Dragon Ball Super Battle of Gods Saga: Episodes 1-18

The Battle of Gods Saga opens Dragon Ball Super: eighteen episodes broadcast on Fuji TV between July 5 and November 8, 2015, retelling the story of the 2013 film Battle of Gods with plenty of new material. Toei's promotional material also calls it the God of Destruction Beerus Saga. It is the arc that introduces Beerus to television and gives Goku his first taste of divine power.

What the saga is about

Some time after Majin Buu's defeat, Earth is at peace. Goku has been pushed into farming by Chi-Chi but can only think about training; Vegeta is dragged on a family holiday by Bulma; Gohan has just married Videl. The first four episodes have no villain at all. They are everyday comedy, a way to reconnect with the cast after eighteen years away from TV.

Far across the universe, meanwhile, Beerus wakes from a long sleep. He has dreamed of a warrior called the "Super Saiyan God" and wants to find him. With Whis, his attendant and teacher, he first drops in on King Kai's planet. Goku, thrilled at the idea of such a strong opponent, challenges him and powers all the way up to Super Saiyan 3, only to be floored by two blows.

Bulma's birthday party

Beerus moves on to Earth, where Bulma is celebrating her birthday aboard a cruise ship and the Pilaf gang is trying to steal the Dragon Balls she put up as a bingo prize. Vegeta, who saw this god humiliate his father when he was a child, bends over backwards to keep him happy. All it takes is a squabble with Majin Buu over pudding: Beerus loses his temper and beats Gotenks, Piccolo, Android 18, Tien and Gohan one after another. When he slaps Bulma, Vegeta explodes with rage and briefly pushes him back, though he never manages to hurt him.

Super Saiyan God

Goku arrives at the last minute and asks for time. Shenron reveals that the Super Saiyan God is not a person but a ritual: five pure-hearted Saiyans must pour their energy into a sixth. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Goten and Trunks are not enough, until it turns out that Videl is expecting: the unborn Pan completes the circle. Goku becomes a Super Saiyan God, with red hair and a divine aura, and fights Beerus in a battle that rises from Earth into space and lasts five episodes, the longest single fight in the series.

Goku loses the god form but keeps its power even as a regular Super Saiyan. He is defeated in the end, yet Beerus, entertained, pretends to doze off and spares the planet. The last few episodes see Mr. Satan forced to fight three aliens who have come to challenge him, Vegeta bribing Whis with ramen to train him, Pan's birth, and Goku joining his rival on Beerus' planet.

Main characters in this saga

Episodes

No.	English title (Funimation dub)	First aired (Japan)
1	A Peacetime Reward: Who Gets the 100,000,000 Zeni?!	July 5, 2015
2	To the Promised Resort! Vegeta Takes a Family Trip!	July 12, 2015
3	Where Does the Dream Pick Up? Find the Super Saiyan God!	July 19, 2015
4	Bid for the Dragon Balls! Pilaf and Crew's Impossible Mission!	August 2, 2015
5	Showdown on King Kai's World! Goku vs. Beerus the Destroyer!	August 9, 2015
6	Don't Anger the Destroyer! A Heart-Pounding Birthday Party	August 16, 2015
7	How Dare You Do That To My Bulma! Vegeta's Metamorphosis of Fury?	August 23, 2015
8	Goku Makes an Entrance! A Last Chance from Lord Beerus?	August 30, 2015
9	Thanks For Waiting, Lord Beerus! A Super Saiyan God is Born At Last!	September 6, 2015
10	Show Us, Goku! The Power of a Super Saiyan God!	September 13, 2015
11	Let's Keep Going, Lord Beerus! The Battle of Gods!	September 20, 2015
12	The Universe Will Shatter? Clash! Destroyer vs. Super Saiyan God!	September 27, 2015
13	Goku, Surpass Super Saiyan God!	October 4, 2015
14	This is All the Power I've Got! A Settlement Between Gods	October 11, 2015
15	Valiant Mr. Satan, Work a Miracle! A Challenge from Outer Space!	October 18, 2015
16	Vegeta Becomes a Student?! Win Over Whis!	October 25, 2015
17	Pan is Born! And Goku Goes on a Training Journey?!	November 1, 2015
18	I'm Here, Too! Training Commences on Beerus' World	November 8, 2015

The titles are those of Funimation's English dub, which premiered on Adult Swim in January 2017.

Where the saga ends

Sources disagree on where the first saga stops and the second begins. We follow the split used in Toei's promotional material, as reported by English Wikipedia and our series guide: episodes 1-18. Spanish Wikipedia closes the saga at episode 14, where the film's story ends, while the Fandom wiki also includes episode 15 with Mr. Satan. Episodes 15-18 work as a bridge: they wrap up Beerus' visit and set up the training with Whis that opens Resurrection 'F'.

Characters and transformations

Beerus, Universe 7's God of Destruction, whimsical and a glutton, voiced in Japanese by Kōichi Yamadera;
Whis, his angel, stronger than him and just as fond of Earth food (voiced by Masakazu Morita);
the Elder Kai, the first to sense the god's awakening;
the Pilaf gang, turned back into children, who become recurring characters from here on;
Pan, born in episode 17.

The key transformation is Super Saiyan God, the series' first divine form, reached by Goku in episode 9. We cover it alongside the others on our Super Saiyan transformations page.

Differences from the film and the manga

The film's 85 minutes become fourteen episodes, and it shows. TV adds Vegeta's holiday, a rock-paper-scissors match between Beerus and Oolong, a flashback of the god punishing King Vegeta, and a Vegeta who cooks for Beerus instead of dancing at the bingo. The setting shifts too: the film takes place a few years after Majin Buu, the anime only months later. In the end Beerus destroys nothing, he just yawns and fakes sleep.

Toyotarō's manga, which launched in V Jump two weeks before the anime, condenses everything into four chapters. The main differences: Champa and Vados show up much earlier, Gotenks turns Super Saiyan 3 against Beerus, and Goku stays a Super Saiyan God for the entire fight, never dropping back to the first level.

Our take

The Battle of Gods Saga had a tough job: bringing Dragon Ball back to TV with a story fans had already seen in theaters. The result is a slow arc, stretched beyond what it needs and held back by often shaky animation. Anyone who knows the film will struggle to find reasons to sit through all of it.

Still, there are things the film had no time for. The opening episodes, with Goku the farmer and Vegeta on vacation, recapture the lightness of the original series; the party aboard the ship is a little comedy gem, with Vegeta forced to play diplomat; and the final duel, however padded, has a strong idea at its core: for once Goku loses, and he takes it with a smile.

Above all, this saga brings Beerus and Whis to television, the two characters who will carry all of Super. If you have seen the film, episodes 1-4 and 15-18 are the essentials. If you want the most polished version, Dragon Ball Super: Beerus, airing in Japan since October 2026, is a re-edited and improved cut that starts from this very saga. The story continues with the Resurrection 'F' Saga.

Did you know? Episode 5, the fight on King Kai's planet, was heavily criticized for its animation quality. Toei fixed it for the DVD and Blu-ray release.