Dragon Ball Super‘s manga has made many changes to how the Tournament of Power progressed in the anime series, and that most notably includes the finale which had a different Freeza and Goku team up.
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Although the result was the same in which Freeza and Goku work together to knock Jiren off the stage, getting to that point was a much different affair as Freeza’s big comeback happens in a new way.
In the anime, the final moments of the Tournament of Power saw Freeza begrudgingly work with Goku and Android 17 to push back Jiren’s massive ki. Freeza and Goku then battle their hardest along with 17 to push Jiren out of the stage with a final push full of supercharged energy started by Goku throwing Freeza at Jiren.
But in the manga, Freeza’s final comeback has him launching a giant Death Ball at both Jiren and Goku. Jiren had broken through Goku and Vegeta’s last team up effort, and eliminated Vegeta. This left Goku pretty much drained, and he was on the verge of getting pushed out. When Goku sees the Death Ball, he grabs Jiren and holds him in place.
Surprisingly, Jiren not only catches the Death Ball but manages to throw it straight up into the air. With Jiren and Goku distracted by this (as the two of them looked up following the show of power) Freeza then uses the same powered tackle he did in the anime (sans boost from Goku throwing him) and thrusts himself into Jiren and Goku and the three of them all fall out of the arena, leaving Android 17 as the sole winner for Universe 7.
So while this does have a good amount of teamwork between Freeza and Goku, it is lacking that final ask from Goku in which he reaches out for help from Freeza. It also alters the way Freeza joins in the final push as well, with his first intent to eliminate both Goku and Jiren to get his wish. He later says that it was a plan he and 17 concocted off-page, but it does miss out on the raw emotion of that final Freeza and Goku tag team seen in the final episode of the series.
What did you think of the different Freeza comeback in the Dragon Ball Super manga? Is it more align with Freeza’s personality? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Dragon Ball Super currently airs its English dub on Adult Swim during the Toonami programming block Saturday evenings at 11:00 p.m. It is also available to stream on Funimation and Amazon Video. The Japanese language release of the series is complete, and available to stream on FunimationNOW, VRV, and Crunchyroll. The manga has chapters that can currently be read for free thanks to Viz Media.