Close-up of Bardock, red headband tied around his forehead, green scouter over his left eye and a scar on his cheek, against a pink sky.

Bardock: Goku's Saiyan Father

CharacterSaiyansGoku's Family

Bardock, a low-class Saiyan warrior, is the father of Goku and Raditz. Born in 1990 in a Toei TV special, in which he takes on Frieza alone after receiving the gift of seeing the future, he appears briefly in the manga before Akira Toriyama revisits him in 2014, making him the father who sends Kakarot to Earth to save him. Here's a look at his different versions, which shouldn't be mixed up, his creation, his voices and his “what if…” Super Saiyan story.

He has the face of Goku, plus a scar: Bardock is the hero's father. Here are his successive versions, from the 1990 TV special to the Dragon Ball Super manga.

Contents

Bardock – The Father of Goku: the 1990 TV special

Bardock makes his debut in a TV special aired on Fuji Television on October 17, 1990, between episodes 63 and 64 of Dragon Ball Z. In France, the TV special has gone by several French titles: Baddack contre Freezer, but also Le Père de Sangoku, and later Le Père de Songoku.

Transformed into Great Apes by the full moon, Bardock and his team wipe out the inhabitants of Planet Kanassa in just a few days, a conquest so fast that it worries Frieza. While they're celebrating their victory, a survivor catches Bardock off guard with a blow that passes on to him the gift of seeing the future. Bardock then sees, in a dream, the future life of his son Kakarot, a newborn with a power level of 2 who is being readied to be sent to Earth to destroy all life there.

His teammates, Tora, Fasha, Borgos and Shugesh, discover Frieza's betrayal on Planet Meat and are wiped out by Dodoria and his men; arriving too late, Bardock watches Tora, his best friend, die in his arms. He wipes away his comrades' blood with Tora's armband, then ties that bloodied cloth around his forehead as a headband to honor their memory.

Back on Planet Vegeta, where the Saiyans laugh in his face, he sets off alone to confront Frieza and fires an energy attack at him. The tyrant strikes back with a huge energy ball that engulfs him; as he dies, Bardock has one last vision, his son facing Frieza, and vanishes along with the planet, a smile on his lips. In the Japanese version, he asks Kakarot to avenge the Saiyans.

Bardock, green scouter over his eye, holding the bloodied body of Tora, in blue armor, under a red and purple sky.
In the 1990 TV special, having arrived too late on Planet Meat, Bardock holds in his arms his best friend Tora, struck down by Dodoria and his men.

🟥 From Tora's arm to Bardock's forehead, the same piece of cloth changes places; to wear a piece of the saga on your head or around your neck too, check out our Dragon Ball neck gaiters.

A Saiyan born at Toei, reworked by Toriyama

Bardock wasn't invented by Akira Toriyama: he's a Toei creation, built on Goku's design. The TV special was directed by Mitsuo Hashimoto from a script by Takao Koyama and Katsuyuki Sumisawa; too busy with the manga, Toriyama left creative control to the studio.

Animator Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru is the main designer of Bardock and his team. In his first version, Bardock had a longer scar, spikier hair closer to Vegeta's, and lighter green armor; the final design, reworked by Toriyama, gives him a hairstyle similar to Goku's, a shorter scar and a cold, stern look. According to Nakatsuru, the armor was inspired, at the director's request, by that of the character played by Toshirō Mifune in Seven Samurai.

Like the other Saiyans, whose names come from vegetables, Bardock gets his name from the English word burdock. In Japanese, Masako Nozawa voices him, just as she voices Goku; in English, Sonny Strait, also Funimation's voice of Krillin, voices him in the 2000 dub of the TV special, and again in Cooler's Revenge, in the series and in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

Bardock facing forward, stern-looking, green scouter over his eye and a scar on his cheek, in black, blue and green armor in front of a rock wall.
The design chosen for the 1990 TV special: Goku's face, a scar on the cheek, a cold, stern look and battle armor.

🗿 With his scar and battle armor, Bardock is recognizable at first glance; to display that silhouette on a shelf, browse our Dragon Ball figures, including a Bardock figure.

Dragon Ball Minus and the Broly movie: saving Kakarot

Moved by the character's story, Toriyama, who had only shown him briefly in his manga, gives him a real role in the official continuity with Dragon Ball Minus, a special chapter published in Japan on April 4, 2014, in the collected volume of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. In an interview that same year, he explained that Bardock and his wife Gine are among the few Saiyans bound by real affection.

In this chapter, Frieza orders all Saiyans to return to Planet Vegeta; Bardock, suspicious, learns that the tyrant's men are asking around about the legend of the Super Saiyan. Kakarot has been in his incubator for three years. When Gine, surprised that a Saiyan would worry about his children, brings it up, Bardock replies that her gentleness is a disease that has infected him too.

Bardock steals a space pod and sends Kakarot into space; a month later, Frieza comes to destroy the planet. The chapter doesn't show Bardock facing the tyrant: it's the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly, in 2018, that adds this showdown.

In the movie, Bardock explains that Kakarot, with his low potential, would have been sent somewhere else anyway; when Gine asks him why he's doing this, he replies that after so many years of invading planets, he wanted to save something. As the pod lifts off, Gine shouts to her son not to forget them. Later, alone, Bardock fires an energy attack against Frieza's, which overpowers it: his armor burns away and he dies with the planet.

At night, under a starry sky, Bardock carries a white space pod with a red porthole on his shoulder, with Gine walking beside him.
In the movie Dragon Ball Super: Broly, Bardock, with Gine at his side, carries at night the space pod meant to take Kakarot far away from Planet Vegeta.
Black T-shirt printed with Bardock in armor, a black-haired child nestled against him, in front of a red planet, with his name in Japanese.

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In the series: from a flashback to Dragon Ball Super

A Toei character, Bardock only enters the manga after the TV special aired: in chapter 307, Frieza sees in Goku, who has come to fight him, a resemblance to the Saiyan who stood up to him, and the narrator points out that this was Goku's father. In the anime series, he appears in a flashback in the 78th episode of Dragon Ball Z, aired in Japan on February 13, 1991.

The movie Cooler's Revenge opens with the scene from the TV special in which Frieza destroys Planet Vegeta, and in Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan, where Bardock doesn't appear, Paragus recognizes Goku as Bardock's son.

In the Dragon Ball Super manga (chapter 77), a flashback shows Bardock, during the invasion of a planet, sparing young Granolah and his mother as he thinks of his own son. Vegeta then reveals that Bardock was Goku's father, which is how Goku learns the name of his father. Later, Goku is given Bardock's scouter as a keepsake.

Bardock, red headband and blood-streaked face, torn pants, charging with arms spread wide through a swarm of armored soldiers, against a red background.
The Saiyan who stood up to Frieza: Bardock in his red headband, facing the tyrant's soldiers, in a flashback from the Dragon Ball Z anime series.

Episode of Bardock, the “what if…” story

Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock is a three-chapter manga by Naho Ōishi, serialized in V Jump magazine from June to August 2011; according to its author, it's a “what if…” story. Having survived Frieza's attack, Bardock wakes up in the distant past on Planet Plant, the former name of Planet Vegeta. Enraged after Chilled, an ancestor of Frieza, strikes Berry, a child who came to the Saiyan's aid, he transforms into a Super Saiyan and easily defeats Chilled.

The anime adaptation was unveiled at the Jump Festa event in December 2011; in France, Dragon Ball: Episode of Bardock was released straight to DVD and Blu-ray on June 20, 2018. Bardock also appears in nearly 30 video games: in March 2018, he joined Dragon Ball FighterZ along with Broly as the game's first downloadable characters.

Super Saiyan Bardock, golden hair and red headband, blocking Chilled's fist with his hand in a halo of yellow energy.
In the anime adaptation of Episode of Bardock, Bardock, now a Super Saiyan, blocks with his palm the fist of Chilled, an ancestor of Frieza.

Bardock at a glance

Key fact Bardock
Japanese name バーダック Bādakku, from the English word “burdock”
Family Gine (wife), Raditz and Goku (sons)
First appearance The TV special Bardock – The Father of Goku, aired in Japan on October 17, 1990
Creation Toei Animation (designed by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, reworked by Akira Toriyama); developed by Toriyama in 2014 in Dragon Ball Minus
English names Bardock in Funimation's dub; Burdock in Viz's English translation of the manga
Voices Masako Nozawa (Japanese); Sean Schemmel (English)

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Who is Bardock?
    He's a low-class Saiyan warrior, the father of Raditz and Goku, and Gine's husband.
  • Was Bardock created by Akira Toriyama?
    No. He's a Toei Animation creation for a 1990 TV special. Toriyama first slipped him briefly into his manga, in chapter 307, then gave him a real role in 2014 in Dragon Ball Minus.
  • Why does Bardock send Goku to Earth?
    It depends on the version. In the 1990 TV special, he isn't the one who sends him: the newborn leaves like any ordinary Saiyan baby, tasked with destroying life on Earth. In Dragon Ball Minus and the Broly movie, Bardock steals a pod to save him from Frieza.
  • Who is Goku's mother?
    Gine, Bardock's wife, introduced by Akira Toriyama in 2014.
  • Does Bardock become a Super Saiyan?
    Yes, in Episode of Bardock, a “what if…” story by Naho Ōishi, in which he defeats Chilled, an ancestor of Frieza. Video games such as Dragon Ball Heroes and Xenoverse 2, as well as the promotional anime Super Dragon Ball Heroes, also have him go Super Saiyan, and even beyond.
  • Who voices Bardock?
    In Japanese, Masako Nozawa. In English, Sonny Strait, in Funimation's dub of the TV special as well as in Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

🧳 In Dragon Ball Minus, Bardock sends Kakarot to Earth in a space pod, an armored shell that protects him throughout the journey; to protect your own suitcase from scratches in the cargo hold, dress it in one of our Dragon Ball luggage covers.

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