The Screen Scribe

As a hardcore Dragon Ball fan, I must admit that I’m shocked Daima has managed to uphold the level of quality it has managed throughout its run thus far. From character development, worldbuilding, storytelling and visual appeal, it’s easily not just the best Dragon Ball material we’ve gotten in a while, but probably the best anime I’ve watched for quite a while. In saying that, episode 11, “Legends”, has probably been the most frustrating episode thus far. That’s not to say it wasn’t enjoyable. It was, very much so. I just feel it was maybe a little too jampacked and now there is another week of waiting to really see the battle between Vegeta and the Tamagami after weeks of build-up.

Nearly the entire first half of the episode is dominated by the reintroduction of the legendary Namek Neva, who our group of heroes meet and are immediately suspicious of. And rightly so. However, Piccolo sees through the old Nameks senile performance, and the audience is given what could turn out to be critical exposition down the line regarding the Namekians as a race, their origins, and the motivations of the Supreme Demon King Gomah. Though, in saying that, Gomah and Degesu have become nothing more than spectators in the last several episodes. This has been an interesting shift, as the narrative has pivoted towards Dr. Arinsu as the main antagonist. Though I’m still keeping an eye out for the Tertian Oculus that mysteriously still hasn’t shown up.

The rest of the first act is then taken up with the birth of yet another Majin manifestation. This one, named Majin Duu, is more reminiscent of Fat Buu and behaves and fights very much like him. However, having seen the Majin brothers interact, which in itself is hilarious, they are beginning to remind me more of the stages of the Fusion Dance when it goes wrong. The skinny one. The obese one. And then the perfect one. I do hope I’m right, and that we have a proper powerful new Majin to come. A fusion of the two perhaps? Or maybe Duu will gobble up Kuu? There certainly is precedence for it. Meanwhile Duu does actually put up a decent fight against the #1 Tamagami, albeit using a strange and almost farcical fighting style that he seems to learn on the fly, evidenced by ki blasting himself in the face.

This contrasts greatly with Vegeta’s brief opening bout with Tamagami #2 at the very end of the episode. Now, as all Dragon Ball fans are acutely aware of, especially Vegeta diehards like myself, Akira Toriyama (may he rest in peace) always had a tendency to rob Vegeta of key wins and important moments and tag Goku back in. Seeing him struggle against the Tamagami in his base form doesn’t necessarily worry me, as Goku struggled a bit too, and one would assume the Tamagami’s strength increases from 3 to 2 to 1. But I’m just hoping that Toriyama didn’t do the Prince of All Saiyans dirty again. Vegeta is well overdue a big moment.

And this was the frustrating part of the episode. It packed so much in and left very little room for action. The warmup, as the Saiyans like to call them, is now out of the way. Vegeta is up next and I’m sincerely hoping he gets the treatment he deserves.

3 / 5 ✨ from the Screen Scribe.

Dragon Ball Daima airs every Friday on Netflix and Crunchyroll.