The Screen Scribe

Picking up where episode 2 left off, episode 3 finds our heroes embarking on the next step of their journey and entering the Demon Realm at long last. Goku and the Supreme Kai join newcomer Glorio in his ‘demon plane’ and speed away from Earth, much to Goku’s delight, and travel to a Warp point. While this was covered extensively in the premiere, it’s a fun way to elicit reactions of awe and enthusiasm for both Goku and the Supreme Kai, highlighting just how rare it is for members of the mortal world to travel to the Demon Realm.

While travelling to a destination away from Earth on a new adventure is not exactly groundbreaking for the Dragon Ball franchise, our first proper look at the Demon Realm cements the new location as among possibly the most fascinating and most visually appealing. Personally, I always loved the world of the Supreme Kai’s, both in the anime and whatever Dragon Ball game I happen to be playing at the time. But the Demon Realm offers a look at the wonderful new elements that Dragon Ball now has to play with. I especially appreciated that the atmosphere made it more difficult for Goku to move, giving him another obstacle to overcome and not just being overpowered as he usually is.

The episode was again exposition heavy as the audience is introduced to the Demon World through the eyes of Goku and Supreme Kai, guided by the knowledge of Glorio. He’s an interesting guy, Glorio. I’m getting distinct rogue-ish vibes reminiscent of Han Solo, even down to his attire. Supreme Kai questions and probes Glorio as they journey into the Demon Realm and appears to hold reservations about how much they can trust him. But the rogue proves himself quite capable as he defends the group from bandits, obtains a hotel room for them after an attempted shake down, and showcases his hand-to-hand abilities in a bar room brawl. I’m very interested to see how his character develops as our heroes travel further.

While the episode was a little heavy on exposition, it does set things up nicely for the narrative development. We are shown the Demon Realm is segregated into three different kingdoms and this establishes it as a very traditional Dragon Ball set up: multiple levels to traverse through, likely multiple opponents that increase in power as they advance, until ultimately they arrive at Gomah. Simple, but effective, because let’s be honest, Dragon Ball has never been known for its complex narrative plot lines. No, we want battles and transformations and Super Saiyan rage outs.

Speaking of fights, we get our first proper fight toward the climax of the episode. Goku, perhaps inevitably, gets hungry again and so our group go for demon hamburgers in a bar that ultimately, and amusingly, results in Goku taking on the entire bar while stuffing himself with hamburgers at the same time. The animation is again of superb quality and really shines during the fight sequence. I genuinely can’t wait to see the first serious, proper fight of the series and for a change, I am quite excited to see the original Super Saiyan form in all its glory.

Overall, another solid entry, if a bit tedious in that it’s mostly more set up. But hey, it’s more Dragon Ball, what more can I ask for?

3 / 5 ✨ from the Screen Scribe.

Dragon Ball Daima airs every Friday on Netflix and Crunchyroll.