Dragon Ball Super Artist Shares Sketch of Great Ape Bardock

Goku wouldn’t be the Saiyan warrior we know today if it weren’t for the actions of his father, Bardock, who sacrificed himself in a bid to save his race from the alien despot Freeza and jettison his son from the Planet Vegeta, and one of the artists behing Dragon Ball Super‘s manga has taken the opportunity to highlight the deceased Saiyan warrior in his Great Ape form. Toyotaro, the artist who got his start creating fan made Dragon Ball manga, has hit the big time yet still continues to supply sketches of characters that you wouldn’t normally see in the main series!

Bardock in the main continuity died when facing off against Freeza, but a side story saw him actually travelling back in time as a result of the earth destroying attack wherein he learned how to become a Super Saiyan. Facing off against one of Freeza’s ancestors, the story of Bardock came to a close with this one-off episode, but his legacy has continued through his son in the franchise of Dragon Ball. More often than not, Bardock and his crew of Saiyan mercenaries would rely on the power up of the Oozaru, as their Great Ape forms would give them ten times their normal strength when they accessed it. Though we don’t see Oozaru as much as Super Saiyan these days, it is still a striking design in the franchise created by Akira Toriyama!

Dragon Ball Super Artist Toyotaro shared this impressive sketch that shows us Bardock in his Great Ape form, back in the days when the father of Goku was working under the heel of Freeza and blasting across the universe to overtake planets and sell them on the black market:

Though we don’t foresee Bardock making an appearance in the current Dragon Ball Super story line, Dragon Ball Heroes is a different story all together, with the father of Goku having appeared before in the spin-off story that originally started as an arcade game!

What do you think of this impressive sketch of Great Ape Bardock? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Dragon Ball!