Dragon Blog Daima #21: Conspiracy & Glorio

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Mini Ticketmaster

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Originally announced as "Dragon Ball Magic" in September 2023 and often derided in the year prior to release as "GT 2.0," Dragon Ball Daima is set sometime after the Buu Saga but still within that gap before the final episode of DBZ, and may not fit in prior to Super, thereby creating another headache for canon enthusiasts.

It's immediately clear (and a surprise to fans who don't follow Dragon Ball news) that we aren't in for another rushed, early Super situation with the animation, as, following a re-animated speedrun for those who don't want to watch almost 450 episodes of story and filler, we get our first look at the setting of the series, the Demon Realm, where a little demon named Gomah (who looks like Impmon from Digimon if he were a Pride Trooper) is watching the Buu Saga with his Kai-looking attendant, Degesu (who is Shin's brother!). The footage is redrawn and remastered, but in motion, there's an off-putting amount of glare, blur, and contrast to it that works for the context it's presented in but feels like an unnecessary amount of effort to make something old look new so it can be made to look old again, kind of like taking a perfectly tailored pair of designer jeans and hitting it with bleach and a cheese grater to make it look distressed. But the animation outside of this sequence is amazing (despite Shenron being an obvious CGI model), including a cool sparring sequence between Goku and Vegeta, and a surreal moment where Gomah and Degesu fly a spaceship through the mouth of a giant talking fish that takes them to "the Outside World" of Universe Seven (but can provide passage to the other Universes as well, and even coordinate to specific planets). Aside from that, the episode is full of crazy lore drops.

1. Nearly all beings with pointy ears are Majin/demons. This includes Shin and the ends-with-su characters like his younger brother Degesu and scientist sister Arinsu, and probably Kais from other Universes like Gowasu and Zamasu (hinting that Shin is just a title or nickname and we don't know his real name), the Namekian race (just called Nameks in the subbed version because I decided not to wait for the dub this time), and possibly the Oozaru transformation (maybe a Demon Realm curse?).
2. Gomah and Degesu, and by extension, the majority of the Demon Realm, either don't know what ki is or they call it something different.
3. The Demon Realm have their own Namekian elder (a multi-milennial with some broken powers named Neva) and a set of three Dragon Balls guarded by powerful robot-like golems of Neva's creation called the Tamagami or "Ball Gods" (hinting that Goku will have to fight them at some point so he can wish for something). Also, the term "Ball God" almost makes me want to reference that Kid Rock song where he rips off "Man Of Constant Sorrow," but I'll just leave you to Google that yourselves.
4. Degesu has heard of Porunga but not of Shenron.
5. Degesu has searched the Demon Realm for Namekians, but aside from Neva, he hasn't found any, and assumes they "escaped" along with several other, unnamed races. What they escaped from isn't mentioned, but it could be that the Cataclysm occurred in the Demon Realm and not on Planet Namek.
6. Dabura funded Dr. Arinsu's scientific research, but now that he's dead (and presumably his father, Abura - because magic puns - is, too), Gomah is the new reigning Demon King with sour cream and all the pizza toppings, and he wants to defund her, so she tricks him into thinking that the Z-Fighters and their friends are coming for his throne, getting him paranoid enough to want to wish on Earth's Dragon Balls and make everyone into first-graders and babies so they'll be too weak to come after him (and they probably will be able to kick his ass, even in this Mini form - that's the marketing term for it, to distinguish from characters who already have a Kid version in the series, games, and other media).
7. The big talking portal fish tells Gomah and Degesu that Dr. Arinsu went to Universe Seven before them, though it's open to speculation as to when or why.
8. Dragons can be forged from either black or white magic, explaining why Shenron and Porunga have granted things like immortality, youth, resurrection, restored power, and such, but causing death or erasing someone was beyond their power.
9. Upon learning that he can have three wishes instead of just one, Gomah decides to also wish for the Evil Third Eye, a.k.a. the Oculus Tertiae, and agrees to let Degesu have the third wish. This mention of the Third Eye made me have a theory about Tien, like that maybe he's a half-Demon royal and his third eye was passed down to him, and he's the only person in his lineage to ever awaken the full power of the artifact. This fits in with Toriyama's themes of genetic abnormality and "impurity" making characters like Broly, Freiza, and Gohan stronger or more full of potential than the norm, explains Tien's huge jump in power during the Cell Saga (Shin Kiko-how ya doin'?), and it would be funny for Shenron to just nope out of the wish because taking the Evil Eye from Tien is "BEYOND MY POWER!"
10. Speaking of threes, there are three planets, or worlds, within the Demon Realm.
11. Buu can undo Potara Fusion by eating the fused being (so the "bad air" explanation for Vegito defusing still works, and doesn't counter the retcon from Super about mortal Fusion being temporary).

There's definitely more that I missed, but for a regular-length episode (with ten or so extra minutes because of the recap animation), that is way more lore than I expected, and I love it.

The second episode is mostly comedy, character reactions to being turned into Minis, and setup for when things get good. And according to the OP animation (which looks as peak as that spar in the first episode), things getting good will include a big minotaur demon, Mini Super-Saiyans, fights with the Tamagami (who each guard a Dragon Ball on one of the Demon Worlds, and are armed with a razor-sword, a trident, and a giant hammer), and several Daima-original characters besides those we've already seen. Plus the theme, "Jaka Jaan" by Zedd and C&K, is a low-key banger with some "Let It Go" vibes in the chorus and a lyrical nod to the late franchise creator, Akira Toriyama, so I'm more in than I already was with the first episode.

Following everyone's painful, psychedelic body horror transformations into Mini form, Shenron says farewell after one wish, stating that unknown first-timers only get the one. Apparently, Gomah needs to get more stamps on his Subway punch card before he can wish for an extra eye and a free sandwich, and Neva can't recall and restore the Dragon Balls twice in quick succession, so it's back to the Demon Realm with them, and because they're Spice Boys levels of stupid and the show needs to happen, they take Mini Super Kami Dende with them.

Meanwhile, everyone who was celebrating Trunks' ninth birthday (in grandiose Bulma style) while the wish was being made spends a great deal of time freaking out over each other's Miniaturization and crashing into the ground because they haven't figured out how to use their ki in their smaller bodies and can't fly properly. Goku apparently doesn't have depth perception anymore, either, which feels like a lazy excuse for him to retrieve his Power Pole later (which Roshi was using as a clothing rack to dry his laundry because Funny Toriyama-sensei is all over this bish)...and still miss...with a weapon that can extend to any length...which Goku can't measure by will because he has no depth perception. But at least we get Mini Goku with a stick like it's OG Dragon Ball again, right?

Also, Baby Goten is wearing Future Trunks' red ascot for some reason, he and Baby Trunks can still talk to each other telepathically, Mini Popo has horns, and Shin and Kibito can still Kai-Kai so it's probably a magical technique and not a ki-based one like Instant Transmission is.

Piccolo (who has been fused with Kami since Cell first showed up) apparently knows who Neva is, and that the original Namekians (excluding Neva, who remained as the "legendary sole Namek" in the Demon Realm to protect the Dragon Balls) escaped to the outside because they "don't like to be ruled."

This is when (with six minutes left in the episode that's titled after him) Glorio finally shows up, saying that he was sent by the King Of the Third Demon World to retrieve Goku by name to defeat Gomah, though it was apparently not a direct order from that King and was delivered to him "in secret," which was super-confusing both times I watched the episode, but things might clear up in the future. Whatever the case, Shin asks to come along, giving Goku his usual "this character should not be underestimated because he's crafty and powerful" schtick like he did with Babidi, Dabura, and Buu before he learned that Super-Saiyans exist, so I expect Demon King Of KenTacoHut Pride Trooper Impmon to fold like a flour tortilla in a wet breeze when that time comes.

While Glorio, Goku, and Shin go ahead to the Demon Realm, we get a callback to the early Namek arc of Z and the Goku Black arc of Super as Bulma works to repair Shin's old spaceship/plane (which is covered in moss - like Kami's ship and Cell's time machine - has four pointy legs - like Kami's ship - and was punched and kicked repeatedly while Goku and Vegeta were fighting Kid Buu in the Sacred World Of the Kais) so that Vegeta, and presumably Piccolo and Bulma herself, can follow them in a few days' time, doing a genuine two-mission quest for the first time in Dragon Ball history instead of having the B-team play Breakers until Goku shows up to wreck the un-wreckable like what usually happens in this franchise.

"Glorio" is a slow, derivative, comedy-heavy episode with a few lines that don't yet make sense, but the animation is still on point (especially the bit of Goku styling with the Power Pole that was a highlight of the trailers, the establishing shots, and the surreal visuals of the Portal Fish world) and the lore drops are still coming. Also, Zedd collaborates on the ED ("Nakama" with Ai on vocals - not to be confused with A.I. by the way), the animation for which isn't as ambitious as the opening, but shows off a few more characters and settings, and ends with a beautiful visual tribute to Toriyama.

In early November (I think it's the tenth), the English dubs of "Conspiracy," "Glorio," and "Daima" (the latter of which will air this Friday in Japanese with subtitles) are set to release in a feature-length theatrical cut, but I'm too invested to wait and I won't mind watching these at least twice, so Stay Tuned for more Dragon Blog DAIMA, and please give me your energy by clicking the Follow button to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, commenting at the bottom of this post, helping out my ad revenue as you read so I don't get shrunken by evil forces, and following me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my wish-fulfilling content.

Ticketmaster,

Out Of Wishes.