Crunchyroll’s New ‘Dragon Ball’ Series Officially Returns to the Franchise’s Biggest Turning Point

Published Oct 6, 2026, 11:54 PM EDT Michael Hein has been covering entertainment, fandom news, and trending topics since 2016 on outlets including Rogues Portal, PopCulture.com, and ComicBook.com. He has provided live coverage of red carpet premieres, conventions, and up-fronts, and has interviewed major stars including Charles Dance, Patrick Stewart, and Chloe Sevigny. An avid fiction reader and writer, Michael has been diving deep into all the biggest book-to-screen adaptations of the last decade, from Game of Thrones to Foundation. On Sunday, October 11, the Dragon Ball franchise finally returns with its first new anime installment in over four years. However, we won't be visiting other universes, new planets, or even new parts of earth. The new series Dragon Ball Super: Beerus will take fans back to a very familiar part of the timeline — the first meeting of Goku (Masako Nozawa) and the God of Destruction, Beerus (Kōichi Yamadera). This story was first told in the 2013 movie Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, then re-worked into the first arc of both the Dragon Ball Super anime and manga. At first glance, it's not the most exciting thing to be revisiting this story yet again. However, after the death of franchise creator Akira Toriyama and a long hiatus for the Z Fighters, this might be the best way to get the story going again. Dragon Ball Super: Beerus aims to be the definitive version of this all-important arc in Goku's story. Battle of Gods could have been a one-off back in 2013, but it grew into a series with 131 episodes, and even more material in the manga that hasn't been adapted yet. From here on out, the franchise will be moving forward without the oversight of Toriyama, so it's the perfect time to look back on the foundation he has laid before moving forward. Considering all the controversy and baggage attached to the Dragon Ball Super anime, this re-animated version may be just the thing to reset fans' expectations and set a new course for this iconic franchise. 'Dragon Ball Super: Beerus' Will Do Justice to the 'Battle of Gods' Image via Toei Animation While this will be the fourth time that Goku and Beerus' first meeting is re-told in the Dragon Ball franchise, it may also be the first time the story's full potential is realized. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods was created as a one-off movie, and it doesn't quite have the gravitas to kick off a whole new generation of Dragon Ball stories. It also lacks the Dragon Ball Super branding, so it's no surprise that the studios and advertisers wanted a more definitive version when Dragon Ball Super premiered in 2015. That said, the Dragon Ball Super version of this arc was infamous for its low animation quality at the time of its premiere. Some aspects of the art have been touched up in subsequent releases on streaming and Blu-ray, but it's still not quite up to the standard of the Dragon Ball franchise. As for the manga, it was created after the anime, with a few slight differences here and there. It was overseen by Toriyama, but ultimately, it's not enough to stand as the definitive, canonical version of the story. It's not just that this storyline is the start of the Super generation for the franchise — it's an important final push by Toriyama as a storyteller. The mangaka was hesitant to pick the Dragon Ball franchise back up, and while he remained involved in Dragon Ball Super up until his death, he never quite took the reins as a writer or artist. It's unclear how much of the series Toriyama wrote and how much of it he simply approved, as mangaka Toyotarou described in one interview. Dragon Ball Super: Beerus returns to a point in the story that we know for sure was Toriyama's idea, and that's a good place to pick up after his death. 'Dragon Ball Super: Beerus' Will Launch Into New Stories Image via Toei Animation It's also important to keep in mind that the Dragon Ball franchise is not stopping here. There are plans in place to adapt the two latest story lines in the Dragon Ball Super manga into anime form — the Moro arc and the Granolah arc. From there, the franchise could go in all kinds of new directions, with Dragon Ball Super: Beerus as the launching pad. It's like the franchise is taking a couple of steps back so it will have a running start when it kicks off again. This may even be a sign that the Dragon Ball Super storyline is heading for its climactic moment. The entire series is an interlude set between the the final two episodes of Dragon Ball Z itself. The original series ended with an epilogue set ten years in the future, but Super cuts in to describe the adventures that happened in between. Many fans have wondered how Goku will wind up back on earth contentedly training his granddaughter Pan for that final episode, with Beerus and Whis nowhere to be seen. It could be that the franchise is revisiting Beerus' introduction to prepare for that big reveal before the entire timeline resets. Whatever the plan is, Dragon Ball Super: Beerus promises to raise the bar on the entire franchise before launching into something new. The series premieres on Sunday, October 11 on Crunchyroll in the U.S. — and in many other parts of the world. Release Date 2015 - 2018 Network Fuji TV Showrunner Tatsuya Nagamine Cast Masakazu Morita Whis (voice) Masako Nozawa Son Goku/Goku Black/Son Gohan/Son Goten (voices) Six months after the defeat of Majin Buu, The mighty Saiyan Son Goku continues his quest on becoming stronger.