Dragon Ball Talk

Exploring the Extended Universe! Dragon Ball Minus

Every Saturday, before I write my Super episode review, I will be reviewing parts of the Dragon Ball Extended Universe. To start, I will be going over Dragon Ball Minus! Goku's true origin story! 

Dragon Ball Minus is a special chapter at the very end of the Jaco manga (which I will cover next). It entails the story of how Bardock saves Goku from Frieza's hand. 

Spoiler Warning!!

We start our journey with Bardock fighting an alien race on an unnamed planet. He is with an unnamed Saiyan who gets an order from his scouter. "All Saiyans are to return to Planet Vegeta at once!"

Bardock is already suspicious of Frieza's motive in doing this but decides to follow the order. Upon arriving at Planet Vegeta, the Saiyans are greeted by another unnamed Saiyan who says that Frieza's men have been talking about the Legendary Super Saiyan.

The scene then transitions to Frieza ship where Frieza speaks of his plans for eradicating the Saiyans before an uprising occurs. It then shifts to Kid Vegeta and Raditz on a different planet. They decide to ignore the order. 

The scene shifts back to Bardock who is walking to his home. Upon entering, he is greeted by Gine, his wife. After a hug, Gine explains to Bardock that Raditz is now a soldier and is on his own mission with Vegeta. (Bardock makes a comment about Vegeta being a trouble maker)

Afterwards, asks if Kakarot (Goku) is still in his incubator to which Gine responds with "Yes, it's been three years now." They both go visit Kakarot in his incubator, and Bardock states that Kakarot has grown a lot and even has his crazy hair. Then, he tells Gine that he wants to send Kakarot away from this planet. 

Shocked to hear this request, Gine refuses to do that to her child until Bardock explains that if Frieza truly is to eradicate the Saiyans, Kakarot must be the one to survive. Then, the night of the attack, the two head out to a field with Kakarot in a space pod. They say their final goodbyes to him and just like that, Kakarot is gone. 

The scene shifts to the Galactic Patrol HQ where the Galactic King orders Jaco to follow Kakarot's space pod. Jaco does follow, but nothing is known after that as the chapter ends. It is presumed that Jaco had been sidetracked (as it's in his nature) and forgot about Kakarot. 

The chapter ends with Goku standing face to face with Frieza before their epic battle on Namek.

ANALYSIS: 

Now that you have either read the chapter itself or read my extremely detailed summary, you might've noticed a few things. First, unlike in Bardock the Father of Goku, Bardock is actually a caring father who worries for not just Kakarot, but also Gine and Raditz. Some of you may not like this, but I personally think it's great! Bardock is still the badass that confronts Frieza to the very end but is genuinely a good father like Goku (I will be writing a post on this soon!).

Another thing about this special chapter is the introduction of Goku's mother, Gine. Gine was a more typical mother. Gentle and kind hearted like Goku and her grandson Gohan and Goten. Also, she genuinely cared for Bardock as well which is very uncommon within Saiyans who only got together for breeding purposes. 

Rating: 8/10 

This chapter was splendid! It had that Dragon Ball feel to it! Again, some of you may not like that Bardock is a more caring father/husband, but I personally liked it. The only problems that I had with it were it left out Bardocks confrontation with Frieza and had a bit of a plothole. Jaco never came to Earth to complete his mission. Honestly, had Toriyama replaced the Jaco bit with Bardock's confrontation of Frieza, this chapter would've been better! 

Then again, this is all just my opinion. What do y'all think? Like and follow if you enjoyed! Be sure to stay tuned for my Super episode 106 review! Have a great day!

Batty_And_Bubbly
HayleyDBZ
Gokuisthegreatest