Dragon Ball Daima has officially kicked off its new anime series as part of the blockbuster Fall 2024 anime schedule, and the first episode has thankfully dodged all of the bullets that took down Dragon Ball Super with its own premiere. Dragon Ball Daima is a new anime launched as part of the celebration for the late Akira Toriyama’s original Dragon Ball manga hitting the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. As the first new anime is several years, it was clear that Shueisha and Toei Animation had been putting a lot of care into this new series as it tackles a whole new era of the franchise.
Dragon Ball Daima features a brand new story with characters and concepts from the late Akira Toriyama, and like Dragon Ball Super, is set after the events of the Majin Buu arc but before the end of Dragon Ball Z. But unlike Dragon Ball Super, Dragon Ball Daima has been able to avoid all of the pitfalls from that previous premiere by instead slowly easing Dragon Ball fans into this new series. Because unlike before, the first episode of this one is a more nostalgic celebration of how far Dragon Ball‘s anime has come.
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Where Did Dragon Ball Super Go Wrong?
Dragon Ball Super‘s anime got off to a rougher start among fans. Not only was the animation production behind the first few episodes seemingly rushed (as fans noticed a few frames where Goku was looking rather wonky while in motion), it also unfortunately had to adapt the materials seen in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and the Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F feature films into the first few arcs. It’s materials that fans had seen before, and thus only compared them to the TV anime negatively because they just couldn’t match up to what was seen in theatrical releases. It just wasn’t possible.
Making matters worse for many was that nothing was really altered from the materials seen in the feature films. The TV anime episodes didn’t really flesh out much of the material from the films in a different way, nor did it really offer fans new experiences until the TV anime finally got beyond these arcs and began to offer truly new stories. This combination of factors early on meant that it was a few weeks before Dragon Ball fans truly enjoyed Dragon Ball Super‘s episodes top to bottom.
It just lacked the excitement that a new Dragon Ball anime should have, and it didn’t seem like there was a huge amount of anticipation for those early episodes. And as fans pointed out to the production issues of those first few episodes, it really painted Dragon Ball Super in a bad light. It was an uphill battle from its premiere, but Dragon Ball Super eventually became a much beloved anime series by the time it came to an end (with worldwide livestreams breaking records). It was just a long road to get to that point.
What Dragon Ball Daima Gets Right
Thankfully, Dragon Ball Daima manages to avoid all of these issues right off the bat. From the jump, it’s clear that the production schedule is a lot healthier for this new series. Before its premiere Fuji TV head of programming, Yuichi Nakajima, revealed that “all the episodes [of Dragon Ball Daima] are ready” for broadcast. Which means that there was definitely a good amount of production lead time to allow those working on the series to deliver the best final episodes possible. And it’s been seen in action with the first episode alone.
Not only did the first episode premiere with an extended run time, Dragon Ball Daima has already impressed fans for how everything looks in motion. Character designs are more reminiscent of Akira Toriyama’s later Dragon Ball designs, and the new anime also gets to benefit from nostalgia. As a 40th anniversary celebration, Dragon Ball Daima spends a lot of time getting fans reacquainted with the story of the series itself. A lot of time is spent going back through the previous Dragon Ball Z events, but unlike how Dragon Ball Super did it, Daima used this as a launch for the new story.
Rather than just focus on this flashback showcasing the end of the Majin Buu arc, it’s used as the gateway to bring in new characters and a greater exploration of the Demon Realm. It smartly has these characters watching along and reacting before showcasing how their reaction to the arc is going to launch this new era of the anime. So it’s using older material like Dragon Ball Super, but that older material isn’t the sole reason the episode exists. It’s all in the service of something new. It’s not just a new Dragon Ball episode for Dragon Ball’s sake. It’s clearly the first step in a fun new story.
What Happens to Dragon Ball Daima Now?
The first episode of Dragon Ball Daima has been received well by fans because of how it uses nostalgia to hook fans into a new story, but the real test is going to be how fans react to the actual anime that we’re going to see. Dragon Ball Daima hooks fans in with new footage of Goku and Vegeta fighting, and teasing the kind of action we could see, but ends with Goku and the others being turned into children once more. It’s been clear from the start that Dragon Ball Daima is largely going to focus on Goku Mini heading into the Demon Realm, and that’s going to be the make it or break it moment.
When Dragon Ball Daima starts to look more like Dragon Ball GT and a new younger version of Goku has fights without all of the powers he was able to use before, and the anime is back to episodic adventures through the Demon Realm, it’s going to be the real test as to whether or not fans stick around for what’s next. That’s the danger of getting off to such a hot start as well. That first episode has built up such a hype that a second episode is fighting that uphill battle that Dragon Ball Super did too. It’s just in a wholly different kind of way. But as it stands, Dragon Ball Daima is already getting off to a much better start than Dragon Ball Super did with its own premiere.