Burger King Unleashes the 'Power Up Pack,' and the Nation Is, Per the Nation, 'Over 9000'

ORLANDO, FLORIDA — There are two kinds of people in the world. There are the people who have never seen a single episode of the anime in question, and there are the people who, as of this week, are standing in a drive-thru lane at 9:00 in the morning ordering a “Power Up Pack” and saying the word “Saiyan” to a teenager in a paper hat who has never, in his life, heard of it. Burger King has, in other words, done the thing that it does. It has gone and made a fast-food meal about a cartoon, and the cartoon is one that a great many adults are now, in a great many parking lots, discussing in a voice that is not a whisper.

The menu is called the Dragon Ball Super Power Up Pack. It includes ten chicken nuggets, a medium fry, a lemonade that is, per the menu, “Dragon Ball Burst” lemonade, and a dipping sauce with a name that is doing a great deal of work. The sauce is called Super Saiyan Sauce. It is, by the chain’s own description, “sweet, savory and tangy,” and it is, in practice, a teriyaki-style sauce. This is the detail that the internet has, for the moment, chosen to fixate on. The sauce is a teriyaki sauce. It is also, apparently, a Saiyan. We have been asked to hold these two facts in our minds at the same time, and to be calm about it.

There is, in each Power Up Pack, a small plastic figure, one of six. The six are, in the order of the menu, Goku, a more golden version of Goku, Vegeta, a more golden version of Vegeta, Piccolo, and a cat named Beerus. This is the part of the meal that the children are, by all accounts, most interested in. This is also the part of the meal that the parents are, by all accounts, most interested in. The children want the cat. The parents want the cat. The cat is, in this economy, the most in-demand figure in the building, and it is, in the canon, a god of destruction who naps a great deal.

We spoke with a patron at a location in the Orlando area, a man in his forties who had just received his third Power Up Pack in forty-five minutes. He said he was “not a collector.” He said he was “just making sure.” He said the word “over 9000,” and when we asked what that meant, he said, “You don’t know what it means,” and then he got in his car, and we did not follow, because that is not our job, and also because the line behind him was long.

The chain, for its part, has been gracious. A spokesperson said the collaboration was “a celebration of the franchise,” and that the Power Up Pack was “designed to power up your play.” When asked about the sauce, the spokesperson said it was “sweet, savory and tangy,” and then did not say more, which is the correct amount of more to say about a sauce that is also, apparently, a Saiyan.

At press time, the chain said the menu was available “while supplies last,” which is a phrase that has, in the history of the fast-food menu, meant one of two things: either the menu is over, or the menu is about to become a thing that people will be writing about for a week. The cat, in either case, is the one who wins. The cat, who naps a great deal, is, as of this week, the most powerful figure in the building, and the only one of the six who does not need a second, more golden version of himself.