Dragon Ball Daima’s Unresolved Continuity Issues

Warning: The following contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Daima, Episode 20, “Maximum”, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

Dragon Ball Daima. Whether you love it or hate it, you can’t deny that some of the details and information presented in the show seem to contradict or don’t fit really well with the established lore in Dragon Ball Super. Dragon Ball as a franchise has always cared about entertainment value and action more than it has about lore continuity; nevertheless, it’s still a well-discussed aspect among the fandom.

Unfortunately, as of right now, there aren’t any concrete answers to these issues. There are three years between the events of the end of Dragon Ball Daima and Super, so it’s entirely possible that some off-screen events could explain these contradictions. Maybe a future episode or issue of Dragon Ball Super will provide explanations, or perhaps even a second season of Daima. Another explanation is that they might really just be legitimate, unresolved continuity issues. Akira Toriyama tended to forget details about his work all the time, so he could have easily forgotten that these details don’t match up with what happened in Super. There are even rumors of alternate timelines being involved in all this, but right now, it’s all just speculation.

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Dragon Ball Daima’s Continuity Issues

Why Didn’t Goku Use Super Saiyan 4 in Dragon Ball Super?

The biggest and most glaring continuity issue people have noticed finishing Daima is, why didn’t Goku use his Super Saiyan 4 transformation in Dragon Ball Super? At first, viewers suspected that the form could only be used in the Demon Realm or that, without Neva to supply him with magic, Goku would eventually lose the ability to use it. But in the series finale, Goku seemed to hint that he actually achieved the form by himself, not through Neva. Then why doesn’t the form make an appearance in Super?

The fanbase is constantly bringing up a specific panel from the manga that makes it seem like Goku is contradicting himself. In the Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 2, “Goku Defeated”, Goku tells Beerus that Super Saiyan 3 was his final form at the time, when Daima now proves that to be false. One possible explanation is that Goku’s statement is only from the manga. The Dragon Ball Super anime and manga are two separate continuities, so you could say that Goku just doesn’t have Super Saiyan 4 in the manga. However, it’s still pretty odd that Goku never used Super Saiyan 4 a single time in any of his fights in the Super anime.

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Why Didn’t Vegeta Use Super Saiyan 3 in Dragon Ball Super?

Similar to the previous continuity issue, Vegeta also debuted a new form in Dragon Ball Daima, and didn’t use it at all in Super. In his fight against Tamagami Number Two, Vegeta finally gave fans what they’ve wanted for decades: a canon Super Saiyan 3 transformation. Later in the show, he transformed into Super Saiyan 3 again, only this time, in his proper adult form. So, why didn’t he use it at all in Super?

When Vegeta flew into a flurry after Beerus slapped Bulma in Super, he only turned into Super Saiyan 2, when it would have made way more sense for him to use 3. Again, no real reason as of right now for why he couldn’t have done so. He just didn’t.

Where Is Rymus in Dragon Ball Super?

One gigantic lore drop in Daima was the revelation of the multiverse’s creator, a Super Majin named Rymus. It turns out that it wasn’t Zeno, the Grand Priest, or the creator of the Super Dragon Balls, Zalama, who created all the universes outside the Demon Realm. But that begs the question, where is Rymus in Dragon Ball Super, and what is he doing? Isn’t it weird that he wouldn’t participate in any of the significant events that occurred in the series, especially since a couple of them had the entire multiverse at risk?

Why Were Supreme Kai Shin and Kibito Still Fused at the Beginning of Super?

If you recall, Supreme Kai Shin and his assistant, Kibito, unknowingly fused into Kibito Kai at the instructions of the old Supreme Kai. He did that to show Goku how the Potara Fusion works, so he could hopefully use it himself to defeat Majin Buu. When a Supreme Kai is one of the participants in a Potata Fusion, the fusion will be permanent unless canceled by outside factors like Buu’s unique inner biology or a wish to the Dragon Balls. Kibito Kai used the former method to defuse near the beginning of Daima.

However, in Dragon Ball Super, Shin and Kibito were fused again. But why? Before Daima was created, people always just assumed that Kibito Kai had simply stayed that way since the end of Z, but now, that’s obviously not the case. Initially, viewers just thought that maybe Shin and Kibito would fuse to fight some powerful foe sometime before the end of Daima, but it never happened. There really is no clear explanation for why they would have fused again before Super, and even more confusing, why did Kibito Kai use the Namekian Dragon Balls to defuse when he could have just used Majin Buu’s insides like in Daima? It’s frustrating to have to keep repeating this, but there really isn’t an in-lore reason right now.

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Dragon Ball Daima is now available to stream on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

Dragon Ball DAIMA

Release Date

October 11, 2024

Writers

Akira Toriyama