Dragon Ball Super Episode 5 Review

Showdown on King Kai's Planet!

Goku vs. God of Destruction Beerus

This was the episode of Dragon Ball Super that I have been waiting for! The introductions are finally over and the focus on Pilaf has gone away. At the end of the last episode, Beerus, the God of destruction, finally arrived on King Kai's planet and now in episode five he and Goku finally come face to face. In the beginning of the episode we find King Kai absolutely terrified now that Beerus and Whis have shown up on his planet; with good reason, too, as we find out another revelation from Beerus' past. Apparently he is the being that made King Kai's planet so tiny. What has this guy not done? I love the way Toriyama and company have layered him into so much Dragon Ball lore. It makes him relevant even though he is a brand new character. Poor King Kai isn't able to keep Goku hidden for very long as Beerus calls him out almost immediately after he arrives on the tiny world. I loved seeing Goku struggle with trying to be formal in front of Beerus. It led to some hilarious dialogue between the two characters and kept with the humor of previous episodes. Of course, Beerus presses Goku for information about the Super Saiyan God and when he finds that Goku can't help him he turns his focus to planet Earth where the Prince of Saiyans, Vegeta, resides.

Before Beerus can depart however, Goku's excitement finally gets the best of him and he issues a challenge to the God of Destruction. Goku just wants to see an example of Beerus' power and asks the deity to a simple sparring match. Beerus explains that in all of his hundreds of millions of years existing he has never once been issued such a challenge and tells Goku that if he can show that he is worthy he will grant him his wish. This leads to a wonderful primer of sorts that showcases all of Goku's major transformations at this point in time. We get to witness Goku power through his Super Saiyan 1 & 2 transformations as he struggles to get anywhere close to landing a hit on Beerus. After realizing that Beerus is on a whole different level Goku decides to finally stop messing around and delivers on last episode's promise of showing us the power of a Super Saiyan 3. This is my favorite transformation in all of Dragon Ball and I absolutely adored getting to witness it again here. There is just something about seeing Goku in that form that pumps me up and gets my hype level over 9000. Seeing all of the transformations play out in modern animation was absolutely spectacular and a magnificent sight to behold; too bad it didn't last very long as Beerus was able to take Goku out in just two blows. It's also worth noting that King Kai's planet was practically reduced to nothing by the end of the exchange. Poor King Kai can never catch a break. After seeing Beerus swat Goku away as if he were nothing, you can start to see the sort of threat forming that the Z Fighters are used to taking on every day. The story can only climb up from here now that plot threads are finally starting to form.

The episode ends with King Kai warning Vegeta that Beerus is on his way to Earth. Vegeta recalls hearing of Beerus, but his thoughts seem to be very foggy on the subject. He recognizes the threat right away upon finding out that Goku was reduced to nothing in two blows. I look forward to finding out exactly how Vegeta knows of Beerus and seeing the buildup to what is sure to be one of the best encounters in all of Dragon Ball history. Goku is ready to stand up to Beerus should things go wrong and we all know another fight between him and the God of Destruction is on the horizon. Bring it on!