Dragon Ball Daima Episode 11 Review: Vegeta Battles Tamagami 2 as Majin Duu Takes On Tamagami 1

Dragon Ball Daima episode 11 gave us two fights at once: Vegeta squaring off against Tamagami 2, and a brand new counterfeit Majin, Majin Duu, taking on Tamagami 1. Both fights were well animated and beautiful, and they were very different from each other, so go out of your way to see them.

The episode is called Densetsu, which means Legend, and it followed the huge lore dump that was episode 10. I think episode 10 was probably a little bit better, but I did like this one, and the pacing is finally up.

Marba and Dr. Arinsu build Majin Duu because Majin Kuu was not enough

Like other episodes, this one spent its early parts on some Namekian lore before moving into a middle section with Dr. Arinsu, Marba and Majin Kuu together, trying to figure out what to do next. Marba has another piece of Majin Buu's essence, so the plan is to make another Majin, because Kuu obviously was not enough to beat Tamagami 1.

Back on August 11th I discussed that there were going to be multiple counterfeit Majin Buus in Dragon Ball Daima, fake ones. We now have our second one, and probably the last one. A sheet went out recently that took my leaks of Marba, Majin Kuu and Majin Duu and added three more characters underneath. The bottom three are fake. That is fan art, and those characters are not going to be in Daima, so do not fall for it. Marba, Kuu and Duu, however, were obviously going to be in the show. I discussed them all the way back in September when I covered the exclusive leaks.

So Majin Duu is created, and the episode ends on a kind of double cliffhanger.

Tamagami 2's palace makes Demon World 2 look like the best place to live

Vegeta does go face Tamagami 2, and I love Tamagami 2's palace. It is different from Tamagami 3's because Demon World 2 is different: there is a lot of water, waterfalls and really beautiful scenery. If you were a member of the demon realm, Demon World 2 seems like the most comfortable place to live. Demon World 1 has the bottomless pit and some floating islands, while Demon World 3 seems to rain a lot and is a kind of volcanic place.

I also love Tamagami 2's design. He uses a spear or trident as a weapon, which is cool. The episode ends on a cliffhanger because Vegeta and Tamagami 2 are fighting near the water, and Vegeta gets swallowed by the Kraken.

The Vegeta fight was, as I put it, "just a raw fight," and Vegeta fought him in base form, so we had not seen him go Super Saiyan at that point. Even Goku had to go Super Saiyan, and actually Super Saiyan 2, to keep up with and defeat Tamagami 3.

Majin Duu steps in against Tamagami 1 while Gomah looks the other way

While Vegeta is fighting, Majin Duu is fighting Tamagami 1, taking Kuu's place in trying to get that one star ball. I like that we have two different things going on at once.

Meanwhile, Gomah is not really paying attention to what is going on in his own universe. He is watching and following Goku on a screen, along with Glorio and the rest of them, so he does not even know that his so called friend, and not really a friend, Dr. Arinsu, is plotting to take that demonic Dragon Ball right under his nose.

Most importantly, the episode kept me entertained. It really flew by, and there were not any parts I thought were relatively slow.

Neba's link to Katas is cool, but Piccolo not knowing Namekian is a bad retcon

There was a conversation between Neba and Piccolo that went into Katas, Piccolo's father. I talked about him in my review and breakdown last week, and Toriyama is clearly rewriting things. There are good retcons and bad retcons. Goku being revealed as an alien in the early parts of Dragon Ball Z was not Toriyama's original plan, but it is a good retcon because it opened the story up to space travel and other Saiyans. It changed Dragon Ball forever, and we can all agree on that.

A bad retcon is Piccolo not knowing how to speak Namekian, even though we literally see him speak it with Kami during the 23rd tournament in Dragon Ball. Maybe Toriyama forgot that. He has been known to forget things from time to time, though not as much as people say. Either way, it is a very weird choice.

I do like how they brought up Katas. Apparently Piccolo, probably through Nail, has memories of Neba, who is one of the oldest Namekians, a legend, which is probably why the episode is called Legend. Neba tells Piccolo he looks like Katas, the father of the nameless Namekian, who was referred to as the son of Katas in the original manga. Katats or Katas, it is the same name, just a different approximation, like Kakarot. It was cool to see that lore tied back together.

Summoning the demonic dragon requires Namekian, which raises a question about the Super Dragon Balls

The context for the Namekian language reveal is that the group needs to take Neba with them, because apparently you have to speak Namekian to summon the demonic dragon, just as with Porunga. Presumably that is because the Dragon Balls were originally made by a Namekian, probably in whatever Demon World 2's older version of the language was. These Dragon Balls are very old.

Now that we know the demon realm existed prior to the multiverse, does that mean the demonic Dragon Balls predate the Super Dragon Balls? I do not know yet, because we do not know exactly when they were made. We just know they have been in the demon realm since before Planet Namek had its Dragon Balls. We also now know for certain that Neba was the only Namekian not to leave, and he is the last one left in Demon World 2.

Blood made the Vegeta fight feel dangerous

Something else I really liked is that we got blood. I was wondering whether they would keep blood in when the show went to Fuji TV, because it was supposed to be a streaming only show before Fuji got the rights back in March. Tamagami slices part of Vegeta's cheek with his trident spear, and a trickle of blood comes down.

That might not be a big deal to a lot of people, but Dragon Ball Super had virtually no blood until Super Hero. I am not someone who needs all my anime to be like Ninja Scroll, although that stuff can be fun and I do like horror movies. Blood is a storytelling tool that adds tension and tells you this is dangerous. Used correctly it works, and I think it worked here, even with only a little.

Majin Kuu is a fanboy for his new brother, and Duu learns on the job

I enjoyed how happy Majin Kuu was to have a brother. He is almost a fanboy for Majin Duu, who performed better against Tamagami 1 than Kuu did. Kuu is clearly the little brother of the two, yet because he was created first, he is technically the older one. They even debate who should eat the chocolate. Kuu is a funny character, and he does not really seem all that evil.

Duu has aspects of Fat Buu's character, but as I have said before, neither of these Majins is meant to be taken super seriously or is on the level of the original Majin Buu. It is Marba and Dr. Arinsu trying to recapture that magic and having trouble doing so.

This time the fight is a lot less comedic, but still funny. Tamagami 1 gets hit a couple of times, and after Tamagami 1 fires a magic blast, Duu tries one too, as if learning on the job, and accidentally burns his own face. That shows he can learn quickly, just as Majin Buu did the Kamehameha on Goku after seeing it once, and Kid Buu learned Instant Transmission from seeing Goku do it once. Each new Majin gets stronger; Dr. Arinsu even said in a previous episode that the last one was not as strong as her, before Kuu was made. Duu is a lot more like Majin Buu than Kuu was, able to duck his head inside his blobby body, and I think his yellow skin is supposed to be a wink to Janemba's first form. They are getting closer.

Daima is more fun now that the pacing is up

Things are moving fast now, with two fights left unfinished: Majin Duu versus Tamagami 1 and Vegeta versus Tamagami 2. I liked this episode a lot. Daima is more fun now than it was during those middle episodes five, six and seven. I did not hate them, but they could have sped things up a little. Things are happening at a much quicker pace, and I had fun with it.

Was Piccolo forgetting Namekian a retcon you could live with, or did it bother you as much as it bothered me?