Dragon Ball Daima Viewer Survey Results: Part 3
Part 3 of my Dragon Ball Daima Viewer Survey results are here! How did fans feel about 10 different aspects of Daima?
Topics in Part 3 include:
- Viewers agreed or disagreed with 10 sentiment statements—First 5
If you missed Part 1, go read it now, where I covered:
- The language of Daima the viewers watched
- Where they watched it
And Part 2, where I covered:
- Overall Daima series rating
- How many episodes they watched
- If they engaged in repeat viewings
- Recommended it or not
- Watched it alone or with others (and with whom)
Let’s dive in.
10 Sentiment Statements
The 1,182 participants who completed the survey were asked to agree or disagree with the following 10 statements, with an “Agree” or “Disagree” button.
These statements appeared in a random order in the survey for each participant.
I will present the statements in the order of what viewers agreed with the most, down to what they agreed with the least (i.e., disagreed with the most).
With each statement I will express the general sentiment behind what most viewers felt, and why these are the results that were received.
I will leave my personal bias out of it.
1) Daima’s Animation Was Good
1,159 (98.05%) respondents agreed that Daima’s animation was good. Only 23 people disagreed.
This was the highest result in the survey and the least controversial statement. This shows us that nearly everyone enjoyed watching the animation in this series, across the entire world, and among all age ranges.
Daima’s animation was smooth, colorful, bright, and technically impressive in almost all instances, especially in the fight scenes and transformations. Most fans felt that it was a joy to watch.
In the optional self-expression field at the end of the survey, one viewer said, “Daima’s animation standard was the highest it’s ever been.” Another said, “The animation and technical quality were impeccable.”
Of the 23 people who disagreed, some were animation enthusiasts or professional animators, and they noticed inconsistencies, dropped frames, and missing transitions in certain scenes. Others felt the character designs were lacking detail, or looked too “plasticky,” like the characters were intended to be turned into toys made for kids.
2) Daima’s Voice Acting Was Good
1,094 (97.5%) participants agreed that “Daima’s voice acting was good (in the language I watched).”
Different people watched different subs or dubs, as I presented in Part 1 of this survey’s results. The majority of people watched Daima in Japanese with subtitles because that was the first version of the show available, before the debut of the dubs. But regardless of which version they watched, viewers felt the voice acting was good.
This goes to show you how far voice acting has come outside of Japan. Because when Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT were first dubbed and localized in different countries, the quality of the voice acting, direction, and scripts were by and large inferior to the Japanese originals.
This was not due to a lack of effort or passion of everyone involved in its production, but instead due to the lack of experience. Nostalgia blinds most fans to this reality.
But with three or four decades of experience behind them, these international dubbing studios have reached such a high level of quality that they are on par with the original Japanese.
And it’s noteworthy that Daima had a new cast, for many of the existing character’s Mini forms and the new characters. This was an opportunity for voice acting studios to hire young voice actors for the Dragon Ball franchise. Yet these actors also did a great job. One viewer wrote, “The voice acting, especially by a bunch of new cast members, was great.”
There was only one viewer who criticized the voice acting and delivery, and it was for the English dub, saying that it felt “artificially generated.”
The data showed that us viewers felt it didn’t matter which version of Daima you watched, because the voice acting was good across the board.
3) Daima’s Music and Sound Effects Were Good
1,017 (86.04%) participants agreed that “Daima’s music and sound effects were good.”
Most respondents who wrote statements about the music praised the opening theme, Jakka Jann, and to a lesser degree the ending theme, Nakama. Fans often sing along with these themes as they watch, and they continue to listen to this music outside of the show itself. They’re catchy, fun, and have lyrics relevant to the show and Akira Toriyama.
Oddly, viewers didn’t provide specific reasons for why they liked Daima’s original soundtrack, nor any particular favorite tracks. Only that: “The music was good.”
However, there is a large drop in percentage of agreement from the 1st and 2nd ranking statements (at 98% and 97%). It’s still a vast majority, but this is the point where we start to hear complaints from more viewers.
Those who didn’t like it were more specific with their rationale. Statements such as, ‘The music didn’t feel like Dragon Ball’, ‘It was poorly placed’ in each episode, and ‘It didn’t fit the environment of the show.’
For example, “I can’t recall any track or hum any tune, apart from Jaka Jaan. I don’t know who the composer is for Daima, but they are certainly no Shunsuke Kikuchi. That’s not to say the music was bad, it just didn’t make much of an impression on me.”
And, “The music was unfortunately a bit subpar at times and repetitive (but not as bad as Super, in my opinion).”
By this I think the participants meant that the music didn’t match the tone of previous Dragon Ball series, and that it didn’t feel like music appropriate for the setting of a Demon World, which was supposed to be foreboding.
Overall, the music felt childish, oftentimes didn’t match the scenes being presented on the screen, and was forgettable. It was like music made for a movie where after you’ve watched the movie, you can’t remember what the music was like. It was there, but wasn’t noteworthy, and it’s not something that you talk about with other fans or get hyped about.
There are a few exceptions to this. The first is the main motif, which was a lyric-less and synthesized rendition of the opening theme, Jakka Jann, and had variations throughout the series.
The second is the battle theme music, which has a high-paced and exciting theme, but gets repetitive about halfway through the series due to overuse.
Next is the eyecatch music, which is a fun jingle halfway through each episode.
Despite these critiques, 86% of fans agreed that the music is good.
I’m left to conclude that Daima’s music is ‘good,’ in that it gets the job done and aids the on-screen action, but it’s not ‘great.’
One viewer said, “In regards to the music, it was just fine. There aren’t enough battle tracks, and there are too many character-specific or niche tracks that rarely get played. Even the good tracks are mostly forgettable and too simple, almost like it was a rough draft.”
In contrast to these critiques, there are fans who love the Daima soundtrack, and bought the 71-track official release on 2 CDs when it finally came out on March 19.
As a brief aside, it strikes me as an odd business choice for Nippon Columbia to have released the soundtrack 3 weeks after the end of the series, rather than capitalize on the show’s initial broadcast run.
In regard to the sound effects, Dragon Ball is famous for its original and high-quality sound effects, including its energy beams, auras, and footsteps. But I didn’t read any comments about the sound effects in particular. This suggests that the sound effects did their job, and given the high level of agreement to this sentiment statement, fans liked them.
Personally, I don’t recall hearing any sound effects that felt strange, or out of place, or that lacked oomph. Everything was as it should be.
Then again, like the music, I wasn’t wowed by them either. Aside from some incredible fight scene effects, most didn’t hit as hard as the effects in Dragon Ball Z.
4) I Was Excited to Watch Daima Before It Premiered
Dragon Ball Daima was Akira Toriyama’s last known project before his death, so there was a fair amount of hype surrounding the release as it approached the premiere date of October 11, 2024. But were fans excited to watch it?
981 (82.99%) participants said they were excited to watch Daima before it premiered, while 201 were not.
Anything above 80% is a very positive result when it comes to a survey, so this is still impressive even though we’re getting lower, and it shows that Dragon Ball fans were eager to watch this new series.
There wasn’t much marketing for Daima, but what we did get succeeded in making fans feel excited to watch it.
One viewer said, “I was so excited to finally get to explore the Demon Realm.”
In contrast, another said, “I wasn’t initially excited to watch it, but once I did, I fell in love with the series.”
Whether or not most viewers stayed excited while watching Daima is another question (that we’ll get to soon).
5) Daima Was a Successful Series Overall
After fans finished watching it, was Dragon Ball Daima a successful series overall?
896 (75.80%) participants agreed that Daima was a successful series, while 286 did not.
Here we see a large drop and the first result below 80%, which shows us that most people felt it was successful, but 25% of fans did not feel that it was.
Most comments from participants expressed their adoration for Daima, for Akira Toriyama’s charm, the adventurous tone, the humor, and the lighthearted fun that is trademark Dragon Ball.
One viewer said, “I think Daima is a successful comeback to the original style of Dragon Ball writing. I am not a fan of power levels at all, so this show was perfect for me!”
Another said, “Daima truly felt like Toriyama picked right back up where he left off in 1995 as though he was still there. I adored everything about Daima from start to finish and it is truly everything I could have asked for in a Dragon Ball sequel.”
Others felt that it was underwhelming and did not meet their expectations.
One viewer listed dozens of flaws over several paragraphs and then ended it by saying, “Overall, this series was a pathetic waste of time.”
More knowledgeable fans were surprised to learn a bit of trivia after they finished watching the series, which is that Daima was in development for 6 years before it aired, yet to them it still felt rushed. They wanted it to be more fleshed out and to feel more developed and purposeful. For these fans, Daima fell flat.
Read Part 4
This concludes the first 5 sentiment statements section of my Daima survey.
Did the results align with your own preferences, or did something surprise you?
Was there a particular statement that you agreed or disagreed with the most?
Continue on to Part 4 and read the results of the second 5 sentiment statements, including the #1 statement that fans disagreed with.
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