Dragon Ball DAIMA begins to keep its first promises

Key points

• Improved episode with actual progress finally made in plot development, delivering on previous promises.
• Funny moments include Goku needing to use the bathroom, which is typical of Toriyama's writing style.
• The new antagonist, Glorio, is revealed to have potentially unclear motivations, suggesting potential conflicts and future challenges.

The following contains spoilers for Dragon Ball DAIMA episode 6, “Lightning,” available to stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix.Dragon Ball DAIMA was a huge disappointment for fans of Dragon Ball franchise so far. From episodes that wander aimlessly, to a lack of classic characters around, to an antagonist that has been largely off-screen since his first introduction, the series has been more of a chore to watch than fun.

It has been said that this series repeated the worst mistakes of Dragonball GTand this has largely been true, resulting in a series that is in serious danger of becoming another black spot on the market Dragon Ball franchising. We now come to episode 6 of the show (just over a third of the supposed 20-episode run). Is this the moment things change? Is this where the series starts to get better?

Previously on…

With Goku and his friends having saved their new companion Panzy, he decides he wants to help them and introduces everyone to his father. Although he was grateful to them for saving his daughter (also suggesting that Goku would be a good husband for her), he was shocked to learn that they were planning to collect the three Dragon Balls that were guarded by the planet's legendary warriors, like no one he had never managed to do it before.

Goku, however, feels confident: if there were only three people to beat up, doing so should be easy. After showing her strength in a test fight (where she finally masters Super Saiyan in her child form), the king gives the group a ship and Panzy officially joins them (this time with the welcoming arms of all subjects involved).

Nobody pays attention to flying regulations

Would it be appropriate to sigh and lament the fact that the first conflict the group has after getting a new ship was that the ship broke because they packed too much stuff to fly it safely? Sure, that means this is an easy problem to solve, since all they have to do is lighten the plane a little and then have Panzy recalibrate the engine, but we spent more than half the show trying to get this What. Is the group grounded due to engine problems really so exciting that we should spend more time on the ground complaining about the lack of travel options?

Goku must become… EVIL!

In typical Toriyama fashion, though, this base is a good excuse to make jokes about one of the late author's favorite topics: poop. Goku suddenly needs to go to the bathroom and (after being scolded for not going while they were at the castle) has a roll of toilet paper thrown in his face so he can go do his business (this will lighten his load in a couple of ways). Goku has always been a child at heart, and being back in his child body makes jokes like these a little easier to “digest.”

As far as I know, [Goku is] the strongest in the universe.

Security guards show up to ruin the fun… AGAIN

While Goku is off doing what we can only assume is Super Saiyan number two, the rest of the group has been discovered wandering around on a Gendarmerie plane. The group was discovered by what essentially amounted to roving security guards. The men inside ask the group if they've seen a “guy with spiky black hair.” When all three feign ignorance, the men tell them that if they have information on Goku they are worth ten gold pieces and leave. Goku emerges from his business a second after they leave, where we discover that his hair is too tough to tie in a ponytail (and worse: the savior of the world doesn't care too much about proper hygiene).

Are we already having fun…?

Okay, so most of it probably sounds pretty damn boring, but there's good news: this is EASILY the best episode of the show that's been released to date! It's no joke, this episode finally starts to deliver on some of the promises that the first two episodes teased. After the group leaves, we learn about Kaioshin's birth and how his species works, proving that Toriyama was serious when he said he had a backstory for every character in this franchise.

We also discover that Glorio – the mysterious traveling companion whose motivations have thus far been unknown – IS there for a reason (and his motivations are probably not pure or noble)! We also get a sense of his power as he and Goku fight to figure out who will fight a giant cow that wants to eat them for breakfast (the cow starts to feel like it's being ignored in all of this). And yes, there's finally some real progress on the arrival of more Z Fighters joining the journey after being teased in the intro and outro for several episodes now.

Degesu is very ambitious and did not get along with the other Glind.

Technically speaking, there's still a lot that we as an audience don't know, but it was nice to watch an episode that had some substance and movement versus one where it felt like the trio were just dawdling around with pointless subplots. Let's hope the next episode doesn't waste the momentum established by this one, how Dragon Ball DAIMA hasn't exactly been great so far, and it would be nice for the show to finally make up for its promising start from a couple of months ago.