[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Daima — especially the best bits.]

I don’t know why my parents let me watch Dragon Ball Z when I was 6 years old — have you seen how brutal some of them fights get? — but I’ll always be grateful. Dragon Ball was my first major fandom, before I even knew what that word meant. And now, many years later, it continues to be. So watching the Dragon Ball Daima finale on Friday was bittersweet. The ending was a great finale for the career of Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. But I wasn’t ready to say goodbye just yet.

Dragon Ball Daima premiered in October, and its English dub started up in January on Crunchyroll. It captures the adventurous spirit of the 1980s Dragon Ball anime and manga, alongside the thrilling fights of Dragon Ball Z. It’s also, quite possibly, the last major contribution to the franchise that Toriyama made before he died in March 2024 at age 68. Toriyama created the story, original character designs for the series, and even the title.

Daima follows a pint-sized Goku — not the first time he’s been turned into a kid against his will — along with child versions of Vegeta, Bulma, and more during their adventures through the Demon Realm. The first half of the series feels in tune with what Dragon Ball was doing back in the 1980s, before it pivoted to being more about overly muscled dudes duking it out while their hair changed color. (I love this franchise, but that doesn’t mean I can’t also laugh at it.)

Goku and the Supreme Kai are joined by newcomer and Demon Realm inhabitant........

© Polygon