Warning: Contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Daima episode #8.Even after its official premiere, Dragon Ball Daima has been met with excitement and trepidation from fans and critics alike. As great as it was to have a new Dragon Ball anime, especially with Akira Toriyama heavily involved in the production, the more lighthearted tone harkening back to the original Dragon Ball made people doubt its quality just from its trailers, and that feeling has never truly gone away.

As contentious as Dragon Ball Daima might have been, it’s done plenty to disprove its criticisms since its premiere. Every episode has done a great job of balancing the action and narrative elements that defined both the Dragon Ball and the Dragon Ball Z eras of the franchise, and most recently, the big fight in episode #8 perfectly showed why Daima is the best Dragon Ball anime people could have hoped for. Whether it’s from the writing or pure spectacle, there’s plenty to love about the fight in question, even for Dragon Ball Daima’s most ardent critics.

Dragon Ball Daima's Latest Fight Has A Perfect Showing Of Dragon Ball's Action

Dragon Ball Daima episode #8 focused primarily on the fight between Goku and Tamagami Number Three, and it was a sight to behold. Not only were the visuals consistently great, but Goku and Tamagami Number Three’s fight had some of the best choreography of any fight in Dragon Ball, with both fighters always finding creative and gorgeous ways to attack and defend courtesy of legendary Dragon Ball animator Naotoshi Shida. One of the biggest draws to Daima is its return to the grounded action of the Dragon Ball era, and episode #8 was the best showing of that, by far.

What also worked to sell the fight was how it wasn’t restricted to grounded combat. Goku and Tamagami Number Three’s fight was the first fight in Daima to use some of Dragon Ball’s more over-the-top combat, and between the variety in Tamagami Number Three’s techniques and the explosiveness of Goku’s Kamehameha and Super Saiyan transformations, Dragon Ball Daima episode #8 succeeded in selling over-the-top action just as well as it succeeded with grounded action. Naturally, the animation also played a big part in that, as it made every big move from both characters gorgeous to watch from start to finish.

The series had already done a lot to show how great it was at making grounded combat look, but episode #8 finally proved that it has no problem with giving over-the-top combat great treatment, either, all of which falls in line with the idea of Daima finding a middle ground between the aesthetics of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. The mixture of grounded and over-the-top combat in Dragon Ball Daima episode #8 perfectly encapsulated the central conceit of the series, and because of that, its fight is easily one of Dragon Ball’s best fights in years.

Dragon Ball Daima Revives The Comedy Of Dragon Ball With Its Latest Fight

Something equally noteworthy about Goku and Tamagami Number Three’s fight was the comedic elements that were in play. While the fight was played completely seriously, the tension was immediately cut by Tamagami Number Three making Goku play a shell game as the final challenge for the Dragon Ball, and later still, he was even seen trying to do the Kamehameha like a real-life child growing up with Dragon Ball would. Goku and Tamagami Number Three’s fight in Dragon Ball Daima episode #8 had a lot of comedy mixed into it, and that added even more life to the fight, overall.

The comedic elements of the fight also did a great job of showcasing the return to the Dragon Ball era’s style of fighting. Dragon Ball has always been an action comedy at its core, and comedy falling to the wayside has been a common point of criticism for the franchise in recent years. Because of that, Dragon Ball Daima bringing back some of Dragon Ball’s classic comedic action with Goku and Tamagami Number Three’s fight was a breath of fresh air for the series, and with any luck, it won’t be the last instance of that sort of writing.

Did Dragon Ball Just Give Us Its Best Fight Yet?

How Good A Fight Is Goku Vs Tamagami Number Three?

To just say that Goku and Tamagami Number Three’s fight was a good one is nothing but an understatement, as between the incredible animation and choreography and how well it balanced differing tones of the franchise, both in writing and action, Dragon Ball Daima’s latest fight is an easy contender for one of the best fights in all of Dragon Ball. This is only episode #8, of course, so future fights of Dragon Ball Daima are bound to be even better, and if that’s the case, then the series will truly go down as something special for years to come.

Dragon Ball Daima releases new episodes Fridays on Crunchyroll.