Dragon Ball Daima 1×01 Review: “Conspiracy”

The premiere episode of the latest Dragon Ball Daima anime didn’t waste any time setting the stage for the premise. I don’t know if I’ll continue reviewing this anime weekly, but ‘Conspiracy’ sure piqued my interest. I’m looking forward to seeing what will happen next to Goku and the Z-Fighters.

Being a highly-anticipated project by the late Akira Toriyama, I had to at least watch the first episode to see what’s up. The decision to turn Goku and the rest of the characters into kids while they faced a mission in the dangerous Demon Realm sounded exciting to me. And I have to say that ‘Conspiracy’ didn’t disappoint.

I liked how the creative team took the time to connect Dragon Ball Daima with the rest of the Dragon Ball lore. The current story seems to be set after the Majin Buu Saga. The episode opened with two characters named Gomah and Dagasu going through footage of Goku and the Z-Fighters battling Majin Buu (the memories!). Of course, Gomah and Dagasu were surprised to witness Earth having such incredibly powerful beings as protectors.

Even though Gomah and Dagasu needed to be fleshed out more as characters, I do feel that what we got in the debut episode served as a nice introduction for the antagonists. With Dabura gone, Gomah’s now the king of the Demon Realm. Dagasu happened to be Gomah’s advisor/assistant. He’s also Shin or the Supreme Kai’s brother.

The two coming to the realization they didn’t have access to the necessary firepower to defeat Goku and the rest made sense. Their fear served to justify why they decided to use Earth’s Dragon Balls to grant three wishes for nefarious purposes. It’s also revealed that while the Demon Realm had Dragon Balls, too, no one had been granted a wish because they were fiercely protected. So, yeah, I guess those specific Dragon Balls and their protectors will come into play down the line.

Another thing that excited me about this project was the story featuring a female villain. ‘Conspiracy’ introduced her as Dr. Arisu, Shin and Dagasu’s sister. Apparently, she’s been working on a bunch of projects and seemed to have her own plans when it came to how to use Earth’s Dragon Balls. From what I can tell, she’s clearly smarter than her brother and Gomah. So, I’m looking forward to seeing Dr. Arisu cementing herself as the big bad of this anime, especially when the long-running Dragon Ball lore has had a scarcity of female villains.

With Dagasu and Gomah traveling to Earth, they were able to easily retrieve the seven Dragon Balls and even had them capable of summoning Shenron due to bringing along a very ancient Namek named Neva. Yes, Neva kind of came across as a plot convenience, but in a way, his history with creating the Demon Realm’s Dragon Balls and how that led him to manipulate Earth’s Dragon Balls as well did make sense to me in context.

As for our heroes, they were busy celebrating Trunk’s ninth birthday and thus were oblivious to what was taking place. And yes, after eating their fill Goku and Vegeta decided to have a battle up in the sky. Those two will never change.

‘Conspiracy’ concluded with Gomah making his first wish to turn Goku and his friends into kids (closer to first-graders). I understood why Gomah thought turning them into children would mean they would become weaker. However, he’s going to be in for a rude awakening because even kid Goku isn’t to be messed with. Also, Gomah needed to be very specific when making his wish in front of Shenron. Turning the Z-Fighters into children didn’t mean their power levels would be diminished.

Also, Dr. Arisu is likely going to throw a wrench in Gomah’s plans to state his remaining two wishes. And there seems to be a mysterious person ready to help Goku reverse the impact of the de-aging wish. 

All in all, the debut of Dragon Ball Daima struck the right balance between well-detailed animation, raising the stakes, some action, and quite a bit of comedy. I have high hopes for this series.

What did you think of Dragon Ball Daima anime episode 1 ‘Conspiracy’?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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