An Animated feature

Dragon Ball Daima is the latest animated project in the Dragon Ball series, created as a 40th-anniversary celebration and in hindsight existing as a tribute to Akira Toriyama, who passed away in 2024. I’ve heard he was helping with plotting for some other project, but for all intents and purposes, this was his final Dragon Ball show he helped produce. Set immediately after Dragon Ball Z, it takes a slight step back chronologically, so fans hoping for adaptations of recent manga arcs might need to wait. The show aims to recapture the spirit of the original Dragon Ball, and one way it does that is by de-aging many of the characters to children. While the de-aging trope was used in Dragon Ball GT, this series is clearly distinct, with GT having been mostly sidelined from canon due to Toriyama’s limited involvement and mixed fan reception.

Though only three episodes were shown, Daima packed in plenty of worldbuilding, notably introducing the “Demon Realm”—a place often referenced in Dragon Ball lore but never actually seen. With new dangers, high stakes, and a fresh set of Dragon Balls, the show has set itself up with plenty of intriguing directions. Dragon Ball Daima is streaming on Netflix, but I wanted to experience the premiere on the big screen with my son. Sure, I probably paid a bit much for something I could catch at home, but supporting theatrical events like this -rare for anime in the past -felt worth it. If you’re a fan of the entire Dragon Ball series, especially the original, this is absolutely worth checking out!