is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation, based on the manga series Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama. The series aired in Japan on Fuji Television and its FNS affiliates from July 2015 to March 2018, spanning a total of 131 episodes. It was the first television series in the franchise to feature a new storyline in 18 years, serving as a midquel to Dragon Ball Z (1989–1996) and its remastered version Dragon Ball Z Kai (2009–2015), with the series' main story arcs based on original plot outlines written by Toriyama and adapted for the anime by Toei's writers and staff.
Set during the time frame of Toriyama's original manga, the series follows the adventures of Son Goku and his friends during the ten-year timeskip after the defeat of Majin Buu. The series begins with a retelling of the events of the Dragon Ball Z films Battle of Gods (2013) and Resurrection 'F' (2015) before telling new story arcs. Two sequel films were released: Broly (2018) and Super Hero (2022). An "enhanced edition" remake and remaster of the series, Dragon Ball Super: Beerus, is set to premiere in October 2026, while a sequel to the anime and follow-up to the film Broly, Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol, is also in production.
The Dragon Ball Super manga, illustrated by Toyotarou, began serialization in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine V Jump as a companion to the anime in June 2015. It is currently on hiatus following Toriyama's death in March 2024.
Plot
God of Destruction Beerus Saga In a retelling of the film Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013), Son Goku works as a farmer and his family and friends live peacefully following the defeat of Kid Buu. However, the God of Destruction, Beerus, awakens after a dream about a warrior known as the Super Saiyan God, and along with his Angel assistant and teacher, Whis, threatens to destroy the Earth if the warrior loses to him. Goku uses the Dragon Balls and discovers that it takes six pure hearted Saiyans to achieve the transformation, which results in Goku becoming the Super Saiyan God. With the help of his friends, Goku battles Beerus and loses, but his efforts appease Beerus, who spares the planet and befriends Goku, allowing him to train on Beerus' world.
Golden Frieza Saga In a retelling of the film Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection 'F' (2015), Goku and Vegeta train with Whis, while the remnants of the Frieza Force collect the Earth's Dragon Balls and resurrect him. After training for four months, Frieza returns to Earth, seeking revenge on Goku. Despite achieving his Golden transformation, he is defeated by Goku and Vegeta, who have mastered the Super Saiyan Blue (otherwise known as Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan), a transformation achieved by using and controlling God Ki. In spite, Frieza destroys the Earth, but Whis reverses time, allowing Goku to defeat Frieza.
Universe 6 Saga Beerus's twin brother, Champa, the God of Destruction of Universe 6, and his assistant and Whis's older sister, Vados, visit Beerus while Goku and Vegeta are in the middle of training. Champa hosts a tournament against Universe 7, the one where Goku and his friends reside. Universe 7 wins the tournament and gets to use the Super Dragon Balls, which can be used to do anything that the user may desire. Beerus desires to restore Universe 6's Earth for Champa. The tournament draws the attention of Zeno, who is the ruler of all twelve universes. He wishes to watch another tournament involving the rest of the universes in the future and befriends Goku with a handshake.
Future Trunks Saga Future Trunks returns with news of a new and powerful enemy with a dark and terrifying aura who resembles Goku, known as Goku Black, who has killed almost everyone in Future Trunks' timeline. They discover that Black's true identity is Zamasu, a Kaioshin apprentice from Universe 10 of an alternate timeline. Zamasu used the Super Dragon Balls to steal Goku's body from alternate timeline and kills him, and used the Time Ring to travel to Future Trunks' timeline to ally himself with Future Zamasu, as part of his plan to wipe out every mortal being. Ultimately, Fused Zamasu (the union between Black and Future Zamasu) and the future timeline are erased from existence by Future Zeno, who accompanies Goku back to the present, where he becomes Present Zeno's friend. Future Trunks and Future Mai leave for a new alternate timeline.
Universe Survival Saga Both Zenos hold the Tournament of Power, where teams of ten fighters from eight of the twelve universes will battle, with defeated universes being erased from existence. Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Krillin, Android 18, Tien Shinhan, and Master Roshi are joined by Android 17 and a temporarily revived Frieza. They battle formidable warriors, such as Universe 11's Jiren. Goku attains a legendary god transformation known as Ultra Instinct -Sign-, allowing him to fight unconsciously and with very precise moves while reaching Mastered Ultra Instinct. The tournament ends with Goku and Frieza eliminating Jiren along with themselves, leaving Android 17 as the winner for Universe 7. He is awarded one wish from the Super Dragon Balls, and restores the erased universes. As a reward for helping in the tournament, Frieza is permanently revived by Whis.
Production Development On April 28, 2015, Toei Animation announced that they are producing a new Dragon Ball anime television series, titled Dragon Ball Super. It would be the first anime series in the franchise to feature an original story since Dragon Ball GT (1996–1997). The first preview of the series aired on June 14, 2015, following episode 164 of Dragon Ball Z Kai. The next day, the main promotional image for Dragon Ball Super was added to its official website and unveiled two new characters, who were later revealed to be named Champa and Vados, respectively. A thirty-second trailer including the new characters was uploaded to the series' official website on June 26, 2015.
The anime series started with Masatoshi Chioka acting as series director. Morio Hatano, series director of Saint Seiya Omega (episodes #1–51), began sharing the series director credit with Chioka beginning with episode #28, before taking it over completely with #47. From episode #47 to #76, Morio Hatano shared the role of series director with Kōhei Hatano (no relation), another storyboard artist and episode director for the series. Toei producer Atsushi Kido previously worked on Dragon Ball Z for a brief time during the Frieza arc, while Fuji TV producer Osamu Nozaki said he has been a fan of the series since childhood.
Writing Dragon Ball Super was based on original story outlines and character designs by series creator Akira Toriyama, with individual episodes written by different screenwriters. The first 27 episodes readapt the events of the Dragon Ball Z films Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F' with anime-original plot elements. Toriyama explained his involvement with the Future Trunks arc by saying that he created the story based on suggestions from the editorial department, "As with last time, I wrote the overall plot outline, and the scriptwriters have been compiling and expanded the story content into individual episodes, making various changes and additions, and generally doing their best to make the story more interesting."
Casting Masako Nozawa reprises her roles as Son Goku, Son Gohan, and Son Goten. Most of the original cast reprise their roles as well. However, Jōji Yanami's roles as the North Kaio and the narrator were indefinitely taken over by Naoki Tatsuta as of episode 12, so that Yanami could take medical leave. Koichi Yamadera and Masakazu Morita also return from the last two Dragon Ball Z films as Beerus and Whis, respectively.
Music
Norihito Sumitomo, the composer for Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F, is scoring Dragon Ball Super. An original soundtrack for the anime was released on CD by Nippon Columbia on February 24, 2016.
The first opening theme song for episodes 1 to 76 is by Kazuya Yoshii of The Yellow Monkey in both Japanese and English (as "Cho-Zets☆Dynamic!"). The lyrics were penned by Yukinojo Mori who has written numerous songs for the Dragon Ball series. The second opening theme song for episodes 77 to 131 is by enka singer Kiyoshi Hikawa in Japanese and Nathan Sharp in English. Mori wrote the lyrics for the rock song, while Takafumi Iwasaki composed the music.
The first ending theme song for episodes 1 to 12 is by Japanese rock band Good Morning America in Japanese and Jonathan Young in English. The second ending theme song for episodes 13 to 25 is by the group Keytalk in Japanese and Professor Shyguy in English. The third ending song for episodes 26 to 36 is by the band in Japanese and Jeff Smith in English. The fourth ending theme song for episodes 37 to 49 is "Forever Dreaming" by Czecho No Republic in Japanese and Mystery Skulls in English. The fifth ending theme song for episodes 50 to 59 is by idol group Batten Girls in Japanese and Dani Artaud in English. The sixth ending theme song for episodes 60 to 72 is by in Japanese and Elliot Coleman in English. The seventh ending theme song for episodes 73 to 83 is by the Collectors in Japanese and William Kubley in English. The eighth ending theme song for episodes 84 to 96 is "Boogie Back" by in Japanese and Lizzy Land in English. The ninth ending theme song for episodes 97 to 108 is by Lacco Tower in Japanese and Zachary J. Willis in English. The tenth ending theme song for episodes 109 to 121 is by Rottengraffty in Japanese and Lawrence B. Park in English. The eleventh ending theme song for episodes 122 to 131 is "Lagrima" by OnePixcel in Japanese and Amanda Lee in English.
Release
Dragon Ball Super began airing on July 5, 2015, and was broadcast on Sundays at 9:00 a.m. on Fuji Television. On January 19, 2018, it was revealed that Super's timeslot would be replaced with GeGeGe no Kitarō starting on April 1, 2018. According to Amazon Japan, the final Blu-ray set indicated the series' end at episode 131. The series ended on March 25, 2018, with the conclusion of the "Universe Survival Saga". Fuji TV stated that there were no plans to continue the series at that time.
In January 2026, it was announced that the manga's "Galactic Patrol Prisoner" story arc would receive an anime adaptation, respectively titled Dragon Ball Super: The Galactic Patrol.
International release An English-subtitled simulcast of Dragon Ball Super was made available in North America and Europe through Crunchyroll and Daisuki. Following the closure of Daisuki, the hosted Dragon Ball Super episodes were transferred to the Dragon Ball Super Card Game website in February 2018 and was available until March 29, 2019. On November 4, 2016, Funimation (currently known as Crunchyroll, LLC) announced the company acquired the rights to Dragon Ball Super through Toei Animation USA and would be producing an English dub, with many cast members of their previous English-language releases of Dragon Ball media reprising their respective roles. As well as officially announcing the dub, it was also announced they would be simulcasting the series on their streaming platform, FunimationNow. The Funimation English dub of Dragon Ball Super began airing on Adult Swim on Saturdays at 8 p.m., with an encore showing in their Toonami block later that night at 11:30 p.m. starting on January 7, 2017, alongside Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapters. Toei Animation Asia-Pacific has commissioned a separate English-language dub of Dragon Ball Super produced by Los Angeles-based Bang Zoom! Entertainment for the Asian market. It premiered on the Toonami channel in Southeast Asia (excluding Malaysia) and India on January 21, 2017. A sneak preview of the English dub's first episode aired on December 17, 2016. Production on the Bang Zoom! dub ended after episode 27 as Toonami Asia and India ceased transmission.