Dragon Ball DAIMA was a complete rollercoaster ride with its ups and downs. The series felt unfamiliar and had a different flavor to it when compared with most of the franchise.
It had the style and vibe of the original Dragon Ball series and was meant to introduce a new generation to the magic of the Dragon Ball universe. At the same time, the veterans who have watched GT have always been dissatisfied that many of its plotlines have never been used or made canon.
This is why DAIMA did its best to cover all bases; it definitely had its fair share of sidetracks; for instance, the trip that Vegeta, Goku, and Piccolo took to the giant island felt like a filler episode since it had no bearing or effect on the main narrative, but at the same time it was intriguing and fun without being bound by any constraints.
The fun but frustrating side trip
On the surface, it felt like an unnecessary filler. The Z fighters were turned into kids, and it was one thing that Goku was infiltrating the Demon Realm to figure out what Gomah was doing or find a way to foil his plans and revert back to their normal forms.
But taking them away and putting them on what seems like a cutoff isolated island, which is packed and overflowing with oversized creatures and some unknown way of power-scaling. It seems like the episode was not meant to make sense but just be fun and interesting.
There are many new creatures and the ones which we do know are all humongous. It is a hilarious scene to see the heroes who are already ‘chibi’ run around with giant squirrels chasing after them.
But beneath all of that craziness that felt like a bad dream, the sheer quality of its world-building and the interesting animation made it impossible to hate. (And who can hate on hamsters?)
Dragon Ball DAIMA’s homage to GT
What is interesting is that the episode was a tribute to Dragon Ball GT, which featured a similar giant island. The GT version was slow-paced and lacked intriguing elements. Thus, it felt like DAIMA was proving how fun it could have been and was paying tribute to GT.
We now know that it was about to make things like SSJ4 canon, making it important to respect the source. The episode didn’t push the story forward, and there was not much change when it came to the strengths of the characters (no power-ups) or even realizations.
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But it was not a bad way to take a break from watching the narrative-driven plot for one episode. The animation was very good, and the episode was the perfect opportunity to show the long-awaited team-up of Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo. The fights were incredible with coordination and visuals that kept the viewers hooked.
Overall, the worst episode in terms of importance could have been the best one in terms of mindless fun. The Demon Realm is undoubtedly one of DAIMA’s strongest aspects, and Toei Animation went all out. That is why such a world with unique monsters (now somewhat a norm in Dragon Ball) seemed to be a breath of fresh air.
Dragon Ball DAIMA is available to watch on Crunchyroll.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
