Talking About TV Shows - Dragon Ball Daima Episode 1
I wrote this about a month ago on my Bluesky. I planned to watch Dragon Ball Daima at my own pace, just let my interest in the show dictate when I watch it. Then something happened that made me uninterested in the idea. Then real life issues have me in a state where I'm preoccupied. But these were my thoughts on the first episode, it's not really in a traditional review format. None of my posts usually are. I just see these as my random ass thoughts, take them or leave them.
Dragon Ball has been my childhoo- I don't need to give 4 paragraphs of backstory for this. Barely had cable as a kid, liked what I saw of both DBZ and original Dragon Ball. Saw everything I missed later in life. Did I like Super? Not really. Do I like the fanbase? Hell no. They were toxic and hateful before any of these social media platforms even existed. Still, Dragon Ball's an alright watch most of the time.
I refused to watch Daima until a year later because I tend to avoid hype cycles. I wanted to see this show separate from the 6 year drought of Dragon Ball material, the tragedy of Toriyama's passing, and the talking heads online giving their opinions. Damn, did the influencers try to get those opinions out as loudly as possible. I'm thankful for the mute button.
Still, very hard to avoid knowing nothing about the show despite avoiding it. Because it's priority anime for many people. Those same people can be equally loud. Because of that, I knew ahead of time, it has the Demon Realm, Vegeta SSJ3 I think, and Goku turning SSJ4. Basically that's all I know, but I also understand this isn't insignificant. Of course, with how I've watched Dragon Ball in my life, many Super Saiyan forms were spoiled for me before I got the chance to see them. Not that I care about spoilers, it's just a fact I'm pointing out. I think I only ever saw SSJ3 in the Buu Saga without knowing what that was. I guess technically Ultra Instinct, although it may have leaked a bit before being revealed. The characters turning young wasn't really a spoiler, that was a trailer reveal. So I'm not counting that.
Halfway into Daima Episode 1, I noted this is the first time the series canonically tries to show an evil kingdom scheming. It should've thrown me off, but I guess it just doesn't due to more recent Dragon Ball material. Helped by the animation and wow. Shintani's work remains great. Surprisingly despite Dragon Ball Twitter having mountains of discussions of Shintani's art since the Broly movie, Bluesky hasn't really even mentioned him at the time of writing this, which is a little surprising for the very art-centered platform. All I can say is that I'm not a hater of Dragon Ball Super's overall artstyle. Not an endorsement of when it dropped in quality, but I'm not pretending like Yamamuro is the sole issue with Super. He's not. But Shintani? I would overall rather watch an entire show with his artstyle than Super.
Great thing this show exists as it does something I feel people wanted Shintani & his team to do ever since the Broly movie. It gives people at least some of it. Reanimating Dragon Ball Z. It looks fantastic. It alo works as a recap and to show where this takes place while providing context for the demon world.
First story thing I noted was the new characters. It did feel a little weird only because it's apparently adding more Kais to a story where Shin had been virtually the only one for decades. It's something I couldn't help but note. It's hard to pretend it's nothing. The other Supreme Kais dying was a plot point in Dragon Ball Z's last arc. Now I admit, I have other manga to read so I just heard summaries of Dragon Ball Super's Moro/Grandolah arcs. But I recall that they had to access the absorbed Supreme Kai in Buu for information. Which then would lead me to do a weird amount of speculation in the first few minutes. This is what happens when they keep sliding new arcs in between the timeline.
Not only that, but because there was so little DB material in most of the 2010s, the video games invented Towa and Mira who were the successors to Dabura. Towa being Dabura's sister. I don't even have to see reactions from fans to know they probably told everyone else online to stop thinking about that. Because that's how they ALWAYS act. They acted like that throughout all of the Super anime too. To me, it's offputting, but whatever. Dragon Ball fans just be like that.
The new set of Dragon Balls would shock me a lot more if this hadn't been the what, 5th iteration of them introduced? The last two introduced in the Super era which means three new sets in about a decade. One of which hasn't even been animated yet. But for me, it remains to be seen if this new set is worth it, much less the previous two.
Something that confused me for a moment when watching. Shin and Kibito show up to the party only a little while after Kid Buu is defeated...unfused. In Super's Goku Black arc, which is years after this, they said they used the Dragon Balls to undo the fusion. Hut here, they say they had Buu personally undo it like with Vegito. Absorbing them or just zapping them or something. The method is not I'm not confused about, so whatever.
It's not incompatible best I can tell based on the logic provided. It's not like it's undoing the "Kais remain permanently fused" thing and Buu is an untested factor. But also the same writers wrote both of these explanations in the last decade so I'm like...why is this inconsistent? Fan backlash? Sure, I'm not going to pretend like I liked the fusion retcon either. It took away the real stakes of the Vegito fusion in two arcs that kind of needed it. I'm okay with the idea Buu's internal bad air evil magic whatever, when concentrated, can be a solution. Perhaps better if the process takes time or more effort because good Buu is weaker and dumber than Buuhan. I'd be alright with that.
Now for something that I feel isn't even contradictory necessarily, just an act of forgetfulness. At first, I thought I was just confusing Dende's abilities with Kami's or other Namekians. But no, I checked. Dende does have this ability. Why didn't Dende just use his telepathy to warn the gang that enemies are trying to use the Dragon Balls? That was my first thought seeing that. Which led to my second thought was Goku's Instant Transmission. In order, both of these would mean the whole plan is stopped right then and there.
Now one could argue almost the whole Dragon Team should be sensing these evil people regardless. Even during the Buu Saga with Babadi intentionally going all stealth mode, they were still able to at least sense shit to some degree and they'd just start talking about how their enemy feels like primordial evil or something. The new villains seemingly aren't even attempting to cloak themselves, but maybe I'm wrong and I'll learn that watching the rest of the show. Alternatively, they're just THAT weak, but then the wish granted to them seems a little diluted by that fact. I don't know.
The third thought was Shenron who all of a sudden needs specifics even though most wishes up until this point just read the intent of whoever's doing the wish. But maybe it's just a comedy thing they're going for. They did have this all happen on Trunks' birthday and now they're making him a baby. A point to compare with Dragon Ball GT's first episode. I Don't really think either series justifies the wish perfectly, but I will say Daima at least makes more sense. Not only because it's given more room to discuss the reasoning. But because Goku, Uub, and others aren't at Kami's lookout when the damn wish is being made. But it does circle back to the Dende thing. That can't be avoided.
I was trying to think. In GT's case you could argue Goku and friends possibly let their guard down. Like they had gotten so strong they didn't expect geriatric Pilaf to even try. Maybe that's a stretch, I don't know. But you can at least argue, it connects contrasting parts of the series together. By contrast, in Daima, 3 unknown motherfuckers teleport in and demand wishes. These are immediate red flags treated casually.
I guess this means Mr. Satan is getting turned into a kid as well presumably. I'm pretty sure he fought Buu, even if it was a fruitless effort, his attacks didn't do anything, and they became friends. I just don't entirely remember the trailer to see if he's one of the kids. I guess they were clever in saying "kids get turned to babies" because Piccolo grew to be a man at like age 4, so they cover their bases.
I really have no opinion on the music because I have shitty speakers rn. I'm not writing it off, there are some songs I liked in Dragon Ball's history. I'm just not equipped to discuss it right now in terms of the show.
The episode is overall interesting. Maybe a little too explanation heavy. Maybe a little too "This is like the 4th Post-Buu party we've made for this series" so it kinda goes through the motions. But by itself, it's solid enough. I say, as it's been a month since I watched it. But there's other reasons behind that.
By the way, no, I'm not really wrong on that party thing. They did celebrate after Buu in Dragon Ball Z. I admit, it's not a party like the rest, but the episode Post-Kid Buu's defeat is more or less them gathering together and hanging out in response to that. So I count it. Then they had a special in 2008 that was a party after Buu where Vegeta's brother Tarble showed up and Goten and Trunks fought Frieza's soldiers. Then Battle of Gods, all versions had Bulma's birthday party. While Daima has Trunks' birthday party. Is Dragon Ball stuck in Sonic Generations logic, what is this?
I'm not saying it ruins the franchise, just that it's weird because none of the other Dragon Ball shows do this. Of course, I don't even need to see fan reaction to know this is probably brushed aside because some random person joked that Bulma's rich, of course she'd party every day. Ignoring she wasn't exactly doing that in DB, DBZ, or GT, and it does became a little unbelievable that Vegeta would go to multiple different parties that he clearly doesn't care about.
That's all I had to really say about Episode 1 of Dragon Ball Daima. Like I said at the beginning, I was not going to force myself to watch this just to say I did. I was going at my own pace. Little did I realize the 40th anniversary was this year and so much was announced. I avoid hype cycles and it just demotivated me from continuing this. Especially since they're remaking Battle of Gods again. Yeah that gave me no reason to give much of a fuck about Dragon Ball and I already waited a year to watch Daima to begin with.
I've seen the Dragon Ball fandom try to justify the re-remake. I don't care. "Oh its because Dragon Ball Super is poor quality and they're trying to fix it." Okay it was poor quality. AND? Live with it.
Nah, you see, Dragon Ball can't live with it because it's the best franchise on this and any planet and they need to keep up that chad energy or some shit to keep the franchise going! Imagine a franchise coming to a conclusion. Can't have that, gotta milk everything because if the next generation doesn't know who Son Goku is, throw all of humanity away apparently.
So yeah, wasn't motivated to continue Daima. I might just get it over with a month later. I don't know. But the fact I'm even typing this on this site should tell you the possibility is there. Either way, I'll be talking about more things the rest of the month.
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