The fourteenth episode of Dragon Ball Daima, broadcast in Japan on January 17, 2025, is the bridge to the final act. With the Warp Lords switched off, the road to the First Demon World seems closed, but Neva has an ace up his sleeve: he was the one who sealed the tunnels between the worlds long ago. On the other side, Gomah deploys his most eccentric defenders.
Summary
Flying toward the Warp Lord, Panzy calls the castle and Peral tells her that King Kadan has left for the First World on a stolen ship. She replies that there is no need, since her travel companions are strong enough. When the group reaches the Warp Lord, they find it shut down. Goku tests the barrier sealing the tunnels between the worlds with his Power Pole and gets electrocuted.
Neva realizes the order came from Gomah and, with no other choice, casts a spell that opens the tunnels. Piccolo asks whether he created the barrier, and the old man confirms it: the Second World was once in chaos because of ruffians from the Third and arrogant snobs from the First, which is one of the reasons the Namekians left. Sealing the passages was the only way to protect it.
In the First World palace, Gomah receives the Gendarmerie Force, a small band of elite but eccentric demons who introduce themselves with a string of flashy poses. An unconvinced Gomah stations them as palace guards in case the enemies arrive from the Second World; they are not too worried, since the invaders are children. As soon as the king leaves, the squad heads to the convenience store for potato chips, where they run into Majin Kuu and Majin Duu, each holding a single chocolate bar. Taking pity on them, they fill a basket with treats as a gift, but at the register the bill is too high and they end up paying only for the two bars.
In the tunnel, meanwhile, turbulence makes Glorio lose control of the ship. Everyone jumps out just before it crashes in the First World. Two Gendarmerie officers spot the wreck and then the group of outsiders falling from the sky, and alert Degesu, who immediately reports to Gomah. The king orders an all-out attack, and before they even touch the ground, Goku and his friends find an army waiting for them.
Our take
"Taboo" is mostly a setup episode, but it handles the job with plenty of irony. Gomah's elite squad, with its superhero poses, is an obvious parody of the Ginyu Force from the Frieza Saga, and Gomah's baffled reaction mirrors Frieza's in front of Ginyu and company. The convenience store scene, with the villains making friends by buying chocolate for Kuu and Duu, is the kind of neighborhood comedy only Dragon Ball would slip in six episodes from the end.
The detail that matters, though, is Neva. By revealing that he sealed the tunnels himself, the old Namekian becomes a key figure in the Demon Realm's history, and his ties to Gomah grow even murkier.
Trivia
- "Taboo" is the official English title on Crunchyroll and Netflix. Toonami aired the English dub on September 21, 2025.
- One member of the Gendarmerie Force, Gaimoi, is the one who suggests the convenience store run for more potato chips.
- Directed by Gaku Yano, with Takumi Yamamoto as animation director; written by Yūko Kakihara.
- Peral, the technician at Kadan's castle first seen in episode 7, returns.
- The Demon Realm's currency is the dokuro: the basket of sweets came to 10,000 dokuro.