Dragon Ball Daima

Episode 10

It was probably for the best that the previous episode was a bit of a breather because this week's episode of Daima is pretty stuffed. We've got our first showing of the series' potential final boss, Goku finally assembling a full party for the rest of this road trip, and some massive lore dumps that change our understanding of the previously established Dragon Ball cosmology. It's a lot to shift through, and while some left me scratching my head, it's mostly just made me curious about what's ahead in the future.

We learn that Vegeta has been a boobs guy all along as Hybis somehow correctly deduces that this is the true reason Vegeta is determined to restore Bulma to normal. For as intensely self-serious of a person as he is, that's extremely funny and makes for the most memorable gag out of this episode. As for plot-related revelations, we quickly learn that for as much buildup as his creation got, Majin Kuu is a wimp (by Dragon Ball standards anyway). Sure, we do get a pretty flashy fight between him and one of the Tamagami, and he tries his darndest to show off for his new boss, but he barely even leaves a scratch on the Tamagami, and Dr. Arinsu is less than impressed. While that is a pretty pitiful showing for what might have been our endgame villain, I'd be lying if I said that didn't make for a hilarious twist, and watching him desperately try to convince Dr. Arinsu not to fire him for failing his performance review. Admittedly, this does leave me wondering what his presence will bring to the show in the long term.

While all that's going on, Goku's group finally arrives at the Second Demon World and quickly finds themselves in hot water. King Gomah sends his forces after them as soon as they enter its airspace, and while Goku can fend them off, this leads to the gang getting their ship eaten by a giant sea kraken, and once again leaves them without a ride. Although the lighter air in the Second Demon World means that they can at least fly on their own, Panzy isn't fast enough to keep up with the rest of them, and they decide to take a pit stop at the former planet of the Namekians. It's only then that Goku finally agrees that it would be a good idea to wait for Vegeta and the others and warn them about the aforementioned giant kraken, but in typical Goku fashion, he's not doing this purely out of the goodness of his heart. Rather, it's because he knows Vegeta's group still has a functioning ship they can ride on. It's funny seeing Vegeta grumble about how selfish he is before letting him on anyway because it's just too hard to stay mad at him. Equally funny is Vegeta scoffing at Goku's warning about the giant kraken, only to freak out when he sees it himself. There is something surreal about seeing these two panicking over almost being monster food after how many years Saiyans have been treated as unstoppable fighting machines.

After the whole band gets together back on the old Namekian planet, Shin gives them a history lesson that has some pretty big ramifications on the pre-established lore in Dragon Ball. Namekians were exploited for their ability to create Dragon Balls and largely treated like slaves, until venturing outside the Demon Realm where they fell victim to Freeza. It's sad to think about, but it's at least fairly consistent with what we've learned about the Namekians up to the point, which is more than I can say for what the Shin reveals about the Glinds. When Bulma gets curious about his past, Shin goes over the history of Dragon Ball's multiverse and how one of the Supreme Demon Kings wanted to expand their realm and ordered a Super Majin called Rymus to create new universes that the Majin eventually migrated to. Meanwhile, Rymus put some of the Glinds in charge of overseeing each universe, and these would go on to become the Supreme Kais. While the Glinds were initially free to travel in and out of the Demon Realm as they pleased, the Demon King who ruled before Dabura, King Abura, decided to close it off until the Glinds living in the Demon Realm rebelled.

To anyone not that familiar with Dragon Ball, or at the very least, hasn't watched Super, most of this probably comes off as a standard lore dump, but if you have seen Super then this is a pretty hefty retcon as it almost single-handedly destroys the cosmology it established. While the Supreme Kais being in charge of their respective universes is still consistent with Super, there's nothing here connecting them to their supposed divine counterparts, the Gods of Destruction, much less Zeno, the all-powerful toddler who Super claimed as being in charge of the entire multiverse. Introducing Rymus as the actual creator god of Dragon Ball more or less contradicts Zeno's supposed level of authority (if not arguably his entire existence), and while it's possible that Zeno could be middle management, it'd still be hard not to see that as a retcon considering that even someone like Beerus spent the whole back half of Super terrified of angering him. Speaking of Beerus: if the Glinds aren't actual deities, but members of the upper caste of the Demon Realm who got handed jobs as supervisors, are the Gods of Destruction now just a bunch of nobles who got a job blowing things up? That's pretty wild to think about, though not as wild as the fact that if you consider that Rymus was created by one of the Supreme Demon Kings, it implies that the latter is a higher position of authority, therefore make King Gomah the current capital G god of the Dragon Ball multiverse (which in some ways, might be less responsible than putting that job in the hands of a cosmic toddler).

As someone who doesn't care a lot about the consistency of Dragon Ball's lore, I'm pretty okay with this. The multiverse explanations we got in Super largely just came off as an excuse to raise power levels, and while this new version is a lot more to take in, it feels a bit more connected to the earlier parts of Dragon Ball. Lore implications aside, this episode mostly left me wondering where the rest of the show is headed. With Majin Kuu not quite living up to his credentials and King Gomah being only slightly more competent, we're lacking credible bad guys, so the show's got little to run on but gags and adventure vibes. I'm personally pretty okay with that for the time being, but it would be nice to have a clearer sense of direction for the rest of the story so wherever that leads us, I'm hoping it won't take long to find out.

Dragon Ball Daima is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.