Daima Just Canonized a Huge Twist From Dragon Ball’s Past

Dragon Ball Daima has been politely chugging away with new episodes that harken back to the goofy, fun-loving adventures of the OG series. The series has also been juggling paying respect to fans who crave power-scaling debates and theory crafting where the series is placed in the canon. Before today’s episode, many a fan took to unofficially dubbing the show as the late Akira Toriyama‘s posthumous version of Toei Animations’ contentious Dragon Ball GT series, thanks in significant part to the series also exploring what the series would look like if Goku and crew were turned into kids again. Now, the series fully embraces the comparison with a twist that brings back one of Saiyan’s best-looking transformations.

Despite the Z-fighter’s best efforts in their impressive team-up handicap battle that saw Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, and new Daima characters face off against the supped-up Gomah, none of their flurry of combination beam attacks (no seriously, watch episode 17!) they were no match for Gomah’s power. The climax of the episode saw his allies rally from the sidelines as Goku, in vintage fashion, powered up to Super Saiyan Three to initiate a rematch between the two, as Gomah watched on smugly with his arms crossed. The aforementioned twist from episode 18, however, sees Goku go even further beyond his Buu-era transformation and tap into GT‘s Super Saiyan 4. The transformation rocked the entire anime side of the internet because the power-up seemingly canonized the oft-ostracized sequel series into the series canon (or, at least this element of it).

In contrast to the episode-long build-up in Dragon Ball GT, which saw Goku have his tail forcibly yoinked out of his body, transform into a great ape, and undergo a grueling battle with Super Baby (don’t ask) before achieving the form, Goku popped out and turned into SSJ4 as he would any other transformation (thanks to a power-up from Demon World Namekian, Neva). Another added and extremely notable difference is that Daima‘s iteration of SSJ4 ditches Goku’s jet-black hair look, as the form had in GT, to give his crown instead the same hue of pink that his furry little jacked body has. Once Goku achieved the only worthwhile part of GT during his battle with Gomah, the tide shifted back in his favor for a short while before Gomah nopes Goku’s SSJ4 back into the ether with the power of Tertian Oculus

At face value, Toei Animation’s bringing back SSJ4 is significant, because it revamped an old-forgotten form of Goku’s. It’s also trending online because it has fans in a bit of a tizzy about whether its appearance retroactively makes parts of GT canon. Since the series has played fast and loose with what is and isn’t canon, fans shouldn’t hurt themselves thinking too hard about it and enjoy the ride. That’s been the series modus operandi despite Daima pulling a One Piece by expanding and calling back to tidbits of lore that existed simply as flavor text.

Toriyama was reportedly heavily involved with the series’ production before his tragic passing last year, including its story and character designs; it stands to reason that Goku’s new SSJ4 look quantifies what Toriyama would’ve envisioned the form to look like given another crack at it. Now, fans can place SSJ4 Goku right next to SSJ3 Vegeta on the totem pole of wild twists Daima pulled off. However, we’ll have to give extra points to SSJ4 Goku for making his pink monkey return on Valentine’s Day. He understood the assignment, even though we prefer the GT look ever so slightly!

DBダイマ18話、少し参加させていただきました。
小牧様、村上様、野中様、池田様、山室様、斉藤様、中鶴様、スタッフの皆様本当にありがとうございました。
I did the key animation for the first part of SS3 Goku vs. Goma and Goku’s transformation, thank you. pic.twitter.com/yxeD5KvmFP

— アレックス (@uroncha11anim) February 14, 2025

As Daima is slated to have 20 episodes, the anime breaking out SSJ4 from the proverbial Dragon Ball vault will mark the series’ grand finale when its final episode drops on February 28. You can safely bet its version of the transformation will make it to games like Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero! and the like as future DLC, growing their already expansive character roster with yet another Goku.

You can watch Dragon Ball Daima on Crunchyroll, Netflix, and Hulu.

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