Why Super Saiyan 4 Probably Isn't in Dragon Ball Super Beerus Episode 2

Dragon Ball Super Beerus episode 2, titled The God of Destruction Heads to the Planet of the Kai, leaves out Super Saiyan 4. I think they could have added it, but I can tell you why they probably didn't. The short version: Super was made before Daima, and this recut seems to be trying to stay close to what Akira Toriyama envisioned, which never included Super Saiyan 4.

After the first episode reintroduced Beerus and dropped clues and foreshadowing for the Super Saiyan God, this episode begins the journey. It also gives us a completely remade version of the Goku versus Beerus fight, and a moment that could be read as an early hint at Ultra Instinct.

Episode 2 proves Dragon Ball Super Beerus is a recut, not a manga readaptation

We've been talking all year about how Dragon Ball Super Beerus is not a readaptation of the Toyotarou manga. It's a new recut that will feature some manga elements, but it isn't a shot by shot remake of the manga, and episode 2 proved it. This episode had virtually no new elements brought in from the manga. Instead, they chose to trim much of the fat from the original 2015 Dragon Ball Super.

The result borrows material from Dragon Ball Super episodes three, four, and five, along with some new animation. Among the cuts is the introduction of Bulma's birthday party on her giant cruise ship, which they're saving for episode 3. That includes a scene with Krillin and 18 on their way to the ship. Some of the conversations between the Kais, Beerus, and Whis have been cut down tremendously.

From episode 4 of the original series, all of the Pilaf Gang's hijinks have been removed, so only the tail end of that episode survives. The rest is mostly from episode five, which is the most notorious episode of Dragon Ball Super because of the horrible version of Goku versus Beerus in it. This version takes audio snippets from that episode and adds brand new animation, rebuilding the fight from scratch.

As much as I love the Pilaf Gang, I'm perfectly okay with those scenes being cut, since we didn't see any Pilaf Gang action in the Battle of Gods movie until later in the story. This episode needed to focus on showing how much stronger Beerus is than Goku, and that's what it did. The rest is distraction filler that isn't necessary, and the pacing felt as good as it could be.

The Kais are called gods of creation, and the Oracle Fish makes her debut

In the opening scene, the Kais refer to themselves as the gods of creation, which is also what they call themselves in the original Super version. This wasn't officially made clear until the Battle of Gods trailers came out and discussed the gods of creation being the opposite side of the gods of destruction. It's the first time in the anime that the Kais are officially referred to that way, even though Toriyama intimated it in Dragon Ball Z and the manga, and said it outright during the press buildup to Battle of Gods back in 2013.

Beerus also calls in the Oracle Fish, who appears for the first time in Dragon Ball Super Beerus. He asks her about a prophecy she made 39 years ago that he would face a formidable enemy and be challenged. That would be the Super Saiyan God, and the Oracle Fish says he will meet him on this very day.

The Oracle Fish is voiced by Shoko Nakagawa, a very famous actress and singer in Japan. She's also a lifelong Dragon Ball fan, so she got to fulfill a lifelong dream by playing a character in the series itself.

I've never liked Beerus suggesting Frieza destroy Planet Vegeta

Whis tells Beerus that, as of now, there is no Super Saiyan God, but Beerus thinks the Saiyans themselves might have a clue about how to find this figure. Whis explains that there aren't many Saiyans left, because Frieza destroyed Planet Vegeta. Beerus made that suggestion, because King Vegeta drove him nuts.

I've never been a big fan of this. I've always preferred Frieza wiping out the Saiyans completely of his own volition, out of fear of being overthrown by a Saiyan, specifically the legendary Super Saiyan. Frieza's paranoia about losing power was the entire motivation in the original manga and Dragon Ball Z.

Whis educates Beerus on where the surviving Saiyans are, and the conversation leads to Beerus wanting to meet them. With all the cuts, this scene is much faster here, though still not quite as fast as in the Battle of Gods movie, where the conversation takes place during the breakfast sequence.

Goku's training and Beerus's very different origins

Goku trains on King Kai's planet by firing a Kamehameha, having it loop around him, and then trying to block it. That's the same kind of training he did in Dragon Ball Z on the ship on the way to Namek. King Kai then fills Goku in on Beerus and on destroyer gods as a whole: they keep balance in the universe and prevent overpopulation, while the Kais create planets and civilizations.

In the original premise for Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, before Akira Toriyama got involved in rewriting the script, Beerus was going to be an evil creature who infected the Saiyans with evil decades before the beginning of Dragon Ball. Toriyama came in, rewrote Beerus completely, created the character of Whis, and did a complete redesign of Super Saiyan God.

When Beerus arrives and talks to King Kai, this version is much shorter than the one in Dragon Ball Super. Goku only hides in the house briefly before coming out to greet Beerus. The energy and tone are completely different from 2015, and Goku's face has been redrawn in several frames to look far more on model than he did in the old show.

The remade Goku versus Beerus fight is probably the best version yet

Goku and Beerus talk about the Super Saiyan God and about Frieza, material that's in every version, so they can get to know each other and Goku can start pondering the Super Saiyan God. Shortly before this, Beerus makes it known he wants to go to Earth to ask Vegeta whether he knows about it. It all leads to Goku working up the nerve to challenge Beerus to a sparring match to see how strong he really is.

Goku changes into his gi, walks toward Beerus cracking his knuckles, and goes Super Saiyan. This scene is brand new. Dragon Ball Super episode 5 had a ton of production problems; production collapsed around this time, much of it was outsourced, and even Akira Toriyama complained. Fans everywhere ridiculed it, and Toei knew it. They fixed some of it up for the Blu-ray release, but here it's been completely remade.

The team that worked on this episode "deserves a medal." "The entire sequence just looks incredible," and I don't only mean Super Saiyan 3. New effects show how King Kai's planet reacts to the battle, so fighting Beerus seems much more dangerous. The weird looking Goku faces have all been fixed. Sumitomo took one of the key pieces of music from the Tournament of Power arc, from the fight with Jiren, and it fits so well here.

Goku can't land a hit. Beerus dodges and weaves out of everything. Super Saiyan 2 looks incredible but doesn't help him. This is probably the best version of this scene they've ever done. The planet gets torn up, and Goku and Beerus look awesome.

Goku's Super Saiyan 3 transformation shreds the 2015 version

Goku wants Beerus to fight back, but Beerus tells him he has to prove he's strong enough to handle it. That's when Goku goes Super Saiyan 3. "This was a glorious transformation that needs to be seen to be believed," and it absolutely shreds the 2015 version. It felt like when Goku went Super Saiyan 3 against Janemba and shook the afterlife. Parts of Snake Way break, and there's lightning everywhere.

This is probably the second most epic Super Saiyan 3 transformation, behind only the one in Daima. When I say epic, I mean visually, though Goku's voice performance is also great. Goku says he wants to demonstrate the power of Super Saiyan 3. Beerus, blocking one of his punches, acknowledges it's stronger than one and two, then throws Goku down onto King Kai's planet.

Goku comes in with a huge rapid fire combination, and Beerus blocks everything easily with his palm. Goku's Kamehameha does nothing. After Goku goes for another Kamehameha, this time punching a hole through King Kai's planet, Beerus flicks him, knocks him down, and more or less humiliates him.

A possible, but not certain, Ultra Instinct hint

There's an important moment when Goku goes in to attack Beerus, then retreats, and his body stops. This is not a sure thing, but you could see it as foreshadowing for Ultra Instinct, because Goku's body moved instinctively. Beerus says that had Goku attacked, he would have finished him off. Goku's body already seems to instinctively know what to do.

That moment was absolutely not in the film version, and it wasn't in the 2015 TV version of Battle of Gods either. You can see it as foreshadowing if you want to. I think it makes the story cooler if you do, but I'm not going to say it's a solid example of foreshadowing.

Beerus does point out that Goku can't sense his god ki, and he's surprised Goku can move the way he does despite that. Ki and energy are crucial to combat in Dragon Ball. In the end, Beerus knocks Goku down, Goku drops back to base form, and he has lost. Gods of destruction are way beyond Super Saiyan 3. The episode ends with Beerus heading to Earth, and the next episode previews are in the credits: behind some crystals on screen, there's a look at the next episode, including Vegeta meeting Beerus.

Super Saiyan 4 likely stayed out because Super came before Daima

Now, the elephant in the room: where was Super Saiyan 4? Many people thought that, with this being the next project after Daima, they'd try to make Daima fit with Super by adding Super Saiyan 4. Even I thought it was a possibility months ago. But around the summertime, it was more or less intimated to me that it wasn't going to happen, which is why I'd been telling people to keep their expectations low.

Could they have added Super Saiyan 4? I think the answer is yes. The obvious reason Daima's forms, like Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta and Super Saiyan 4 Goku, are not likely to be featured is that Super was made before Daima. Even though Daima takes place 3 years before the events of Super, it doesn't matter. When the original Battle of Gods story and later the Super anime were made, they had no idea they'd make Daima and bring in Super Saiyan 4.

If this is supposed to be as close to what Toriyama envisioned as possible, perhaps Akio and the crew behind Dragon Ball Super Beerus didn't want to make too many alterations or add things that weren't in his original script or the manga, and Super Saiyan 4 would be a huge addition. There's an easy explanation available, too: Goku's ability to use Super Saiyan 4 degraded after the events of Daima.

Canon is a Western idea, and Toriyama worked more on Daima than on Super

The creators of Dragon Ball and much of the Japanese media do not care about canon. When fans debate online about what is and isn't canon, it's usually something they made up or heard from somebody else. Toei, Shueisha, and Toriyama have never revealed a full canon timeline. Earlier timelines, like the old Daizenshuu one, often don't make sense and include filler that doesn't fit. When they make Dragon Ball, they care about entertaining people, not making everything connect, which is why there are logic holes. I can understand fans being confused.

I think many people will jump to the idea that Daima isn't canon to Super, or that Dragon Ball has multiple canons: GT, Super, Daima, and the games. That's logically sound and makes a lot of sense. But calling Daima not canon is silly, since most people consider canon to be what Toriyama worked on, and he worked more on Daima than on Super. That's a fact. For the first time ever, during Daima, Toriyama supervised and edited scripts for the actual show. He never did that with the Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z anime, though he helped out, and certainly not with GT or Super, where he wrote the manga or a manuscript and only helped the anime staff out.

Daima's future may have gone to the grave with Toriyama

Toriyama passed away before Daima's production was complete. It was revealed in the Blu-ray special features of Dragon Ball Daima that he turned in half the story and didn't give them the full manuscript until later. He sent the second half, but died before he could supervise the scripts for the final few episodes. So the reason Daima has such a strange ending, with Goku and the others still in the demon realm and Super Saiyan 4 never mentioned again, is likely that whatever Toriyama planned for Daima or Super Saiyan 4 probably went to the grave with him.

It's possible he had ideas and died before they could be implemented, which makes Daima something like an unfinished project. I've thought about that a lot, because it certainly feels that way; the ending feels like there's more story to tell. Will Toyotarou pick it up? I don't know, and I have doubts. It sounds like they're trying to move past Daima and refocus on the Super era. Because Daima came out after Super and never got any connective tissue, there may never be any.

Toriyama didn't even think of putting Super Saiyan 4 in the original Battle of Gods script. Could they have done it? Yes. Would it have honored him? I think so. But perhaps they didn't feel like it. I don't have any statements from Akio or the Toei staff saying this, but there are many statements suggesting either they don't treat canon the way Western fans do, or Toriyama never gave them the entire story.

Toriyama's Battle of Gods poster shows the Supreme Kai unfused. Many people point out he unfuses differently in Daima and Super, so they must be two different timeline branches. I understand that, but it makes more sense to me that Toriyama always assumed the Supreme Kai was unfused and put that into Daima without realizing it would confuse people, because canon isn't important to the Japanese. If you want to treat Daima as a separate canon from Super, that's your prerogative. But Toriyama worked on both, so in Toriyama's universe, they are both canon.