Dragon Ball Daima Is The Franchise's Best Opportunity To Finally Solve A Major Super Continuity Error For Two Fan-Favorite Heroes

Quick Links

TheDragon Ballfranchise is no stranger to continuity problems, but one significant one was introduced byDragon Ball Superregarding the ages of Goten and Trunks. However, given what’s known aboutDragon Ball DAIMA, this new series could offer an explanation for their inconsistent aging–if it wants to.

Goten and Trunks are two boys of about the same age, with Trunks slightly older than Goten.Dragon Ball Superbegins a few months after the end of the Buu Saga, and stretches out over a rather long period of time, taking up most of the 10-year gap betweenDragon Ball Zand its distant finale. However, despite this long time period, Goten and Trunks don’t really age at all, at least untilDragon Ball Super: Super Hero, which is set near the end of that 10-year gap.The sudden change in Goten and Trunks' appearanceis reflected in theSupermanga as well, but no explanation is offered.

Comparison of Trunks and Goten in Super and at the end of Z

Trunks & Goten’s Lack Of Growth Remains One Of Super’s Most Annoying Inconsistencies

Trunks and Goten Should’ve Been Much Older for Later Super Sagas

Trunks is born in Age 766 and is 8 years old at the end of the Buu Saga, but by the time ofSuper’s original arcs, like the Universe 6 saga, he should already be 14 years old. The same, of course, is true for Goten, but both are still depicted looking more or less how they did during the Buu saga.Future Trunks, on the other hand, is 14 at the time of Gohan’s death in his timeline, and is far more visibly grown and mature. There’s no clear reason as to why Trunks is so much less developed in the main universe, and it’s likely just an oversight as a result of Goten and (present) Trunks not factoring intoSupervery much.

This is particularly frustrating for fans who’ve wanted to see the main timeline version of Trunks mature into a character more like his future counterpart.Trunks was artificially kept looking childlike inSuperspecifically to avoid having to deal with this problem and keep Future Trunks and Present Trunks as visually distinct characters.Dragon Ball Super: Super Heroand its corresponding manga arcs manage to skip over any period of growth that Trunks and Goten undergo, and cuts directly to them looking like teenagers, despite it only being a few years later than the Universe Survival Saga.

Goten and Trunks de-aged to babies in DAIMA.

It is implied throughout the series, mostly through Goku’s own growth, that Saiyan children tend to have “growth spurts” wherein they mature rapidly in a short period of time, and while this explanation might work for Goten, it still leaves Trunks with the massive difference between hisSuperappearance and his Future Trunks appearance. That has also been inconsistently shown with thehalf-Saiyan characters, like Gohan, who was about the same size as Goku was at 12 when he was introduced at only 4 or 5 years old. This explanation just doesn’t quite work, at least for Trunks.

Daima’s Timeline Placement & Deaging Curse Give It A Good Opportunity To Fix Trunks & Goten

Daima Could Explain Why Goten and Trunks Age So Slowly

Dragon Ball DAIMAcurrently appears to be setbeforeDragon Ball Superand after the Buu Saga ofDragon Ball Z, based on what’s been seen in the trailers.DAIMAalso features all of the main characters being afflicted by a curse which reduces them to the size and appearance of children, even for those (like Piccolo) who didn’t actually have a child form. However,Goten and Trunks, who are already child-sized, are shown to have regressed all the way to being babies again, left dressed as babies and lying on the ground.

It’s possible that this curse had an effect on Trunks and Goten’s growth, offering a potential explanation for why the boys remain in child form for so long. While the curse is likely to be undone by Goku by the end of the series, there are a lot of ways in which it could still affect Trunks and Goten without impacting the other characters. Perhaps the curse is more effective on them because they were already children, or maybe they’ll be stuck as babies and forced to grow up again, effectively repeating ages 1-8, which would certainly explain why they’re only just becoming teenagers inSuper Hero.

Dragon Ball Daima Could Fix Other Dragon Ball Super Continuity Issues

Daima Offers a Chance to Clean Up Continuity

Of course, the question becomes whetherDAIMAwould even be interested in fixing this little continuity problem. It’s also possible at this stage thatDAIMAcould be set in an alternate universe fromSuper, in which case it obviously can’t do anything to fix continuity issues one way or another.DAIMAmay or may not be interested in cleaning upSuper’s messes, but it at least has the opportunity to do so, and in this case, quite cleanly at that.

DAIMAitself already has one notable continuity problem with the Supreme Kai, who plays a large role in the series, but who should still be fused with his assistant Kibito at this time; Kibito and Supreme Kai were shown defusing during the Universe 6 Saga ofDragon Ball Super. Perhaps the deaging curse is responsible for reverting them back into two separate beings, but that’s just speculation at this point. The series could certainly clear up this particular situation, since it’s a continuity error introduced inSuperbecause ofDAIMA.

Dragon Ball DAIMAcertainly doesn’t exist solely to fix problems withSuper, but the opportunity that it presents could be used to clear up at least this one particular issue with Goten and Trunks. Trunks has long been an odd point within the greaterDragon Ballcontinuity, and fixing this would certainly go a long way towards winning oversome fans who might still be hesitant to embraceDAIMA.Dragon Ballhas become more careful with continuity over the years, and hopefully that concern with continuity will still be present withinDAIMAas well.