Dragon Ball Daima Inaugurates LGBTQ+ Representation with Kai’s Help

Warning: contains spoilers for episode 6 of Dragon Ball Daima.Anime tends to deal notoriously poorly with LGBTQ+ content, and Dragon ball is no exception. While it never engaged in it all that often, the original series had some notable jokes that might seem homophobic, and while they were mostly products of Dragon ball Originating in the 1980s, it’s a poor representation of the series anyway.

Dragon ball never had a good relationship with LGBTQ+ representation, but Dragon Ball Daima tried hard to change that. Dragon Ball Daima episode #6 contained more knowledge about the Glinds, Shin’s demonic race, and the Kais, and surprisingly, Dragon Ball Daima used the new lore surrounding Shin and the Kais to put some positive LGBTQ+ representation into Dragon ball. This is great to see, especially when considering the franchise’s poor track record with the subject matter, and overall, it’s something that could mean a lot for the anime as a whole.

Dragon Ball’s Kais are officially LGBTQ+ characters

In Dragon Ball Daima episode #6, Shin went into detail about the origins of the Glinds, which led Panzy, who had just met Shin, to confirm that Degesu and Arinsu were his brother and sister. Shin confirmed this, but when talking about Arinsu, he briefly mentioned that although he calls Arinsu his sister, Glinds technically has no defined gender. This means that Dragon Ball Daima episode #6 reveals that Glinds, i.e. the Kais, exist somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrumwith Shin’s specific words implying that they are something like asexual, gender fluid, or non-binary.

Technically, this isn’t the first time Dragon ball addressed this type of subject, however. Back Dragon Ball ZIn the Namekian Saga, the Namekians were established as a race of asexual, male-presenting beings, but this was largely interpreted as a joke centering on Bulma being confused by Namekian biology. In comparison, Shin’s comments are taken much more seriously, and because of this, Dragon Ball DaimaThe revelation that the Kais do not have defined genders is Dragon ballthe first serious attempt to add LGBTQ+ content to Dragon balleven if it was quite brief in the grand scheme of things.

Dragon Ball Daima’s LGBTQ+ representation makes up for some of the anime’s worst jokes

Why Some of Dragon Ball’s Humor Hasn’t Aged Well

Something worth noting about Dragon Ball DaimaIt’s LGBTQ+ representation is a clear turnaround from some of the more negative examples in the original series. In the Red Ribbon Army saga, Bulma and Krillin ridiculed General Blue as being gay for rejecting Bulma’s advances, and in the epilogue, Trunks fought a stereotypical gay man in the World Martial Arts Tournament. Examples like this are very rare and largely products of when Dragon ball It was written, but that doesn’t change it Dragon ball has an unfortunate history with content that could be interpreted as homophobic in nature.

These moments and others are what make this recent LGBTQ+ representation so great to see. While these and other moments were never factored into the larger story, they were still points of criticism against Dragon ball for some, and because of this, Dragon Ball Daima Introducing positive LGBTQ+ representation with Shin and the Kais could be seen as the franchise making a more honest effort at representation after historically being bad at it.. Whether this was intentional or a coincidence is unclear, but it’s still great to see something like this so late in the franchise regardless.

Why Dragon Ball’s LGBTQ+ representation is a big deal

Dragon Ball DaimaThe LGBTQ+ representation of was a big surprise and also something important to see. Dragon ball is one of the biggest anime franchises in the world, if not the biggest, and it has gotten to the point where even the smallest things that happen to it reach countless people all over the world. Because of this, a franchise as massive as Dragon ball The introduction of positive LGBTQ+ representation through the Kais can be seen as a major turning point for LGBTQ+ representation in animeand it’s always good to have anything that can do that, no matter the medium.

Anime is still slowly becoming more open to LGBTQ+ representation outside of story demographics like yaoi and Yuri stories, so even with Dragon ball Being as big as it is, it is unlikely to bring about any major changes anytime soon. However, the fact that there is positive representation is still great to see, so Dragon Ball DaimaLGBTQ+ representation is nothing more than a positive outcome for representation in anime, despite it being small in the grand scheme of things.and this will certainly be considered one of the things they did Dragon Ball Daima Such a special series to watch.