Dragon Ball's New Anime Declares Daima Non-Canon With One Devastating Update

Published Oct 23, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

Nicolas Ayala is a Senior Writer for the Comics team at ScreenRant, with over five years of experience writing about Superhero media, action movies, and TV shows. 

The latest Dragon Ball lore drop reveals that Dragon Ball DAIMA still won't affect mainline continuity anytime soon. Dragon Ball DAIMA is the most uninhibited and experimental release the franchise has seen in recent years, in great part due to its decision to resurrect controversial concepts from the highly divisive Dragon Ball GT. DAIMA de-ages Goku back into a child and reintroduces the ape-like Super Saiyan 4, yet both ideas land much better with modern audiences than they did in the late 1990s.

Dragon Ball DAIMA earned a highly positive reception from audiences, but it also created a complex puzzle regarding its placement in the official timeline. Goku's Demon Realm arc takes place in the narrow window between the defeat of Majin Buu at the end of Dragon Ball Z and the arrival of Beerus at the start of Dragon Ball Super. This decision severely restricts the impact DAIMA can make on the franchise's canon, as it technically can't add or remove any characters or transformations without disrupting what Dragon Ball Super already established.

Considering Dragon Ball Super: Beerus remakes the first arc of Dragon Ball Super, it was logical to assume it would integrate the events of Dragon Ball DAIMA into official canon. However, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Refuses To Canonize DAIMA

Super Saiyan 3 Is Still Goku's Upper Limit When He Meets Beerus

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus answers a burning question about the franchise's lore, but not in the way fans may have expected. In Beerus' remaster of Goku's first encounter with the God of Destruction, Super Saiyan 3 is once again Goku's power ceiling, even though Dragon Ball DAIMA revealed that he achieved Super Saiyan 4 some time before. Tapping into the Super Saiyan 4 form doesn't even cross Goku's mind, and no other character mentions the possibility. Dragon Ball Super: Beerus' adjustments to Dragon Ball Super's first arc technically made it possible for major canon changes, but nothing significant about the timeline was ultimately added or removed.

Besides Goku, Vegeta also doesn't transform into Super Saiyan 3 or even mention his newly acquired ability to attain it. This is an even more glaring omission than Goku's Super Saiyan 4, as Vegeta is aware Goku transformed into Super Saiyan 3 when he first faced Beerus. Lastly, Dragon Ball Super: Beerus brings back the fused Kibitokai in his traditional divine role. Kibitokai's presence directly ignores a major lore revelation from DAIMA, which established that the Supreme Kai and Kibito used the Dragon Balls shortly after the conflict with Majin Buu to revert the effects of the Potara Earrings.

The Door Is Still Open For Super Saiyan 4's Canon Integration

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus Makes One Tiny Change That Allows SSJ4 To Return

In the original 2015 television broadcast of Dragon Ball Super, Goku explicitly stated that Super Saiyan 3 was his final form. Eleven years later, Dragon Ball Super: Beerus omits this specific line during Goku's initial sparring session against the God of Destruction. While subtle, this omission carefully prevents a direct contradiction with the introduction of Super Saiyan 4 in Dragon Ball DAIMA. Although future arcs of Dragon Ball Super may remain intact, the franchise leaves Goku's ability to go one step beyond Super Saiyan 3 ambiguous to protect the legitimacy of his Demon Realm accomplishments and to allow the form to exist silently in his history without breaking continuity.

Dragon Ball DAIMA unfolds inside the hidden Demon Realm, where Goku experiences temporary de-aging outside the view of Earth's other inhabitants. Since all the heroes involved quickly regain their adult forms and return home to their regular routines, the events of DAIMA don't require immediate discussion or acknowledgment during the peaceful days that lead into Dragon Ball Super. This method of avoiding canon problems isn't new to Dragon Ball. For instance, Dragon Ball Minus omits any mention of Bardock giving Goku a conquest mission, leaving Raditz's mention of Goku's original purpose to be interpreted as mere assumption of Frieza Force propaganda.

What do you think about Dragon Ball DAIMA's place in canon?

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  Release Date

  2024 - 2025

  Network

  Fuji TV, Kansai TV, Tokai Television Broadcasting, Fukui TV, Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting, Iwate Menkoi Television, Sendai Television, SAGA TV, TNC, OHK, Ishikawa TV, Kochi Sun Sun Broadcasting, TV Shizuoka, UMK TV Miyazaki, Television Shin Hiroshima System, NST, NBS, Sakuranbo TV, TSK, Ehime Broadcasting, KTS, NIB, KKT, Fukushima TV, TOS, AKT, Toyama Television, Okinawa Television Broadcasting

  Directors

  Kazuya Karasawa, Ryuta Kawahara

  Writers

  Akira Toriyama

  Franchise(s)

  Dragon Ball

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    Masako Nozawa

    Son Goku (mini) (voice)

  • Koki Uchiyama

    Glorio (voice)