Movie 18

   

Dragon Ball Z: God and God (ドラゴンボールＺ 神と神, Doragon Bōru Zetto: Kami to Kami; FUNimation "Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods") is the fourteenth Dragon Ball Z film, but overall the eighteenth overall movie of the Dragon Ball series. The film amassed three taglines for the film.

Plot Overview

The film opens with Kibito Kaiōshin and Elder Kaiōshin noting to themselves that someone has woken up earlier than he should have. The pair then warn North Kaiō who is overseeing Son Gokū's training on his planet. Kaiōshin warns North Kaiō against revealing to Gokū what is happening, but Gokū overhears them mentioning "Lord Beerus". Though he initially believes that they were talking about food, when North Kaiō dodges his questions, Gokū resolves to go and ask Kaiōshin directly, causing North Kaiō to give in. The reluctant North Kaiō then launches into an explanation about the Hakaishin—the antithesis to the Kaiōshin. This news excites Gokū, causing him to change into his normal gi in preparation to challenge the newly awakened Hakaishin. North Kaiō scolds Gokū for his desire to challenge Beerus and continues to inform him of the dangers of challenging the Hakaishin, but this only further excites Gokū.

Elsewhere in the universe, at a strange temple, Whis awakens Beerus, reminding him that he himself had wanted to awaken at that moment in time. Beerus, while reluctant, awakens. Beerus explains that he chose this time to check something important. Later, while Whis sets the table for a meal, Beerus inquires whether or not Freeza destroyed Planet Vegeta while he was asleep. Whis confirms it, much to Beerus' delight. The Hakaishin expresses his desire to kill Freeza himself, should they cross, paths. However, much to Beerus' surprise, Whis announces that Freeza has already been killed by a Super Saiyan named Gokū. The mention of a Super Saiyan jogs Beerus' memory about a dream he had in regards to a Super Saiyan God who looked just like Gokū. Whis is skeptical, so Beerus offers to prove it. Outside the temple, Beerus summons his seer, who confirms that Beerus will, in fact, encounter an arch-rival worthy of facing him. Beerus takes this to mean that his new arch-rival will be a Super Saiyan God. Though still skeptical, Whis assists Beerus in locating the remaining Saiyans—the nearest being on North Kaiō's world. The two then leave for North Kaiō's planet.

Meanwhile, on Earth, a birthday party for Bulma is underway at Capsule Corporation. Bulma expresses anger that Gokū will skip her party in order to train with North Kaiō.

On North Kaiō's world, Kaiō senses the rapidly approaching Beerus and orders Gokū to hide in his home. Beerus and Whis arrive moments later. Despite North Kaiō's attempts to keep Beerus hidden, the Hakaishin demands an audience with Gokū. Beerus asks Gokū about Super Saiyan God, but neither Gokū or North Kaiō have any idea, causing Beerus to plan a trip to Earth to ask the remaining Saiyans. Regardless of this, Gokū decides to challenge Beerus to a sparring match, which intrigues the Hakaishin who then accepts. Gokū immediately transforms all the way to Super Saiyan 3 and attacks but Beerus easily dominates him, leaving him unconscious and in bad shape before departing for Earth.

North Kaiō contacts Vegeta, who is training nearby his home, and warns him about the imminent arrival of Beerus. Vegeta immediately leaves for Bulma's party, arriving only a few moments before Beerus himself. Vegeta remembers Beerus from his childhood on Planet Vegeta. Beerus then inquires about the Super Saiyan God from Vegeta, who also doesn't know about the transformation. Bulma discovers them and invites them to join her birthday party. Elsewhere, Pilaf and his gang are inside Bulma's house, searching for the Dragon Balls. The trio stumble upon the prize room for Bulma's party and discover the seven Dragon Balls. In their celebration, they alert Trunks to their presence who then calls Son Goten over. The trio is then frightened, due to Goten's resemblance to Gokū, and flees. Outside, Mai reveals that she had taken the four-star ball when no one was looking. Unfortunately, Goten points the trio out to Bulma, thinking that Mai is Trunks' girlfriend. In order to cover his story, Trunks invites Mai to the party.

Back on North Kaiō's world, Gokū continues his training, but is dissatisfied with the results.

At the party, Whis and Beerus discuss the Super Saiyan God as Bulma commences the main event of the party. It is then that the group discovers the missing Dragon Ball and Pilaf drops the four-star ball. In desperation, Mai and Pilaf hold Trunks hostage, but the rest of the group assumes it just a game. Son Gohan, drunken by this point, joins in and asks Mai to shoot him. When she does, however, Gohan deflects the bullets and accidentally wounds Videl and also strikes Beerus. Beerus makes to destroy the planet, but Vegeta intervenes by announcing the bingo tournament with a dance, which amuses everyone, including Beerus. Bulma finally retrieves the four-star ball and resumes the party.

While everyone plays bingo, Whis suggests Beerus try pudding and directs him to Majin Bū. Despite this, Bū refuses to hand over the pudding, greatly angering Beerus. The Hakaishin attacks Buu, causing the rest of the Dragon Team to intervene and attack—though all are quickly put down. Becoming a Super Saiyan, Vegeta also attempts to fight, but he too fails to make any headway against Beerus. Goten and Trunks fuse into Gotenks, who then becomes a Super Saiyan, but even the fused warrior is not match against the Hakaishin. Bored of his competition, Beerus attempts to kill Vegeta and destroy Earth, however Bulma gets in his way, angry that his rampage has ruined her party. Beerus slaps Bulma away, causing Vegeta to explode in rage and viciously attack Beerus. He becomes a Super Saiyan stronger than Gokū and actually manages to damage the Hakaishin before finally being put down.

Beerus prepares to destroy the planet but is again interrupted by the arrival of Gokū. Gokū claims he knows how to summon the Super Saiyan God, intriguing Beerus, and then collects Bulma's Dragon Balls. Gokū summons the dragon, Shenron, and asks to summon the Super Saiyan God. The dragon could not bring the Saiyan God and, at Beerus' request, explains the nature of the Super Saiyan God and reveals how to obtain the transformation. The first attempt to make Gokū the Super Saiyan God fails, but, after using the energy of Pan (still growing in Videl's womb), Gokū finally ascends. Finally transformed, Gokū challenges Beerus to a rematch.

The two finally engage in combat and Gokū proves that he has truly gained the power of a deity by matching Beerus. Gokū expresses discontent with the Super Saiyan God form, explaining that he dislikes having power he didn't obtain on his own, but continues to fight Beerus to protect the planet. Despite being able to injure Beerus a few times, Gokū is unable to defeat Beerus and eventually loses his God form. Transforming into an ordinary Super Saiyan, Gokū ascends along with Beerus above the planet where he launches his Kamehameha in a final bid to defeat Beerus. Beerus survives and finally launches the attack to destroy the planet. As Gokū resists it, Beerus explains that Gokū has contained the Super Saiyan God power within his body, allowing him to use its power even without the transformation. Gokū briefly loses control and begins to fall towards Earth, but, in a burst of rage, becomes a Super Saiyan God again and absorbs Beerus' attack.

Despite his short triumph, Gokū realizes that he is no match against Beerus and surrenders completely. Beerus admits to Gokū that he is the second strongest opponent he has ever faced and points to Whis as the first, also his teacher. Beerus explains that he is only the Hakaishin of the 7th Universe. Hearing this, Gokū beings to faint, falling to Earth. At the last moment, Beerus decides against destroying the planet and leaves for his own world. Back at his temple, Beerus tries some wasabi and goes berserk, but Whis quickly knocks him out to stop his rampage.

As the film closes, Vegeta declares that next time, he will be the Super Saiyan God. Piccolo then discovers that Gokū had watched the other warriors get defeated by Beerus and the film ends on the group scolding him for not helping them.

Promotional Material

Special Extended Version

The extended version of the film was revealed for a special TV broadcast 22 March 2014 during the “Premium Saturday” block. The extra material and extended scenes added up to about twenty minutes of additional footage in the TV edition, resulting in a final runtime of just over 100 minutes.^[1]

Reception

Box Office

Dragon Ball Z: God and God opened at number one in the Japanese box office, earning US$7,307,760 with 561,098 tickets sold in its first two days.^[2] By its fifth day, the film had made over US$12,000,000 with 988,790 tickets sold.^[3]. During its second and third week the movie remained number 1 in japanese box office with an estimated US$19,017,008 and US$23,618,327 in total earnings respectively.^[4][5]. During its sixth week the movie grossed US$29,172,291.^[6]

During its opening week in the America the movie grossed US$296,414 and by the of its 10 days run it grossed a total of US$2,553,002.^[7] The movie had a better performance in other regions, grossing US$17,961,356, including $15,587,504 in Latin America, the film's most successful overseas region.^[8][9] In total, the film grossed $50,353,000 worldwide.

Audience and Critic Reception

The film holds a 7.2 on IMDb, based on over 22,000 votes.^[10]. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an audience rating of 80% based on 5,201 votes, with an average rating of 4.1/5.^[11] On MyAnimeList the movie holds a 7.57 based on more than 67,000 votes.^[12] Leah B. Jackson of IGN gave the English dub of the movie a 7.5 out of 10 praising the voice acting, animation and figth scenes but critized the movie for having too much campy "filler" and an underwhelming conclusion, despite that she said it was still a treat to jump back into the Dragon Ball world.^[13]

Credits

Trivia

• The movie is the first film to be an official part of the canon Dragon Ball storyline, set during the timeskip that occurs between chapters 517 and 518.^[14] Though Toriyama was originally only supposed to approve of the script, he ended up writing "almost everything" for the movie.^[15] Toriyama himself stated that he "thought up the new story for the next Dragon Ball theatrical movie as though it were a continuation of the manga when it was in serialization".^[16]

External Links

• Official movie website.
• Movie subpage on Toei Animation website.

References

1. ↑ “Battle of Gods” Special Extended Version Documentation
2. ↑ Japan Box Office Report & Trailer Park – March 30th/31st
3. ↑ 2013 Dragon Ball Sells 988,790 Tickets for 1.1 Billion Yen
4. ↑ Japan Box Office Report & Trailer Park – April 6th/7th
5. ↑ 2013 Dragon Ball Film Sells 1.8 Million Tickets for 2.2 Billion Yen
6. ↑ Japan Box Office Report – May 4th/5th
7. ↑ [1]
8. ↑ http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=intl&id=dragonballz2014.htm
9. ↑ 8 Ways Latin America Is Obsessed With ‘Dragon Ball Z’
10. ↑ Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods at IMDb
11. ↑ DRAGON BALL Z: BATTLE OF GODS (2014) at Rotten Tomatoes
12. ↑ Dragon Ball Z Movie 14: Kami to Kami at MyAnimeList
13. ↑ DRAGON BALL Z: BATTLE OF GODS REVIEW at IGN
14. ↑ New Dragon Ball Film Set Between 517th & 518th Manga Chapters Anime News Network
15. ↑ Akira Toriyama-sensei Godly Interview
16. ↑ V-Jump Unveils New “Dragon Ball Z” Movie In Development