformations; what exactly is Frieza’s day job? Turns out, he is actually in the business of acquiring and selling planets. Frieza is the leader of an intergalactic empire. He conquers planets and destroys their natural species before selling them for profit.
His actions are similar to the real estate agents during the Japanese economic bubble who would often take illegal steps to get the property they wanted. In the same way, Frieza almost extinguishes the Saiyans in order to acquire Planet Vegeta. Turns out, Akira Toriyama successfully took the worst of humanity to create his most iconic villain.
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The design of Frieza is also an amalgamation of what Toriyama thought monsters looked like during his childhood. Thus, Frieza was a well-thought-out character whose popularity only increased with the rise ofDragon Ball.
Dragon Ballmanga is available to read on Viz Media, and the anime is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Aaheli Pradhan
Anime Content Writer
Articles Published :1556
Aaheli is an Anime Content Writer at FandomWire with 1300+ published articles. With five years of experience under her belt, she is a living, breathing encyclopedia for anime and manga. From Shonen and Shojo to the most niche anime, nothing escapes her radar. Her poisons of choice are Assassination Classroom, Gintama, Ouran High School Host Club and every Ghibli movie ever. She believes in living a slow life, surrounded by incomplete art projects and her beloved cats.
