Dragon Ball Daima episode guide: all 20 episodes

Dragon Ball Daima runs for twenty episodes, broadcast by Fuji TV between October 11, 2024, and February 28, 2025. It tells a single story with no official sagas: a journey across the three worlds of the Demon Realm, from Goku and his friends being turned into children to their return to adulthood and Gomah's defeat. This guide covers the premise, the setting, the new characters and the full episode list, with a link to each episode page.

The premise

The story is set one year after Majin Buu's defeat, before the ten-year time skip that closes Dragon Ball Z. In the Demon Realm, with Dabura dead, the throne passes to Gomah. Prodded by fears that Dr. Arinsu plants in his head, the new king decides to neutralize the warriors who beat Buu: with the help of the Namekian Neva he gathers Earth's Dragon Balls and asks Shenron to turn them into children. Then he kidnaps Dende, so that Earth cannot undo the wish.

Shrunk down, Goku and the Supreme Kai set off with the mysterious demon Glorio, while Vegeta, Piccolo and Bulma catch up later. The goal is twofold: rescue Dende and collect the Demon Realm's three Dragon Balls, one per world, to become adults again. Each ball is guarded by a Tamagami, a guardian that must be beaten first by strength and then by wits.

The Demon Realm

The Demon Realm is Daima's richest invention. From the outside universes it can only be reached through the Warp Lords, huge fish-like creatures that act as portals, and its three worlds are separated by tunnels sealed with magic.

• The Third World is frontier country, its air heavy with volcanic fumes, full of bandits and inns, with Gomah's Gendarmerie taxing residents by taking years off their lives. It is ruled by King Kadan, Panzy's father.
• The Second World is a world of oceans patrolled by giant krakens. It is the original homeland of the Namekians, once treated as slaves there, and of the Glind, the Supreme Kai's people.
• The First World is the seat of power, home to the Supreme Demon King's palace.

In episode 10 the Supreme Kai even tells the origin of everything: an ancient good king ordered the super Majin Rymus to create the universes, and some Glind were chosen as Supreme Kais to watch over them.

The new characters

Toriyama designed an entire new cast. The main ones:

• Gomah, the new Supreme Demon King: petulant and a little goofy, he becomes an almost invincible giant once he gets hold of the Third Eye, the ancient artifact of the realm's rulers.
• Degesu, his deputy and the Supreme Kai's younger brother, with throne ambitions of his own.
• Dr. Arinsu, older sister of the Supreme Kai and Degesu, a scientist and strategist who maneuvers everyone in her bid to become queen.
• Glorio, the demon who travels with Goku: Arinsu's secret agent, he ends up choosing the group at the decisive moment.
• Panzy, princess of the Third World and an inventor, this adventure's "Bulma".
• Neva, an elderly Namekian who created the Demon Realm's Dragon Balls and the Tamagami.
• Majin Kuu and Majin Duu, created by Arinsu and the witch Marba from Majin Buu's remains: the first clever and eager to help, the second immensely strong and mad about chocolate.
• King Kadan and his attendant Hybis, who carries the Third Eye around on his belt buckle without knowing it.

Goku's Super Saiyan 4

The most talked-about twist comes in episode 18: with Goku about to fall, Neva uses magic to awaken his hidden power and the Saiyan becomes Super Saiyan 4, the form born in Dragon Ball GT in 1997. In Daima it works differently, though: there is no need to go through the Golden Great Ape, it is a latent power that gets unlocked, and it does not age up its user, so Goku first shows it off as a child and then, in episode 19, as an adult. The GT design was by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru; the Daima version, with dark rose hair and fur and an even bulkier build, is Toriyama's. In the finale Goku explains that he achieved it by training after Kid Buu's defeat. The full history of the forms is on our Super Saiyan transformations page. Earlier, in episode 12, it was Vegeta's turn to make his animated debut as a Super Saiyan 3, a form he had previously used only in video games.

Toriyama's role

Daima is the last work of Akira Toriyama, who died on March 1, 2024, seven months before the premiere. According to producer Akio Iyoku, the project was born while the staff worked on the film Super Hero, and the creator ended up writing the entire story; Toriyama himself said the series was meant to be an original anime without him, but that by giving advice here and there he became deeply involved. Besides the plot and characters, he designed vehicles, monsters and background characters and coined the title, a made-up word written with the characters for "great" and "demon".

The episodes

The titles are the official English ones used by Crunchyroll and Netflix, which streamed the series alongside its Japanese broadcast. The English dub arrived on Crunchyroll between January 10 and May 16, 2025, and aired on Adult Swim's Toonami block from June 15 to November 2, 2025.

Our take

Daima asks for patience: the early episodes move slowly, through inns, monsters and gags, and viewers hoping for Super-style fights right away were thrown. But that slowness is exactly what makes it special. It is the series that most resembles the original Dragon Ball, with a world to explore and a group of characters who get to know each other along the way, and when the second half arrives, from Vegeta's Super Saiyan 3 to the battle against Gomah, the animation reaches heights the franchise has rarely hit. The numbers back it up: according to CBR, episode 19 was the best-rated anime episode of 2025.

For us it is above all a farewell. Toriyama leaves his world full of new ideas, with a universe that keeps expanding and an ending that smiles rather than cries. To see where it fits among the other series, check our watch order.