Dragon Ball Daima Gets New Toei Artwork Release

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Longtime Dragon Ball production studio Toei Animation has released a new Dragon Ball Daima visual. However, this has upset numerous fans, who are concerned that the studio doesn’t value the property as much as it should, either domestically or internationally.

Via X (formerly Twitter), Toei Animation’s new Dragon Ball Daima visual in the May issue of License Global didn’t go over too well with fans. The image featured Shenron and a shrunken-down Goku, attracting notable criticism due to the latter’s identical pose in multiple previous Daima promotions. Fans also noticed remnants of a text box around the series’ logo, prompting further questioning of how seriously Toei is taking the anime project. Readers can check out the new visual and popular reaction below.

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Dragon Ball Daima's new Toei Animation visual featuring Goku and Shenron

Toei Animation’s Dragon Ball Daima Backlash Follows Older Criticism of Franchise Marketing

Despite the backlash, there was some positive reception as well, with some fans eagerly looking ahead to one of Akira Toriyama’s final projects before his passing. However, criticism of Toei Animation’s marketing is hardly new, with affiliated staff like Toriyama’s “right-hand man” Akio Iyoku establishing a new company to handle Dragon Ball‘s licensing efforts. This was reportedly out of frustration with Toei and Shueisha’s handling of the IP. Shueisha staff also previously ran a secret project criticizing Toei Animation, Bandai Namco and Fuji TV for the One Piece anime and related merchandise, and preventing fans from creating any derivative content.

For fans, much of the frustration may be explained by them knowing just how big the Dragon Ball IP should be. While Dragon Ball recently lost its top spot to Gundam in major licensor Bandai’s new financial report, the series still beat out One Piece. Meanwhile, Toei Animation’s new financial report (Data Sheet) highlights that the franchise is still its biggest IP in terms of overseas licensing.

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Dragon Ball Daima will premiere in the Fall 2024 season and is officially described: “Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small. In order to fix things, they’ll head off to a new world! It’s a grand adventure with intense action in an unknown and mysterious world.” As would-be viewers await further news on the upcoming series, fans can read the original Dragon Ball manga, available in English from VIZ Media. The series’ respective anime adaptations to date, including Dragon Ball, DragonBall Z, Dragon Ball GT and Dragon Ball Super, are available to stream on Crunchyroll and Hulu.