Dragon Ball Daima Calls Back To The Franchise's First True Villain, & It Could Solve A Big Series Mystery

Warning: Spoilers for Dragon Ball Daima episode #3Dragon Ball Daima has visited the Demon Realm for the first time, and some of its inhabitants may look a little familiar to long-time fans of the franchise. This similarity may not be a coincidence, however, and it could hint at an answer to some long-standing questions about Dragon Ball's first big villain, King Piccolo. Though many fans might only remember King Piccolo's most famous son, Piccolo Jr., the series' first Namekian actually had a littany of progeny, and Daima could have just dropped a big reference to these forgotten sons.

King Piccolo was a self-proclaimed "Demon King," although he doesn't seem to have ever actually been the King of the Demon Realm, since Piccolo had no knowledge of that land. It's now known thanks to Daima that all Namekians are actually native to the Demon Realm, so despite this fact, King Piccolo still has a connection to the Demon Realm, even if he wasn't fully aware of it. Before "reincarnating" as the Piccolo fans know and love, however, King Piccolo had some other children who did his dirty work for him, and these other children bear a suspicious resemblance to the demons of Daima.

Daima Can Finally Explain The Long-Standing Mystery Of King Piccolo's Children

King Piccolo's Children Were Demons

Up to now, King Piccolo's children, such as Tambourine, Cymbal, and Drum, were considered to be "mutated" Namekians, given odd appearances (for Namekians) as a result of their father's extreme evil. While King Piccolo and Piccolo Jr. both resemble ordinary Namekian biology, these other children bear a lot of features that Namekians don't have, like wings, horns, and spot patterns, and aside from being green and having pointed ears, really don't look much like Namekians at all.

In episode #3 of Daima, Goku, Supreme Kai, and Glorio go to a bar, which is inhabited by a number of Demon Realm natives of varying appearances. Several of these demons have wings, horns, and/or spot patterns that cause them to resemble King Piccolo's children and seem to be quite typical of Demon Realm inhabitants. Perhaps, instead of mutated Namekians, King Piccolo's children were modeled after other species of demons, giving them very different abilities and appearances from their Namekian father.

Alternatively, it's possible that the Namekians and these other Demon Realm inhabitants share a common ancestor, and evolved differently over time until becoming distinct species. King Piccolo, being half of the Nameless Namekian from Dragon Ball's very distant past, might be from a time when they were more closely related, allowing him to draw upon recessive traits like wings and horns that would become defining features of the Demon Realm race. He may even be considered to be of the "Demon Clan" because of his ability to grant these demon-like traits to his offspring, making them still mutated.

King Piccolo's Children Look More Like Demons Than Namekians

The "Mutated" Namekians Raised a Lot of Questions

The children of King Piccolo have been a major question mark in Dragon Ball lore since the Namekian race made its proper debut in Dragon Ball Z, on their former homeworld of Namek. It wouldn't have been hard to have some Namekians on Namek bear traits similar to Tambourine or Cymbal, just to help explain their appearances, but that was decidedly not the case when characters began to arrive there; instead, they all resembled Piccolo and Kami, with none of them having wings or horns.

By showing that demons native to the Demon Realm share many traits with King Piccolo's children, it helps solidify their "Demon Clan" status, as well as offering some potential explanations for why his children looked so unlike other Namekians. The resemblance certainly seems to be more than a coincidence, although not all the demons seen in the bar share it. After all, there have been other demons seen throughout Dragon Ball's, notably Dabura, who one would think would be more typical of how a Demon Realm demon might appear.

Related

Dragon Ball Daima Explains The Real Reason Namekians Left The Demon Realm, & It's Actually Brilliant

The Namekians were once native to the Demon Realm, but most of them chose to leave, and now fans finally have an idea as to why.

By tying back to the first "Demon King" in Dragon Ball, Daima is in conversation with the series' continuity, and may even be taking this opportunity to answer a question that's hung over King Piccolo's children for years. There seems to be a great variety in the way that demons can look in the Demon Realm, and there are still other "worlds" in the Demon Realm which haven't been shown yet, possibly including even more variety, with these demons who resemble Tambourine and others making up just a small portion of the realm's population.

Though fans may balk at the idea that Daima would connect back to something so deep in the franchise's past, it wouldn't be the first time the new anime has cleared up a potential problem in a past series. Daima fixed a Dragon Ball Z plot hole by confirming that Buu is key to reversing Potara fusions and the series has also made references to both Super and GT. Dragon Ball Daima hasn't been afraid to make some deep-cut references to franchise lore so far, so it would be perfectly fitting to reference some of the first "demons" seen in the series through the Demon Realm's inhabitants.

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