Dragon Ball Z Character Designer Who Created Bardock Shares Feelings on Akira Toriyama’s Remake

Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, the “father” of Goku’s father, Bardock, has opened up about the character being portrayed differently from his original Dragon Ball Z special by the late Akira Toriyama in Dragon Ball Super: Broly. The 2018 anime movie also brought the legendary Super Saiyan Broly back to the mainline series alongside Goku and Vegeta’s fusion form, Gogeta.

Nakatsuru, a renowned animator and character designer who’s also responsible for Super Saiyan 4 Goku in Dragon Ball GT, was interviewed by @/SofianLeGEEK during his appearance at Made in Asia Spring 2025, which took place in Brussels, Belgium, from March 7 to 9, 2025. The interview was translated by social media user @/Venixys on X (formerly Twitter). In the interview, Nakatsuru is asked about his feelings toward Toriyama’s depiction of Bardock, which portrayed the brutal Saiyan warrior as more sympathetic than the one seen in the 1990 anime TV special. Additionally, the Dragon Ball Super: Broly version of Bardock and his wife, Gine, made the Superman comparisons between Clark Kent/Kal-El and Goku/Kakarot even more apparent.

Related

Dragon Ball DAIMA Character Designer Teases Super Saiyan 4 Goku Can Beat Super Saiyan Blue

Dragon Ball settles the power-level debate between Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Super Saiyan Blue Goku in a recent Daima interview.

Posts

DBZ Character Designer on Father of Bardock vs. Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Close

“Toriyama-sensei acknowledged Bardock in the original manga, and I remember we were all very happy in the studio,” Nakatsuru said. “I can’t explain why he was later reworked, but even today, I feel very honored that Toriyama-sensei integrated the characters we created into the original work.” Although the decision to turn Goku from a fantasy hero to a sci-fi alien warrior was Toriyama’s, the backstory of Bardock and the Saiyan race who worked for Frieza before they were betrayed and eliminated by the evil space merchant was developed by Toei Animation — in particular, Mitsuo Hashimoto and Takao Koyama, the respective director and writer of The Father of Goku.

Although Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku was an anime-original special created to capitalize on the “Frieza” saga when it aired in Japan — premiering in between Episodes 63 and 64 of Dragon Ball Z — it has gained critical acclaim for its dark and emotional story about Bardock coming to terms with the forthcoming genocide of his race by the hands of Frieza and being powerless to stop it, despite being “gifted” with the power to see into the future by one of his victims. Toriyama finalized Nakatsuru’s design of Bardock and lightheartedly downplayed his contribution in his comments for the home media release, as translated by Kanzenshuu.

“Well, even calling it a ‘design,’ with regards to Bardock, all I really did was take Goku and give him the brutal edge of a warrior race,” Toriyama said, “and dress him in the battle armor provided by Frieza’s forces, so I can’t have gone to too much trouble. When I saw the finished episode, I remember feeling a good bit of admiration. With my works, I prefer lighthearted fare, so I have a tendency to avoid serious material. Even if I had written about the same past, it would have become lighter in tone by far. Thanks to this, I felt as though even Dragon Ball had been given a little bit more depth.”

Related

Dragon Ball DAIMA Producer Implies Dragon Ball Super Is an ‘Alternate Sequel’ to Akira Toriyama’s Manga

Dragon Ball Super as an alternate DBZ sequel is considered following confirmation of Daima as the official continuation by the late Akira Toriyama.

Posts

Toriyama’s comments about preferring to write lighthearted stories may explain why his reworking of Bardock in Dragon Ball Super: Broly was — intentional or not — less barbaric than the one in the DBZ special. Although Dragon Ball Super: Broly is considered one of the best Dragon Ball movies in the franchise, some fans remain disappointed by the softening of the Saiyan anti-hero. Arguably, it follows a troubling trend of fan-favorite problematic characters becoming “one of the good guys” in modernized updates to longstanding franchises like Dragon Ball.

All episodes of Dragon Ball Daima, the franchise’s newest anime iteration, are available to stream on Crunchyroll. The English dub, starring Stephanie Nadolny as Goku (Mini), has begun premiering one new episode per week from Jan. 10. “Goku and company were living peaceful lives when they suddenly turned small due to a conspiracy!” the series’ official description reads. “When they discover that the reason for this may lie in a world known as the ‘Demon Realm,’ a mysterious young Majin named Glorio appears before them.”

Dragon Ball

Created by Akira Toriyama

First Film Dragon Ball: Curse of the Blood Rubies

Latest Film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

First TV Show Dragon Ball

Latest TV Show Dragon Ball DAIMA

Summary

Dragon Ball is the labor of writer/illustrator Akira Toriyama, beginning with Dragon Ball back in 1984. The series originally started as a serialized manga back in Weekly Shonen Jump for nearly a decade until it expanded into the anime franchises it is most known for today. Dragon Ball was later adapted into two animes, with one being Dragon Ball Z, the most universally known series in the entire Dragon Ball canon. The franchise has continued to expand lore via films, video games, and additional sequel TV series, such as the more recent Dragon Ball Super and Super Dragon Ball Heroes. Dragon Ball centers mostly around Son Goku, a being known as a Saiyan, and his friends as they face off against intergalactic threats and seek out the titular dragon balls. When all seven of these balls are collected, they can be used to summon a legendary dragon that can grant the wishes of whoever so gathers them. The Dragon Ball franchise continues to be one of the most well-known and beloved animes of all time, with over forty different countries airing it, and has had a tremendous impact on Western culture as a whole.

Expand

Source: YouTube, X (formerly Twitter)