Dragon Ball Z Special 1: Tatta Hitori no Saishuu Kessen

Unlike the other movies regarding the DBZ series, this one is different as it does not focus on Goku yet alone any other of the Z Fighthers.

Story - The Story of Bardock, The Father of Goku, takes place before the events of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z and explains how Goku wound up on Earth.
Bardock is a Saiyan who (with his other team members) want to rise from the tyranny of Frieza and make the Planet Vegeta a free place not ruled by Frieza.

Art - It is what you would expect from any Dragon Ball Z episode.

Sound - Pretty much what ... I said above. But the voice direction and emotion from Bardock is top notch.

Character - Bardock, has got to be one of my more beloved DBZ characters....outside of the DBZ Fighters. He has that same never say die attitude as Goku, but that brash, ruthlessness as Vegeta. Just everything about him screams EPIC!!!

Enjoyment - I really enjoyed this DBZ special. You get to see how Goku wound up on Earth, what Bardock originally thought of his son and the Saiyan rebels try to take on Frieza.

Overall - For any fan of DBZ, you will love this special. I know I did.

[Watched with Original English Dub with Japanese Score]

[Keep in mind this review is more focused on the dub and how it affects the product overall. The subbed version of the special is easily an 8 or 9 out of 10]

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Honestly this special looks and sounds great. The score perfectly compliments the visuals being presented, and you have a great tragic tale that is not often seen in the Dragon Ball franchise. I would recommend it to any Dragon Ball fan...

Unfortunately, everything was ruined by the meme worthy dub. Whoever approved this script must have been insane, and the voice acting in general was incredibly poor. ... I get that people may have nostalgia for the English dub, but so much of it didn't work at all. I found myself laughing at some of the enemy voices and lines, and scratching my head at some of the logical deductions made. I watched a few other English Dragon Ball films after this one, and the dub got much better, especially with the later Buu Arc ones. But as it stands, this dub taints what is one of the best specials/movies in all of Dragon Ball.

Do yourself a favor and skip out on the Dub on this one, it isn't worth it...

The Sub is worth it... at least here.

Sadly, this is nothing more than a poor fanfiction of Dragonball. A normal review would merely discuss the work itself, but to do that over looks a fair bit of provenance that is what really decided the audience view of this work. Many people enjoy this due to the portrayal and inclusion of Bardock. While it is incredibly interesting to hear the backstory of Goku's father, none of it is true in the slightest. It is a pure fanfiction. Bardock, while being Goku's father, has none of the qualities present in this portrayal of him. Bardock is not like Vegeta, a heartless warrior Saiyan, but ... closer to a Leonidas Spartan warrior, who actually did care for Goku, and cared for his wife. Yes, they are a warrior society, but none of that precludes the existence of love for a child. It makes no sense that Bardock wouldn't care about Goku if your child is what decides the success of your dynasty. Vegeta cares about his honor because he is the son of a King, and wants to do his race proud. In this special, Bardock cares about fighting cause, uh, he just likes to fight? That makes no sense. I understand the writers viewed Saiyans that way, but we've come to see that original view of Saiyan's as bloodthirsty warriors is nothing but confirmation bias based on the few Saiyan's we have seen in the series. It's clear the majority of saiyans, while a warrior cult, function similar to the limbic reactions any "monkey" or ape would have. This was always the basis of the confrontation between Freiza and Goku, and removing those differences by retconning Goku's father as some Vegeta like cruel warrior defeats the archetypal confrontation between Reptile and Ape. The very core of Dragonball was the battle between these two evolutionary paths in the universe, and Freiza's view of saiyans was always based on their inferiority as warm blooded chimps. To remove mamalian care based raising from an ape race totally ruins the entire race. This series is not just bad, but arguably destroys the entire DBZ canon and defeats the purpose of Freiza as a character. It's no wonder the fanfiction direction DBZ has taken since, given the fans acceptance of such a terrible movie in the canon.

Toriyama's comments do nothing but prove this point, as westerners once again fail to read between the lines of Japanese speech. By saying he "enjoyed this movie" Toriyama was ACTIVELY SAYING THIS WAS A BAD MOVIE. He enjoyed it, as a movie, not as a piece of Dragonball lore. The idea of Bardock was good, but nothing beyond "Goku has a father". Toriyama rejected the entire portrayal of Bardock, so to even enjoy this version of Bardock betrays the existence of Goku's personality.

Anyone who thinks "YOU CAN NOW SEE THE FUTURE BARDOCK" is a good plot line is high and doesn't know anything about Dragonball. It's just bad, and I do not understand how anyone actually thinks that's a good plot. It's the worst, cringiest plot line i've ever seen in Dragonball. It's Naruto filler level of garbage that has become accepted by the fandom just because of the cultural perception behind a Dragonball special about Goku's father.