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March 2014 “Saikyō Jump” Akira Toriyama Q&A
Published by 02 February 2014, 10:04 AM EST

This week’s upcoming March 2014 issue of Saikyō Jump in Japan contains a wealth of new and bonus Dragon Ball material, namely a “Super Kanzenban” reprint of Naho Ooishi’s Episode of Bardock manga (originally published in three chapters over the June, July, and August 2011 issues of V-Jump), itself containing the original three chapters and two bonus pages, a six-page spread of SD (“super deformed”)-related content, and a ten-question Q&A session with original Dragon Ball manga author Akira Toriyama.

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While most recent Toriyama Q&As have been tied to the film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and went into detail with story bits in that film alone, this new Q&A naturally goes into Bardock’s family a little bit, which includes dropping the biggest naming-a-charcter bombshell since the reveal of Mr. Satan’s true name: in this case, Toriyama has finally given a name to Goku’s mother!

As for her appearance and such, you’ll find out if you read the bonus comic in the collected release of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman. Her name was Gine, and a long time ago, she fought on a four-person team together with Bardock.

Gine had a gentle personality and wasn’t cut out as a warrior, being repeatedly saved from danger by Bardock. At that time, a special emotion was born between them. Normally, Saiyans don’t have much of a notion of romance or marriage, and apart from the royal family of Vegeta, they aren’t particular about blood-relationships. Being in among all that, I suppose you could say that the pair of Bardock and Gine were those rare Saiyans who were joined by a bond other than for the purpose of reproduction. Incidentally, Gine, who was not cut out as a warrior, would go on to work at the meat distribution center on Planet Vegeta.

ギネ (gine with a hard “G” sound at the beginning and an “eh” sound at the end) is likely an anagram of ネギ (negi) or “green onion” (also known as “spring onion” or “scallions”) and, as noted, will be shown off in the bonus pages of Jaco the Galactic Patrolman in this coming April’s collected edition of said manga.

If nothing else, though it was already rather heavily implied, those willing to accept new information from the author in 2014 can put to rest any rumors about Selypa being Goku’s mother.

Toriyama also goes on to mention that, were there to be another movie in the future, he might like to let Vegeta have a little bit of the spotlight (an interesting turn of opinion from his original thoughts on the character):

As for Vegeta, in the event that there’s talk of another animated film, then next time, I’d like him to play the main role. (Of course, this is nothing more than intentions, and I haven’t decided anything at all.)

The full ten-question Q&A has been archived on a new page in our “Translations” section. Special thanks to @manganewsjapon for providing us with the full text as we wait for someone to actually sell us the darn magazine in Japan (silly release dates!), officially due out 04 February 2014.

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10 Comments

  • Fizzer says:

    Oh wow, there’s so much cool in-universe stuff in this interview!

  • Daimakku says:

    Awesome interview! I’m glad they’ve finally touched on the topic of Goku’s mom.

    I would’ve liked Toriyama respond to whether Tarble being Vegeta’s little brother is canon or not. I think he was mentioned in BoG too, but I just refuse to believe it’s canon. He was such a bad and useless character. And I like to blame some of Vegeta’s selfish personality on the fact that he was an only child. Tarble being real makes that theory false.

    • shreddinghead says:

      I see Tarble as a counter part to Vegeta’s aggressive personality, like Raditz’s sneakish evil ways is to Goku’s good nature.

    • Daimakku says:

      But Goku is only good natured because he hit his head on a rock as a baby that (kind of) gave him brain damage. Grandpa Gohan then raised him to be a good boy. That’s it. With this new information, you could also argue that he got his sympathetic ways from his mom too, but that’s more of a retcon now.

      Tarble, however, is a normal Saiyan. Normal, pure-bred saiyans do not lack the sympathy that Goku possesses naturally. Him being good natured simply doesn’t make sense. It makes it even worse when Frieza clearly states before fighting Goku that he only left THREE Saiyans alive. Vegeta, Raditz and Nappa. You’d think he would know that a Saiyan prince is also out there somewhere in the wild.

      Simply put, I’m not liking all these new retcons they’re inserting into the main canon now.

    • I don’t see the retcon yet? Jaco still shows Goku having attacked Son Gohan after he exited his ship. As of right now, he still needs to fall down that canyon and whack his head or whatever to become docile.

      Um…that’s his entire point? He was a defect and a disgrace to not only the royal lineage, but Saiyans in general. That’s why he was sent off planet and what makes him a fairly Toriyama-esque character: he’s not what you expect. As for why Freeza didn’t mention him? Maybe he was such a defect that Freeza didn’t even consider him a Saiyan, nevermind a threat. Or perhaps it wasn’t until after Freeza’s death that Abo and Kado learned about him on accident while trying to conquer the planet he lived on. Since their goal was to make sure all Saiyans were dead after Freeza fell to one, they decide not to take any chances on him.

      Really though, not that I want more of them, but I have no problem with any number of Saiyans surviving Vegeta’s destruction. I mean, Freeza didn’t even know about Goku and he was practically right there when he launched in the TV Special. You’d think the radar would have picked up his ship like it did Bardock’s.

    • shreddinghead says:

      It doesn’t have to be a logical explanation from a biological view, it’s a cartoon. I think Toriyama made Tarble a opposite to Vegeta’s personality as a twist on the opposite nature of Goku and his brother Raditz, to intrigue fans. It’s just a thought.

  • jrdemr says:

    Probably one of the best interviews Toriyama ever gave.

    Also, just something I noticed regarding the third footnote, didn’t Vegeta also say that Saiyans have a long youth on one of the final chapters of Dragon Ball?

  • shreddinghead says:

    This is great news! The origin of Goku’s mother is like the missing piece in his genealogy.

  • soulnova says:

    YES! YESSSSSS!!! FINALLY!!! I CANT BELIEVE IT!

    *hyperventilates*

    Ok! OK! Now, we are only missing Vegeta’s mother. C’mon Toriyama… you have come this far. If Vegeta is the main character of the next movie… then just go the extra mile and tell us about his mother too. YES!?

  • shmike says:

    “At that time, a special emotion was born between them. Normally, Saiyans don’t have much of a notion of romance or marriage, and apart from the royal family of Vegeta, they aren’t particular about blood-relationships. Being in among all that, I suppose you could say that the pair of Bardock and Gine were those rare Saiyans who were joined by a bond other than for the purpose of reproduction.”

    …except for that part where he didn’t visit his wife after giving birth to Kakarotto…or warning her about Frieza…or feeling anything after he got randomly launched back in time…

    Just Saiyan 🙂

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