Dragon Ball Daima

Dragon Ball Daima (Japanese: ドラゴンボールDAIMA) is an upcoming Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. It is the sixth televised animated installment in the Dragon Ball media franchise, and the second and last to have been written by franchise creator Akira Toriyama, who died in March 2024. The series is scheduled to begin broadcast on Fuji TV on October 11, 2024.

Toei Animation announced at their New York Comic Con panel on October 12, 2023, that a new anime titled Dragon Ball Daima would be released in fall 2024.^[1] Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama was said to be "deeply involved beyond his usual capacity" and is credited in the accompanying teaser trailer with the original work, story, and character designs.^[1] A press release also credited him with creating the designs for many of the vehicles, monsters and background characters, and coining the title.^[2] Toriyama provided a message to the Comic Con panel explaining that although "DAIMA" is a made-up term, it is written in Japanese as "大魔", which translates into English as "Evil".^[1] Akio Iyoku, executive producer of the Dragon Ball franchise, said that the series had been in the works for the last five years, but the title was decided less than a month ago.^[3] He would also later state that Toriyama "crafted the entire story", which Iyoku described as having a "strong sense of adventure and lots of action".^[4]

In November 2023, the January 2024 issue of V Jump announced the main staff members of Dragon Ball Daima and confirmed that Masako Nozawa reprises her role as Goku.^[5] Yoshitaka Yashima (animation director of Dragon Ball Super) and Aya Komaki (director of One Piece) both serve as directors of the anime, while Yūko Kakihara (Urusei Yatsura) is credited with series composition and scenario.^[5] Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, who previously worked on Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT, adapted Toriyama's character designs for animation.^[5]

A second trailer focusing on Goku was released as part of the Dragon Ball Games Battle Hour event on January 28, 2024.^[6] Character illustrations that Toriyama created for the anime, including some new characters, were shown during a livestream of the event.^[6] Toriyama died on March 1, 2024.^[7] A week later, the message he sent to the 2024 Tokyo Anime Awards Festival in acceptance of their Lifetime Achievement Award was publicly displayed at the event. In it, he revealed that Dragon Ball Daima was originally planned to be an original anime series without his involvement, "but as I gave advice here and there, I ended up getting deeply involved with the project without realizing it."^[8][9]

A key visual featuring multiple characters with the tagline "Welcome to the Great Adventure!" and a third trailer were both released on July 19 and revealed that the show would debut that October.^[10] On September 2, Fuji TV announced the specific broadcast details, including the start date of October 10, and that all episodes of the show were completed.^[11] Two days later, a fourth trailer and a second key visual, featuring two more characters than the first visual and changing the tagline to "Welcome to the Demon Realm!", were released. The former revealed cast members Yumiko Kobayashi as Kaioshin, Koki Uchiyama as Glorio, and Fairouz Ai as Panzy, and also teased the show's theme song.^[12] The roles of Showtaro Morikubo as Gomah, Junya Enoki as Degesu and Yoko Hikasa as Dr. Arinsu were announced by the franchise's official website on September 10.^[13]

The series opening theme song is "Jaka Jaan" (ジャカ☆ジャ〜ン, Jaka Jān) by German record producer Zedd and Japanese vocal duo C & K. Zedd was offered the job of composing the song as he is an open fan of Dragon Ball, and the lyrics were written by Yukinojo Mori, who has written many songs for the franchise.^[14] Mori commented that although he was worried about writing for the franchise yet again, Toriyama gave fresh excitement by changing its direction from "battle" to "adventure".^[14] Keen of C & K is credited with co-composing the music.^[15] The ending theme song is "Nakama" by Zedd featuring Japanese-American singer Ai. Zedd again composed the music, while Ai wrote the lyrics.^[13]

Dragon Ball Daima will have its world premiere at Tokyo Big Sight on October 6, 2024, during the Dragon Ball Daimatsuri event, which commemorates the 40th anniversary of the original manga. The first episode will be screened three times throughout the day, with cast members in attendance during the first two.^[16] The series will begin its television broadcast on Fuji TV on October 11, 2024, airing on Fridays at 11:40 p.m. under a new anime programing block.^[17] The first episode is ten minutes longer than normal.^[16]

Crunchyroll has licensed the series for worldwide streaming release outside of Japan.^[18]

• Official website
• Dragon Ball Daima (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia