REVIEW: ‘Dragon Ball DAIMA’ Episode 9 — “Thieves”

Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 9, “Thieves,” sees Goku (Masako Nozawa) and his friends face unexpected bumps as they head for the next Demon World. But while things are going a little off-course for them, Doctor Arinsu (Yôko Hisaka, Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions) prepares to unleash her new Majin onto the Demon Realm.

Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 9 opens with Goku and his friends as they journey to Demon World Two. Feeling exhausted, the group decides to stop for the night. While Kai (Yumiko Kobayashi) and Glorio (Kôki Uchiyama) are ready to camp, Panzy (Ai Fairouz) insists on getting a hotel so they can all clean up and sleep in real beds again. Concerns about Goku being spotted are put to rest when Panzy produces a bear hat for him to wear.

While their plan to get into their room quickly and not call attention to themselves is sound, it immediately goes off the rails as Goku can’t even walk across the hotel lobby without taking his hat off, revealing who he is to all around. This prompts a couple of local ruffians to take note, hatching a plan to steal the Dragon Ball Goku is carrying.

These two thugs are perhaps the smartest characters we’ve met so far. Rather than confront the group head-on, they create a distraction and swipe their objective while the party is distracted. The fact that the duo try their best to avoid fighting Goku is a surprising level of awareness from Dragon Ball thugs. And while their plan initially seems to pay off, they underestimate the brains of the outfit, Panzy.

Taking a few extra precautions, Panzy planted a tracking unit on the Dragon Ball, allowing Goku to chase after the thieves quickly. The choice to design Panzy’s tracker to look like Bulma’s dragon radar is a wonderful touch. Since the tracker effectively performs the same purpose as Bulma’s iconic device, seeing the design again is a fun nod to the franchise’s past.

Once Goku runs down the thieves, Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 9 delivers its first short, one-sided fight. Preceded by a brief game of keep away, the thieves fight more out of panic than any hope of winning. Once they are dispatched, the group decides to call it a night, with Goku offering to stay awake and watch the Dragon Ball while the others rest due to how much sleep he got on the ride there.

The montage of Goku trying his best to stay up through the night is an entertainingly goofy sequence. While the Saiyan gives it his all, he does eventually succumb to sleep, but happily, no further mishaps occur due to his slumber.

Once they are on their way again, we learn their next stop is to meet up with the other group at Warp-sama’s location. This statement prompts a cut to Bulma (Mai Nakahara, Birdie Wing: Golf Girl’s Story), Vegeta (Yûdai Mino), Piccolo (Tomohiro Yamaguchi, Skip and Loafer), and Hybis (Reimi, Megalo Box) as they discover their ship has been stolen from the parking lot at their hotel.

Much like the first ship robbery earlier in the season, this one was prompted by a fight the night before. This time, Vegeta failed to acknowledge bumping into someone at the bar, prompting several assailants to attempt to teach him some manners. This doesn’t go well for them. The best part of this extremely brief throwdown is seeing Vegeta calmly put his tray of food down before stomping his foes and then just as calmly pick it back up to join the rest of the group.

When Goku’s group arrives, we learn that due to the provisions they are carrying, they can’t give the other group a lift. This makes their stopping at all feel like a waste of time as nothing is accomplished save some quick introductions. That the series couldn’t have found a more skillful reason to continue avoiding having the two groups join up permanently is a low spot for the episode. Luckily for the stranded heroes, the enemies from the night before return with greater numbers to get back at Vegeta. Or so they think.

Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 9‘s final fight sequence is once more brief, but this one delivers some cool moments nonetheless. Much like with Goku’s brawls, Vegeta showcases a lot of quick maneuvers and fun tricks as he dispatches the attackers. Once beaten, the defeated foes inform the heroes of where they have stashed their ship, allowing them to continue on their way.

The final scene of Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 9 returns to Doctor Arinsu as the final touches are put on her new Majin. Planting a Saibaman seed into the cauldron, the newest Majin, Majin Kuu, is born. The character design fits, as it looks like a cross between Kid Buu and the Glids, which makes sense from a visual perspective.

The most memorable element of the new villain’s reveal is a statement made as the creatures hatched. It is stated that, along with the essence of Majin Buu, several monsters were used to create this new threat. Given that it has already been established that Arinsu was sneaking around behind the scenes in past stories, it seems plausible that some or all of these monsters could be past Dragon Ball villains.

While Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 9 achieves little of note with its story, it provides some basic fun and action. The final scene helps set the stage for what the big bad will be this season. Given what we learn about his origins here, he seems like he will be more than worthy of fighting our heroes.

Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 9 is streaming now on Crunchyroll and will arrive on Netflix next week.