SSJ4 IS BACK AFTER 28 YEARS!!! DRAGON BALL GT IS CANON NOW! Dragon Ball DAIMA Episode 18 Review

In the previous Dragon Ball Daima episode, Gomah interrupts Goku’s duel with Majin Duu and challenges all his opponents in his own makeshift tournament.

Dragon Ball Daima Episode 18 is titled, “Awakening”

A lot more exciting stuff happens in this episode as the pacing has finally been optimized, which should be the norm for an action-packed episode like this one.

Super Saiyan 3 was an incredible reveal and he already proved himself strong enough to do actual damage to Third Eye Gomah.

Even the Ki blasts Goku rains have gotten denser and stronger that Gomah had to retreat.

Kuu recalls how Duu is able to imitate powers and even power up with food like Majin Buu, their original, so Kuu grabs a giant cookie and feeds it to Duu, resulting in Duu imitating Goku’s SSJ3 form and being able to stretch his body even bigger than before, such that his one hand could wrap around Gomah and he could send a barrage of Gomu Gomu, I mean stretchy ora ora barrages.

However, Duu immediately reverts to his plumper self and loses momentum, which brings the fight back to Gomah’s favor.

No matter what anyone does, Gomah has the Third Eye, which produces a seemingly infinite amount of energy, such that the eye produces a massive beam to plow through the field and is strong enough to knock mini-SSJ3 Goku down.

Gomah used to be afraid of Super Saiyan 2 Goku, even while everyone warned the Z Team not to underestimate him as he has terrifying magic.

But with the Third Eye, everyone’s warnings became mere understatement.

Gomah essentially has Aizen’s Hogyoku, allowing the dude to evolve and grow stronger physically and in terms of magic.

He does not just blast energy or throw rocks and punches but casts specific spells beyond the normally limited moveset of a regular Majin.

He even creates a sun-like orb to destroy everyone else in the entire battlefield.

With Goku down for the count, the resident “god” of the show, Neva, intervenes and gives Goku a magical powerup.

While some would think this is a convenient boost, Neva is considered a Legendary Namekian, being able to do what not even Kami would do, such as refresh the used up and petrified Earth Dragon Balls for Gomah to grant his wish to turn the Z Team into children.

Now he uses this power to restore Goku and even force a new transformation.

But to the audience, this is far from new.

SSJ4’s Return – GT is now Canon

Over 28 years ago, there was a direct Dragon Ball sequel made by the end of the Dragon Ball Z series called Dragon Ball GT that aired from February 1996 to November 1997, airing immediately after Dragon Ball Z finished.

We have discussed how GT’s elements were added into Daima’s story but as it turns out, not only is Daima’s premise (of Goku being turned back into a kid) based on GT but that Daima essentially “canonizes” GT.

And we see it through the return of Super Saiyan 4, which does not grow Goku’s hair but it fuses his monkey self and Saiyan self together, a merger of the Great Oozaru with the Super Saiyan.

As Daima was written by Akira Toriyama before his death in 2024, this suggests that he is canonizing GT.

The origin of the design came from Dragon Ball Z and GT character designer, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, who was tasked with designing a Super Saiyan form unique to the GT anime.

Inspired by the Oozaru form, Kabuki theater’s Two Lions dance and the Kumadori eyeshadow, Katsuyoshi made the Super Saiyan 4 design resemble a red-haired ape-man.

Katsuyoshi is involved in the team as the Animation Character Designer for Daima.

By the way, this is the first time, chronologically-speaking, that the characters have seen this form, so Neva is credited for its creation.

And with this triumphant return, SSJ4 Goku pummels Gomah with even greater force than what he had shown at SSJ3.

SSJ4 Mini-Goku is so strong that even his tail could wrap a giant Goma’s leg around to pull Goku up to deliver a punch on the face.

With Goku’s advantage apparent, the Tamagami, Duu and Glorio join the fight, with Glorio even awakening Ki and boosting his Lightning magic, which he throws with the Tamagami and Duu’s ki blasts.

Before anything else, I’d like to praise Toei Animation for the superb quality of this fight, with color direction even being done uniquely as we see Gomah and Goku fight under some rocks.

Goku is in red while Gomah is in blue, which adds more flavor to the already spectacular fight.

To allow Goku to charge his Kamehameha, Piccolo and Glorio combine their ki blasts against Gomah’s but they fail of course.

It seems that Gomah has interrupted Goku’s charging and everything turns grey.

But this is a trick as Goku still has the Kamehameha in his hands and so he fires it at Gomah, pushing him down to the hard ground, resulting in a massive crater.

However, this is far, far from over, as the Hogyoku, the Miracle…I mean the Third Eye, forces Gomah to undergo one more transformation.

Gomah grows even bigger, with Mini Goku fitting neatly into his hand and his face being ten times bigger.

But surprisingly, it is less on punches this time.

Gomah uses his Third Eye to produce a sphere around Goku that cancels all three of his transformations one by one.

Worried about the outcome of this fight, Arinsu calls Glorio to retrieve the Dragon Balls and bring them to her so she can wish to be the Supreme Demon King and have the magic to defeat Gomah.

Why not wish the Third Eye away or transfer the power Gomah has to her instead?

Anyway, Glorio easily gets the Dragon Balls from Hybis since asking for them did not seem suspicious.

Up to this point, no one knew that there was a traitor in their midst.

Gomah would attempt to stop this but he gets flicked away casually by Demon Realm Porunga, which proves that the wish-granting dragons are above any magic (outside the Gods of Destruction, Angels, and Zeno but that is Super’s work, which we will see later canonically).

As he recalls the bond he formed with the team, Glorio hesitates to make the wish and Vegeta and the others see Glorio beside Arinsu, confirming his treason.

But after much stalling, Glorio finally makes his wish.

Now we are left with a cliffhanger, except the Namekian words Glorio spoke do leave a hint.

The last word Glorio spoke is “chilldopp”, which sounds like “Child.”

We do not know exactly what it means, which is great since Episode 1: “Conspiracy” only had Shenron and people using human languages can make their wishes just fine whereas Porunga in the Outside Realm needed wishes to be said in Namekian, which was designed by the exiled Namekians as a safety measure.

Yet the last word is a clear sign that Glorio has chosen his side and we will finally see the return of the Z Team to greatness.

We have two more episodes left.

Holding on to one man and a wish, how will the series end?

Will Arinsu gain her power-up and take over the role of Final Boss or will we see how the adults play the children’s game of Daima?

Find out next time on Dragon Ball: Daima!

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