Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku

The main protagonists of the film: Shugesh, Bardock, Borgos, Tora and Fasha

The special tells the story of Bardock, a so-called low-level soldier in Frieza's armed forces. At the outset of the story, his youngest son, Kakarot, is born on Planet Vegeta, and is being prepared to be sent to a "frontier planet" (Earth) in order to exterminate all life there. Meanwhile, Bardock and his crew are on an assignment to slaughter the inhabitants of Planet Kanassa, which they easily accomplish by using the planet's full moon to transform into Great Apes. The next morning, after every last Kanassan is seemingly wiped out, Bardock and his crew rest up and celebrate their victory until one surviving warrior catches him off-guard and decides to give him the "gift" of seeing the future as his way to torment him, before being destroyed by Bardock. This haunts Bardock with visions of the destruction of Planet Vegeta, and the oppression of the entire universe at the hands of Frieza.

Bardock dismisses the visions and goes to join his team on Planet Meat, only to discover most of them dead, and his best friend Tora mortally wounded. Before he succumbs to his injuries, Tora reveals that Bardock's squad was betrayed and killed by Frieza's henchman Dodoria and his elite soldiers, and that Frieza ordered the attack on the crew due to him becoming paranoid about the growing power of the Saiyans. Horrified and enraged by his fallen friend's last words, he takes Tora's blood-soaked armband and wraps it around his head, creating a makeshift bandana. He then battles Dodoria's Elite and defeats them all, only to be easily overwhelmed by a single mouth blast from Dodoria. He is left severely injured, but manages to return to Planet Vegeta.

Now realizing that Frieza intends to destroy the entire Saiyan race by annihilating their homeworld, Bardock attempts to convince the other Saiyans of the danger that they are all in, but everyone laughs at his claims. Bardock thus begins a final one-man assault against Frieza and his men. After fighting his way through Frieza's armed guard, Bardock sends a large energy blast at the tyrant himself, expecting a sure victory. However, Frieza counters this with his deadly Supernova technique, killing Bardock, many of his own soldiers, and destroys Planet Vegeta. Right before dying, Bardock sees one more vision of the future: his son Kakarot engaging in a climactic battle against Frieza. Being assured that Kakarot will be the one to defeat Frieza, Bardock gives a small smile as he along with Planet Vegeta are engulfed by the supernova. After his demise, Bardock telepathically wishes Kakarot to carry out his will and avenge his people and their home planet. At the same moment, Kakarot, who is still in his space pod, wakes up.

Elsewhere, having just completed an assignment on a far-off world, Vegeta is informed by Nappa of his homeworld's destruction, and that Frieza claims that the planet was destroyed by a huge meteor. Vegeta's pride keeps him from expressing his shock, and he remains outwardly emotionless. Soon afterwards, Kakarot's space pod touches down on Earth, where he is found by an elderly man named Gohan and giggles happily in the old man's arms. Gohan then decides to adopt the boy as his own grandson, and gives him a new name: Goku.

As the credits roll, scenes are shown of Goku's many heroic deeds on Earth, including his battles against the Red Ribbon Army, Tien Shinhan, King Piccolo, Piccolo Jr., Nappa and Vegeta, culminating with an image of Goku about to battle Frieza on Namek, with the spirits of Bardock and his fellow Saiyans watching him in the background.

• OP (Opening Theme):
  • "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA"
    • Lyrics by Yukinojō Mori
    • Music by Chiho Kiyooka
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Hironobu Kageyama
• IN (Insert Song):
  • "Solid State Scouter" (ソリッドステート・スカウター, Soriddosutēto Sukautā)
    • Music and arrangement: Fuminori Iwazaki
    • Voice: TOKIO
    • Instrumentation: Dragon Magic Orchestra
• ED (Ending Theme):
  • Hikari no Tabi (光の旅, "Journey of Light")
    • Lyrics by Dai Satō
    • Music by Chiho Kiyooka
    • Arranged by Kenji Yamamoto
    • Performed by Hironobu Kageyama and KŪKO (Waffle)

The song "Solid State Scouter" by Dragon Magic Orchestra is a homage to the Japanese synthpop band Yellow Magic Orchestra, specifically their 1979 album Solid State Survivor.

• Official anime website of Toei Animation
• Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku at the Internet Movie Database
• Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia