Dragon Blog Daima #25: Lightning

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Animeister.

If you recall from last month's GFT Retrospective posts, I got to a point where I didn't like how much I was repeating myself week-to-week, and decided to change up my scheduling to avoid falling into that pattern any further.

As much as I still like Dragon Ball DAIMA, I've unfortunately gotten to a similar point with that series as well, 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 have to deal with Third Demon World problems, and following me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

After having done the modern, "overlay title on episode animation" thing for a few more episodes, DAIMA once again has a title card for its sixth episode, "Lightning," which, we will find out near the end, is Glorio's spell: he can shoot lightning from his hands and fingers like Emperor Palpatine.

The color pallette this episode cuts back on the Third Demon World's usual golden yellow and bubblegum pink, incorporating more interior and night sequences than previously seen. But the plot is still variations on the "resolve cliffhanger, avoid minor conflict with comedy, go somewhere while expositing lore, fight someone, encounter transportation setback that includes optional crash" formula we've seen for four episodes straight now.

The highlights, as always, are the lore and fighting.

It seems that when she isn't tinkering with machines or throwing things at Goku for being a crude dumbass (because her character is basically Chi-Chi and Bulma crammed together in an eighty-something-year-old child-demon's body), Panzy is the new, "ask totally natural questions to trigger other characters into exposition dumps" character, which I would hate more if the resulting lore drops weren't so cool. Case in point: when she asks Shin about himself here, he not only gives a Cliff's Notes explanation of what Kais are (for unfamiliar audiences), he exposits about the Glind race, particularly how they grow on trees in the Second Demon World (called Glind Trees, as opposed to the Kaiju Tree previously mentioned in interviews and supplemental guide books), of which there are five. Shin, Degesu, and Arinsu are considered siblings because they grew from the same tree, whereas Kibito and Old Kai grew from different trees. Also, Glinds seem to have some things in common with Namekians. Besides both originating from the Second Demon World, they are stated at separate times in the franchise to be gender-neutral and asexual (though Glinds manifest binary gender features, considering that Arinsu is outwardly feminine, while Shin and Degesu are outwardly masculine, and they refer to each other as brothers and sister), and only eat as a social mechanism because they can subsist on liquids alone.

Going back to Panzy, once she repairs the cargo plane, the group are approached by the Gendarmerie, who are looking for "the spiky-haired boy with a staff" (who is off answering the second call to nature at the time). They remark how unusual it is for demons from three different Worlds to be traveling together (Glorio on business from the First, Shin a Glind from the Second, and Panzy from the Third). Apparently, despite being a princess, Panzy reveals that she is wearing a slavery collar under her scarf just like the villagers from the end of the "Chatty" episode, which shows how extreme Demon Realm classism actually is under Gomah's reign. If you aren't the Demon King with sour cream and all the pizza toppings, you ain't fit to be at the end of Arale's stick.

So, after easily convincing Gomah's purple-skinned Storm Troopers (who are too dumb to recognize that Panzy and the Masked Majin are wearing the same clothes) that they are not the Goku you're looking for, our foursome abandon half of their supplies and make a bit more progress in their journey...where, exactly? Are they on their way to the Third World's Dragon Ball? I'm sure that's where they're ultimately headed, but no mention of their destination is made in this episode, so all we get is that they stop to rest in a cave for the night where Glorio makes a progress report to his true employer, the reveal of whom feels as rushed as it is obvious if you've been paying attention to the clues. It's someone from the First World who knew of Goku by name and came to Earth before Gomah's party did: Dr. Arinsu, duh.

But before anyone can really get a good rest in, that minotaur from the OP shows up and challenges them all to a fight so he can eat them. Rather than play rock, paper, scissors, as is the customary method of choosing combat order in the series (outside of the Tenkaichi Budokai, that is), Goku and Glorio fight each other. Goku takes it easy at first (even pulling a Freiza and offering to fight with one hand behind his back), but Shin wants to see the extent of Glorio's power (which is where the titular Palpatine magic comes in) and asks Goku to fight him seriously. It's yet another spectacularly animated and choreographed fight with perhaps the coolest-looking Super-Saiyan transformation I've seen since the first one (usually, the characters just flash into it, but here, it's treated like an actual transformation sequence with buildup, environmental damage, and gradual physical and spiritual changes like Goku's eyes turning from black to blue).

Of course, this makes the minotaur rethink his dietary choices and be grateful that he has brown fur (which, if you're keeping count, is my third instance in this post of creatively avoiding the use of fecal profanity).

But what about the ending cliffhanger with optional crash?

Well, for the first time since "Daima," the series cuts back to Earth, where Bulma has finished repairing Shin's old ship and Vegeta is doing reps with a barbell twice his size and probably millions of times his body weight. Vegeta, Piccolo, and Kibito get inside and prepare to take off (though there's clearly room for Bulma to sit in there, too) when - guess what? - it malfunctions and crashes, and the ending credits kick in.

Even with subtitles, I could have watched this episode for another hour at minimum; despite being plotted like the three episodes before it, I really enjoyed this one, and it felt like it ended abruptly out of nowhere. I'll have to wait another week, but at least I know there's more to come in the next episode, "Collar."

Just look at those colors!

And it seems the group's next side quest (with fourteen episodes left to go and no progress made beyond the Third Demon World, not even fighting for a Dragon Ball yet) is finding a way to remove Panzy's collar.

Forgive my critical whiplash, everyone, 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 have to deal with Third Demon World problems, and following me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

Animeister,

Out.