Black Frieza Arrives as Dragon Ball Super Manga Chapter 87 Ends the Granolah Arc

Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 87 brought back Frieza, who killed Gas and destroyed Elec, then revealed a brand new transformation called Black Frieza and used it to apparently take out both Goku and Vegeta at the same time. With that, the Granolah arc came to an end, and from what the spoilers suggested, Frieza walked away as the strongest in the universe.

Toyotaro had teased something shocking. As Dragon Ball fans we have kind of seen it all, so there are different degrees of what is and is not shocking, but this chapter had shocking things in it, "things that I could have never predicted." Some fans predicted parts of it and some did not. When these spoilers and images surfaced, full translations were not yet available, and a full recap was still to come. Credit for the images goes to DBS Hype and Chronicles, who posted them.

Gas rose again, but his body was falling apart

Gas was not dead. He did rise up, but his body, as the images showed, left him near death. He still had that incredible power, yet he looked like some kind of weird mutant zombie. The imagery of his body falling apart was absolute madness. In one panel he rammed Goku and Vegeta's heads together, with Vegeta in Ultra Ego.

Goku was using true Ultra Instinct and Vegeta was using Ultra Ego as they fought Gas, who looked maniacal. What was happening to his body was horrific. Elec had taken off, as I covered when the drafts came out a few days earlier, and what was left fighting was a skeletal monster, the remains of what was Gas.

I want to clarify something here. I do not believe Gas is the one who attacked Monaito. There are still more people coming and more surprises, and this is going to bleed into the next arc. I have a lot of theories on this.

Frieza seemingly returned out of nowhere and killed Gas in one of the most gruesome kills in Dragon Ball

Then came the arrival and return of Frieza. DBS Hype wrote: ruthless emperor arrives and kills Gas. Frieza arrived seemingly out of nowhere, and I wonder if Elec knew what was happening. Frieza violently put an end to Gas.

You are probably wondering how Frieza could be strong enough to defeat Gas, or whether Gas had gotten that much weaker. There was quite a bit going on. This type of violence is something we probably are not going to see in the anime because of the time slot and Japanese broadcast standards, but the manga is allowed to be much more gruesome, and Toyotaro did a phenomenal job of portraying it.

Gas's face was literally melting off. This is "one of the most gruesome kills I can think of in Dragon Ball." Frieza just sat there laughing, then stepped on the skeleton, the remains of Gas, and laughed again. Talk about unexpected.

Frieza destroyed Elec and ended the Granolah arc himself

Not only was Frieza back, he had a new transformation. Before getting to that, there was Elec, who we all thought, and I thought, was going to get killed by Granolah. That did not appear to be the case. This chapter was not only the end of the Granolah arc but the beginning of something new.

Frieza found Elec and destroyed him. What I wanted was for Granolah to be the one to do it. Instead it was Frieza, and it was horrifically shocking that he just showed up and wiped Elec out. Those who have followed me for a long time know Frieza is my favorite character, and I did not think this arc would end like this. The arc was ended by Frieza. In the key shot he got in front of Elec, laughed at him and destroyed him with one blow.

Letting Frieza live came back to bite Goku and Vegeta

Think back to Broly. Vegeta told Goku that letting Frieza survive was a mistake, and Gogeta basically let Frieza live. I wondered why that happened and what the purpose of it was. Now it is coming back to bite them. Letting Frieza live was a mistake.

The chapter showed Goku and Vegeta reacting to Frieza's return, and it was unexpected, I must say.

Black Frieza appeared to take out Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego in a single blow

Then there was the new transformation, which Frieza referred to as Black Frieza. I was not expecting that. We had Golden Frieza, and now we had brand new Black Frieza, introduced in chapter 87. I honestly did not know what to say. I was reading it as I went, having only glanced at it beforehand.

Goku and Vegeta powered up to Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego, and Black Frieza charged them. True Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego got taken out by Frieza at the same time, or at least it looked like he did it in one shot, leaving them out cold. Remember that Monaito was the one who healed Goku, Vegeta and Granolah. Frieza did not care.

Monaito, Bardock's scouter and how the Granolah arc wrapped up

For a little more context, DBS Hype reported that apparently Monaito was not dead. He gave Bardock's scouter to Goku, they both left with Whis, the chapter ended and the arc was over. Frieza left, and Oil and Maki went with him. Whis showed up, I guess to take Goku and Vegeta out, and the scouter from Bardock was given to Goku by Monaito as a memento of everything that went on. Vegeta was there talking with Whis about the whole thing.

Granolah was still alive, so presumably he will stay on the planet with Monaito. The Granolah story is over, but Whis went back with Goku and Vegeta because they are going to have to deal with Black Frieza.

From what I understood based on what Chronicles said, and again we did not have full translations yet, Frieza is apparently the strongest in the universe, not Granolah or Gas. Apparently, from what Chronicles said, the reason the wish did not make Granolah or Gas stronger than Frieza is that Frieza was in a different realm. He showed off his new power and left. Oil and Maki survived, Gas is dead, Elec is dead, and Frieza is now all powerful and the new enemy.

Why Black Frieza is not simply pulled out of nowhere

I know some of you are frustrated that Frieza is going to be the enemy again, and I understand that, because of how many times this guy has come back. We kind of knew he would return at some point and have a conflict with Goku and Vegeta. But now there is a new form, and he is apparently stronger than true Ultra Instinct and Ultra Ego, so you could say it comes out of nowhere.

However, according to what was stated in Resurrection, Frieza attained that power and leaped over every other Dragon Ball villain before him, creating Golden Frieza with just a little training, four months I believe it was. It has been a while since then, and I guess Frieza has continued to train and hone his power, because Black Frieza is a reality. That is crazy, and I do not even know what to say.

Is Black Frieza a fair payoff for all that training, or one Frieza comeback too many?