The reveal trailer for Dragon Ball Daima caused a significant uproar over the Internet over it’s controversial premise of the entire Dragon Ball cast being magically turned into small children. Detractors compared the series to such spinoffs as Muppet Babies with derisive nicknames like “Dragon Babies” and “Dragon Ball Daiper” becoming widely spread memes. Since Dragon Ball Super aired, Toei has drastically toned down the brutal and bloody violence the franchise was originally known for to allow it to air on international children’s cable channels. This is despite the fact that said violence, which was shocking to the American audience at the turn of the twenty-first century, was probably the reason DVDs of the uncut version sold like hot cakes and the series had such a rabid following.

Seeing blood in a cartoon was such a novelty that made Dragon Ball Z  play a pivotal role in animation history and gave US animation fans a craving for edgier action cartoons, with many similar titles imported from Japan being aired on cable and sold on DVD. Daima, like Dragon Ball Super before it , is very tame in its violence with only one tiny drop of blood appearing in episode 11. In addition to being toned down, Daima was controversial because it borrowed plot ideas from the divisive Z sequel GT, which Super decanonized. Goku being a kid again and searching for dragon balls in a sci-fi/fantasy setting that is not earth were borrowed from GT. Fortunately, the series turned out better than GT.

Now that the dust is settled and the series has finally streamed in its entirety, I can safely say that the premise of this show will still divide many fans, but the actual execution of said controversial premise was very well done. It should be noted that this is the final installment the series’ original creator, Akira Toriyama, worked on before his death. Kids will love this series. Die hard fans will probably be split on the direction of the franchise, but Daima succeeded at being what it aimed to be. Because this series only had twenty episodes instead of the 131 episodes of Super, the production values are the highest ever for a Dragon Ball series and the action scenes are on par with much of the other major action anime titles airing at this moment. The story and characters are strong and this is probably the best made series despite it being toned down. For parents to know, the language in the English dub is squeaky clean, with “dang” and “heck” being the harshest you’ll hear. A villain bears some cleavage, but the skimpy costumes are much milder than most anime. The plot involves the “Demon Realm” but the Japanese term “demon” isn’t referring to minions of Satan, but rather Japanese fantasy creatures not related to Old Nick.

Okay let’s get into the plot. It should be noted that Daima appears to be yet another alternate continuity as the previous sequels to Z, GT and Super were pretty explicitly in an another continuity from each other and were mutually incompatible. Daima contradicts Super enough to prove it’s an alternate universe. Some fans have tried to harmonize the appearent contradictions between the two, but most have accepted that them being in alternative continuities. Whether the next series will follow Super, Daima, or be another alternate continuity remains to be seen. The main villain is Gomah, who became king of the demon realm after Dabura died in Z. He uses the earth’s dragon balls to wish the main cast be turned into children so they would be easier to defeat in battle. The main cast journeys to the Demon Realm to find its set of dragon balls to turn everyone back into adults. It turns out that Namekians, Piccolo’s race who are the creators of the dragon balls, originally came from the demon realm before they were on planet Namek. The kais apparently also grew on trees in the demon world and the name of the race the Supreme Kai belongs to is called the Glind. The demon world is apparently older than the other universes and the multiverse’s creator Rymus lived there. This series makes drastic and interesting additions to the lore, even if how said lore fits with Super leads to lots of debate.

As fans can guess, there’s lot of fighting involved, this time, it seems like it’s mainly multi-men brawls as Goku wades through hoards and hoards of bad guys. This is a departure from the mainly one on one brawls the franchise is usually known for. The fights are probably the best choreographed in the entire franchise. Goku does meet some new allies to help in the fight, including Demon Realm allies Glorio and Panzy, who are fun allies. Piccolo and Vegeta do show up towards the end, but Glorio and Panzy replace the traditional supporting cast for most of this series. Supreme Kai tags along, but he doesn’t really do much of anything. It does feel like some opportunities were missed as Piccolo’s people came from the Demon Realm and it would make more sense for him to have a bigger part of the plot. Majin Buu is the most obvious absentee character here.

In addition to Gomah, a witch type character named Dr. Arinsu appears as a third faction fighting both team Goku and Gomah. She creates her own majins in Majin Kuu and Majin Duu, who bear a great deal of personality and aesthetic similarities to forms of Majin Buu. The fight against Dabura’s successor and other majins majke this series and obvious successor to the Buu saga and follow up on it well. Next paragraph will talk about the major spoiler every fan has already talked about.

Probably the aspect most talked about is the forms we see in the series as Vegeta achieves Super Saiyan 3 and Goku achieves Super Saiyan 4. Super Saiyan 4 was yet another element from GT, albeit another well received element of it. Super Saiyan 4 fans getting what they wanted is probably the most discussed topic of this series. Glorio uses the dragon balls to wish Goku and co back to their adult forms and the battle gets real. A fun and interesting twist is that someone unexpected delivers the final blow as Majin Duu is actually the one to deliver the decisive blow on Gomah and save the day when the Majins team up against Gomah. Dr. Arinsu becomes the new demon queen and appears to make peace with Goku and pals.

As stated before, Daima is a good series even if its not the direction many fans want. The series has lost its edge and is now more kid-friendly. For those who want to see something similar to what the franchise used to be, Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer are there for fans of super violent action cartoons. Still, the series is a really well done kid-friendly action show with fight scenes as well choreographed as the edgier stuff it’s airing/streaming alongside. Hearing Stephanie Naldony reprise her Kid Goku role was nostalgia to the max. You can find Daima subbed and dubbed on Crunchyroll and subbed on Netflix and Hulu. The dub will air on Adult Swim’s Toonami block starting June 14th. It’s hard to say what the future for this franchise holds, with various parties battling over control of the franchise after Toriyama’s death, but Toriyama’s swan song turned out to be a worthwhile addition.

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