REVIEW: ‘Dragon Ball DAIMA’ Delivers A New Adventure While Honoring Its Past

Dragon Ball DAIMA, produced by Toei Animation, follows Goku (Masako Nozawa, Star Wars: Visions) and his friends on a new adventure. Taking place shortly after their victory over Majin Buu, the heroes find themselves transformed into children due to a wish made by the Supreme Demon King Gomah (Shôtarô Morikubo, Eternal Boys). They set out on a fantastic adventure to the Demon Realm to restore their bodies and save the kidnapped Dende from Gomah’s clutches.

Coming just months after the untimely death of franchise creator Akira Toriyama, fans of the creator’s work were all too willing to get lost in another adventure featuring the iconic characters they all know and love. But with this eagerness comes a lot of big expectations. Would Dragon Ball DAIMA be able to deliver action, humor, and heart that would make it a worthy successor to the beloved stories that came before it? Now that season one has wrapped its 20-episode run, we can say yes!

At the heart of all things Dragon Ball is the action. Fight scenes in this franchise need to deliver speed, power, and epic explosions as wildly strong characters knock each other through mountains. While Dragon Ball DAIMA works its way up to the epic fights, it nonetheless keeps even the smallest brawls exciting, thanks to creative moves and fantastic animation.

Flips, dodges, and counterattacks come in all varieties, bringing a sleek, skillful look to the battles. The heroes may not be at their strongest, but their skills look better than ever. Goku, Vegeta (Yûdai Mino, Blue Box), Piccolo (Tomohiro Yamaguchi, Visions of Mana), and newcomers all display a level of craftiness in combat that helps make the battles shine.

Dragon Ball DAIMA excels with its action, featuring some of the most epic fight scenes.

With the Z Fighters transformed into children, their power levels have been dialed back a bit. Even though their usual plethora of transformations are available to them, they hit with less oomph than is to be expected. To make up for this shortcoming, and the fact that Goku is initially unused to fighting with such short limbs, he spends much of DIAMA wielding his trusty Power Pole. Not utilized since the original series, this callback was put to good use, making combat encounters far more interesting than they might have been.

The Power Pole’s return gives Goku another interesting element in combat and establishes a trend for the series. Dragon Ball DAIMA does a fantastic job of calling back to the franchise’s long history. From recreating iconic moments to weaving skillful homages to past characters and events, it’s obvious that lots of love for the franchise is woven into every episode of the show.

Giving purpose to all the fighting is a surprisingly strong narrative. As the band of heroes makes their way across the three worlds of the Demon Realm, they encounter locals and discover hidden truths about some of the franchise’s long-standing groups. Origins for both the Namekians as well as Supreme Kai’s people, the Glind, are revealed, fleshing out a lot of the lore of the setting.

While the series remains fixated on its primary goal for most of the season, it does allow for some small side adventures to play out. These are generally worthwhile moments that deliver fun diversions. The pacing is strong, never allowing any beat, main plot, or otherwise, to linger too long.

Attention placed on characters is uneven, making some characters fade into the background.

The biggest gripe about Dragon Ball DAIMA‘s story is how uneven the character focus is. Goku and Supreme Kai (Yumiko Kobayashi, The Heike Story), along with new characters Panzy (Ai Fairouz, Negative Positive Angler) and Glorio (Kôki Uchiyama, Takt op. Destiny), are centered in the plot to the near-complete exclusion of everyone else till the halfway point of the series.

Of the other returning cast members, only Piccolo, Vegeta, and Bulma (Mai Nakahara, The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting) have significant screen time. This may leave fans of other long-running characters feeling left out. However, once the second group does catch up, the series does make sure they have plenty to do.

Despite shortening some of the classic characters’ screen time, Dragon Ball DAIMA makes up for it with great new personalities throughout its run. The main villain, Gomah, delivers both humor and genuine threat as he desperately tries to cling to his position as Demon King. Arinsu (Yôko Hisaka, Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions), one of two siblings of Supreme Kai that are introduced, delivers a stalking horse-style antagonist who spends much of the season plotting from the shadows.

New allies Glorio and Panzy bring plenty of spark to the protagonist’s side of the story. Seeing tech-savvy Panzy bond with Bulma is a fun treat, especially as she is one of the few characters in the setting who comes remotely close to Burma’s intellect. Seeing Goku manage to draw another new friend out of their shell with Glorio is a familiar path for the lead character that never loses its charm. These interactions and others give both of the new personalities engaging elements aside from being simple tour guides.

New characters add some surprising personality, with Arinsu being a sleeper threat.

Bringing both the characters and the battles they face to life is a top-notch artistic presentation. While it maintains the distinct Toriyama art style, much of what this series crafts feels far more vibrant and engaging than previous franchise entries. Gorgeous colors and creative world designs allow the Demon Realm to stand out among the many locales in the franchise.

Once battles start, Dragon Ball DAIMA delivers the fights through some of the best camerawork the series has seen. This is especially true of the grand melees that cap the season. Seeing the perspective zoom between fighters and rock pillars as explosions burst all around brings lots of great energy and excitement with it.

Another area where this series struggles significantly is with its humor. Even with a solid rate of success with its jokes, when it fails to land one, it fails hard. The first half of the series has a mild fixation with Goku needing the bathroom, which is never funny and gets annoying fast. Also, in one of the few times a call-back moment flops, Dragon Ball DAIMA introduces a Ginyu Force-like group. These characters spend way too much time on dumb poses, dragging along a bit from the past that hasn’t aged well.

The only other place some will take issue with this series is in its place within the larger franchise. Despite taking place before the events of Dragon Ball Super, several elements don’t fit with the continuity. What’s more upsetting is that these don’t occur till the very end of the season, which will leave some wondering if they were inserted after Toriyama’s passing.

Dragon Ball DAIMA succeeds far more than it fails. It brings action, characters, and humor that largely succeed. It manages to move the franchise forward while also largely honoring what came before and serves as a worthy final entry in Toriyama’s body of work.

Dragon Ball DAIMA is streaming now on Crunchyroll and Netflix.