Dragon Ball Trolls Goku With the Return of His Most Iconic Yet Forgotten Tool

Dragon Ball Daima’s new anime is a real back to basics kind of entry into the franchise, and nothing said it better with how suddenly important again that Goku’s Power Pole is to him now. Dragon Ball has kicked off the official 40th anniversary celebration of the late Akira Toriyama’s manga first hit the pages of Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and its new anime series has taken that to heart. With the final new story and characters from the late Akira Toriyama, Dragon Ball Daima has turned Goku and the others into children once again thanks to a new wish on the Dragon Balls.

Dragon Ball Daima has turned Goku and the Z Fighters (and all of their friends) into children again after the defeat of Majin Buu, and Goku finds himself needing to adjust to his new younger body. Although he clearly retains a lot of the abilities he had trained for during the events of Dragon Ball Z, he still doesn’t have full control or spatial awareness with his new body. This means he’s got to make up the difference in a fun new way, and it brings him back to the Power Pole…which is in a hilariously appropriate place considering it hasn’t been important in a very, very long time.

Goku Gets Back the Nyoibo in Dragon Ball Daima

Dragon Ball Daima kicks off the story in full with Episode 2. While the premiere of the new series spent most of its time getting fans up to speed about where Daima would be set in the overall timeline, it wasn’t until its final moments that the new Supreme Demon King Gomah made a wish on the Dragon Balls to turn Goku and the others into children. It’s not long before Goku and the others react to their new forms, and find how much their bodies have changed.

As Goku and the others prepare to head to the Demon Realm to find Gomah and the others, Goku finds himself having issues adjusting to his new body. He has a bit of trouble flying at first since his new body needs a new center of gravity, but he’s also finding that his attacks are harder to gauge now as he doesn’t have the same impact or reach that he did in his adult form. But this also inspires him to return to the item he had as a child, the Nyoibo, or Power Pole.

Where Has Goku’s Power Pole Been All This Time?

As Goku gets inspired to seek out his Power Pole, Dragon Ball pokes fun at itself by how unimportant this legendary item has become ever since Goku left it behind all those years ago. Rather than being stabbed at the top of Korin’s Tower where he thought he left it, it turns out the Power Pole has been with Master Roshi this entire time. But also much like how Goku left his life with the turtle hermit behind, Roshi really hasn’t been treating the Power Pole with much care either.

It turns out Roshi has been using it as a clothesline to hang his laundry from, and it’s in line with Dragon Ball’s history. It’s always been the pattern with Dragon Ball to introduce something as huge at first only to then make it smaller in comparison to everything else later, so the Power Pole just being used for laundry after Goku used it so heavily as a kid makes a lot of sense. It’s poking fun at how Goku has grown to godly scales over the years, and it’s almost jokingly being thrown back into Goku’s life as everyone has to start over from nearly square one.