First Time Watch-Through: Dragon Ball Super Beerus — Episode 1
Dragon Ball is BACK baby! Spoilers for Dragon Ball Super (not just Beerus) below.
After a long hiatus since Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Daima, and with the death of Akira Toriyama- may he rest in peace -Dragon Ball has made its return to the anime world!
Being honest, while I haven’t actually watched through Super, I have read through the manga and watched a lot of videos (it’s been a while too). Larper, I know. But this is a newer chance for me to consume the media, as this first episode already looks amazing!
I love the work done in making Beerus feel like a villain, like a beast that is without restraint as he destroys planets willynilly. In just this first episode, we know so much about him already and in pretty natural ways too. Like how a lot of things about Beerus are brought up in dialogue and in conversational ways rather than vomiting exposition. The exposition itself is pretty great.
Goku being the one to wake up Beerus from his 39 year sleep is an interesting choice. While I don’t know if it was true in the original, the visuals now heavily push that Goku shadowboxing against Kid Buu woke the God of Destruction up.
Get Endsveil’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
The animation was amazing. Toei has been collecting an amazing roster of people after all. The visuals and angle choices are awesome. The lighting on Beerus and Whis really highlights that we’re supposed to think of them as villians rather than the mentors they become later on.
I thought the voice acting and dialogue was great too. I could definitely see myself listening to a podcast by Beerus and Whis if they had one.
I don’t have that much to comment on regarding the story, as it seems pretty similar to what had already been established. But I do have a few comments.
Firstly, I am giving it lenience as it was already the case, but Goku’s characterization in Super has always bothered me. It doesn’t line up with how he was depicted during the Majin Buu Saga, and I will always have an issue with that, but Toriyama had a story he wanted to write with Dragon Ball. I’ll appreciate that.
Secondly, I do not enjoy Vegeta’s characterization either. I don’t like that he’s been relegated to ‘Goku’s Rival’ as his entire character. And please convince me that’s not the case. All throughout Super, his goal is to one-up over Goku. It clashes with his depiction at the end of the Majin Buu Saga and GT. Sure, Vegeta can still have a rivalry with Goku and it doesn’t have to be directly (like GT), but in Super especially, it felt like it was his entire character. Same thing with Daima. I prefer GT’s portrayal of Vegeta but to be fair, he was much older and more mature then.
Thirdly, I wonder if they will amend any kind of story issues that plagued the original run of Dragon Ball Super, and if they will be following the manga’s continuity with additions from the anime or vice-versa. I know that we’re supposedly going to be getting the Moro Arc from this version of the anime so I wonder how they will lead into that.
Fourthly, its interesting that, while Daima was supposedly canon- no idea if that’s actually true so don’t quote me- Kibito-Kai is still present like in the original run of Super. Unless I’m forgetting some ending scene where for some reason Shin and Kibito re-fuse, this completely breaks continuity with Daima. I personally enjoy Kibito-Kai’s design which makes me sad that he has to unfuse anyway.
I’m looking forward to the next episode that’s coming out this week! What are your thoughts on this first episode?
