Dragon Blog Daima #23: Chatty

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Animeister

My plan to record footage of me playing the new Vampire Survivors' Ode to Castlevania DLC didn't pan out the way I wanted (because the update is massive - or as MasakoX once pronounced it, which feels like a more appropriate expression, "ma-hoo-sive" - and I don't have the time, desire, or phone memory to devote to entire days of recording). But I'm still enjoying the experience of unlocking the new characters (there's a guy with a grenade launcher! A whip that explodes!), discovering the new quality of life changes (there's a map zoom now!), and exploring the environment (Dracula's castle! Hidden forest clearings! Giant bosses! Metroidvania-style progression unlocks! Platforming in a horde survival roguelike‽). And I don't think I'm even halfway done yet! So if you love playing Castlevania (or watching people on the internet play Castlevania), give Vampire Survivors and the Ode to Castlevania DLC a look. It's affordable ($3.99 US for the DLC, with prices varying by platform for the base game from free to $3.99) and fun.

But I haven't had nearly as much fun this past week as when I watched Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode Four on Friday night, and I really want to talk about it, so let's get the call to action formalities out of the way (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) and crash right into an episode with a title that doesn't really make sense to me right now.

A minor detail you might notice is that "Chatty" is the first episode since the first episode (check out my thoughts on "Conspiracy") to have an old-school title card instead of putting the title in the corner over an ongoing part of the episode like most anime do now.

"Chatty" opens right where "Daima" left off, with Glorio, Shin, and Goku finding out that the cantina goons stole their plane.

I got the sense here that Goku was being written a bit stupid for recap purposes because even though Glorio explained the heavy sulfur air to him last time (particularly in reference to flight craft and physical movement) and Goku said he had gotten used to it during the cantina fight, he has to be told again here that flying (granted, the context is different because they don't have a plane and would be flying with ki or magic) drains energy faster and can damage the body. Also, fighting makes Goku tired again now that he hasn't eaten for a few hours.

But the reminders aren't all bad writing. We get a refresher on the opening scene from the first episode when Goku senses the return of one of the marauding trolls and defeats it, and Glorio says he doesn't know what ki is. But...he can fly‽ Do demons call ki magic in their realm and only know how to use it for flight and physical enhancement? Did the Crane School - and Kami - create their flight techniques based on Demon Realm references? Is Tien part demon? Or are ki and magic different energies and I'm reading into it too much?

Whatever the case, Glorio gets another opportunity to be a yardstick for Goku when he fights a dragon midair (but maybe it's more of a standard-issue ruler because Goku seems genuinely impressed that Glorio "might even be stronger than Shin"). We've seen Goku claims like this before, like Dabura being on Perfect Cell's level or Rildo being stronger than Buu. So either this "Glorio is stronger than Shin" thing is an ironic Toriyama joke, or Goku has fought Shin offscreen and he's stronger than his entire established character would suggest.

Speaking of strong guys, Glorio exposits about the Demon Realm Dragon Balls and the Tamagamis, being sure to hit the Goku button ("No one has ever been able to make a wish; the Tamagamis are too strong to defeat") so he'll want to fight them for the Dragon Balls and wish for either Dende's safety or to restore everyone from Mini form. But it's clear (or maybe it's bait?) from his underplayed, Arinsu-level manipulation and the dramatic face-off he has with Shin that he has ulterior motives.

Aside from the earlier scuffle with Goku and the troll marauder, and Glorio's mid-air fight with the dragon above the Sea Of Darkness, things get cool and more action-packed as the episode goes on. YouTube creators have frequently mentioned how much DAIMA feels like a JRPG, but the second half of the episode made me think more of fellow shonen juggernauts Bleach and One Piece.

Glorio leads the trio to a whimsical cafe/gift shop that looks like a steaming teapot, where they get more food for Goku, Glorio haggles with a deaf old man (unnamed, but he looks like a geriatric version of Kitt from Masako's Revelation F audio series) over the cost of new transportation because haggling people down to five thousand Dokuro (the Demon Realm's currency) for everything is a thing he does now, and the hostess explains a new kind of item that Gohan would drool over if he knew about it in Super Hero: bugs. These bugs instantly made me think not of RPG shop items, but of the Dials from One Piece's Skypeia arc: fun, counterintuitive but utilitarian technology (though here, it's more medicinal than technological) that feels both commonplace and fantastically alien, including bugs with cosmetic uses (I can picture Bulma whipping out her credit card and buying the entire stock of Beaut Bugs when she gets there), a Senzu Bean/Yemma Fruit parallel called a Revive Bug, and the biggest foreshadowing bit so far, the Join Bug...which means DAIMA will have Fusion!

With a small supply of Revive and Join Bugs in hand, our trio finally get their new transportation across the Third Demon World: a Sky Seed. But because Toriyama humor, it's a vaguely phallic-looking seed said to come from some sort of dangerous plant...that explodes because it's the equivalent of riding a pillar like Mercenary Tao, but as fired by Kukaku's fireworks cannon from Bleach's Entry arc.

Upon landing, Glorio, Shin, and Goku find their way to a town (Goku used his Power Pole as a lookout point to spot it) where things get a little One Piece-meets-Namek Saga with Goku witnessing an injustice, kicking all the ass in the new best fight scene of the series so far, and rescuing a new ally.

Apparently, Gomah is having his army, the Gendarmerie, take tributes of gold coins (what this converts to in Dokuro or Zeni is unclear, but it seems like an entire living wage for most of the townsfolk, and the usual "cruel punishment that doesn't make sense" repercussions are at play for those who can't pay). Each gold coin a villager cannot pay results in three years taken off their life, which impacts their physical ability to work and earn money, and could kill them, costing Gomah a tribute and increasing the burden on the rest of the town. Idiot! Well, at least the year-sucking machine looks cool (it animates like a lava lamp, and the siphon hose reminded me of Cell's tail and Babidi's ki-sucking device from the Buu Saga) and we know how Gomah was going to extend Neva's life by a few thousand years.

Before the fight though, a new character shows up (a short, wannabe superheroine referred to in early promotional materials as The Masked Majin).

Goku runs through the Gendarmerie like he's jobbing out the Red Ribbon Army all over again with beyond-Path To Power-quality animation, and Shin and Glorio pull him into a retreat, only for The Masked Majin to confront them and unmask herself as the titular character of next week's episode.

Yeah, blue-skinned demons here have flowers for name puns, like Glorio (morning glory) and Panzy (change the Z to an S, and duh).

I criticized the writing of Goku in the beginning of the episode, but I love this one. It's all wonder and lore and fluid animation and fun action with just the right amount of darkness and comedy. Maybe this would have been a better place to end the theatrical dub release than how "Daima" ended, but that also had a fun ending fight and despite their slow pacing compared to "Chatty," the first three episodes fit a feature-length three-act structure pretty well, and the lore and scope of the visuals are a big enough draw on their own.

Before you go, let me Bug you by asking again that you please give me your energy and grant my wish by clicking the Follow button to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, commenting your thoughts on the series 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.