Dragon Ball Daima Episode 9 Finally Reveals How Majin Kuu Was Created

Episode 9 of Dragon Ball Daima could fairly be called "Thieves," and not because of one isolated heist. There was thievery running through the entire episode, in both halves, and by the end of it we finally got the true origin of the newest Majin in the series.

The episode opens with Supreme Kai wanting everyone to make camp, but Pansy complains that she wants a bed and a bath instead. That is very reminiscent of early Dragon Ball Bulma, who kept houses inside her capsules wherever she went. Pansy comes from a wealthy demon realm family, so it makes sense she would share that same spoiled, tech whiz energy. The group ends up staying in a hotel that looks like a haunted house, which reminded me a bit of the castle from the second original Dragon Ball movie, Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle. It could be a reference, or it could just be a coincidence, but demonic castles tend to look cool either way.

Shin still suspects Glorio's money, but Pansy clears her father

Shin, ever suspicious, wonders how Glorio has enough money to put the group up in hotels. Pansy reveals that her father did not actually give Glorio the money. As the audience, we can put together that Glorio probably got it from Dr. Arinsu, and possibly originally from the demon king paying Dr. Arinsu, since she mentioned that funding for her experiments earlier in the series. So her father is stingy. He is not the one bankrolling things here.

Goku, meanwhile, removes the teddy bear hat he had been wearing because it is too itchy, which is just played for laughs and nothing more serious than that.

Gargoyle and werewolf try to steal the Demonic Dragon Ball

Two new characters are introduced, identified as gargoyle and werewolf. They recognize Goku as the kid who beat one of the Tamagami, which is clearly going to be what Goku becomes known for in the demon realm, along with being the guy the military police are trying to capture. These two were too scared to take on the Tamagami themselves, so they decide to take the easy route and steal the Dragon Ball instead.

Dragon Balls being stolen goes all the way back to the start of the series, with characters like Yamcha and Pilaf's army stealing them from the main cast and vice versa, right up through the Namek Saga struggle between Frieza's forces, Vegeta, Krillin and Gohan. As a fan, I am glad we are back to that kind of scramble for the Dragon Balls, and the fact that the demon realm only has three of them simplifies things nicely.

Pansy insists Goku take a shower because he stinks from all the fighting, and asks for a change of clothes, only for Goku to admit he did not bring any. It really makes you wonder about Goku's life with Chi-Chi back on Earth, whether he has multiple copies of that orange gi in his closet or just wears the same stinking one over and over. Pansy lends him some of her own clothes, which echoes at least two moments in the original Dragon Ball where Goku ends up borrowing someone else's outfit.

Werewolf's true form is a nod to the great ape myth, not a Super Saiyan 4 tease

While the group enjoys room service, commotion breaks out in the lobby as werewolf transforms and starts wrecking the place. Akira Toriyama originally borrowed from werewolf folklore for the great ape transformation itself, a man who looks at the moon and turns into a wolf mirroring how Saiyans look at a full moon and become great apes. Here Toriyama mixes that Western werewolf myth with the Eastern Monkey King concept all over again, and this werewolf does resemble Bergamo more than the original wolf man from the classic series.

This exact shot was taken from the last trailer for Daima. Months earlier, in a video done with Star Blast Studios, I speculated whether this wolf character might tie into Goku achieving Super Saiyan 4, maybe through something like a werewolf bite triggering that power. After seeing how the character is actually used in this episode, I do not believe that is the case.

The transformation turns out to be a distraction. Werewolf blows a whistle to signal gargoyle, who breaks through the window from behind and steals the Demonic Dragon Ball, a pretty clever ruse.

Pansy's tracking device and Glorio's rescue turn the tables on the thieves

Pansy reveals she planted a tracking device on the Dragon Ball in case it was ever stolen, smart thinking that I suspect will come back into play as a plot point later on. It is not quite a dragon radar, but it means the group will not lose future Dragon Balls to thieves easily. It lets Goku track the pair down quickly, especially now that he has fully figured out how to fly fast in his shrunken demon realm body. The thieves try to play keep away, which is amusing given they already watched Goku beat a Tamagami, but it does not work for long.

Goku grabs the ball back, and just as the two thieves are about to jump him, Glorio shows up to save the day, using an Emperor Palpatine style lightning attack to scare them before spinning them around like a whip and tossing them away. Pansy then reveals the group will be meeting Vegeta, Hibis and the others the next day to travel to the second Demon World. Goku volunteers to stay up on watch, fights to stay awake, and inevitably falls asleep, though thankfully nobody takes the Dragon Ball overnight.

Vegeta's plane gets stolen by the same thugs he beat up the night before

The second half of the episode reveals Vegeta's plane has been hijacked, just like what happened to Goku back in episode 3. Hibis explains the culprits are the same guys Vegeta beat up the previous night, which leads into a flashback at a nightclub, the same group of thieves from Daima's third episode picking a fight with Vegeta. This entertained me quite a bit, watching Vegeta lay into them without a second thought. This nightclub setting is something new for Dragon Ball visually, and it reminded me of the cantina style scene in Attack of the Clones where Obi-Wan is offered death sticks while hunting an assassin, similar vibe entirely.

Hibis's belt buckle hides the same third eye teased since episode one

During a strange conversation about a zombie game Hibis mentions, Bulma notices something on his belt buckle. Hibis reveals he found a living eye in the mountains long ago and has been carrying it since. This is the same third eye discussed all the way back in episode one, once belonging to the demon king's father, Aru, before it was lost. Whoever harnesses its power gains an enormous boost and becomes nearly invincible, which is exactly why the demon king wants it and why Hibis having it now is dangerous. It feels like a clear setup for how the demon king eventually gets his hands on it, whether by accident or design.

The demon king learns the Earthlings are already collecting Demonic Dragon Balls

Elsewhere, the demon king is told by an aide that the children turned kids back in episode one, the Earthlings, are now in the demon realm collecting the Demonic Dragon Balls. He thinks it is impossible given how frightening the Tamagami are, only to be told they already took the first ball from Tamagami 3. He brings up the third eye again right after panicking that Goku and the others might be coming for him to rescue Dende.

When Goku's group and Vegeta's group finally meet up, there is not enough room on one ship for all eight of them. Pansy's plan is to call her father for another ship, but that plan gets sidelined. Goku tells Vegeta to go ahead and take on the demon king himself if he wants to, showing surprisingly little interest in the fight himself, almost as if he does not see the demon king as much of a threat. Piccolo jokes that maybe they should have brought Kibito instead of Bulma, since at least he can teleport.

Vegeta and Piccolo make quick work of the returning thieves

The same thugs Vegeta beat up the night before show up in the forest wanting revenge, having no idea what they are walking into. Vegeta, clearly happy to finally get to do something, powers up and demolishes them one after another, including a spin kick pulled straight from one of the trailers, in beautifully animated, well choreographed sequences. Piccolo also finally gets to throw a punch, knocking one of them down hard. There is even a horse wearing boxing gloves that gets plucked out of the air by Vegeta before it can throw a single jab.

Vegeta actually complains that the fight was too easy and did not waste enough time, while Hibis notes it was so quick he only managed to eat two potato chips during the whole thing. The upside is that the group gets their plane back and no longer has to wait on Pansy's father for a replacement.

Dr. Arinsu and Marba use cyber man seeds to finish creating Majin Buu, and give birth to Majin Kuu instead

The final scene returns to Dr. Arinsu and Majin Marba, whose name can be pronounced either Marba or Maba, as they finish concocting their new Majin Buu. Marba is shown holding cyber man seeds, called saibaman in Japanese and cultivars in the Viz manga translation, the same type of seeds Nappa and Vegeta once planted on Earth that grew into the saibamen from the Saiyan Saga. It is unclear whether these seeds originated in the demon realm given the pointy ears on the cyber men, but I am willing to say I believe the cyber men probably do trace back to the demon realm, even though I am not entirely certain of that.

If that turns out to be confirmed, it would contradict a piece of old Toriyama lore. Years ago, Toriyama sent the anime staff a memo, dating back to the late 1980s during Dragon Ball Z's production, stating the cyber men were artificially created by Saiyan scientists using biotechnology. That memo never made it into the anime, the manga, or any interview, but it did surface in the Dragon Ball guidebook Daizenshuu 7, as translated by Herms. Either Toriyama forgot his own memo, which seems likely, or he changed the lore on purpose, similar to what happened with the Grand Supreme Kai origin story involving the Kaioshin. Lore changes like this in Daima can get a little annoying, though this one is not too bad since it was only ever in a staff memo rather than the actual story.

Dr. Arinsu reiterates that the original Majin Buu was a fluke according to Marba, and that they only need one of the two cyber man seeds this time, leaving the obvious question of what the second seed will be used for later. The idea is that the small amount of the original Majin Buu that Dr. Arinsu obtained was not enough on its own, so the cyber man seed helps the growth along. Marba reveals a number of different beings went into the essence used to create this new Majin, and combined with the cyber man seed and the incantations, that is how Majin Kuu is born.

Majin Kuu's design mixes a cyber man with Kid Buu, and his mission is to defeat Tamagami 1

Weeks before this episode aired, I had shown an exclusive image on September 14 pointing out saibaman seeds already present in Daima, and using that to guess Dr. Arinsu was experimenting with cyber man seeds toward creating Majin Kuu, based partly on his forehead resembling a cyber man's. That part of the image only showed a portion of what was coming, and there is more still to be revealed beyond Majin Kuu himself.

Majin Kuu is not the most impressive looking villain, essentially a cyber man mixed with Kid Buu, complete with the pants, the belt, and the same pointed head shape the old cyber men had, which used to fire a corrosive white liquid, all clearly Toriyama trying to be funny again. Unlike Kid Buu, who was pure anger and destruction, Majin Kuu can speak and can be controlled and ordered, and his mission is not to go after Goku and company. His job is to defeat Tamagami number one and capture the one star Demonic Dragon Ball, a battle that came up in subsequent episodes.

Dr. Arinsu makes the point that if Majin Kuu cannot defeat Tamagami 1, then he has no chance against Goku, since Goku already beat one of the Tamagami himself. Her logic tracks: if Kuu can beat a Tamagami, he should be strong enough to threaten Goku and the others, and if he cannot, there was no point creating him at all.

What do you think Dr. Arinsu and Marba have planned for that second cyber man seed?