Remember the times when Toei could deliver a Dragon Ball special that actually added value to the Dragon Ball universe, that was actually worthy to watch and that was not just an excuse to showcase more meaningless fights in an irrelevant context nobody ever cared about? I do, and I miss them. The first of the two great Dragon Ball Z specials, “Bardock: The Father of Goku” (the other being “The History of Trunks”) is a brief spin-off to the saiyan-Frieza arc of the main series (without a doubt the most important one) to narrate with more detail the events prior to the massacre of the saiyan race by Frieza that was mentioned in said arc. It was Toei’s first attempt to make a complementary work or side-story that actually contributed to the main story, and they excelled at it, and probably, not even intending to do so! It lectured every single of the first 13 DBZ movies and proved that non canon material doesn’t always need to be something bad or undesired.

As mentioned, it tells the events that take place right before Frieza’s wipes out the saiyan race, destroys their planet and newborn Goku lands on Earth in his space pod to start his life on our planet raised by elder Gohan. His father, Bardock, a low-class saiyan warrior that is not even remotely interested in his own son, rests peacefully along his saiyan squad in a wasteland of planet Kanassa after accomplishing Frieza’s order to slaughter its whole population and conquering its land, when all of a sudden, a dying survival shows up, takes them by surprise, hits Bardock in his neck and –as a way to seek revenge for the genocide of his people- transfers him the ability to foresee the catastrophic future that is awaiting him, his own race and own planet. Constantly tormented by these visions, Bardock chooses to ignore them. Meanwhile, Frieza is informed by Zarbon about the conquest the planet by this low-class saiyan team, feels astounded and starts thinking that the saiyan race would eventually represent to him a serious threat. Scared, and taking into consideration the advice of Zarbon, he finally decides that the saiyan race must be exterminated, and heads his spaceship on course to planet Vegita, while, after certain events, Bardock realizes that the visions he’s been experimenting are real and fruitlessly alerts his peers of the imminent disaster.

“Oh no, poor saiyans, how unfair to them!” one would normally think after watching this. Well, it turns out this is not the case; what works so well in this special is that it is never trying to sell the saiyan race as the good guys and the poor victims of this story for whom the audience should feel sorry about.

Of course, we all know Frieza is no good guy, but neither were the saiyans. They weren’t exactly heroes or peacemakers after all. They were still a violent, savage and merciless race that showed no hesitation for wiping out entire populations and stealing planets for their own benefit. Clouded by their greed and thirst for more, some of they had chosen the dumb way and had refused to believe the claims of their own fellow that Frieza was about to betray them, laughing at him, no matter how obvious it was since the beginning that he was exploiting them, because it was more attractive to believe otherwise. And Bardock himself was also so vain that he couldn’t even alert the King of what was about to happen and foolishly tried to face the threat by his own. In the end, the saiyans were no innocent (neither clever) people, that couldn’t even in the last minute redeem themselves by believing their friend, so the audience was never supposed to feel sorry about them. The special, aware of this, rightly opts to adopt an impartial, unbiased stance, depicting the events like if it was an objective journalist reporting them, without taking sides, without explicitly telling who the good guys and who the bad guys were, even though audiences are fully aware that Frieza was part of the latter. If the saiyans were good or bad guys of this story, that was up for the audience to decide.

The serious tone suited perfectly this approach too. The comedy that characterized the main series was completely removed in this opportunity. Not a single lighthearted moment that could have, for a moment there, made the audience like and root for the saiyan race. This was adequate to portray their savage and ruthless nature.

However, as the title suggests, this special is centered on Bardock in the prelude of the massacre. Bardock is one of the most interesting characters of the whole franchise in terms of well, a real character (along with Vegeta, Future Trunks, Piccolo, and to an extent, Gohan). He’s no hero, justice maker, nor completely evil. He’s just a common soldier in the army, who never stood a chance of saving the day. He’s flawed as everyone else; merciless, vain, coldhearted and doesn’t give a shit about his own son because he’s ashamed he’s another low class and a future nobody. Also, proud enough to not even alerting the King. But he’s also virtuous; he is caring for his team and race, and fought for it with honor, even after being mocked by them and conscious that he wasn’t going to get anything fighting alone against the galactic emperor. Knowing what was about to happen, he could have perfectly escaped and leave everyone else burning alone! In the short lifetime he had left, he evolves from this arrogant, savage dude to someone that briefly redeems himself, proud of his own son he just moments earlier had ignored who would in the future stand out revenging the race. He became one of the most admired and liked characters in the DB universe, so much that even Toriyama decided to include him in the canon.

There is also a notorious difference with the main series in regards to the action. This special is more story-focused, with action and fighting scenes kept to almost a minimal, just the right doses, just exactly what is needed, without any type of stretching whatsoever, making the story to flow better. Furthermore, it’s amazing how it managed to keep the audience interested through its entire run without really building that much tension, it just flows so naturally. There isn’t also any type of “overpoweredness” here.

It was also really nice and cool to see towards the end how it established the connection with the start of the main series, when Goku lands on Earth and kid Vegeta is informed by Nappa (this time, with hair!) of the disappearance of his own planet, showcasing how proud and cold he was since the beginning.

Art is the same as the main series, just more well-polished thanks to the fact that it is a movie. So is the soundtrack, but it adds the iconic “Solid State Scouter” track, probably one of the most exciting ones of the whole franchise. (It must be noted that this is in regards to the subbed version, the dubbed version added some unnecessary dialogues that made this special sound more childish than what it actually is and didn’t make it justice, also with some terrible heavy-metal tunes that I think just didn’t fit).

Nonetheless, it is not extent of some issues. The first one has to do with the fact that this special raises some slight confusion regarding Frieza’s motivations to annihilate the saiyan race. In the main series, we are told that this was because he feared the appearance of the mythical super saiyan that may give him a run for his money. But this time, it looks like it was just because one of his henchmen suggested and convinced him to do so (and this not even considering that in the “Battle of Gods” movie that came 23 years later, another explanation was offered: it was just an instruction from Beerus! Though well, if this represents an inconsistency, it is not this special to blame, simply because it was the one that came first). One can still argue that exterminating them was always part of his plans given his knowledge of the super saiyan legend, and that Zarbon’s advice just convinced him that the time to do so had finally come, but nonetheless, a brief mention to said legend in Frieza’s mind would have been nice to clear all these doubts.

The second one had to do with the fact that Frieza’s decision seemed a bit precipitate, with little to no cost-benefit assessment. After all, he was going to get rid of his most powerful servers that had widely helped him to expand his galactic empire! But again, it can be argued that he was always conscious of this, he was always planning to do this and was just waiting for the right moment. Finally, the whole foresight ability thing was kind of unnecessary and looked somewhat forced; there were a lot of more believable and convincing ways in which Bardock could have discovered or deduced Frieza’s plans rather than with premonitory visions occasioned by a hit he received in his neck by a random alien of a random planet. But well, after all, this is still shonen territory so honestly you can’t expect a completely realistic approach, so it’s nothing that can’t be overlooked.

The special can be also considered a missed opportunity to explore more about the saiyan race, their planet, their society, their goals and their conflicts with Frieza (there is also no mention to King’s Vegeta uprising that had just happened some moments before the massacre in Frieza’s spaceship), also not even a single mention of Radditz, Bardock’s first son… that had to be somewhere!, nor Goku’s mother, but really, none of all these was its point. The point was always Bardock and his motivations in the midst of the extermination of his race in a short and effective 45 minute movie.

But the potential for more was always there, and this is what bothers me the most from Toei. They had just so much material regarding the saiyans, their relationship with Frieza and the origins of Goku and his family, also regarding planet Namek and the origins and nature behind the dragon balls, that they could have even made a whole great prequel series with it for further development. But no, they unfortunately dismissed all this potential and instead opted to put their budget and effort to make… this shitload of uninteresting movies with uninteresting premises and uninteresting villains that had almost nothing significant to add to the DB universe unlike this special (along with the Gohan and Trunks one), perhaps because that way they could showcase more cool fights. Some of them were more entertaining than the others, but the truth is that all of them were irrelevant in the first place. It’s a shame Toei couldn’t see this. All that money and effort put in all those forgettable movies could have been spent better just as these specials proved.

Now, in the 21st century, we see that Toei is sadly so far making the same mistakes producing something as insignificant as Dragon Ball Heroes. I get that its purpose is just promoting a game. I’m fine with that, I may not care about those games, but I don’t mind if others do. But to spend money and time only doing this comes as a disappointment to everyone that want something more contributing. I wouldn’t mind this kind of stuff as long as more important stuff was also in the works. So many things left unanswered of underwritten in DBS and the first thing they do is this. The upcoming movie in December will do no better as it will be focused on Broly, like he didn’t already have other 3 movies under his belt! It is worthy of the benefit of the doubt of course, but judging by the trailer it looks like it won’t help much either. Who wants to know more about the other 11 introduced universes right? Who wants to know more about Jiren, the completely underwritten main “enemy” of the last arc, or Hit or the charismatic saiyans from U6 our cast befriended with? Nobody right? We just want MORE BROLY!

Anyway, canon or not, this special is splendid, works great and serves as a great example of what every special from any franchise should aspire to be; a relevant addition and an opportunity to address with more detail or to know in depth something mentioned in the main series for which there was no enough time to properly develop, and this one knew that. It was also a prime example that non canon material can sometimes be significant to the universe of a series and not something irrelevant and forgettable. It was a shame that Toei always knew this and failed to give us more of this. A solid 8/10 for the solid state scouter.