‘Dragon Ball DAIMA’ Episode 13 Review – Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo Finally Team Up…Against Giant Hamsters?

SUMMARY

• Dragon Ball DAIMA is losing sight of what made the series so good.
• It is wasting the characters and their potential in unnecessary but fun fights.
• The world-building of the series is on another level, giving way to a vibrant new realm.

I’ll jump right into the brunt of the matter, Dragon Ball DAIMA’s latest episode was both fun and an unfortunate mess. I suppose that is how things work when the target demographic of the series is supposed to be a much younger audience but hey, we Dragon Ball fans are at least getting something out of it. Come to think of it, the anime wastes a lot of its potential behind scenes that otherwise hold no meaning in the bigger picture.

A still from Dragon Ball DAIMA | Credit: Toei Animation

The amount of times the series has sidetracked with filler episodes is a little concerning. There are some aspects where Toei Animation absolutely leaves no stone unturned and then there are moments where I wonder why I have been so dedicatedly watching this. DAIMA is returning after a week’s break and unsurprisingly it was a filler episode. However, I cannot just turn a blind eye to the world-building. The way the Demon Realm has been built makes me want to gasp in awe. It is truly a shame that the story isn’t as prioritized as the world.

Dragon Ball DAIMA is sidelining its main story

I need to take a moment separately to appreciate just how vibrant Dragon Ball DAIMA is. The usage of colors and the world-building done through it is mesmerizing. Honestly though, it would be an understatement to call the animation good because Toei has gone a step further to make the anime so visually appealing. From the various plants to the monsters, creatures, and concepts – there has been a lot of time dedicated to making the Demon Realm a practical and functional world and it shows.

Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo | Credit: Toei Animation

So I beg to understand why fillers need to be so nonsensical. I have nothing against fillers, in fact, I quite enjoy them because of how much they contribute to character growth and relationships. Would I call it a bad episode? No. Would I call it an unnecessary episode? Absolutely. The fights were brilliant, and the execution, the team-up we all had been waiting for with Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo finally happened. Goku’s Kamehameha came out of nowhere and I couldn’t be more grateful for it. If I had one word to describe this episode, it would be ‘pretty.’

King Gomah is so desperate that he forces Degesu to turn off Warp-Sama and it seems as though there would be consequences for it as well. It was interesting that the planet of Mega would be the second scariest planet of the Demon Realm when the giants themselves seemed like peaceful creatures. It was sad to see just how quickly the main story keeps getting ditched for matters that would be otherwise trivial. Giant hamsters, a giant child, and a giant dog that likes shiny things. I wish I was making this up but I’m not.

Calm before the storm

Since the anime has already entered its second half with all three Dragon Balls being in Dr. Arinsu’s possession indirectly, one could assume that this episode was only a breather for an upcoming back-to-back segment of episodes that lead to the climax. However, I have hoped and wished only to be disappointed time and again. The episode finally let us see Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo fight together in a sequence that was honestly so fun to watch but I would suppose we can’t have nice things.

Vegeta and the giant hamsters | Credit: Toei Animation

My major issue with the episode has only to do with the ‘enemies/villains.’ They seemed like peaceful creatures who were only minding their day-to-day lives. It was that they were much larger than our protagonists. Even with that, the power scaling made little sense. The trio’s raw power could have easily allowed them to defeat the dog and child, even the entire planet if they wanted to. Now, one can argue that they didn’t go all out because, at the end of the day, they were just innocent people. One word – Kamehameha.

It almost seems like the anime is actively wasting its potential in these scenes that could have held so much more meaning than in an unnecessary episode. All in all, I would give the episode points for its incredible world-building and fun fight sequences but that doesn’t mean I was happy with how the side-tracked story holds little to no meaning as a whole.

Rating: 5/10

Dragon Ball DAIMA is available to watch on Crunchyroll.

Written by Adya Godboley

Articles Published: 1786

An avid writer fluent in everything anime, Adya Godboley is an Assistant Anime Content Lead for FandomWire. She has rich experience in critically analyzing all that is said in between the lines. Hopelessly obsessed with Greek Mythology, she is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in English. Adya has written over 1700 articles on various topics expressing her passion and love for all things entertainment, from superheroes to anime and the occasional gacha games.