The new Dragon Ball Super: Beerus anime, which is currently streaming on Crunchyroll, has used the archival voice recordings of several deceased original cast members including Hiromi Tsuru and Kozo Shioya among others.
Produced as remastered version, the anime reconstructs the initial storylines from the 2015 Dragon Ball Super anime, and was well received during its premiere at NYCC 2026.
Tsuru started voicing Bulma in February 1986 and portrayed the character across multiple Dragon Ball series and films until her death on Nov. 16, 2017.
Her voice from the 2015 series was retained for Bulma during the character’s recent appearance in the Beerus anime episode three.
While voice actress Aya Hisakawa officially succeeded Tsuru in February 2018 for subsequent instalments, including Dragon Ball Super: Broly and Dragon Ball Daima, Toei Animation did not have Hisakawa re-record the dialogue for the project.
Episode three also features Shioya as Majin Buu. Shioya voiced all forms of Buu beginning in 1994 until his death on Jan. 20, 2026. A successor has not been appointed for Shioya, and the production preserved his archival 2015 master takes.
Previous episodes of Dragon Ball Super: Beerus also featured vocal contributions from late franchise veterans Unsho Ishizuka and Joji Yanami.
Ishizuka portrayed Mr. Satan starting in 2010 following the death of Daisuke Gori, continuing through the original 2015 run of Dragon Ball Super until his death on Aug. 13, 2018.
Though Masashi Ebara subsequently took over the role in video games and related media, Ishizuka’s voice was retained for Mr. Satan in episode one which released on Oct. 11, 2026.
Meanwhile, Yanami, who narrated the original anime from 1986 and voiced King Kai beginning in 1989, stepped down while working on the original Super anime after 11 episodes due to health issues and died on Dec. 3, 2021.
Since Dragon Ball Super: Beerus only covers the early arcs of the storyline before Naoki Tatsuta replaced Yanami in the original run, the production kept Yanami’s recordings intact for the narration and King Kai across the first two episodes.
Cast Members Were Aware Of Decision To Use Recordings:
In a recent interview , Koichi Yamadera, the voice actor for Beerus, stated that the actors were not called in to record new lines for the remake.
Yamadera explained that the production team opted to build the remastered version around the dialogue recorded during the original sessions.
“I was even more surprised when I heard that there would be no voice-over work. They’re going to create something new using what we’ve already recorded, so it felt like we were really lucky,” Yamadera said.
The only primary character recast for the broadcast was Yamcha, whose lines were freshly recorded by Ryota Suzuki.
Dragon Ball Super: Beerus was designed to streamline the pacing of the 2015 television release, tightening the narrative while adding newly drawn animation cuts and remastered sound mixing.
Dragon Ball Super takes place during the 10-year period following the defeat of Majin Buu in Akira Toriyama’s original manga, chronicling Goku’s battle with the God of Destruction Beerus before expanding into tournaments across the multiverse.
The original adaptation ran for 131 episodes between July 2015 and March 2018. The accompanying manga, written by Toriyama and illustrated by Toyotarou, is published in V Jump. However, the manga has gone on a hiatus following Toriyama’s passing.
It currently has 24 collected tankobon volumes and over 12 million copies in circulation.
Source: Livedoor News
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