Dragon Ball Daima, in short, captures everything Dragon Ball was and is. It's a grand 20-episode celebration of the entire Dragon Ball franchise from the original manga to its anime adaptations to its anime sequel GT and its modern-day revival with Super. This ranges from perfectly understanding and balancing Dragon Ball's 3 main focuses (the adventure and whimsical discovery, the silly and unpredictable comedy, and the speedy, high-tension action) to entirely recapping the series' most memorable and beloved moments and ideas (A new Ginyu Force, another exciting power-up sequence through all of Goku's transformations, the entire backbone of the show being a retooling of key GT story ideas, etc).

I think it's evident throughout the show that Toriyama never lost touch with Dragon Ball's tone. It's never too silly, never too dramatic, never too depressing, but never completely lacking in tension. I think this is also very present in Super Broly and Super Hero, two other projects in which Toriyama had a lot of involvement compared to his involvement in the Super anime and manga, which seemed more like general idea crafting and supervising than complete story construction or direction. I think this is probably the most important part of Daima. Despite occasional story hiccups or directorial issues, his voice and his years of genius still strike clearly through.

All of the new stuff in this show remained so exciting and intriguing for me. With every episode, I found myself extremely excited to see what new pieces of information we would learn about the Dragon Ball world, or what new locations and challenges would be found in the Demon Realm. While the new characters do seem to be divisive among the fandom, I found myself loving all of them, with Kuu, Duu, and Glorio definitely being my favorites. I'm not ashamed to admit that I was weeping seeing the conclusion of Glorio's character arc, similar to how I went through Piccolo and Vegeta's character arcs.

I think the combination of the tone and the new content is what made this show so emotionally crazy for me. Many of the action sequences had me actually getting up and moving around in excitement, and the show was full of scenes or moments that made me cry tears of joy. I think one of the important ones was in Episode 4, with the scene where Goku, Glorio and Shin get on that flying seed. Seeing the combination of comedy, adventure, and genuine whimsy that only Toriyama could write brought me to tears. That tone that Toriyama wrote for Dragon Ball is what I fell in love with, it's his story that saved my life and helped me grow into a happier and more successful person. It was at that moment that I realized that Toriyama's final story for Goku was everything I had ever loved about his works in one package.

The last 3 or so episodes were very powerful tear-jerkers for me. I don't think I've ever cried over another TV show as much as this one. Thank you to all the directors, animators, and of course Akira Toriyama for making this show what it is, and for making these past 6 months so full of joy for me. Life is truly tough, and I'm incredibly fortunate to have a story like Dragon Ball, one which can provide not just an escape, but a means of tackling said troubles. I seriously wouldn't be half the man I am without Goku as an example, and to receive one final story for Goku and his friends from Toriyama is all I could have ever asked for.