General Information

Movie Premiere & Promotion

The first theatrical movie for the Dragon Ball franchise in 17 years is set to premiere nationwide in Japan on 30 March 2013, and unlike the franchise’s previous movies it is a singular film not associated with any seasonal event hosted by Toei. Shortly after the movie was announced, and prior to its official title being established, a small flyer featuring promotional artwork by Tadayoshi Yamamuro was distributed. The flyer prominently displayed the movie’s tagline, “The mightiest, make their move.”

Toei eventually released a teaser trailer for the yet unnamed Dragon Ball Z movie, which was first shown at Saikyō V-Jump Festa on 21 July 2012. The movie’s official title, “Battle of Gods”, was later confirmed by Shueisha in November 2012 and the official trailer followed shortly thereafter in December 2012. Between then and the movie’s release on 30 March 2013, a second full-length trailer and numerous TV commercial spots were released.

Teaser Trailer Running Time: 37 seconds
Official Trailer (Version 1) Running Time: 1 minute, 13 seconds
Official Trailer (Version 2) Running Time: 1 minute, 20 seconds
IMAX TV Commercial Running Time: 30 seconds
TV Commercial: Battle Edition Running Time: 15 seconds
TV Commercial: Nakagawa-san Edition Running Time: 15 seconds
TV Commercial: Enemy Character Edition Running Time: 15 seconds
TV Commercial: 30 Second Announcement Running Time: 30 seconds

Along with confirmation of the movie’s official title, an advance collaborative ticket for “Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods” and “One Piece Film Z”, which premiered 15 December 2012, was announced. The tickets went on sale 23 November 2012, with a limited 8,989 (pronounced “waku-waku”; a play on the word “excitement”) tickets available. To commemorate the release of these two movies, the collaborative tickets featured special new illustrations by both Akira Toriyama and Eiichirō Oda (author of One Piece). Additional advance tickets for “Battle of Gods” were later sold at the Toei Animation goods booth at Jump Festa ’13.

Jump Festa ’13 also hosted a 30 minute “Battle of Gods” discussion panel on 22 December 2012. In attendance were Masako Nozawa (Son Goku), Toshio Furukawa (Piccolo), Mayumi Tanaka (Kuririn), Masahiro Hosoda (the film’s director), Akio Iyoku (editor-in-chief of V-Jump and Saikyō Jump), and Gyarmath Bogdan (Toei Animation producer). In addition to the movie’s discussion panel, the Toei Animation goods booth handed out a promotional pamphlet for the movie which featured the movie’s official poster, brief movie character profiles, and a special message from Akira Toriyama.

A second promotional pamphlet, dubbed the “Battle Book”, was later released to local stores and movie theaters, which was free to those that stopped to pick it up. This fold-up pamphlet opens with a list of the previous enemies that had appeared in Dragon Ball Z, but introduces Beerus as the strongest of them yet. It also contained a new comment from Akira Toriyama, a very brief introduction to the story, showcased the movie’s two special guests, and listed several of the movie’s available promotional items.

In the months leading up to the movie’s premiere, joint promotional campaigns and product tie-ins were launched with several major companies in Japan, such as Lawson, Mini Stop, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Geo, Ace Cook, and Kirin Beverage. There were also numerous magazines and websites that featured interviews with the movie’s staff, voice actors, and original author Akira Toriyama. To even further increase hype for the movie, and promote Akira Toriyama’s involvement, a new Akira Toriyama “The World of DRAGONBALL” touring exhibit was also held in Tokyo from March 27th to April 15th, in Ōsaka from April 17th to April 23rd, and in Nagoya from July 27th to September 1st.

Finally, in a last push before the movie’s premiere, several Japanese networks re-aired the franchise’s original 17 theatrical films and TV specials throughout the month of March. A number of websites, including Google Play, Apple’s iTunes Store, Sony’s PlayStation Network, the Bandai Channel, and niconico, also began streaming and making available for rent the original 17 theatrical films starting 15 March 2013.

Movie Synopsis

It is several years after the battle with Majin Buu. On North Kaiō’s planet, Goku has come over to train, while Kaiō telepathically talks with East Kaiōshin and the Elder Kaiōshin. The three gods are discussing the early awakening of Beerus, the God of Destruction. Kaiō explains to Goku that in this world there are gods who create and gods who destroy. While Goku is eager to fight Beerus, Kaiō warns him that the God of Destruction’s power is in a league of its own.

At Beerus’ palace, awakening bombs are going off, and his attendant Whis comes to wake him up. Beerus is cranky because he “only” slept for 39 years. They discuss Planet Vegeta’s destruction by Freeza, and how Freeza was defeated by the Saiyan Son Goku, who became a Super Saiyan. Beerus remembers that while asleep he dreamed of fighting the “Super Saiyan God”, which he believes to be the fearsome foe predicted 39 years earlier by the Oracle Fish. It was in order to fight this prophesied strong opponent that Beerus woke up in this era. Beerus and Whis head for Kaiō’s planet to question Goku about Super Saiyan God. Goku has never heard of it before, but respectfully requests a match with Beerus to test his power. Beerus handily defeats Super Saiyan 3 Goku in two blows, then departs for Earth to see if Vegeta and the other Saiyans there know anything of Super Saiyan God.

On Earth, Bulma is throwing a huge birthday party for herself, centering around an elaborate bingo tournament with big prizes, including the complete set of Dragon Balls. While virtually all of her friends and family are there, Vegeta is off training on his own. Kaiō contacts Vegeta and warns him of Beerus, who may destroy Earth if anything annoys him. Vegeta panics when he learns Beerus defeated Goku, and goes to warn everyone, but Beerus and Whis are already there. They question Vegeta, but he knows nothing about Super Saiyan God either. Beerus and Whis decide to stay and enjoy Bulma’s party, with Vegeta doing everything in his power to keep Beerus happy.

Meanwhile, Pilaf, Shu, and Mai sneak into the Capsule Corporation grounds in search of the Dragon Balls there. The trio actually managed to gather them all some time ago, but Pilaf wished for youth rather than world domination, and now all three of them are little kids. Trunks stumbles on them, followed by Goten. Trunks claims that Mai is his girlfriend, while Mai secretly steals the Four-Star Ball to hold for ransom. When the bingo tournament begins and the theft is discovered, the Pilaf trio holds Trunks hostage at gunpoint. Nobody is very concerned for Trunks’ safety, but nevertheless Gohan changes into his Great Saiyaman costume and challenges the Pilaf trio to shoot him. Their bullets have no effect on Gohan, but Videl is accidentally shot in the leg. When Dende heals her, he realizes she is… Videl cuts him off and swears him to secrecy. The Pilaf trio gives up, and everyone forgives them.

Beerus is annoyed that Super Saiyan God still has not shown up and is about to destroy the planet, but Vegeta gets him to calm down by desperately performing a song and dance about bingo. While the tournament finally gets underway, Beerus goes to eat some custard pudding, but finds Majin Buu hoarding them all. Buu refuses to share and attacks Beerus, who finally snaps. A fight breaks out between Beerus and everyone else, but Beerus effortlessly outclasses them all. Meanwhile, Whis wanders off to a nearby sushi stand to eat.

An enraged Bulma slaps Beerus for ruining her party, and when Beerus slaps her back, Vegeta goes berserk and knocks Beerus around. Kame-Sen’nin says Vegeta seems to have surpassed Goku, but ultimately his attacks do nothing against Beerus. Having won, Beerus is about to destroy the Earth again when Goku suddenly appears on the scene. Though Goku still has not solved the mystery of Super Saiyan God, he thinks he might be able to if given a little more time. Using the Dragon Balls, he asks Shenlong about the matter. Shenlong explains that Super Saiyan God was a being accidentally created by pure-hearted Saiyans long ago in order to oppose Planet Vegeta’s dominant evil Saiyans. It was produced when five pure-hearted Saiyans infused their light into another pure-hearted Saiyan. However, its power ran out before it could completely defeat the evil Saiyans, so Planet Vegeta once more became dominated by evil Saiyans, and Super Saiyan God was erased from legend.

Now that they know the method, Goku and the rest attempt to produce Super Saiyan God. After some arguing over who does and does not count as “pure-hearted”, Gohan, Goten, Vegeta, and Trunks all perform a ritual to donate their power to Goku. This causes Goku’s power to greatly increase, but he has actually done nothing more than gather up everyone else’s power and is not really Super Saiyan God. They realize that, per Shenlong’s instructions, they need a total of six pure-hearted Saiyans: five to donate power and one to receive it. While everyone despairs of finding another Saiyan, Videl reveals what Dende had learned earlier: she is pregnant with Gohan’s child. After briefly celebrating, they perform the ritual again with Videl, and this time Goku successfully becomes Super Saiyan God. Visually he is not much different: his hair is red, he has a thinner physique, and when he fights he emits a fiery red aura. Finally confronted by this “formidable foe”, Beerus promises not to destroy the Earth if Goku wins.

The fight begins, and though the two seem evenly matched, Goku feels dissatisfied with Super Saiyan God because he could only reach this level of power with everyone’s help. Annoyed at Goku’s reservations, Beerus reveals that he still had not been fighting at full power. He gives Goku a tougher fight until Goku reverts back to being a regular Super Saiyan. Goku does not notice and continues to barely keep up with Beerus. Finally, Beerus fires a huge energy ball which Goku struggles to keep from destroying Earth. Beerus explains that while fighting as Super Saiyan God, Goku absorbed that level of power into his own body and has not greatly powered down even after returning to normal. He thinks Goku should finally feel satisfied, since he can fight Beerus with his own power, but Goku cannot push back Beerus’ energy ball. As his friends and family cheer him on, Goku briefly becomes Super Saiyan God once more and repels the attack. Out of energy, he surrenders at Beerus’ request.

Beerus praises Goku as the second strongest person he has ever fought. It turns out that Whis is not just Beerus’ attendant, but his martial arts master as well. Furthermore, Beerus explains that he is the God of Destruction for the Seventh Universe. The world Goku knows is just the seventh out of twelve universes, and Beerus imagines there might be even more incredible people out there. Having won the fight, he starts to destroy Earth as promised, but his attack only destroys a small rock. He says he is out of stamina and will destroy the rest of Earth next time. He and Whis depart, leaving on friendly terms, while Goku and friends continue Bulma’s party.

Back at his palace, Beerus tells Whis that Goku was not a truly “formidable” opponent, but that both he and Vegeta might eventually grow strong enough to warrant the term. Whis hits Beerus to put him to sleep for another three years, then tells him to brush his teeth first. Back on Earth, Goku comments on how incredible Vegeta was after Bulma got slapped by Beerus. He had actually been there watching the whole time while everyone was being beaten by Beerus, but did not step in earlier because he wanted to investigate how Beerus fought. Indignant, Vegeta tells Bulma to slap Goku, and she happily agrees.

Original Draft/Design Concepts

• The character of Beerus was one of the earliest concepts for the movie, but he went through a significant redesign from a lizard-like character into one based off of Akira Toriyama’s cornish-rex cat. It seems that the character also would have been the one responsible for originally “infecting” the Saiyans with evil intents.
  

  Beerus originally had a lizard-like form, but at Toriyama-sensei‘s idea, he ultimately became an Egyptian-style cat character.
   — Tadayoshi Yamamuro, OKStars Intervew (read full interview)

  Because there are so many gods in my work… (laughs), I figured, “something humanoid might be difficult, now,” so I thought I’d make him a cat. Thinking, “Speaking of feline gods…” I went with an Egypt-esque costume. It gives off a bit of an ominous air, as well, so I’m really pleased with it!
   — Akira Toriyama, Super Long Interview!! Please Tell Us, Akira Toriyama-sensei!! (read full interview)

  Actually, I had been thinking since before that perhaps the Saiya had had evil planted in their hearts by someone. That was Beerus, God of Destruction, from this [movie]; it was something that I’d been thinking about since way, way back, so I managed it relatively quickly.

  I had made Beerus more of a bad guy, and a kind of story where everyone is taken over and given an evil heart, but Toriyama-sensei in his way apparently felt that, “It’s after the earthquake, so I want it to be, not a tragic story, but a positive one,” and it came to have its present form.
   — Yūsuke Watanabe, DVD & Blu-ray Vision Magazine (read full interview)

• Likewise, Super Saiyan God was also one of the original concepts going into the movie’s production, but the form was also adjusted for the final version of the film.
  

  I handled the roughs for Super Saiyan God. It was “a being that surpasses everything” so I drew a character more built than Super Saiyan, with a cape, but then illustrations with a completely different feel came back from Toriyama-sensei…. It was too different from my own internal image, so I tried suggesting the more sturdily-drawn character one more time, and then Sensei told me that it really was all wrong. (laughs)
   — Tadayoshi Yamamuro, OKStars Intervew (read full interview)

  The setting this time is after the “Buu arc”, but between when we did the “Buu arc” in the anime and now, Toriyama-sensei‘s [artistic] touch has changed, don’t you think? I thought about which of those I should make it closer to. As for “Super Saiyan God”, the design I came out with at first was completely different. It was more muscular, and the hairstyle was about in-between “Super Saiyan 3″ and “[Super Saiyan] 4″. But Sensei‘s [mental] image was the sense that it wouldn’t look strong at first glance, so it gained its present form.
   — Tadayoshi Yamamuro, Battle of Gods Theatrical Program

  [Super Saiyan] God’s appearing was set from the very start of production. There’s a line in the movie, too, but even I thought, “‘God’ is an exaggeration…”. (laughs) As for the design, I made it by taking Super Saiyan, which I’d made flashy up through “3″, and paring it down to the absolute limit.
   — Akira Toriyama, Super Long Interview!! Please Tell Us, Akira Toriyama-sensei!! (read full interview)

• Larger concepts such as “good vs evil” and what it truly means to be a hero were some of the original ones tossed about, but Akira Toriyama guided the story back toward one with a less-dire tone — particularly in light of the 2011 earthquake — that harkened back to more nostalgic ideas such as friendship and camaraderie.
  

  I showed [my idea] to Toriyama-sensei, saying, “I’d like to make it this kind of story,” and what came back was already finished up like a script. (laughs) At first I’d thought about the themes of “good and evil” and “what is a hero” with a bit of a serious feel. But Toriyama-sensei seemed to to feel strongly that, since the [2011 Tohoku] earthquake, he wanted it to be, not a tragic story, but a positive, forward-looking story, of friendship and camaraderie, and the story took shape like that. It was like, “This truly is Dragon Ball.” What was I doing? (laughs)
   — Yūsuke Watanabe, Ure-Pia Sōken (read full interview)

  I also received requests from Sensei to the effect of, “make it something with fun and a feeling of excitement”, and “make it a tale where you can feel a sense of camaraderie”.
   — Yūsuke Watanabe, GetNavi May 2013 Issue (read full interview)

  This is the first movie in 17 years, so I thought, again, we should make it so that even the battle scenes aren’t all-intensity, but also [something] where you sense the beauty of the image. There was the intention from Toriyama-sensei of, “given the [2011] East Japan earthquake disaster, I don’t want there to be scenes of citywide panic or destruction”, so in terms of direction, I took the greatest amount of caution with that. That desire was infused in Sensei‘s original plot, so that message came across naturally.
   — Masahiro Hosoda, Battle of Gods Theatrical Program

• A central location of the film is Bulma’s birthday party, which is used as the excuse to gather all of the characters back together. An original version of the story would have placed the characters at Kuririn & No. 18′s wedding.
  

  I thought I’d do a story where the enemy appears at a party on Earth when Goku’s not there, and there’d be big trouble; in the original plot, I wrote Kuririn and No. 18′s wedding, but in the story that came back from Toriyama-sensei, it had changed to Bulma’s birthday party. I think, with regards to Kuririn and No. 18′s wedding, it’s probably something that he wants all the fans to imagine for themselves.
   — Yūsuke Watanabe, DVD & Blu-ray Vision Magazine (read full interview)

• A sub-plot involving thieves going after the Dragon Balls was there already, but at Toriyama’s suggestion, Pilaf and his gang were brought back in to replace these incidental characters.
  

  Originally, they were just going to be petty thieves. But since we were going to have the entire cast, I thought [it wouldn't be great if] some unknown characters just suddenly showed up. So I made them into the Pilaf gang. But you know, thinking long and hard about it after making that decision, they were all getting pretty old.
   — Akira Toriyama, V-Jump “Akira Toriyama Special Interivew” (read full interview)

  The story I received was about 60 minutes, so I created a development where the Dragon Balls are stolen by a group of thieves, who were new characters. Then Toriyama-sensei told me, “Since we’re going with an all-star cast, let’s have the Pilaf gang steal them”. With this change, the feeling of a reunion, or a special, was upped even more.
   — Yūsuke Watanabe, DVD & Blu-ray Vision Magazine (read full interview)

• Additional and extended fight scenes were originally planned and made it to various stages of drafting before staff brought things back down to a more realistic production timeline with various justifications.
  

  I thought, if they fire an energy blast at the party, it would destroy the site and nearby buildings, so [I need] a way for them to be able to fight just with their limbs… so I tried putting in some locking techniques, which is rare for Dragon Ball. At first in the scenario, it was written that “Beerus deals with Piccolo, Tenshinhan, and No. 18 with a spoon or fork”, but it would be difficult to fight that way, so I asked the director Masahiro Hosoda, “would chopsticks be all right?” and got the OK, so I put in some action where [Beerus] grabs and throws them like Jackie Chan. I was able to handle the storyboards for this part, as well, so I was able to draw it comparatively freely, and was satisfied with it.
   — Tadayoshi Yamamuro, OKStars Interview (read full interview)

  Only, in the end, we expanded the scenario too much, and at the storyboarding phase, we had already gone very much over [the intended length], so as a result, we cut down quite a bit. (laughs)

  In the scenario, the Z-Warriors played a larger role, so I would have liked to put more of that to video, if possible. Each of them has their fans, after all, and I think they’ve all trained and gotten stronger.

  Also, we shortened the breaks in the fight [and such], and managed to just barely get it within the allotted time. Contrary [to what you'd expect], I think concentrating it [made it more] impressive.
   — Masahiro Hosoda, Battle of Gods Official Movie Guide

Movie Characters

The following original character profiles were translated from the movie’s promotional pamphlet, which were later reproduced on the official “Battle of Gods” website. Additional character design comments from original author Akira Toriyama and various production staff members have also been included from a variety of sources.

• Beerus, God of Destruction (破壊神ビルス; hakaishin birusu)
  A god who governs destruction, maintaining the world’s balance. Once his wrath is incurred, he’ll destroy nearby planets and life, and is a being feared even by the Kaiō and Kaiōshin.

  Because there are so many gods in my work… (laughs), I figured, “something humanoid might be difficult, now”, so I thought I’d make him a cat. Thinking, “Speaking of feline gods…” I went with an Egypt-esque costume. It gives off a bit of an ominous air, as well, so I’m really pleased with it!
   — Akira Toriyama, Weekly Shōnen Jump 2013, Issue #15 (read full Q&A)

  In terms of [character] models, I suppose “Beerus”, the God of Destruction, was modeled on the 14-year-old cat currently living with us. It’s called a Cornish Rex; it’s a bit of a rare breed.
   — Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball Chōzenshū 1: Story & World Guide (pp. 28-31)

  Beerus originally had a lizard-like form, but at Toriyama-sensei‘s idea, he ultimately became an Egyptian-style cat character.
   — Tadayoshi Yamamuro, OKStars Interview (read full interview)

• Whis (ウイス; uisu)
  A mysterious man working in league with Beerus.
  

  “Guess it’s about time I brought out a good-lookin’ feller, too!” …I thought. (laughs) And so Whis was born. Well, more so than a “good-lookin’ feller”, he became a character who’s sort of naïvely oblivious, but as a result, I came to like this one quite a bit too. So, Beerus and Whis. Bringing them out in sets of two might also be a characteristic of my stories.
   — Akira Toriyama, V-Jump “Akira Toriyama Special Interivew” (read full interview)

Movie Notes

• Listed in Japanese as “Kami to Kami” (“God and God”), along with an English title of “Battle of Gods”, this is the first full-length theatrical film for the Dragon Ball franchise in 17 years.
• When the movie was initially announced in July 2012 in Weekly Shōnen Jump issue #33, a special comment from original author Akira Toriyama was published discussing his involvement with the movie’s production. This would mark the first time that Toriyama had been heavily involved in a movie’s story development, as he had previously only provided and reviewed character designs for prior Dragon Ball movies. More information about Toriyama’s contributions to the animation-side of the franchise can be found in our Production Guide.
• Confirmed by the movie’s script writer, Yūsuke Watanabe, the story takes place some time between manga chapters 517 and 518, a decade’s worth of time not shown in the series between the defeat of Majin Buu and the 28th Tenkaichi Budōkai (incidentally, the exact same time frame that the 2008 “Jump Super Anime Tour” special took place).
• To help fund the movie’s production and promotion, Toei Animation was granted 50 million yen as part of the non-profit organization UNIJAPAN‘s “Co-production Certification Program”. The program was developed by the Japanese government’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), and other affiliated organizations, to support the international endeavors of Japanese filmmakers. Of the four films awarded funding support in 2012, “Battle of Gods” was the only animated film to receive such an honor due to its “enduring international popularity” and its production collaboration with the U.S. company Fox.
• Masakazu Morita, perhaps best known to general Weekly Shōnen Jump fans for voicing Ichigo Kurosaki in the Bleach anime series, previously played Vegeta’s younger brother Tarble in the 2008 “Jump Super Anime Tour” special.
• The movie featured two special guest voices, olympic gold-medalist jūdō-ka Kaori Matsumoto and voice actress/singer/TV-personality Shōko Nakagawa. A third, unadvertised cameo is made by Fuji TV announcer Shin’ichi Karube, who plays the sushi-seller accosted by Whis; as Karube is a noted bow-tie wearer, his character’s hachimaki is tied in a bow.

Name Puns

• Scriptwriter Yūsuke Watanabe revealed in an interview in the May 2013 issue of GetNavi magazine that the name pun for the movie’s “Beerus” character was derived from an approximation of the word “virus” in Japanese.
  

  When I participated in the meetings, there was already talk of, “we’d like to come out with a being surpassing Super Saiyan 3. It would be a Super Saiyan God”. Also, the name of the enemy ‘Beerus, God of Destruction’ is something I came up with. I tweaked the word “virus” to give him the name “Beerus”, and then it was officially set. That’s probably the thing that moved me most this time. (laughs) Incidentally, Toriyama-sensei is the one who named Whis.
   — Yūsuke Watanabe, GetNavi May 2013 Issue (read full interview)

• Initially in Japan the word “virus” was taken directly from Chinese, written as 病毒 (byōdoku), but this has since been phased out of use. In 1953, the “Japanese Society for Virology” established an alternative Japanese approximation of the word based on the original Latin pronunciation, which is written in katakana as ウイルス (uirusu). However there was much confusion, as the “Japanese Association of Medical Sciences” had begun using a different approximation based on the German pronunciation of the word, which is also written in katakana as ビールス (bīrusu). In general, the former katakana approximation (ウイルス) is the more common of the two these days. The latter of the two approximation is still used, although chiefly within the medical field. In addition, the horticultural field uses yet another approximation, バイラス (bairasu), which is derived from the English pronunciation of the word.
• Beerus’s name is based on the German pronunciation of the word “virus”.
  ビールス (bi·i·ru·su)  ›  ビルス (bi·ru·su)
• The naming of Beerus’s attendant Whis, on the other hand, is more convoluted. While Watanabe’s statement suggests that Whis’s name is based on the original Latin pronunciation of the word “virus”, this is simply coincidence: in fact, Akira Toriyama mistook “Beerus” as being derived from “beer”, and responded in kind when naming the character’s attendant.
  

  The name Beerus, I used as-is from the story outline. Anyway, it’s apparently a name that was taken from “virus”, but I mistakenly thought it came from “beer”, and gave his attendant the name “Whis”, which I took from “whiskey”.
   — Akira Toriyama, Asahi Shimbun Digital interview

  The interview notes that according to Shueisha, “Beerus” officially comes from “beer”, and “Whis” from “whiskey” (ウイスキー uisukī in Japanese).

  ウイスキー (u·i·su·ki·i)  ›  ウイス (u·i·su)

Movie Credits

All credits listed below are in no particular order. Upon the film’s release, they will be adjusted to a listing as originally presented in the feature.

Cast Credits

Production Credits