The God of Destruction, Lord Beerus, is a relatively new character in the Dragon Ball mythos but is one who has made an immediate impact because he’s a cat—a Cat God to be more specific—and he’s not even the manga’s first! Not only is Beerus insanely powerful on a cosmic scale, but his character design is just as striking as his raw strength because Beerus is quite literally a humanoid cat.
Lord Beerus made his first appearance in Dragon Ball Super Chapter 1 by Akira Toriyama and Toyotarou. In the chapter, Beerus has a premonition that he will eventually be killed by a Super Saiyan God, so he goes on a quest to find the remaining Saiyans in the universe and challenges them to a fight in an effort to ease his anxieties. After defeating Goku, following the Saiyan’s transformation into a Super Saiyan God, Beerus no longer fears for his life as he proves that he is still the strongest being in the universe.
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In Dragon Ball Chapter 88 by Akira Toriyama, fans are introduced to the first ‘Cat God’ in Dragon Ball lore: Korin. In this chapter, Goku has to climb Korin Tower in the hopes of being granted an immense power-up so that he could defeat Dragon Ball’s deadliest killer, Taopaipai. Rather than just giving Goku the strength he craved, Korin decided to train Goku and help him reach that power all on his own. In the end, Korin’s training worked and Goku defeated the villainous assassin—all thanks to the involvement of a very helpful ‘Cat God.’
While both Korin and Beerus are cats (who are also deities) their similarities practically end there. Korin is an 800-year-old deity who calls Earth his home as he has tasked himself with offering training to the most worthy warriors, including Goku and Master Roshi. Beerus, on the other hand, is thousands of years old who lives on a far-off world and doesn’t care about mortals or their desire to increase in strength (Beerus did train Vegeta in the ways of Destruction but this was an exception). While Beerus is an amazing martial artist, he is incredibly lazy and spends most of his seemingly eternal life sleeping, eating, and thoughtlessly destroying entire worlds.
The idea that one ‘Cat God’ exists in the Dragon Ball universe is strange enough, but the fact that there are two seems downright absurd—though it makes much more sense when taking into account Toriyama’s inspiration for the feline deities as both Korin and Beerus are reportedly based on Akira Toriyama’s cats. Toriyama revealed that Lord Beerus was based on his cat, “Debo” in the Super History Book. Many years earlier, Toriyama also revealed that Korin was based on his cat, “Koge” which is why Korin is depicted with his eyes closed since Koge reportedly spent most of his time sleeping. Toriyama’s inspiration for creating ‘Cat Gods’ is one that any cat-owner will undoubtedly understand as Toriyama’s fondness for cats explains why Lord Beerus, and the less-popular Korin, exist in the Dragon Ball universe in the first place.
