History repeats itself as Dragon Ball's newest series shrinks down Goku once more
Akira Toriyama is back in the driver's seat for this new season of Dragon Ball.
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Dragon Ball is officially back with a new anime series next year, and all of your favourite characters are about to get a lot smaller.
Announced yesterday during a panel at New York Comic Con, Dragon Ball Daima is a new series set within Akira Toriyama's classic world set to release autumn 2024 for the manga's 40th anniversary. Like other recent Dragon Ball anime projects, Toriyama is taking part in this one, but on this occasion he's "deeply involved," apparently "beyond his usual capacity." Executive producer Akio Iyoku also shared that Toriyama "planned entirely new episodes for the storyline." You might be wondering, what is the story for this new series? Well, take a look at the trailer below, and you might find yourself thinking, "hang on… isn't this just Dragon Ball GT?"
Yes, it looks like someone made a wish to make Goku young again, except unlike the 1996 Dragon Ball GT series, everyone appears to have been affected by this wish. That includes Goku's best friend/ rival Vegeta, as well as series mainstays like Krillin, Bulma, Piccolo, and Master Roshi, as well as a number of others. Why this has happened, isn't particularly clear, as the only bit of dialogue in the trailer is from the wish granting dragon Shenron.
Toriyama provided a sort-of explanation in a letter shared during the panel, writing, "'Daima' is a made-up term… in English would be something like 'Evil'. Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small. In order to fix things, they’ll head off to a new world! It’s a grand adventure with intense action in an unknown and mysterious new world. Since Goku has to make up for his petite size, he uses his Nyoibo (Power Pole) to fight, something not seen in a long time. I came up with the story and settings, as well as a lot of the designs. I’m actually putting a lot more into this than usual."
Interestingly, it seems like the series is a bit of a mystery to even the series' dub voice actors, as Bulma voice actress Monica Rial was the one moderating the panel, and even she didn't know what the trailer would show off. The series is a year out still, though, so it's not surprising that the dub actors haven't recorded anything for it yet.
Dragon Ball isn't the only Toriyama work that's set to make a comeback, as his lesser known Sand Land is getting a video game adaptation - and it's looking pretty good so far.