Renan is the Anime Lead Editor for GameRant. Ren graduated Cum Laude from Lesley University in 2017 and has been focusing exclusively on his journalistic endeavors ever since. When Ren isn't working, he's usually playing video games or reading.
Bardock is one of the most popular characters in all of Dragon Ball, despite how little he actually appears throughout the series. Not counting spin-offs like Super Dragon Ball Heroes, Bardock is almost never a main character. In the Dragon Ball manga, Dragon Ball Z, and both versions of Dragon Ball Super, he appears exclusively in minor flashbacks. Goku didn't even know Bardock existed for the longest time.
It's precisely this mystery that makes Bardock so compelling. Bardock is nothing more than a lower-class Saiyan, but that's what makes him special. The best Dragon Ball sagas and movies starring Bardock remember that he's not Goku, and use the opportunity to tell a story Akira Toriyama never could or would in the main series.
5 Episode of Bardock is One of the Worst Dragon Ball Movies Ever Made
Episode of Bardock is a travesty. Set in an alternate universe where Frieza somehow sends Bardock back in time, the movie seeks to create a closed time loop where Bardock was actually the legendary Super Saiyan Frieza feared enough to destroy Planet Vegeta. Bardock barely acts like himself, taking a shine to a pathetically weak alien race he, by all accounts, would want to kill.
Bardock turning Super Saiyan doesn't feel triumphant, it just feels cheap. Chilled is one of the worst designed and written villains in the series, ultimately just making a mockery of Frieza's legacy. The most notable thing about Episode of Bardock is that it released at a time when there wasn't much in the way of new Dragon Ball content, but the series frankly is worse off for its existence.
4 Dragon Ball Minus Almost Ruined Goku's Backstory
The only reason Dragon Ball Minus isn't the single worst piece of Dragon Ball media ever made is only because Episode of Bardock exists. If anything, though, Dragon Ball Minus is kind of worse, since it was actually written by Akira Toriyama and serves as the epilogue to what is otherwise a fantastic manga (Jaco the Galactic Patrolman). The manga is essentially just the prologue of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, but with nothing that made it interesting.
To be clear, Dragon Ball Minus came out years before Toriyama wrote Broly and almost serves as a soft prototype for the film's opening sequence. As a standalone chapter, however, DBM just doesn't hold up. It's too short to make Goku's backstory emotional, too simple to give Bardock any good fights, and too rushed to do anything with Gine. At best, it's a footnote in Dragon Ball history that's better off ignored now that DBS: Broly exists.
3 The Granolah the Survivor Saga Brings Bardock Back in Epic Fashion
It's still going to be a while before Dragon Ball Super 2 gets around to it, but the Granolah the Survivor Saga will officially bring Bardock back for his own mini-arc. The Granolah Saga focuses heavily on the Saiyans' violent past, framed through the lens of Granolah: the sole survivor of Planet Cereal's genocide. The manga reveals that this was Bardock's final mission before Planet Vegeta's destruction, but the recent birth of Goku made him instinctively protect Granolah.
Dragon Ball Super makes it clear that Bardock is not a good person, and he is only saving Granolah's life because he reminds him of Goku. More than anything, though, the Granolah the Survivor Saga handles the notion of Goku learning about Bardock in the best way possible. It's certainly fan servicey, but nowhere near as aggressive as it could have been. Bardock also gets an amazing fight against Gas, unlocks his own version of Ultra Instinct, and continues Dragon Ball Super's thread of Goku gradually accepting more of his Saiyan heritage.
2 Dragon Ball Super: Broly's Prologue Turned a Mess Into an Emotional Masterpiece
Dragon Ball Super: Broly did the impossible and turned Dragon Ball Minus' bones into one of the most beloved parts of the franchise. Dragon Ball Super: Broly features a nearly half-hour long prologue focusing on King Vegeta, Paragus, and Bardock's relationships with their sons, setting up the events of the film. Bardock's potion of the movie adapts Dragon Ball Minus almost beat for beat, but makes little changes that fixes the story considerably.
Everything is fundamentally the same, but allowing the relationship between Bardock and Gine to breathe, while contrasting Bardock's love for his family with both King Vegeta and Paragus, along with Saiyan culture, ultimately makes for a very compelling and emotional story about how Goku gets to Earth. It is sad to see Goku's head injury more or less retconned, but the animation, music, and performances in Dragon Ball Super: Broly's prologue will make anyone want an entire Bardock anime leading up to his death.
In a nice addition, Dragon Ball Super: Broly at least confirms that some variation of Bardock – Father of Goku happened, as the movie's version of Bardock's death is almost 1:1 with how he died in DBZ.
1 Bardock – The Father of Goku Remains the Gold Standard For Dragon Ball Movies
Akira Toriyama had nothing to do with Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku other than lending the staff some character designs, but he loved the movie so much, he ended up making it canon to the manga. Bardock appears twice during the Frieza Saga, in panels that directly reference the anime: the only time the Dragon Ball manga ever does this. Watching The Father of Goku, it's not hard to see why Akira Toriyama was so smitten.
Bardock – The Father of Goku is one of the best stories to come out of not only Dragon Ball, but the anime medium. The film manages to tell a rich, nuanced, and grounded story about the final days of Planet Vegeta without whitewashing the Saiyans. Most compellingly, the movie makes it clear that Bardock – and by extension, Goku – is not special. This is the tale of a failed rebellion and the man who was too weak to stop Frieza.
Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku almost plays out like a Greek tragedy, right down to Bardock being able to see the future but unable to directly change his fate. All the while, you get the same amazing DBZ action and one of the best soundtracks in the series. Dragon Ball Super has done a lot of good in making Bardock a more prominent and developed character, but he was at his best in his original movie.