Dragon Ball Daima is NOT Dragon Ball GT

Dragon Ball Daima is not Dragon Ball GT. A lot of folks have a lot of thoughts about this series (myself included) and I figured this would be a good way to address some of the more common criticisms I've seen online concerning this brand new series on the horizon.

Do people have cause for concern? Are they right? Or is it a little more complicated than that? Let's see!

MUSIC USED

Daima's Trailer
DBGT Score
Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku (Cover by V0RA)
Character Select (Gunvolt 2)
Menu (SF Third Strike)
Kid Goku (DB Final Bout)
Kid Goku (DBFZ)
Court is in Session (Apollo Justice)
All Out Battle! (Cover by Pokemixr92)
To The Grand Line (Cover by Carameii)
The Land Breathes (FFXIV)
Furnace of War (Tales of Vesperia)
Stage Select (MMX5)
SSJ Caulifla (DBS)

[CometX-ing]

My only real criticism for Daima at this point is that it missed a great opportunity to put the new generation to the forefront of the story. It would have been great if everyone got aged down while Goten, Trunks, Marin, Bulla(?) and Pan all retained their original ages, giving them (or at least Goten and Trunks) a chance to mature a bit or just simply take charge with the support of the now younger adult cast. Goten and Trunks are severely lacking in any sort of prominent spotlight and Daima could have been a chance to rectify that.

[MovieMan]

I will say this, I kinda wish we got more diverse ages for the main cast. Goku, Krillin, Chichi and 18 being roughly the same apparent age is fine but I wished Bulma, Yamcha, and some of the others were a bit closer to their original ages in Dragonball, at least from a design standpoint. Plus I really wish Roshi was an adult man cause it makes me think of that one episode of Futurama with the Fountain of Youth.

"With my last breath, I curse

[norax]

I just want the Moro saga with the shintani style

[lanceams]

As a fan of OG dragon ball, I am both excited and nervous for this change. I am hoping it leads to the same fun adventurous and epic storytelling that series had. I'm not expecting the tournament arcs from then, but I would love for something the gives the same feel as King piccolo, or hell even the lead up through the red ribbon army. The animation alone gives me faith that this will be at the very least entertaining. Will it be good? We'll have to see.

[Insidious_NX]

My personal issues for this upcoming series stems from my own indifference of the "aging down" while maintaining the adult's memories trope in both Western and Eastern media and by extension, isekais tend to dive into this quite a bit. While this does seem like it'll go beyond the scope of constant gags about it, the concept was something I seldomly enjoyed.

That being said, I'm still open to watching the series as it's Dragon Ball to give it a fair chance on whether I'd like it or not.

[kaelmic]

"Are we really going to sit here and act like classic dragon ball doesnt exist?"

Yes mark. Most of the fandom does. Some of them dont even need to pretend!

[christianflora]

As someone who would like to see Super return following the manga arcs, I'm hoping Daima is a good time. It has potential to be really dynamic with the fights.

[tntalchemist]

Toriyama and Toyotaro constantly teasing Goten and Trunks being older and giving Gotenks another shot only to yank it away from us reminds me of the Simpsons episodes where Maggie is grown up in future story episodes but still doesnt talk because of strange circumstances, which makes me think they're doing it deliberatly just to have fun with the whole concept. The current arc in the manga giving them some of the spotlight has me excited for their future past the arc

[Shyningfade]

The thing that worries me the most about this is that they're effectively "starting over", but are they keeping all the same voice actors? At this point, Goku's Japanese VA is 87!
Hopefully this is a short series that is 26 episodes at most. Otherwise, they're going to have to resort to necromancy to keep these characters voiced going forward.

[zerohikari]

You can't help but be disappointed when Super's best arc(Moro) might never be animated and if they do by then Nozawa will be dead(87 years old now).

[Khipher]

Tbh I’m just really happy to see Toriyama this hands on

[xredgambit]

I'm excited for it. Sure I'm hesitant, but with Toryama involved so heavily and now knowing they've already produced the episodes makes me more invested.

[someguy]

Anyone who thinks that people only like Dragonball because of the fights and transformations should watch Dragonball Heroes, because Dragonball Heroes is only action and transformations and nothing else. It isn’t very good because Gohan’s super saiyan 2 transformation isn’t good just because it’s a new flashy power up, it’s good because it was something that was building up throughout the entire series.

[sleepingmorpheus]

My biggest concern is actually that I'm struggling to see the logical reasoning behind babyfying everyone in the first place if they all keep their memories and powers, and how they're going to find logic in keeping Pan, Goten, Trunks, and even Gohan around when their parents were aged back to a point before they ever had children. If everyone who can fight back has been aged back to allow someone to take over the world by making them weaker and unaware, à la Experiment 151 from Lilo and Stitch, then leaving the main cast with their powers and wits doesn't really make sense. If it was a set age reversal for the main cast overall, then not only should certain characters cease to exist, but other characters who have lived for far longer (Roshi) or whose age has little effect on their physical appearance (Piccolo) shouldn't become the same as others and should stay relatively older or at least bigger.

The main issue right now for me though, is that this was clearly something done specifically to the main cast, as the teaser trailer shows human adults being confused in the background at 2:20. So why, if everyone else only got turned into children with all their adult knowledge, would the younger characters get turned into mindless babies..? My best guess is to create some character conflicts and give a reason for certain characters to have to stay behind and look after them, which in most circumstances is considered lazy writing.

[casuallectures]

Me personally, I just feel deflated by the prospect of Daima doing an entirely new story that'll probably be far removed from the other stuff that Super set up that's been dangling for years now with no significant payoff. To this day since the T.O.P ended, there hasn't been a single character or story aside from maybe the games that's seriously explored the other universes and their untapped possibilities. But who knows, maybe leaving those threads to dangle is for the better, it just kinda sucks to not see any follow-through before switching gears

[JaxBlade]

I'll keep my opinions about Daima saved for when the show actually comes out but its funny to me that Everytime I see Kid Goku in Daima I just think of how Goku used to be the lovable pudgy lil kid in original DragonBall vs his Chibi Look now lol I know its Toriyama's Modern style but it still makes me chuckle cause Honestly even going back to DragonBall Super Broly when we saw Kid Vegeta and Kid Raditz in that, they looked more like they were Chibi characters than actual kid versions. It reminds me of how Pikachu used to be as well when you compare him in the early 90s episodes vs how he looks today in them heck even Pre timeskip Chopper vs Post Time Chopper as well haha

[MikeAruba]

I know this won't happen, but I wish Stephanie Nadolny would reprise her role as Kid Goku in Daima.

Edit: Oh snap! Shenron granted my wish!

[housinengi]

Toyria doesnt understand fans want fights and shit

-sees dragon ball heros being so much fights but 75% of the fans ignore it exist as it been running for years at this point-

[AaronBaker-gg]

My issue is it feels like an unnecessary regression instead of further progression

[thetraplord]

My only issue with Daima is that they could've taken the series in this new direction while keeping the characters as adults.