Dragon Ball Daima's New Super Saiyan 4 Is Pure Demon Magic, Not a True Saiyan Transformation

Dragon Ball Daima episode 18, titled Awakening, finally delivered the return of Super Saiyan 4, and there is a lot to unpack about how the form actually works, why it was brought back now, and why it is not likely to show up again outside this show, at least not yet.

The episode opens with Goku tapping into Super Saiyan 3 for the first time in the Daima timeline. Since this is shortly after the Majin Buu saga, it is his strongest form at this point, and he actually does pretty well early on against Gomah. Gomah genuinely feels pain here, if only briefly. Gomah does not know anything about Saiyans, so like everybody else in the demon realm he assumes Super Saiyan 3 is some kind of magic. The demon realm's concept of ki and energy is similar but different to what would be called magic there, which becomes important later.

Super Saiyan 3 Goku Pushes Gomah Back, But the Third Eye Bails Him Out

Super Saiyan 3 Goku fires a number of ki blasts at Gomah, and for a split second Gomah is genuinely rattled at how much stronger Goku has gotten. But the third eye is there to protect him, giving him an edge that is more overpowered than I expected. I had been saying for a long time that the third eye seemed broken in a good way, and this sequence proved it is even more overpowered than I thought.

This whole fight is beautifully animated and exciting, and it brought back warm memories of watching Dragon Ball Z as a kid, with big ki blasts and physical exchanges going back and forth in that classic style. Daima is clearly borrowing from Dragon Ball Z, GT, Super and Heroes, which fits with it being a 40th anniversary series celebrating everything.

A Young Majin Ally's Chocolate Power-Up Lets Him Mimic Goku's Super Saiyan 3

A young Majin ally and another demon realm fighter step up against Gomah in a tremendously animated sequence that really needs multiple watches to appreciate the detail. A fellow Majin gives the young Majin ally a giant chocolate chip cookie, and that powers him up. He is then able to mimic Goku's Super Saiyan 3 power, including the hair. A fan had sent me an image assuming he had absorbed Vegeta or used fusion earrings, but that is not the case. The power of the cookie seems to genuinely make him stronger, and while I am not sure if he is exactly at Super Saiyan 3 level, he is definitely trying to mimic Goku and he did get a real power up.

This young Majin ally has been the character in Daima that has surprised me the most. He started off comedic, a parody of the original Buu, not really strong, but he keeps proving there is fire inside him. He wraps himself around Gomah so Goku can land a direct punch to his face, then starts swinging Gomah into rocks. If he were properly trained, he could be a serious force. Some fans have suggested he was inspired by Nekomajin's Super Majin transformation from Toriyama's one shot manga Neko Majin Z, which is not part of Dragon Ball continuity but does feature cameos from characters like Vegeta.

Unlike Dragon Ball Super, which only had about two or three months of prep time, Daima had two years, and it shows in sequences like this. Unfortunately the power of the cookie is only temporary and it wears off. The other demon realm fighter and Goku keep working Gomah over until the third eye kicks in again, turning into a laser that smashes up everything around it, the strongest attack seen in Daima up to this point. Gomah smashes Super Saiyan 3 Goku and prepares a finishing blow, a giant sphere of dark magical energy similar to other massive ki blasts in the series, including the ones Frieza is famous for.

The Demon Realm's Most Powerful Magic User Triggers a Saiyan DNA Mutation Into a New Super Saiyan 4

Before Gomah can finish Goku, the oldest and most powerful magic user in this history appears and puts his hand out. We had already seen him unlock power from the other demon realm fighter in episode 12 against Vegeta, and at the time I assumed that was because he had created him. It turns out his magic presence is strong enough that he can unlock power from other beings too, not just the ones he made.

He fuses Goku with a strange blue aura, and Goku appears to vanish into another realm, though that is really just an artistic choice. What is actually happening is that his magic infuses Goku's cellular structure with so much power that it taps into his primal nature. The lines we see represent Goku's Saiyan DNA, and his magic triggers a mutation that reverts Goku to something closer to his original state.

This is not the same as the Great Ape form. The Great Ape, Golden Great Ape, and the original Super Saiyan 4 form from Dragon Ball GT were all activated by high amounts of Blutz waves, which reflect from the sun. That is a different type of energy. Because Saiyans are biologically different from demon realm beings, this demonic magic triggers a mutation instead, and even the magic user himself did not know exactly what would happen. It is also why Goku regrows his tail, the same tail that Kami removed before the 23rd World Tournament, back when Goku trained with him. One member of that lineage took the tail away, and now another has given it back.

Behind the Scenes: Nakatsuru's 1996 Design Meets Toriyama and Akio Iyoku's Research

The original Super Saiyan 4 was designed back in 1995 or early 1996 by Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, the main supervisor for Dragon Ball GT, who has returned for Daima. That form was not originally designed by Toriyama, but this new version has fingerprints of both Nakatsuru and Toriyama, and it is one of the main reasons Daima exists in this part of the timeline rather than after Super.

Executive producer Akio Iyoku has done a huge amount of market research over the years and has been the one feeding Toriyama ideas to write. That is how Future Trunks returned in Dragon Ball Super, how evil Goku showed up in Super, and how Broly, a character created by Akira Toriyama's collaborator rather than Toriyama himself, was identified as globally popular and repurposed for Dragon Ball Super Broly. I would not call that canonizing him, since Dragon Ball Z Broly and Dragon Ball Super Broly behave differently and are not really the same character, but the pattern is the same as what happened with Super Saiyan 4 here.

This new design resembles both the Super Saiyan 4 form from Dragon Ball GT and the Limit Breaker Super Saiyan 4 from Dragon Ball Heroes, a game that was decommissioned last year to make room for Daima. Toriyama was rewriting a lot of demon realm lore and Multiverse backstory, and remaking Super Saiyan 4 required some changes. Internally, according to documents at Toei, this form is called Super Saiyan 4, the same as the GT version, though there is a chance that name could change later, since placeholder names have happened before, like Final Gohan becoming Gohan Beast in Super Hero's internal documents. Even Goku himself is not sure what happened to him.

The New Super Saiyan 4 Borrows Its Look From Journey to the West

This form was designed to model itself after GT and Heroes, but also Journey to the West. It resembles Sun Wukong more than any other Super Saiyan form, with maybe the exception of the Golden Great Ape. Earlier in the episode, when this magic user is over Goku about to give him that power, the pose was taken from a Journey to the West live action film, in a scene where a Buddhist figure gives energy to the monk Tripitaka to defeat Sun Wukong, since Sun Wukong is sometimes the villain in parts of that story. Toriyama did artwork for that film years ago, so this is a direct tribute to it and to the original story that inspired Dragon Ball.

I Knew About This Super Saiyan 4 Since September and Chose Not to Leak It

I became aware that Super Saiyan 4 was coming to Daima last year, and I have a screenshot of myself talking to a friend about it back in September, though I knew a little before that. I chose not to leak it or reveal it because it is a very big, show ending transformation, and even though I could have made videos on it and profited from it, I decided to keep it to myself. There are other things I also kept to myself that will come out as the last two episodes of Daima air.

Super Saiyan 4 Goku Fights Like an Animal as He Overwhelms Gomah

With his new power, Super Saiyan 4 Goku starts to manhandle Gomah, throwing him through rocks and landing big blows. Pay attention to how he moves, because he is not moving like Goku normally does. He moves more like an ape, using his tail, on all fours at times. This form is bringing out the primal, animalistic tendencies of the Saiyans, which actually matches what Nakatsuru said about his original Super Saiyan 4 design. In many ways this makes the form the opposite of Ultra Instinct, since it is not about letting the body move on its own, it is about survival instinct dictating how you fight, a mix of being really strong while also not fully in control.

Even with this new power, Gomah's third eye is still far beyond anything the form can answer. I think a lot of people expected Goku to smash Gomah the way Gohan Beast smashed Cell Max after hearing rumors about this form, but that is not what happens here, because the third eye is that strong. There is a nice visual touch in this stretch where Gomah is colored blue and Goku is colored red, which really pops on screen. Goku eventually fires a massive ki blast that knocks Gomah far away and begins tapping into even more power, looking even more like Wukong as he does.

Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon Sets Up Goku's Flame Wreathed Kamehameha

Piccolo prepares the special beam cannon, the Makankosappo, to hit Gomah, causing a huge explosion that sends everyone flying. Goku then prepares to fire his first Super Saiyan 4 Kamehameha in Daima. I want to flag one frame here that I noticed reminded me of something else, though I cannot say for certain if it was an intentional reference or just a coincidence.

As Goku charges the Kamehameha, Gomah flies in and punches him, stopping him mid move, and for a moment the show wants you to believe Gomah has hurt Goku badly. But after being out for a second, Goku just gets back up and keeps charging. I loved that they broke the usual anime trope where an opponent just watches while someone powers up. Also, every time Gomah gets hit in this episode he makes a funny face, and the one from being punched right in the eye is one of my top five favorite frames in all of Dragon Ball.

The Kamehameha itself starts off as a traditional blue blast, but as Goku puts more power in, flames wrap around it, something we have never seen from a Kamehameha before. It is not quite the Kamehameha Times 10 from GT, since that one was more of a darker red, while this is a blue and red flame combination, but it does pay tribute to the GT scene where Goku fires an upside down Kamehameha while floating down. The blast creates a giant crater, and Goku believes the battle is over, but the third eye activates again and Gomah rises up bigger and stronger than he has been at any point in the series so far.

Gomah Reverses Goku's Transformation Back to Base Form

The third eye makes Gomah one of the most dangerous artifacts outside the Dragon Balls in the history of the franchise. Some have compared it to the Timebreaker Mask from Dragon Ball Heroes, which gave characters like Bardock huge power boosts they would not normally have, though we have not really seen an artifact this strong outside of the games before now.

Gomah then does something I did not see coming. He lifts Goku up and deactivates his Super Saiyan 4, reverting him all the way down to his base form. The only real precedent for a villain doing something like this is Moro, who was able to turn off Goku and Vegeta's transformation abilities. Goku's clothes even return to normal, further proof that this Super Saiyan 4 is a purely magic based transformation rather than a Saiyan one.

That is exactly why this form is not showing up during the fight with Beerus or anywhere else in Dragon Ball Super, to our understanding. Super Saiyan 4 here is magic combined with Saiyan biology, and because Goku does not understand demon realm magic, especially not magic from someone as strong as this magic user, he cannot tap into it on his own. There is always a chance it comes back in a future story, but it would probably depend on Goku actually learning magic and figuring out how to combine it with his other powers.

Glorio Summons the Demonic Dragon as Dr. Arinsu's Plot to Dethrone Gomah Unfolds

Dr. Arinsu orders Glorio to gather the other Dragon Balls, combine them with Arinsu's, and make a wish for Arinsu to become the grand Demon King with more power than Gomah, so she can overthrow him and become queen of the demon realm. It turns out Glorio had learned the demon language just in case he needed to make the wish himself, meaning the magic user, who apparently knew the language the whole time and never told anyone, was not even necessary. This confirms Glorio and Dr. Arinsu have been working together from the start.

But based on context clues in this episode, Glorio seems to be having a change of heart. Flashbacks show all the moments Goku had with Glorio and the rest of the group, the kind of bonding that keeps happening when people meet Goku and end up becoming his friend after starting as an enemy. Glorio clearly sees Goku and the others struggling against Gomah, and it raises the question of whether he really wants to hand Dr. Arinsu even more power.

Glorio summons the Demonic Dragon Balls' dragon for the first time in Daima, the original Porunga, which predates the version of Porunga we have seen elsewhere. Internally at Toei this dragon is just called Porunga, even though the credits list him as the demonic version. This is probably the biggest dragon shown outside the space level one from Super. My exclusive video back on September 14, 2024 had already predicted this dragon would look like Porunga but with the coloring of GT's Black Star Dragon, red with yellow eyes, and that is exactly what shows up here. When Gomah tries to attack the dragon with the third eye, the dragon simply flicks him away, which is a striking moment given that Demon King Piccolo once killed the Eternal Dragon Shenron in the original Dragon Ball, since dragons are usually not physically powerful even though their wishes are.

Dr. Arinsu tells Glorio the wish, and the episode ends on a cliffhanger with Glorio speaking it in the demon language. I believe Glorio has actually betrayed Dr. Arinsu, and that in the next episode Goku and the others will go back to being adults again, with Glorio finally choosing his new friends over Dr. Arinsu's sinister and selfish motives. That is my prediction, I am not saying for certain it is what is happening, but the next episode is titled Betrayal, and there are two episodes left to find out.