© BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION
For the most part, it feels Daima has settled into a pretty solid formula in balancing its grand adventure vibes with a mix of exposition and comedy. This week’s episode is pretty much the same in that regard as Goku and the others deal with a few detours on their way to the Demon King’s castle and we learn a little more about how hard it is to get around in the Demon Realm. It’s nothing too exciting on its own, but luckily there’s still enough charm to all of it to keep things fun, and while there’s not a whole lot going on this time, a lot of what we do get feels like some pretty good set up for what’s to come.
With our trio now left stranded without a ride, they have no choice but to mostly travel on foot until they can get their hands on a new ship. Funny enough, it’s Goku who points out the obvious here in wondering why they don’t just fly the rest of the way there. It turns out that the air pressure in the Demon Realm makes it as hard to fly as it is to move around, and any attempts to fly long distances would just be wasting energy. While a lot of these restrictions do help in fleshing out the setting, it’s hard not to feel like some of this is just a convenient way to handwave why Goku is less powerful here than he probably should be, and that’s something I can imagine not sitting well with some fans. So far, though, I think limiting him like this has largely been to the show’s benefit in helping to keep things simple, and it’s providing ample reason for him and the others to explore the Demon Realm a bit instead of jumping right into the big fights.
Still, if you are missing some of the usual power scaling, we get a rough idea of how Glorio stacks up to the rest of the cast. When he saves Goku and the Supreme Kai from becoming monster chow, Goku estimates that he’s at least on par with the Supreme Kai. While the latter doesn’t seem particularly happy about that guess, it does at least establish that Glorio can keep up with his new companions. Curiously, he doesn’t seem to know what Ki is, and while I’m sure Goku explaining it to him is more for the audience’s benefit than for his, it does at least further drive home just how different the rules of the Demon Realm are from everything else in Dragon Ball. Power levels aside though, it’s still hard to get a read on the guy, so him being this strong seems like something that could prove to be a problem later if his motives for helping out Goku and the Supreme Kai turn out to be less than altruistic. His M.O. becomes more suspicious when Goku learns how the Dragon Balls in the Demon Realm work and wants to use them to rescue Dende and return to normal. Glorio feels a little too onboard with the idea of taking that much of a detour, and the quick smirk he gives afterward implies that he might have given away that information on purpose for a larger plan. Everything about him continues to be one big mystery.
While we’re still waiting for answers on some of that, there’s still plenty of charm to tide things over. In between finding themselves stranded and pivoting toward hunting down the Dragon Balls, Goku and the others stop at a local shop to figure out how they can get around, and we get to learn a little more about some of the Demon Realm’s local goods and services, which all turn out to be delightfully weird. You’ve got health drinks that have mysterious eyeballs floating them, bugs that can do things from recovering stamina to allowing people to fuse (I expect that to come back whenever Vegeta joins this road trip), and a giant seed that doubles as a jet rocket for covering long distances without flying, which ends up being the gang’s mode of transportation for the episode. It’s all incredibly silly and a lot of it feels like it was stripped straight out of an old-school RPG, but the level of cartoon energy on display with some of these feels a lot closer to the Dragon Quest school of RPG worldbuilding than your typical isekai and it just further adds to the classic adventure aesthetic that this is all aiming for.
Things wrap up with setting up a new arc, as Goku and the others run into a small village currently being oppressed by King Gomah’s forces known as the Gendarmerie. It’s not a particularly original setup, but it feels about as much like a 90’s RPG scenario as everything else Daima‘s been doing so far, so it does at least fit with the vibe. Plus, I like the idea of the villagers being threatened with a machine that quite literally sucks a few years of life out of its victims, since it’s one of those concepts that feels so inherently silly that it somehow circles to being amazing. We also get a pretty killer action showcase out of the deal, as when Goku decides to step in and save the villagers, we get to see him pull off some more martial arts acrobatics, and we finally get some great justification for bringing his Power Pole back. He gets to use it for everything from swinging around buildings to deflecting energy bolts and it makes for one of the best choreographed fight sequences we’ve gotten out of the franchise in years.
As much as I like the energy clashes and lightspeed exchanges that defined Dragon Ball‘s action in the Z era and beyond, it’s nice to see it scaled back to be more physical and creative with the combat. It’s hard to argue with the results so far. If the show can keep on delivering like this, then I’m all in favor of holding off on getting a Kamehameha or an energy blast for as long as possible. It also looks like we’ve finally met our second new addition to the main cast with Panzy. While we don’t get enough time with her to get a full read, she seems to be pretty fun, so I’m looking forward to learning more about her next episode. While this week’s outing of Daima feels more like a transition than anything else, it still manages to be pretty charming, and while it’s still not impossible it could hit a snag, I’m feeling more and more confident that the show knows exactly what it’s doing.
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Dragon Ball Daima is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.
