Dragon Blog DAIMA #29: Ocean

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Mini Animeister.

Friday's episode of Dragon Ball DAIMA, despite being the projected halfway point of the series (we're at the tenth episode out of the announced twenty), was both surprisingly fun and as disappointing as I expected, kind of like I was being trolled.

Before I get into what I mean by that, I must ask as always 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 at the bottom of this post, helping out my ad revenue as you read so I can expand my Universe, and following me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

Part of what made "Ocean" feel like a special episode was, as I mentioned in my "Tamagami" post, the episode beginning with the pre-OP intro. Also, this opening establishing shot of Gomah's castle in the First Demon World being a callback to the beginning of the first episode.

Add on that it cuts immediately to Majin Kuu challenging and fighting Tamagami #1, and I was tricked on-board. I didn't even mind that Kuu's fighting style is juvenile and animalistic and full of silly, dynamic posing (like if Buu ate Gotenks and Mr. Satan) because the animation was smooth and the attacks themselves were flashy and almost effective.

Tamagami #1 is so starkly different from #3 (more stoic warrior than bombastic superhero) that I pretty much knew right away that his dub actor should be Patrick Seitz (Endeavor in My Hero Academia, Keith Shadis/Sadies in Attack On Titan, and Franky in One Piece, among others, so maybe he'll get to show some range and voice all three?). I don't have any advance knowledge, but that's who I heard in my head.

The fight is intercut with scenes of the Mini Dragon Team finally making their way to the Second Demon World, where Goku's group are forced into a Star Wars-esque dogfight with a Gendarmerie squadron that costs them another plane and almost ends with them getting crushed and eaten by a kraken (a big squid-like monster with a Buu topknot and spike-tipped tentacles, which would fit right into the One Piece world with a slightly different art style). But the air is normal in the Second World, so they can all just fly now...including Panzy‽ You know; the girl who doesn't know what ki is and struggles to lift a fist-sized rock with her mind? Yeah, she can just casually fly on her own now somehow because the plot needs to be easy.

Speaking of things that contradict previous statements in the show so the plot can move, Vegeta's group were somehow able to get past Warp-sama offscreen despite Hybis having no established way of making everyone look like Demon Realm natives like Shin did for Goku (maybe Piccolo disguised them?).

And that whole, "we have to split up because the plane would be too heavy with eight people" conceit? It's suddenly no longer an issue because ten episodes in is too late to trot out the same, "our plane was stolen or destroyed so we have to wait for another one" stall tactic. Granted, the air is lighter and provisions are less, so it's not that egregious of a change compared to "Panzy can fly now," and we get some genuinely gut-busting comedy out of the resulting close-quarters character dynamics (with Hybis being his usual, deadpan, savage, perverted self).

Speaking of the Gendarmerie, whom Goku gave the "MCU hero platforms around, destroying military aircraft" treatment during the dogfight sequence, they are a point of confusion and optimistic speculation. See, Gomah had them ambush Goku's group upon entering the Second Demon World, but when he sees that Goku (with an assist from Glorio) wiped out the squadron, he calls for all remaining units to come to the First Demon World instead? Why not swarm Goku in the Second? Gomah also seems completely unaware that Arinsu and Majin Kuu are challenging Tamagami #1 right now, so what's his point? Is he just rendered that strategically inept by his fear and paranoia?

What's far more interesting (and could just be me grasping at windmills so I don't tilt at straws) is that Kuu surrenders to Number One just in time for himself and Dr. Arinsu to leave before the Gendarmerie show up, almost like he sensed them coming. [Insert tired comment about lofty expectations and inevitable disappointment here].

Meanwhile, a dismissive response from Piccolo reveals that the Nameless Namekian, a.k.a. Katatsu, a.k.a. Dad, grew up in the Second Demon World. Also, because Bulma and Panzy are basically the same character now, it's her turn to get exposition out of Shin/Nahare by completely naturally asking him to spend the remainder of the episode telling the audience the creation myth of the Dragon Ball multiverse.

Watching and listening through MistareFUSION's Dragon Ball Dissection series, my attention has been drawn to the escalation and granularly redundant division of the divine hierarchy in the franchise, from Korin being a regional god to Kami being God to only being Earth's god because he's outranked by Yema (the god of the afterlife) who is outranked by King Kai (the Lord Of Worlds above all until he's diminished by only being one of four Kais who each oversee a quadrant of the Universe and are outranked by Grand Kai in the anime filler tournament), but then Shin shows up in the Buu Saga with an attendant and says that he was one of four Supreme Kais overseen by the Grand Supreme Kai until Buu ate or killed them all, not to mention the Elder Supreme Kai who was trapped in the Z-Sword. Then the Z Renaissance movies and Super come along, and not only is there a God Of Destruction and an Angel (and the ridiculous cosmology flaw of having Beerus life-linked to someone as weak and nearly useless as Shin), but now there are eleven other known Universes, each with a similar hierarchy,

plus lore of Saiyan and Namekian Gods, Destroyer Candidates, a Grand Priest Angel, an Omni-King, and because the multiverse exists in multiple timelines, we end up with two Omni-Kings and the potential for a Supreme Kai Of Time like the video games have, and suddenly Dragon Ball turns into that conversation every parent eventually has with their child that starts out with them wanting to know what makes the sky blue and ends with your head exploding or you scarring your children for life because you can't explain who created God and you blurt out that Santa is dead and the Easter Bunny isn't real. Sorry to any children or monotheists who may be reading this right now, but SPOILERS for reality....

Anyway, we were talking about the bloated god hierarchy in Dragon Ball as a lead-in to DAIMA having Shin/Nahare exposit a creation myth to Bulma because she asked so naturally and I am the God Of Sarcasm.

As it turns out, the Demon Realm was the original Universe, and the "good Supreme Demon King" (unnamed, but that could imply that there was an evil Supreme Demon King as well) at the time...well, this:

So he asked a newly revealed character named Super Majin Rymus to create the multiverse (then eighteen in number, but Zeno would later erase six of them) and let the Majin and Nameks travel out to populate them, presumably using the Warp-sama network to traverse between the Demon Realm and the Universes.

When Dabura's father eventually took power, sealing the Magic Tunnels and limiting Warp usage, the remaining Glinds escaped to live on a planet near Rymus (shown above and stated to still be alive, possibly retconning Zeno out of being the King Of All, but I'll talk more about that later), and the remaining Nameks, except for Neva (who is used as this episode's cliffhanger), rebelled and fled to Universes Six and Seven (that we know of) because they were treated like slaves by the Majin. Now, the Namek/Glind homeworld looks like Planet Namek did after Freiza showed up, and the five Glind Trees are long dead. So while the Second Demon World serves as a place of strong character development for Piccolo (who has the memories of Demon King Piccolo, Kami, and Nail) and Shin, it is also treated as a dose of nostalgia-killing reality for both of them, like, "I've seen it, I remember the good and bad of it; there's nothing left for me here worth clinging to." And from the exploration view that was taken in the Third Demon World, that feels both thematically wrong and uncomfortably right, as if Toriyama might have known what was coming and used this episode (particularly Shin and Bulma's discussion of Glind mortality and pending extinction) as a midpoint farewell to the setting of his magnum opus' most defining moment, that being Goku's Super-Saiyan transformation on Namek. Rather than making the ruins of the Second Demon World a place to explore, he chose to leave it as it lay...except that Neva had been nearby (undetected by ki signature so the exposition can flow and he can be a surprise later, but also maybe he has God Ki?), watching from the shadows.

Next week/this coming Friday, it's the legendary episode of "Legend," featuring Vegeta's fight with the trident-weilding Tamagami #2. Could Vegeta actually have gotten stronger than Goku for once? Will we get some of that exploration aspect that was sorely lacking this episode? Will Neva show himself, or will he remain in the shadows for a bit longer? I'm genuinely hyped to see if the "Legend" lives up to the...hype.

And I promised to nitpick and complain about the Rymus/Zeno thing, so here you are: Toriyama has stated in interviews that he created new gods to facilitate character growth through training and McGuffin power-ups because "gods can do anything, lol!" Climbing Korin's Tower repeatedly and earning two different sacred waters gave Goku the strength to defeat Tao and Demon King Piccolo. Climbing to the Lookout to train with Popo and Kami brought him to a level where he could defeat Piccolo, Jr. Snake Way and King Kai's training prepared him for the Saiyans. Guru gave Gohan and Krillin access to their potentials (at the time). Elder Kai unlocked Gohan's Ultimate form. Beerus and Whis introduced divine ki and godly training philosophies and helped teach Broly how to control his rage, as well as being yardsticks for the Saiyans and introducing the multiverse. Zeno, childish as he is, gave Goku even more motivation to train himself and expanded his understanding of the multiverse. Even the mostly useless Shin served as a friendly harbinger of exposition during the Buu Saga and trained Future Trunks to keep Buu from reviving in his timeline, and is Goku's traveling companion, strategist, expositor, and battle comrade in this very series. Which (ignoring similar characters in other Universes who haven't been explored beyond "this name and appearance exist now") leaves Super Majin Rymus. With no possibility of anyone achieving new forms (aside from Join Bug Fusions) because of DAIMA's place in the timeline, and his standing in the multiverse, what thematic purpose does he serve aside from Toriyama tying up Dragon Ball's theology with a supreme creator figure? Shin says here that races like Saiyans and humans didn't come about until much later, so...did they evolve to recess their Majin ancestry, or is Rymus' purpose that he created them separately? I'm not entirely sure if I care.

When gods in fiction stop being functionally important and start getting invented as inactive continuity patches, maybe it's time to go full yandere and kill your darlings.

Nice boat.

If you also thought this "Ocean" had a nice boat in it, please get kraken and 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 can expand my Universe, and following me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content.

Mini Animeister,

Out.