Dragon Ball Super Beerus Episode 1 Early Look Points to New Scenes and Fixed Animation

Published 9 October 2026. Words like "tonight" or "next week" refer to that date.

An early report on Dragon Ball Super Beerus episode 1 points to some interesting changes from the manga, including the appearance of past villains, along with animation that is reportedly way better than the original. People at New York Comic Con got to see the first episode, and one person who saw it has shared details on the opening, a more menacing Beerus, and scenes that seem to borrow from both the manga and the original anime.

I know it's a little silly to worry about spoilers here, because this is Battle of Gods. We've seen this story something like five other times, more if you count video games. We kind of know what happens. But if you want to go in knowing nothing about the changes, this is your warning.

Dragon Ball Super Beerus Episode 1 Reaches Crunchyroll Hours After Its Japan Premiere

Dragon Ball Super Beerus episode 1 premiered on Sunday evening, October 11, in Japan, which was morning in the US. It will air on Fuji TV unsubtitled at around 10:45 a.m. A short while after that, it will be on Amazon Prime, also unsubtitled.

Crunchyroll will have it subtitled within about an hour and a half to two hours after it airs in Japan. So the subbed version of episode 1 should probably be available right around noon, 12:30 or 1:00 p.m., something like that. There will be a dub coming later, but for right now it's only subbed. If you're planning to catch it on Netflix, you will be a week behind, so be aware that people are going to be talking about the series before you get to it.

Shonen Games Says the New Opening Traces Goku and Vegeta's Evolution

The first episode was not shown during the New York Comic Con event itself, but people who were there got to see it. Shonen Games says, "Dragon Ball Super Beerus opening is fire. It goes through Goku and Vegeta's evolution and short character teases." I've talked about the intro being fire for a while now.

About a month ago, on September 6, I broke that a legendary animator was part of Dragon Ball Super Beerus. Shonen Games didn't say it, but I can now reveal that it is the legendary animator from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z who was the designer of Super Saiyan 4 for GT. He did one episode of the original Dragon Ball Super, and he was the lead animator, the supervisor, on Daima. He helped with this new intro.

Goku's Daydream About Frieza and Cell Comes Straight From the Manga

From what I heard, and from what Shonen Games says, the episode shows Goku fighting past enemies in his mind after taking a break from farming, enemies like Frieza, Cell and Buu, and Beerus wakes up right after. That scene comes right from Dragon Ball Super Chapter 1 of the manga. Goku is farming, and while he's farming, he daydreams about fighting past enemies like Frieza and Cell.

Other credible sources and insiders in the community have talked about how this project is going to use elements from the manga, and I've talked about it too. But it's not going to be a one-to-one remake of the manga, and it's not going to be scene by scene. There's something else in this episode that comes right from the anime, which I'll get to below. This daydream was not part of the original Super episode 1, but it is part of Dragon Ball Super Beerus.

While I was putting this together, I was sent a picture someone took at New York Comic Con showing Goku versus Cell in the new series. And you have to understand that this daydream is being done for a reason, which I'll explain further down.

Beerus Reportedly Has Final Boss Energy

Shonen Games goes on to say, "They were not joking about the menacing energy they gave Beerus. Some scenes were fairly silent with only the destruction sounds being heard and his footsteps when he walks to try food from different planet. He has final boss energy."

It's no secret that they're making Beerus more terrifying. It's all about enhancing the previous scenes with different sound design, different production and different directing. Shonen Games is basically confirming that they gave Beerus a scary vibe, which is a very good thing.

From what I heard, the composer doing the music for Dragon Ball Super Beerus has a new theme for Beerus. I have not heard it yet, and I'm looking forward to it, because if you remember his work on the Goku Black arc, he had some menacing sounding themes. I always thought that was cool.

The Dinosaur Meat Planet Scene Echoes Original Super Episode 2

According to Shonen Games, the episode shows an attempt to take dinosaur meat from one planet, and a yellow creature is not having it. Beerus comes down because he felt he had waited too long. He takes the creature's attacks full on just by standing there, then reflects its last beam back at it. Beerus then blows the planet up, remembers his dream, and sees Goku with red hair as a Super Saiyan God.

I saw some folks thinking Yamoshi was going to be in this, and I didn't think they were going to go that far. I wish they would address the Yamoshi thing, though I don't know if they ever will. This scene is not from the manga, but it does sound like a scene from episode 2 of the original Dragon Ball Super anime.

The only difference is that Shonen Games described the monster as yellow. The monster from the original episode 2 is not yellow; the background and the sky are yellow. So either Shonen Games made a mistake and meant that the monster is red on a planet with a yellow sky, or they've recolored it, or it's a new scene. I genuinely haven't seen any new monsters in what I've seen of the series, so I genuinely don't know. The original episode 2 also ends with Beerus dreaming about fighting a Super Saiyan God.

Goku and Beerus Mirror Each Other's Hunger for a Fight

What they're trying to express with these scenes is that both Beerus and Goku are thriving for competition. Goku hasn't fought in years, not since Majin Buu. He dreams about fighting Frieza, Cell and his past enemies, though I don't know if he dreams about Buu. He wants to fight again. Beerus, meanwhile, wants to fight the Super Saiyan God from his dream, the prophecy.

This is meant to show how similar Goku and Beerus are, mirroring their motivation. They both love food and they both love fighting, even though Beerus is obviously lazier than Goku because he's gotten so strong. It's good to see, and I'm okay with that.

Shenron, Whis and the Ending Animation

The last thing Shonen Games mentions is that the ending theme song shows parts of Shenron teasing him. I think that means the ending animation. I don't know if that's a next episode preview type of thing, or if they're even going to have those. I assume they will, but who knows.

Shonen Games was also asked whether they removed the part where Whis talks in the creature's language, and the answer was no, he still does that. That moment is also from episode 2 of the original Super.

Animation Is Reportedly Way Better, and Old Problem Episodes Are Fixed

When asked whether the animation is better or more plastic looking, Shonen Games says, "The animation way better. If someone were to nitpick, there were very few scenes that I could count in one hand that were meh, but everything's been improved a lot." That's what we kind of knew about this project. Dragon Ball Super Beerus is enhancing a lot.

I'm telling you now that episode 5 is totally fixed. All those problems from the original Super episode 5, where it looked horrible, have been fixed. So has the Goku versus Frieza fight. I think that was episode 14, when Goku fought Frieza before he revealed Blue and before Frieza revealed Gold. That has been totally fixed too.

I also wanted Moro sooner, and I think we're going to get him sooner than you realize. I'll go into that more in the future. For now, I'm glad they're fixing the problems with the original version of Super.

Which change in Dragon Ball Super Beerus episode 1 are you most curious to see for yourself?