#drake watches dragon ball daima

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x20 - Maximum

Final episode of Daima, here we go.

I am, of course, still totally checked out of the fight with Gomah. Like.

Like. That looks cool as hell but it's also just the 87th instance of Goku or Vegeta hitting this guy and doing no damage. Since it's been established that he's completely invulnerable and takes no damage from anything ever, this animation is wasted on what amounts to Goku and Gomah playing paddy-cake until the arbitrary moment when Piccolo shows up to end the fight.

Yeah, the pretty lights and flashing colors are cool, but they'd be cooler if they were doing anything to advance the fight.

Gomah summons a magic scepter at one point that just starts shooting blasts and I have no idea what this thing is even supposed to be. Has a Demon Scepter of Shooting Ki Blasts ever been brought up as a thing?

I totally thought Piccolo was going to use the Beam Struggle as his window of opportunity to get in and start bopping Gomah. But I guess he didn't want to get in the way of Goku's Kamehameha and end up double-KO'd with Gomah. That's fair. XD

The animators clearly thought that Goku's Kamehameha ripping a brand new hole between all three demon worlds would be the coolest thing ever but I'm just left like.

Uh.

Holy shit.

People live here.

Imagine if Goku hit Cell with a Kamehameha so powerful it cross the world, tore straight through West City, and then wiped the Sacred Land of Karin off the map. That would not be a triumphant celebration moment. Literally the tension of Vegeta's Final Flash was the fear that he would do exactly this.

Just because this isn't our planet, doesn't mean it's okay to wreck everything. This may be a spicy hot take, but I think Saiyans are very inconsiderate of other people's worlds.

Anyway, the time finally comes for Piccolo to end it.

He hasn't gotten to do anything for this entire show but now, at the eleventh hour, it all depends on--

--AND HE FUCKING BLOWS IT.

Piccolo gets one opportunity to finally justify why he's even in this series when he doesn't get to do anything to contribute ever, and he immediately eats shit. Piccolo was a complete waste of a character inclusion.

I think after two episodes of fighting him, we all kinda figured that the Third Eye was healing him rather than him simply resisting everyone's attacks. Every time it pulses, it's undoing all the damage he took while he was getting shitstomped a moment ago. But it's nice to see it confirmed.

The ultimate secret of Gomah's power is that he's just another regenerator like Cell and Buu.

Fortunately, almost immediately after Piccolo eats shit, Kuu solves the plot for us. Arinsu family is best.

This could at least have been like "Piccolo did the first two hits but then Kuu lands the third". But no. Gomah's weak point reset. Kuu has to do all three. Piccolo literally accomplished nothing in his one and only spotlight moment.

And Glorio gets the kill on the Third Eye, which was the real enemy for these last three episodes of fighting. Good for him.

Oh, Panzy. You were a cool concept but they ran out of ideas for anything to have you do a while ago. I still can't believe Panzy's one job in the entire Makai #3 arc was babysitting Dende.

Yessssssssssssss

Respect the Kuu.

I'm just so happy every time these two are onscreen. I'm glad they've found acceptance with the Third Worlders.

The funny thing is, Arinsu could totally claim the throne right here and now. With Gomah and Degesu out of the picture, doesn't she kinda... win by default? Plus she's got Kuu and Duu to be her muscle. I'm not sure what's stopping her from declaring herself Demon Queen.

She doesn't want to live in fear of assassins for the rest of her life. You know what, that's fair.

You know what, I can accept that. XD Arinsu Family forever.

I love him! I love his stupid magic cape he made out of excitement! And I love this family!

Dr. Arinsu turned down the throne for pragmatic reasons but we're still keeping it in the family.

And now he's just handing out cabinet positions to everyone who fought Gomah.

I like that Neva and Kadan get Minister roles. Kuu's administration will have representation from both the Second and Third Worlds, which means no world of Daimakai will simply be a vassal state.

They really said at the very end of this that actually Neva shooting Goku full of magic beams didn't do anything. Goku invented Super Saiyan 4 between series, has had it this entire time, and also secretly had it for the entirety of Super too.

Fortunately, Super Saiyan God very quickly obsoletes all other forms in DBS so this retcon doesn't really cause any problems for it. Though this does finally put an end to the "Okay but which is stronger, Super Saiyan 4 or God?" conversations. Super Saiyan 4 is, canonically, dogshit compared to the God forms and that's why it never appeared in Super.

Also fully decanonizes GT. I know there's been some back and forth in the fandom over whether GT can still happen in the future of Super, since it takes place after the end of the manga while Super is prior to said endpoint. Super doesn't seem to care about trying to build towards GT, but it also never explicitly decanonizes GT either.

"Super Saiyan 4 DOES exist but actually Goku invented it independently right after the end of the Buu arc" is the kind of detail that explicitly decanonizes GT.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Panzy waving Vegeta's arm while he does not give a fuck is the perfect visual to end the series on.

Nope, never mind. The reveal that the Third Eye is just some shit Abra bought at a travel shop a long time ago and there's actually more of them is the perfect thing to end the series on. It's a product. XD Oh, I love that.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x13 - Surprise

And we're back. I think episode 12 was probably the halfway point for the series?

And holy shit. This is just gonna be non-stop bitching 'cause this is hands-down the worst episode of Dragon Ball Daima. I genuinely cannot imagine a worse episode than this existing.

This is worse than that time Gomah and Degesu spent half an episode watching Dragon Ball Z and nerding out over how much better of a show it was.

This guy's so fucking screwed. Gomah's never been a credible opponent, and now he's got both Dr. Arinsu and the Dragon Team gunning for him.

Degesu's reaction to shutting down Warp-sama is surprising. He legit acts like this is the most unthinkably vile thing anyone's ever done.

There's a bit of metaphysical whiplash going on here where it's like.

Oh shit! They're gonna, like, attack Warp-sama or kidnap Warp-sama or--

Oh, no. Warp-sama's just a machine. There's a switch in the basement they can use to turn Warp-sama on or off with at any time. It's fine.

BUT turning Warp-sama off is, like, the most heinous thing ever. Like, even for a bunch of fascists in the demon world, THIS is a bridge too far. How DARE.

Neva over here still trying to make krakens seem menacing after we already beat one's ass last episode.

It's fine. He never opens his eyes so he might not have seen that.

Yeah, crashing makes sense. Popping into Makai #2 just to grab the Dragon Ball and then skedaddling did seem a bit too easy. We already visited the former home of the Namekians. This is gonna be the former home of the Glind, then?

Yeah, but we've defeated two Tamagami. I think we'll be fine.

Bulma and Pansy nerding out about tech together is the best part of this episode. I haven't even finished the episode yet as I say this. I just know nothing's gonna top this.

^_^

The mega-hamsters are adorable and I kind of love them. XD But also they're only a threat because Vegeta's the only one actually willing to fight them.

I really hope this is going somewhere because we're halfway through the episode and this detour has, so far, been utterly inconsequential.

A "stranded in bear country" type episode generally serves the purposes of forcing a small number of characters into a tight situation where they'll have to interact with one another, building their dynamic with each other or forging one anew.

But we have the entire cast stranded in bear country and all we're doing is walking around going, "Sure is bear country around here."

Man, they really do think "what if things were very big" is in and of itself, interesting enough to carry an entire episode premise.

Over two minutes of this episode is just watching this kid sit down and have lunch while everyone goes "OH MY GOD IT EATS LUUUUUUUUUNCH!?!?!?!?"

Toei. You do not have a manga to keep pace with. You do not need to insert filler.

Just punch it really hard, Goku.

Thanks, Vegeta. You're the only character not pretending to be threatened by this stupid filler plot, and I appreciate you for that.

Sure, that might as well happen.

I mean, you're using 0.25% of your speed right now, and also you can teleport. But sure.

(sigh) Do I even need to say it?

Goku is choosing to lose this altercation.

At least Vegeta's kicking things up to a Super Saiyan form. He's not faring much better but, like, I can believe he's actually trying to win. That's what's important. It's not about the results, it's about selling the idea that this character is committed to the task that they're doing.

I dunno. Maybe you should just teleport and not be in this situation.

Maybe you should just teleport and not be in this situation.

God, we had a whole episode re-establishing Goku's ability to teleport and everything. This is literally the one and only character in the entire cast who can't be put in predicaments like this.

And now he's free-falling into a bag while screaming for his life.

This character who can both fly and teleport is trapped in free-fall and screaming for his life.

And it all culminates in a desperate last second dive to save Goku from being crushed, because he refuses to teleport out of IDK sportsmanship or whatever.

This is so boring. It's the first episode of Daima I actually had to force myself to finish because it was unwatchably bad. Absolutely nothing happened. We got lost in bear country and then proceeded to be menaced by bears because we forgot how our powers work.

This would fit right in as an episode of Dragon Ball GT. The first arc, were Trunks has to go Super Saiyan to lift some breaks and everyone keeps forgetting how to fly. That's how bad this is.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x16 - Degesu

I assume this one will see the boys throwing hands with Discount Ginyu Force. And apparently Degesu will get to do something. Maybe he was the flirty lady with the poop hat who got ace-barriered.

He obviously wasn't. They're different colors. But I kinda want him to be the flirty lady with the poop hat.

Alternate Ending: They go fight the Tamagami. Piccolo fights and defeats this one, and they claim the last remaining Dragon Ball!

Suddenly, Arinsu ambushes them, and they have to fight Duu and Kuu. The fight ends inconclusively with the revelation that they both have copies of the One-Star Dragon Ball. How is that possible?

Neva cackles and recommends they summon the Dragon and find out. Upon doing so, it's revealed that all you get for summoning Daimakai's Dragon is a "YOU DID IT" certificate and your selection from a small pool of carnival prizes.

Yeah, the Daimakai "Dragon Balls" are basically prize coupons. The "Hunt for the Dragon Balls" was a very popular children's game back during the regime of King Abra. Neva was very surprised when he learned the ones outside Daimakai actually grant wishes.

There they are. Hopefully we can wrap this up quickly and get to whatever Degesu's stuff is supposed to be.

Does anyone else feel like there's a missed opportunity with the big red vertical lines painted on all their faces? I kinda wish they had Roman numerals. Like, the captain is I and then they count down II, III, IV, and V in face paint or whatever it is.

Can we just let Vegeta waste these guys and head inside? He'll be quick and brutal about it.

XD Okay, I was not prepared for Goku and Piccolo to agree with that sentiment. I guess it's unanimous. Fuck 'em up, Geets.

Thank you, Geets.

Alright, cool. We burned off about four minutes of runtime. On with the siege!

Heee. Despite being sour on the Discount Ginyu Force as a concept, I still love how generous they are. I kinda hope the fact that they're just tied up with inexplicable Laffy Taffy means they aren't quite finished with the plot yet.

I want them to be finished as an opponent to be fought. Four minutes is still more than these clowns deserve but a fairly inoffensive sacrifice to get them out of the way.

But between their scene in the store and this one with Goku, I do hope there's more planned for them beyond just this one brief, kinda pointless fight.

They're super lame and unbelievably lazy as villains but kinda fun as characters.

PLOT TWIST, the poop hat lady takes the Third Eye for herself and she becomes the supreme ruler of Daimakai.

She certainly paid a heavy price for it. The finest stupid hat in this or any of the worlds.

...are you guys not going in?

I mean, for Glorio, that makes sense. He can take the Dragon Balls and deliver them to Dr. Arinsu. This is kind of the perfect opportunity for him.

Bulma's a non-combatant but it's not like that's ever stopped her before. She's kind of cocky for someone who could be killed by a stray drop of sweat during one of these fights.

Panzy's the one I'm really surprised about. I would have thought she'd--

Oh, there we go. Caution to the wind.

Maybe Panzy will get to fight Glorio. That'd be neat. He better watch himself. She's the perfect size for a full-body haymaker to the junk.

...is he trying to take Dende and the Third Eye and make a break for it?

"You would shoot a baby!?" "Oh, come on. We all know he's not really a baby. He was just made to look like this because he was a minor when we cast that wish." "...is shooting a minor better?" "Huh. Fair enough. Fuck me, I guess. Anyways, one more step and this kid doesn't live to see drinking age."

"Look, I don't even have the guts to stand up to the dipshit nepo-baby who only got the job by default after that unfortunate cookie incident. Do you know how many opportunities like this I'm ever going to have? I gotta act while the gas is lit."

"Okay, racist. Word of advice, never be the bad guy in a conversation where someone else is presently holding a gun to a baby's head."

Making bad assumptions and then getting clowned on by reality, mostly.

I love how the scene just... stops momentarily to finally address this decades-old question about what the gods actually do.

...only to confidently and with full dramatic emphasis deliver this absolute nothing of an answer. Kaioshin says this like it's a mic drop moment. We cut to a zoomed in shot of his face while he says absolutely nothing substantive. XD

I'm probably making too big a thing out of this. Dragon Ball's past handling of female characters has me paranoid and constantly overanalyzing.

But the play-by-play here is.

Panzy tries to ambush Degesu.

Panzy's ambush fails because she's too slow and he caught her.

Degesu holds Panzy helpless at gunpoint.

Glorio successfully ambushes Degesu, landing a surprise hit on him.

Panzy saves the baby.

Piccolo takes out Degesu.

Glorio and Piccolo work together to take Degesu down, while Panzy's failed attempt serves to get her into position so that she can look after the baby Dende's wellbeing.

Hm.

Again, I'm probably just overly sensitive about Dragon Ball's handling of women.

But.

Hm.

She got to shoot some guys last episode, though. That was pretty neat.

...you know, I had assumed he was planning to take the Third Eye with him but on reflection.

Uh. No. He was loading Dende into a ship to take off.

...

What the fuck was Degesu's plan to become demon king if it didn't involve using the Third Eye?

XD He's leaving at gunpoint in the custody of the mafia and we're just... not gonna talk about it.

They're taking him out there to bury him in a shallow grave, aren't they?

Nobody's fighting Tamagami 1 because Duu already made off with the Dragon Ball here, so the answer Goku gives is moot.

But still. Wow. Just go ahead and snub Piccolo while he's standing ten feet away. Why did he even come?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Next episode's gonna be good. We thinking Goku and Vegeta fight Duu and Kuu but then they all team up against Third Eye Gomah?

I don't really care much about Gomah. He's not really interesting or entertaining in the slightest.

But the "Gomah toilet plunges the Third Eye" scene is fucking A+ at being Dragon Ball Daima. XD His absolute patheticness combined with classic Toriyama collision of mundane and mystical is perfect.

Poop hat lady is one of the best characters in Daima. She doesn't even have a name and I am super invested in her getting a happy ending.

She ran away screaming and then came back for the jewels she dropped. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Now that he's all super demony muscle-big, anyone else think Gomah's getup kinda looks like a Pride Trooper's?

Ahhh, this episode was fun. We got the resolution to Degesu who I guess is being executed gangland style out in the desert right now. Gomah's got the Third Eye. And the pump is primed for Goku and Vegeta to fight Duu and Kuu next episode, presumably while Piccolo continues to do absolutely nothing.

He got to hit Degesu, though. That was neat.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x08 - Tamagami

Here we go! It's time to throw hands with a Tamagami. I'm excited to see what they're made of. They've been hyping these things all season thus far.

The opening fight with the Tamagami is another example of how good the animation and fight choreography is in this series.

Dragon Ball has so few weapon battles, so this is a lot of fun to see.

Which makes it a beautiful portrayal of anime's philosophy on weapon combat.

This is my favorite soapbox topics, but this is Daima's first weapon duel so I haven't had a chance to gush about it.

There are major fundamental differences between the way American media thinks of weapons versus anime. This is because of differences in the philosophy of what a weapon is.

The American conception of weapons is rooted in gun culture. A weapon is power. A person is not powerful, but a weapon can bestow power upon them. Possession of a weapon grants the capacity for violence that did not, that could not exist without it.

But anime's conception of weapons is rooted in samurai culture. The weapon is nothing. It's just a thing. It has no power. It can only become powerful when it is in the hands of its wielder. It's an extension of the warrior, a mechanism through which they channel their power, their strength, their skill and ability.

In anime, a weapon can only ever be precisely as powerful as the hand that holds it. No more and no less.

This is why Trunks's sword can be strong enough to cut Frieza in half yet do nothing to Goku's finger and break against Android 18's arm. Because the sword's strength is his strength manifested.

This fight was over right here in this moment.

When the Tamagami's power, when the extension of their being, fractured against Goku's.

The fight kinda seems fairly even from there. Blow by blow, Goku and the Tamagami both struggle to land hits on the other for most of the hand-to-hand fighting that follows.

But actually, no. Goku dominates this fight. This poor Tamagami gets his clock cleaned while putting up the barest resistance.

There are two solid hits, and they're both Goku's.

The first is when Goku stops the Tamagami's punch - which, again, goes to show how much stronger Goku is than the Tamagami. He comes roaring in at full-speed for a flying punch and Goku breaks his momentum and cancels the entire attack with one hand.

Then Goku parries his arm and delivers a spin kick to the Tamagami's face, drawing first blood. Metaphorically speaking; The Tamagami doesn't bleed.

The second solid hit is this kick to the back of the knee.

The Tamagami recovers and is able to deflect Goku's follow-up ki blast, but it's still more of a hit than anything the Tamagami ever lands.

We see an interesting parallel during this fight between Goku and the Tamagami in the way they react to enemy ki flurries. The Tamagami lets off a flurry of shots here.

Which Goku deftly zips around. For his part, Goku attempts a similar flurry here.

Which the Tamagami blocks. There is a sizable mobility difference between the two fighters. The Tamagami's able to follow Goku's movements and react in time to block or parry his moves.

Even with Goku zigzagging around, the Tamagami never loses track of him. Never gets blindsided by an attack it couldn't see coming.

But there's a difference between being able to follow Goku's movements and being able to match them. Goku is light on his feet and fights circles around the Tamagami, while the Tamagami takes more of a bruising juggernaut style. A slow but unstoppable powerhouse.

That. Presents a problem. When we've already established that Goku's strength surpasses the Tamagami's. Goku is fast enough to fight circles around them and strong enough to snap the expression of their power in half. They have nothing.

We see how thoroughly Goku dominates one last time right at the end, when it seems like we're about to get one of the series's iconic Beam Struggles.

Only for Goku's ki to punch straight through the Tamagami's attack like a knife puncturing a water balloon.

It's honestly surprising how thoroughly Goku manhandles the Tamagami. These guys are supposed to be tough enough that even Dabra couldn't take them. Goku and Vegeta were shit-talking Dabra on Babidi's ship, but Gohan did have to go Super Saiyan 2 just to fare as well as he did in that fight.

Man, I guess Gohan let his abilities slide more than we thought. Which. Yeah. That check out. No wonder Vegeta was so furious.

The final test is really interesting too. Traditionally, shell games are a con. You've already lost from the moment you sit down to play. The ball is not under any cup. It's a sleight of hand trick, palming the ball to make it look like you had a chance.

And that is how the Tamagami plays it, but not exactly.

They still cheat, but in a way that's observable if you're fast enough on the uptake. Because you aren't supposed to beat their shell game by just guessing and hoping for the best. This is a test of Goku's observation, and by discarding the Dragon Ball in this fashion, they remove the element of luck from the table while preserving the element of observation.

I have so many questions about how Dr. Arinsu was able to snag a piece of Majin Buu and only 50/50 confidence they will be answered satisfyingly.

However, I am very excited that she has a piece of Majin Buu.

She rides a giant hookah like a witch's broom. Because what's better than traveling in style? Being able to do your drugs while in transit.

Loving the witchy angle we're getting here. I was expecting Dr. Arinsu to be another wicked laboratory scientist type so I am pleasantly surprised by this development.

Continuing down the road of attempting to formally canonize every piece of information Toriyama's ever given in post-series interviews. According to out-of-series interview lore, Bibidi was actually never Majin Buu's creator at all. Buu is an eldritch being of unclear origin that Bibidi merely acquired.

This one seems to have been retconned again, however, in a way that splits the difference. Bibidi still didn't create Majin Buu, but only because this other character standing slightly to his left did it instead.

They're also now pinning the new "All pointy-eared races were secretly Majin all along" lore to Majin Buu's creation. Majin Buu driving the other races away is the reason Namekians fled to the outer world, the reason Dragon Balls exist out there, the reason the whole series can exist.

Someone took it upon themselves to try and make Majin Buu more directly associated with the plot and events of the series and less just. Like. A weird thing that happened one day that has nothing to do with anything.

In the original series, Buu feels utterly divorced from all established storylines and characters. Some god we've never heard of just shows up one day and goes "OH NO A NEW VILLAIN HAS ARRIVED" and we have to go fight him, and that's it. That's the entire plot. New bad guy who dis.

Daima is doing a lot of patchwork to try and hammer Buu into the series lore better. To create ways by which Buu really is an important piece of this universe and really does warrant his status as the Ultimate Villain that it was all leading up to, the very pinnacle of everything that has ever transpired up to that point.

And at the same time to build off of Buu into a new story the way Piccolo or the Saiyans or Frieza or the Androids all springboarded off of what had come before. Simultaneously laying down retroactive connectivity for Buu while also laying down connectivity for itself from Buu.

I'm not a big fan of the way "Everything was Majin all along" shrinks the Dragon Ball universe. I feel about "Namekians and Kaios were all Majin all along" the same way I would if it was established that Saiyans, Namekians, and Frieza were all descended from ancient humans who flew off into space, and actually they were all the same species this whole time.

I liked Namekians better when they were just a cool alien race that existed in space because the universe is weird and requires no explanation.

But I'll take more connectivity for Buu. And if anyone is going to turn out to have been Majin all along, Majin Buu seems like an obvious pick.

So am I. I've been wondering since the start of the series who the Final Boss would be. It obviously can't be Gomah; That little shit is weaker than Dabra. We have a firmly established hierarchy of Gomah < Dabra < Tamagami < Son Goku that makes it unlikely that Gomah could ever have a climactic final battle with Goku.

With Dr. Arinsu now having a new and improved Majin Buu created, the pieces are falling into place. This seems much more like a "Final Boss" type of entity.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima S01E10 - Ocean

The titles for Daima episodes crack me up. Like. We've been making jokes at Toei's expense for how spoiler-filled Dragon Ball episode titles are for forty years. Now they're just like, "Fine! You know what? Every title is just a context-free noun and NOTHING ELSE."

Lightning. Thieves. Ocean.

Good luck gleaning any major plot reveals from that!

Honestly, I'm kinda rooting for the Tamagami.

They had two Saibaman seeds left and only used one, which leaves the other one hanging as a plot point whose function remains to be determined. The probable purpose for the other seed is so they'll have resources to create another Majin.

Kuu isn't literally the prototype for a bigger, nastier villain. But he might end up being exactly that.

So with the possibility that Kuu gets defeated and has to be replaced at some point in mind, I just think it'd be so funny if it happened right now. Following his dramatic reveal last episode, Kuu mouths off to Tamagami One and just gets fucking splattered, and Dr. Arinsu has to go back to the drawing board. XD

I mean. Yeah. There are benefits to being magically cursed to become a child again. I certainly wouldn't mind a dramatically increased lifespan, personally.

There are drawbacks too but you'd be surprised what you can circumvent when you're a billionaire.

This conversation took a really weird turn. And also, there are other reasons that Vegeta might not be comfortable with returning to adulthood while his wife remains a child.

Very. Very good reasons.

I have no idea what Kuu is doing in this fight and I'm not sure he does either. One is handing him his golden Saiba-ass.

It's like they're trying to channel Pure Buu's unpredictable and frantic fighting style. But Buu was an eldritch creature that no longer communicated in words and fought like a feral blob of gum. Kuu's intelligence and... non-goopiness... just makes him look like a weird doof.

I wonder if Kuu can absorb the Tamagami and gain their power?

Which should also mean that we can get out and fly for long periods of time without requiring the aid of a vehicle. Planes are now optional.

Kaioshin: (thinking) I hope we can get in and out without encountering one. Goku: (thinking) I wonder how they taste....

Goku: (thinking) Not bad for a first course....

Yeah, flying is no longer nerfed. This attack squadron made mistakes. The guy who beat the Tamagami is in even more top form now, and these idiots couldn't handle him when he was holding back.

Daimakai is basically a fun vacation for Goku.

XD There is no way a creature that size is sustaining itself on the occasional plane that inadvisably flies too low to the ocean. They're definitely hunting planes out of spite, not hunger.

Ahhh. Goku can teleport, so it doesn't actually matter that the plane is now in the creature's gullet. This is a good setup. Gives the others enough time to look shocked before Goku and Panzy suddenly pop into existe--

...or I guess the gap between its teeth is wide enough that anyone capable of Bukujutsu can just leave, no problem. Being crushed in the plane was the only danger that being eaten by the kraken posed.

Mm. I'm disappointed, but this still works fine.

And now the kraken's done. Yeah, it does not care one bit about the flying people. It just wanted the plane.

Krakens just... hate planes for some reason. I wonder if the Gendarmerie are poaching them?

Bit of a mixed bag here. I said early on after we met her that I really don't want Panzy to turn into the new GT Pan. GT Pan is worse-case scenario for how she could end up being utilized by the show.

I was nervous when they all evacuated the plane, but then Panzy put herself in peril anyway so we could have a scene of Goku dramatically rescuing her. I was like, "Okay, whatever they made her go back for, it better be something good."

It was the Dragon Ball. All of these fuckers forgot the Dragon Ball when they were bailing out of the plane.

...

Yeah! Okay, fair enough. Panzy MVP and these boys better appreciate her.

Oh, the Namekians had their own world within Makai #2. I bet it's more Namek-like than this region.

Yep, I'd know those Ajissa anywhere.

You know, this does actually make sense, now that I think about it. It's a retcon, but not one that breaks continuity.

The main job that the Namekians have is to cultivate Ajissa. It's what they spend their days farming. Their crop fields are full of the Ajissa they're growing.

When we first meet the Namekians, it's in the aftermath of a climate crisis that ravaged their ecosystem and left them near extinction. They're cultivating Ajissa to try and restore Namek to the beauty it once had.

But it's just a hop, skip, and a jump from there to "Namekians terraform planets they occupy to resemble their ancestral home, and filling those planets with Ajissa is part of that terraforming."

Did Piccolo just indicate that Katattsu came from Makai #2? All we know about him was that he was among the Namekians killed in Namek's climate catastrophe. How would Piccolo even know this? We've been given no timeframe on when Namekians left Makai #2.

Well, would it surprise you to know that he didn't actually say that? Yeah, at no point did he say it was his "father" who lived here.

...

Because the word he used is 親 oya, which gender-neutrally just means "parent". It's the root kanji used in such words as 母親 hahaoya for mother and 父親 chichioya for father.

...

My "Were Namekians supposed to be gender-neutral this whole time? Should we be using they/them for Namekians?" pondering intensifies.

But yeah, he did indicate that Katattsu used to live here.

Three, actually. But Hybis is not ready for that conversation. Even other Earthlings find it weird.

I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. But at least for right now, I like him. Kuu is adorable and I want good things for him.

I've been back and forth on whether this is supposed to be in-continuity with Super but I think this backstory, despite sort of contradicting what we know about Zenou, confirms it.

The reason I say that is because that's Gowasu in the top left corner. He was the mentor that tried to teach Zamasu.

How exactly Rymus is supposed to coexist as a concept with Zenou, I have no idea. But I wouldn't be surprised if they're, like, Zenou's parent or something.

I mean. I thought the plan was that you guys were going to go handle things with Gomah while Team Goku faces the Tamagami.

I guess we really did ditch Team Bulma in Makai #3 just to be rude. Oh well. Gang's all together now.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x12 - True Strength

Here we go. Presumably this will be Vegeta vs. Tamagami, Round 2. Good luck, Geets! You got this!

(I am going to laugh so hard if Goku has to fight the Tamagami for him.)

Alright, so how do they resolve Vegeta being eaten by the hydra?

Huh. "It was a fakeout; He never got eaten" wasn't my first guess. I had my money on either "Vegeta goes Super Saiyan and breaks free" or "Goku has to fight the hydra".

But this is what I was talking about.

Now that we don't need to manufacture the illusion of a desperate cliffhanger, Vegeta turns Super Saiyan right away and the hydra is no longer an issue. He was only letting himself get punched around for the sake of fabricating dramatic tension last episode.

The episode still tries to play it as an arena hazard for a bit. But even then....

Vegeta just hits the hydra really hard one time and it immediately fucks off. It was never, ever really a threat to him or Goku despite all the screentime spent pretending that it was.

So, that was lame. But now that Vegeta's stopped letting himself get beat up for funsies, the real Vegeta vs. Tamagami fight can begin in earnest.

I love how much more blunt and direct Vegeta's fight with his Tamagami is, as opposed to Goku's. Vegeta's always been more of a warhammer to Goku's scalpel, and you can feel it in their fights.

Goku spent his battle leading the Tamagami around in circles and capitalizing on openings in their guard, while Vegeta just powers in there and tries to break through.

Meanwhile, Duu.

Despite his dull personality, Duu is kind of perfect as a Buu-like fighter.

At this point, I think the narrative function of the three Tamagamis has been made clear. Both why these boss fights exist and why there's three of them, specifically. With everything else in Makai being beneath Dabra/Cell in power, the Tamagamis act as yardsticks to showcase how Goku, Vegeta, and Duu relate to each other in ability.

These three entities alone are beyond Dabra/Cell. By conquering them, Goku, Vegeta, and Duu assert their place in the pecking order as entities beyond the beings that are Dabra/Cell but relatively close to one another.

...rude. This is Goku erasure. He's standing right there, guys.

Neva being able to make them go Super Tamagami is a twist I did not see coming. But one that makes perfect sense, and I love it.

Out-of-nowhere Kuu showing up with the chocolate bars to rejuvenate Duu's motivation is such an old-school Dragon Ball moment. XD I love that this is the finisher that brings Duu vs. Tamagami One into its endgame.

This is the best headbutt that anyone has ever delivered in cinematic history.

I was skeptical about Duu's ability to potentially carry a final boss fight and I recant everything. Duu's such a fun fighter, I love it.

Though I still think Duu and Kuu are going to fuse. Goku and Vegeta vs. Duu and Kuu seems inevitable. I also half-expect these two lunkheads to end up ruling Daimakai or something.

Even if they are the Final Boss, there's no way the show kills them off. They're too innocent and joyful.

It's a good thing Goku didn't get this Tamagami because he'd be screwed.

BUT FORTUNATELY KUU IS A SUPER-GENIUS ARE YOU KIDDING ME

I LOVE THESE LUNKHEADS

ONLY ONE BRAIN CELL BETWEEN THEM BUT KUU PUTS IT TO GREAT USE

I love them. I love their whole little family. I want only good things for them.

I hate how similar these forms are. Without seeing the lightning crackles here, you would have no way of knowing that this....

...is supposed to be Super Saiyan 2.

(Wouldn't it be funny if Vegeta obtained Super Saiyan 3 in this series? Which would mean retroactively he had it all along in GT or Super or what have you but it was so outpaced by those shows' new forms that it didn't matter?)

With a title like "True Strength", I really thought Vegeta was going to have to go on like an inner journey to find the strength within himself to bounce back here. But nope, he was just taking an ad break. XD

We come back from commercial and he powers up immediately (this time to Super Saiyan 2) and gets right back in the fight. He just. XD He just needed. Hahahaha. He just needed a moment to talk to you about our sponsor, HelloFresh. Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

OH MY GOD I WAS JOKING

I WAS MAKING A FUNNY SHITPOST

THEY ACTUALLY DID IT

THEY ACTUALLY MADE IT SO VEGETA HAS RETROACTIVELY HAD SUPER SAIYAN 3 IN THE SEQUEL SERIES ALL ALONG

...

This definitely should have had some sort of "Vegeta discovering the true meaning of strength at the bottom of the ocean" mind journey or something to lead into it. This was achieved way too easily.

He cracked Super Saiyan 3 halfway through doing the ad read for NordVPN.

"Are you worried about your wife's corporate surveillance network reporting back on the websites you visit? Well, if you're like me, you want a good-- huh. ...yeah, that would work. Anyways, you'll want to protect your privacy online...."

But then. It is Vegeta. This is how he operates. He gets free skill points whenever Goku levels up; They're just set on a time delay.

In seriousness, Bulma at least offers some explanation. Like most of Vegeta's power-ups, he unceremoniously bridged that gap offscreen. He's been sitting on it and waiting for a good time to show it off.

Vegeta likes to go away for a while and then come back with new abilities that Goku already achieved, but he often at least gets to reveal them in big exciting moments. His key strength is his ability to consistently follow in Goku's footsteps where all others eventually fade into obscurity.

Playin' the Hits

There's something sincerely funny about Vegeta trying to demonstrate how cool he's become but the best he can come up with is to plagiarize something Goku did that one time.

Oh, and also a little bit of Frieza plagiarism. Keeping his arms folded across his chest while fighting exclusively his legs is something he stole from Frieza. Though he was dead at the time that happened, so this might just be a little bit of Frieza's influence on his early development showing through.

Playin' the Hits #3, at least, is a Vegeta original.

It's always been kinda funny to me the way subsequent Dragon Ball materials make the Galick Gun out to be, like, Vegeta's Kamehameha. His signature beam attack that he whips out when he needs to smash someone with overwhelming force.

He only actually did this once in the series. Unlike Goku, Vegeta generally doesn't stick to a single technique as his go-to signature move. He doesn't have a Standard Arsenal of attacks. He's like Piccolo; Constantly trading up and leaving old moves in his dust.

And then closing on copy/pasting Goku's final exchange with the Tamagami from four episodes ago in this very series.

Possibly one more for the road? I am like 70% certain this is from the anime version of Super Vegeta vs. Semi-Perfect Cell? It definitely looks familiar.

IDK

Daima was the last series that Akira Toriyama worked on before his passing, but to my knowledge, we don't know where the series was in its development when he passed on.

But I can say that, in my opinion, a lot of Vegeta vs. Tamagami Two feels like a Toei fight, not a Toriyama fight. Especially its incredibly derivative conclusion.

OH YOU SNEAKY SON OF A BITCH.

SPECIFICALLY THIS ONE.

I HOPE YOU CHOKE ON YOUR TRICK QUESTIONS OLD MAN

I failed this Tamagami test and I'm mad about it.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima, episode 5. Time to meet the new girl for realsies.

For like forty years.

Goku's leaving out information that's extremely relevant to the new girl's question. The reason he has the skills of a middle-aged martial arts master is because that is literally what he is.

We're still going to the castle? I thought we turned around to go chase the Dragon Ball instead. Maybe I misunderstood.

Gloom n' Doom was trying to leave her behind but we all know who the real star is, and he accepts bribes in exchange for friendship.

He also accepts friendship without bribes. He's just nice. But he's not gonna turn down some onigiri if you're offering.

We have a name! Between Glorio and Panzy, it seems the denizens of Daimakai have flowers for their name pun theme.

(Goku, you named your son after rice. You have no room to talk.)

Not sure if the exchange over whose name is weirder is meant to be a parallel to Goku's first meeting with Bulma. Very rarely do the punny names get called out as funny in-universe.

They're going the "Everyone has their own unique superpower" route for the Majin, I see. And Panzy's is....

Telekinesis.

We've seen telekinesis a few times. Chiaotzu and Guldo are the most prolific telekinetic characters. But they're also...

Like. They both kinda fall into the category of "Characters who got exactly one fight and then fucked off or died." We've never had a character who was important to the plot and had abilities centered around psychic powers.

I hope that's about to change but Dragon Ball is notoriously terrible with its female characters so I'm not taking anything for granted.

Panzy is completely ruining Glorio's vibe as our solemn guide to the demonic lands and he can die mad about it. XD

Weird thing to have a character say before cutting to a montage of everyone pleasantly sightseeing with no trouble whatsoever while happy fun-time music plays in the background.

The front gate is HUNGRY OM NOM NOM NOM

Is....

...is the plan to raise Baby Dende like an ordinary child over the course of many years so that he imprints on Gomah and comes to see this castle and its occupants as his home and family?

Is that what we're doing here?

(Wouldn't he still have his memories? Goku and the others do.)

Oh, she is definitely like the king's daughter or something. There's a reason she happens to know the most convenient way to and from the castle. Glorio needs to learn how to read a room.

You know, I really thought they were gonna tease that out a bit longer.

She's got her own distinct style to her but she's definitely a bootleg copy of Bulma. Child genius female super-mechanic who attaches herself to Goku after seeing how powerful he is and happens to be the daughter of the most rich and powerful family in the region. There's visibly a lot of Bulma in her character DNA.

Even her logo on the front of her shirt often looks like a C because of the stuff covering it.

Which is kinda making me start to wonder if Glorio is a bootleg copy of Future Trunks. Grim and serious demeanor, showing up out of nowhere in a magical fantasy vehicle, leaning on a weapon but also being able to fight without it, that jacket... Huh.

HAHAHA NO

Goku, sure, but Kaioshin is one whole Fuck No in the realm of fighting Majin Buu. It is thoroughly established that he'd be up shit creek without a paddle in a straight fight with Buu.

...

In fact, so is Goku. The only form of Buu that Goku has ever been a match for is Fat Buu. And that is strictly hypothetical, based on Goku's impression of Buu versus how strong Super Saiyan 3 is supposed to be..

Strictly hypothetically, his Super Saiyan 3 could waste Pure Buu too. We all saw how well that worked out.

"Wait but wasn't Goku holding back so Vegeta could have a turn?"

Common misconception but no. Vegeta accuses Goku of that, but Goku was sincerely giving Buu his all and getting wrecked. Super Saiyan 3 is the only form Goku has that can match Buu on paper, but Super Saiyan 3's drawbacks prevent it from being able to match Buu in practice.

So. Uh. No. There is not a single person in this room that can cash the check that Glorio's stupid mouth has written. Not counting sequel series that haven't taken place yet at this point in the timeline, the only time Goku has ever been on Buu's level was when he had Vegeta to fuse with.

Seems legit. I like the cut of his jib. We should definitely make him king.

He commodifies women as bargaining chips to be bought and sold by their fathers. I don't like the cut of his job. We should not make him king.

Goku proving himself by fighting all the royal guards at once is a fun fight, well animated, and nicely paced. But I particularly enjoyed this moment.

Goku transforming to Super Saiyan not to actually go Super Saiyan but just to use the burst of ki that comes from it as a radial attack to blow the goons away. Weaponizing the power-up itself.

Some real "Shazam hits his opponent with the transformation lightning bolt" energy going on here.

...

I legit thought this guy was going to, like, reveal some sort of power that lets him teleport directly to Earth and then bring back Vegeta, Bulma, and Piccolo in a snap.

I'm looking forward to having Panzy on the team. Especially when Bulma gets here. I can't wait for Bulma to meet Discount Bulma.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x09 - Thieves

Alright, one Dragon Ball down. What's next?

It's a perfect plan. I'm not hearing any objections. Look at those eyes. Those are the eyes of someone who likes this plan and is excited to be a part of it.

Worst case scenario, we get caught, Goku fucks up a few more cops, and then we can fall back on sleeping on rocks. He just defeated a Tamagami. It is pretty firmly established that there is nothing in Daimakai that could ever touch him.

Yeah, it's the Nyoibou that stands out here. Only nyoibou. Out of every single thing about Goku's appearance right now, the stick is the part that will make people jerk straight up in their seats and go "Holy shit, it's him."

Thank you.

These clowns were legit about to walk right in there, flashing the spoils of Goku's unprecedented and historic victory against a Tamagami around. I'm glad Kaioshin, at least, has two brain cells to knock together.

Goddammit, Kaioshin. You know better than to leave Goku unsupervised during a stealth mission! This is on you!

...from who?

Who would buy one Dragon Ball out of a set that still requires you to defeat two impossibly powerful ultra-foes to collect the others? This is a terrible plan.

The Three-Star Ball in Goku's bag is invaluable. But also kinda worthless. I can't imagine there's much overlap on the Venn Diagram of "People capable of claiming the other two Dragon Balls" and "People buying stolen goods from the black market."

These guys really want to risk an altercation with the guy who defeated the Tamagami in order to steal an artifact that no one would ever buy. They'd be better off calling the cops and asking if there's a bounty on Goku's head.

Appropriate response. You're nasty, Goku. At least ask Piccolo to teach you Clothes Beam so you can conjure fresh dogis out of thin air.

Okay, so we are now using Panzy's Not-Dragon Radar to track a Dragon Ball.

Is it weird that I'm kind of proud of them for this? Like. Someone went out of their way to contrive a new way in which Panzy could be specifically Bulma-adjacent and make it work in-universe. It was a long walk to this pier, and I don't know why they wanted to come to this pier but I'm proud of them for making it.

Is it, though, Banana Beak?

I think Goku's the one making a lot of sense here. And you should probably feel ashamed of yourself when you're losing a debate to Son Goku.

Goku has to be letting them play Dragon Ball Keep-Away for shits and giggles. He can teleport.

Spoilsport.

Aww, she won his approval. I mean, he sucks and who cares what he thinks, but still. D'aww.

The funny thing about Glorio, now that we know what his deal is, is that he thinks he's going to be allowed to betray them. He honestly seems to think that is a thing that will happen.

Sorry, my dude. Once you're in an anime nakama, there's no going back. Just ask poor Vegeta, who once made a temporary alliance to face the Ginyus together that spiraled wildly out of control, and now he's Bulma's himbo arm candy. This team owns your soul now.

"I'll stay up and keep watch" says a person whose only interest or hobby is one that physically fatigues him. Goku made bad choices.

XD It's good to know that Makai #3 is just fucking lousy with plane thieves. Bulma and Vegeta's first day in Daimakai is exactly the same as Goku and Kaioshin's.

XD That's really all he knows about it.

Why do I feel like this is going to be important?

Gomah really thought he could just go zap all the people who vanquished Majin Buu with cosmic fuckery, kidnap their deity, and then fuck off. And they'd just... let him go.

Oh, there we go. I forgot about that. That's definitely the thing on Hybis's belt.

At last, the most important characters meet.

They will either instantly hit it off or ironically hate each other.

When Team Goku was landing in the cop shuttle, I was half expecting for it to be actual cops and then there's a big mistake altercation.

Team Goku seriously just came to say, "Hi, how ya doin'. Anyways," and then fuck right off. The two parties are remaining separate even though we just reunited. XD Why is Team Bulma even in the show? Comic relief?

Oh, that's... actually a pretty cool idea. Bulma and her crew will go handle the plot while Goku's off fighting the unbeatable Tamagamis. And then, presumably, they'll come back together for whatever Next-Gen Majin Buu thing Dr. Arinsu is whipping up.

I'm here for this.

Now that he's officially part of the show for realsies, Vegeta gets an establishing fight that's basically the same as Goku's bar fight, just more.

And also Piccolo is nearby, getting to throw exactly one punch. To be fair, I made a point before of how Goku technically did defeat Majin Buu but really doesn't actually, like... He can throw hands with Buu, but he's still sorely outclassed. Gohan's the only one who can face Buu in a straight fight and win.

But on the spectrum of characters who can throw hands with Buu, Piccolo is....

...not.

Piccolo is just not. He peaked in his Android 17 fight and ceased to be a relevant fighter afterwards.

Since we're in the area of "Less than Cell" for most of the powers we're going to encounter here, excluding the Tamagamis and Dr. Arinsu's project, that's fine. Being able to throw hands with 17 makes Piccolo reasonably well-leveled to this environment. But being attached at the hip to Vegeta? ...yeah, it makes sense he only got to throw one punch.

...they're not seriously saying that Saibamen are Majin too. They can't... No, I refuse. Do Saibamen even have ears!?

Oh goddammit.

Not everything in the Dragon Ball universe has to be Majin. Can't wait to find out that Frieza and Cold were secretly Majin all along too, and their... whatever's going on there is just a fancy version of pointy ears. Somehow.

Namekians and Kaioshin, I was like, "Yeah, okay, sure, whatever. This was already kinda-sorta canon." But this one actually bothers me.

I still love that Dr. Arinsu's witch's broom is a hookah. She's just over there getting stoned while Marba works.

He looks like Golden Frieza.

Why.

Why is he Golden Frieza.

I was being sarcastic. So help me, if this does end up being somehow linked to Frieza I will throw things.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x06 - Lightning

Got: x1 Plane.

Lost: x1 Plane.

Well, that was fast.

*laughs in Daikaioshin*

I could say Beerus or Zeno, but Goku did specify that Kaioshin is the greatest of the "god-like Kaios", not of the gods. Not that he would even know anyway; This is pre-Beerus so he has no way of knowing about gods beyond Kaioshin.

Nonetheless, he's pretty close to right. However, it'd be more accurate to say Kaioshin is the greatest remaining Kaio. There is a seat beyond him. It's just. Vacant.

This is shameless Gohan erasure.

Assuming we're even in-continuity with Super (Which, given the retconning of how Kaioshin and Kibito split, is not guaranteed), Goku hasn't unlocked God forms yet. Ultimate Gohan is the strongest in the universe at this point in time, and the only person who can actually do what Glorio promised the king: Throw hands with Majin Buu and win.

You'd think Kaioshin would know that, since he was there for the whole thing.

These guards interrogating our travelers about Goku's whereabouts is trying to be tense. However, it's hard to sell tension when the only reason anyone seems to be in danger is because Goku's off taking a shit.

We all know he could merc these two guards in five seconds flat if they succeeded in finding him. We've already seen him shitstomp an entire squad of these guys.

Nonetheless, this scene is interesting for the reveal of Panzy's collar beneath her scarf.

They've talked about this before, how all the Third Worlders are collared and can be tracked by them. But there's something really dark and chilling about seeing even the princess forced to wear something like this.

Like "Namekians are actually cross-dimensional beings from another reality who migrated to this universe", "Kaioshin is part of a god-race that's born from tree fruit" is another piece of Toriyama Interview lore finally making its way into the series proper here.

I can't wait to meet the ghost of Dr. Gero's dead son who's inexplicably wandering around Daimakai. :P

You know. This line has me really thinking about Namekians and Kaios/Glinds. We tend to default to masculine pronouns for them because that's what the English translations use.

However, Japanese is frequently a gender-neutral language. It often shuns non-first-person pronouns entirely, preferring to say things like,

Krillin: Goku! We should go spar together! Goku: I would love to spar with Krillin! Krillin: Yeah, it's been so long since I've sparred with Goku and the others. Yamcha: Hey guys, are we sparring? Krillin: Yamcha! Goku came by. Do you want to spar with Goku? Yamcha: Sparring with Goku and Krillin would be great!

In fact, use of pronouns - especially second-person pronouns - can actually make you come across as rude. It can be the equivalent of verbal finger-pointing.

English translations will often insert their own pronouns into the dialogue to sound more naturalistic to English ears. Which means a lot of the pronouns you read or hear in manga and anime are made up by the translators.

It's been a Toriyama Interview plot point for a years now that the Kaios come from a genderless race. But putting a finger on it like this here has me thinking.

I sincerely wonder how much of the gendered language around Namekian and Glind characters in the original manga was actually from the source, and how much was made up in translation?

Like. Namekians have no gender, but the gender they don't have is male. They all use he/him pronouns.

But.

Do they? Or is that just how it got translated into English? Should we have been using They/Them for Namekians and Kaios this whole time?

Very curious now.

That being said, it could honestly go either way. In the same breath that Kaioshin says Glind have no genders....

...he repeatedly genders Arinsu with 彼女 kanojo, the female third-person pronoun and calls her 姉 ane, his older sister. Arinsu is unambiguously gendered with the language he uses, despite bringing up "We don't have genders" as a response to Panzy calling her a woman.

Some real

Panzy: There's that Glind woman too right? Kaioshin: Excuse you, her pronouns are she/her. Panzy: ...that's what I said, though.

energy to this exchange.

Joke's on you, Kaioshin.

You're the only one who has a problem with it. ^_^

His gun is so huge.

Things are finally moving with Glorio now that we know the truth behind who he's really working for.

Makes me wonder what the game plan here is, though. Especially since Glorio thinks he can take Goku, so it's not like they brought Goku here to have him assassinate Gomah so Arinsu could take his throne or something.

The group deliberating the Minotaur's desire to cook and eat them, while also discussing who should fight him? Funny.

That discussion turning from "Glorio should fight him" "No Goku should fight him" into Goku and Glorio stepping outside to fight each other while this poor confused predator just wants to eat?

Priceless. XD This is the best scene that Glorio's participated in yet.

I like the implication that Majin magic isn't something that can be picked up by Ki Sensing. Goku can feel how strong Glorio's ki is, something Glorio himself doesn't know about or understand, but still be surprised by the strength of Glorio's magic because that isn't detectable within his ki signature.

The best part of this fight is the emphasis it pays to Kaioshin sizing up Glorio. He recognizes something in Glorio's magic that threatens to give the game away.

I've been pretty lukewarm on the "Kaioshin investigating Glorio's secret" stuff thus far. Glorio just hasn't been an interesting enough character for me to really invest in his mystery. Finding out who he truly is working for still leaves me pretty meh on the character.

But this whole fight scene, where Kaioshin uses Goku and Glorio's unnecessary pissing contest as a prybar to wrench secrets out of Glorio he didn't realize he was giving away? Perfect.

Bulma tries to get the other ship working and then it doesn't work and fails. And we already know that a Majin is on their way to pick up Bulma and the others so it's not clear if repairing the ship even matters anymore.

It will be interesting to see if something actually comes of this scene or if it's just what I like to call Cashing the Check.

"I have absolutely nothing for these characters to do, I am not ready to advance their story in any way, but I do have some time to kill so it'd be neat if they popped in. Just to say hi and remind the audience that they exist."

That's all I'm expecting this bit to amount to, but we'll see.

Overall, this episode feels like they had one really fucking awesome scene they wanted to write: Goku vs. Glorio, finally showing the full extent of what Glorio is made of and advancing the mystery of Glorio's true agenda.

But needed to stretch it out to an entire episode, and so there's a lot of just faffing about before and after. Some of it's really good faffing about. The Minotaur is hilarious. But it's still faffing about and just counting down the clock until we get to the one important scene.

Far from the best episode we've had, but far from the worst too. And a really fun fight.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x15 - Third Eye

Here we go. Time to find out that the mysterious eye on Hybis's belt is that third eye thing that Gomah wanted.

Not if. That. I'm pretty sure there are two camps on the matter:

1 - That is definitely the Third Eye macguffin. 2 - There was a Third Eye macguffin? When? I don't remember that.

I'm pretty sure anyone who actually remembers that they mentioned it like one time months ago is in agreement that it's the eye Hybis found in the wilderness. I was in the second camp for a while until someone reminded me and then I was in the first.

And based on the episode title, it looks like its time has come.

Somehow, Goku taking a gunshot to the back manages to be an impressive moment for both Goku and Daimakai's guns. This is the first time we've ever seen Gomah's troops successfully shoot someone.

We've seen Goku fight circles around these guys to the point of avoiding getting hit before, but here we get to see what getting hit actually looks like for him. And it....

Well, it isn't too bad. Goku does shake off its effects, only marginally worse for wear. It's not surprising that he can take it, because this is Son Goku.

But it still hurts like a motherfucker. Basically a full-body electro-shock that leaves him writhing for a good half minute. If these guns can do this to someone as tough as Goku then I'd assume they're instantly lethal to most people.

The main threat presented here is simply attrition. Goku and Vegeta can go through Gomah's troops like a hot knife through butter but the troops just need to get a couple lucky shots in while they're dying in droves.

We've never really seen a situation where an army of enemy forces is a genuine threat. Even going back to the days of the Red Ribbon Army, one of the first things Goku ever did was take a bullet to the face so the RRA troops were never really that threatening to him.

But that shot to Goku's back established the stakes of this fight. Getting shot once or twice isn't going to kill them, but it can still fuck them up and leave them exposed to follow-up attacks. Goku and Vegeta are still the overdogs here by a wide margin.

But any mistake can be costly.

Quoth Lord Slug Abridged:

Troops: WE HAVE BLASTERS!!! Gohan: ONE OF THOSE DOES NOTHING!!! Troops: HOW ABOUT A HUNDRED!?!?

Is it bad that I kind of wanted him to be like

"...you must... have the pride of a Saiyan... They destroyed our race, Kakarot...."

They didn't. There's no conceivable way that particular Hit could be Played here. But I kinda wanted it. Just for absurdity.

If I were making a parody series specifically satirizing Dragon Ball animation's fondness for Playing the Hits, this moment right here would inexplicably rehash Vegeta's death on Namek.

MPs guns are surprisingly strong and give them an actual win condition but it's a shame about their terrible aim.

Goku's just standing there while their blaster shots whiff past him for a good thirty seconds.

They're able to casually start chitchatting about the situation while the enemy troops wildly shoot everything except them. XD The enemy is more dangerous than we realized! Uh, only very slightly tho.

It's funny because I'd actually assumed, when Vegeta fell behind a rock, that he and Goku were shielded by cover. There was a stretch of time where there was no gunfire around them after Vegeta went down.

But then the bullets started whizzing past them all of a sudden and it was like, oh, no, the enemy's still shooting at them. They just can't hit for shit.

And there it is.

A cookie not to everyone who guessed it, but specifically to everyone who remembered it existed for long enough to guess it.

This plot point feels like it was written with binge-streaming in mind. Like they didn't put in reminders because it was ultimately written with the intent that you'd meet Hybis hours after Gomah brought it up, not weeks.

Yeah, man. You can't fail to hit a stationary target for like thirty seconds straight and expect to still be taken seriously as a threat. You had a surprisingly good run, brief though it was, but we're done with you now.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA They had us surrounded that whole time!?

That makes it even funnier. There was never any cover. They just suck that hard. Hahahahahahahahaha.

Oh, this was fun. A roller coaster of menace that ends them exactly where they began, but it was a good ride getting there.

It was lost. 'Til it was found. That's how losing and finding things works.

He found it.

Can we get the Discount Ginyus in here to explain object permanence to Degesu? XD

"Degesu, I need you to go steal that guy's clothes off his back without anyone realizing it happened!"

Gonna take a hell of a Stealth check for that one, boss. Fortunately, Hybis's situational awareness does not seem impressive.

Wow. Really couldn't think of a better way to lay down this exposition other than stopping the show to have an omniscient narrator read off the Third Eye's wiki entry, huh?

In all the episodes that came before, there really wasn't anywhere you could have fit an organic explanation of the Third Eye into the story? We were too tightly paced with critical material to squeeze an examination of an artifact that's going to be part of the climactic third act into the story, huh?

This exposition isn't even telling us anything new. "The Demon King wears this eye and it's really powerful and it was lost long ago." Yeah. We already got that. Gomah literally just explained it a minute ago. What are we doing here?

This part. This part is good. This is new information and it's being shown rather than... reading off a wiki page to your audience.

I like the revelation that Dabra was responsible for the Third Eye going missing. It's surprising but makes perfect sense.

...and then the narrator comes back to explain the Majin Buu arc to us. Holy shit. Not only do we already know this but we already spent half an episode watching the Majin Buu arc with Gomah and Degesu.

You can do the flashback without the exposition. Just shunt it to the front of the episode. Start the episode with a context-free cold open of Dabra stealing the Third Eye. That's fine. Shows use contextually-important flashbacks to begin a story all the time.

The exposition just feels like... Well, we needed to pad the episode out to hit runtime somehow. We didn't have enough episode for this episode so now we're going to pause the show and just explain the plot to you for approximately two minutes, not counting the cool Dabra flashback.

Guys. There is no manga. You don't need to insert filler.

XD Yeah, guys. It's the royal palace. Not one person in this group was like, "You know, there's probably going to be all of the guys there, right?" We really did think we could just stroll down main street and on through the front door.

Goku, Vegeta, and Kaioshin, I expect this from. But Piccolo has apologies to make.

Degesu: Feminine wiles! That tactic is unbeatable in Dragon Ball! Hybis: My asexuality is immune to your charms. Degesu: Shit! I forgot about its one weakness. It's been a while since I last read the manga.

Hybis: I want your stupid poop hat instead.

XD Task failed successfully, I guess. Feminine wiles for some, masculine charms for others, and stupid poop hats for the rest of us!

...I kinda want her stupid poop hat too.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Goku and Piccolo are talking about different things. XD Piccolo's like, "My Regeneration will let me withstand any stray hits I might take while I go to town on them."

But Goku's plan is to just let them shoot Piccolo over and over again until their guns run dry.

Goku and Piccolo agree on "Piccolo's regeneration makes him perfect for fighting them" but they have wildly different interpretations for how that would go down.

THEY ARE MAXIMUM ADORABLENESS

I'm relieved that "Gomah with the Third Eye" is looking to be the final boss after all 'cause that means Kuu and Duu's odds of survival are a lot higher than if they have to bear the brunt of the final tension.

Nothing is more important to me than the Arinsu family making it out intact.

Okay, I know this wasn't supposed to be funny but this killed me. Serious dramatic tension moment as the tanks roll out. The first shot brings Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo to their knees due to its massive AOE, as expected of what is effectively a cannon shot from these weapons.

And then these dipshits appear out of nowhere and start wildly shooting everything except the incapacitated targets. XD

Clowns. Strong weapons, legitimate threat, but army of clowns. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

I appreciate that the Third Worlders get to get in on this. The cavalry charge is the episode's answer for the problem of "There's just too many of them and not enough of us".

But it also plays well to the early conflict set up, of the Third World being oppressed by the First. The disenfranchised rising up against their oppressors is always fun.

...though I admit, I'm not sure why they can do this. Aren't Third Worlders enslaved by collars that the Gendarmerie can use to incapacitate them? Wasn't that a plot point, with Panzy being the one and only one that Kaioshin's used his powers to release?

Did the collars stop being a thing between episodes? Did they forget they wrote that? Or did Panzy send her informant, like, a secret passcode that makes all the collars fall off and I just forgot?

Panzy gets to shoot some fuckers and that automatically makes this the best fight in Daima.

This episode had its flaws but it was honestly a lot more fun than I'd expect an army of goons to provide. This was good.

Next episode: Discount Ginyu Force. Y'know, with Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo, plus Panzy and Glorio, you think they're going to make this a set of five 1v1s? I'm not expecting much more than a speed bump from the Discount Ginyus but that might be neat.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x14 - Taboo

Last episode left us with a low bar to clear so I have high hopes for this one! Let's go!

For real, I think they only have like three planes in Makai #3 and the main profession that keeps most of their population busy is just... constantly stealing them from each other.

They don't even have anywhere to fly to. Their entire civilization is just an extended game of Capture the Flag.

You're a prince and yet you broker real estate?

Don't judge. Carjacking is more reputable than your family business.

At long last, Bulma has discovered the true secret to running a successful megacorporation in the long-term.

Mob connections.

^_^ I'm so proud of them both.

TOKUSENTAI!!! TOKUSENTAI!!! TOKUSENTAI!!!

Sorry, the song burst into my brain as soon as he said the word. I know they're not literally going to be the Ginyu Force but that word just always causes--

They are literally the Ginyu Force.

(sigh) Okay.

I do appreciate Gomah's thoroughness though. He disabled Warp-sama so that it is physically impossible for Goku's crew to get here, but he's also shoring up his defenses just in case.

He can see no conceivable way that they could get to him now but he still wants to make sure there's a guard dog for them to run into if they do. Gomah is taking no chances with the god-tier ultra-warriors he dipshittedly aggro'd.

Here, putting Goku into free-fall for tension actually works because he's unconscious. Goku could just stop falling any time he wants if he woke up. And he does.

"Awake now. Having no part of what's happening down there, thanks."

But while he's passed out, it really feels like he could hit that barrier. This is tension that works within Goku's established capabilities.

I'm sure I'm supposed to be surprised that Neva created the barriers but after that stunt he pulled with Tamagami #2, it's pretty clear that his bag of tricks is full of all kinds of shit.

At this point, I won't be surprised if he turns out to be Rymus. I'm taking Neva purely on a "Sure, that might as well happen" basis.

And I mean that in a good way. Clearly by design, his powers are cryptically vast and eldritch.

There's something really cool in a physics-fucking way about an earthen tunnel in the sky, with parts of the sky around it cracked as if it were ground.

Premise: Ancient eldritch barriers of eldritch magic and light separate the worlds from one another for reasons that have been lost to time.

Explanation: Look, man. There were plane thieves in one direction and fascists in the other. So I installed door locks.

Phenomenal cosmic power. Mundane utility. This is classic Toriyama.

RYMUS RYMUS RYMUS RYMUS

OH FUCK YES

Discount Ginyu Force just ran into Count Duukuu. I am here for this, and I hope Duu eats every single one of them.

XD Okay, this whole candy segment was really sweet. Interacting positively with Kuu and Duu actually made me like the knockoffs more.

See, this is why Piccolo matters. He's the only one with the sense to go, "Wait, Makai #3 had some worldbuilding bullshit that made us need planes but we were basically just using this one in #2 out of force of habit. Do we actually care if it crashes?"

Fuck this plane, we ride the sky.

I look forward to Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo murdering all of those guys in five seconds flat.

Though Gomah's forces aren't remotely a threat to these guys, the choreography on their shitstomps was consistently awesome throughout the first half of the series. I'm here for a Dragon Team v. Gendarmerie shitstomp.

[tobiasdrake]

Well, Daima's off to a really slow start. First episode kinda sucks, but it'll hopefully pick up now that the plot's begun.

I know Toei's gonna Toei but spending ten straight minutes watching two new characters watch the Majin Buu saga of Dragon Ball Z feels like a bit much. I sure hope Majin Buu winds up being an important character in Daima because boy howdy did we recap the shit out of who he is and how he came to arrive at this point.

Toei, you're not adapting a manga; You don't need to throw in filler to pad the runtime.

Elephant in the room, Shenron can't actually do this. The wish made at the end of the episode is beyond his power. Weird how obsessed post-Z material is with reverse-aging the characters; They've done this in GT, Super, and now Daima's entirely predicated on it.

They threw in some stuff about "The Saiyans are all using white magic and reverse de-aging them is a white magic wish instead of a black magic wish so it bypasses the established rules and will work!" It's nonsense, but it's kind of necessary nonsense to make the show's premise work so it skates by.

Trying to critique the wish too hard runs afoul of the "Look do you want a show about the cast turning into kids and exploring the Demon Realm or not?" problem.

And I do, so I won't harp on it too much.

But man, it's amazing how little happens in this episode. We get a little establishment on King Gomah and Makai. I'm guessing Degesu and Dr. Arinsu are Makaioshin, a concept that up to this point only existed in supplementals.

They're evil counterparts of the Kaioshin, which is pretty self-evident in the show proper. Especially since they're apparently East Kaioshin's siblings?

Also, I caught that bit about "Dabra's predecessor, King Abra". Well played.

I hope some of the other characters get involved with Daima's plot. "Turn everyone into children and scale back all the power levels" seems like a golden opportunity to give weaker characters their time. It'd kinda be a waste of a premise like that if it still winds up just being the Goku and Vegeta show anyway.

I dunno.

This episode left me feeling about the way I felt before I watched this episode. That is to say, "Oh boy, I can't wait until Dragon Ball Daima starts."

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x17 - Gomah

The episode is titled after Gomah and I assume we're going to see his inexplicably Pride Troopery ass in new form by end of episode but I am way more invested in Goku, Vegeta, and maybe Piccolo finally meeting the Arinsu family, and probably also finally paying off what's been going on with Glorio.

Perfect introductions. 10/10 on the ominous bad guy reveal scale.

I feel like there's probably a way we can avoid hostilities here. How about we trade. We have two separate sets of Dragon Balls that are way easier to obtain than these. You let us use your Dragon Balls to become adult-sized again, and then you can use our Dragon Balls to take over Daimakai.

Or, alternatively, I guess....

We could just....

Fuck off.

We came here for Dende. Mission accomplished. There's literally nothing stopping us from going home and either hitting up Namek or waiting for Earth's Dragon Balls to recharge.

Like, the political thing to do here would be to walk away and let Daimakai sort out Daimakai's matters. We didn't come here to sponsor a coup and install a new regime that's more friendly to our way of life. This was a rescue mission. But we are doing that now.

We're in too deep. We're invested in the whole "liberate Daimakai" thing now. The Third Worlders are right behind us and it'd be really awkward to go home now.

Still, I feel like there are diplomatic ways we could resolve this, so how about we sit down and mediate a discussion between you and the Third Worlders to discuss your plans for the nation and whether they're compatible with--

Oh, you have imperial expansionist ambitions.

Never mind, this is our problem again. Diplomacy of the fist, it is.

Shit, she's done her research. We're suckers for rigidly-structured 1v1 matches. You can take the boy out of the tournament arena but you can't take the tournament sportsmanship out of the boy.

Go right ahead. We have two backup sets. I cannot stress enough how much we are pursuing your Dragon Balls out of a combination of convenience and hobbyist recreational interest. You have more to lose from them breaking than we do.

It's fine, though. You had Goku at "I want you to fight my champion." No threats required.

Goku and Vegeta bickering over who gets to fight is the inevitable result of there only being one 1v1 on offer, but Duu in the background chasing a butterfly around with a stick really livens up the scene. XD

I love the Arinsu family.

I don't know what it is about Kuu but I feel Arinsu stopping him here is a mistake. Obviously she wants Duu to fight Goku. Duu beat the Tamagami and Kuu lost that same fight. Erego, Duu is the stronger fighter.

But I don't know. There's something about Kuu's confidence and eagerness. I can't shake the feeling that if he fought Goku, he might fare better than Duu.

Duu is really strong, but he's also kind of dimwitted and unlike when he fought Buu, Duu's powerset isn't anything Goku hasn't seen before. Goku's had time to think about how he would fight someone like Buu again and it shows in this fight. He isn't as easily surprised by Duu's fluid dexterity as he was with Buu.

Buu was something straight out of left field, something unlike anything Goku's ever fought before. But Duu is Buu with fewer weird powers.

Though Duu does still get some good licks in there. And while the fight ends inconclusively due to Gomah's appearance, it does end with Goku admittedly letting himself be baited into a very bad spot.

This is a bad position to let yourself get into with someone who can shoot mouth beams. I'm honestly not sure what Goku's options would have been to get out of this. He can't even teleport because he takes people he's touching with him when he does.

Really does look like a Pride Trooper uniform and I have no idea what possible connection there could be for why that is.

Still not sure if Gomah's actually supposed to be the final boss. My money was on Duu and Kuu, and a possible Count Duukuu fusion. I was starting to be sold on it being Gomah but we have like three more episodes left after this one. It feels about an episode two early for Super Gomah to show up and start throwing hands if he's supposed to be the ultimate foe.

Goku and Duu didn't even get to settle their fight.

Alternate Ending: Goku punches Gomah one time. It can even be a reference to the Recoome gut punch. Gomah goes down immediately.

Neva then explains, "Specifically, political power. It confers tremendous authority and a commanding physique upon the wearer but does not enhance their strength in the slightest."

Okay, the fact that he makes his own final boss arena does lend some credibility to the idea that this really is the ultimate showdown.

Oh, wow, he's huge. I knew he was like a big tall manly man now but I hadn't realized we were talking colossal-sized until right this moment. It's hard to tell when all you have to scale him to are background objects that are similarly ambiguous in size.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HE'S STILL A DOOF THOUGH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Gomah suddenly realizing that his goddamn castle is becoming the collateral damage to this fight is not only a great comedic element to add to it but also actually pays off the Discount Ginyu Force's introduction. That little gag where they shot up his foyer and left him pissed off was the setup for this.

Gomah has the distinct quality of having strong opinions about the collateral damage of a huge, explosive Dragon Ball fight. We haven't seen that before. It's neat.

It's surprising to me that we've met Dr. Arinsu, we were partway through the confrontation with her, and Glorio still hasn't pulled the pin on his role as her spy one way or the other.

Whether that way is betraying them to Arinsu or refusing to betray them to Arinsu 'cause of Power of Friendship or revealing a true motive that he was playing Arinsu all along too or what.

Whatever the payoff for Glorio is, that cat is still firmly tucked in the bag. This is another thing that makes me question whether Gomah is really supposed to be the final boss or not. It feels like there's too much that hasn't happened yet for this just to be "And then we beat Gomah and go home."

Yeah, checks out. Goku rarely rejects people's assistance. When, say, Piccolo jumped in to help him against Raditz and Frieza, Goku didn't send him away and insist on fighting alone. But it's not his first instinct.

The one time Goku's been like "Let's do this together" was with Super Buu, and it was a decision he later recanted. Goku can be backed into a corner hard enough that he agrees to teamwork, but he's never the one to say, "Let's fight this guy as a team" even when the universe is on the line.

...

That said, I'm not sure that drawing attention to how OOC this moment is for Goku makes it better. The only explanation on offer for why Goku would go back on his principles is because "The situation is just that dire."

But the situation's been pretty fucking dire before. Majin Buu was going to annihilate everything in existence, and Goku broke the Potara anyway because it made him feel underhanded.

But I think they're trying to bridge the gap between the manga and Super, where Goku is shown to be a lot more comfortable fighting side-by-side with others against a powerful foe - though he still likes to try going 1v1 first.

Drawing careful attention to the satchel with the bugs in it as it falls from Goku's dogi.

This has to be building up to the Fusion Bug finally coming into play.

Thank you, Bulma.

Dr. Arinsu, you are literally trying to take his throne. You are holding in your hand the evidence of your treachery. You really think you aren't a part of this?

Ooooo and we're paying off Neva's ability to power up the Tamagamis into a Super Mode, established in Vegeta's fight.

I was wondering what the deal with that was, since this Tamagami's fight already happened by the time we got here.

Well, it was a pretty cool fight up until this moment, but ending on yet another eleventh-hour climactic unlocking of a Super Form Goku already had from the beginning is where it loses me.

Like. The characters stopped to briefly discuss that this situation is so desperate it's pushing Goku to behave out-of-character. He's calling on everyone to combine powers against Gomah because that is how far on the edge of his rope he's hanging. He's violating his own principles purely out of desperation because there are no other options left.

I can forgive Goku holding Super Saiyan 3 back. It's a bad transformation. A form that bleeds ki so tremendously that it's impossible for it to even achieve its own theoretical maximum power. To date, Vegeta just a few episodes ago is the only person ever to actually win a fight with it. It's a power boost whose drawbacks suck so hard that they outweigh the power boost.

So Goku keeping this in his back pocket and only pulling it out in a moment of pure desperation? Yeah. I can believe that.

...but if we're going to make a thing out of Goku betraying his principles from desperation? I... have to believe Goku would try Super Saiyan 3 first.

I can believe he'd only use Super Saiyan 3 as a last resort, but I still feel like he'd use his last resorts up before he'd do anything that makes the other characters go "Goku would NEVER. He must be TRULY desperate like he's never been before." Apparently not if he's still holding back and only giving half-effort.

...

Speaking of last resorts, this is going to end in a Daimakai Genki-Dama, isn't it?

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon Ball Daima 01x18 - Awakening

Here we go with the maybe-maybe not final battle of the series.

I like that Super Saiyan 3 wasn't just the answer. Goku takes Gomah by surprise and gets some good hits in, but that's just the surprise of the power boost. Once Gomah gets his head back in the game, this isn't over yet.

Duu powers up from eating a cookie. These two are so fucking great. 10/10 best thing in the entire ser--

DUU LEARNS HOW TO POWER UP FROM GOKU AND THEN GOES SUPER SAIYAN 3 JUST TO EMULATE HIM

15/10 BEST THING IN THE FUCKING SHOW

I kinda just saw Vegeta going Super Saiyan 3 as hollow fanservice. That hasn't changed as of this episode; Apparently Vegeta decided he doesn't like going Super Saiyan 3 anymore because once this became a Super Saiyan 3 fight, he fucked off to the Losers Corner with Piccolo.

It's kinda like that time he teleported in the Super manga. He did it for the one cool moment but he has no intention of actually retaining that as a new ability.

But I love Duu going Super Saiyan 3. This is beautiful.

And then he's out of the fight as goofily as he came. XD See ya later, Duu.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WHAT

SURE, THAT MIGHT AS WELL HAPPEN XD

I actually kind of love this. My favorite thing about Neva just walking over and zapping Goku into Super Saiyan 4 'cause making people Super Saiyan 4 is just a thing he can do I guess? The fact that it doesn't inexplicably make him an adult like it does in GT.

Even Super Saiyan 4 can't overcome the marketing urge to sell child-sized Goku.

You think he's going to stop and complain mid-fight about this being an unearned power-up? I mean, it's a big Fuck Yeah moment of fanservice for people who are familiar with the form from GT. But in-context, this is just a random form created by Neva walking up and shooting him with free Strength Beams.

Goku did less to achieve this than he did to achieve God.

I mean, it's not really any different from the power-ups that Saichoro and the Old Kaioshin hand out. In fact, it's probably exactly the same as Saichoro's. That it made him Super Saiyan 4 is probably supposed to be a sly wink and nod to the camera like, "That's what Goku's fully unlocked potential is, wink wink."

But "free power-ups suck and I hate them" is a thing that Goku's going to be passionate about in a couple years so I wonder if this bothers him?

The Super Saiyan 4 fight itself is pretty terrible, though. It's zoomed in way too close and does a lot of Hollywood Editing million cuts per minute so it's difficult to actually follow the action.

The characters are just. Constantly passing in and out of the fourth wall.

Goku gets punched away, grabs onto a rocky spire, and spins around it to reclaim his momentum. That's really cool. Why is the camera shoved straight down his throat instead of letting us see him do the cool maneuver?

Strength Beams for Vegeta and then they fuse into SSJ4 Gogeta? Is that where this is headed?

C'mon, Super Saiyan 5! We are in full Why The Fuck Not territory so let's officially and for the very first time canonize Gray Monkey. XD

It's not, but I kinda wish....

Of course he had to go to colossal size after what we've been shown of how big the Third Eye's supposed to make him.

But I'm also starting to get bored with this fight. Gomah's hardly the first Dragon Ball villain to take on the tempo of

We pull out a miracle maneuver to sink him and win the day.

Never mind he's too stronk.

We pull out an even more impossible maneuver and take him down!

Never mind he's too stronk.

We pull out the MOST INSANELY IMPOSSIBLE THING YOU'VE EVER SEEN.

Never mind he's too stronk.

We pull out the MOST EARTHSHATTERINGLY....

But Gomah's lack of interesting character is working against him. Since we moved to the new arena, his one interesting villain trait of being concerned with collateral damage is gone. Now he's just an HP meter with fists.

Even Frieza felt more like he was being pushed as the fight progressed than Gomah does. He kept retreating through transformations and at multiple times we see him freaked out or worried.

But Gomah's giving nothing. They hit him super hard and then his Third Eye shimmers and he's fine. They hit him even harder and then his Third Eye shimmers and he's fine. No personality. No interesting banter. Just an ongoing set of action sequences that all end in a silent and uninteresting Nope.

An HP meter with fists is only an interesting final boss if there's other interesting things happening around him, like all the drama unfolding around the Pure Buu bout. But the only things happening in this battle are characters throwing hands with him and failing over and over.

Here we go. Here's the payoff for Glorio's treachery subplot. I literally just asked for interesting drama surrounding the fight and now he's going to confront Dr. Arinsu while Goku and Gomah are keeping each other busy.

Right around the time I was starting to get bored with this fight, we're pivoting to more interesting things. Okay. Credit where it's due, solid pacing.

Oh hey, they have a Porunga instead of a Shenron. I appreciate that. We have enough Shenrons but we've never had another Porunga before.

I like that Glorio doesn't just. Like. Flatly refuse to turn over the Dragon Balls on principle.

The man is a spy. Of course he's going to do something more treacherous.

I know I just complained about the characters pulling out miracle maneuvers and then Gomah just ignoring them and being too stronk. But I desperately want Gomah to shoot Porunga in the face and blow him up right now.

It's an established metaphysic that you can just fucking kill the dragons. There is no reason Gomah should stand idly by and let this happen.

Thank you! No further objections. You may proceed.

This is a gripe I have with late-stage Dragon Ball in general. And I should note that it's probably not going to happen.

Glorio's not going to actually make that wish. They've signaled pretty hard that he's going to do something different with the wish. I'd be very surprised if the episode titled "Betrayal" isn't referring to Glorio betraying Arinsu.

But I do want to note that I don't like how hard late-stage Dragon Ball has been leaning on "Shenron, I wish for infinity times ultimate power!"

The DBS manga had an entire arc around Granolah, a character who summoned Shenron and went "Shenron, I wish for infinity times ultimate power!"

The DBS: Super Hero manga caught Piccolo up to the God-tier characters by having him summon Shenron and go, "Shenron, I wish for infinity times ultimate power!"

And now Dr. Arinsu's whole plan is to summon Porunga and go, "Porunga, I wish for infinity times ultimate power!"

I just. I don't like the idea that you could just go to Shenron and wish to be stronger than Beerus and then poof, you're stronger than Beerus. Since Dragon Ball started doing sequel series, power creep has hit the Wish Dragons hard.

(Piccolo doing it is the one I find most grating because at least Granolah and Arinsu are antagonists. Their powers are supposed to be cheaply acquired. They're the ones who are doing things wrong. But if we're going to open the door to protagonists wishing for infinity power from Shenron then what is even the point of training and self-improvement anymore?)

At this point, we could probably just have Porunga kill Gomah. It's clearly within his power, given the way he just manhandled Gomah a second ago. Glorio could just wish for Gomah to be deleted and then it's done. Plot over.

Obviously he won't because it would deprive us of the climax. But there used to be reasons why he couldn't, and now it feels like the Wish Dragons actually can do anything with no limits whatsoever.

I mean. There's still the black magic/white magic thing from the first episode, I guess. Assuming the show hasn't forgotten it ever established that, like it did with the Third World collars and Vegeta being able to go Super Saiyan 3.

Mm.

In any case, rant that's only tangentially about Daima over. We're nearing the end of the line here and I feel pretty strongly convinced at this point that Gomah really is the Final Boss for Realsies. They've gone too hard on this fight for there to be another, bigger one beyond him. Pity that, as he remains the least interesting part of the show.

[tobiasdrake]

Maybe if you try to team up on a Tamagami, it just kills you. The regular bouts don't seem to be to the death, so if you lose you get to try another day. But if you don't play by the rules they just go all out and merc you.

I mean. It's not not to the death.

Sounds like you have the ability to concede to the Tamagami and end the fight, but the Tamagami will kill you if you're too pigheaded to know when you're beat.

But your point is well taken. The consequence of cheating could just be the Tamagami going, "Okay, fucko, we're doing this for real." Rules of engagement are very different for a formal competition vs an attempted murder.

[tobiasdrake]

Oh, shit. New episode of Daima. For some reason I thought this aired on Saturdays but apparently it's a Friday release schedule?

Hahaha, what? Since when is that a thing? XD That is not a thing.

There is a bit of inconsistency with Shenron in post-Z materials. Resurrection F had a plot hole where Shenron only granted two wishes.

So, the way the rules work, Shenron will grant three wishes unless one of them is a mass-resurrection; That basically uses up two wish slots. You can also bank wishes, having him grant less than three in order to shorten the Dragon Balls' recharge time.

But a lot of people struggle to remember how this works, including official creators who work on Dragon Ball. Resurrection F had a notable plot hole where Shenron granted only two wishes despite not granting a mass-revive.

The Broly movie (the good one) only had him grant one. So this new rule Daima pulled out of its ass kinda works like a rules patch to fill in those plot holes. Oh, that's why Cheelai only got one wish!

Resurrection F is still borked. You can reason out that, because the Pilaf Gang were there and they've summoned Shenron once, the group counted as a regular. But the original problem of only getting two wishes granted remains a plot hole.

So... yeah, okay. It's a rather abrupt fix but I'll take it..

...hang on, remind me what the wish was again?

Oh! Okay. Carry on. I was confused by how people like Dende, the Muten-Roshi, Bulma, and Chi-Chi qualify as having fought Majin Buu but the "and their friends" bit covers it.

I mean, they were killed by Majin Buu. But if that was enough to qualify, the entire planet would be children right now.

So, yeah, this threw me but no, we're good. Nothing to see here. The wish was suitably broad as to cover the entire cast.

Far away, in a park somewhere, Ranger 17 is trying to figure out if spontaneous chibification is byproduct of being made into a bio-android that Gero didn't live to explain to him. Is he going to keep de-aging until he's a fetus!? Bulma's voicemail is blowing up right now.

Yamcha's date just got super awkward.

Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu are continuing to spar and refusing to acknowledge it.

We are all going to ignore the existence of Mr. Buu because this plot is not ready to deal with the fact that it just turned him back into Pure Buu. But that's okay because Dragon Ball is used to ignoring Buu. Maybe the paradox of being, himself, Majin Buu but also being a friend of the people who fought Majin Buu shielded him from the effect.

Shapner and Erasa are even worse off than 17, since they don't even have a contact to get answers from. Fortunately, the rest of Gohan's class is probably fine. Those two were the only ones he seemed to talk to.

Somewhere, deep in space, exactly one member of the Frieza Force hung out with Vegeta during off-hours way back when, just enough to be having the weirdest fucking day right now.

Piccolo has not caused a single person to be afflicted as collateral damage. Let us all take a moment to celebrate his dedication to loneliness.

I want him on the team.

...actually, I want Videl on the team, but since they obviously won't give me that, I will accept her father.

Where are Videl and Gohan, anyway? They're right on the fence where they could have gone either way with that wish.

I can't stop looking at Popo's horns. We've never seen him without his turban anymore. Are we finally about to get an explanation for what he is and where he comes from? Is that answer going to be Makai?

Oh, I'm sorry, Daimakai. Not the Demon World. The Great Demon World. Like how "Demon King Piccolo" is actually Piccolo-Daimao, not Piccolo-Mao.

Goku: Man, I wish I had a brother! Popo: Goku, didn't your brother kill you? Goku: Nah, that was Piccolo. I don't know what you're talking about. I'd remember having had a brother at some point.

Really. We're doing "Kami's Spaceship"?

(sigh)

Playing the hits.

DON'T BREAK POPO'S STUFF DON'T BREAK POPO'S STUFF DON'T BREAK POPO'S STUFF DON'T BREAK POPO'S STUFF

SIXTH RULE OF POPO'S TRAINING

Karin didn't get hit by the wish? Man, if I were him, I would feel so disrespected right now.

His godhood can't be what shielded him because Dende did get hit, and he's a higher rank of deity than Karin is. He was just protected because nobody who fought Majin Buu loves him. Awww.

He lost it to Maron (not to be confused with Marron) in a game of strip poker.

I mean, he didn't. That only happened in anime filler, so it's non-canon. But I desperately want that to be where it is, if only so we can send Chibi Krillin to talk to the woman his daughter is accidentally named after.

(By his own admission, Toriyama didn't watch the anime. Which makes that particular oversight hilarious.)

I hope we can spend as little time as humanly possible with the Muten-Roshi.

The "joke" of him being an insatiable sexual predator is generally noxious and the anime often dials it up to 11. But in this particular circumstance, where he's way too young to be hitting on adult women but also a 300-year-old man which means inflicting him on girls "his age" would be extremely gross?

Yeah. Let's just. Have as little of this guy as possible.

That said....

The other recurring Roshi gag where he is unforgivably irresponsible with ancient magical artifacts of legendary repute is put to great use here.

Piccolo: I don't even remember Namek. Do you remember Planet Vegeta? Vegeta: I remember Planet Vegeta. Piccolo: Nobody cares, Vegeta. Vegeta: :( If I wasn't chibi I'd kill you all. Bulma: That's nice, dear.

Oh, I am absolutely going to underestimate the shit out of him.

He only became king of Daimakai because Dabra was killed in action. From this, we can presume that he is less powerful than Dabra, who is equal in strength to Cell.

Also. Just. Considering the source. It was literally a running bit that people Kaioshin considers unbelievably formidable were hopeless pushovers against Goku and Vegeta. He is not a reliable judge of who is and is not a thing to be feared.

Still likely a dangerous foe but only because the post-Buu era cast have had their abilities nerfed. If Goku were at full strength he could definitely finger-flick Gomah into the sun.

Daisanmakai, or Demon World #3.

Not the same dai as in Daimakai. 大 Dai means "Great" while 第 Dai is basically a # mark. I wonder if Daimakai is the main Demon World, or a term for the collective of all Demon Worlds? I bet it's the latter.

Oh, hey! We're playing the hits with "Baby Bulma inspects Jaco's spaceship". Congratulations on making it into the Dragon Ball Referential Hall of Fame, Jaco.

It's subtle, and it's remixed very well into the plot which makes it less noticeable, but I still caught that.

Ahh, this was way better than the first episode. Judging from the credits, it looks like Bulma, Vegeta, and Piccolo will be joining Goku and Kaioshin in Daimakai, but the rest of the cast can get fucked.

That's a shame. Not really any point to casting such a broad net with the wish if we're keeping the cast trimmed down this far.

Still, looking forward to exploring Daimakai!