Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods

"Be there when a hero becomes a god."

2013 1h 25m JA

👍

6.9

SOLID

🍅

89%

FRESH

⭐

7.1

IMDB

★6.9TMDB · 1,695🍅89%Rotten Tomatoes★7.1IMDB · 31,247

AnimationActionScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After the defeat of Majin Buu, a powerful God of Destruction known as Beerus searches for the Saiyan warrior who defeated Frieza. Realizing the threat Beerus poses to Earth, the Z-fighters must stop him. Only Goku, humanity’s last hope, can ascend to the level of a legendary Super Saiyan God and save the planet, and possibly the entire universe!

“Be there when a hero becomes a god.”

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Cast

Masako Nozawa
Son Goku / Son Gohan / Son Goten (voice)
Koichi Yamadera
Beerus (voice)
Masakazu Morita
Whis (voice)
Ryo Horikawa
Vegeta (voice)
Hiromi Tsuru
Bulma Briefs (voice)
Joji Yanami
Kaio / Dr. Briefs / Narrator (voice)
Toshio Furukawa
Piccolo (voice)
Shoko Nakagawa
Oracle Fish (voice)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Masahiro Hosoda
Writers: Yusuke Watanabe, Masahiro Hosoda, Kimitoshi Chioka
Languages: Japanese
Countries: Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

85 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 13 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Dragon Ball Z Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Masahiro Hosoda, shot by Yukihiro Masumoto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Norihito Sumitomo. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Shinichi Fukumitsu shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Masako Nozawa and Koichi Yamadera and Masakazu Morita carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Be there when a hero becomes a god.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Masahiro Hosoda directs. Yukihiro Masumoto behind the camera. Norihito Sumitomo scores. Shinichi Fukumitsu cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

185 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Released 13 years ago.
3Part of the "Dragon Ball Z Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
4Directed by Masahiro Hosoda, shot by Yukihiro Masumoto. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Norihito Sumitomo. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Shinichi Fukumitsu shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Masako Nozawa and Koichi Yamadera and Masakazu Morita carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Be there when a hero becomes a god.".
9IMDB entry: tt2263944 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Released under 23 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Yukihiro Masumoto
Original score: Norihito Sumitomo
Editing: Shinichi Fukumitsu
Runtime: 85 min · 1h 25m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Box office: $50,461,371
Original language: JA
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes: 89% 🍅 Fresh
IMDB rating: 7.1/10 · 31,247 votes
MPAA: TV-PG

Awards

7 wins & 4 nominations total

Part of

Dragon Ball Z Collection

The collection of movies from Dragon Ball Z

Also by

Masahiro Hosoda

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-03-02
★ 7/10
Now the Anubian “Beerus” is like most cats and even if he is the god of destruction he likes a nap! For some reason, though, he has asked his debonair vizier “Whis” to wake him after an wholly insufficient 39 years and so his master is groggy and grumpy. He perks up a little, though, when he learns that “Frieza” has been vanquished by the aspiring young “Goku”. Perplexed that this young Saiyan could defeat someone far superior, he decides to go and find out about the rumours of a Saiyan god - at last a challenge worthy of walking him up for. Where better to start than on the tiny home planet of the Kai King where the young “Goku” was known to be living. Sure enough, there he is, but he’s not really much of a combatant and so the irked god decides he will go to his home planet of Earth and, well, squash it. Luckily for mankind, his arrival coincides with a rather lavish birthday party and both he and “Whis” like a bit of the all-you-can-eat. Meantime, “Goku” has to figure out just how the dragon balls might be able to help. Perhaps the legendary dragon “Shenron” can be summoned and explain - but when he does, it poses quite a quandary for the youngsters who are finding that the lack of pudding cups is really tempting the now bored “Beerus” to just do his worst then go home for some milk and another nice fifty year snooze. Can they figure out the dragon’s clue in time? It did take me a while to get the images of Justin Chatwin and Chow-Yun Fat from 2009 out of my head, but once that was done we are left with an amiably entertaining mix of Japanese and Egyptian mythology that’s spent a decent amount of time on quite a fun script, plenty of vibrant action and lots of sushi! The style of the animation is admittedly very basic, and in many ways has the look of a 1970s cartoon to it, but there are plenty of characterisations here and the story allows for lots of mischief to mix in with the spirit bombs, energy attacks, and interplanetary travel as we build to a dual of momentous proportions. I think the Egyptian pantheon is my favourite, amalgamating as it does animalistic and human behaviour and traits into some superb fodder for animators, and here Masahiro Hosodo let’s his artists tell us a good old story of good v evil that doesn’t really require us to know much about the earlier “Dragon Ball” stories. It also benefits from not concluding in the fashion you might expect. Remember - it’s never a good idea to hog all the puddings!

Production companies