Dragon Blog DAIMA #34: Awakening
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Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 18 Review "Awakening" |
Article by Sean Wilkinson,
a.k.a. The Mini Animeister
a.k.a. The Mini Animeister
I just want to jump into the review as quickly as possible, so please give me your energy and grant my wish by clicking the Follow button to Become A Ticketholder for real, commenting at the bottom of this post, helping out my ad revenue as you read so I can keep my eye on the ball, and following me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest news on my content, not that I need the genki right now, because I am hyped AF (as in Dragon Ball AF, not what "AF" stands for these days...okay, maybe that, too...).
I said in my review of "Collar" that it was where DAIMA first began to feel like Dragon Ball Z, and continued that sentiment into the following episode, "Tamagami" (where the fight with Number Three happened). I've also heard from other DAIMA viewers and critics that the series feels like it would play better as a binge than in its established weekly release format. And having experienced the night-and-day whiplash between those two earlier examples, and again now with "Gomah" and "Awakening," I can understand where those takes are coming from.
Like myself with this review, the episode is eager to get into the thick of battle, foregoing the intro and OP-hyping its audience for a subtle format change that original DBZ fans might take note of like I did: the opening shot doesn't have a title overlay, nor is there a static title card. We instead get a recap of Goku turning Super-Saiyan 3 and a staredown, complete with dramatic pans and closeups, the likes of which we haven't seen in the states since the early 2000s.
Following a sick slow-motion rush-in straight out of Return Of Cooler, Goku put Super-Saiyan 3 to the best use he ever has, legitimately hurting King Gomah to such an extent that I thought the Tertian Oculus was going to pop out of his forehead.
Then Majin Kuu gave Duu a Demono's Pizza dessert cookie (it's like, the size of a manhole cover and as thick as a pie), and I lost my ducking, frog-spammed mind!
Granted, it turns into a burnout joke a few minutes later, but Legendary Super-Saiyan 3 Majin Duu Luffy was a riot while it lasted.
Also, this episode all but makes up for setting up plot points that it doesn't deliver on by showing that Neva's power-ups aren't just for the Tamagamis; they work on Goku, too!
There's a lot to go into with this part, like the initial tone of the scene being awkward, the jarring feel of the edit, the somewhat unearned, "for the sake of looking cool and nostalgia-pandering" nature of the power-up, and Goku's uncharacteristic acceptance of it. But in presentation, the transformation itself is conceptually perfect.
For the duration of its run so far, DAIMA has explicitly distinguished ki from magic, and Goku's new...ish transformation here seems to show how the two energies would interact. The sequence itself even has a bit of "magical girl, but for dudes" flare to it, changing Goku's Mini body into a buff, furry one and regrowing his tail in a burst of bubbles like something straight out of Tokyo Mew-Mew (or Mew-Mew Power if you were a 4Kids victim in the West).
Yes, after much "Broly's Wrathful state is Toriyama's canon Super-Saiyan 4!" and "Everyone's getting unique forms in Super, so Broly's should be Super-Saiyan 4!" talk in the fandom, this is where and how we get it, and...I'm too busy squeeing with joy to be mad. Super-Saiyan 4 Mini Goku is so badass and cute I want a plushie of him. Plus, on the pedantic side of things, the pants make sense now (even if the shirt doesn't)!
In my opinion, the action after Goku goes Four is dynamic and creative and animated on par with something like the UI vs. Kefla grind Kamehameha from the Tournament Of Power, with Goku running through the arena rubble on all fours, using his tail for mobility, defense, and judo holds unlike anything we've seen since original Dragon Ball, and skating down Gomah's giant arm muscles like he's Disney Tarzan. He even tanks a massive punch to deliver a surprise mid-air Kamehameha that would give Perfect Cell nightmares.
The problem with the episode, if I must acknowledge and state one here, is King Gomah himself. While he contributes to the sense of visual spectacle (conjuring a massive, unique-looking energy ball so we can have an Omega Shenron callback with Goku, using the Eye to grow to Planet Mega size...until the animators forget scale between cuts and he's just normal giant King Gomah again), Gomah with the Tertian Oculus suffers from the same Reverse Power Fantasy Syndrome as the aliens from Goosebumps: The Vanishing. His "unstoppable because he wants to be" power growth in this episode establishes narrative tension for the fight by making him stronger than Goku...but destroys that tension in the same breath because we've seen what MistareFUSION calls Power Level Tennis in the previous episode, we've seen it multiple times this episode, and we know we'll see Gomah overpower Goku again by screaming loud, getting bigger, and/or pulling a new spell out of his ass by sheer force of will. Without logical progression (and maybe a hint of narratively appropriate madness) and a tangible sense of finality (read: the characters don't just devolve into children making up hax on the playground until the heat-death of the Universe), a conflict has no stakes. And steaks are delicious!
Perhaps the only thing of interest to come of Gomah's presence here, besides cool-looking energy balls and being inconsistently titanic, is when he binds Goku and sucks out all of his transformations until he's back in base. Could Moro be the one who created the Tertian Oculus‽
That's it. One scene and one question in the scope of a fight that is the best looking of DAIMA's short history as creativity, dynamism, and spectacle go, but is ultimately structurally repetitive (they even do the "have everyone join in to do their strongest attacks all at once to look cool and accomplish nothing" thing from the previous episode again, which kind of visually reinforced my speculation that ki and magic might be different understandings of the same energy).
Which means that something incongruous to the eternally cyclical battle must interrupt its flow out of nowhere. Arinsu suddenly calls Glorio on that little receiver he has (a perfect, "80s but futuristic and fantastical" Toriyama design). Glorio asks Hybis for the Dragon Balls (who is just happy to wear his "hat" and not carry anything anymore because Hybis), takes them to Arinsu, and summons...Porunga‽
Again, like with Mini Super-Saiyan 4, there is a bit to unpack here. First of all, Arinsu revealed that she had Glorio learn Namekian offscreen so he could summon the Dragon and make wishes on her behalf without Neva's input (which makes me want to go back and watch "Legend" for any subtle looks on Glorio's part when the whole, "take me with you because you need someone to translate the wishes" thing came up). Then there's Demon Realm Porunga himself. He looks pretty much identical to Planet Namek's Porunga, just Mortal Kombat ninja'd to have Black Star Shenron's red color scheme. And finally, we get to see an Eternal Dragon fight for the first time...kind of. King Gomah tries to punch him, and Ermac Porunga just casually blocks and flicks away a villain that overpowered a Super-Saiyan 4 moments earlier, which is a decent transition from spectacle to levity before Glorio speaks a wish (I will get into my speculation on that shortly in the preview section) and awe and dread set in to close out the episode.
The subtitles spell out Glorio's wish in an English alphabet approximation of Namekian, so we don't know exactly what it is, but Arinsu tells him to wish her as the Demon King With Sour Cream, All the Pizza Toppings, and Phenomenal Cosmic Power so she can defeat Gomah herself. But as we've seen, DAIMA episode titles can have dual meanings, and as you can see above, the next one is called "Betrayal."
So maybe it's about the Dragon Team dealing with the implications of Glorio having double-agented for Arinsu all this time? Or maybe we end up with a Planet Namek callback and Glorio betrays Arinsu by wishing everyone back to normal instead? Maybe the twists go even deeper and Arinsu knows Namekian, too, or she picked up some Elder techniques so she can recall Porunga and make another wish of her own. Unlike Bardock, she is a brilliant scientist, after all.
I love how the "Awakening" episode made me feel, how it looked, and how much I got to say about it in this post. Not many episodes of DAIMA have genuinely given me that opportunity in recent months. It's far from perfect, but it made me feel something. It made me feel something positive. And I needed positivity this week. "Awakening" is a powderkeg of joy, awe, fun, creativity, well-utilized nostalgia, and overall youthful energy.
Please support the official release because DAIMA needs to finally get some decent marketing, and support my efforts with your energy and grant my wish by clicking the Follow button to Become A Ticketholder for real, commenting at the bottom of this post, helping out my ad revenue as you read so I can keep my eye on the ball, and following me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest giant cookie Frisbees of news on my content.
Mini Animeister 4,
Out of Chocolate.
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