How long is five minutes on Namek?

[Lord MagicPants]

This was a question that bothered me for a long time and one of the only reasons I registered was to finally and quantifiably settle the debate, how long did it actually take Frieza to destroy Namek with his planet destroying blast?

Short answer: 54 minutes and 52 seconds from when the energy ball makes contact with Namek, and 53 minutes, 3 seconds from when Frieza states it will take FIVE MINUTES UNTIL NAMEK EXPLODES.

This was using Dragonball Z Kai (the no filler version) and I excluded all 'exposition' (or, anything that could be considered happening at the same time they are fighting, anything that has to do with Bulma/Gohan/Piccolo trying to escape, or any dialogue that has to do with King Kai and his messages to Goku.)

This statistic of 53 minutes and 3 seconds from when Frieza states 'five minutes' means that A Namekian minute is roughly 10 and a half minutes on Namek.

[Lord MagicPants]

some stats (pardon the notepad style use of how I got this data. Please feel free to follow along with your own viewing, and I would love to see how long it takes with the Funimation version of the series)

Each of these numbers represents the time-stamps on each episode of Dragonball Z Kai from when there is a fight between Frieza and Goku, when the planet is shown falling apart, or when there is any dialogue/discussion while the planet is being destroyed.

Ball hits Namek:
3:19-3:38 0:19
NOTE: these times are rough seconds from when a scene showcases the ACTUAL BATTLE OR ANY DESTRUCTION CAUSED DIRECTLY FROM FRIEZA AND/OR GOKU.
FURTHERMORE: It is very difficult to discern what is currently occurring in real-time, what is a 'replay' of what may have happened, and this is not counting any 'time-slowing' or 'reaction time' of each fighter. For these purposes, ANY AND ALL FORMS OF FOOTAGE RELATING TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE PLANET OR FRIEZA/GOKU FIGHTING, COUNT AS SECONDS TOWARDS THE PLANET'S DESTRUCTION CLOCK.
4:14-4:21 0:07
(note: 7:15- 7:48 technically bulma exposition, otherwise would be included)
7:49-8:05 0:16
8:20-9:27 1:07

total: 1:49 (this the time between when the energy ball hits Namek, and when Frieza announces when Namek will explode.)

Frieza announces five minutes at: 49

9:27-10:53 1:26
11:03-13:20 2:17
15:38-17:47 2:09
17:50-17:54 0:04
18:02-18:13 0:11
18:16-18:27 0:11
18:31-19:29 0:58
19:48-21:07 0:19
21:16-21:31 0:15

total 7:50

next episode:

2:01-6:00 3:59
(13:15-13:26 is intermission)
14:38-18:14 3:36
funfact: 14:57 frieza says "by my estimation you only have 2 minutes, or 3."
19:27-20:13 0:46
20:57-21:07 0:10

total: 8:31

next episode:

2:56-3:39 0:43
6:01-6:22 0:21
7:17-12:17 5:00
12:20-12:33 0:13
(intermission)
12:43-12:55 0:12
13:34-13:37 0:03
13:41-13:52 0:11
13:58-14:18 0:20
15:55-16:52 0:57
16:56-16:59 0:03
17:09-17:11 0:02
17:27-17:32 0:05
17:40-17:44 0:04
17:46-18:52 0:08
19:05-21:15 2:10
fun fact: 20:24 frieza says "in 2 minutes, namek will be a cloud of dust and memory"

total: 10:32

(total after frieza's calculation: 9:53)

next episode: 52

3:20-4:26 1:06
4:57-5:21 0:24
6:14-6:44 0:30
7:33-8:29 0:56
9:44-11:19 1:35
(intermission)
11:30-18:40 7:10
18:59-21:09 2:10
21:22-21:31 0:09

total: 14:00

next episode: 53

2:01-3:22 1:21
3:27-7:19 3:52
7:27-9:31 2:04
(frieza dies at 8:34)
(intermission to 9:42)
14:38-15:02 0:24
16:59-19:32 2:33
20:11-20:44 0:33
20:55-21:18 1:23

total: 12:10

Namek explodes at 21:18

Sorry for the long windedness, and it's not 100% conclusive but, it's what I interpreted to be cannon to the DBZ series.

[Lord MagicPants]

I want to clarify that there are 5 total episodes (in the DBZ Kai version) when this event takes place: the first of which is Ep 49, "Avenge the Fallen Goku! Countdown to the planet's Destruction!" and the event ends with episode 53 "Goku's final attack! Countdown to planet Naek's destruction!"

each time stamp, or number posted goes as follows:

(when the timer starts in showing the fight, while the planet is being destroyed - when the timer stops, showing a new scene or cut scene that shows something unrelated to the battle.) the number next to these is the total time that scene took place, and at the bottom, there is a total time for each episode.

So, for those who wish to know how log it took Namek to explode, this is your answer, which is up to a slight bit of interpretation. DBZ always has a place in my heart as being the crazy, cool, bruce-lee style kungfu martial arts action we should all love, and I wanted to look just a bit deeper into it.

Thanks, ~MagicPants

[TheGmGoken]

This was using Dragonball Z Kai (the no filler version)

DBZ kai has filler.......just not as much as Z . . .

You're basically asking how long was the action in those episodes. Even I other anime 5 minutes isn't really just 5 minutes. Sometimes in real time it's 30 seconds other time it's 8 minutes. DBZ wasn't the only anime that did the whole 5 minute thing. 5 minutes is 5 minutes(Anime time). Though you could say Freeza help back more power than he thought.

[Kakarot88]

It's five minutes that's just how fast these people are...in Dragon Ball Kuririn and Jacki Chun have an entire converstaion and fling a booger and perform rock paper scissors during what looks to be a single instant. So if you wanna do a ratio between screen time and how long that is compared to five minutes that might give you an anime interpretation of what Toriyama wrote.

In sum: it's five minutes long.