Jaco the Galactic Patrolman by Akira Toriyama (Manga, 2013)

This week I take a look at a relatively new 'one shot' Manga series by Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama titled Jaco the Galactic Patrolman, which follows the story of Jaco and Alien who works for the Galactic Patrolmen and his mission to earth to stop a recently launched Saiyan pod from landing and destroying the human race. Along the way Jaco crash lands and befriends the earthlings while he works to fix his damaged ship and ultimately complete his mission.

Yes that's right, Jaco is set in the same universe as Dragonball and briefly has some cameos with characters from that series, however it if very much it's own story. The best way I could describe it is as Prometheus is to the Alien franchise, in that it is set in the same world, may have the same themes at times and call backs to certain characters and such as the original but is very much a smaller story that may or may not lead in to the events of its predecessor.

The very brief outline of the story after Jaco lands is that he befriends a scientist, Omori who he asks to help him repair his ship, as they slowly begin to bond they decide to go to the local city to pick up some supplies, it is here where they find a young girl, Tights in danger after being cornered by some theives and soon rescue her. After returning to Omori's Island the gang begin to find ways in which they can repair the ship. We soon learn that Tights is going to be sent in to space and unfortunately that her rocket malfunctions leaving Jaco to save her. Because of this heroic feat Tights decides to get her family and the Capsule corporation to help Jaco. After the ship is repaired and Jaco considers his mission complete we are shown a brief overview of the next few years and see Bulma visit the gang before she heads off on her very own adventure to find the 7 dragon balls.

This Manga was originally published weekly in 2013 issues of Weekly Shounen Jump and was written and drawn by Toriyama personally, in mid 2014 it was then released as a collected volume in Japan and finally in the US and UK in January 2015. Described as 'a slightly foolish, fun story... of friendship, and poison.' by Toriyama this was originally supposed to be released around the same time as Battle of Gods but as Toriyama is known for his perfectionism he got quite far behind as he was doing 'most of the work' alone.

In a comment on the Manga left by Toriyama he admittedly states 'There aren’t many action-scenes, and no cool characters appear. It won’t make you emotional, there are no thrills or suspense, and of course, it’s not the sort of wholesome work that will remain in your heart.' He seems to have just wanted the freedom to do a small project of his own much like that of Sandland and even took to using only a computer to produce the work as he wanted a 'picture-book' feel to it. He states he feels as though is it cool that it was being released worldwide but did worry that a lot of Dragonball fans would not enjoy it due to its lack of action and Japanese themes.

It is clear that Toriyama was doing something 'different' with this Manga and whether or not that would be received well was still unclear to him at the time, hopefully with this review I will be able to explain what exactly is different with this series and where its strengths and weaknesses are, but first lets look at the main characters.

We'll start with the titular character Jaco, who is a member of the Galactic patrolmen which is a role that he finds great honour in as he is a 'super elite'. Jaco seems to be modelled on your typical Grey alien with hints of Ultraman about him not only in looks but in his roll as a protector. Jaco Is an interesting character in that he fights for the good of the universe and all of justice, but if he's outmatched or he begins to get annoyed at those who he is protecting he wont hesitate to leave or let the planet be doomed, perhaps this is why he took the job to destory Goku as he knows he is only a child and not a fully grown Saiyan.

This character is the funniest of the three main characters in that he gets rather annoyed at the little things like people being unable to draw his likeness correctly, but also because he is alien and therefore does not get earth customs, one particular part where he shows Tights that he pees from his head by urinating on her and thus missing Goku's ship land on Earth meaning his mission was a waste is probably the funniest part to me.

While he has these moments he is also shown to be a good friend overall and always willing to help out if needed, while he is goofy and does tend to get a lot of things wrong his character is quite refreshing to see and really does carry the cast of this Manga overall, it is easy to see why Toriyama described him as one of his favourite characters he's ever come up with.

Next we move on to Omori who to me was just an okay character I did not really have a problem with him but I really felt like Jaco stole the show. Omori is your typical older guy who has become a loner due to certain circumstances and does not want to be bothered by anyone, this is something we see time and again in films,television and comics so I was pretty happy that Toriyama moved away from that almost instantly with only a few calls backs with Omori saying 'I hate humans' every now and then.

I feel like Toriyama originally wanted to portray Omori as a character similar to that of Mr Fredericksen from UP as we're introduced to him as a widower but this time by his own fault due to creating a time machine and the testing going awry. And although he this does explain his overall grumpiness at the start it is quickly forgotten about, but perhaps this is because Toriyama just wanted to focus on the comedy rather than anything depressing, which would make a lot of sense.

Finally we have Tights who if you had not already guessed with a name like that is Bulmas unheard of older sister and a double for a pop idol who is due to fly in to space to sing because the government thinks it would be a great idea.  We soon learn that she wants to be a sci-fi novelist and has a great interest in anything sci-fi related. We can see examples of this when she finds out that Jaco is not just a kid in a mask but a real alien as she soon forces her way in  to both Jaco and Omori's busines. In this respect she is much like her younger sister who we've seen time and again want to be involved with what the 'a-team' are doing such as going to Namek or wanting to see Freeza when he arrives on Earth.

Tights is quite a likeable character in the same way as Bulma is in that she can actually be useful rather than decoration as we see when she begins to search for and eventually produce the material needed to power Jacos ship. I feel as though her use in the story was needed and she became the balance between Omori's seriousness and Jacos child like nature although I can see why many would feel she is shoehorned in as a link to Dragonball, in a way it is quite simular to the use of Tarble in that they've pretty much thought up an existing characters relation to advance a plot.

But as I've mentioned in other reviews this new expansion of that universe does not particularly bother me and I do welcome it, even if it does slightly change some pre-existing characters or introduce entirely new ones.

There was quite a lot I enjoyed about this Manga, and admittedly I have never really read anything
from Toriyama other than Dragonball and one chapter of Dr Slump but I really did find this refreshing to read, It does retain some original DB charm but at the same time moves in to a comedic tone of it's own with the huge focus on Jaco being an exaggerated Ultraman type hero, you could argue that Tight is a recycled Bulma to some degree but I feel like she bounces off the other characters rather well and in general the cast is pretty good in that regard.

I enjoyed this in its 1 volume format and really don't believe it would work as well as an ongoing series, I have recently picked up some other One-shots from Toriyama and hope they also work well in this format but in Jacos case it really works as a small story that never really had a huge effect on much within the universe it is set in yet that does not mean that it is not a great addition to that world.

I quite enjoyed that this did not particularly focus on any real action save for maybe one or two scenes, from a man famous for his over the top hulking super being battles again this was refreshing, even if it was not in the style of DB in that it focused more on hand to hand battles this Manga worked because it moved away from that area.

The illustrations as always were pretty spot on for a perfectionist like Toriyama and the focus on simple character designs really fit with the tone of this Manga. In all you can tell this is a Manga that Toriyama had a lot of fun with.

As this was only a short story there was not too much that I had a dislike for, other than Omori to some degree. I did find that there was not really too much time to focus on other characters like the government agents who felt like they were meant to be more important than they actually were, some expansion on the Galactic Patrolmen may also have been nice.

People may think that Toriyama is tampering with a series too much at this point and mixing up established facts within that series such as Gokus age as seen in the Dragonball Minus chapter when he lands on Earth and Bulmas sister. However as he wrote it it's something they have to consider as the facts, and while some little things like that do make me think if they were necessary, a lot of the fan community does seem to really dislike it, but I think Toriyama knew this when writing it.

Overall this Manga was quite good, it was nothing amazing in terms of story telling but it felt like something Toriyama would write due to it feeling like the original Dr Slump and Dragonball Mangas as there was some action but overall it is a comedy based story. I think it is pretty cool that Toriyama is expanding on his universes like this as he has done in that past with SandLand also being set in the DB universe, in fact I'm pretty sure the majority of his Mangas do share that universe.

This was definitely refreshing to read for myself as I haven't really read a proper physical Manga in at least 5 years and to have one be purely comedic rather than the like of Berserk and other Mangas I usually read was great, I've certainly thought about ordering some other comedic titles because of it and hope to find something with a similar style.

I would recommend this Manga to anyone who is just looking for a short read, primarily a DB fan of course as it does have a lot of references etc, but I think those who have no knowledge of DB could find some enjoyment out of this for sure. It's just great that we actually got this released in the West and for such a cheap price (in the UK at least) I think you'd be missing out if you did not pick this up at some point.

But we're not done... There was a small extra story included with this Manga, one a lot of fans of DB were probably a lot more interested in.

With the official Mangas release came a  very short (around 6 or so pages) bonus chapter titled Dragonball Minus Which is set around the same time as the Father of Goku TV special and just prior to Jaco. It follows the now slightly changed story of when Goku was sent away from planet Vegeta and also introduces his mother Gine, some examples of Saiyans who are not warriors and the Saiyans knowledge of the Super Saiyan God legend.

The story beings with Bardock returning home after a mission  after Freeza demands that all Saiyans return back to planet Vegeta, Bardock believes there to be something more to this especially when he is told that Freeza has been asking about the legend of the Super Saiyan and the Super Saiyan God. Soon after this Freeza decides in a months time he will destroy the planet as he does not want a potential uprising.

We then see Bardock in a way we've not really seen any pure blooded Saiyans act on their own planet and that is as a proper sort of Husband role in that he returns to his 'wife' and child while the narrator explains as a warmongering race it is quite difficult for them to reproduce. Bardock rather suddenly decides he wants his son to be sent off of planet Vegeta immediately for his own safety as he believes Freeza is up to something.

We find out that it was actually Bardock who programmed Gokus pod for Earth and that Gine was the one to inform Raditz of his whereabouts. As Goku leaves we see his parents look up at the sky and warn him of the Galactic Patrolmen and as this is happening we see Jaco take off for Earth to stop Goku.

Overall I did not mind this chapter but I did find it a bit odd that it did not try to work its way in to the popular Bardock TV special as I felt that almost perfectly set up a good run down to the destruction of planet Vegeta. I feel as though Toriyama could have used a little more time on this chapter rather than just showing Bardock suddenly decide to send Goku away in the span of one panel, he could have easily set this during the TV special and had Bardocks visions be the leading factor in to these decisions and that would not have taken away the introduction of Gine or anything else from this chapter.

I think what is most interesting about this chapter is that slightly changes some parts of Gokus origin such as his age actually being around three years old as he has been in incubation, Bardock being the one to personally send him along with Gine and perhaps Gine being a 'good natured Saiyan' which suggests that perhaps Goku actually got the way he acts from his mothers side as it was apparently not as uncommon as we were lead to believe that a Saiyan could be good natured. But of course this does not change that fact that Goku bumped his head as a child.

While you could argue that of course the special was not specifically made by Toriyama and he only did character designs and some pointers on the plot, it is clear by his decision to add a brief cameo of Bardock in the Freeza saga of the Manga that he did the special or at least the story it presented. Of course as he produced this chapter we sort of have to take this as exactly what happened, but I'm such a huge fan of the TV special I just like to think of this as an accomplice to that even if there are certain contrasts.

I believe that because the TV special is so popular amongst fan that it is no surprise a lot of fans had slight issues with this chapter and found it to be Toriyama meddling with things just to better connect them to the new movie or to boost the sales of a new manga, but then again they released a OVA recently where Bardock was somehow sent to the past and went super Saiyan against freezas descendent, thus starting the fear in that family towards them and this was something that was not written by Toriyama, so I believe this is quite tame when put against something like that.

Overall I did not mind this chapter and felt it was a nice little expansion to the franchise and the Jaco storyline, It was nice to get an idea of who Gokus mother actually was and have a slight expansion on the Father of Goku storyline but I think I enjoyed it more because it was a chance for Toriyama to actually have a little go at using a character from a special that he did not really create, he was always been a fan of this character so it was enjoyable to see his spin on events, maybe it did not work out as well as the fans has hoped but it has its charm in its own little way.