English Dub Review: Dragon Ball Daima “Gomah”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Goku prepares to take on Arinsu, Kuu, and Duu for the One Star Dragon Ball, but Gomah soon arrives with the power of the Third Eye and brings everyone in on the fight.

OUR TAKE

The pacing and episode count of Dragon Ball Daima always confused me, since it’s a handful of episodes more than a standard one season show, but also a handful short of a two season show. As a result it feels like some parts of the story are dragged out to accommodate that, but then others feel like they’re cut short or scrunched up and don’t get the time they need to be the best they could be. This episode, sadly, ends up having a lot of the latter on multiple fronts, as a fight I (and apparently a lot of other people) was really looking forward to, that being Goku and/or Vegeta versus Majin Kuu and Majin Duu, had to be truncated in favor of bringing in the expected fight against Gomah, who feels just a bit too soon. Added with how Degesu, the other significant named villain, was so poorly defeated and resolved, and it seems we’re going into the final section of this series on mostly vibes and not very well founded writing. Which is unfortunate since this is the last series that was worked on by Toriyama…but somehow, oddly enough, I still find myself being more or less entertained.

Then again, maybe this is for the best. While I do find Kuu and Duu fun to watch, having them fight Goku and Vegeta probably wouldn’t mean much other than just being a fun time without very much significance. Then AGAIN again, that may just be more damning of how flat a lot of these newer characters were written and how shallow a lot of Daima has felt overall. I suppose, if I were to give an early summation of the Season Review, is that it’s a show that ultimately ends up feeling less than the sum of its parts. Individual episodes, however, still leave me feeling an overall good time, so for now, I guess you could technically say this episode had more good than that. Plus, it ends with Goku going Super Saiyan 3, which is not the first time he’s done that as a child, but the first time he’s done it in these clothes, so that’s something. With that, we move onto the final three episodes, which have their own wild surprises in store. One in particular that got spoiled for me before I could watch the subbed version, which I am pissed about to this very day!