Straight from NYCC, the announcement of a new Dragon Ball Series, Dragon Ball DAIMA, has taken the world by storm. Original creator Akira Toriyama is heading an all-new series set to premiere in the fall season of 2024. We’re a whole year away, and what does time allow? A whole lot of speculation and opinions. I decided to get started.
DBD – Dragon Ball DAIMA
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The teaser trailer of the upcoming series was debuted to thunderous applause. From the looks of the Dragon Ball DAIMA trailer, a wish is made that de-ages the entire universe. Goku, Vegeta, Bulma, Trunks, Supreme Kai, and many more. This brings us new kid versions of our favorite characters. From the looks of it, Goku will be interacting with a lot more than just Vegeta. Honestly there’s so much going on in that, I should probably do a breakdown piece. Anyway…
What the Fans Are Saying?
Fans around the world have been mixed. The 10th strongest power lifter in the USA, @aycejello on Twitter/X, said, “No one asked for GT 2.0 😭.”
Others like acclaimed high school teacher @patricwinn Twitter/X didn’t believe it was actually real and thinks it is all about the money, “Lol so it was real… Its a merch grab angle for sure.”
While others like @josecordova, are hyped.
Opinions are all over the place. Personally, not where I would have taken the franchise, but I am excited.
Questionable…
The thing about Dragon Ball DAIMA, other than “Why?”, is that it raises a lot of questions. Where in the timeline does this take place? Is this the sequel to super? Is this an alternate timeline? Is that Monaka and Tapion? Why are Goten and Trunks babies? That makes them only 10 years younger than their parents? How strong will Master Roshi get now? Won’t Piccolo be adult-sized in like a year? Where’s Gohan? Just to name a few.
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The Dragon Ball DAIMA teaser is doing its job by creating anticipation with a lot of unanswerable questions. But despite giving fans a vast amount of known unknowns, there is more than enough presented that has got me extremely excited and in high spirits for this new chapter of Dragon Ball.
Why Fans, and New Fans, Should Be Excited
Objectively speaking, Dragon Ball is the best story of the franchise. It is a wonderous adventure and coming of age with incredibly choreographed heightened human action sequences. The stakes had more gravitas, the action was more grounded, and the characters had actual growth aside from a power boost. There was just a lot more depth to everything. Not that there is anything wrong with Dragon Ball Z, Super, and GT, the first series just had a lot more to explore and discover. Let’s face it, After the Goku goes Super Saiyan, the adventures stopped. It became all about the battles. Maybe cell games, the Androids have a nice little adventure until Cell shows up.
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With Dragon Ball DAIMA, the adventure looks to be coming to the forefront again. And adventure, I believe, is Akira Toriyama’s greatest strength. If you’ve played Blue Dragon, you know Toriyama knows how to take fans on an adventure that will make them laugh, cry, and every emotion in between. I believe Toriyama rediscovered the spark for this universe in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero with the reintroduction of the Red Ribbon Army and their incredible base.
Also, if you’re reading the manga, a lot of the world’s culture has been explored with Goten and Trunks. And I truly believe, de-aging the cast is Toriyama’s way to get fans in the mindset of wonder and exploration, rather than simply preparing for the next big event.
Toriyama Inspired
Dragon Ball DAIMA seems to be the rejuvenation of Toriyama’s love and creativity for Dragon Ball. I mean let’s face it, how much more power scaling and color swaps do we need? I love Ultra Ego, Instinct, Beast, and Orange. But they’re all slight variations on things we’ve seen. To me, it feels very well thought out, it doesn’t feel like it was passionately created.
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Where as Dragon Ball DAIMA seems like a whole new thing that does not seem dependent on characters getting themselves to change colors. Much like the world Toriyama began to explore in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero. New locations, new characters, new designs, but also a weird focus on lesser talked about things from the past. Goku has the powerpole back, he looks to be facing off against a machine, there’s a dragon flying around, and a strangely weird -but prominent- focus on Babidi. At the very least, that means there is definitely going to be magic.
Lastly, -I’m gonna go all writing nerd here- DAIMA, while not having a literal meaning in Japanese, one of its characters mean “Big. Large. Large in number or quantity. Greatly. Valuable. Important. Excellent. Splendid. Very ” and depending on the second character it can mean “Horse. A metaphor for something big. A metaphor for something lowly.” To put it in American, a big ass threat is coming. In my opinion, the word/character play is not only one of the highest artforms in storytelling, it is also a clear sign that Toriyama is enjoying himself. There is no one having more fun that the person who is punning.
Hyperbolic Time Chamber Time
We are all now in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber. One year from now, when we exit, there will be a new Dragon Ball series for us to experience. While I am sure there are a lot of entitled fans who will claim this is ruining their childhood, I am positive there are more of us excited, or at the very least, intrigued and grateful for the franchise to continue. The use of the animation style from Dragon Ball Super: Super Heroes, the story seemingly perfectly aligning with my absolute favorite style of Toriyama’s storytelling, and the wild sillyness the teaser has gotten me to imagine, has me excited for the series.
Dragon Ball DAIMA is set to arrive in the Fall of 2024. We will be covering any and all updates that come along. With Jump Festa coming in December, I have high hopes we’ll get a little more information about the series. But until then, we still have new chapters of the Dragon Ball Super manga every month.
What do you think about Dragon Ball DAIMA? Are you excited for the new series or would you have preferred something else? Which direction would you like the franchise to go? Let us know your thoughts and theories on social media!
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