With the increasingly deadly foes taken on by the Z-Fighters throughout the progression of the series, it only makes sense that the last villain of Dragon Ball Z would outdo their predecessors–and this villain-in-question doesn’t disappoint as Buu’s deadliest attack makes Frieza and Cell look pathetic.

When Majin Buu made his debut in Dragon Ball Z, he was immediately striking for a number of reasons. First and foremost, no other villain had been built-up the way he was. Cell came out of nowhere right in the middle of the Z-Fighters’ conflict with the Androids, so there was no real anticipation with him–and while Frieza’s reputation definitely preceded him, it wasn’t close to the level of dread brought about by Buu’s awakening. Leading up to Buu’s rebirth, Babidi was possessing people (including Vegeta) and forcing them to steal fighters’ energy either during a fight or with a special device in order to awaken Majin Buu. Not only that, but Buu’s presence on Earth sparked the intervention of a divine being, the Supreme Kai, which alone should be enough to tell anyone how serious a threat Majin Buu is. Then, after the anxiety had passed and Buu was finally awakened, he more than lived up to the hype–both in terms of power level and chilling indifference to human life.

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In Dragon Ball chapter 487 by Akira Toriyama, Majin Buu flies to the Lookout to fight the most powerful warrior on the planet: Gotenks. At this point in the series, both Goku and Vegeta are dead and Gohan is presumed dead. This means that the last fighters on Earth who have even a slim chance at beating Buu are Goten and Trunks–and even then, they have to be fused. When Buu arrived to fight them, Piccolo met the villain and tried to buy the kids some extra time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber to perfect their technique. In doing so, Piccolo suggested that Buu finish off killing every person on the face of the planet before coming back and fighting Gotenks. Piccolo knew that once Buu was defeated, he and the Z-Fighters could just wish for everyone to come back to life, and the physical act of Buu flying away to kill them would give Goten and Trunks plenty of time to perfect the Fusion Dance and master the form. Except, that’s not what Buu did.

Buu Killed Everyone on Earth with a Single Blast

Buu is better than Frieza and Cell.

When Piccolo suggested that Buu should kill everyone on Earth before fighting Gotenks, Buu agreed–then he raised his hand, charged an attack, and shot an energy blast into the sky before it broke apart into millions of different beams of energy, each one with a designated target. Buu managed to kill everyone on Earth, personally, with a single attack. While a planet-killing attack is nothing new to Frieza–and Cell has been known to have the capability to eliminate an entire world with a single blast–they couldn’t dream of doing what Buu did in this chapter. Buu didn’t just destroy a planet, he targeted everyone on that planet and killed them all with one shot. Buu’s method eliminates the possibility of survivors (unless he wished for there to be some) whereas Goku is living proof that the process of blowing up a whole planet doesn’t ensure that everyone is going to die. Goku alone survived two separate world-ending events that were brought about by Frieza: the first was Planet Vegeta and the second was Planet Namek. When Buu unleashed his attack on Earth, however, there wasn’t a soul who survived that wasn’t supposed to–including Mr. Satan and a few select Z-Fighters.

So, while Buu is clearly stronger than both Cell and Frieza (of the Dragon Ball Z age), he made that fact even clearer with a single attack–and in doing so, made Frieza and Cell look utterly pathetic by comparison.

Next: Buu’s Dragon Ball Redemption was Confirmed Long Before Super