Dragon Ball: Daima And Super Being Set in Different Timelines Gives the Franchise a Great Opportunity

Dragon Ball Daima has sparked a lot of controversy in the Dragon Ball fandom since it was announced. As the anime aired, many fans began to worry about the continuity of the franchise and how Daima and Super could fit into a consistent timeline.

While not everyone is concerned about what is or isn't canon, it's undeniable that many people are. And Dragon Ball Daima definitely opened up the possibility that there is more than one canon timeline in the franchise — and that could actually be great for the series.

Related

'I Think It Will Happen One Day': Dragon Ball Daima Character Designer Hints At A DBZ Remake

Could Dragon Ball Z be getting a remake in the near future?

Posts 1

By  Laura Gassert

Are Dragon Ball Daima and DB Super Set In The Same Timeline?

When Dragon Ball Daima began airing, most fans believed that it was a story set between Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super, even though DBS obviously doesn't mention anything about the characters ever being turned into kids (which could easily be retconned).

The thing is, except for Dragon Ball GT and filler episodes or movies, the series also followed a single timeline that made sense. Thus, there was no reason to believe that Daima and Super would take place in separate timelines.

However, as Daima progressed, some things began to bother parts of the Super fandom, especially after Vegeta transformed into Super Saiyan 3, since he hasn't done so in Super and there was no reason to believe that he had ever unleashed that transformation. The introduction of Goku SSJ4 upset some fans even more, as most considered this form to be a non-canon transformation, since it was only shown in Dragon Ball GT.

Akio Iyuko, the producer of Daima, teased in an interview that Dragon Ball Super and Dragon Ball Daima could be set in different universes. While he doesn't confirm anything, he hints at the idea that Daima is a sequel to the manga and Super is a sequel to the anime.

Dispute Over Rights May Force The Franchise Into The Multiverse

It has been widely reported that Shueisha and Capsule Corp Japan are in a legal dispute over the rights to the Dragon Ball franchise following the death of Akira Toriyama. While there has been no news on the development of this litigation, Shueisha probably claims to have some rights to everything related to the Dragon Ball manga, but Toriyama apparently tried to distance Shueisha from the series with the establishment of Capsule Corp Japan, led by Akio Iyuko.

There are even rumors that the Dragon Ball Daima production could not make clear references to Dragon Ball Super in order to prevent Shueisha from claiming that they have rights over it.

Depending on how this ends, it could seriously affect future productions. If Shueisha retains the rights (or part of them) to the manga while Capsule Corp Japan retains other rights, they may produce different series that are intentionally unrelated, forcing the series into "Shueisha's universe," which would likely include Super and its ramifications, and "CC Japan's universe", which would likely include Daima and perhaps other future productions.

Why A Dragon Ball Multiverse Is Not A Bad Idea

While the scenario where the series is split into a multiverse due to litigations is probably the worst one, the idea of a Dragon Ball multiverse in itself is actually not a bad one. If the producers of future series didn't need to worry about making everything fit without any major continuity plot holes, they could expand the franchise much more.

It is quite clear that the power scaling has reached a point where it is basically meaningless in the franchise. But while Super needs to introduce even more powerful forms for the series to move forward, Daima delivered a good story with something as simple as SSJ3 and SSJ4 — and without any new fusions.

With a multiverse, some creators could go back to points where transformations were not so powerful yet and develop more stories full of adventure without worrying about how Goku and Vegeta would beat the new super-ultra-hyper-perfect form of Cell, while others could just jump into power scaling and keep building more amazing transformations.

A multiverse would, of course, mean that filler content could become canon — so filler arcs and even Dragon Ball GT could easily be considered canon. And once everything is officially canon, the fans can finally stop worrying and arguing about it.

What's Next For Dragon Ball?

Since the end of Dragon Ball Daima, no new projects have been announced. Fans are still expecting the Dragon Ball Super manga to return from hiatus soon, and it could still nod to Daima in some way (Toroyato actually referenced Dragon Ball Daima recently).

Maybe we will get some news about Dragon Ball Super Season 2 or even a Dragon Ball Daima sequel in the next months.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image

Dragon Ball Super

Like

Display card tags widget

TV-PG

Animation

Action

Adventure

Anime

Fantasy

Display card community and brand rating widget Display card main info widget

Release Date

2015 - 2018

Network

Fuji TV

Showrunner

Tatsuya Nagamine

Display card main info widget end Display card media widget start

Display card media widget end

Cast

See All

• 
  Masakazu Morita

  Whis (voice)
• 
  Masako Nozawa

  Son Goku/Goku Black/Son Gohan/Son Goten (voices)

• 

Where to watch

Close

WHERE TO WATCH

Streaming

• 

Checkbox: control the expandable behavior of the extra info

Directors

Ryota Nakamura, Masanori Sato, Kenichi Takeshita, Takao Iwai, Hideki Hiroshima, Masato Mitsuka, Kazuya Karasawa, Ayumu Ono, Takahiro Imamura, Tatsuya Nagamine, Kôjiro Kawasaki, Kouji Ogawa

Writers

Ryu King, Hiroshi Yamaguchi

Franchise(s)

Dragon Ball

Seasons

1

Studio

Toei Animation

Based On

Manga

Creator

Akira Toriyama

Number of Episodes

131

Streaming Service(s)

Hulu, Crunchyroll

Powered by

Expand Collapse