Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. What can I say about Dragon Quest? Not much. I didn’t really get into it all that much and the game series never really took off here in the West. In Japan, it’s a different story. Remember when Banjo and Kazooie was announced for Smash and everyone in the West exploded with excitement? Well, that was Japan’s reaction when The Hero was announced for Smash. Real talk, I am not exaggerating when I say that Japan treats this game as a national treasure. The popularity of this series has expanded for decades and generations in Japan. It’s more beloved than Mario. It’s even rumored that whenever a new game comes out it has to be released on the weekend, so nobody calls off from work or school. The first game was released in 1986 for the Famicom by Enix better known today as Square Enix. The game was written and directed by Yuji Horii with music by Koichi Sugiyama and character designs by the legend himself, Akira Toriyama. Since its release Dragon Quest would go on to define JRPGs and RPGs in general. I go as far as calling it the Father or Grandfather of JRPGs. Final Fantasy, Persona, Xenoblade, Breath of Fire, Chrono Trigger, Octopath Traveler, pretty much any RPG or RPG-like game out there was influenced by Dragon Quest in some form or another and owes their success to it. Over the years there would be multiple titles and spin-offs to the series. Introducing new characters, mechanics, and settings. With its success in the video game industry, it only made sense to try other forms of media and expand its reach. So you know what that means. . .mangas! So many mangas! There were so many mangas based off this series that trying to name them all would take all day but here’s a quick overview of the ones I was able to track down. Some of them are retellings of the games, others would be spin-offs focusing on certain characters, there are 4-panel comedies, and there’s even a oneshot that focuses on the creators of the game. However, the ones that people really seemed to like were the original mangas. These were stories that didn’t make the cut to be full games and one of the first and most popular ones was the Adventure of Dai. Released in 1989-1996 and written by Riku Sanjo the manga came out a year following the release of Dragon Quest 3. Riding the wave of success from the first three games made the manga quite popular during its run. It would go on to have an anime adaptation in 1991 along with three short movies done by Toei (DBZ and Sailor Moon). In honor of the manga’s 30th anniversary, Toei announced that they would be making a new anime adaptation of the manga in 2020. And we’re here to look at it today to see if this remake was any good. There’s a lot of anime to review so let’s get started. This is Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai.
Opening and Ending Themes
The series had two openings. The first was “Ikiru wo Suru” by Macaroni Empichi. I thought the song was alright. It gives off that feeling of getting ready to set off on an adventure. For the second opening we have “Bravest” by Taichi Mukai. This opening continues to have that adventurous tone while also giving you hope that the hero is here and all will be okay. If I had to choose which one I liked more it would be the first opening.
The series had four endings. The first was “mother” by Macaroni Empichi. This ending was forgetful. The second was “Akashi” by XIIX. An improvement over the first ending and was easily my favorite of the bunch. I like how it shines the spotlight on all of our main characters and shows their determination to win. The third endings is “Namae” by Humbreaders. It’s a nice song especially when you read the lyrics. The final ending is “Tobu Tori wa” by Mitei no Hanashi. I love the violins in this song and how it gives us a sense of reflection. We’re nearing the journey’s end. Now is the time to reflect on the road we took to get here. All our triumphs, mistakes, and failures had led us here and I honestly wouldn’t change it.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts with our main character Dai voiced by Atsumi Tanezaki (Tome from Mob Psycho 100) as a baby landing on an island of intelligent and friendly monsters (lucky him). The monsters raise him with the elder, Brass, wanting him to become a strong mage that will help The Hero defeat the demon lord. While on the island training, he spots a boat heading toward it filled with people pretending to be The Hero and his party (they even got the costumes and everything). Dai mistakes the fake heroes for the real ones and brings them to the island where they attack the monsters and flee with a gold slime name Gomu (it’s not actual gold. Just has a gold color and can fly). The monster elder gives him some magic cylinders which he can use to trap living creatures (wow, Dragon Quest beat Pokémon). Using the capsules, he gathers the remaining monsters on the island and goes after the fake heroes where we get a good fight on the ship between Dai, the monsters, and the fake heroes (including the arrival of King Slime and a dragon). The fake heroes get defeated and the king apologizes for his mistake by rewarding the Crown of Champions to Dai believing that he’ll become the future hero (https://youtu.be/3DxF5OYyFtw). Three months pass and Dai receives a visit from the sage of the kingdom as well as princess Leona who are saying that he’s The Hero they’ve been waiting on.
In episode 2 we find out that Leona voiced by Saori Hayami (Yor from SpyxFamily) is here to take the Earth ritual in order to be a sage (seems like a lot of work if you ask me). Dai gets asked to be her escort on the island where at first the two don’t get along because Leona is kind of rude (she’s a princess, what did you expect. By default, she’s a spoiled brat). However, the two start to become friends. When they reach the cave of the ritual, Leona gets attacked by a demon scorpion that poisons her. Unless Squelch is cast she’ll die and only the elder can cast it. Dai and Leona soon get attacked by one of the sage knights who reveals that the sage planned for Leona to die on the island so that he could become the next ruler of Papnica. Dai and Leona get blasted into the ritual cave where Dai’s desire to save Leona awakens his pep mode (or blue super Saiyan mode. So Toriyama thought of blue Saiyans years ago). This allows him to bust out of the cave and he goes to save the rest of the monsters from the sage and his minions. After using a number of spells, Dai is able to defeat the minions of the sage and save everyone. The elder heals Leona, the knights come to arrest the sage, Leona performs the ritual, and everything ends well.
The dark lord has returned in episode 3 and with his return, monsters on the island start going berserk and attacking each other (so, the monsters are influenced by the dark lord? That makes sense). Brass tries to get Dai off the island for his own safety, but he refuses to leave everyone in the state they’re in. Just then, two men arrive on the island where one of them cleanses the monsters of their evil to return them back to normal. The two men introduce themselves as Avan voiced by Takahiro Sakurai (Reigen from Mob Psycho 100) and his student Popp a mage in training voiced by Toshiyuki Toyonaga. Avan is a hero tutor, and was sent by the king to train Dai into becoming a proper hero (come, Avan shall become the Piccolo to your Gohan. Minus the physical/mental abuse). The training begins where Dai progresses quite well. He manages to slice a boulder with a knife in one day and learns Earth Slash the next day (proving to the elder that he is a fighter not a mage). On his third day of training he gets his biggest task yet, fighting Avan who transformed into a dragon.
Episode 4 opens up with Dai overcoming the odds and beating Avan by mastering the water slash attack. After that, the island gets invaded by the dark lord himself, Hadlar. Hadlar reveals that Avan was the previous hero before Dai. He fought against Hadlar in the past, defeated him, and brought peace to the world (and considering his looks, I wager it wasn’t that long ago). Avan and Hadlar fight where Hadlar is even stronger now than he was in the past. Hadlar reveals that he was resurrected by Vearn the Dark King who is way stronger than Hadlar ever could be. Avan and Hadlar continue to fight where not even Avan’s most powerful attack is enough to defeat Hadlar. Dai no longer able to sit by and watch tries to intervene and fails (Popp just stands there shaking in fear. Like a bitch). Hadlar tries to kill Dai and Popp but Avan sacrifices his body in order to keep them safe.
Episodes 5-8
Talk about an emotional ride. In episode 5, Avan turns Dai and the others to steel to protect them while he goes to fight Hadlar. With no more magic to spare, Avan uses his life energy to cast Megante in an all-or-nothing attempt to defeat Hadlar once and for all. Avan sacrifices all of his life energy and dies in a powerful explosion (Vegeta did it better). However, Hadlar still stands ready to fight as not even that blast was enough to defeat him. Dai breaks out of his steel prison (thankfully, he’s not blind) and activates his ancient power which is the crest of the dragon to fight Hadlar. In a rather surprising moment, Dai is able to hold his own and surpass Hadlar (he went Gohan SSJ2 on his ass from the Cell Games) where he almost defeats him using Avan’s special move. Hadlar retreats but vows to return and defeat Dai as he knows that if left alone Dai will become an even greater hero than Avan.
Dai leaves the island in episode 6 with Popp and Gomu. Their first destination is Romos Kingdom, but they get lost in the Dark Forest for 3 days (their sense of direction is worse than Zoro from One Piece). After rescuing a little girl from monsters, they meet an adventurer named Maam voiced by Mikako Komatsu (Maki from Jujustu Kaisen) where Popp decides to be an asshole to her for no reason (yeah, Popp is a very unlikeable character. He’s a coward, a slacker, looks down on others for no reason whatsoever and acts like an asshole for no reason. You could say they’re going for an Usopp scenario but here’s the thing: Usopp was likable. Despite his big mouth, lies and cowardly nature when we first met him, Usopp managed to have a redeeming character. He cared for Kaya and lied in order to make her feel better. He cared about his friends and the village he was born in. He was proud to be the son of a pirate and wore it like a badge of honor. He could be brave when he needed to be, and his cowardly nature came across as more comedic than mean-spirited. Popp so far has shown no redeeming qualities and comes across as someone you want to see die). Maam offers Dai and Popp a stay in the village as well as guide them the next day, but Popp says no and drags Dai away into the forest where they get lost, again. Hadlar calls upon Crocodine the Beast King, to eliminate Dai in the forest. Crocodine finds our hero (and asshole) and fights against Dai while Popp runs away (I’m really hoping he dies a horrible death). Popp runs into a monster where he gets saved by Maam who we find out was also a student of Avan (it’s like comparing night and day between these two). They return to Dai who’s barely hanging on as Crocodine overpowers him every step of the way.
At the start of episode 7, Dai is able to force Crocodine to retreat with the help of Maam (and Popp surprisingly. But only a little). Maam brings them back to her village where we find out that her mom and late dad were allies of Avan and fought beside him which makes her a warrior priestess. Maam specializes in healing and support type magic along with martial arts but can’t perform any attack spells (that’s a shame, you would have made Popp completely useless if you could). Thankfully, she has a magic gun that Avan gave her that fires magic bullets and can even absorb attack spells. Dai and Popp decide not to tell her about Avan’s death, but she overhears Dai talking to the village chief about his death. While that’s going on Crocodine receives a visit from Zaboera, another commander in the Dark King’s army who offers his aid in the defeat of Dai. At first Crocodine refuses his help because it’s too underhanded and goes against his warrior code, but Zaboera convinces him to play dirty in order to defeat Dai. Back in the village, Dai and Popp stick around for a few days where Dai attempts to learn some magic from the elder. When the two decide to leave, Maam also decides to join them in honor of Avan.
In episode 8, Dai and the others make it to Romos Kingdom. Dai and the others rest for the night, where the next day comes and Crocodine attacks the kingdom with his beast army (great security work knights). Dai rushes off to the castle to save the king while Popp decides to once again chicken out on us saying he doesn’t want to die and even goes as far as blaming Dai for constantly putting his life in danger (you are so pathetic). Maam punches Popp calling him a coward and runs after Dai (he got off lucky. I would have shot him). Back with Dai he reaches the throne room where he uses Frizz to save the king, but Crocodine reveals his secret weapon that will give him the victory, Brass. Zaboera went to the island, captured Brass and gave him to Crocodine to use as a distraction for Dai. Now that Brass is outside of Avan’s force field, he succumbs to his monster instincts and attacks Dai. Dai can’t bring himself to attack Brass (sure you can. Just point your sword out and run forward) and Crocodine throws away his pride and honor in the name of victory and attacks Dai with his ultimate attack taking out Dai, Maan, and the king.
Episodes 9-13
So in episode 9, Popp finally (and I mean finally) mans up and goes to help the others. After receiving a beating from Crocodine (still doesn’t make up for the past), he manages to create a small spell circle around Brass and use Glimmer to return him to normal and then Gomu (who for some odd reason isn’t going berserk) heals Dai and he activates his hero mark (or hero state) to fight against Crocodine (oh~ Dai’s mad as hell) where he wins and Crocodine accepts his defeat with whatever remaining honor he has left. With Crocodine defeated, the rest of the monsters run away and Romos kingdom is saved.
Episode 10 opens up with the King of Romos thanking Dai and the others for saving his kingdom. The group receives new armor (hopefully it gives them extra experience points. They’ll need it) and a ship where their next stop is Papnica (Dai is going to rescue his girl). Out of all the places attacked by the Demon Lord’s army, Papnica’s continent was hit the hardest as apparently the continent used to be Hadlar’s base (and there are other kingdoms messing up his yard). A monster known as Hyunckel is leading the attack, commands an army of the undead, and has just been tasked directly by Vearn to defeat Dai. Dai and the others reach Papnica where they see the place has been destroyed by the undead army. As they search the kingdom looking for survivors, they get attacked by skeleton knights and saved a by powerful mercenary who was Avan’s first student. Popp doesn’t trust the guy (scum recognizes scum) and it gets revealed that he’s Hyunckel and the one responsible for destroying the kingdom.
In episode 11, Dai and the others fight against Hyunckel voiced by Yuki Kaji (Eren from Attack on Titan) who proves to be too powerful as all of their attacks do nothing against his armor. We learn about his past and see just like Dai he too was raised by an undead monster who was in service to Hadlar. Despite being a human, the monster treated him with kindness and accepted him as his own child until Avan arrived and defeated Hadlar. Since the undead can’t sustain life without the dark lord’s power, Hyunckel’s bone daddy died leaving him alone. Hyunckel was soon found by Avan who took him in not knowing that Hyunckel had vowed revenge on him and would bide his time waiting to kill him (too bad Hadlar beat you to the punch). When Hyunckel’s training was done he attempted to kill Avan only to fail and got rescued by Vearn’s army. Getting back to the fight, Hyunckel takes control of Dai’s body and tries to kill him only for Crocodine to come in and save him (redemption arc). Crocodine summons a garuda to get Dai and Popp to safety (geez, no love for the women, eh Crocodine? Didn’t know you beastman were so misogynistic) while he stays behind and gets stabbed by Hyunckel. Hyunckel takes Maam as his prisoner knowing Dai won’t abandon her and the garuda gets Dai and Popp to a safe location where they come across a knight of Papnica.
So nothing much really happens in the first half of episode 12. After getting their wounds tended to, Popp gets the idea in his head to use Zapple (lightning spell) on Hyunckel’s sword to give him severe damage. Popp learns the spell Climatise to create lightning clouds and Dai will use Zapple to hit Hyunckel’s sword and hurt him. After enough training and getting the accuracy down right, Dai and Popp head out to face Hyunckel once again. They enter into his underground lair where they eventually make it to the coliseum (https://youtu.be/Y5JxIrn4OVs) and fight against Hyunckel. We see Dai is able to keep up with Hyunckel (one could say he learned from his past experience and came prepared to fight. (Chibi): Or he’s got Saiyan blood within him. (Nitsuj): Yeah that too). Dai’s aggressive fight forces Hyunckel to pull out his sword and Dai manages to hit him with Zapple just liked they planned.
In episode 13 Hyunckel is still able to fight despite taking a lightning shot (he is invincible). He takes out Dai just as Maam shows up and reveals that Avan never killed Hyunckel’s bone-daddy. Avan spared him and went to fight Hadlar where he succeeded in beating him, but Vearn brought Hadlar back to life and killed Hyunckel’s bone-daddy out of anger. Avan knew Hyunckel would blame him for his dad’s death, but still decided to train him anyway in the hopes that human warmth would persuade him to give up on vengeance and live a good life (and that failed horribly like the launch of Cyberpunk 2077). Despite hearing the truth Hyunckel says it’s too late for him to turn good (don’t go all Darth Vader on us. You got plenty of time to turn good). Dai returns to his feet unconscious where he combines magic with his sword and fights against Hyunckel (where the fight becomes CGI out of nowhere. It looks good though. Still a little weird). Dai manages to defeat Hyunckel and regains consciousness where Maam heals Hyunckel and for the first time he feels human warmth. Unfortunately, this happy moment is ruined by Flazzard another general in the Vearn’s army (half fire half ice. I would have called him Fireberg). Flazzard activates an ancient volcano to kill them all but Hyunckel sacrifices himself to save the others (giving us a Terminator 2 death scene in the process. He won’t be back. He said sarcastically). With Hyunckel’s defeat, Flazzard now gets put in charge of finding Leona and killing her.
And that does it for the first half of Dai’s Adventure. And we’re not even halfway through the anime. There’s still so much to review. Tune in next week as we continue our look into this series. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.