Dragon Ball Daima 1×10 Review: “Ocean”

Dragon Ball Daima season one episode 10, titled ‘Ocean’, brought Goku and the rest of the Z-Warriors to the Second Demon Realm while expanding on the lore and featuring a couple of twists.

Ten episodes in, I think I should accept the fact that the writing team behind Dragon Ball Daima still has a bunch of surprises up their sleeves. Not only did the long-running Dragon Ball lore get an update, but Majinn Kuu’s development was extremely unexpected.

With Dr Arinsu ordering the newly created Majinn Kuu to go and defeat the First Tamagami in the previous episode, ‘Ocean’ featured their inevitable battle. However, the outcome wasn’t what Dr Arinsu (or I) had hoped for. It’s revealed that even though Majinn Kuu was powerful enough to throw a couple of punches and shoot some energy attacks, he was definitely not at a strong enough level to defeat the First Tamagami. Majinn Kuu’s surrender made for a comedic moment where he tried to plead his case in front of Dr Arinsu, obviously not wanting her to fire him.

I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t expecting Majinn Kuu to be used for comedic relief in such a manner. His character design felt intimidating enough. And even if he was meant to be unsuccessful against the First Tamagami, I thought he would sulk about said defeat and try to make it up to Dr Arinsu by deciding to attack Goku or the other Z-Warriors.

After seeing Majinn Kuu’s disappointing performance, I’m interested in seeing what the creative team has in store for his character development down the line.

Coming back to Goku and his crew, even though they could have directly entered the First Demon Realm after exiting the Third Demon Realm in a Gendarmerie ship, they instead traveled to the Second Demon Realm because Goku was still interested in collecting the Three Dragon Balls to wish them back to their adult forms. However, they lost their ship due to the gigantic Krakens living in the Second Demon Realm. Apparently, if you flew too close to the surface of the realm’s vast ocean, a Kraken could pop up to eat you whole.

I liked how Panzy was the one who remembered to try and retrieve the Third Dragon Ball when the ship got attacked by a Kraken. She’s got her priorities straight even if it meant putting her life in danger. Also, I do feel that Goku could have used his Instant Transmission technique to get himself and Panzy away from the Kraken’s mouth. But I guess the narrative wanted to build drama.

It was nice to see Goku and Vegeta being afraid of the threat posed by the gigantic Krakens. The two Saiyans weren’t powerful enough to deal with such underwater foes in their current state. It’s rare to see the iconic heroes show such a level of concern. So, it was kind of refreshing to witness.

Speaking of Vegeta, another comedic moment popped up when Hybis stated why Vegeta wanted himself and Bulma to become adults again after Bulma contemplated staying in her child-like form due to the miracles it was doing for her skin. I mean, I don’t fault Vegeta for wanting his married life to go back to how it was.

With the group reuniting after reaching the original homeland of the Namekians, we got a bunch of information from Shin about the creation of the universe and how Glinds like himself were assigned to look after various sectors. From what I could understand, a being called Super Majin Rymus was responsible for said creation. He’s supposed to be the highest authority in the universe.

Rymus made his first-ever appearance in Dragon Ball Daima and hasn’t been mentioned before. Before this particular anime, the fandom thought of the child-like Zeno as the highest authority due to the events that transpired in Dragon Ball Super. But then again, with Dragon Ball Daima taking place in the past, we might get some kind of explanation about where Super Majin Rymus stood with regards to Zeno also existing in the franchise.

So, yes, I can understand how such a change can be seen as a major retcon to Dragon Ball lore. But then again, as far as my opinion goes, the lore in this IP has always gone through retcons to continue increasing the power caps or when trying to find a reason to introduce new characters and storylines to keep it going. Frankly, nothing is set in stone when it comes to the laws of creation in the Dragon Ball IP and I’m okay with that. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

A sad moment occurred when Shin mentioned how the trees responsible for creating Glinds had died. This meant that with no more baby Glinds being born, the Glind race was going to die off down the line. Even if it took thousands of years to happen, it was going to happen unless the Glinds figured out some way to keep their race alive.

Due to Goku and the Z-Warriors continuing their journey together, I’m back to hoping for Vegeta or Piccolo to be the one to fight the Second Tamagami to win the Second Demon Realm’s Dragon Ball. The air in the Second Demon Realm was a lot lighter than the air in the Third Demon Realm. So, our heroes were able to fly around a lot easier by themselves. So, I’m interested in seeing how the change in environment was going to impact their fighting skills.

After seeing Goku and the Z-Warriors entering the Second Demon Realm, King Gomah ordered all of the Gendarmerie to regroup in the First Demon Realm. I guess it’s safe to say that when Goku and his crew enter the First Demon Realm they will need to fight their way through a small army of Gendarmerie. It’s going to be easy for them, but nonetheless annoying to go through such fodder to save a baby Dende. 

At this point, I’m most intrigued by what Dr Arinsu plans to do now that Majinn Kuu failed to meet her expectations. Is she going to push Glorio to make Goku hurry it up when collecting the remaining Dragon Balls?

Also, Goku and his friends eventually finding out about Glorio working with Dr Arinsu is going to make for a dramatic moment. I can’t wait!

What did you think of Dragon Ball Daima episode 10 ‘Ocean’?

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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