While details remain relatively unknown regarding Goku and crew’s next outing, a licensing director stationed at one of Toei Animation’s regional offices has seemingly let slip a small bit of information regarding Dragon Ball Daima‘s production schedule.
This new alleged insight into the upcoming series was first publicly divulged on October 26th, courtesy of Toei Animation Latin America’s licensing director Daniel Castaneda.
Speaking to Spanish-language television trade news outlet Produ about the local office’s plans for localizing Dragon Ball Daima, Castaneda first touched upon the series’ episode count and noted (translated via DeepL), “Usually, all the productions we have are first released in Japan, and about six months later we release them internationally because we wait until we have 26 episodes to start dubbing and so on, and then we can release them in other territories.”
Castaneda then revealed that, as “this is the first time we are going to release a series worldwide at the same time, production is already underway and I estimate that we will have it finished around May of next year.”
“We are going into dubs for worldwide release in October 2024,” he ultimately asserted. “For broadcast TV [in Latin America], we will most likely premiere it in January 2025.”
Unfortunately for excited fans, Castaneda remained mum on Daima’s overall plot.
As such, the only currently available information concerning the Z-Fighters’ return to childhood remains the brief teases provided by series creator Akira Toriyama.
Addressing fans via a personal message released alongside the series’ announcement at New York Comic Con 2024, the esteemed mangaka explained, “‘DAIMA’ is a made-up term, which in Japanese characters would be ‘大魔’ or in English would be something like ‘Evil.'”
“Due to a conspiracy, Goku and his friends are turned small,” he continued. “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,” Toriyama further elaborated. “I came up with the story and settings, as well as a lot of the designs. I’m actually putting a lot more into this than usual!”
Drawing his message to a close, the mangaka ultimately exclaimed, “Things will unfold that close in on the mysteries of the Dragon Ball world. Hope you all enjoy these different-from-usual battles that are cute and powerful!!”
Though Castaneda’s information currently remains officially unconfirmed, fans should receive more information on Dragon Ball Daima‘s story and release plans at the Dragon Ball Battle Hour preview event in January 2024.