Review: Dragonball Super Ep.3: Where Does the Dream Pick Up?! Find the Super Saiyan God!

There are plenty of gods, but only one god killer.

Spoilers Below

The episode starts off immediately inter-cutting between scenes of Beerus interacting with Whis and Old Kai talking to Kabito-Kai. Beerus is where we last saw him from episode 2 as he speaks to Whis about his visions of a “Super Saiyan God” and his desire to battle this individual asking Whis to seek him out while Old Kai is piss-scared beyond measure after Sensing another planet destroyed by Beerus.

In a small exposition-dump, Old Kai explains to Kabito-Kai that while there are gods capable of creating planets & life, there’s one god capable of destroying it on a whim and often never has meaning behind his petty madness which sums up Beerus in a nutshell. Old Kai warns Kabito-Kai that the best thing they can do is not step on Beerus’s toes and doesn’t challenge him to a fight and quickly come to the realization that Beerus must not interact with Goku for the sake of everyone’s safety since Goku has a strong thirst for battle, however Kabito-Kai assure’s Old-Kai that Goku is not even on Earth and has doubts that the two will ever meet which leads to King-Kai over-hearing their convo telepathically.

King Kai, as it turns out, also knows of Beerus and is understandably nervous about him too. King Kai is, of course, unsure if Goku is even strong enough to beat him and their convo is handled quietly & discreetly while Goku is still is just gleefully lifting some mountain-sized weights in the background and Old-Kai warns him that Goku must not meet Beerus for the sake of everyone’s safety.

There are some fun comical scenes, in particular, Goku almost overhearing what King Kai is telling Old Kai, having paint splashed on King Kai while he was repairing his house and then wondering why he said his name out loud. In response to this, King Kai manages to change the subject by reminding Goku that he, Gregory and Bubbles are all sort-of ghosts in the afterlife because of him. This refreshes Goku’s memory of the time he used instant transmission to send over the exploding Cell during the Cell Saga. Hilariously, King Kai, Bubbles and Gregory all start chasing Goku which made me laugh yet feel a little guilty afterward.

Cutting back to Beerus & Whis, they finally return home and, at this point, most of the dialogue here is nearly word-for-word rehashed from the DBZ animated movie “Battle of Gods”. Where Beerus seeks the wisdom of the “Oracle Fish” (also voiced by Monica Rial). Beerus threatens to reduce feeding the Oracle fish which motivates her to further remember the “Super Saiyan god” and both her & Whis try to make sense of these visions and even pointing out in a shocking twist that the Saiyan Planet Vegeta was Destroyed by Freeza and Beerus was indirectly responsible by giving him the order!

Whis then tells him that at least a handful of Saiyan’s survived who were on other planets. Cutting to Beerus at his exotic bathhouse, Whis reports to Beerus about the only two known full-blooded Saiyans that still exist. We the audience know this to be Goku & Vegeta. There was even a brief flashback from DBZ with Whis telling Beerus of Frieza’s Death by Goku’s hands when he became a Super Saiyan and this news shocks Beerus to his Core. The pair then decide to head off towards King Kai’s house-planet after hearing that very Saiyan who killed Freeza is there.

We then see other supporting characters such as Krillin, his wife 18 and their child Maron for the first time in Dragon Ball Super. They’re all stuck in traffic as they’re heading off to Bulma’s party, I started to laugh when Krillin cuts his losses and realizing they could both fly there and avoid the traffic. He packs up the car and they all fly to Bulma’s party. On their way, we get to see Tien, Chiaotzu and Yamacha for the very first time in this new series too.

Bulma’s party is being held in a fancy cruise ship. This turns out to be the same ship that she scouted in Episode 2 with a cooking staff, and is preparing a Bingo Party later and hides the Grand Prize telling the staff to be careful with it. Goku’s family: Gohan, Videl, Chi Chi and Goten all show-up and Bulma greets them. Trunks & Goten decide to explore the large-scale ship.

We also get more comedic moments at the party. Master Roshi is being a perv again scouting out bikini-clad younger women. He’s hilariously thwarted by an angry Chi Chi. Roshi then proceeds to have that iconic “nose bleed” that fans should come to expect when it comes to obvious perverted jokes. Never change Roshi.

Everyone finally shows up including Hercule and Good Buu but when Bulma notices Buu eating early before everyone else she’s understandably annoyed but Hercule jumps in assuring Bulma he’ll keep him under control since Buu trusts him more.

In another comedic scene, Piccolo finally arrives and Gohan gives him a photo of his wedding with Videl. It’s a cute Image, especially when you notice Piccolo’s eyes are closed in it with Gohan pointing out that he could’ve blinked at the wrong time much to Piccolo’s embarrassment.

Meanwhile, Vegeta continues the intensive training he started last time in episode 2. He’s barely in the episode and seems determined to 1-up Goku in some way. Knowing that Lord Beerus will inevitably come to Earth at some point, Let’s hope Vegeta will be able to put his Douchey Ego aside and do something.

It cuts back to Goku hilariously forgetting that Bulma’s Birthday is today and knows how Angry Bulma can get which gives King Kai a sense of relief thinking there’s no way Beerus would show up at his place.

Bulma sets sail on the Giant ship where her B-day party is taking place while Beerus & Whis make preparations for traveling to King Kai’s place to investigate Goku then it cuts to Old-Kai with more exposition that Beerus so far after his 39 year slumber has destroyed “eight planets in just half a day” and as another call-back to DBZ, it was Beerus who magically imprisoned Old Kai into the “Z-Sword” during the Buu Saga too.

Since Kai’s/Gods have the natural ability to detect the Ki/Energy of their own species, The episode ends in traditional cliffhanger fashion when Old Kai senses Beerus approaching King Kai’s planet and nearly collapses in fear knowing that the worst has yet to come.

Overview

In terms of storytelling, what series creator Akira Toriyama often excels at, aside from lots of padding, is the small character moments and finding new ways to retcon new characters to further cement their place within the Dragonball Mythos. It sure shocked the hell out of me when they revealed Beerus’s indirect involvement towards Planet Vegeta’s destruction (and for those who don’t know, Vegeta and his father were both named after their home planet).

It’s the little things that make this a bit fun when it comes to character interaction, from Krillin’s family to Piccolo’s reaction to Gohan & Videl’s wedding photo which was both cute and priceless. Also, Roshi really needs to get with the times when it comes to accessing porn. Is he devoid of technology or something? If he had a Kindle or a highly advanced mobile device he’d be watching Porn on it and not creepily peeping at girls in bikinis.

Overall, today’s episode of DB Super was more filler with key-scenes & dialogue that’s been recycled yet slightly altered from the Battle of the Gods animated movie. Not to mention there was no action in this episode either. The real meat of the story hasn’t happened yet as Whis & Beerus are currently on their way to meet Goku at King Kai’s place.

Knowing what could possibly happen next given that this is a slightly altered retelling of “Battle of the Gods” I look forward to episode 4.