Dragon Ball Daima Stages a Throwback to Dragon Ball Z’s Best Arc

Dragon Ball Daima is earning a reputation for making multiple references and throwbacks to the previous series. The series has expanded on the franchise’s lore, delivered satisfying fan service moments, and made several callbacks to the classic shows. The seventeenth episode of the show, titled “Gomah,” provides one of the more fun throwbacks to one of Dragon Ball Z‘s most celebrated arcs. As the title suggests, the episode focused on the Demon King Gomah, who makes a new arena similar to the Cell Games arena. As Dragon Ball Z fans can recall, Cell created his arena by creating a giant cube of concrete, slicing the cube into square tiles, and telekinetically laying out the tiles into an arena.

Gomah uses his powers to craft a ring with the floating debris in the sky. The debris is the rubble from the First Demon World. While Gomah is occasionally portrayed as a gag villain with his short stature and cowardly persona, Daima makes it clear that there’s a reason why he rules the Demon Realm, and “Gomah” proves how much of a threat he truly is. After stealing the Evil Third Eye, Gomah is given immense strength and a more physical opposing body. Gomah inventing the arena just like Cell indicated how big of a threat he truly is. Cell is often viewed as one of the most serious and imposing threats the heroes ever faced. If Gomah is capable of the same feats, then audiences take him just as seriously.

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Is Gomah the Biggest Threat in the Dragon Ball Universe?

Dragon Ball Daima is more like the original Dragon Ball series than Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super. Daima focuses more on the action-comedy tone that made the original anime a classic, mixing the big lore reveals with offbeat humor. Gomah best exemplifies Daima‘s mix of action and comedy. He is often played up as a Pilaf-style antagonist with his short height and over-the-top expressions. Nonetheless, episodes like “Gomah” demonstrate him as a credible threat.

When using the power of the Evil Third Eye, Gomah bulks up and grows taller. His physical appearance matches closer to Jiren and the Pride Troopers from Dragon Ball Super. Gomah withholds his own against the main heroes, including Vegeta and Goku. The character is in plenty of ways the perfect amalgamation of the greatest foes of the Dragon Ball franchise. He has the comedy of Pilaf, the short-stature of Frieza, creates an arena invoking Cell, and has the power-up appearance of Jiren.

Nevertheless, fans know Gomah can’t succeed because of where Dragon Ball Daima takes place in the timeline. Daima happens before Super, meaning Goku and friends do get their grown-up bodies back. Furthermore, Daima clarifies that Goku and the others are not at their full strength. Gomah purposely wished the characters to be de-aged so that he wouldn’t have to fight them at their full power. Goku and Vegeta haven’t unlocked their Super Saiyan God forms at this point in the timeline either. So while Gomah can overpower the cast in their child forms, it is likely he wouldn’t stand a chance in their adult bodies.