Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3 Review

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3, “The God of Destruction Heads to Earth,” sees Beerus (Koichi Yamadera, My Hero Academia) and Whis (Masakazu Morita, Tiger & Bunny) arrive on Earth in search of the Super Saiyan God. What they find is a traumatized Vegeta (Ryo Horikawa, Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent) and Bulma’s birthday party in full swing. Here’s hoping the festivities keep Beerus entertained enough that he doesn’t destroy the world. 

Up to this point, this condensation of the original Beerus Saga story has omitted some noteworthy elements. Perhaps because of its focused narrative, however, this episode does a much better job of shortening things rather than eliminating them whole cloth. 

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3 does a better job with the condesing.

The comedy lands all the right beats in Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3. Although it omits larger moments like Vegeta jumping on the grill to appease Beerus, the spirit remains, as numerous interactions bring the Saiyan Prince’s panic to life as the situation spirals out of control. The episode fully realizes the vibrancy and fun of Bulma’s party. The episode even smoothly introduces the Pilaf Gang into the story. 

Like the humor, the action also brings the excitement of the original’s brief clashes with the God of Destruction to life, just in a more compact form. From Majin Buu’s refusal to share his puddings, which sparks the clash, to Vegeta’s final defeat, the scale and energy of the fight are well preserved. They even get a bit more flair.

Much like some early bouts in the series, Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3 pushes the visuals up a notch in some respects. These improvements are not extreme; I only noticed when I went back to the original episodes to compare, but they do bring a bit more pop to some of the explosions and other special effects. 

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3 does a disservice to Bulma’s slap.

This iteration does fail with one moment: Bulma’s big slap. Dragon Ball’s leading lady still gets her moment, but it doesn’t have the same aura as in the original. In this telling, Vegeta isn’t down on one knee, preparing to be obliterated by Beerus, when Bulma makes her dissatisfaction known. Not having her planet-killing husband at her target’s mercy when she lays the smack down loses something. Bulma doesn’t get a ton of moments these days; let her shine like the diva she is. 

Finally, there is the matter of Vegeta’s trauma. A flashback reveals that Vegeta first met Beerus as a boy, before his father was slain by Frieza. The memory of this encounter greatly hinders the prince’s ability to act, frequently rendering him unable to even move when Beerus’ gaze rests on him. 

The semi-comedic delivery of Vegeta’s struggles makes this element of the story a subpar holdover from the original version. It wouldn’t make sense for the struggles to be handled with too heavy a hand, as then it wouldn’t be tonally appropriate for the show, but at the same time, childhood trauma being a punchline also feels weird. However, there is a payoff.

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3 brings all the elements of its focus together for a pretty great time.

It becomes clear once Beerus retaliates against Bulma for the indignity of striking him why the situation was created. The threat to Earth and his comrades, even himself, couldn’t move Vegeta. But you strike his wife? Now a line has been crossed. Despite some qualms about how it’s handled, the payoff of seeing Vegeta go off on Beerus for this affront makes the situation worth it in the end. 

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3 brings all the elements of its focus together for a pretty great time. The franchise’s humor and action manage to come through, despite the truncated time allotted. 

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Episode 3 is streaming on Crunchyroll.

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