Dragon Ball DAIMA (is it all caps? Not sure, I’ll go with it…) was originally just a 40th Anniversary celebration mini-series, but sadly it’s now turned into Akira Toriyama’s swansong with the franchise after his passing last year. So does it work as both? Yes! DAIMA has Toriyama’s old sense of fun adventures with the odd childish gag here and there that he loved to write so much, but it also has added a lot of lore and continuity to the franchise to give it a little bit of a kick as it enters its 41st year. What will happen to the franchise after DAIMA is up in the air, so let’s just enjoy the start of this full stop at the end of the original creator’s run, shall we?
The series is set just after the defeat of Buu and actually opens with Gomah and Degesu, two higher ups in the Demon Realm, watching the events of that arc unfold, being particularly shocked as current Demon King Dabura gets killed, and then his killer gets destroyed by regular mortals. They’re also surprised by the set of Dragon Balls present on the planet as the Demon Realm Dragon Balls have been untouchable for countless years due to being guarded by beings called Tamagami. We get quite a few lore drops right away: Namekians and the Supreme Kai’s race (apparently called Glint) were both from the Demon Realm originally but fled to the regular universes at some point in the past, explaining why both Degesu looks like the Supreme Kai (as he’s his brother…) and why the Realm has Dragon Balls. A third Demon called Dr. Arinsu arrives and is Kai and Degesu’s sister who is also a scientist and is concerned that now Dabura is dead and Gomah has become Demon King that her research funds might be cut off (Demons still need money, I guess?) It’s an interesting villain cast, not too serious (especially Gomah) but not too silly either. When Arinsu leaves the other two concoct a plan involving the Earth Dragon Balls and take along with them an ancient Namek called Neva, who stayed behind in the Demon Realm eons ago.
“Woah, Vegeta you’re not supposed to be small as well! It’s supposed to only be me as I head off to space to find Dragon Balls.” “That’s the other show, this one we’re both small and head to the Demon Realm to find Dragon Balls.” “Ohhhh!”
Their plan is to use the three wishes to first turn all the powerful people who defeated Buu into child bodies (and the current children into babies, for… some reason) to therefore weaken them as apparently wishing for them to be outright killed wouldn’t work as it involves dark magic, which is a new idea but one that at least matches up with all the wishes that have been made so far, so… hooray! They wanted to make another wish to get some magical third eye relic missing from the Demon Realm and Degesu would be then given the third wish but Shenron says with three wishes is for regulars only and vanishes, which made me laugh. As a consolation prize Gomah kidnaps the now baby Dende and heads back to his realm as Goku and co. freak out about their sudden change in height. The Supreme Kai, who is separated from Kibito due to an entirely different reason than why he is in Super, which let’s face it is most likely just classic Toriyama oversight but I guess we’ll wait and see, takes them all to Kami’s Lookout and everyone gets the lowdown while Bulma tries to fix Kai’s ship that he travelled to this realm in all those many years ago. Turns out though that it was unnecessary as a Demon called Glorio arrives in his own dimension-hopping ship and picks up both Kai and Goku and takes them to the realm while Vegeta, Piccolo and Bulma are left to try and fix Kai’s ship and join them later.
A small example of both the great landscape art and the new ship designs!
So that’s the set up for the first half of this half of the show, Goku, the Supreme Kai and Glorio travelling in the first of three Demon Realms with our favourite Saiyan having to get everything explained to him like an Isekai, all of them looking for Gomah and then soon turning their attention to the Demon Realm Dragon Balls instead with the idea to return their bodies to normal with a wish. They’re soon joined on their journey by a young girl called Panzy, who is fighting back against the new Demon Realm regime as they’re putting slave collars on residents and zapping away their very lifeforce if they step out of line. Glorio is revealed (to the audience only) to be working for Dr. Arinsu and loses a fun fight against Goku (who turns Super Saiyan), and then the Doctor herself is revealed to have gone to the sight of Vegeta’s Buu Arc explosion and grabbed a part of Buu’s destroyed body in hopes of creating a new Buu that she can control. She does this by meeting the witch Marba, who Bibidi used to create the original Buu, though she claims it went wrong as while Buu was extremely powerful he was impossible to control so she modifies this new creation to be subservient to Arinsu in exchange for less power. As this is going on Goku defeats the first Tamagami and gets a Dragon Ball.
Goku? Firing a Kamehameha?! Tsch. Unrealistic.
They soon meet up with Vegeta, Bulma and Piccolo, who were taken to the Realm by a weird gag Demon called Hybis, though who has a third eye as part of his belt that he found lying around somewhere… Hmmm… Everyone heads to the Second Demon Realm as Arinsu sees her new creation, Majin Kuu, take on the Third Realm’s Tamagami and lose. Disappointed she uses the rest of her Buu essence to create another Majin called Duu, who while overweight and chocolate obsessed like the original Fat Buu (which was due to absorbing the Grand Kai, so I guess this is a coincidence…) she nether the less takes Duu to fight the Third Tamagami…
The animation is extremely high quality and the soundtrack is catchy as well so the presentation of the show is far beyond the majority of Super (a few of the last episodes were well done though, to be fair…) The world and vehicle design is top-tier Toriyama as well, which is lovely to see. The series has been a joy to watch each week, it really feels like Akira Toriyama has poured his soul into it as it’s full of his favourite stuff to write.
Overall Thoughts:
Majin Kuu and Majin Duu are green is due to being partially grown from a Saibaman seed, which was yet another weird lore addition in this show…
Dragon Ball DAIMA’s first half is mostly full-on Toriyama light-hearted adventure but it does have some fun and well animated fight scenes towards its back half as well. Given all the lore reveals so far (some of which I didn’t even get round to mentioning, like how a Demon King from the distant past apparently created the Multiverse of mortal realms because he was bored…) I have no idea what’s coming up next, and frankly to get that with Dragon Ball again, weekly no less, is all I can ever ask for.
Everyone gathers together in the Second Realm, where Goku asks Piccolo what it was like to be home but he correctly points out that he was born on Namek and not this Realm but his father was, and soon they all meet Neva, who talks to Piccolo for a bit and brings up his Dad (which is weird after all this time…) and asks to come as he is the only one who speaks Namekian and is able to call forth the Demon Realm Dragon (Piccolo can also speak Namekian, so… not sure if that was a mistake or Piccolo intentionally claiming ignorance…) so they all head off to Tamagami #2 while Majin Duu takes on Tamagami #3. Vegeta takes the fight this time as Goku went first and he, of course, struggles to start with but then would you believe it? Vegeta goes Super Saiyan 3 after all these years, apparently he learned how to do it by training and I guess retroactively never used it in Super (or GT, if you want…) as the form is constantly bashed for using up way to much energy to the point of not really being worth it, or something like that. Either way Toriyama creating the form gives it actual legitimacy, if it had appeared in a show/manga created by someone else after his death it would’ve been called “unrealistic” or “fan-fiction”, so I’m glad it got the creator’s seal of approval at the last moment!
… and it’s about damn time.
Vegeta dominates Tamagami #2 and scores himself a Dragon Ball, leading to everyone to set their sights on Demon Realm 3. Meanwhile, Majin Duu also defeats his Tamagami (with a little help from the oddly endearing Majin Kuu) so Dr. Arisu now has a Dragon Ball and the main cast are finally on their way to her and Gomah’s neck of the woods for the final half of the show. Looking forward to it!
Hogan Reviews 