Dragon Ball Daima proven as Toriyama's love letter to the franchise in episode 5

Modified Nov 09, 2024 12:30 GMT

Dragon Ball Daima continues to amazing the fans (Image via Toei Animation).

Dragon Ball Daima has proven to be a major hit thus far within the anime community. The fifth episode, which came out last Friday, was evidence of author Akira Toriyama's dedication to this project. While often criticized in life for sometimes forgetting plot points or characters, Toriyama's writing has delivered thus far in this series and the latest episode has great references to previous installments of the franchise.

An example of that was the introduction of Panzy in the latest episode of Dragon Ball Daima and how her role as an outspoken mechanical genius and friend to Goku mirrors the latter's initial friendship with Bulma.

There are also references to GT, some quite obvious by the way this project has been structured and some of them not so subtle.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for the series.

Explaining the references Toriyama has made in Dragon Ball Daima thus far

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An interesting reference to the earlier days of the series was made in the latest episode as Panzy is introduced and Goku mentions how her name is weird, with her then saying that his name was the weird one.

This was a direct reference to the time Goku first met Bulma in the series, which makes even more sense when considering that Panzy also is good with machines, as per her own statement.

There was another similar moment when Goku impressed the king of Kaldan Castle, who is Panzy's father, and the latter decided marry him with his daughter. Bulma's father, Dr. Brief, made a similar claim earlier in the series, asking his daughter if she had already kissed the protagonist, with her reacting in a very similar manner to Panzy.

The general feel of adventure of the series is reminiscent of the beginnings of the franchise, which is something a lot of fans have pointed out, and the structure of the party and the bizarre locations far away from Earth do draw a comparison with GT.

In many ways, it could be argued that Glorio plays a similar role to Trunks as the serious one, Panzy to Pan as the young girl who ends up clashing and bossing Goku around, and the protagonist plays a similar role.

More references

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It is also worth pointing out that the fifth episode of GT had the party entering a castle, much like in Dragon Ball Daima, and also had a new member joining the team, which was Giru. Both episodes even end with the party flying away from the castle on their respective ships, which seems to show that author Akira Toriyama, who actually liked GT, was giving little nods to that installment.

While Toei Animation deserves a lot of credit for the different creative decisions made with this project, Toriyama's input was much appreciated. He brought back the earlier days of adventure to the franchise with this project and also managed to add some elements from the days of GT, which, while divisive, also has its own set of fans who appreciate these details.

Final thoughts

Dragon Ball Daima has been a major hit for the franchise as of this writing and author Akira Toriyama's contributions to the plot and the writing deserve a lot of credit. He brought back different elements from the past, making this project a celebration of what this anime and manga titan represents.

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Edited by Prem Deshpande