Dragon Ball Super Resurrection 'F' Saga: Episodes 19-27

The Resurrection 'F' Saga, also known as the Golden Frieza Saga, is the second arc of Dragon Ball Super: nine episodes broadcast on Fuji TV from November 15, 2015 to January 17, 2016, remaking for TV the film Resurrection 'F' released just months earlier. The "F" stands for Frieza, who comes back from the afterlife hungry for revenge and, for the first time ever, willing to train.

What the saga is about

While Goku and Vegeta train with Whis on Beerus' planet, what is left of Frieza's army looks for a way to bring its emperor back. The new commander, Sorbet, comes to Earth, gets the Pilaf gang to help him gather the Dragon Balls, and asks Shenron to revive the tyrant. Frieza returns in the state he died in, sliced to pieces by Trunks, and is rebuilt with his soldiers' technology.

The tyrant has learned one thing: Goku beat him because he trained, while Frieza relied on talent alone. So for four months he puts himself through brutal training. Then he heads for Earth with a thousand soldiers, and the only one to notice in time is Jaco, the Galactic Patrolman, who rushes to warn Bulma.

The battle against a thousand soldiers

Goku and Vegeta cannot be reached, so the old guard steps up. Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Tien and Master Roshi take on Frieza's army, and Krillin finally overcomes the fear the tyrant left him with on Namek. The real problem is Tagoma, a soldier who trained alongside his master. Gotenks knocks him down for a moment before the fusion wears off, and Captain Ginyu, still stuck in a frog's body, seizes the chance to steal Tagoma's body with his Body Change.

Gohan, out of practice for years, finds his Super Saiyan power against Ginyu, but Frieza steps in personally. As the tyrant is about to finish him, Piccolo throws himself in the way and dies in his place. It is Gohan's surge of fury that guides Goku and Vegeta back, alerted by a message from Bulma that reached Whis.

Golden Frieza

The final duel is played with all cards on the table. Goku unveils Super Saiyan Blue, the Super Saiyan version of the Super Saiyan God; Frieza answers with his new golden form, Golden Frieza, the fruit of four months of training. The tyrant starts stronger, but the transformation burns energy he has not yet learned to manage. Just as Goku is about to win, Sorbet shoots him in the back with a laser ring, and it falls to Vegeta, also a Super Saiyan Blue, to dominate an exhausted Frieza.

Beaten, the tyrant blows up the Earth. Whis shields the people around him and rewinds time by a few minutes, and this time Goku finishes Frieza with a Kamehameha before he can do it again.

Episodes

The titles are those of Funimation's English dub.

Where the saga starts

We follow Toei's split, as reported by English Wikipedia and our series guide, which starts the saga with episode 19, the resurrection itself. Spanish Wikipedia opens it with episode 15 instead, and the Fandom wiki with episode 16, counting the training with Whis that the film also shows at the start. Those episodes are covered in the Battle of Gods Saga: on TV, the film's story only really kicks off here.

Characters and transformations

• Frieza, revived and trained for the first time, with his golden form;
• Sorbet, the commander who arranges the resurrection and dies hit by one of his own master's beams;
• Tagoma and Shisami, the elite soldiers of the new army;
• Ginyu, absent from the film, who returns in Tagoma's body;
• Jaco, the Galactic Patrol alien and star of Toriyama's manga Jaco the Galactic Patrolman.

There are two transformations: Super Saiyan Blue, reached by Goku in episode 24 and by Vegeta in episode 27 (the anime still calls it "Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan"), and Golden Frieza, who debuts in episode 25. You will find them all on our Super Saiyan transformations page.

Differences from the film and the manga

TV pads out the film with plenty of additions. In the film there is no Ginyu, no Goten or Trunks, and Piccolo does not die. Frieza does not destroy North City to announce himself; and Golden Frieza holds his own against Goku for much longer. The ending stays the same, with the Earth destroyed, time rewound and a Kamehameha to settle the score.

Toyotarō's manga skips this saga: after the Beerus chapters it moves straight on to Universe 6, simply taking Frieza's return as read. The artist had already drawn the film's manga adaptation for V Jump. Later on, the manga hints at a different version of the fight, in which Goku and Vegeta defeat Golden Frieza together rather than taking turns.

Our take

This is the shortest saga in Super and the tightest: nine episodes, almost all of them action, without the dead air of the first arc. Anyone who has seen the film gets the same story with a few gains. The battle against the army gives more room to Gohan, Piccolo and Krillin, and Piccolo's death, missing from the theatrical version, gives Gohan's rage real weight. Ginyu in Tagoma's body is a fun touch, a nod to the Namek Saga.

Its weakness is the film's: Frieza is a superb villain, but his defeat comes down to a technical flaw rather than a real twist, and Goku and Vegeta look more like students on a field trip than warriors in danger. Our advice: if you liked the film, the TV version is worth it for the extra scenes; if you want something new, skip ahead to the Universe 6 Saga, the first with a story never told before.

Did you know? Jaco, the alien who warns Earth about Frieza's arrival, comes from Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, the manga Toriyama published in 2013 as a prequel to Dragon Ball.