Dragon Ball Drops One of Its Biggest Lore Updates in Daima, Turning the Multiverse Upside Down

Warning: Contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Daima episode #10.One of the best parts about Dragon Ball Daima has been how much it’s been adding to the franchise’s lore. From the very start, the series has introduced new lore about Namekians, the Kais, and the Demon Realm, and each new reveal has proven to be more fundamental to Dragon Ball than the last in all the best ways.

Dragon Ball Daima has done wonders to flesh out Dragon Ball’s lore, and nowhere is that more evident than with the Demon Realm. Daima is the first time a canon Dragon Ball work has explored the Demon Realm, and not only has it done a lot to flesh out the world and its inhabitants, but Dragon Ball Daima episode #10 has just made the Demon Realm the most important part of the Dragon Ball franchise. It’s great to see something like that after so many years, and it’s another testament to how great a series Daima has been from conception.

How Dragon Ball Daima Makes The Demon Realm The Biggest Part Of The Franchise

Dragon Ball's New Demon Real Lore Explained

Close

Dragon Ball Daima episode #10 was another episode filled with lore about the history of the Demon Realm, and it has major implications for the overarching franchise. According to Shin, in time immemorial, the Good Supreme Demon King, the original ruler of the Demon Realm, sought to expand his territory and thus summoned the power of a being called Super Majin Rymus. Rymus used his power to create what would eventually become the multiverse, and because of that, the entire Dragon Ball universe exists as an extension of the Demon Realm.

The Demon Realm’s importance to the overarching narrative goes even further than that. After Rymus created the multiverse, not only did countless demons leave the Demon Realm, thus making an untold number of races the descendants of demons, but Rymus personally selected members of the Glind race to oversee the new universes, thus beginning their roles as Supreme Kais. That means that, in addition to the foundation of the multiverse, the entire cosmology of Dragon Ball’s setting stems from the actions of those connected to the Demon Realm, adding another layer of complexity to the overall reveal.

Not only do those reveals add far more importance to the Demon Realm beyond just being the setting of Dragon Ball’s latest story, but it means that after almost a decade, Dragon Ball has revealed that there are characters far above Zeno and the Angels in terms of power and authority due to the existence of the Good Supreme Demon King and Super Majin Rymus. The hierarchy of power in Dragon Ball has completely changed thanks to Dragon Ball Daima, and the fact that there could be even more changes of that magnitude in the future makes that even better.

Dragon Ball Has Tried To Make The Demon Realm Important Well Before Daima

The Demon Realm Has Always Been A Part Of The Extended Dragon Ball Franchise

While the Demon Realm was just a footnote in the original anime and manga, spinoff stories like Dragon Ball Xenoverse and Super Dragon Ball Heroes have often used the Demon Realm and its inhabitants for their plots, most notably Dabura’s sister, Towa, her partner, Mira, and their son, the recurring Dragon Ball villain Fu. Those stories and others aren’t canon, but they do show that Dragon Ball has been trying to make the Demon Realm important well before Dragon Ball Daima made it a central part of the lore, with Daima ultimately being the final result of all that work.

Nothing that was done with the Demon Realm before Dragon Ball Daima should be canon, but that doesn’t mean it’s had zero influence on anything. Arinsu, for example, fills a similar role as Towa as a demon scientist associated with Dabura, and by that logic, Arinsu’s personal Majin, Majin Kuu, can be seen as a new take on Fu, the two characters even having a similar naming scheme. Dragon Ball Daima’s new lore surrounding the Demon Realm takes inspiration from what non-canon works did with it, and that’s great to see for anyone who was a fan of them.

Dragon Ball Daima's Demon Realm Lore Is The Ultimate Payoff To The Majin Buu Saga

Dragon Ball Daima Keeps Making The Majin Buu Saga Even Better

Close

The best part about Dragon Ball Daima’s massive expansion to the Demon Realm’s lore is how it creates the ultimate payoff to the Majin Buu saga. Even with it being 30 years old now, the Majin Buu saga is still one of the most divisive parts of Dragon Ball, but now, Dragon Ball Daima making the Demon Realm so important to Dragon Ball’s lore retroactively makes the Majin Buu saga, the arc that introduced the Demon Realm, even more important than before, which is the perfect way of rectifying the poor reputation it’s had for so many years.

All of that, of course, is an extension of everything Dragon Ball Daima had already been doing with the Majin Buu saga. Between the Demon Realm and the new lore surrounding the Supreme Kais, Daima clearly frames itself as a sequel of sorts to the Majin Buu saga, so the heightened importance of the Demon Realm fully solidifies the idea that Dragon Ball Daima is trying to make the Majin Buu saga retroactively more important. That’s great for anyone who genuinely likes the Majin Buu saga, and hopefully, this won’t be the last development of the sort.

Will The Demon Realm Continue To Play A Part In Dragon Ball After Daima?

What Does The Future Of Dragon Ball Hold For The Demon Realm?

The Demon Realm is bigger than ever thanks to Dragon Ball Daima, but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way. The hiatus of the Dragon Ball Super manga aside, Daima takes place only a year after the Majin Buu saga, yet the Demon Realm has barely so much as been alluded to in stories taking place after it. The lack of references to the Demon Realm in stories taking place after Dragon Ball Daima means it might not be important after Daima ends, and that would be disappointing after all the work that’s been done so far.

The Granolah the Survivor saga of the Dragon Ball Super manga revealed that Namekians lived in another world before coming to Namek, which was ultimately foreshadowing the reveal that Namekians are demons.

That being said, it’s highly unlikely that the Demon Realm will be forgotten after Daima. It’s unknown what the future holds for Dragon Ball, but everything that’s been done with the Demon Realm makes it clear that Akira Toriyama wanted it to be important, so hopefully, the Demon Realm will remain a major part of Dragon Ball in whatever way it continues after Daima. Seeing all the work put into the Demon Realm is a great showing of what made Akira Toriyama’s writing so great, and there’s sure to be even more of that in Dragon Ball Daima, going forward.

Dragon Ball Daima releases new episodes Fridays on Crunchyroll.