'Dragon Ball DAIMA' First Impressions: Suddenly, my Dragon Ball interest has revived

I've really been feeling that itch for something Dragon Ball lately, perhaps going through a bout of nostalgia over the days in which I would watch it as it aired on television after school. I have been awfully behind with the franchise though, and I've been considering jumping into it from the very start again and just ignoring the filler episodes where they appear. But I noticed that last year a new Dragon Ball series started airing and finished, a significantly shorter series that tends to be a rarity within this franchise. And it just so happened to be the last Dragon Ball product that its creator worked on before his death. With just twenty episodes, it felt like it was worth jumping into even if I was a bit behind, reading that it was to be considered a bit of a sequel to the Dragon Ball Z series. Another that I will inevitably return to in the coming weeks as that itch remains. I have been missing this story, and these characters. The over the top anatomy in the art, the silly animations that follow the fight scenes, and the nonsensical characters and their designs that made the stories so engaging to begin with. How could you not love the creepy Grandpa Gohan? Or the alien designs of Frieza? I think the only thing that has stopped me throughout the years from picking up these stories and seeing these characters again has been those large numbers of episodes, and so little time to get into it. So, DAIMA first!

Fortunately, for people like me that barely remember a thing from those days, DAIMA starts with an episode that basically serves as a recap of the events from Dragon Ball Z, how with each fight the main cast prevailed and defeated their foes, but also how this meant that one specific foe would then be placed into power. Watching over the events that had led to this, he thinks of a way to claim that power over the Demon Realm without having to face everyone that resides on Earth with clearly significantly higher power. With the realisation of the Dragon Balls offering wishes, they head over to Earth, one of which being an elderly Namek that had the power to collect the Dragon Balls and call upon their power to bring out the dragon that can grant the wishes; though to their stupidity they don't quite realise that there are many things they could've wished for, and the best plan they came up with was to simply wish that all the Earth characters that could be potential threats to them are turned into children. Not particularly specific in their wishes, but the wish is granted by the dragon given that is how this whole thing works. The cast are turned back into children, though they maintain their minds as adults. Fully aware of what had happened, and pretty much just as strong as before, just significantly younger now. The episode having that recap was nice, which also allowed the following episodes to just jump into things.

Given it is a 20 episode show, there's definitely a high quality to its animation. Regarding that recap: the show also utilised the original show's scenes to display them rather than some exposition dump coming straight from characters discussing the events. The newer stuff though: it looks really fresh. And I guess having a lower episode number does allow for more budget to be allocated per episode, and it really shows. There is a little bit of the 3D stuff when it comes to certain objects: Warp-sama and ships tend to have a bit of a look to them that doesn't quite fit the hand drawn animation that's present in character movements, nor quite matching with the backgrounds. It's a bit different to the originals where even cars and driving would've been hand drawn. But so far that seems to be about it, there's not too much of an emphasis on the 3D side of things. The character animations and their expressions are all hand drawn and look incredibly good, all without compromising much of that original look that they had. It definitely looks new, and that's mostly in the colours and rather clean lines with it all being digital these days. Perhaps that's somewhat how things even looked back in Dragon Ball Super, but I can't quite remember.

There's definitely a nice attention to detail in the sound design too. Whether it's the music or just ambient music and sound that adds to the atmosphere. It's quite easy to overlook some of these, and I do think the show really performs best if you're wearing some headphones or something as to not miss them. I really liked the ambient side of things, it felt like it was an aspect of filmmaking that had been lost in time, but I guess with this being a show that takes place almost immediately after Dragon Ball Z ended, it would have the same visual and audio style for the most part. It's great at the world building because of this, even the Demon Realm ended up pulling me straight back to the Dragon Ball days of pink skies and rocky textured terrain. Dragon Ball has always been good at giving its characters unique sounds that match their abilities and strength, but also creating a universe that is quite rich and immersive. I think this might just pull me back into those original stories from the very start!

There is one thing I wanted to write about here: to some degree one might look at this and consider it a sudden soulless attempt at a reboot and sequel, something that doesn't necessarily need to be made and takes advantage of the success of its predecessors. It's a thought that briefly crossed my mind shortly before jumping into this, but the more I watch, the less this feels the case. There's a strong quality to this show that doesn't feel like it's relying on nostalgia, nor does its narrative feel lazy in essentially turning everyone back into children to bring them back to those 'glory days'. We do have that recap, but it's enough. And the rest just proceeds from there to tell its story. There's next to nothing that feels cheap and lazy about this, and I can see how pretty much any existing Dragon Ball fan would be excited for it. I don't think I actually have any negative things to say about the show so far, I'm quite surprised at how much I have been enjoying it. And I'm really looking forward to seeing some of those fight sequences appear! Current pacing has been quite tame in this regard, with the most being a bit of a bar fight. I don't think it'll take me long to get through the whole 20 episodes though, it has quickly become something I binge through. I definitely recommend it so far.