unprecedented, but it seemed that Toriyama had incorporated this “filler” work into his own Dragon Ball continuity!
For years, that was Bardock’s legacy. However, the second decade of the 21st century brought with it an influx of new Bardock stories in practically every medium imaginable, with each one seeming to produce a different take on the character. The now-defunct, Korean-produced and Toriyama-supervised video game, Dragon Ball Online, was released in 2010. In it, players assume the role of a member of Time Patrol and travel back to pivotal moments in the Dragon Ball chronology to ensure history isn’t knocked off-kilter. On a few occasions, though, their efforts are hindered by a mysterious masked man, who turns out to be Bardock. The game’s time-traveling villain, Mira, had apparently brainwashed him and whisked him through time after saving him from the explosion of Planet Vegeta in the Bardock Special.
Apparently the idea of a time-traveling Bardock caught on. When 2011 rolled around, the arcade game Dragon Ball Heroes had granted Bardock a Super Saiyan transformation and needed a new story to help promote it. To that end, the powers that be hired Naho Ooishi, already a DB veteran with her Dragon Ball SD series, to create a sequel to the famed Bardock Special. The result was a three-chapter tale entitled Episode of Bardock. Ooishi is a self-proclaimed Bardock fan, so it seems odd that the “episode” seemed to forget what made the Bardock Special...special. It turns out that Freeza’s planet-annihilating blast doesn’t kill Bardock but instead flings him back in time where he can become the reluctant hero of a group of cute little aliens, defeat Freeza’s ancestor, and apparently become the basis for the entire Super Saiyan legend. He’s no longer a villain but just another grumpy Uncle Piccolo. He no longer dies a pointless death but soundly achieves his revenge against Freeza’s race. He’s no longer a forgotten mook but might just have become one of the most important figures in the entire Dragon Ball mythos. Perhaps this is the reason why most great tragedies don’t have sequels...
If that wasn’t a big enough shock to the fandom, an unexpected one would occur in 2014 after Toriyama wrapped up his light-hearted Dragon Ball prequel, Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. For the collected edition of Jaco’s run, Toriyama included a bonus chapter entitled “Dragon Ball Minus.” The publicity centered around the fact that fans would, for the first time, be introduced to Goku’s mother, Gine, but Bardock was once again the star. Strangely enough, though, “Minus” appeared to blatantly contradict all the previous Bardock stories entirely and also managed to rewrite Toei Animation’s creation into a completely different character. Goku’s origin always bore a resemblance to that of Superman’s, but in this the parallels were unmistakable. This new Bardock is Jor-El! He’s a mass-murdering Jor-El, but that’s about the only difference. This Bardock is a family man who comes home to his loving wife and son after a hard day of slaughtering indigenous people. He loves his son so much that, upon deducing Freeza’s plan to annihilate their race, sacrifices his own life to launch the boy into space and to safety. Moreover, the chapter is so short that it reads more as a bullet point list of events rather than an actual narrative. Regardless if “Minus” is a betrayal or an improvement, this was definitely not the same Bardock fans had known for 24 years.
But what does all this mean for Bardock? Who is Bardock anymore? Doomed henchman? Time renegade? Saiyan legend? Doting father? Now that Toriyama himself has weighed in on the issue, is the original Bardock Special going to be swept under the rug like Dr. Frappe? At the moment, it seems difficult to say for sure. The only certainty about Bardock is how uncertain all his creators seem to be.
LANCE hangs out at Kanzenshuu and produces the “Dragon Ball Dissection” manga review video series: youtube.com/MistareFusion
Episode of Bardock: All the Copies
I fell into the hole the first time, and the second time…
By Mike LaBrie
My name is Mike, and I have a problem.
I bring it upon myself, really. I get too wrapped up in projects and feel the need to complete collections that no sane person on the planet would actually worry about filling out.
This is how I ended up with five complete versions of Episode of Bardock. Five versions. Of something I only sorta kinda like.
It started out innocently enough: we learned that Naho Ooishi, previously only known for her manga adaptation of the 2008 Jump Super Anime Tour special and Dragon Ball SD, was going to be writing a “sequel” to the Bardock TV special. Great! I’ll pick up the three requisite issues of V-Jump. Maybe it will get collected into one volume in the future, and I’ll pick up that compiled version for convenience.
Three chapters in the August, September, and October issues of V-Jump. Animated adaptation included on a double-feature DVD (alongside Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans) in the March 2012 issue of Saikyo Jump. Collected manga reprint as an insert in the April 2012 issue of V-Jump (with two bonus pages!). Included as a bonus video feature in the Xbox 360 video game Dragon Ball Z for Kinect in October 2012. “Super Kanzenban” bonus inclusion in the March 2014 issue of V-Jump.
We have to be done now, right?
‘Cuz Episode of Bardock shouldn’t rival my DBZ Movie 1 collection.
MIKE (“VegettoEX”) is one of the co-founders of Kanzenshuu. He has lots of Bardock stuff.
History of Dragon Ball Merchandise
How has Dragon Ball merchandise changed over the years? Japan's foremost DB collector tells all.
By Peking Duck
Dragon Ball Merchandise Flourishes
Just as Dragon Ball turns 30 this year, Dragon Ball merchandise has close to three decades of history. In 1986, as broadcast of the Dragon Ball TV series began, a large variety of items came on the market from a large variety of manufacturers. The toy-maker Epoch produced dolls and board games; the stationery company Showa Note produced notebooks, pencils, and erasers; and the food-products company S&B came out with corn snacks and biscuits packaged with bonus items. A video game from Bandai was released as well. In 1987, Bandai came out with “eraser dolls.” You could purchase two for ¥100 from a vending machine called “Gachapon,” although the sculpting technology at the time was not great, and they were not colored.
The next year, in 1988, Carddass went on sale for ¥20 each from vending machines. At that time in Japan, collectible cards existed as bonuses with sweets, but the custom of buying the cards themselves didn’t really exist yet. You could even say that it’s thanks to the debut of the Carddass that trading cards took root so strongly in Japan. Dragon Ball Carddass were sold from 1988 until 1997, with total sales exceeding 1 billion cards. In 1989, the title of the TV series changed to Dragon Ball Z, and many different manufacturers brought out not just toys, but things like music CDs, clothing, shampoo, bath salts, drinks, and bicycles, as well.
Why Do Dragon Ball Products Sell?
Dragon Ball was an outstanding “product” for the makers, as well: since the story was always changing, new characters appeared, and sometimes the main character even grew in years and height, they too were constantly able to put out new products. In fact, the stationery items from Showa Note came out with new designs once every three months, because the characters and story elements in the designs from three months earlier were already out of date. To go along with the ever-changing story, all sorts of products were sold between the years of 1990 and 1995, as can be seen in Daizenshuu vol. 7.
V-Jump Magazine
In 1993, V-Jump was inaugurated as a sister publication to Weekly Shonen Jump. This magazine was founded by Toriyama’s first editor, Kazuhiko Torishima, based on the strategy of promoting a mix of media in “games, manga, anime, and hobbies,” which is now commonplace. Toriyama’s contributions to the magazine were extremely impressive, as well. The Toriyama-designed Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Tobal No. 1 were all featured in the magazine, and manga included Go! Go! Ackman by Toriyama himself, and The Brief Return of Dr. Slump and Savings Warrior Cashman, drawn by the animator Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru. The advertising-effect for products
featured in this information-magazine was incredible.
The Decline of Dragon Ball Merch
In 1995, Dragon Ball’s serialization ended, and in 1996, Dragon Ball GT began, but the number of makers of Dragon Ball products gradually declined. This is thought to be a result of foundering ratings for the TV series and worsening merchandise sales. And then in 1997, with the release of the PlayStation game Dragon Ball: Final Bout, sales of Dragon Ball merchandise in Japan all but came to a halt.
The Dragon Ball Boom Reignites
It’s thought that the major sparks that reignited the Dragon Ball boom were the release of the PlayStation 2 game Dragon Ball Z (Dragon Ball Z: Budokai internationally), the first Dragon Box set in 2003, and the start of the Data Carddass game machines in 2005. The game-information magazine V-Jump actively promoted these through Dragon Ball features, which helped popularity climb back up. The latter half of the Aughts is an era that also saw pre-painted collectible figures released into the world. Almost all such figures in the 1990s were in the form of “garage kits,” with resin parts that had to be first assembled and then painted before they could be considered “complete.” With the arrival of PVC figures, anyone was now able to easily obtain figures that
DB30YEARS: Special Dragon Ball 30th Anniversary Magazine Page 6