Dragon Ball Super Finally Delivers Beerus as Akira Toriyama Originally Envisioned 11 Years Later

I’ll admit I wasn’t excited about Dragon Ball Super: Beerus. When the remake of Dragon Ball Super was announced, I couldn’t see the point of revisiting a story already told in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and again in the original 2015 television run. Refreshed animation sounded nice. It didn’t seem like enough reason to start over a third time, especially while manga milestones like the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc and Moro still haven’t been adapted for the screen.

Then I saw the world premiere of Beerus at New York Comic Con 2026, and I was dead wrong. The opening sequence is a loving victory lap through franchise history rather than a standard OP. The colors are richer and the pacing is smoother. Already, the series looks like one of the most confident Dragon Ball TV adaptations in years. It also feels like the closest the franchise has come to putting Akira Toriyama’s vision on screen. The premiere weaves in manga-exclusive beats, such as Goku’s mental shadow-sparring against his most infamous foes. That suggests the adaptation is finally using the Super manga, written and illustrated by Toyotarou, as its main blueprint.

A more frightening Beerus

The biggest difference is how the show introduces its title character. Battle of Gods leaned heavily on situational comedy, and the original Super anime stretched the setup with filler. Beerus presents the God of Destruction as a terror from the moment he wakes. He is still a gluttonous, temperamental deity with Toriyama’s dry humor, but the threat he poses feels as darkly formidable as it did in the manga’s opening chapters.

The team is rethinking how the story should breathe, and the pacing shows it best. Dragon Ball Super: Beerus takes its time setting up the status quo. It contrasts Goku’s peaceful routine as a radish farmer with Beerus waking from his slumber in the far reaches of space. The quiet beats feel deliberate and give the characters room to leave an impression before the cosmic stakes arrive. For a franchise that thrives on action, letting those moments sit is a welcome surprise.

Animation that finally lands

A fresh coat of paint sounds cosmetic on paper, but it changes how the material hits. Character models have real vitality against rich background textures, and the combat has weight. The premiere has no grand transformations, yet certain shots of Beerus carry a new presence, especially his confrontation on Planet Mogina. Revised linework and contrast-heavy shading give him an intimidating aura that was missing from the flat 2015 broadcast. When he casually deflects the Chief Moginaian’s desperate blast, the impact feels physical. A routine destruction beat becomes a showcase of cosmic authority.

The shift matters because of where the original Dragon Ball Super failed. Toei Animation made the 2015 series on a notoriously rushed schedule, and it hit the airwaves right after Resurrection ‘F’. Animators worked under crushing weekly deadlines with virtually no lead time. Goku’s first clash with Beerus on King Kai’s planet had off-model character designs, flat digital shading and stiff anatomy, and it became an industry-wide meme for botched TV animation. The episodic padding did further damage. It diluted the gravitas of a story about a villain who is a literal God of Destruction.

Why the remake earns its place

That history is a major reason Dragon Ball Super: Beerus feels vital. The remake trims the broadcast fat and corrects the visual compositions. It also respects the source material in a way that fits Toriyama’s grand vision. Retreading familiar ground is risky, and I’m still not entirely convinced the franchise needed to loop back to the beginning instead of charging forward. But the renewed fights, modern animation and thoughtful foundation make a compelling case.

The slower pacing also works as a bridge back into the world of Dragon Ball Super ahead of the Galactic Patrol Prisoner arc, which is set to release sometime in 2027. That arc adapts Goku and Vegeta’s high-stakes clash with the ancient sorcerer Moro. Manga readers have waited years to see it animated. A refresher on the events that started this era of Dragon Ball isn’t a bad idea on the cusp of that release. For longtime fans, Beerus resets the baseline before the franchise steps into uncharted animated territory.

Skepticism about another remake is valid. Spending time on a story we’ve seen twice can feel like an unwanted detour when so much unadapted manga material remains. Based on its premiere, though, Dragon Ball Super: Beerus delivers a version of the story worthy of Toriyama’s legacy. It raises the visual standard to what the 42-year-old Dragon Ball franchise deserves. I went into NYCC wondering why we needed to revisit this arc at all. I left wondering how much better the modern era of Dragon Ball might have been with this level of care from the start.

One episode doesn’t guarantee how an entire arc will turn out, but for the first time in a long while, I’m genuinely thrilled to watch Goku reach for the divine again.

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus is streaming on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

Source: Polygon