Earlier this week, we got word from Fuji TV that Dragon Ball Daimia will be premiering on October 11th in Japan. The series will have its episodes on Friday nights at 11:40 p.m. JST as part of the network's new nationwide anime time slot.
Following this report, Nakajima Yuji, the programming director for Dragon Ball Daima, not only confirmed the premiere date but also explained the reasoning for the change in the series time slot. Nakajima explained that the team was aiming to give Dragon Ball Daima a nationwide release, so in order to do so they had to give up the Sunday morning slot on Fuji TV.
"Since this is a brand new series, we want it to be aired nationwide," Nakajima explained. "Previously, we aired shows on Sunday mornings, but Sunday mornings are not a national network. We aimed for a time slot that would be more accessible for Dragon Ball fans and our target audience."
It's a big change for anime fans who are used to seeing new episodes of the latest Dragon Ball series air on Fuji TV on Sunday mornings. The Sunday morning time slot is usually dedicated to family-friendly series and faces strict censorship guidelines that late-night blocks don't typically have. As such, it will be interesting to see if Dragon Ball Daima takes advantage of this new time slot and goes a little bit more mature with its storytelling.
Now that we know Dragon Ball Daima will premiere in Japan on October 11 on Fuji TV, all attention is now on the international release. We still haven't gotten details for when Dragon Ball Daima will be released overseas or where it will stream.
In the past, Crunchyroll and Funimation have hosted the IP as episodes of Dragon Ball Super were streamed weekly. The anime landscape has changed quite a bit since that show wrapped in March 2018 with much more competition in the streaming space. There's now Netflix, Hulu, and many more vying for a slice of the lucrative anime pie.
Announced at New York Comic-Con 2023, we still don't have an official synopsis for Dragon Ball Daima. The late Akira Toriyama, who developed the story, settings, and many of the designs for the series, did offer a bit of a teaser at the time.
Toriyama revealed that "Diama" is a "made-up term" which in English would be "something like 'Evil.'"
"Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small," he teased. "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. Since Goku has to make up for his petite size, he uses his Nyoibo (Power Pole) to fight, something not seen in a long time."
Are you excited for the premiere of Dragon Ball Daima?