Dragon Ball Daima is becoming an instant classic!

New Objective: Leave Earth!

This episode starts out with beautiful visuals of Goku, Supreme Kai and Glorio speeding away from earth in Glorio’s ship. The shots of earth and space paired with vibrant colors and different textures are almost unmatched in current anime. This is truly a passion project, and at the same time, a love letter to and from Akira Toryiama.

What would a Toriyama original be without a little spice? OG Dragon Ball had plenty of amorous scenes, and we see one here in Daima with Goku rubbing the power pole, and the pole immediately extends to the ceiling. Toriyama…you’re crazy brother. 

Next Destination: The Demon Realm!

While traveling to the Demon Realm, Shin (Supreme Kai) starts to question Glorio’s true motives. He asks Glorio about who requested Goku, and why he should fight against Gomah. Glorio responds explaining that the king of the Third Demon World requested Goku specifically, and wants Gomah out of the picture. Glorio also explains that while Gomah might not look menacing, his magic abilities make him extremely powerful. I still believe Gomah has something up his sleeve, especially if he gets his “Evil Third Eye”. A transformation is looming…and he might not be the only one.

As we saw in the last episode, Warp-Sama is the only way to and from the Demon World. Goku seeing Warp-Sama for the first time causes him to immediately make light of him, calling him a giant goldfish. Now personally, I never would have said this to Warp-Sama’s face…but I would’ve thought it too, Goku. Shin informs Goku that Warp-Sama is extremely sensitive, and if Goku keeps making light of him, he will not let them pass. Goku immediately makes fun of him again, which is hilarious. Goku’s body was not the only thing made childish, so was his personality. I love it. 

Going to the Demon Realm, at least for this instance, requires all parties to be a demon, with pointy ears, Glorio and Shin both pass, but Goku has round ears. Before Warp-Sama notices, Shin is able to use magic to make Goku’s ears pointy for the time being, and they are allowed passage after Glorio gives a PIN number. Unfortunately, before they are warped, Shin tries to relay his location and PIN number to Kibito, so the others can pass later, and only his location is sent. How will Kibito, Vegeta, Piccolo and the others get through?

A New World: Third Demon World!

I can not speak highly on the animation of this series enough. Warping to the Demon Realm looked like it was budgeted straight out of a movie. Imagine watching this in 3D, or inside of the Las Vegas Sphere? Mind blowing. Instead of going straight for Gomah in the First Demon World, our hero’s (for now) have to take passage through the Third Demon World, with Glorio’s clearance. Immediately after entering this world, it looks exactly like the Rocky Mountains from Goku and Vegeta’s infamous fight, as well as the map straight from a Budokai Tenkaichi games. 

We are introduced to a passage in the ground connecting all three demon worlds, but this passage is blocked by a light barrier that was made by an unknown user. I have an early prediction that Neva was the one to make this barrier, as he seems like too important of a character to have a one off scene. I definitely have my eyes out for him…

Flying through this new world, we see a Dabura statue, the original demon king. I was not the biggest fan of Dabura in Dragon Ball Z, simply because we didn’t see enough of him. Besides stylish attacks, I want to know Dabura’s backstory, a deep dive into his bailies and hopefully Daima expands on that. 

Goku mentions how he thought a demon world would look more creepy, instead of what he currently sees, for example: pink skies, animals and plentiful wildlife. Shin explains that while it may look tame, the ecology of these worlds are different, with the air quality feeling heavy, making it difficult to breathe and move. We can assume based on Shin and Glorio’s comments, that the Third Demon World is the worst economic wise, the Second is the middle class, and the First is for the top demons.

Dragon Ball Daima: A Star Wars Story

Toriyama takes heavy inspiration from Star Wars during the later part of this episode, and he does it so well. Our group is immediately attacked by a group of bandits…with slow moving arrows. As Goku dodges, Glorio closed in on these bandits and takes them out with a blaster. The Boonta Eve Classic vibes if I have ever seen it. Glorio suggests that they all rest in a nearby town since they’ve travelled quite a distance, and it was already night when they were picked up from earth. As soon as they arrive at the town however, they are met with glares and scolds, partially because they are easy targets as kids, and because Goku is back to having rounded ears. 

They arrive at a location that offers room to stay in, but the demon of the front desk tries to take advantage of these new customers. He offers two rooms for 30,000 Dokuro each. 30K Dokuro can be converted to…entirely too much. Even if 1 Dokuro is converted to 10 cents, each room would cost $3000…for just one night. Me personally, I would’ve jumped across that desk so fast for even suggesting this pricing, and that is exactly what Glorio did. Glorio is proving throughout this series that he is a real one, and that he does not play when it comes respect. He is growing to be a fan favorite. 

After Glorio flashes his gun to this demon, he brings his price down to 5000 Dokuro for each room. Respect is earned, never given. Before going to the rooms, Goku mentions how he is starving, and even in demon worlds, burgers are a main commodity, as the front desk demon recommends a bar across the street. 

Here is where the action starts. As soon as Goku and company step into the bar, they are immediate targets of everyone inside. After eating two burgers, Goku is approached about having round ears. Glorio nonchalantly pleads for these demons to leave them alone, but do we honestly expect demons to listen to anyone? As these demons become more aggressive, Glorio swiftly, and stylishly takes out two demons. A fight breaks out with Glorio and Goku taking out the whole bar, with Goku having burger mouth, and fighting with the plates the burgers came on. He also takes this opportunity to learn his new atmosphere, looking at these demons as training for this new atmosphere. Goku might just be the coolest character ever created (behind Bardock and Gohan…respectfully). If Dragon Ball Daima had its own version of Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars, this would be it, along with this whole scenario. I love the creativity and homage.

The episode ends with our fighters waking up from their rooms, only to discover that Shin’s ship has been stolen from them when they go outside. If this isn’t a reference to the Millennium Falcon then I don’t know what is. Two great storytelling pieces coming together…is beautiful to see. 

Final Thoughts

Overall, this episode is light-hearted fun, focusing on the lore of the demon realm, the differences between each demon world, and getting us to understand the atmosphere and mobility differences from our accustomed earth. We are left with only one question at the end, how will Glorio, Goku and Shin maneuver around the Third Demon World now? Find out next time…

…on Dragon Ball Daima!