Dragon Ball Supreme Kais: who are they, and what are they?

The Supreme Kais, or Kaioshin, sit above the regular Kais in Dragon Ball's hierarchy of gods. They matter far more than the Kais because their job goes beyond watching over the universe. They are gods of creation, tasked with creating universes, planets, stars and civilizations, the opposite of the Gods of Destruction. This piece takes a deeper look at where they came from, what they can do, and the questions about them that still have no answer.

In the first story of Dragon Ball Z, we met the Kais, specifically King Kai, the god of the North Quadrant who taught Goku the Kaio-ken and the Spirit Bomb. Later, in the Majin Buu arc, Akira Toriyama revealed gods higher than the Kais when he introduced the Kaioshin. From there the story runs all the way to Dragon Ball Daima (2024), which gave them a whole new origin.

Why Toriyama brought the Supreme Kais into the Majin Buu arc

To understand the Supreme Kais, we need to go back to what Toriyama intended when he first created them. As he developed the Dragon Ball manga week after week, the series turned more toward science fiction after Goku's battle with King Piccolo. The Z part, as I call it, introduced aliens and alien empires. Even the main character turned out to be an alien, and the story moved further into science fiction with time travel and artificial humans in the Cell arc.

When Toriyama moved on to the Majin Buu arc, Dragon Ball went back to its roots and revived the idea of demons and magic. It still had some science fiction mixed in, but the Buu arc was very different from the rest of Z because of that focus.

Toriyama also kept adding to the hierarchy of gods as the series went on. Early on, the only god we knew was Kami, the god of Earth. When Goku died in the fight with Raditz, we met higher gods in the Other World such as King Yemma and, of course, the Kais. For a long time the Kais were the only true cosmic gods, or at least the highest ranking ones, until the Buu saga introduced the Kaioshin. There is also the Grand Kai, who was discussed in the manga but never appeared there, although his design came from Toriyama and he was used in the anime's Other World Tournament. The Supreme Kais rank above even him.

Supreme Kai, the dub name and the Spanish connection

The term Kaioshin roughly translates to god of the lords of the world. The English dub called them Supreme Kais, which is a simple and fitting translation. What I find interesting is that the dub borrowed it from the Latin American Spanish dub of Dragon Ball Z, which referred to them as Supremo Kaiosama, meaning Supreme Kaiosama. They are not Kaiosama, though. They are Kaioshin.

Shin, Kibito and the Supreme Kais Majin Buu destroyed

The first one we meet is the character later known as Shin, also called Nahare, together with his attendant Kibito. As the story unfolds, we learn that, like the regular Kais, a Kaioshin was assigned to rule each of the four quadrants of the universe, with the Grand Supreme Kai above the Supreme Kais of the North, South, East and West.

In Majin Buu's backstory, we discover that Shin is the only survivor. The other three Supreme Kais and the Grand Supreme Kai were all killed or absorbed by Majin Buu many centuries before the events of Dragon Ball. That leaves Shin as the sole Kaioshin overseeing the entire universe rather than a single quadrant.

The Z Sword, Old Kai and Ultimate Gohan

As the Buu saga goes on, we learn more of the Supreme Kais' backstory and lore. We even get to visit their home, the Sacred World of the Kais, a planet that sits outside the main universe and orbits it. Gohan goes there to train with the legendary Z Sword, said to give amazing powers to whoever wields it, much like Excalibur in the legend of King Arthur. I never thought King Arthur would have a connection to Dragon Ball, but Toriyama was clearly inspired by many things.

Gohan ends up pulling out the Z Sword, Goku eventually shows up, and between them they break it. Inside is an ancient Kaioshin who existed centuries before the one we know. This Old Kai, or Elder Supreme Kai, whatever you call him, had mysterious and strange magic, including a technique that unlocks a person's full abilities and gives them unimaginable power. The drawback is that it takes a long time to work, but he succeeds with Gohan, and that gave us Ultimate Gohan, the strongest version of Gohan in the Dragon Ball Z era.

That link carries on even after Dragon Ball Z, all the way to Gohan's Beast transformation in the 2022 film Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. I have done a full analysis of that transformation and how Kaioshin magic connects to it.

Potara fusion, Vegito and Super Saiyan 4

The Z Sword is not the only ancient artifact. There are also the Potara earrings, and even Shin, the current Kaioshin at the time, did not know the true magic of the Potara and Potara fusion. In my opinion, Toriyama returning to ancient artifacts and mysterious objects was fun, and it led to one of the most popular characters in the series, Vegito.

So you can thank the Kaioshin for the strongest fusion and for the strongest individual character, Ultimate Gohan, from the original manga's Z era. Objectively that is true, and it is all thanks to Kaioshin magic. They are not completely useless after all. They are responsible for the two strongest heroes of the original Dragon Ball manga.

They were not forgotten in later Dragon Ball projects either. Their role in Dragon Ball GT was very limited, but they were the ones who came up with the plan to let Goku's tail grow back. That led to his transformation into a Golden Great Ape and then into GT's Super Saiyan 4. Once again, they were responsible for a very powerful upgrade for our heroes. Without a doubt, the Kaioshin were the strongest magic users in the Dragon Ball universe at that time.

Battle of Gods made the Supreme Kais the gods of creation

Akira Toriyama was not finished with the Kaioshin. When the Dragon Ball revival came, it started with the 2013 film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. That film introduced a whole new hierarchy of gods, with the first appearance of Beerus, the God of Destruction. It was not stated directly in the film, but we soon learned that the hierarchy was more complicated than we thought, and that the universe is balanced by two forces, the Hakaishin and the Kaioshin. The Hakaishin are the Gods of Destruction, and the Kaioshin were now revealed as the gods of creation.

The first full trailer for Battle of Gods literally stated that creation and destruction balance the universe and that the universe needs both. By the end of that film, we learned there was not one universe but 12. Did that mean there were many other Supreme Kais out there? The answer is yes, but we only found that out in Dragon Ball Super.

Dragon Ball Super's life link between Shin and Beerus

Dragon Ball Super brought many new revelations. One is that Beerus has a much stronger link to the Kaioshin than we thought. The gods of creation share a life link with the Gods of Destruction, meaning that if a god of creation dies, the God of Destruction dies too. That is very similar to the original concept behind Kami and Piccolo before they fused.

It means a villain, instead of fighting Beerus directly and probably losing, could simply take out Shin and Beerus would be finished. We saw this happen in the Goku Black arc in the future timeline, where Goku Black and Zamasu wiped out everyone across the multiverse.

Super also expanded on what Beerus said at the end of Battle of Gods about there being 12 universes. Each of those universes has a Supreme Kai, a God of Destruction and an Angel, and we learned that Whis and Vados were in fact Angels with many different duties.

The missing Supreme Kais at the Tournament of Power

The multiverse raises a question that has puzzled me since Super first started airing. At the Tournament of Power, we saw representatives from every universe: 12 Gods of Destruction, 12 gods of creation and 12 Angels. But correct me if I am wrong, shouldn't each universe have five Supreme Kais? Universe 7 had five, four of whom were killed by Majin Buu, and I am counting the Grand Supreme Kai in that.

Does that mean the other universes have a different hierarchy of gods from Universe 7? Were they simply not required to attend, so only one representative came? Or were they all killed by some other enemy? I do not know. This was never answered, and it really seems to me that Toriyama may have completely forgotten there were originally four Kaioshin and a Grand Supreme Kai, because he never seems to have addressed it.

The arc that followed the Tournament of Power and the Broly film, the Moro arc, puts a big focus on the Supreme Kai in a story that goes back centuries. So to disable a God of Destruction and an Angel, do you have to kill all five Kaioshin? Are they all linked to one God of Destruction, or is only one of them linked? These questions were never answered, and sadly they may never be, because Akira Toriyama passed away in 2024. Maybe he left notes behind, or maybe Toyotaro can find an answer, but for now Dragon Ball fans around the world are still asking.

Toriyama's Super Exciting Guide: the Core People and the World Tree

After the Dragon Ball Super anime ended, we got more backstory and the true origin of the Kaioshin, which Toriyama explained in depth in Dragon Ball Daima. Before that, though, there is the statement Toriyama made years earlier in the Super Exciting Guide, because that is where it all began.

Toriyama revealed that the Kaioshin come from a planet called the Core Planet, which resembles King Kai's planet from Dragon Ball Z. They are known as the Core People, or Shinjin, and they are born from a giant tree called the World Tree, or Kaiju. The Core People emerge neither male nor female and live around 75,000 years on average. They go to school to learn how to become a Kai, and then they are assigned to their positions.

The same interview also revealed the Makaioshin, Core People with evil hearts. If you are born from the Shinjin tree as an ordinary fruit, you may become a Kaiosama. If you are a golden fruit, you become a Kaioshin, a higher rank in the hierarchy. If the fruit is rotten, you get a Makaioshin.

Dragon Ball Daima turns the Shinjin into the Glinds of the Demon Realm

With Dragon Ball Daima, Akira Toriyama took all of this and changed it. He took these ideas and applied them, I think, to the Demon Realm, specifically the Second Demon World, and we learned a great deal about the Shinjin. The names changed: they are now known as Glinds, and the Core World is the Second Demon World in the Demon Realm.

Their origin is the same. They are born from big trees, and they are neither male nor female even though they have both male and female traits. Just look at Dr. Arinsu. They are also gifted with magical powers, which are controversial in some ways, because other beings in the Demon Realm feel the Glinds look down on them as superior, and that makes sense.

What I find interesting is that the Second Demon World is also the home of the Namekians, and we have seen Namekians as both demons and gods. Kami was clearly the son of Katas and became the god of Earth, while King Piccolo, his other half, took the other path. Toriyama created these characters decades ago, and now Daima gives full backstories to both races, the Namekians and the Glinds, who are cousins from the same Demon World.

Dragon Ball Super also showed us, through Zamasu and Gowasu, that not every Glind automatically becomes a Kaioshin. You have to work your way up, starting as a Kaiosama and eventually graduating to Kaioshin. Zamasu started that process, but evil corrupted him, he never finished it and he took a dark path instead. Thanks to Daima, we now know Shin's origin in the Demon Realm, along with his siblings Degesu and Arinsu.

Kibito, Kai Kai and the mystery of healing

Not much has been said about Kibito. His name is a Japanese pun on a word meaning attendant, and that is the core of his role: he attends the Supreme Kai and exists to help with his duties. He has mastered a teleportation technique called Kai Kai, which is better and more effective than Goku's Instant Transmission because it can take you anywhere in the entire universe instantly.

Kibito also has healing abilities, but Dragon Ball Super later showed that if you train as an apprentice like Zamasu, you can learn to heal. In the Super manga, the Supreme Kai also performed a ritual and taught Trunks how to heal. It has never been stated whether the Glinds are born with these powers or have to train for them. Toriyama said in the Super Exciting Guide that they went to school, but is that where healing is learned? There are still mysteries here.

The Time Rings and the replacement Supreme Kai that never appeared

Alongside the Potara earrings and the Z Sword, Dragon Ball Super added another artifact, the Time Rings, which can only be used by gods of creation, the Kaioshin. You could assume a higher god such as an Angel or a God of Destruction might be able to use them, but in the series we only saw Glinds use them.

In a later interview, Toriyama revealed that the Shin can live for 75,000 years, and that if a Kaioshin dies, a replacement grows to take their place. That never happened, and I wonder whether Toriyama forgot he said it or whether it is simply a side of Dragon Ball we never saw. The same interview confirmed that the gods of creation are the Kaioshin and that they are the ones who create planets.

Why Beerus sealing Old Kai in the Z Sword does not fit

That interview is also where it was revealed that Beerus was the one who sealed Old Kai inside the Z Sword. It is a very strange change given the timing of the story, but it came in the era when Toriyama was really trying to show off Beerus's power and was making all kinds of claims about what he had done.

I am not saying I am against it. It just does not fit the original story, because Old Kai said he was sealed in the Z Sword by a being weaker than him, and we know Beerus is far from weak. That is not a word that describes him at all.

How the Supreme Kais create planets, according to the Chōzenshū

How the Kaioshin make planets was explained in the first volume of the Dragon Ball Chōzenshū story and world guide. That book came out before Daima, so we are not sure how well it fits with Daima, since Toriyama took his old ideas, changed them and added more context. Whether you like that or not is up to you.

The Kaioshin do not exactly create planets themselves. They provide the basic push for those planets to be born. They do things like split planets or turn rocks into planets, then create life forms or move them from other planets to populate new ones. In that sense they are literally gods. When a Kaioshin creates a planet, the Kaiosama, who rank below them, sometimes help.

The idea is to keep the universe in balance, which requires both creation and destruction. Whenever there is a surplus of planets, the God of Destruction can step in and destroy one. The God of Destruction does not need permission from their Kaioshin counterpart. It all depends on their relationship.

Beerus, Shin and Universe 7's low ranking

At the Tournament of Power, you will notice some Kais were very close to their God of Destruction, with mutual respect and a sense of camaraderie. As for Beerus and Shin, to be honest, I do not know whether Beerus respects Shin, and it does not look like he does. Beerus does whatever he wants. To me that is funny, but it can cause problems when Shin tries to populate the universe, which Dragon Ball Super addressed with the low ranking of the mortals in Universe 7.

There was a lot of misinformation at the time. People said it was all about strength, but it is not. It is about balance. That is how Zeno could determine which universes had higher quality beings compared with lower quality ones. Universe 7 was not managed well by Beerus and Shin, and that is why they ended up having to fight in the Tournament of Power.

With every new series, Dragon Ball's hierarchy of gods keeps growing. At one point there was only Kami. Then came Kaiosama, then the Kaioshin, and even before them the Grand Kai, though he appeared only in the anime. Then came the Gods of Destruction, the Angels and everyone else Dragon Ball Super brought in, and Daima gave many of these characters backstories we knew nothing about. Toriyama was at the height of his creativity, building all these stories about the Glinds and the Shin, and I personally love Dragon Ball's stories.