Image: Toei Animation
The next installment of Dragon Ball has been announced, with series creator Akira Toriyama returning.
Toei Animation arrived at New York Comic Con 2023 with a surprising announcement: the next Dragon Ball anime will be called Dragon Ball: Daima, featuring a de-aged Goku as a throwback to the Dragon Ball GT era. This time however, Goku isn’t the only young ‘un in the bunch. All of his friends and enemies have been de-aged to cute little versions of themselves right alongside him.
Here’s a trailer for the series:
Series creator Akira Toriyama is heavily involved
In case you’re wondering, yes, Dragon Ball: Daima is canon to the franchise. Series creator Akira Toriyama was revealed to be, “deeply involved beyond his usual capacity in the character design and artwork and more,” during the announcement, penning all-new episodes for the series. The anime also celebrates Dragon Ball’s 40-year franchise anniversary, which explains the nostalgic throwback to Goku being a kid again.
Funnily enough, this will be the third time Goku has experienced childhood overall: he started out as a kid before he got de-aged thanks to a wish in Dragon Ball GT. He eventually reversed the wish, though his next few years as an adult ended up being short-lived. At least he's not the only child-sized adult exploring the Dragon Ball universe this time. In a statement, Toriyama explained that, “Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small. In order to fix things, they’ll head off to a new world!” Goku will also use his Power Pole in combat, which viewers have not seen for some time now, as the story closes in on, “the mysteries of the Dragon Ball world.”
The new era of Dragon Ball is strange
The trailer above sees familiar faces like Goku, Bulma, Yamcha, Piccolo and more turned into child-like versions of themselves, but they seem to have retained their adult memories despite the change. We also see the Dragon Balls themselves involved somehow, though the cast's de-aging appears to be the result of a ‘conspiracy’, so we probably won’t find out if it happened due to a wish until later on.
Fans who were hoping for more stories with the adult Dragon Ball crew might be out of luck, but it sounds like this won’t just be a fun romp through the Dragon Ball universe outside of canon. With Toriyama involved, it’s likely that Daima has more up its sleeve than it looks. We’ll find out when the anime premieres in Fall 2024.