Dragon Ball Daima has been continuously compared to GT mostly because it brought back kid Goku, and although the general consensus is that the former series is vastly superior, it still repeats one of the latter installment’s biggest mistakes by allowing Goku to fly on his own. The reason behind this critique, however, isn’t just because grounding Goku would have served as another way of hampering his insane power Rather, it is due to the fact it would have required Goku to use the Flying Nimbus, and bringing the Flying Nimbus to the Demon Worlds could have affected it in some way.
Besides serving as Goku’s original mode of transportation, the Flying Nimbus is such an intriguing “character” because it only allows pure-hearted people to ride upon it, serving as an extension of each character who attempts to use it by gauging their morality in a visually effective way. Luckily, the franchise explores this fun dynamic further whenever other variables were introduced by tackling certain questions. One of these questions is if the Flying Nimbus would still allow Goku to ride upon it if he was simultaneously holding onto someone who wasn’t pure-hearted when in flight.
Dragon Ball Daima Could Have Canonized Dark Nimbus
An Anime-Original Element Could Have Come Back in Daima
Dragon Ball Daima could have easily pushed the limits of this concept even further if the Demon Worlds altered the Flying Nimbus’ unique properties in some way. The concept of an altered Flying Nimbus isn’t so out of the realm of possibility. The anime adaptation of the original Dragon Ball manga created what was referred to as Dark Nimbus. In the episode “The Last of Mercenary Tao,” the eponymous villain receives the Black Nimbus from Korin, who reveals that the cloud essentially serves as the exact opposite of its counterpart, whereby those with impure hearts can use it as a mode of transportation.
The only problem is that the Dark Nimbus doesn’t serve much of a role, except to weaken Tao, since Korin changes the properties of the cloud when Tao is in flight, causing him to fall from a great height. Some might point to the fact that, since the Dark Nimbus never appeared in creator Akira Toriyama’s original story, he would never have considered such a thing to occur in Dragon Ball Daima. However, Toriyama did draw the “evil” cloud in various instances, including a colored page for 1993 Weekly Shōnen Jump #2.
Dragon Ball Daima Missed a Big Opportunity to Moderate Goku’s Strength
Of course, many fans would also have appreciated kid Goku being unable to fly because it would have greatly weakened him. After all, one of the franchise’s most relevant critiques is that the characters are much too strong. Even if Daima has clearly made Goku weaker in several ways, the “low-power” tone of this new setting means that he’s still leagues above everyone he encountered, at least until the present. Future episodes may change this, but fans who were excited about the more grounded (literally) battles in Daima must have felt some disappointment in seeing Goku fly so soon.
Even if fans will not see the Flying Nimbus in Dragon Ball Daima, the images of Goku astride the cloud are still among the most iconic of the franchise, possibly even more so than the Kamehameha stance or Super Saiyan Goku.
Dragon Ball DAIMA is the fifth overall series in the action-adventure anime franchise. It features most of the classic cast members as de-aged versions of themselves, including Goku, Vegeta, and Bulma. The series was announced at NYCC 2023, with creator Akira Toriyama returning to handle DAIMA’s run.
- Seasons
- 1
- Writers
- Akira Toriyama