Akira Toriyama’s evergreen shonen series, Dragon Ball, is in the middle of an exciting and rejuvenating new period thanks to Dragon Ball DAIMA, a new anime. Dragon Ball DAIMA is set between Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super’s events and tells a bold story that beautifully expands upon the franchise’s universe. Supreme Demon King Gomah hatches a scheme to get revenge on Goku and company for their role in Dabura’s defeat. Gomah makes a Dragon Ball wish that transforms everyone into seemingly helpless children — first-graders, to be exact — before they return to the Demon Realm with a baby Dende in tow. The heroes are eager to reverse this curse, but these specific circumstances mean that they’ll have to head to the mysterious Demon Realm and take on its many threats.
Bulma tirelessly works on Shin’s spaceship in order to get it in working shape to travel to this devious destination. However, the heroes get a bit of a break when a rogue Demon named Glorio shows up to ask for Goku’s help. Goku heads off to the Demon Realm, alongside Glorio and Shin, which could have easily put an end to everyone else’s stories. Fortunately, Bulma declares that she’ll continue to work on fixing Shin’s ship and that Vegeta, Piccolo, and presumably Kibito, will catch up with them. This may seem like an innocuous detail, but Dragon Ball DAIMA’s decision to split up the heroes into two separate teams could be a crucial ingredient to the new series’ success.
Two Teams Is A Better Way To Cover More Ground In A Completely New Realm
Dragon Ball DAIMA has only just begun and its exploration and showcase of the Demon Realm has only been minimal at this point. However, Dragon Ball DAIMA’s opening and closing credits give a vaster view of this dimension, all of which gives the impression that it’s the size of an entire universe. There seem to be separate planets and diverse flora and fauna in the Demon Realm. This implies that the Demon Realm is a solar system-like entity and not just some demonic substitute to Other World. There’s a tremendous amount to explore and experience here, and it’d likely be impossible for one team of heroes to cover all this ground. A singular team of Goku, Shin, and Glorio would be extremely limited in how much of the Demon Realm they can experience. Alternatively, they visit multiple destinations in a single episode, but with chaotic pacing that rushes through lush locations where they don’t get the attention that they deserve. Two separate teams of heroes help solve this problem, since they can be in different locations at the same time. This is the smartest way to fully take advantage of everything that the Demon Realm has to offer.
Additionally, two hero teams mean that they can tackle different goals without one task impeding the other. Goku is eager to rescue Dende, while Vegeta and Piccolo are eager to be turned back to normal. These contrasting goals can be tackled at the same time if there’s more than one team in play, rather than Goku needing to disregard Dende, or the Dragon Balls, depending on what he chooses to tackle. Dragon Ball Z adopted a similar approach when the heroes headed to Planet Namek to retrieve the planet’s Dragon Balls. There were multiple teams in motion here – Vegeta, then Gohan, Krillin, and Bulma, then Goku’s fated arrival, followed by Piccolo’s resurrection – all of which arrived on Namek at different times. This structure helped the characters take on unique tasks and experience different Namekian locations.