Dragon Ball Z: Bardock, Father of Goku

Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku, known in Japan as Dragon Ball Z: A Lonesome, Final Battle – The Father of Z Warrior Son Goku, who Challenged Freeza (Japanese: ドラゴンボールゼット たったひとりの最終決戦〜フリーザに挑んだゼット戦士 孫悟空の父〜, Hepburn: Doragon Bōru Zetto Tatta Hitori no Saishū Kessen ~Furīza ni Idonda Zetto-senshi Son Gokū no Chichi~) (also titled Dragon Ball Z: The Father of Goku by AB Groupe), is the first television special of the Dragon Ball Z anime series, which is based on the Dragon Ball manga by Akira Toriyama. It was broadcast on Fuji Television on October 17, 1990, in-between episodes 63 and 64. Serving as a prequel to the entire series, the special takes place twelve years before the events of Dragon Ball.

## Plot

Bardock, a low-level Saiyan soldier and his crew are on an assignment to slaughter the inhabitants of Planet Kanassa. They manage to accomplish this by using the planet's full moon to transform into Great Apes. The next morning, Bardock and his crew rest and celebrate their victory until one surviving Kanassan warrior catches him off-guard and decides to give him the "gift" of seeing the future as his way to avenge his people, before being killed by Bardock who subsequently passes out. Bardock returns to Planet Vegeta to heal and visits his infant son, Kakarot, who is being prepared to be sent to Earth in order to exterminate all life there. Bardock starts to have visions of Kakarot fighting future foes, as well as Planet Vegeta's destruction at the hands of Frieza, the emperor of the Universe and overseer of the Saiyans. Bardock dismisses the visions and goes to join his team on Planet Meat, only to discover most of them dead, and his best friend Tora mortally wounded. Before he succumbs to his injuries, Tora reveals that Bardock's squad was betrayed and killed by Frieza's henchman Dodoria and his elite soldiers, and that Frieza ordered the attack on the crew due to him becoming paranoid about the growing power of the Saiyans. Horrified and enraged by his fallen friend's last words, he then battles Dodoria's soldiers and defeats them all, only to be easily overwhelmed by a single mouth blast from Dodoria. He is left severely injured, but manages to return to Planet Vegeta.

Now realizing that Frieza intends to destroy the entire Saiyan race, Bardock attempts to convince the other Saiyans of the danger that they are all in, but his claims are laughed off and ignored. Bardock thus begins a final one-man assault against Frieza and his men. After fighting his way through Frieza's soldiers, Bardock sends a large energy blast at the tyrant himself. However, Frieza counters by launching his deadly Supernova attack which consumes Bardock and many of his own soldiers, and destroys Planet Vegeta. As he perishes, Bardock has one final vision of the future: Kakarot facing off against Frieza. Assured that Kakarot will be the one to defeat Frieza, Bardock smiles as he along with Planet Vegeta are engulfed by the energy bomb. After his demise, Bardock telepathically wishes Kakarot to carry out his will and avenge his people and their home planet, also stating his one regret of not holding his child when he still had the chance. At the same moment, Kakarot, who is hurtling toward Earth in his space pod, wakes up. Elsewhere, having just completed an assignment on a faraway world, Vegeta, the Saiyan Prince, is informed by his colleague Nappa of his homeworld's destruction, and that Frieza claims that the planet was destroyed by a meteor, but Vegeta is outwardly indifferent. Soon afterwards, Kakarot's space pod touches down on Earth, where he is found by an elderly man, Gohan and giggles happily in the old man's arms. Gohan then decides to adopt the boy as his own grandson, and gives him a new name – Goku.

During the ending credits, Goku's battles against the Red Ribbon Army, Tien Shinhan, King Piccolo, Piccolo, Nappa and Vegeta are shown, culminating with an image of Goku about to battle Frieza, with the spirits of Bardock and his team watching.

## Good Qualities

* It considered a more grounded story in the Dragon Ball franchise for focusing on a more original plot other than the "saving the world cliche".
* Bardock is an amazing character with a well written character development starting out as a selfish, cold, distant father and teammate caring nothing more than battle to an empathetic warrior willing to change the future for the sake of his race and seeing that his son Kakarot will avenge the Saiyan Race.
* The Japanese ost is well in place, especially Bardock's theme song.
* Frieza is still as intimidating as he was in the original, his plan to exterminate the saiyans out of fear of them teaming up on him one day is well executed.
* Vegeta as a kid with Nappa in his younger days are nice to see.

## Bad Qualities

* The Funimation Dub voices and music can come off as cringe to some.
* Bardock, while cool, can be unlikable as he refuses to see his newborn son while also implying to have ignored his firstborn Raditz and mate Gine (both were absent in the special). On a side note he can be dry as there is no info on his backstory prior to the film's events.
* There is not enough exploration of Planet Vegeta.
* The ending can lead to a plot-hole due to Goku being happy to have been found by Grandpa Gohan instead of a wild child.