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duhragonball · 19 days ago

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Daima 2: Glorio

About a third of this episode is dedicated to having the main characters react to the whole "turned into babies" thing. This is probably a good call, since the show was promoted on this gimmick, and it's worth showing off. Everyone looks super cute, and anyone who had facial hair becomes almost unrecognizable.

It feels like a bit of waste of time, but only because the "turned into babies" thing was all we knew about the show for the year or so before it premiered, so for me this feels like we're belaboring the obvious. Yeah, yeah, we know they're babies, we've been talking about it for months. But the show has to have the moment. This is why I don't get too invested into trailers and teaser trailers and analyses of trailers, and leaks and "Everything you NEED to know about..." videos. If you spend too much time dwelling on a future release, you'll lose out on the spontaneity when it finally comes out.

It's probably worth talking about who hasn't gotten turned into babies. Well, I should clarify that. I like calling them all babies because I think it's cute and funny, but most of the affected characters are more like seven-year-olds. Anyone who was already a child is turned into a literal baby, like Goten and Trunks. Also Dende, even though he's at least thirteen by now.

Specifically, Gomah's wish applied to the ones who defeated Buu and "all of their friends." So Master Roshi got turned into a kid, but not the waitstaff at Trunks' 9th birthday party. Ox King got turned into a kid, even though he never actually fought Majin Buu. Basically, if you can be considered part of Dragon Team, you got turned into a kid.

But Korin and the Turtle seem to be unaffected. Maybe they did get turned into children, and they just don't look any different. Or maybe the rest of Dragon Team secretly hates those guys, and so they don't fall into the "friends" category of the wish. Man, that's the sort of thing that would keep me up at night. Imagine your whole friends circle gets turned into babies, except you. There's really only one explanation for that, but you can't exactly say anything, because that'd just make it worse.

Oh, what am I worried about? Everyone likes me! I mean, everyone likes Korin and the Turtle. Yes, that is what I meant to say. Heh-heh...

Anyway, as for King Gomah, he had planned on making two more wishes, but Shenron clocks out early. Gomah's like "What the hell, man?" and Shenron tells him that the second and third wishes are for regular customers. First timers only get one wish and they just have to like it. Wait, so when he offered more wishes for Sorbet in Resurrection F, was that because Pilaf was with him? Fascinating.

Gomah's pissed because this means he can't get the Evil Third Eye, but Degesu is satisfied that they accomplished what they came here to do. Remember, Degesu didn't see the Earth as a threat in the first place. Dr. Arinsu planted the idea in Gomah's head, and Degesu was willing to go along with it, but he's probably just relieved they pulled this off without anything going wrong.

But why not just have Neva do the same trick he used to summon Shenron in the first place? Normally, you have to wait a year to use the Dragon Balls again, but Neva's ancient Namek power allowed him to collect and reactivate the Dragon Balls immediately. So in theory he could just do that over and over again and Gomah can have unlimited wishes? Well, no, Neva says "Even I can't do that twice in a row," so I'm glad we got a limit on that ability. That's the lesson there. You can invent a bullshit rule-breaking power, but it needs to have it's own limits and rules in order to keep it from being abused. Kryptonite will neutralize Superman, but it's not like you can just run to the drugstore and buy a bunch of kryptonite.

The Supreme Kai, Kibito, Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo all go to the Lookout to find out what happened, and Mr. Popo fills them in. The Supreme Kai realizes that it must have been his brother Degesu, and Piccolo recognizes the name "Neva" from Namekian history. He was the "Legendary Namek" who stayed behind in the Demon Realm after all the others left for the outside universe. He stayed to guard the Demon Realm's Dragon Balls, but it's not clear what he's protecting them from. If he didn't want the Demons making wishes, then why did he help Gomah use the Earth's Dragon Balls today? Curious.

Also, before Gomah's group left, he decided to take baby Dende along as a hostage. Also, as the keeper of the Earth's Dragon Balls, they believe holding Dende will make the Earth's Dragon Balls useless. I get why they'd want to do that, but I'm not sure I understand how physically removing Dende affects the Dragon Balls. When Guru was teleported from Namek to Earth, the Namekian Dragon Balls followed him there. So maybe it's like that? Or does the barrier between the Demon Realm and Earth make it so it seems like Dende is dead? The Dragon Balls become inert just like they would if Dende had died. Anyway, Neva seems to think this would go as Gomah expects, so they kidnapped baby Dende.

And Goku wants to go to Demon Realm and get him back. There you go, that's the good guys' motivation, right there. This was the problem GT had when it turned Goku into a child. It was basically an accident, so there was no enemy to fight in that situation, and Goku basically didn't care. It doesn't seem like Daima Goku is too worried about being a child either, and that's fine. Goku's a pretty laid back guy with this sort of thing. But if turning him into a child doesn't provoke some sort of response, then why do it at all?

Here the conflict is much more focused. Gomah went out of his way to turn Goku into a child because he saw him as a potential threat. And it seems that he kidnapped Dende to ensure that Goku couldn't simply undo the wish next year. So even if Goku doesn't mind being a child, he'd still want to go after Gomah, if only to rescue Dende and get to the bottom of this. It also helps that we have characters like Vegeta included in the whole babies wish, so even if Goku doesn't mind being a child, Vegeta is still highly motivated to undo the wish.

But more importantly, by doing all of this, Gomah seems to have provoked the very response that he was trying to avoid. Degesu thought there was no reason for the Earthlings to come to the Demon Realm, and now Gomah has given them a reason. He probably doesn't think that Goku's group is capable of putting up much of a fight in this state, but they already beat Majin Buu, so underestimating them seems like a bad idea.

Rememer, Dr. Arinsu was the one who planted the seeds for this whole conflict. If she hadn't said anything, Gomah never would have gone to Earth. So was this what she wanted to happen? Maybe she was trying to set off a conflict, and then Gomah would have to keep funding her research to improve his defenses. Or maybe Arinsu was counting on Goku to eliminate Gomah, so that another king would take over and give Arinsu the funding that Gomah would not.

And I don't want to spend a lot of time bashing GT with this (I already did that last year). You can kick off a story with an accident like Pilaf's thoughtless wish, and then establish a plot device that will destroy the world like the Black Star Dragon Balls. That's valid, but it's so much better when there's an antagonist in back of the problem, someone you can chase or fight or argue with over tea.

All right, so how do they get to the Demon Realm? According to Kibito, travel to and from has been heavily restricted for a long, long time. It's not clear who imposed the restrictions, or who Gomah had to make arrangements with for his own trip, but it's not as simple as teleporting or taking a spaceship. The Supreme Kai has an idea, and he sends Kibito to fetch the spaceship he used when he first came to this universe. He doesn't say where he came from, though. I'm guessing he and the other Kais all live in some other realm and he had to come here when he got the Kaioshin position in Universe 7. But maybe he was born in the Demon Realm, and he used this ship to leave? In any case, he believes this vessel will take them to the Demon Realm, except it's old and busted.

But that's okay, because we have Bulma to fix it. She takes a look under the hood and estimates it'll be a ten day job. So the principal cast is starting to take shape here. Goku is obvious, and the Supreme Kai has family on the bad guy side, so he has a clear stake in this. Piccolo is in because of the Namekian connection, and Vegeta wants revenge for getting turned into a baby. And we gotta have Bulma because she's the tech gal. I'm not clear on whether Kibito will tag along, but we don't see much of him in the closing credits, so I'm guessing he rides the pine for most of this story.

And this is great. One thing that always bugged me about Dragon Ball Super was how they kept loading way too many characters into every episode. They'd be fighting Frieza and Master Roshi has to be there. They're fighting Universe 6's team and we gotta check in with Jaco to see what he thinks about it all. They're getting ready to help save Future Trunks' world, but let's check in on Emperor Pilaf and see what he has to say about all this. Every time someone threw a punch in the Tournament of Power, the show would suddenly cut to the bleachers so Whis could explain why punches hurt.

I've been trying to find a way to describe the pacing in Daima, and it feels kind of relaxed and leisurely, but at the same time, it's not padded out the way the previous anime series were. Before, Toei would often set up B-plots and side conversations to fill time, and that's not really happening here. The cast is pretty small, and we're filling the time with exposition and just sort of letting the moments breathe. Goku goes on a little side-quest to get his Nyoi'bo, and they probably could have tightened it up, or skipped it altogether, but it's just this quiet little errand, and the show lets you drink in the ambiance.

Look at these li'l guys eating their li'l guy dinner with their mini-sized soda cans. It's great.

However, their dinner is interrupted by the sudden arrival of another Demon Realm ship like the one King Gomah used. This time, however, it's a whole other guy named Glorio, whom we saw spying on Gomah in Episode 1. He says he was tasked with recruiting Goku to defeat King Gomah in the Demon Realm. Goku's always ready to rock, but the Supreme Kai wants to know how Glorio has even heard of Goku. Glorio claims he learned about Goku from the King of the Third Demon Realm, who watched video of the Buu Saga just like Gomah. That... seems a bit curious. Later it'll become clear that the Demon Realm is divided into three worlds, so I guess it makes sense that each one has a king, and Gomah rules over them all. So the Third King might not be too happy about Gomah's reign.

But Glorio was also there when Gomah watched his own video of the Buu Saga. So it's almost like he's telling a half-truth. Glorio also says he was ordered by the Third King to come here, but when the Supreme Kai asks if he works for the Third King, Glorio says that he doesn't. The request was sent to him in secret. Well, what does that mean?

I'm guessing that Glorio's not telling the gang the whole story, or he may not be fully aware of it himself. For all we know, someone like Dr. Arinsu might have sent him the request and made it look like it was the Third King who submitted it. Whatever the case, the Supreme Kai decides to go with them, partly because his brother is involved with Gomah, and partly because he's suspicious of Glorio. He shouldn't have known about them being turned into children, but he wasn't surprised to see them in this state. To be fair to Glorio, nothing seems to really get much of a reaction out of him. He's a very low-key kind of guy.

Bulma asks to study his spaceship before they go, so she can use it as a reference for her work on the Kai's ship. Glorio insists that his vessel is a "plane", so I don't know if that's the correct term for it or if he's just a contrarian. I mean, it does more than fly in space, but it does fly in space so come on. Vegeta wants to go along, but the plane only has room for three. So Vegeta will have to wait for Bulma to finish repairing the other ship and then they can follow Glorio's group into the Demon Realm later.

I like this set up a lot. I think GT had a promising set up with a trio of main characters. Again, there's a lot to be said for focusing on a small cast instead of dumping in dozens of side characters who have to compete for screen time. But GT ran into issues pretty early on, and maybe it would have been helpful to have a second trio operating independently of the first. That way if the writers got stuck, they could switch to the second group, or have them link up later on.

I don't know if this would have done GT a lot of good, but it definitely seems like a smart strategy for Daima. This way we can focus on three characters, but there's still the promise that we'll get to see more of Vegeta, Piccolo, and Bulma later. If all six of them had gone together, it would have gotten dull, because at least two of them wouldn't have had much to do. This way we have something to look forward to.

#dragon ball #dragon ball daima #goku #vegeta #dende #neva #bulma #mr popo #supreme kai #kibito #glorio #piccolo #korin #degesu #king gomah #spoilers

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