Dragon Ball Daima has finally made its highly anticipated premiere as part of the now airing Fall 2024 anime schedule, and the premiere episode has already shaken up what we know about the Dragon Balls. Dragon Ball Daima is a brand new entry in the long running Dragon Ball franchise as part of the celebration for its 40th anniversary. It’s the final new anime with a story and new characters from the late creator Akira Toriyama, and the first episode has already made some significant changes to the overall canon of the franchise as it introduces a whole new realm with an expanded Demon Realm.
Though the Demon Realm has been a part of Dragon Ball since the early days of the manga, it’s yet to be full explored on the level that fans have seen with the Other World or the multiverse in the other anime releases. Dragon Ball Daima’s first episode sees the Demon Realm introduced with several new characters who will be serving as the antagonists going forward, and it turns out that this realm has a much bigger connection to the Dragon Ball the entire time. They’ve all come from this region and use Black or White magics depending on which ones are used.
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Dragon Ball Confirms Namekians Are Demons, Not Aliens
The first major change is one of the biggest as Dragon Ball Daima confirms that the Namekians originally came from the Demon Realm. This makes a lot of sense as Demon King Piccolo introduced himself as such during the original Dragon Ball manga, but was questioned when it was revealed that Piccolo was a part of a species living on Planet Namek. But it turns out that even this origin isn’t completely it as the Namekians are beings that have indeed come from the Demon Realm.
While this isn’t a retcon, and more of a reconfirmation of Toriyama’s original Demon King Piccolo idea, this actually has huge ramifications for the Dragon Balls and their origin. Dragon Ball Daima then introduces Neva, a Namekian who has actually created a set of Dragon Balls specific to the Demon Realm. Although they’re guarded by powerful beings and can’t even seem to be used by the Demon Realm themselves as a result, this also means that the magic in the Dragon Balls is demonic in nature and tied to their ultimate Demon Realm origin.
Dragon Balls Have Demonic Power
If Namekians are from the Demon Realm, then the Dragon Balls are rooted in the same magic found in the Demon Realm as well. There’s an additional wrinkle added to them as well as while Gomah and Degesu (new characters introduced as the new leaders of the Demon Realm) are trying to use Earth’s Dragon Balls, they think a bit about what kind of wishes they can make. It’s then explained that there’s both a “Black” and “White” magic behind the Balls. Depending on whoever forged the set of Dragon Balls, it could change the wishes used on them as well.
The example used is that a “black” magic wish would be to eliminate them, so they needed a “white” wish instead like making everyone younger as seen later in the premiere itself. This further indicates that the Dragon Balls originally came from the Demon Realm as these two knew so much about them already. While they didn’t know about the Shenron variant seen on Earth, they already had plenty of knowledge about Porunga on Namek.
If the Dragon Balls indeed had a demonic source of power at their center, it’s certainly raising questions about all of the versions we’ve seen throughout the franchise. How influential is the Demon Realm that they’re allowed to have magical items like these in the living world? And what does it mean for all of the wishes used on them already? We could be heading towards a full Dragon Ball GT like saga here as a result.