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Today at New York Comic Con, Toei Animation celebrated Dragon Ball Z‘s 40th anniversary and shared behind-the-scenes details about how it crafted its recently released Dragon Ball Daima anime.
During the Dragon Ball Daima presentation, Akio Iyoku, the executive producer of Dragon Ball, and Monica Rial, the English voice actor for Bulma, served as hosts. Not unlike a Nintendo Direct, Dragon Ball Daima‘s special panel featured a slew of gaming announcements for fans to get excited about—the first of which is that Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero’s first wave of DLC characters will include Dragon Ball Daima characters Vegeta Mini and Glorio. Likewise, Goku Mini is coming to Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 and will be available to play for free for a limited time.
Goku (Mini) from Dragon Ball DAIMA will be joining the fight in the #DBXV2 FUTURE SAGA Chapter 2 DLC!
A free trial campaign for Goku (Mini) will be held for a limited period. Grab the Power Pole and go on a rampage! pic.twitter.com/SmXWg4RQag
— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) October 17, 2024
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will also receive a Daima Demon Realm DLC for players to explore. On the mobile game side, Dokkan Battle will get Goku and Vegeta mini as characters. Dragon Ball Legends will also have a special event where players can play as Goku mini. In the trading card realm, Dragon Ball Fusion World will get Glorio and Pansy cards with its fifth booster pack. In the fighting game scene, Toei Animation announced registration for its upcoming fighting game tournament, Battle Hour 2025. The event will take place in Los Angeles January 18-19.
Later on during the panel, Iyoku and Kid Goku’s English voice actor, Stephanie Nadolny, made an appearance to let people know she’ll be voicing Mini Goku in Daima as well as to remind fans about Daima‘s English episode release in U.S theaters November 10-12. The panel also revealed that Aaron Dismuke (Alphonse Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist) will be the English voice actor for Glorio.
Dragon Ball Daima‘s release comes at an exciting time for Dragon Ball fans. On the one hand (barring the show’s staggered release on Netflix on October 18), the anime’s original language release premiered on streamers like Crunchyroll and Hulu on the same day as its hotly anticipated arena fighter, Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero. A game, mind you, that quickly sold a staggering 3 million copies within 24 hours of its release on October 11. On the other hand, Daima‘s release not only comes a full calendar year after its reveal at last year’s NYCC, but also arrives following the passing of series creator Akira Toriyama on March 1.
During last year’s New York Comic Con, Iyoku revealed Toriyama played a significant role in Daima‘s production, supervising its narrative and character designs. During the panel, Iyoku showed off a book of illustrations Toriyama drew of the demon realm, ogres, and the internal and external of Daima‘s many charming vehicles.
Introducing SEASON PASS DLC 2 playable characters from Dragon Ball DAIMA, coming soon to DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO.
🟣 Vegeta (Mini)
🟡 Glorio
🟣 & more…
Stay tuned for further updates! #DBSZ pic.twitter.com/lumYfm1KL2
— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) October 17, 2024
“Toriyama is very particular when it comes to mechs, how they function and how they move. There’ll be all sorts of mechs that [fans] will see throughout the show,” Iyoku said. Unfortunately, those watching the stream on Popverse’s live stream couldn’t see any of Toriyama’s illustrations.
Similarly to Dragon Ball GT, Dragon Ball Daima sees Goku and his friends transformed into children. From its premiere episode alone, Daima teases a new story that will see its Z-fighters contend with creatures from the demon realm who’ve succeeded in power thanks to Goku’s swift neutralization of Buu saga grunt enemies.
Fans of the Japanese dub can look forward to watching new Daima episodes every Friday (and, again, English dub connoisseurs can watch the first three episodes of Daima in U.S. theaters November 10-12). In signature DBZ fashion, the panel closed off its announcement with a special video message from Goku’s Japanese voice actor, Masako Nozawa, who asked everyone to enjoy screening Daima‘s first episode. Naturally, the episode began after everyone in attendance joined her in doing their best Kamehameha.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
