The twelfth episode of Dragon Ball Daima, broadcast in Japan on December 27, 2024, is the one Vegeta fans had been waiting decades for: the Saiyan prince transforms into Super Saiyan 3. Meanwhile, in the First Demon World, Majin Duu wins his own challenge, and the race for the Dragon Balls becomes a two-horse contest.
Summary
Knocked into the kraken's mouth by Tamagami Number Two, Vegeta resurfaces clinging to a tentacle. He turns Super Saiyan to keep fighting, but the sea monster will not give up and manages to close him inside its mouth: only Super Saiyan 2 lets him break free. The kraken yawns and returns to the depths, leaving the field clear for the duel.
Vegeta seems to gain the upper hand, and an impressed Neva secretly gives the Tamagami a boost. The guardian becomes much stronger, drags the fight underwater and knocks Vegeta back to his base form. He refuses to give up: he bursts out of the sea and goes further, reaching Super Saiyan 3 before Goku's astonished eyes. With that power he dominates the Tamagami, forces it to deflect a Galick Gun and then lands a punch square in its face, until the guardian surrenders.
The test of wits remains. The Tamagami tells a word problem about someone giving away biscuits and finally asks how many the snake in the story ate. Everyone expects Vegeta to get it wrong, but he answers correctly: zero, because snakes do not eat biscuits. The group receives the two-star Dragon Ball and sets off for the First World, home to the last ball and to Dende.
In the First World, Majin Duu freezes mid-fight because he wants chocolate. Kuu races back to the convenience store and throws him some; Duu swallows it in one bite, recharges and knocks out Tamagami Number One. The final test is mental arithmetic: the guardian flashes ever-larger numbers at high speed and asks for the total. Arinsu is left gaping, but Kuu whispers the answer to Duu, who repeats it and wins the ball. Gomah, who has watched everything on a monitor, makes a drastic decision.
Our take
Vegeta's Super Saiyan 3 is a gift to the fans, and the series sets it up well: first it humbles him with the kraken and the powered-up Tamagami, then it lets him find the "true strength" of the title. Unlike Goku's transformation in the Majin Buu Saga, there is no long build-up here: Vegeta gets there out of pride, in seconds. Our page on Super Saiyan transformations traces how the form has evolved.
The biscuit riddle is the cherry on top: after all that power, the solution is an almost childish logic puzzle, and Vegeta solves it like someone with no time to waste. The parallel with Duu and Kuu, where the stronger one only wins thanks to the smarter one, is carefully built.
Trivia
- "True Strength" is the official English title on Crunchyroll and Netflix. Toonami aired the English dub on September 7, 2025.
- It marks the animated debut of main-timeline Vegeta's Super Saiyan 3, a form that had first appeared some fifteen years earlier in the video game Dragon Ball Z: Dragon Battlers.
- According to figures cited on Wikipedia, the series' Japanese ratings rose after Vegeta's Super Saiyan 3 reveal.
- Directed by Kazuya Karasawa, with Yūichi Hamano as animation director and Yūya Takahashi and Emiko Miyamoto as chiefs; written by Yūko Kakihara.
Did you know? The Japanese title, Sokojikara, refers to the hidden strength that surfaces in tough moments, which is exactly what happens to Vegeta.