Dragon Ball’s New Mysterious Adventure
A new Dragon Ball series has finally been announced, but I’m putting it lightly by saying it wasn’t one younger and (let’s be honest here, mostly) older fans were waiting for.
Dragon Ball Daima will come with an alternative concept compared to other recent Dragon Ball media, though it’s not entirely original for Dragon Ball’s history. Here, Goku and his many friends and family members are transformed into kids again, thanks to a currently-undescribed conspiracy. Goku and at least one other friend head off to a new world to find whoever transformed them, and to find a solution to transform them back. The idea is coming from creator Akira Toriyama, who provided all the old-new designs and the concept for the new series, similar to the duties he’s provided for other recent Dragon Ball Z and Super anime.
The trailer makes it very clear that Goku and his friends and family have become kids again this time. The fact that this includes his friends and family is important, to ensure that this won’t simply be Dragon Ball GT done right. (GT had several sold ideas, but used them poorly at best.) But Daima’s concept is clearly made to channel the original Dragon Ball and GT, mainly through Goku. Toriyama mentioned in his statement how Goku will use the Power Pole again, something he hasn’t used in several Dragon Ball generations. Considering Toriyama’s penchant for forgetting stuff, it’s possible he just remembered it.
The concept itself is also made to recapture the sense of adventure from the original Dragon Ball series, further indicated through this being the 40th anniversary work. There’s a high chance of this concept being realized far more swimmingly than GT. With Toriyama at the helm, I’m a bit more confident that they’ll do so. But I’ll have to see more.
This announcement itself wasn’t too surprising. The series was rumored for nearly a month, with the details getting the reveal date of October 12th (at the currently-ongoing New York Comic-Con) right. But these rumors about the series’ concept itself were bound to be true. Few asked for a new Dragon Ball series focused on Kid Goku that wasn’t a remake of the original Dragon Ball. The rumors about this were too intricate and the near-antithesis of what the fanbase wanted, that specifically being an adaptation of the Dragon Ball Super stories beyond the Tournament of Power arc. It was always going to be real. It was even reportedly called “Dragon Ball Magic” at one point.
That said, not all the details from those rumors were legitimate. A portion of them stated that the series would begin in the first half of 2024, which is certainly much earlier than fall of 2024. Those details also said the series would be around 14 or 15 episodes, which doesn’t appear to be the case either. Popular Dragon Ball leaker AJay mentioned how not even Toei’s production team knows how long the series will be at this point. Assuming it’s popular enough, it could go for as long as Toei wants it to.
I was a little down on the concept when the rumors first manifested, but I’m strangely into what Toriyama and Toei are concocting for this series. I enjoyed Dragon Ball Z, Super, and the concepts of GT, but a part of me misses the spirit of adventure the original Dragon Ball offered. The original series remains underappreciated to this day, especially outside Japan and Asia, and it’s no surprise that those territories are the most into this idea. It also makes sense that Goku is a kid again. He was flanderized to the point of having a child-like mentality at least in Super, so making him a child again will work. Dragon Ball has a history of squandering some potential, but I’m hopeful that most of that will be delivered on here.
That said, I’m a little disappointed in some outfit choices shown thus far. Goku looks fine, a character with few (canonical) outfit changes over many years. Master Roshi also looks great, though his bald Chibi form is perhaps a hint that he’s merely his current iteration shrunk down, and not that he wore a toupee when he was younger. But it’s a real missed opportunity that characters like Bulma, Chi-Chi, Piccolo and Krillin keep their same looks, albeit in Chibi form. I was hoping they’d tap into the original Dragon Ball nostalgia a little further there. Perhaps there’s still an opportunity for that to happen, and this is just a work in progress.
It’s also curious that Gohan’s family is missing in action in this trailer. Gohan has the chance to be relevant again (his adult form is one of those pieces of squandered Dragon Ball potential), so I hope they haven’t done anything silly like, uh, leave him an adult. We’ll see.
The entire concept seems less like a retread of GT-but-potentially good, but more a series that will inherit the adventurous sensibilities of not only the original series, but Dragon Quest and Blue Dragon with Dragon Ball trappings. This will make sense, considering rumors that the Toei team responsible for Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is working on this. Toei and Toriyama should have plenty more to show in the time leading up to this series’ premiere in a whole goddamned year. I’ll probably get answers to the questions above before it starts.
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Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
