English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Daima “Chatty”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Goku, Shin, and Glorio begin their quest to find the three Demon Realm Dragon Balls and run into a rebellious little demon girl.

OUR TAKE

After a couple months of waiting, we are finally, FINALLY back to review more Dragon Ball Daima. Toei decided to have the BRILLIANT IDEA of not letting the dub come out until the majority of the show was already out, so I’ve been watching the sub as we awaited any news of the dub coming out. Since then, the show has actually picked up a lot of speed, though with some stumbles along the way in terms of pacing, and only a handful of episodes left. While the first few episodes I covered for the theatrical release were pretty tepid and slow to start, things are most definitely going to get sparking soon enough. For now though, we have another build up episode as Glorio, played by Funimation alum Aaron Dismuke (who incidentally played a character in Super who looks a lot like Daima antagonist Gomah), lays out the plan: in order to get the kidnapped Dende back, the three of them will have to find all three of the Dragon Balls in this realm, which are each protected by mechanical guardians called Tamagami, which have kept the balls from being used and abused, like Bulma will eventually do by the time they get to the Broly movie…and then suddenly stop a few years later by the end of the manga.

While this sort of information being said outright would’ve been better placed a couple episodes ago (as opposed to just hinted at), that at least adds something interesting to this quest besides just looking for the balls like usual and assures us that we’ll be getting at least a couple fights in the near future. Also narrowing it down to three instead of the usual seven feels like it’ll quicken up the pacing a bit. Not only do they have to just retrieve a Dragon Ball, but they have to traverse worlds and face a boss fight in order to claim it. Kind of like a video game. Why isn’t this a video game? Well, hopefully the rectify that at some point, but in the meantime, we’re still exploring the Third Demon World, which is apparently the largest of the three and will take the most time to cover. And apparently things aren’t great there either as there is a riot involving guards that is interrupted by a little demon girl whom Goku and the gang meet at the end. Who is she? Well, maybe the title of the next episode will tell us!