Rare DBZ Interview Reveals Secret Frieza Detail Toriyama Hid For 26 Years

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F released in 2016, over a quarter of a decade after Frieza made his first appearance in the Dragon Ball manga in 1989. Revived after spending years in Earth’s Hell, Frieza dedicates the next four months of his life training so that he can kill Goku once and for all. While some fans questioned how Frieza could get so powerful so fast, there was a bigger question on most fans’ minds: why was Frieza’s body restored with his battle jacket intact?

It turns out that a movie pamphlet handed out during the Japanese run for Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F actually answered this question over a decade ago when the film’s director, Tadayoshi Yamamuro, cleared up the discrepancy between Frieza’s anatomy and armor. A passage from the pamphlet recently surfaced online after a Japanese Dragon Ball fan, @Com_battler_KK, shared it on Twitter and asked fellow fans to “please make sure to spread it widely to overseas fans.”

Frieza’s Battle Jacket is Actually His Skin

It turns out that Frieza’s Battle Jacket was never armor at all, but literally a part of his skin. As revealed by Tadayoshi Yamamuro in the translated Resurrection F pamphlet,

“The protector-like thing that Frieza wears is actually a part of his body. That’s just part of his ‘naked’ state, or his natural form. Apparently, this was something only Toriyama knew… (laughs). In the scene where he transforms into his final form, that piece is shown breaking apart, but despite always thinking that having nothing there meant being naked, I finally realized the truth for the first time. Even in the scene where Frieza is in the regeneration tank, I initially drew him without the shoulder parts, so I had to go back and fix it later.”

When Frieza breaks off his “Battle Jacket” in Dragon Ball Z, he’s actually breaking part of his outer body, allowing him to transform into his second form. This is actually backed up by Dragon Ball Super: Broly, where a younger Frieza is shown without his “armor.” This Frieza doesn’t have the purple gems on his body yet, implying he only grew them as he got older.

The fact King Cold “wears” very similar “armor” also suggests he’s not in his second form at all, but rather his first form. Likewise, this heavily implies that the Battle Jackets the Saiyans and the rest of the Frieza Force wear are actually modeled after King Cold’s exoskeleton.

The Dragon Ball Super Anime Remake is Enhancing Resurrection F This Fall

The matter of Frieza being revived with armor came back into Dragon Ball discourse after it was announced that the Dragon Ball Super anime remake will enhance Resurrection F after Dragon Ball Super: Beerus finishes airing. The fact that the new Dragon Ball Super: Frieza anime is also scheduled for Fall 2026 means that Dragon Ball Super: Beerus will only be a few episodes long (and is currently rumored to be six episodes, according to Dragon Ball insiders like Geekdom101).

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In the teaser for Dragon Ball Super: Frieza, First Form Frieza is shown inside the rejuvenation tube from Resurrection F, complete with his Battle Jacket. What many fans thought was a mistake over a decade ago actually turned out to be a part of Dragon Ball Z‘s lore that Akira Toriyama kept hidden in plain sight. The Dragon Ball Super remake will not only reanimate and restructure the story of the original anime, but follow Toriyama’s outline and notes more accurately, all leading up to the premiere of Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol either next year or in 2028.

Created by

Akira Toriyama

First TV Show

Dragon Ball

Latest TV Show

Dragon Ball DAIMA

Upcoming TV Shows

Dragon Ball DAIMA

First Episode Air Date

February 26, 1986

TV Show(s)

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball DAIMA