Dragon Ball DAIMA

After Goku and his friends defend the Earth from destruction from Majin Buu, they enjoy a much-deserved celebration. While celebrating Trunk's birthday, something odd happens, and they all are transformed into children. Goku and King Kai must travel to the Demon Realm to find the new king and the Earth Dragon Balls to turn themselves back.

This movie combines a recap and the first two episodes. The recap is helpful for anyone who may not have been up to date with the series or needs a refresher on where this one begins. The first two episodes start this part of the series slowly and could be more exciting. There is no real reason to spend money on seeing this in theaters; it is better to wait for the season to air and binge-watch it to get the full DBZ effect.

Dragon Ball Daima started like it feels like a missed opportunity in an otherwise legendary franchise. While Dragon Ball as a whole is known for its engaging plots and intense action, this spin-off fails to deliver the same level of excitement in the first half.

The pacing is incredibly slow, with episodes that seem to drag on without significant developments. Waiting an entire week for an episode only to find nothing of importance happening is frustrating.

Then it becomes Dragon Ball again at the end.

Though they should explain how this includes in the existing story.

Instead of investing in a side project like Daima, the creators should focus on continuing the main storyline (Dragon Ball Super), which still has so much potential to explore.

Overall, Daima lacks the depth and momentum that we expect from the series, leaving us disappointed and longing for more meaningful content in the first half, then becomes better.

Can't wait for the real official Dragon Ball story to continue on anime (Moro) and manga (Black Freezer).

Dragon Ball Daima anime made between 2024 and early 2025, is an anime in my opinion full of defects some even quite gross. Let's say that Toei could have put more effort especially at the level of consistency of plot and story development which in some places besides being simple and childish, it seems to be written by people who are not more than 10 years old, really in some places the plot of Dragon Ball Daima seems to be written by children, it is so simple and trivial that you can't believe it. I expected more, also because I didn't like Dragon Ball Super, that is a pretty bad anime.

There is nothing else to say.

I was fortunate enough to catch the debut of Dragon Ball Daima and thought I should write a short, spoiler free review for those who still haven't watched it.

From a visual standpoint this is the best a TV show centered around Dragon Ball has ever looked (excluding movies like DBS Broly of course). Chief animation supervisor of this episode, Chikashi Kubota, who formerly worked on Space Dandy, OPM and Mob Psycho really respects the franchise and that is shown from the get go. I believe he animates most of the early battle animation between some of the main characters and I loved the minimalistic shading, idiosyncratic animation style and beautiful impact frames. Ken Otsuka and Miyako Tsuji also come in for some impactful moments here and there. Those were the three main animators I was able to pick out from style alone, but I am sure I missed a lot too. There ARE SOME 3D CGI parts here and there, but they are very minimal and not distracting at all. It is still mostly a 2D production unlike Super Hero the movie.

Naoyuki wada , the director of cinematography went all out to keep the aesthetic consistent with the setting, you have no trouble telling the realms apart through their visual signature. The script is simple and sets up future episodes without too much difficulty, there are a lot of good slice of life moments and the voice acting (I have only heard the japanese one so far) was really good. Specially most of the new characters sport fantastic voice acting and couple that with the amazing , expressive character animation, its a solid combo.

I think this is a truly fitting way to pay tribute to Akira Toriyama, truly the best production a Dragon Ball TV series has ever had.

Dragon Ball Daima had the potential to be an exciting addition to the Dragon Ball franchise, but unfortunately it turns out to be a disappointment in many ways.

It has many problems, one of the main ones being its excessive similarity to many ideas from Dragon Ball GT. Many of the ideas and concepts seem to have been taken directly from GT, without offering anything new or original. This gives the feeling of a derivative work, lacking its own identity.

Another obvious flaw is the presence of some episodes that do not contribute to the development of the main plot. These episodes often feel banal and repetitive, with a weak and predictable plot. As a result, the narrative proceeds slowly and the viewer finds himself having to endure long sequences of insignificant events.

Another flaw is that some new characters have a really poor characterization, really reduced to the essential minimum; there are anime much less known than Dragon Ball Daima but that have characters much better characterized than the new characters of Dragon Ball Daima.

The quality of the animations is high. Some moments are well done.