In Dragon Ball Daima, Son-Goku and his friends become children again. If this premise sounds familiar to you, it’s no coincidence.
What anime is Dragon Ball Daima based on? There was already an anime where Son-Goku shrank. In Dragon Ball GT, the Saiyan turns back into a child and goes on an adventure with his granddaughter Pan and teenager Trunks.
That both animes feature a child-version of Son-Goku is no coincidence. Akio Iyoku, a producer of the anime, confirms that Daima was made for the fans who watched GT during their own childhood:
I was aware of the generation of people in their early 30s and older, who are now adults with children. I wanted to create an anime that parents and children can watch together. They are the generation that watched “Dragon Ball GT” as children. I was aware of that, and my attempt to create a new anime series like “GT” became the starting point.
Thus, Daima is actually just a remake of GT and was created only because of the existence of the GT anime. However, to have a difference from the original, Akira Toriyama came up with the idea to shrink the entire group.
You can watch the trailer for Dragon Ball Daima and how the Z team shrinks here:
Dragon Ball Daima is received better than GT
Why are the two animes received so differently? Dragon Ball GT was hated by many fans back then (via Reddit). The reason for this is that it is not part of the official story. This leads to a weak plot and logical gaps to the original material. On IMDb, the anime only scores 6.8 out of 10.
Daima currently stands at 8.0 / 10. Several other factors play into this anime:
- It is the last work of Akira Toriyama. The manga artist of Dragon Ball passed away a few months before the anime aired. Many fans probably pay tribute to him for that.
- Dragon Ball GT aired just a year after the Dragon Ball Z anime. However, there was a 6-year anime break before Dragon Ball Daima. Dragon Ball Super last aired in 2018, while Daima premiered in 2024.
- Dragon Ball Daima clarifies many myths that are not addressed in the manga. The focus is on the Demon Realm, which has hardly appeared in the official material so far.
What’s next for Dragon Ball? Whether there will be a second season of Dragon Ball Daima is not known yet. Dragon Ball Super is also currently not being continued, even though the airing was cut off in the middle of the manga’s story.
However, the Dragon Ball manga is set to continue soon. However, it’s possible that it won’t be continued for much longer—or it might switch to another protagonist: Dragon Ball Super might soon end despite its successor for Toriyama, as it is nearing the official end of the story
