An image that's been floating around recently has the facial expression of Goku after he defeats Frieza for the first time. In the anime he just looks angry, but in the manga he looks... sad? Why would Goku feel sad for Frieza after everything?
I’ve been sitting on this one because I wanted to post the images for comparison, but I could never find them both on the internet. So tonight I finally bought DBZ volume 12 on Comixology, then used my Funimation subscription, and voilà!
I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen the two images side-by-side, but I’ve noticed the difference ever since I read the manga. The lines on Goku’s face are only slightly different, but it marks a drastic shift in Goku’s expression. In the anime, he’s clearly livid. But in the manga, he looks much more conflicted. Also noteworthy is the fact that the anime showed Goku facing forward for this shot, while the panel from the manga has him looking over his shoulder as he turns to leave. It just goes to show how the anime and the manga differ, even when the anime is adapting manga panels directly.
To put this moment in the proper perspective, Goku had been fighting Frieza for a while now. Frieza killed Krillin, Goku turned into a Super Saiyan, and then Frieza tried to destroy Planet Namek rather than admit defeat. Goku arranged for everyone on Namek to be teleported to Earth, leaving himself and Frieza to finish things before Namek exploded. And Frieza wore himself out, to the point where Goku saw no point in continuing their battle. Furious, Frieza continued to fight, only to maim himself with his own attack. Then he had the temerity to beg Goku for help, and when Goku gave him a portion of his own ki, Frieza used it to attack him. And this was the last straw. Goku fired an energy blast at Frieza, seemingly finishing him off once and for all. Of course, we found out later that Frieza survived, and you can argue that Goku may have known that his final attack hadn’t been fatal, but he couldn’t see Frieza after this, so this is basically his last look before leaving the battlefield.
So why would he be sad? I think part of it is that Goku’s emotionally exhausted from everything that’s happened up to this point. Frieza put him through the ringer, and hurt and killed so many people, and Goku was powerless to stop most of it. He’s ridiculously strong now, but it doesn’t mean much once the fighting is over. Now that Frieza’s beaten, his anger can subside and his grief can come to the fore. So that’s part of it.
Another part is that Goku genuinely pities Frieza. He respected Frieza’s strength, but there was nothing else behind that strength, and once Goku surpassed him, Frieza came apart at the seams. That was why Frieza kept attacking even after he’d lost, because Frieza could not accept being weaker than someone else. I think Goku really wanted Frieza to see the error of his ways, or at least admit defeat. If Frieza could have at least learned something from all of this, then a little bit of good might have come from this ordeal. Instead, Frieza stubbornly refused to give in, and Goku was forced to realize that nothing would be salvaged from the destruction of Namek. Even if he wasn’t trying to kill Frieza here, he knew that Frieza would just keep lashing out at the universe until someone did kill him, which is basically how things turned out. I think the look on Manga Goku’s face reflects that realization. Frieza was completely hopeless, and that’s a hard thing to see, even for an enemy.
I also think it’s possible that Goku now regrets staying on Namek to finish his fight with Frieza. He wanted to test his power against Frieza at his maximum power, and to prove to Frieza that he could never win. I don’t know how Goku expected things to turn out, but this probably wasn’t what he had in mind.
Anyway, I think the anime kind of dropped the ball here. Goku looking angry makes all the sense in the world. He was angry the entire time he was fighting Frieza. But Goku looking sad at the end is a much more intriguing visual. He’s been through the fight of his life, and he’s completely unsatisfied. Now more than ever, he just wants to go home.
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