STORY: Long, long ago, Frieza blew some shit up, killed Goku's father (And every other saiyan on their home planet) and became a major asshole, but what if, what if Goku's father, Bardock, actually survived and instead was sent back so-and-so years ago and became the first of the legendary super saiyans of legend to exist or something along those lines. That is pretty much the premise of this short OVA, and I'll be blunt, put aside my fanboy eyeglasses for a sec, and outright say: that's dumb, really dumb.
Dumb, yet very cool in a sense that if you don't think about it to much, and just go along with it. This ova isn't the pinnacle of DBZ's story potential (Blasting shit to kingdom come is), and honestly feels more like a tribute to Dragon ball than anything else. For starters, Bardock's personality is very similar to how Piccolo was when he was training Gohan after Goku's death back in the beginning of Dragonball Z, cold, antisocial, and does nothing but train, but slowly opens up to a youngster, in this case, a member of an alien species who are practicably existing for the purpose of hinting clues to the viewer where Bardock actually ended up.
And where he ended up is and where the story goes from there is practicably a homage to the original Goku Frieza conflict, where eventually, Bardock ends up becoming a super saiyan (Almost exactly how Goku did).
But, the simple story and meh build up isn't what the problem of this ova is, it's what any DBZ fan can point out, heck anyone for that matter. It's almost impossible for anyone to actually fall for this set up, Frieza "kills" Bardock, not some how blasts him through time, that's preposterous. What about every other person "killed" by Frieza for that matter, where'd they end up if could Bardock survive that blast and why just Bardock? Though it really isn't important, because this is nothing more than a nice pat on the head for dragon ball fans, despite how head scratching the premise.
And personally, I enjoyed this a lot, it's interesting from a canon point (If it's place in dragon ball's continuity isn't in question) and is just a nice treat for the fans of Bardock (All ten of them ha ha).
ANIMATION: Because this is where it makes up for the stories shortcomings, this is probably the best the dragon ball series has ever looked, bright and very colorful, nice and smooth animation, and a very well animated fight at the end (This also does a small loud out to the most popular of the dbz movie villains). If I'm going to complain, it would be the character designs, where everyone, but Bardock and other original dragon ball characters, look odd, and just silly (Even for dragon ball standards).
SOUND: Well, just your generic dragon ball japanese sound track playing, and the voice acting does a fair job, except Bardock himself, sounds very screechy, almost irritating, but makes it clear where Goku got his high pitched voice from.
OVERALL:
The Good:
+ A fun new dragon ball story.
+ Great animation, with an impressive fight at the end.
The Bad:
- If it mattered, there's a good amount of continuity problems that would bug any dragon ball fan.
- Premise is too far fetched to believe, db fan or not.
Maybe it's canon, maybe it's not (And it's definitely not), it's just entertaining and probably be best to be treated as one of those what if scenarios the games throw out, which at least it's a better crafted story than Spike the Devilman defeating Cyborg Frieza and his father.
