Dragon Ball Daima Episode 8 Breakdown: Goku vs Tamagami 3, Grand Witch Marba, and Yet Another Majin Buu Origin Retcon

Dragon Ball Daima episode 8 finally delivered what felt like a main course after several episodes that played like appetizers. The Goku versus Tamagami 3 battle is, in my view, a fight for the ages, and the episode also introduces a mysterious new Majin character, Grand Witch Marba, along with yet another retcon of Majin Buu's origin from Akira Toriyama. I find it funny at this point, whether he's forgetting the old explanation or just twisting the lore around again, but it doesn't bother me too much because to me it's not that important.

There's a shot early in the fight of Goku jumping off some rocks that immediately reminded me of the ultra Instinct leaping Kamehameha he did against Jiren in Dragon Ball Super, which many fans consider the greatest Kamehameha of all time. The speed, the fluid animation, and the choreography make this easily the best fight of the series so far by leaps and bounds.

Tamagami 3 Fights Like Thor and Iron Man Combined, and I Don't Think That's an Accident

Tamagami 3 uses a form of demonic magic from the demon realm that lets him call his hammer back to him telekinetically, and there is no question in my mind that this was borrowed directly from Thor. Toriyama has long been influenced by Western films, and Dragon Ball Super Super Hero was full of references I dug into in an Easter egg video a couple of years ago. The word "Tamagami" literally translates to "ball god" in Japanese, and Tamagami 3 is one of three Guardians of the three demonic dragon balls kept in the three demon worlds of the grand demon realm.

Tamagami's ranged blasts don't appear to come from ki the way Goku's do. Since the demon realm isn't universally familiar with ki, it's safe to assume these Tamagamis are artificial creatures of some kind. They're humanoid but metallic, with no flesh, and when they fire blasts the effect and sound resemble Iron Man's repulsors from the Marvel films, right down to the sound effect. Goku is essentially fighting a combination of Thor and Iron Man, which is pretty cool.

Goku Breaks Out the Power Pole for the First Time in Years, Then Turns Super Saiyan While Holding It

This fight is probably the best use we've seen of the power pole, the Nyoibo, in years. Goku uses it both offensively and defensively, sweeping Tamagami's leg with it and hitting his Achilles heel to knock him to one knee before an overhead smash. It's been a long time since we've seen Goku use it, and it's always a thrill and a lot of nostalgia to see it play out with this animation team.

Mid fight, Supreme Kai reveals that Goku has finally acclimated to the weight of the demon world's air, his body slowly adjusting. Tamagami 3 then uses his telekinetic power to push the hammer toward Goku to crush him, but the side effect triggers Goku past his limits and he transforms into a Super Saiyan again, using the power pole while transformed for what I believe is the first time we've seen. I suspected Goku turning Super Saiyan with the pole would enhance its power, but I wasn't expecting Goku to dodge the telekinetic hammer attack and break it clean in two.

The Camera Spin, the Kamehameha Beam Struggle, and a Broly Movie Easter Egg

With Tamagami's hammer destroyed, he and Goku fight hand to hand as equals, two warriors with legitimate respect for each other's craft. There's a beautiful shot where the camera circles around them as they block and dodge, and that circling camera technique is a signature of animation supervisor Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, who used the same move around Cooler and Goku in the first Dragon Ball Z Cooler movie.

Tamagami 3 slams his kinetic energy into the ground to fire beams up at Goku from below, similar to how Majin Buu attacks by putting body parts underground, but Goku counters with a Kamehameha. The camera panning around Goku during this beam struggle echoes shots from Path to Power and the first Dragon Ball movie, also credited to Nakatsuru, but this version adds an extra touch: Goku balanced on a thin mountain peak, which to me recalls the plateau battle at the end of the second Broly movie.

During the beam struggle Goku powers up into Super Saiyan 2, which proves almost too much for Tamagami, who manages to deflect the blast upward but takes an elbow to the solar plexus reminiscent of the one Goku used to one shot Recoome on Namek. Tamagami admits Goku is the better man that day, and the lightning effects on that Super Saiyan 2 transformation stood out to me.

Is the Cup and Balls Routine Toriyama's Tribute to Old School Sleight of Hand?

After the fight, Tamagami performs a classic cup and balls routine, a centuries old sleight of hand trick. I found myself wondering whether this was Toriyama's own tribute to old school magic. Having started learning magic myself a few years ago, I enjoyed seeing Tamagami's fast hands and Goku figuring out the ball wasn't under any cup at all, since a martial artist's trained eyes can catch sleight of hand that would fool most people.

Dr. Arinsu's Real Plan Surfaces, Including a Fourth Wall Breaking Line

Partway through the episode, one of Goku's companions gets another call from Dr. Arinsu, and this is where her true goal starts to come out. In one scene she looks almost directly at the camera and says something like "I guess I should move on to my main plan," which read to me as a fourth wall breaking joke, telling the audience that eight episodes in, the show is finally revealing its real plot. That kind of fourth wall break did exist in the original manga from time to time as well.

Elsewhere, Tamagami is shown practicing his Kamehameha, so perhaps he'll become a better fighter down the line, though I'm not sure if we'll see him again. I hope so, because these Tamagami characters are pretty cool.

Dr. Arinsu Was Secretly Watching the Majin Buu Saga and Took a Piece of Buu's Body

All the way back in episode 1, a character revealed to Gomah that Dr. Arinsu had gone to Universe 7 before him. Even then I suspected, and so did many viewers, that she had been watching the events of the series play out, possibly hiding in the background during the Buu Saga. That was a genuine guess on my part, not a leak, and episode 8 confirmed it: Dr. Arinsu was indeed watching the Buu Saga, and when Vegeta's final explosion scattered Majin Buu's body into pieces, she took one piece before Buu could regenerate it. That stolen piece is the seed of her master plan.

Grand Witch Marba Is Introduced as the True Creator of Majin Buu

The story moves to a new floating island location, possibly in Demon World One, though I'm not certain which demon realm it is. Some of its vegetation appeared in one of the Daima trailers a couple of months ago. There we meet Grand Witch Marba, a new character working with Dr. Arinsu to combine science and magic and build a new Majin Buu, using the stolen piece of the original to complete the creature.

I'd flagged this coming back in a video from July 2, where I said one of the demons in Daima was going to try to create a copy of Majin Buu. At the time I wasn't sure what it would look like, but a later video using leaks showed art of this new Majin Buu, and that same leak also showed Marba, whose design in that leaked art is nearly identical to what appeared in this episode. I joked that I must be the luckiest man on Earth for how closely that guess lined up.

Dr. Arinsu reveals that the last Majin she created wasn't able to beat her, and that this failure is driving her plan to build another Majin Buu strong enough to help her overthrow Gomah and become ruler of the demon realm. She also reveals that Marba is the original creator of Majin Buu, the same Buu from Dragon Ball Z and the original manga, which marks the third time Toriyama has changed Majin Buu's origin story. In the original manga, Bibidi created Buu with magic; in a 2014 Saikyo Jump interview Toriyama said that wasn't quite right, that Bibidi merely conjured Buu because Buu had existed since time immemorial, and that's the version fans have gone with since. Now it's Marba who supposedly created him. I joked that Toriyama must be "a hack" for changing it a third time, and I'm honestly not sure whether Arinsu or Marba is the one bending the truth here, or whether the 2014 explanation was accurate and Marba's account is simply false.

The New Buu Is Meant to Be More Controllable, and the Demon Realm's History With Majin Buu Gets Murkier

As of this episode, Marba is presented as the true creator of Buu, someone who considered it a once in a lifetime achievement, though the original Buu ran uncontrolled through the demon realm before eventually leaving. That recalls the anime only flashback in Dragon Ball Z where Kid Buu fights the Kais, and while those events are referenced in the manga too, I wouldn't be surprised if Toriyama has now reconned that rampage to have happened among the Kais of the second demon world rather than in the Sacred World of the Kais as previously assumed.

Dr. Arinsu explains that some members of her race, the Glinds, did leave for the outside world, and that some were killed by Majin Buu, though it's unclear to me whether that means Buu killed them inside the demon realm or after they'd already left, which is what the Dragon Ball Z filler scene showed. Either way, the point is to underline how dangerous creating another Majin Buu could be, and this new version is intended to be easier to control than the original. Arinsu drops a bit of her own saliva into the creation mixture, which echoes real world witchcraft folklore about using bodily fluids like blood or saliva in rituals, fitting Marba's old school witch design. Once the saliva goes in, energy begins radiating from the mixture, suggesting this new Majin is on the way and could mean trouble.

Arinsu's Endgame Is to Overthrow Gomah and Use Goku's Group Against Him

Arinsu's larger plan is to overthrow Gomah and become the supreme ruler of the demon realm herself, all while using Goku and his group to defeat the Tamagami, collect the demonic dragon balls, and ultimately help her betray Gomah. This connects back to a July video where I first talked about a conspiracy and a battle for the throne of the demon realm, based on very limited information at the time. Now, in episode 8, those pieces are starting to come together clearly.

There's also a smaller character beat I enjoyed: Hibis tells Vegeta that he's "not even a king" but acts arrogant anyway, which plays as a wink at Vegeta's history of calling himself a prince who never actually became king because his planet was destroyed before succession could happen. I'd also guessed in an earlier review that the group would head back to King Gomah's castle, but it looks like the next episode instead has everyone meeting at a hotel, finally bringing the whole crew together. Between the standout early fight and the lore packed into the back half, Dragon Ball Daima is really cooking now, even if I think it should have gotten here a bit faster.

Is Marba lying about creating Majin Buu, or is Dr. Arinsu, and does the 2014 explanation still hold any truth at all?