Welcome Back, Goku

Finally the wait is over, Dragon Ball: DAIMA is here! Or has been here for a bit, really, I’m playing catch-up with this review. 

For the uninitiated, Dragon Ball: DAIMA is a special project. From Toei Animation, an absolute titan of the anime industry responsible for titles such as Sailor Moon, Digimon, and One Piece, it is the first new Dragon Ball series to air on television since the end of the fifth season of Dragon Ball Super, in 2018. It is also a project that Akira Toriyama himself claimed to have gotten deeply involved with, being credited as the story writer and character designer. This is unique from his fairly hands-off approach with the series as of late.

It is also notable as being the final project with significant involvement from Toriyama before his tragic passing earlier this year. Thus Dragon Ball: DAIMA isn’t merely the next chapter of the Dragon Ball franchise, but it is also something of a farewell letter to its beloved creator. 

With these monumental expectations, how does the first episode fare? In true Dragon Ball fashion, the first episode is somewhat slow, but not necessarily boring. 

The following review contains spoilers for Episode 1 of Dragon Ball DAIMA.

Plot Summary

Dragon Ball: DAIMA takes place after the end of the Majin Buu saga in Dragon Ball Z (episode 287) and before the start of Dragon Ball Super. Episode 1: “Conspiracy,” is directed by Aya Komaki of One Piece fame, and comes in at a chunky 32 minutes. Much of that extra time is used for the sake of recapping the series, as once the recap is over, it picks up pretty much right where the Buu saga left off.

Our heroes are commemorating a battle well fought, as well as celebrating Trunks’ ninth birthday. Eventually Goku and Vegeta get bored of the celebrations, and take off into the sky above for a sparring match.

Unbeknownst to them, trouble is afoot in the realm of the demons. Reeling from the death of their beloved King Dabura, we are introduced to two new demons. First is King Gomah, who succeeds Dabura through a chain of succession that I couldn’t hope to understand. Second is his right hand man, Degesu, brother of Supreme Kai Shin. The first half of the episode consists of the pair of them watching the events of the Majin Buu saga play out.

The demon’s initial concern is that the wizard Babadi, would seek out Gomah next. While he is relieved to learn that Babadi is killed by Buu, who is later defeated by Goku, the existence of the Z-fighters worries him.

Moreover, King Gomah is entranced by the possibilities offered through a wish on earth’s Dragon Balls, as the Dragon Balls in the demon world are far too difficult to obtain, being protected by three powerful guardians known as the Tamagami. Not only are earth’s Dragon Balls easier to obtain, but they offer three wishes as opposed to the standard single wish.

Gomah endeavours to visit earth and collect the Dragon Balls, bringing along Neva, the Namekian creator of the Dragon Balls in the demon world. Neva is able to summon earth’s balls to him, and Gomah summons the mighty Shenron for a wish, to deal with these pesky Z-fighters. 

Shenron is unable to simply destroy them, but the demon king comes up with an alternative. With his wish, King Gomah requests Shenron to turn the Z-Fighters into children, where they will presumably be too harmless to foil his plans.

Clearly King Gomah never watched Dragon Ball GT. Or even Dragon Ball, for that matter. Young Goku is a menace.

Back at the party, we are treated to a somewhat eldritch scene, as one by one, Goku and company are transformed somewhat horrifically into child form.

Analysis

This first episode is doing a lot of work, covering a bevy of different topics, and it does an admirable job of it. However this does come at the cost of being slow, and while I don’t mind a slow burn, it may be a bit boring for those who struggle with a slow pace. 

First, it offers a brief recap of the series at large, and a more extensive recap of the Majin Buu saga. There are undoubtedly a number of people watching Dragon Ball: DAIMA who haven’t seen the Buu saga since they were kids, so no doubt the recap was needed. They worked this recap into the show very cleverly, and it was genuinely entertaining to watch Gomah and Degesu react to the events of the saga in real time. From horror at the death of King Dabura, to elation at Buu’s defeat. A true whiplash of emotion for the two of them.

Second, the show is establishing an entirely new cast of antagonists. While making them the focus of the episode risks alienating fans who are primarily excited to see the Z-fighters, it does a novel job of establishing them in a short time.

Gomah and Degesu are a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing more of them. I worry that Gomah risks treading a bit into Emperor Pilaf’s territory as a diminutive evil comic relief villain, but there are enough differences between them so far to satisfy me. Degesu is a great character so far. He’s entertaining to compare to his brother, the Supreme Kai Shin. Sharing some of his soft-spoken nature, while also clearly having a mean streak as seen when he strikes Dende. Though both Gomah and Degesu can put on tough exteriors, they are also total geeks, and a great source of comic relief. 

It will be interesting to see what role in the story Dr. Arinsu plays. For this first episode, it felt like she only existed for the sake of dramatically walking away. I’m not entirely sure if this was meant to be a gag or not, but it was very funny.

Neva was humorous, Namekians aren’t usually used for comic relief so it was a refreshing take. However it was also interesting to contrast with how highly competent he is in matters relating to the Dragon Balls. It will be interesting to see if he sticks around, or if he is a one-and-done character.

We didn’t get much of the original cast in this episode, but what we did get was delightful. I always love the slice of life moments in Dragon Ball, so I appreciated getting to just sit with the cast for a few moments as they celebrated their victory. 

Have I mentioned how good this show looks? Because damn, it looks good. The art style is unique, much brighter and, for a lack of a better word, “airier” than any Dragon Ball art style thus far. It looks soft, almost reminiscent of Dragon Ball, but brought into the modern day. One might think this would raise concerns in regards to the action scenes, but that is clearly not the case as exemplified by the dazzling display put on by Goku and Vegeta in their sparring match. I have a feeling this series will be less of a gauntlet of fights compared to Dragon Ball Z, and closer to Dragon Ball in tone, but boy am I excited to see more action in this style.

Really the biggest problem with this episode is simply that I’m left not really understanding what direction the show is heading. It spent so much time on (necessary) recapping and exposition dumping, that very little time was able to be given to establishing what the running plot will be. And that is with an extended runtime! Clearly the focus will be on the cast foiling some plan put in motion by King Gomah, but that is all I can really safely say. It isn’t a big downside, but it is a bit confusing.

Final Score (3.5 out of 5 Stars)

All in all, while I don’t think Conspiracy was the most entertaining first episode of all time, it did an admirable job balancing the many tasks needed of it. I wish we would have gotten more of the main cast, but I am thoroughly intrigued and excited to see where things go from here. This will be the third anime series where Goku is a child, so I kinda know what to expect there, but what will child Vegeta be like? Surely his Saiyan pride is about to take a hit. Child Tien? Will Bulma change too, since she didn’t technically fight against Buu? I am keen to find out.

Above all though, I think this is a series that Toriyama would be proud of, if he had the chance to recognize it as his final project. The art and animation are beautiful, his character designs are great, and the writing is thus far strong.

I’ll miss Akira Toriyama, and I’ll savour every moment of his final project. 

Have you seen the first episode of Dragon Ball: DAIMA? If so, what did you think? Are you planning to continue with the series? Let us know in the comments below!

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Featured Image: Toei Animation

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