Dragon Ball Daima: Episode 20 - Official Discussion Thread

[VegettoEX]

Dragon Ball Daima: Episode 20 (FINAL EPISODE)

ゼンカイ
Zenkai
Maximum

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Kanzenshuu Episode Guide Page:

https://www.kanzenshuu.com/episode/daima/eps-020/

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Release Information:

JAPAN:
Date: February 28, 2025
Time: Around 11:40 p.m
Channel: Fuji TV

INTERNATIONAL STREAMING:
Date: February 28, 2025
Sources: Simulcast streams include Crunchyroll (North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and Middle East); delayed streams include Netflix (Asia/global)

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THREAD/DISCUSSION INFORMATION

Q: What is this thread?

A: This is the singular/dedicated discussion thread for Dragon Ball Daima episode 20, the series' final episode. All content regarding this specific episode would be great to include here in this thread, rather than a dedicated / larger / all-encompassing ongoing thread. Posts that are specific to this individual episode in another thread with no relevance to the larger series or discussion taking place there will be reported and/or removed.

Q: When will this thread open?

A: This thread will be opened by a Kanzenshuu moderator when the episode is available to watch, through official channels, in its entirety.

Q: What is the history behind a [blank]-specific discussion thread?

A: We established episode-specific discussion threads beginning with Dragon Ball Kai in 2009, followed by the Dragon Ball Super television series in 2015. These episode-specific threads allowed people to discuss just that: those specific episodes, without being interrupted by other discussions regarding general production, promotion, etc. This is in contrast to, for example, other things on our website like our podcast reviews, which generally tackle story arcs as complete wholes.

Q: OK, but... so what's the point?

A: At Kanzenshuu we believe in history and preservation. It is worthwhile to future versions of ourselves and entirely new future fans to be able to dig back and find real-time reactions to specific productions (such as a specific episode or chapter). It's much easier to do this when the discussions are separated into these unique threads.

Q: When will new threads be created?

A: Threads for new/upcoming episodes will be created by a Kanzenshuu administrator at an appropriate point in time. Please do not attempt to create episode discussion threads of your own.

Q: What kinds of "sources" can we discuss?

A: You can discuss whatever you want, so long as it lives up to the community guidelines. It is recommended that you link to / discuss actual sources of information, rather than second-hand accounts. Random Twitter users are not "sources" of information. Shueisha has its own official Dragon Ball website and weekly news broadcast on YouTube, and then there is of course Dragon Ball Daima's own official website, which will in all likelihood be your actual primary sources of information leading up to an episode’s release.

Q: What if I have something to say about another episode that's not this episode?

A: Is what you have to say/ask/post even tangentially related to this episode? That's fine. Does it have absolutely nothing to do with this episode? Post it elsewhere. These episode-specific threads do not automatically close after a new episode comes out; you are free to keep discussing a specific episode for as long as you all feel like talking about it.

Q: How does this relate to [insert example here]? Why isn't [insert example here] lining up with [insert example here] from [insert example here]?

A: We don't know! We're all learning along the way! Maybe everything counts! Maybe nothing counts! Maybe only certain things count!

[AliTheZombie13]

THE EPISODE

Goddamit, Piccolo. You had one chance. ONE CHANCE. And you failed miserably.
Can somebody please tell me why were you brought along?

Look at all these whatevers in the background cheering for Koo.
Look at everybody being happy that the air in the Demon Realm is lighter now.
I would really have loved to watch a series where we go into great length about why everybody hates the bad air, and why everybody hated living in the First Demon Realm, so much that the Gendarjdgfaksdtfiky actually hated working for Gomah and now they're cheering for Koo instead... But that's not the story we got.

And once again, here is Dragon Ball proving that Vegeta's "development" in Z was a fluke.
He learned absolutely nothing.

By far, this is the episode where I most felt Toriyama's influence shining. If there is one episode in this whole series that I can say, "Toriyama's hands are all over this." It's this one. It's a shame none of the other episodes had it and felt like such a waste of time.

Rest in peace, Toriyama.
I don't like your series, but I'm glad you had the chance to make it.

DAIMA AS A WHOLE

I didn't want to say "I'm glad this show is finally over"...
But I'm glad this show is finally over, it was very "Meh!" from start to finish.

Now I can stop focusing on a dumb kids show and go focus on more important matters, like freaking out about whether I'll be able to pay rent this month, feed my cats, take them to the vet, clean my dishes, or how the fuck I'm going to meet the deadline for my real life job with so little time... Fun times.

Regardless of how much shit I gave Daima, it at least gave me something to distract myself from the misery of life and to talk about here. I have noticed these past few weeks my willingness to post and keep up with this forum has reduced drastically, whether that be because Daima is painfully uninteresting, or Dragon Ball as a whole in general is.

I don't think I'll be back to posting here until the next big thing happens. As much as I'd like to engage in the endless discussions about whether Series A is better than Series B, or whether Series C fits perfectly into Series D, or what characters have the bigger fictional d*** size power number, I personally find those discussions to be pointless.

So now, I return to my ancient slumber.

[Issei189]

SS4 Goku vs Gomah had amazing fighting choreography. The Animation of SS4 Goku powering up multiple times was well done and that Kamehameha was crazy. Now i think Kuu really stole the show in an amusing way when he bonked Gomah on the back of his head with a book to get the eye out. Kuu also becoming the Demon King and Dr Arinsu becoming his Vice King was a good conclusion

[Xeogran]

Mixed thoughts.
Kuu is a good (and smart!) boi and deserves all the rewards he's getting. Congrats to him for getting the three required hits to save the day!

Well that said, Daima just threw away most of the concepts it introduced, all for an extended fight with Gomah who ended up as lame as possible. Entirely carried by the Third Eye, he lacks a personality and chemistry with anyone at all. I have a weird feeling they just cut episodes where his base form was supposed to get fighting scenes, especially since the OP showed him in action.

Degesu, let me not even get into him. What a waste of a character with potential. He returns only to be turned into a joke yet again. Oh well, it's all over now. Not expecting to see them in DBS at all considering this didn't show any signs of connection between these two series.

[dbgtFO]

Cute ending to the show.
Of course no memory deletion, no SS4 only works in the Demon Realm and/or because of Neva's magic and no merging of any kind, including the remerger of Kibito and Shin, so they can be back together by BoG.
At the end of the day, such continuity considerations were clearly not in the mind of the author and so the show is what it is.

Glad it's over, it was a nice, heartwarming end to the show with a great battle to end it with.
Nice to see Majin Kuu actually managed to get the credit he so thoroughly deserves. That was a nice touch.

The show as a whole used too little time to deserve this ending, so all in all, I would have to put it as one of the worst DB shows. But at least it's only 20 episodes and it boasts the most consistent animation out of all shows.
Rest in peace Toriyama, so happy you at least managed to finish this project you were so passionate about. Sad that you never got to see it.

[IntangibleFancy]

No dragon fist

[Bardock God of Time]

The Third Eye being something you can find at an accessory shop is so Toriyama

I wonder if Sparking Zero will decide to call SSJ3 Vegeta... Ultra Vegeta 1 lol

[Soba Mask]

Officially non canon to Super and another "timeline" like GT.

I hate it... Hoped for a better and a connection to Super. But with SSJ4 being a thing Goku learned on his own but never used against the likes as Beerus, it is the nail in the coffin and a waste of time.

SSJ3 Vegeta actually could have been explained with the stamina issues but not Super Saiyan 4 where Goku said to Beerus in their first battle that SSJ3 is his strongest form.

I will handle Daima like GT... But with the ending... Just worse

[StaticMania]

Wow, they didn't use the fusion bug.

Wow, Piccolo couldn't 3 for 3 Gomah's back shots.

Wow, that was an very odd ending to this series.

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Very anti-climactic finale, the character beats were nice...but nothing about the actual resolution did much for me. Only a little disappointed.

I really wish there was any kind of follow through on previous plot points, but they all just get glossed over in this ending...so whatever.

[ZombieVito]

What a colossal disappointment.

This is the first time in 3 decades that something makes me not want to be a fan of the series anymore. Not even GT did that.

[FPSSJ4_Goku]

Hey, just came back to post in the Daima thread one last time. I like to get straight to the point, so I'll be quick: I loved Daima a lot, from start to finish. The music was okay, the animation was visually spectacular and the story was fun. Made me laugh a lot. Though, I will say, kinda expected more from the ending. It would've benefitted from one more episode.

9/10 series, but the ending knocks it down to a 7.5/10.

[fadeddreams5]

My thoughts:

• The battle was cool, but it seems very strange to me that Goku himself couldn't hit him in the back of the head 3 times. Did he just forget he has IT or something?

• Gohan seriously never showed up. Not even in the credits. The disrespect.

• The fusion bugs were never used. What the heck was the point???

• Goku revealed the name of his new form is, indeed, SSJ4. But the most interesting part is he also revealed Neva was NOT who helped him acquire it. Goku already unlocked this form by himself with training after the Buu arc, so I theorize Neva only helped him tap into it in his kid form.

• Nahare never fused with Kibito again. Between that, Goku's SSJ4, and Vegeta's SSJ3, it is safe to say that Daima is indeed not canon to the Super timeline, and instead, is its own continuity. Of course, people will continue to push Toriyama's involvement as proof that it is.

• Majin Kuu is the MVP. It's so funny he was initially hated because everyone assumed he would be the final boss and replacement to Kid Buu, but he turned out to be not just a support character, but a fan favorite one at that.

• The third eyes being a generic item was... not to my liking, but shiet, they didn't seem to have any bad side effect on Gomah, so why not buy them and give one to Tien? Make my boy great again. Or even Yamcha.

As for the series as a whole, I give it a 6.5/10.

[JulieYBM]

It's a shame that they didn't color Gokuu's Kamehame-Ha red, but alas, it still looked cool.

I'm surprised that Shida Naotoshi did so little, I was expecting a longer fight. He must be off working on One Piece again already.

Gokuu achieving Super Saiyan 4 through training and not whatever Neva did is the kind of weird, pointless twist that really doesn't add much.

God, I really wanted to like Panzy and Glorio so much, but it feels like they just don't do anything in this series.

I do like that Kuu defeated Gomah, though. Gomah being replaced by a 'weak' ruler who rules through respect and wanting to help people is just desserts.

Gomah and Degesu now being #Roommates is just the kind of set-up you need for a spin-off where Degesu confesses his feelings to Gomah and transitions, like we all know she wants to.

God, that last scene was key animated so well. It's a shame that Blooma got so little to do in Daima, because she easily took home one of the coolest scenes in the series—the last scene!

[BernardoCairo]

I really liked that there were no fusions. It's funny to see people on Twitter turning on the series because there were none
The episode itself was weaker than the last two. But I liked the ending. Kuu is the king!

I wonder what that post-credit scene means for the future of the series though...

[Noah]

A sad episode, sad in the sense that narratively it didn’t really appeal to me.

• As beautiful as the SSJ4 vs. Giant Gomah fight looks, it doesn’t matter if there’s no weight to it, if it lacks substance...

• I was about to complain about them taking away Piccolo's chance to shine, but I’m happy for Kuu

• So, does the cape worn by Dabura, Gomah, and now Kuu act as some sort of crown for whoever’s gonna be the Demon World King?

• I didn’t think DAIMA would be bold enough to make the contradiction of SSJ4’s absence in SUPER worse, with Goku actually saying he got this form from training after Boo

• The final scene was pretty weird, I thought it was gonna be about catching the bugs so that Kibito and Shin accidentally fused again, but they didn’t even bother to fix that. I still don’t get the point of it: is the Third Eye still a threat to the Demon World?

• So, this is the end, huh? Well, it's been a ride, not a good one, but still a ride. I'm glad to be alive to witness the last work that Toriyama Akira was involved in, and I hoped he would be alive to witness the final thing as well. At least I know the animation would have made him proud

[Saiyan007]

What a disappointing episode that just leaves you with more questions

So apparently Goku could use ssj4 the entire time that’s ridiculous,so I’m assuming Daima takes place in another timeline because surely the writers aren’t going to believe anyone watching this thinks Daima and super takes place in the same continuity

Gomah is probably one of the lamest villains in dragon ball and his weakness is even worse.Seriously 3 hits to the back of the head? What an anti climactic fight.

I also dislike how they are turning the demon realm into the light hearted realm I know it’s Toriyama trying to subvert your expectations but not everything has to be friendly all the time

The “demon realm” is probably the most disappointing thing in the show for me it was lackluster and looked like a random place you would find on earth

The show as a whole is one of the more disappointing things I’ve watched dragonball related

[CodeOfMe]

After weeks of putting it off, I finally decided to actually watch through all of Daima just in time for the finale, and what an average finale it was. The animation was great as per usual (that shot of the Kamehameha breaking through the magilite was particularly spectacular), and some of the gags were decently funny (SSJ3 Vegeta better be called 'Ultra Vegeta 1' in the games), but it doesn't exactly improve my opinion on the rest of the series.

On more miscellaneous thoughts: I didn't expect Super Saiyan 4 to be explicitly named, but Goku just flat-out said it, and the series seems to frame it as though Goku had been working on achieving it for quite some time. I guess this makes the series an 'alternative canon' from Super/GT (Bulma buying all the Beaut Bugs instead of wishing on the Dragon Balls also seems to confirm this), not that I really care; if Daima had been better on the whole, I'd potentially care more, but that's not the world we live in.

Piccolo truly was worthless this entire show. His role of hitting Gomah on the head twice before getting knocked away (which was useless anyway) could have been done by Vegeta just fine, or Glorio, or the Tamagami, or even Doo. Really, there were a lot of alternatives. They didn't even do anything interesting with him and Neva; I saw some people theorizing in previous threads that Piccolo was lying about forgetting Namekian so that Neva would come along and Piccolo could keep an eye on him, and that sounds way more interesting than what we ended up getting. Seriously, this series has so much wasted potential,

Also, why did Goku not just teleport behind Gomah and do the third hit after Piccolo was sent flying? Seems like an obvious idea to me. Though it would have robbed us of the fun scene of Koo doing it, so maybe it was for the best that the characters didn't do the logical thing. Honestly, I'm really curious why the writers didn't add some sort of "effect" to the Demon Realm so Goku couldn't teleport; he only does it once back in that scene of the Gendarmerie searching their plane, which is a scene that could easily be altered or cut anyway. Him being capable of Instantaneous Movement just seems to create so many inconsistencies, like why the characters don't just immediately lock on to Gomah's Ki signature and teleport to the Third Demon World once they had the Second World's Dragon Ball.

Finally, it is rather funny how so many people on various social media sites were hyping up Daima as some "return to form" for Dragon Ball, a simple light-hearted adventure like how the manga originally started, and then these final few episodes pretty much throw that all away and basically become no different than much of Super. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your opinion, but it is quite a coincidence that this show and GT did the same exact thing of starting off with Dragon Ball hunting adventures before eventually switching over to Z-like battles filled with transformations and drama.

I didn't hate this final episode. Frankly, it was pretty good by Daima standards. But this series as a whole has just been an utter disappointment in my opinion, and a good ending doesn't save a middling show in my eyes. If the show had been cut down to a simple thirteen episode (AKA one cour) season, then it would have been much improved. What we have now, though, doesn't really do much for me. It's strange because the original Dragon Ball has a large amount of flaws, same as Daima, but for some reason I feel like I can more easily forgive the original manga's issues than I can Daima's. Perhaps it's nostalgia, or maybe it's something to do with the original manga having "soul", while Daima is "soulless". Regardless, I don't ever see myself coming back to Daima, and it's a shame because this show could have been so much more, but it squandered all of its potential with meandering pacing, meaningless exposition (fusion bugs, everybody!), and a general lack of enjoyable character writing.

[PerhapsTheOtherOne]

Just a whole lotta fight spectacle and awesomeness at the beginning!

SS4 Goku really pulled out all the stops, even making a goddamn hole through all the Demon Worlds. And the fact that he's been hiding this power all this time? The Third Eye was seriously something special to stand up to all that..... or not so special, it seems!

But honestly, the best part was MAJIN KUU GETTING THE WIN! He earned that win, and now he's the king of the entire Demon Realm to usher it into a new age of peace and prosperity. This was the best moment in all of Daima!

[Xeogran]

Oh yeah, also worth pointing out that "Kuu-In-A-Cape" leak straight out spoiled the conclusion of Daima with him becoming the Demon King, and here we were all wondering why Kuu was wearing a cape in it but not in the actual series

Spoiler:

[M16U3L2015]

Well that was an incredibly meh ending for me, honestly this would have worked better as a movie or a 12 episode season.

And the continuity with Super was fuck up again, from now on I'll consider them alternate timelines to the manga.