Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku (1990)

Can you guess where I'm going with this? That's right, I'm going to watch the whole "Dragon Ball" anime, that includes "Z", "GT", and "Super". So I figured I should start where the anime canon begins, with "Father of Goku". For only being 40-some minutes long, they cram a lot in it. The story's good, dark, and is a fine note for me to start the series on. I tried covering a previous anime, "Yu Yu Hakusho", some months ago, but I watched and reviewed it from the perspective of it just being another animated show. I'll get back to that show soon, but for now, I'll be covering "Dragon Ball" different. A lot of the episode ratings will be arbitrary, and I won't be posting reviews for many of them. I might post one at the end of a saga, just to recap, but this'll be a much more passive time for me in terms of reviews. Every 10 episodes or so I'll take a break and watch a PPV or something unrelated, just so I don't burn myself out. This is gonna be an adventure to say the least, but with Goku and friends at my side, I'm up for it.

This is the first Dragon Ball Z TV Special, called 'Doragon Bōru Zetto Tatta Hitori no Saishū Kessen ~Furīza ni Idonda Zetto-senshi Son Gokū no Chichi' which means ' Dragon Ball Z: A Lonesome, Final Battle - The Father of Z Warrior Son Goku, who Challenged Freeza' but the North America and Canada version is called 'Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku'. This tells the story of Goku's father, Bardock who gains the power ability to see his death - being killed off by Freezia. This is actually a very important element, as it is shown is a few episodes and movies. While this is a prequel to the original Dragon Ball series, it has the action of Dragon Ball Z, FUNimation has chosen to use hard rock songs such as Sum 41 and Saliva in their dub. This is a very good TV special.It is an important element to the DBZ world and is a must see.I give Bardock the Father of Goku a 7/10.

Another one of the recently re-released TV DBZ movies, and one of the few 45 minute features with a real story. This one centers around the back story behind the Frieza's betrayal and untimely genocide of the Saiyans. The main reason to see this, overall, to see how much of a bad ass Goku's father(Sonny Strait) was! But on a serious note, this movie is great because it shows the barbarity of the Saiyans without sugar coating it at all. And yet we still sympathy for them, personified mostly threw Vegeta, who we see as a child here. Very early on we see the greater evil of Frieza, who is as menacing as ever.Very good voice acting throughout, and a flowing story as well. The action is brutal, bloody and just plain awesome to boot. This movie is an essential if you're a fan and for animation and anime fans in general.

Originally broadcast almost 11 years ago, this tv special shows how advanced japanese animation is, nowadays people have jumped on the DBZ bandwagon.This special "Story of Bardack" reveals Goku's father and his battle with Freeza, who would become a familiar character to DBZ fans.Freeza would die and later get resurrected numerous times as well as Goku.The story mainly is about Freeza killing of of Bardack's friends when he finds out Bardack is a super saiyan. Bardack has dreams that he will have a son who is a mighty warrior. Soon he realizes this dreams are real when Freeza target s him. Bardacks knows he has to protect his futher son, and so like in the movie "Superman" Goku is sent in a space pod, to live on Earth and avenge his father Bardack.Great DBZ special.