For as long as Akira Toriyama has added new material to his seemingly never ending and ever growing Dragon Ball universe, we have never seen a full-blooded female Saiyan in the lore of the manga/anime universe. We rarely ever even got a mention of Goku's mom.
It is not like Toriyama never had the opportunity, what with him giving Goku's father, Bardock, his own feature length movie. This has led to die-hard fans to raise their own questions about Goku's mother-- questions that were only answered in 2014.
In February 2014, Akira Toriyama revealed his plans to introduce Goku's mother in an upcoming manga. Two months later, the character made her first debut and Gine was introduced.
Since Gine is still a fairly new character, fans don't know too much about her, nor have they seen too much of her other outside of her manga debut and in a couple video games. Gine hasn't even appeared in new episodes of the anime Dragon Ball Super yet.
With questions still being raised about this character only a couple years after her initial manga introduction, it is our pleasure to tell readers a few facts about Gine that they may have never known about the former Saiyan warrior.
Here are the 15 Things You Didn’t Know About Dragon Ball's Gine.
15. She's the first full blooded Saiyan to be introduced in the manga
The addition of Gine to the canon of the Dragon Ball universe does not come without a few notable honors and accomplishments. One of those most noteworthy is discovering that Gine is officially the very first full-blooded Saiyan to ever appear in the manga series.
Granted, she is not the first full-blooded Saiyan to appear in the universe, but she most certainly is the first to appear in any official manga.
There is also Fasha from the Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku movie, who is a full-blooded Saiyan, but the character only appears in the anime and not the manga.
Though some originally thought thsy Pan may be one, since she is Goku's granddaughter and Gohan's daughter, she is actually only a half-blooded Saiyan. As far as full-blooded Saiyans go, Gine is one of a kind.
14. She might still be alive
When The Departure of the Fated Child reaches its climax, we get a blurb that explains what happens a month after the story's events-- after Planet Vegeta is destoryed, and with it, all of the Saiyans.
However, we never actually witness Gine die on the planet. We know for a fact that Bardock died since we saw his death at the end of the movie Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku, but we never get a single panel showing us Gine's death.
Some fans have speculated that this might have happened because Akira Toriyama wanted to utilize her in future storylines. If this does happen, his excuse can be that we never actually saw her die.
However, Toriyama does not really have any reason to bring her back, but if he did, we can't argue with his decision since, technically, her death was never confirmed.
13. Unlike Other Saiyans, She Lets Her Tail Roam Free
Anyone who has followed the Dragon Ball franchise long enough will notice that most Saiyans-- specifically the ones who were trained as warriors on Planet Vegeta-- attend to their daily activities with their tails wrapped around their waist.
Raditz was the first Saiyan to show himself in this manner and every other Saiyan who appeared onscreen afterwards followed suit. The one exception to the rule happens to be Gine.
Whenever we see Gine onscreen or in the Dragon Ball manga series, she lets her tail roam freely on its own. There is no explanation about why she does this or why most Saiyans wrap their tails around their waist to begin with, but its hard not to notice this small quirk that separates her from the rest of the Saiyan race.
12. She Was Demoted
When Gine fought on Bardock's team as a warrior, she was a low class Saiyan. While Bardock and their sons maintain an aggressive and strong will, appearing as if they were born to fight, Gine's demeanor has always been much more gentle.
So gentle, in fact, that many believe that she is unsuited for combat. In battle, Gine frequently gets caught in a situation where Bardock must save her. In fact, this became so bad that Gine was basically demoted from being a Saiyan warrior to being a meat distributor.
Granted, she took on the job after she decided to retire from fighting. This might have also been done so that she would have time to raise her two children.
11. She Debuted In Dragon Ball Minus: The Departure of the Fated Child
Just a couple of months after Akira Toriyama's announcement about incorporating Goku's mother into a future Dragon Ball story, he released a special chapter of his Jaco the Galactic Patrolman manga collection.
The story was called Dragon Ball Minus: The Departure of the Fated Child and it recollected the month before Planet Vegeta's destruction. The story showcased the family dynamic amongst the Gine/Bardock household, as well as their plan to steal an attack ball and shoot Goku into outer space.
One thing about this story worth noting is Goku's age in the story, which differs from most of the Dragon Ball canon that occurs around the same time. It's been long established that Goku was a baby when he was sent to Earth, but this story shows him as a three year old infant.
10. Her Relationship with Bardock is Extremely Rare
Many aspects of Bardock and Gine's relationship would be considered unique in accordance with basic Saiyan heritage. The mere fact that the two are legitimately in love with each other is what separates their relationship from the average Saiyan couple.
On Planet Vegeta, Saiyans are expected to hook up with each other simply to breed and birth new children who are expected to grow up and become warriors. Love is either completely out of the equation or irrelevant. Gine and Bardock's relationship is just the opposite.
Back when she used to fight on his team, Bardock often saved Gine from many dangers. He did this enough that she ended up falling in love with him and, eventually, he reciprocated those feelings.
9. She Actually Met Goku
Believe it or not, Gine has actually met her son Goku before. However, this should be impossible since she died along with the rest of the Saiyans on Planet Vegeta before the young Goku even arrived to the Planet Earth, but nevertheless, it did happen.
Granted, it never happened in the manga itself or the anime series so it's legitimacy in canon is questionable, but the two did cross paths in the video game Dragon Ball Fusions.
In the game's story, Gine manages to stumble through a time hole where she enters the Timespace Rift. Kid Goku and his future granddaughter, Pan, meet her.
Pan immedialtely recognizes Gine as a Saiyan judging by her garb, and the young Goku points out that she has a tail just like he does. Gine then realizes immediately that Goku is her son, but neglects to tell him that he's her mother.
8. She's Referneced in The Xenoverse Games
In both of the Dragon Ball Xenoverse games, Gine was either alluded to or flat out mentioned. In the first game, Future Trunks speals to the Supreme Kai of Time, Chronoa. Having a crush on Goku's father, she wonders aloud if Bardock is single after calling him dreamy. Trunks reminds her that Bardock has a wife.
In the game's sequel, as part of the Masters Pack DLC, The Future Warrior asks Bardock about his wife. Bardock mentions the name of his wife, but refuses to talk about Gine.
It's implied that either her memory and death is still a touchy subject for Bardock to recollect on. That, or he wants to keep up the facade of a tough guy by not talking about his feelings.
7. Her First Video Game Appearance Was In Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden
The video game continuations of the Dragon Ball universe have always been extremely important to the franchise. The video games are the one place where someone can not only find every single Dragon Ball character imaginable in one spot, but also where players can play every single Dragon Ball character imaginable.
It was only a matter of time before Gine would be added to the universe's video game franchise. She first appears as a playable character in Dragon Ball Fusions (which was released in 2016), but it was in 2015 that Gine first appeared as a video game character.
She popped up in Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden, but merely as a supporting character in the game's story, not as a playable character.
6. She's mentioned in original Dragon Ball Z (kind of)
While Gine only made her manga debut in recent years, she is mentioned in the series way back in the first issue of Dragon Ball Z and the first episode of the anime... kind of.
Of course, she was never mentioned by name since Akira Toriyama never actually conceived of any concept or background for Gine until recently.
She is mentioned when Goku runs into his brother early into the series. Raditz mentions that both of their parents died on Planet Vegeta with the rest of their people who lived on their home planet.
This was especially worth noting for anyone who wondered whether or not Goku had a living mother at the time of Planet Vegeta's destruction, since she was not in the Bardock movie. This confirmed that Goku's mother existed and hinted to her introduction in the series.
5. She has fused with Tekka
The story that surrounds Dragon Ball Fusions turned out to be very eventful for Gine. Not only did she run into a child version of her son, but she also fought for Tekka's team.
After being rescued by Goku and Tekka's team after an ambush attack from Yamcha and his own team, Gine asks if she can stick around with Goku and the rest of Tekka's team after realizing how dangerous it is to be alone in the Timespace Rift.
While on the team, she continues to fight along side her son and even discovers the art of fusion. Not only does she find herself fusing together with Tekka, but she also manages to fuse with Towa during one of the game's sub-event missions.
4. Her Hair is similar to to Goten and Raditz's
It has been established in Dragon Ball lore that all Saiyan hair is naturally spikey and very similar-looking. Whether Akira Toriyama originally planned for this to be a shared character trait between all the Saiyans or if this is just how all of the Saiyan designs turned out to look similar in hairstyles, it somehow managed to become a common trait shared among Saiyans.
However, the hairstyles are even similar among the Saiyans in Goku's family. From the looks of it, Gine's hair style contains very similar characteristics to Raditz and Goten's hair.
Much like Raditz, her hair is long and hangs behind her back. However, her hair is also pretty much exactly identical to the style that a teenage Goten maintained during the final episodes of Dragon Ball Z.
3. She Is Named After A Vegetable
Like most names in the Dragon Ball universe, Gine may come off as a strange name to some viewers. It turns out that the name Gine is actually a pun for a vegetable, which should be no surprise to anyone who knows about Saiyan names.
Dragon Ball's creator Akira Toriyama has professed that he likes to give themes to certain character groups. In that regard, he often names Saiyan characters after vegetables.
Kakarot is a pun for carrot, Vegeta is a shorter spelling of vegetable, Raditz is a funny way to say radish, Broly means broccoli, and so on. In the case of Gine, Gine is actually an anagram for negi, the Japanese way to say spring onion.
2. She Taught Bardock How to be Kind
Some viewers may recall that, in the Dragon Ball Z: Bardock - The Father of Goku movie, Bardock starts off as a brutish character that is rough around the edges. He doesn't even see anything special in his son, Kakarot, because the infant has an average power level.
However, he later develops enough compassion that he tries to save the fate of Planet Vegeta, and even dies trying. We can perhaps credit Gine for this change in character.
Perhaps it was Gine who helped Bardock become a better person who was capable of caring about others. While her overly gentle nature would not cut it on the battlefield, it might have been enough to rub off on Bardock.
1. She's Also an Eggplant
Akira Toriyama has a knack for giving themes to all of his characters. For instance, in the original Dragon Ball, all the characters in the Red Ribbon Army are named after colors, like General White and Staff Officer Black.
Similarly, every character in the Ginyu Force is named after a dairy product, like Burter (butter) and Ginyu himself, whose name in Japanese means milk.
The Saiyans are no exception, as every Saiyan in Dragon Ball canon is named after a vegetable. Some examples include Nappa (a form of cabbage), Gohan (Japanese for rice), and Cabba (cabbage).
Gine's name is an anagram for negi, the Japanese word for spring onion. In addition to that, and purely by coincidence, her name makes up the last four letters of aubergine, the British and French word for eggplant.
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Can you think of any other interesting facts about Dragon Ball's Gine? Sound off in the comments!