Jaco the Galactic Patrolman

An alien officer crashes on Earth to stop an invasion before it begins.

Jaco the Galactic Patrolman is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. Serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from July to October 2013, it consists of eleven chapters collected into a single volume. The story follows Jaco, an extraterrestrial police officer sent to Earth to protect the planet from an evil alien attack. Set before the events of Dragon Ball, the eleventh chapter introduces characters who would later become central to Toriyama's legendary series. Since its conclusion, Jaco has evolved into a recurring figure across various Dragon Ball media, bridging the gap between a standalone comedy and the wider universe.

Quick Facts

Genre: Comedy, Science fiction

Lore & Background

The Galactic Patrol operates under strict intergalactic laws, one of which forbids actual time travel, a rule Jaco notes when explaining Omori's invention. The organization relies on lone officers like Jaco Teirimentenpibosshi, who is sent to Earth with a specific mission: intercept an evil alien threat. Jaco's ship needs a very expensive metal as fuel, of which Tights buys a small amount. In this story set before Dragon Ball, the single agent on Earth is helped by the retired scientist Omori and meets the government policeman Katayude.

Reader's Guide

The manga serves as a prequel to Dragon Ball in which a Galactic Patrolman is sent to Earth to protect it from an evil alien attack. Key figures include Jaco, the protagonist; Omori, the time-travel researcher; and Tights, Bulma's older sister who aspires to be a science fiction writer. The evil alien did in fact land, and was taken in by Son Gohan, who gave him the name Son Goku. Omori's time research only speeds up how the user experiences time, which Jaco says is not actual time travel, something that is against intergalactic law. Jaco and Tights make a cameo in Dragon Ball Heroes: Victory Mission and both appear in Dragon Ball Fusions; Jaco is also playable in Dragon Ball Xenoverse and appears in the film Resurrection 'F'. The series was released simultaneously in Japan and English via Viz Media, with a Vomic adaptation covering the first two chapters.

Did You Know?

The series was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from July 29 to October 14, 2013, celebrating the magazine's 45th anniversary.
The manga was originally set to be serialized during the release of Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, but working on two hours of sleep a night exhausted Toriyama and he fell four months behind.
Viz Media serialized the series digitally just two days after its Japanese debut, releasing the collected volume in North America on January 6, 2015.