Dragon Ball Daima

Episode 17

Things have felt like they were inching towards a conclusion for a while, but now it's been officially confirmed that Daima is ending on February 28th, which should bring it to a run of 20 episodes. That's nothing too unusual for modern anime, but it's extremely short by Dragon Ball standards, and considering that even Super ran for over 130 episodes, it's a bit of a shock that this didn't end up running for a year or so at the very least. Of course, if the last few years have proven anything, it's that those kinds of perpetually long running shows are no longer sustainable, and it seems like even the Dragon Ball franchise isn't immune to the problems faced by the rest of the anime industry. Still, considering how good most of the show has looked, I'd call it an even trade, and if this week's episode is anything to go by, it looks like it's pulling out all the stops for the finisher.

After several weeks of anticipation, Goku and Dr. Arinsu's groups have finally come face to face, and for the most part…they keep things pretty civil. While Dr. Arinsu doesn't bother hiding her plans for wanting to take over the Demon Realm or to make it less peaceful, she also makes no attempts to take the other Dragon Balls and instead proposes a one-on-one duel between them and one of her Majin kids, with the Dragon Balls as the prize. Predictably, Goku and Vegeta start arguing like kids over who gets to fight, but in the end, Bulma reins in Vegeta enough to give Goku a second turn. On the flipside, it's actually Majin Kuu actually offers to fight Goku, since he thinks he's “good enough” at fighting to take him, but the poor guy gets passed over in favor of Duu. It's a bit of a letdown, not only because Kuu deserves better than what he gets from Dr. Arinsu, but also because the prospect of Kuu trying to fight Goku would have been hilarious and it makes me wish the show didn't tease me with something I can't have. On the bright side, the fight between Goku and Duu is pretty solid, and while we've seen Duu squashing and stretching his body during his fight with the Tamagami, it's pretty fun seeing the animators play around with that while demonstrating how well he can keep up with Goku.

Under different circumstances, I could have seen this fight being a whole episode or two on its own, but now that we know the show is running down the clock, it's not too shocking when King Gomah shows up midway through to interrupt things. Although his new form looks absolutely ridiculous, the threat level it presents is anything but, and it doesn't take too long for Neva to realize that Gomah has obtained the Third Eye and all the terrible power it wields. Even Goku realizes that he only has a shot against Gomah if he's working alongside everyone else, and if you can get Goku of all people to ask for help in a fight, you know things are serious. However, things aren't so serious that Bulma doesn't notice how similar Gomah's new eyeball is to Hybis's missing belt, and watching him play dumb about it and attempt to change the subject is pretty hilarious.

The fight with King Gomah itself makes for the kind of team-up that would have had kid me over the moon, as we see Goku, Vegeta and Piccolo all teaming up to deal with him. Even Glorio, the Tamagami, and the Majin brothers eventually end up joining in, and while some part of me feels like I should be disappointed we didn't see those last two properly square off against Goku and Vegeta, I've gotten attached enough to these dorks that I'm okay with them immediately pivoting into being honorary good guys. Plus, with how much this show is already working off the aesthetics of Dragon Quest, it's only fitting for the final battle to see everyone teaming up to put down the Demon Lord. It makes for a lavish spectacle, with plenty of beam spams and flashy hand-to-hand combat, and even with how much this show has raised the ante for its fight sequences, it's easily some of the best we've had yet. While it does bring the show a lot closer to the kind of action I'm normally used to with modern Dragon Ball, if we were gonna get something on that scale, I'm glad the show decided to save it for the end. Fittingly, I'm kinda glad that we're only now seeing Goku whipping out Super Saiyan 3, and although it's a little weird having a new Dragon Ball entry without a new transformation (although with 3 episodes remaining there's still plenty of time for that to change), having him whip it out this late in the game does a good job of establishing how much of a threat King Gomah's new form represents. With three episodes to go, I am a little worried about the possibility of this fight dragging its heels a bit, but the show's earned enough goodwill from me that I'm willing to trust it'll stick the landing, and however Daima ends up concluding, I'm excited to find out

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Dragon Ball Daima is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.