Cooler

Overview

Cooler is the main antagonist of the anime feature films Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge and Dragon Ball Z: The Return of Cooler. He is the eldest son of King Cold and the older brother of Frieza, commanding his elite personal unit known as Cooler's Armored Squadron. Operating a vast conqueror enterprise across the cosmos, he distinguishes himself from his family by possessing an additional transformation beyond his brother's final form. Pragmatic, proud, and uncompromisingly lethal, Cooler strikes out to destroy the Saiyan warrior who brought shame upon his royal bloodline.

Appearance

In his baseline fourth form, Cooler features purple-dominant skin, upper-body outer plating, and a taller build than Frieza. Upon advancing to his unique fifth form, his muscular mass increases significantly, gaining four rearward horns on his head, two horns on his back, arm spikes on his elbows, enlarged shoulder protectors, and armor covering the tip of his tail. During battle, a specialized mask slides over his lower face, while his eyes glow bright red. When fused with the Big Gete Star, he assumes a metallic cyborg appearance as Meta-Cooler.

Personality

Cooler is a ruthless, cold-blooded strategist who takes immense pride in being the absolute strongest in the universe. Unlike his father King Cold and brother Frieza, who occasionally offer formidable foes a chance to join their army, Cooler shows no interest in recruitment and executes all opponents without hesitation. He views Frieza as overly soft and indulgent. Rather than acting out of brotherly grief, he pursues Son Goku solely to avenge the disgrace brought upon their lineage. Highly cautious and self-disciplined, Cooler never lowers his guard in battle until a target's death is absolute.

Abilities

Cooler possesses a unique fifth form beyond the standard limit of his race, exponentially increasing his raw physical strength, speed, and resilience. His arsenal includes destructive red optic beams, deadly finger blasts, the broad-range Death Flasher, high-speed physical rushes like Death Chaser, and counter-strikes like Shadow Chaser. His ultimate attack is the Supernova, a massive sun-like sphere formed almost instantly to obliterate planets. In his Meta-Cooler form, he gains teleportation, high-speed repair, and real-time self-upgrading systems, while later unlocking a gold-scaled transformation known as Golden Cooler.

Background

Two decades prior to his arrival on Earth, Cooler observed Frieza destroying Planet Vegeta and spotted baby Son Goku's escape pod, but chose not to destroy it, criticizing his brother's carelessness. Years later, upon learning of Frieza's defeat on Planet Namek, Cooler invaded Earth with his Armored Squadron to restore his family's pride. Transforming into his lethal fifth form, he overwhelmed Goku until the warrior awakened as a Super Saiyan. Pushed back into the sun by Goku's Kamehameha, Cooler realized his past mistake before disintegrating. His surviving brain later fused with the Big Gete Star to form Meta-Cooler on New Namek, where he was ultimately destroyed by Goku and Vegeta.

Relationships

Cooler maintains a hostile rivalry with his younger brother Frieza, looking down on him as soft while disputing who truly commands the universe. He holds little reverence for his father, King Cold, aiming to assert his own dominance over their empire. He relies on his personal elite trio—Salza, Doore, and Neiz—who comprise Cooler's Armored Squadron. He harbors intense hatred toward Son Goku for dishonoring his family. He also battles Vegeta on New Namek, and in later game scenarios, temporarily cooperates with time-traveling warriors like Trunks when their survival interests align.

Trivia

Cooler's name originates from the household appliance 'cooler,' but to make it less direct, producer Kozo Morishita adopted the name after remembering a regional phrase from his home prefecture of Shizuoka used when inviting someone to eat ('Meshi demo kuura'). Despite being a theatrical movie-exclusive villain who never appeared in Akira Toriyama's original manga or main TV series, Cooler remains extraordinarily popular alongside Broly, frequently appearing in video games with unique original forms such as Golden Cooler.