The following contains spoilers for Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 20, “Maximum”.
As the series Akira Toriyama worked on more than any other in recent years, Dragon Ball DAIMA felt like the first true canon continuation of Dragon Ball since Dragon Ball Super. While the two haven’t always seemed to perfectly align in every way, DAIMA has seemed to fit fairly well into Dragon Ball Super – barring a few minor inconsistencies along the way. However, these inconsistencies have built up throughout the series to paint a picture of Dragon Ball DAIMA as potentially being completely separate from Dragon Ball Super, and DAIMA’s finale only doubled down on that possibility.
Of all the retcons and inconsistencies between Dragon Ball DAIMA and Dragon Ball Super, it was DAIMA Episode 20, “Maximum”, that apparently put the nail in the coffin. It was already becoming increasingly difficult to place Dragon Ball Super and DAIMA in the same continuity, but Dragon Ball DAIMA’s season finale officially made it all-but-impossible. The one silver lining in the Nimbus Cloud is that Akira Toriyama himself was never really one to worry much about continuity or canon. In that sense, Dragon Ball DAIMA is at least a fitting ending that honors Toriyama’s vision as much as any piece of art he has created this side of the original run of the Dragon Ball manga.
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Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 20 Closes the Anime Out With 1 Final Tribute to Akira Toriyama
Dragon Ball DAIMA’s final episode — while predictable — is a soothing celebration of Goku and a fitting farewell to Akira Toriyama’s rich world.
Goku Training For Super Saiyan 4 Is Both In-Character & Totally Inconsistent
One Line in Dragon Ball DAIMA’s Finale Changed Everything
Goku’s Super Saiyan 4 transformation in Dragon Ball DAIMA was a big deal from the moment it was revealed. As Dragon Ball GT’s biggest form, potentially canonizing it in the same timeline as Dragon Ball Super (which is largely considered the most canon continuation of Dragon Ball Z since Toriyama personally worked on it himself) had massive implications for the series going forward. That includes the confusinf question of how exactly Super Saiyan 4 could fit into Dragon Ball Super’s continuity of the series, which is still ongoing. As many fans have noted since Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 18 first aired, Goku explicitly states in the God of Destruction Beerus Saga of Super that SSJ3 is still his strongest form at that point.
This makes no sense in a world where SSJ4 is canon to Dragon Ball DAIMA because DAIMA takes place one year after the Buu Saga. This was all already strange, but up until Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 20, it wasn’t irreconcilable. After all, Goku had only achieved the form following a potential unlock he received thanks to Neva, the Legendary Namekian’s magic. It was presumed by most in the fandom that this would restrict Goku to only being able to use Super Saiyan 4 with Neva’s help, but this seems not to be the case. Episode 19 already suggested otherwise when Goku once again powered up to SSJ4 completely on his own as an adult. Still, this could’ve been explained away by the fact that he was still using some of Neva’s remaining magic power.
Instead, Goku disproves this last bastion of hope in Episode 20 during a brief discussion with Vegeta.
Buu was really strong, so I trained a lot after fightin’ him. I wasn’t sure if it would work, though.
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Dragon Ball DAIMA Ends With a Major Dragon Ball Super Plot Hole Left Unresolved
Dragon Ball Daima has ended, but many questions remain unresolved regarding Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta, Super Saiyan 4 Goku and Dragon Ball Super.
After the battle against Gomah has been won, Vegeta complains that Goku was keeping his new transformation from him: calling back to how Vegeta became angry at Goku for keeping Super Saiyan 3 secret from him during the Buu Saga. To this, Goku responds that he had actually been training for the form for a while, but couldn’t figure out how to make it “work”. Apparently, that’s where Neva came in. It seems Goku was already on the verge of achieving Super Saiyan 4 before Neva pulled it out of him, allowing him to finally transform. On the one hand, this is a far better explanation of Goku’s new power-up & much more in line with his character than it first seemed.
Goku being granted Super Saiyan 4 by Neva instead of gaining it himself doesn’t quite align as much with his character as most other transformations do. Goku is always trying to grow and surpass his limitations, so Neva simply granting him this new form for free didn’t fit as well with Dragon Ball’s overarching themes. On the other hand, Goku being on the verge of Super Saiyan 4 before Neva pulled it out of him essentially makes the form completely inconsistent with Dragon Ball Super in a way that it wouldn’t have been had he only been able to use it with Neva’s help. Episode 20 was a big moment as fans were watching to see just how SSJ4 would be made to fit in with Dragon Ball Super’s continuity, but not only did they not get any answers, the episode seemingly confirmed Dragon Ball DAIMA just doesn’t fit with Dragon Ball Super at all.
Most of Dragon Ball DAIMA’s Plotholes Could’ve Been Explained Away
Dragon Ball DAIMA Worked With Super Right Up Until The Series Finale
While Dragon Ball DAIMA already had a few inconsistencies with Dragon Ball Super that could be called “plot holes”, none of them were ever really canon-breaking. For example, Kibito Kai de-fusing with Buu’s help before the events of Dragon Ball DAIMA was inconsistent with him de-fusing using the Dragon Balls prior to Dragon Ball Super, but that was far from story-breaking. Additionally, Piccolo not being able to speak Namekian was problematic in Dragon Ball DAIMA considering he could speak Namekian since his first introduction in early Dragon Ball, but some fans considered whether he was just keeping his cards close to his chest out of a potential distrust of Neva.
Even the biggest retcon of all, Super Saiyan 3 Vegeta, isn’t entirely irreconcilable with Dragon Ball DAIMA. Although Vegeta never goes Super Saiyan 3 in Dragon Ball Super and never even mentions that he can use the form, it’s fairly clear he always should have been. After all, if he could achieve a form higher than SSJ3, it made zero sense for him not to be able to access it from the start. In that sense, Dragon Ball DAIMA actually fixed a problem Dragon Ball Super had more than it caused one. The one big issue with this was that Vegeta never used Super Saiyan 3 against Beerus, but that was never something a fan theory or two couldn’t solve.
It’s like a bargain sale of Super Saiyans
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Even as a Super Saiyan 3 stronger than ever in Dragon Ball DAIMA, Vegeta just can’t seem to catch a break in his quest to outdo his rival.
In fact, Dragon Ball DAIMA’s final episode at least partially helped explain the kind of mindset Vegeta would need to have to avoid using Super Saiyan 3 in the future. When Goku mentions that Vegeta could use SSJ3, Vegeta corrects him: “That transformation was, uh… it’s Ultra Vegeta 1!” Vegeta choosing to name the form his own thing rather than what Goku did, shows how the Saiyan Prince always seeks to be different from Kakarot, no matter what. Vegeta wants to carve his own path to power, and hates following in Goku’s footsteps. This actually provides some basis for why Vegeta might not use Super Saiyan 3 in Dragon Ball Super, even if he never outright explains it again.
The issue is a bit more complicated with SSJ4, though. While Vegeta never used SSJ3 in Dragon Ball Super, he also never claimed it was his strongest form. In contrast, Goku literally expressed in Dragon Ball Super that Super Saiyan 3 was his most powerful transformation, outright confirming that Super Saiyan 4 didn’t exist in Dragon Ball Super’s version of events. SSJ4 Goku is Dragon Ball DAIMA’s biggest plothole in relation to Dragon Ball Super yet, but that doesn’t even mean it’ll stay that way forever. It’s possible a future story could expand on the events, confirming that Goku still won’t be able to use the form again after he leaves the Demon Realm. He could’ve still been working off the power-up from Neva even as an adult against Gomah, allowing him to tap into a Super Saiyan 4. Perhaps he even tries to do it again in the years leading up to the Beerus Saga – to no avail.
These are possibilities that Super could still include in its own narrative, thereby retconning Dragon Ball DAIMA’s own retcon and making Super Saiyan 4 work in Dragon Ball Super’s canon. As it stands now, though, Dragon Ball DAIMA effectively separated itself even further from Dragon Ball Super’s continuity with its final episode.
Dragon Ball DAIMA’s Ending Seems To Have Split The Series’ Canon Once Again
Akira Toriyama Either Lefr Fans With One Last Puzzle to Solve, or a Lesson to Remember
Following Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 20, there seems to be three entirely separate canons of Dragon Ball: that of DAIMA, that of Dragon Ball Super, and that of Dragon Ball GT. None of these different sequel series are completely reconcilable with one another, yet all of them build directly off the original run of Dragon Ball in their own ways. Since each of these sequel continuations technically occur in different periods after (or, in the cases of Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball DAIMA, in the middle of) Dragon Ball Z, they could technically all fit in with the story. Unfortunately, each of these series has story beats and concepts which directly contradict all the others, making it seem more likely than ever that none of them were ever meant to fit alongside each other.
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Now that Goku can turn Super Saiyan 4 whenever he wants, Battle of Gods is basically a walking plot hole.
If Dragon Ball DAIMA was actually supposed to fit in the same canon as Dragon Ball Super, its final episode would’ve definitely retconned a major aspect of Dragon Ball Super‘s introductory Saga. On the other hand, because it seems more likely than not that Dragon Ball DAIMA was just never supposed to fit in with Dragon Ball Super in the first place, this means that Dragon Ball DAIMA didn’t retcon Super, as neither of them took place in the same continuity to begin with. This isn’t out of character for Akira Toriyama to pull. Toriyama infamously wrote his story in an adhoc manner from week-to-week, never really planning ahead.
Instead of consistency, what mattered most to Toriyama was always shocking and surprising the audience with twists they could’ve never seen coming. To that end, Dragon Ball DAIMA was a resounding success right until the last episode, as pretty much all fans’ predictions about what was going to happen were repeatedly proven false (sorry, fusion fans). It’s still not impossible for Dragon Ball Super to go in and retcon some of its inconsistencies with Dragon Ball DAIMA. Now that Akira Toriyama is gone and Super is left in the hands of Toyotarou, it would make more sense for him to include these changes in his own continuity to try to fit everything in. On the other hand, it could be that Dragon Ball DAIMA could continue on as its own separate storyline that branches off from Dragon Ball Super entirely.
This would lead to two separate ongoing series occurring simultaneously and independent of one another. Ultimately, perhaps even considering what could possibly come next is precisely beside the point insofar as Toriyama’s art is concerned. That seems to be Akira Toriyama’s final message to the fandom with Dragon Ball DAIMA: it’s okay to just have fun and stop thinking for a while to enjoy the fight. After all, that’s what Goku would do.
Dragon Ball DAIMA is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
Dragon Ball DAIMA
- Release Date
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October 11, 2024
- Writers
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Akira Toriyama
