After 25 years, Dragon Ball Daima has just broken a major record for anime in the United States. While anime has always been big in the West with fans, critical reception has been another story, not so much that critics have hated anime, but because, for whatever reason, any appreciation they have has rarely translated to awards, whether it’s winning them or simply being nominated.

Dragon Ball, of course, is no stranger to being snubbed from awards in the West, but that’s finally changed in a major way. Nickelodeon just revealed the nominees for the next Kids’ Choice Awards, and to the surprise of many, Dragon Ball Daima is the first anime to be nominated for Favorite Cartoon at the Kids’ Choice Awards since Pokémon in 2000. Considering how the Kids’ Choice Awards typically play out, Dragon Ball Daima’s chances of winning are slim, but the fact that it could achieve such an honor is nonetheless impressive.

Dragon Ball Daima Is Great, But It Has No Chance At The Kids’ Choice Awards

Why Dragon Ball Daima's Failure Is Inevitable

Dragon Ball Daima getting nominated for the Kids’ Choice Awards is great, but unfortunately, it stands no chance of winning. The Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon has almost always been won by Nickelodeon cartoons, and the past 20 years, specifically, have seen the category dominated by Nickelodeon’s best show, SpongeBob SquarePants, not unlike how Disney and Pixar have famously had a stranglehold on the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Whether the show is rigged is hard to say, but regardless, SpongeBob SquarePants’ dominance at the Kids’ Choice Awards all but assures that Dragon Ball Daima will lose.

That doesn’t mean that SpongeBob can’t be beaten, of course. Not only did SpongeBob not win Favorite Cartoon until 2003, with Rugrats and The Simpsons, of all shows, winning from 1999-2002, but when SpongeBob was on a winning streak from 2003, it was briefly dethroned in 2008 by Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well. SpongeBob’s current dominance is unlikely to be broken again, but at the very least, the fact that some shows have beaten SpongeBob SquarePants at the Kids’ Choice Awards proves that Dragon Ball Daima stands something of a chance, and that’s something to look forward to.

Dragon Ball Daima Is One Of The Best Shows Of The Year, Kids’ Choice Award Or Not

Why Dragon Ball Daima Is So Great

Even if Dragon Ball Daima doesn’t win at the Kids’ Choice Awards, that doesn’t change how great a show it is. Not only does Daima have some of the most breathtaking artwork and animation of any Dragon Ball project, especially in the final few episodes, but the story is incredibly fun for how much it plays into the adventure comedy tropes of classic Dragon Ball while still maintaining the great action that has defined modern Dragon Ball. Dragon Ball Daima is easily one of the best anime of modern day, and that won’t change anytime soon.

More to the point is how much Daima respects Akira Toriyama’s legacy. Toriyama was always at his most comfortable when he was free to make Dragon Ball as lighthearted as possible while still throwing in plenty of action, so Dragon Ball Daima is a great show because it’s the exact sort of Dragon Ball story Akira Toriyama had been wanting to write for years. Winning the Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Cartoon would be great, but anyone who’s seen Dragon Ball Daima already understands what makes it so special, and it’s going to stay like that for years to come.

Source: @ToonHive on X.