#daima shen long

[cuttyclowngirl]

I wonder if this 4 month rule will be at least brought up by the end of Daima, all things considered. Let's be real, Goku & co. will be done with their Demon Realm adventure in under a month anyways.

[nerdreamer]

[blackarrow-bagels]

Shenron picks favorites???

[twobellsilence]

Alright, I finished all available Daima episodes. Honestly? It was really fun! Even if it's giving off GT 2.0 vibes at the moment, which isn't inherently bad, but as a diehard fan of GT it makes me a little salty that they straight up ripped off ideas like the Tamagami which totally aren't just the black star dragons but not evil or the new gang landing on different whacky locations. This is just me being very high on copium and not a valid critique of the show by any means though lmao... ANYWAY, my more serious and in-depth and VERY long feelings (and maybe a little ranting) below the cut

I really like that Toriyama decided to place this immediately after the Buu saga. One of my biggest gripes with Super and one of the major reasons why I ultimately dropped the series in the Black saga was how... Pointless everything became. By introducing the Absolute Ruler of everything, Zeno-sama, and not only making him Goku's friend but also giving him a convenient way to call him AND also demonstrating that Goku can convince him to do literally anything he wants, Toriyama and Toyotaro made it so that nothing going forward could have any impact whatsoever, at least in my opinion. Why should anyone worry about anything if Goku can just call the Maker Of Everything and make the problem disappear at the snap of a finger?

You could argue Zeno's way of doing things is a bit of a monkey's paw situation because of his chaotic and innocent nature, like what happened to OG Future Trunks' timeline, or that Saiyan pride wouldn't allow Goku to actually press the button in the first place. But my issue with this has never been whether or not the button would ever be pressed (which could be an interesting, if not currently relevant, debate in and on itself) but rather its, and Zeno's, existence in the first place. I know the Dragon Balls are criticized as a massive crutch, and I would agree, but they at least have some set limitations and rules even if they're taken for granted by this point. Shen Long can revive the dead and undo everything a bad guy did, yes, so things like death don't carry the impact they probably should. But it's up to the Z Fighters to end the bad guy itself for that to even be possible. Zeno felt like an ultimate, stupidly overpowered version of the Dragon Balls to me, a being that could do whatever the hell Goku wants whenever he wants it, villains be damned, and so anything going forward was zero stakes as a result.

I suppose Toriyama realized this, or at least thought the current state of things in Super wouldn't allow for the story he wanted to tell to develop properly, and made the wise decision to backtrack a little, before gods of destruction and rulers of the universe and beings that can literally wipe out everything on a whim if they so wanted, so he could craft a way more grounded narrative by expanding on previously known, if only in passing, concepts such as the Demon Realm and its inhabitants. Which is honestly incredibly smart given the way they tie into previous narrative bits like Dabura, and where the Kais came from, and why Piccolo Daimao referred to himself as a Demon, and so on. I also really like how organic the de-powering, or however you want to call it, of the gang's power level feels, especially when it comes to Goku. Yes, he seems to have gotten used to his smaller body by episode 3, but I would definitely believe it if he was suddenly overpowered by a bad guy because of how many factors there are against him. The atmosphere, the imbalance, his child body physically being unable to be as strong as his adult one... He's at a fundamental disadvantage, and if we were to take what we've seen of Glorio's power and agility as a baseline for future enemies, it's clear he'll have to struggle at least a little later on.

The worldbuilding itself is also fascinating. The Demon Realm, from what we've heard so far, is presented as this ancient place where many of the most powerful beings that make up the hierarchy of the universe originate, and that not only presents some clues as to just how strong some of the people Goku will encounter throughout the story will be , but it also adds SO MUCH flavor to Outer Realm and the Dragon Balls themselves that we didn't necessarily need, but is undeniably cool to have regardless. Now you can go back and look at characters like Enma Daio-sama, or Kaio-sama or even Mr. Popo, and you will know that they came from the Demon Realm and just why they're so powerful, and it really makes me wonder what the Outer Realm looked like before this exodus of DR inhabitants. I think it's great how, while Super made me want to ignore as much of its lore as possible because it made everything worse, Daima is actively making me want to delve more into it, and I feel like it's scratching some of my original DB/Z itch in that way.

As for the characters... I think they're alright. I don't think they're uninteresting by any means - I Need to know how Gomah got to the position of heir to Dabura's throne and what Arinsu is working on and what Glorio's Actual deal is. But they don't catch my attention like Raditz or the Androids or, say, Baby, ever did. I am quite interested in is Degesu, however, especially his relationship with Kaioshin. I would include Arinsu in here because my following thoughts could technically apply to her as well, but I don't really care about her as a character at the moment outside of whatever she's doing, so I'll just talk about Degesu (and Shin). It's incredibly obvious that he's planning something, and that he really, really likes Gomah being in power. I am inclined to assume it's a classic "subordinate manipulates the leader" plotline, but what actually intrigues me the most is why. Why does he want to remain beside Gomah? And in the case that he does want to "control" him then why, exactly, is he still acting like a subordinate in the demon realm, instead of fleeing to the Outer Realm and ruling over a planet or a system or anything else like his brethren apparently did so he didn't have to depend on someone else? Why does he seem to resent Shin? I refuse to believe it's just because he disapproves of the lattler meddling with mortal affairs. Maybe it's because he Did get to oversee a whole universe all by himself and Degesu is jealous about it? Cliché, but it's what I can come up with at the moment. There is an interesting past here, and I can't wait to find out his and Shin's backstory (and Arinsu's too, I guess) and what exactly his plan is. This is a bit of a tinfoil hat take, but I'm thinking he might be Kadan (the ruler of the Third Demon World) or he was pretending to be him when he ordered Glorio to go fetch Goku, or maybe Glorio is in cahoots with him. Or maybe I'm just stuck in bed with a debilitating cold and my neurons aren't connecting so I'm either missing something Very Obvious or making things up. SO many possibilities. So little answers at the moment...

Oh, and a little tangent before I wrap this post up... This series only cements my belief that a "next-gen" show in the style of the original DB, with Goten, Trunks and Marron (even Bra and Pan too if you fast forwarded more) would be Banger. I adore Geico, don't get me wrong, I feel like by this point they've ran out of ideas as to how to push him further. They already made him a child in GT and here, and they made him turn into a god then into a guy with Angel Instincts (tm)... A show like this, with younger characters and a lower power level and more whimsy, feels so incredibly fresh and actually tense and it really makes me wonder why they won't try a spin-off. I mean, Super Hero proved people Will tune in for a Goku and Vegeta-less narrative, and Daima proves, at least so far, that DB can still capture a sense of wonder without bending over backwards to do so. I wish they'd used this premise to leave the heavy hitters out of commission so the new kids could shine and develop more, especially Marron, even if they had to age them up a little... But then again I also wish Mai died in a ditch so Tru/mai stopped existing and that's never gonna happen so this will probably never be anything more than wishful thinking lmao

ANYWAY, YEAH. DB Daima. Pretty enjoyable so far! I quite like the chemistry between Goku, Kaioshin and Glorio, with Goku being oblivious while Shin Knows something's up, and I'm curious as to how they'll introduce the demon girl character that appears in the intro / outro / ad cards. It's not as captivating as any of the group dynamics in previous DB shows quite yet, but it's literally only been three episodes, and I'd be a fool to deny that there's A LOT of potential for more. And I'm not gonna lie, as a Kaioshin fan, I'm incredibly happy he has an important role once again.

[twobellsilence]

highkey find it Very Funny how Daima pretty much confirmed the whole "turn people young again" thing Shen Long does is only a physical change, not a psychological one, therefore destroying Tru/mai defenders' argument that Mai's mind also became that of a child and cementing the fact that she's still a 60 something trying to date a 10 year old. I want to eat concrete