The eleventh episode of Dragon Ball Super, broadcast in Japan on September 20, 2015, takes the battle of gods above the clouds and then into the stratosphere. Goku seems to be holding his own, but the Supreme Kais soon see the truth: Beerus is deliberately holding back, letting the Super Saiyan God grow to its full potential so he can then crush it purely for fun.
Summary
Bulma and the others chase the battle in the airship, which has developed engine trouble after its fall. Gohan and Goten are along for the ride because they no longer have the strength to fly, probably because of the ritual. Above the clouds, Goku pummels Beerus without leaving a mark. To provoke him, the god hurls a giant energy sphere, and Goku catches it with both hands and squeezes until it bursts. Nobody on board can sense divine energy, but Bulma notices some "pretty lights" in the sky: they are the explosions of the fight.
Goku realizes Beerus is not using his full strength. In the Sacred World of the Kais, the two gods figure it out too: the God of Destruction is taking hits so that Goku can become a complete Super Saiyan God, so he can then beat him at full power and enjoy himself. Goku thinks he understands what drives him: having grown so strong, Beerus has nobody left to cut loose against. Beerus cuts him off, batters him with point-blank blasts, grabs him and dives straight down into an island.
In the smoking crater the god finds Goku on the ground, gasping, sits on his chest and punches him while complaining about how tired he is. Goku fights back with a punch that knocks him off, but Beerus headbutts him back up into the stratosphere. Since Goku seems to have stopped responding, the god decides to motivate him by threatening Earth: he forms a small sphere, juggles it with his feet and kicks it toward the planet. Goku hates the way Beerus toys with human lives; the god replies that a battle between gods matters more than any human life.
Goku destroys the sphere. Beerus then creates dozens of identical ones and rains them all down at once; Goku answers with a Kamehameha. Earth survives, but when the smoke clears the god strikes Goku square in the chest with his hand and tells him he made a mistake: Goku was not the one he was looking for after all. Goku plunges into the ocean. As he sinks, he wonders how anyone can be that strong, and yet that strength thrills him. His wounds close on their own and he shoots back up like a rocket. Impressed by his persistence, Beerus promises to finally show him his true power.
Our take
This is the strongest of the five episodes devoted to the duel, because it gives the fight some substance. Beerus is not a villain: he is a bored god who uses Earth as a ball to kick around, and Goku, for once, does not just enjoy himself but gets angry at how lightly his opponent treats other people's lives. That line about a battle between gods mattering more than humans is the key to the whole character.
The idea of Goku sensing his rival's loneliness is a nice touch too, and it foreshadows the relationship the two will have throughout the series. Some of the visual solutions are less convincing, with plenty of repeated explosions, but the pacing is finally right.
Trivia
- Written by King Ryū and directed by Takao Iwai, with Naoki Tate as animation director. It drew a 5.0% rating in Japan.
- Kami to Kami, "god and god", which appears in the Japanese title, is also the Japanese title of the film Battle of Gods.
- It borrows scenes from chapter 4 of Toyotarō's manga.