Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock - Reviews

Dragon Ball was the first Anime I ever watched many years ago during its first run on TV in Canada on YTV, and over the years has remained my favourite series. While I don't want to end up doing too many reviews for the Dragon Ball franchise, I do plan on reviewing my favorite parts, and Episode of Bardock is one of my absolute favorites.

 STORY: First and foremost, lets get the major plot hole out of the way. There is no possible explanation for how being blasted into smitherines by Freeza while in outer space could send Bardock and Bardock alone into the past, but it did, sooooo...moving on. As the original TV special featuring this movies hero (Bardock:Father of Goku) revealed, Bardock learned through psychic powers given to him by a victim of one of his crusades in the name of Freeza, that the emporer of the universe was planning to destroy his homeworld. After being beaten to a pulp by the same henchmen who killed his crew and his pleas to his fellow saiyans are disregarded, he decides to mount a lone assault on Freeza to try and save his homeworld and his people. Of course he is unsuccesful and is blasted to oblivion along with Planet Vegeta...or is he...dun dun duuuuuhh.

 Bardock next wakes up in a strange yet familiar world after being nursed back to health by a race of people he has never seen before. It isn't long before he is able to connect the dots and figure out that he has been transported through time to a point when the Saiyans hadn't yet come to planet Vegeta. Eventually he engages in a battle with Freeza's ancestor and current ruler of the empire, Lord Chilled in a fight that would live on through history (And would probably really grind Vegeta's gears if he ever knew the truth).

 ANIMATION: Having come out in 2011, this movie (TV Special) features some of the best animation in the Dragon Ball Franchise.

 CHARACTERS: Episode of Bardock doesn't fall short in comparison to the rest of the series in terms of the characters we already know from the Dragon Ball Universe. The new characters are well written. Bardock, although hell bent on vengeance for what Freeza does, never exactly turns into a good guy. Chilled definately seems like a member of Freeza's family. The only downfall in the characters aspect of this show for me is that they recycle the relationship that Trunks and Tapion had in Wrath of the Dragon, this time with Bardock and a young child from the original race of aliens who lived on Vegeta.