Dragon Blog Daima #22: Daima

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. Animeister & DAIMA fan.

This will be a thing I do at least through February 2025, considering that the expected initial episode count for Dragon Ball DAIMA is 20. In the meantime, I will still be working on other AniMonday content, such as Spotlight updates for That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Natsume's Book Of Friends, My Hero Academia, and good titles I mentioned in Spotlightning Round (Part III) and (Part IV). There's also my Fishman Island part of the One Piece Multi-Piece, and new Anime Spotlight titles like Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles.

But until then, it's time for jabs and silly jokes in DAIMA Wonderland, so please give me your energy and grant my wish 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 content.

Simply titled "Daima," the third episode of Dragon Ball DAIMA follows Glorio, Mini Shin, and Mini Goku as they take their first steps into the Demon Realm. Universe and Multiverse lore get dropped early, such as there being multiple portal fish throughout Universe Seven (they are referred to collectively as "Warp-sama"), the closest of which is near a waffle-textured planet (maybe an agriculture  planet?) called Batapi. With how much the characters title-drop the show ("Demon Realm" is consistently the subtitled translation when they say "Daima," though the literal translation is closer to something like "great evil" or "big evil"),

Undertaker reference‽

I doubt this planet itself will be important in the series, but it's cool that Toriyama wanted the audience to be immersed in the story's world and wonder about things like Planet Batapi.

Just as when Gomah, Degesu, and Neva came to Earth, Warp requires that they provide a four-digit PIN for their destination realm and which planet they intend to go to. He also hints that it's far easier to leave the Demon Realm than it is to get in, asking to see everyone's ears (recall the generalization that pointy ears usually means someone is of demonic origin), so Shin has to magically give Goku pointy ears.

However, he's so flustered by having to transform Goku's ears and deal with Goku calling Warp a goldfish (which is an insult akin to calling Slappy a dummy to his face) that he forgets to send Kibito the PIN for the Demon Realm. Add on that Vegeta and either Piccolo or Bulma will be going with Kibito, two of whom don't have pointy ears, so he may have to use double the focus to get his passengers past Warp when that time comes. Oops!

Speaking of oops (and words that rhyme with it), Toriyama comedy requires that the way from Warp to Warp is...in the front and out the back, so to speak. I'll let you digest that information for yourselves.

We also get something interesting about Shin that may or may not be a retcon: Glorio asks him if he is a Glind (I rewound the episode because I thought he was asking his name at first, rather than his race), and Shin confirms it. Previous lore from guidebooks and games says the Kais were born from the fruit of a tree, the rotten pieces of which fell and grew into demons (kind of a Garden of Eden reference, and may have inspired the Tree Of Might movie). But here, Glorio says the Glind are from the Second Demon World. So this either retcons the guidebook information, or places the tree on the Second Demon World, and potentially adds to the lore of characters like Kami and Piccolo, based on the "overcoming darkness to rise as a Guardian or Kai" aspect of the "outside world" theology in Dragon Ball.

When asked about his mission and the work he does, Glorio says briefly that he is of the Third Demon World and works for the King there, but also does "this and that" (read: shady mercenary work, probably) in the First World.

Though many elements of it are rendered in CGI to make the dynamic establishing shots easier to animate, the Third Demon World is dangerously beautiful: a desert landscape with dragons, pools of death, carnivorous plantlife, primitive bandits, and floating volcanic islands that spew heavy sulfur (which means Goku can make fart jokes; yay?). This last bit is important because the volcanic emissions make the air thick and heavy to move in, giving Goku something to adjust to and showing off Glorio's speed and skill as a contrasting measure of what he needs to reach at minimum.

Plus, the atmosphere poses a narrative, physics-based justification for why they can't just immediately zoom to where they need to be (air resistance tearing the ship apart at higher speeds). DAIMA is slow so far, but it's slow for a reason that I can get behind because there are historical, magical, and physical barriers at play that make the world richer and more explorable than what GT offered with its early planet-of-the-week episodes, or what Super would merely insinuate through its bloated cast of characters and brief snippets going into the Tournament Of Power.

I mean, there's even a statue of Dabura doing the Mr. Satan victory pose, which could mean that he was either a cruel dictator who demanded worship by his subjects (the demon stigma and his villainous behavior in the Buu Saga strongly suggest this) or a beloved underdog who rose from the Third World slums to become a champion of the people who was willing to do whatever it took to make his subjects happy (even funding the integration of science, magic, and technology like he did for Arinsu, or collaborating with Babidi to gather energy for Majin Buu - who could have benefited the Demon Realm greatly in a number of ways if things hadn't gone to mashed potatoes and cookies in the end, like solving food shortages, providing healing skin grafts, studying genetic fusion and absorption, learning about ki, etc.).

Once the tour of the wastelands is over, it's time to get some room and board, and for the episode to be Star Wars. From Glorio's design and what we know of his character (he's Demon Realm Han Solo, basically) to the aforementioned marauders and the hotel and cantina sequence, the second half of "Daima" feels strongly influenced by the first act of A New Hope.

The second cool fight sequence of the series comes in the cantina when a huge demon (whose design is inspired by one of King Piccolo's children) picks on Goku because of his round ears. Goku then proceeds to treat him and every other patron like a warm-up fight, kicking most of the ass (Glorio gets a few casual backhand strikes and grapples in) all the while eating cheeseburgers mid-battle, which is something we haven't seen Goku do before.

I'm glad Yajirobe didn't come along because he probably would have eaten the patrons, too. But seriously, this fight was so fun and fluid and beautiful, and the next episode ("Chatty") looks to have more in store, this time with the Power Pole putting in work.

Unfortunately, all of this ruckus gets payback when our trio wake up the next morning to find Glorio's "plane" has been stolen.

How will Goku and his allies traverse the Demon Realm now? Find out next week on Dragon. Ball. DAIMA...! (RIP Doc Harris).

And please give me your energy and grant my wish 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 content.

Animeister,

Out.