While these pics were taken during the preparation period before the festival opened on February 6, already anime hero Goku appeared in giant form to delight fans and hopefully keep Attack on Titan’s monsters in check.

With its iconic status in Japan, Dragon Ball doesn’t really need any special justification to be part of the festival, but this year conveniently marks the 30th anniversary of the franchise’s TV debut.

Goku’s presence alone would probably be enough to put many visitors’ minds at ease. Still, not everyone is convinced that he’s the most capable fighter in the Dragon Ball universe, including haughty alien prince Vegeta, who’s also on the scene.

Dragon Ball isn’t just coasting along on the strength of its past storylines, though. The anime has had a recent resurgence, and we saw artists working on antagonist Beerus, seen in both the Dragon Ball: Battle of Gods theatrical feature and the currently airing Dragon Ball Super TV series.

While smaller than Goku and Vegeta, Snow Beerus is still several meters tall.

Creating a snow sculpture of this scale isn’t an easy task. Even in Sapporo, if the afternoon temperature is too warm the sculpture can partially melt, undoing the progress that was made during the morning. This year, though, the weather has been cooperatively chilly, and the Dragon Ball team was sure it would have the complete sculpture ready in time for opening day.