daima ep 2 - stuff I noticed, relating to this episode or not

(find me on bluesky for more, I think I might be leaving twittxr soon)

~~~

Three Demon Worlds

The Demon Realm's 3 sectors were teased in some of the initial posters, before we knew there were 3 different distinct areas and 3 Dragonballs/3 Tmagami to go with them. I assume the Tamagami will be in each area above as pictured in the opening. (Water area?! Let's goooo)

~~~

A Devilish Symbol

Another early tease was the symbol used on these soldiers' armour. Clearly the logo has horns that resemble Gomah, but also we can see the coveted Evil Third Eye in the logo?! Toriyama is a genius. The horns could also resemble Dabura, or maybe any other Demon King? Maybe the main Demon realm as a whole?

~~~

Our New Daima Dragon

Initially, I saw this random shot in the opening, and I thought "oh no, please don't let this guy be the new dragon." Dragon, you may ask? Well, yeah. Glowing red eyes, purple and yellow theme to match the Daima logo, unseen lower half, and horns that aren't too different from the Porunga we know. (Degesu said he knew of Porunga, but didn't seem to know about the U7 Planet Namek and their DB set, so I assume their OG Demon Realm Dragonball set will also be named Porunga. Super Porunga, maybe, to differentiate. Speaking of that, you can hear Neva uttering a Namekian summoning phrase at the beginning of one of the final trailers. Dorusie is the name, going by other Namekian summoning passwords, maybe? Dorushie?) Plus there's the whole thing of Toriyama occasionally reusing designs, and there's a similar bull design he used in Blue Dragon, where the Shadows stretch out from their wielders like dragon gods do in DB. Howeverrrr--

What if all the feathers in the opening/ending aren't only a tribute to Toriyama? (That's self explanatory, right? Not to mention the opening lyrics sneaking in his name.) I'm not gonna deny that the feathers are related to Toriyama.

What if the feathers are alluding to a feathered dragon? All the opening's shots with feathers show Goku as an adult, and while the ending's feather bits definitely feel more like a Toriyama homage with the sentimental lyrics, there is a clear shape at the very end... Maybe not just a bird.

Forgot a point!

The Stick Stake

This is the first thing we focus in on after the Daima logo in the opening.

What else could this be but a grave marker, if not some other makeshift symbol of a tragedy? And we immediately see it pan over to Glorio....and Shin, walking together.

Mr. Glorio, what's your deal? Is he working for one of the Demon Realm's 3 kings? Is he working with Arinsu? Is he working for himself? Maybe there's some other unseen force at play.

My guess is no matter what, he's likely serving himself more than anyone else, even if he's using a king's resources (info on Goku; magic screen; able to leave the Demon Realm) to get what he needs.

I'm assuming his end goal is for Goku and friends to kick the Tamagami's asses so he can swoop in and use the dragon balls for himself. Likely not for something awful, maybe to revive someone or something he lost. Or restore things to how they used to be. Obviously I think this will be revealed to make it seem like a backstabber, but I think he's just a normal guy who's suffering because the Demon Realm sucks. And once the gang knows about whatever he's been through and what he wants, maybe they'll all find a way to make his wish come true *and* get their regular bodies back. Speaking of the Demon Realm sucking...

~~~

Why did the Nameks all escape the Demon Realm?

Were the Namekians not in charge of their own area? Were they under an oppressive king? Is that why they made the Tamagami--to protect themselves, and the dragon balls from being abused?

~~~

I love the pacing so far of Daima, only two EPs in. Nearly every plot beat has been thrilling or intriguing, the jokes have mostly landed (Goku going "this isn't the time for 'hiya!' 😟" at Popo made me laugh really hard) , and we were of course spoiled by an extra long first episode that fed us all sorts of lore and fun character moments.

The second episode takes some well needed slow time to have the characters communicating with each other among all the chaos, yet I was already whining when I noticed I was at the end. It flew by.

And look at how many mysteries there already are, just from taking some extra time to think about what we've seen! This series is such a gift.