Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Welcome to the second week of our look at Dragon Quest: The Adventures of Dai. Since this is going to be a long review, I figured I’d make things interesting and share some fun facts about Dragon Quest you may or may not know. Here’s one I found really interesting, Dragon Quest was the first game to use slime as a monster. Yeah, the most common monster you see in RPGs first appeared in Dragon Quest. Akira wanted to give players a not-so-intimidating monster to start the game off, so he created the cute slime monster which would go on to be one of the most iconic characters from the series. So iconic that it became the series mascot. While there have been multiple variations of the slime creature the original blue slime is the one that everyone loves. As of today, it’s the only monster/character to appear in all iterations of Dragon Quest. Including the spinoff games and as I said before would go on to become one of the common enemies you see in RPGs. Alright, let’s continue the review.
Episodes 14-17
Episode 14 starts with Dai and the others trying to find some way to communicate with Leona. After accidentally setting off some smoke signals, the group gets discovered by Lady Amy a high priestess of the kingdom (and all-around attractive woman) who tells them that Leona is on Valge Island. She gives them a ride in her hot air balloon to the island where Leona (did she get taller and more beautiful from the last time we saw her?) and others are hiding out. While traveling there, Leona and the others get attacked by Flazzard whose spell power is unbelievable (it better be. He’s an elemental monster, if his magic isn’t all that great I would have been so pissed). Flazzard takes out everyone and just when he’s about to kill Leona, Dai arrives in the nick of time to save her (heroes always show up late to the battle).
We start episode 15 with Dai taking on Flazzard where he seems like he’s more than a match for him as he gets some good hits in and displays a good control of magic (he’s truly starting to become a hero). However, Flazzard decides to unleash his trump card, a magic field. He has his minions (https://youtu.be/uiyn8JjVQW0) create a tower of fire and ice which creates a magic field where nobody but Flazzard can use magic and everyone is weaker. Dai starts to lose badly but he refuses to retreat and let a cheater like Flazzard win (he’s a villain, he’s supposed to cheat). This of course comes back to haunt him as Flazzard captures Leona and freezes her in a block of ice (https://youtu.be/nC8zz95rm8s), but Dai continues to fight and lose. Maam does the sensible thing and knocks Dai out, so they can escape (I feel like she should have been the hero). Everyone who was in the tower manages to escape, but the minions of Flazzard attack their balloon and they’re about to fall into the whirlpool until they get saved by a hermit who Maam recognizes.
We find out in episode 16 that the hermit is Matoriv, grand sorcerer who once fought against Hadlar with Avan in the past and served the Papnica royal family (he’s also a Master Roshi inspired character. He’s a powerful character yet, he’s an unbelievable pervert). He was a friend of Maam’s mom which is how she knows him (hmm~, now that I think about it, Maam is kind of like a more level-headed Bulma). Everyone tells him the situation they’re in, but he refuses to help as he’s done with humans. After the dark lord was defeated he became an advisor to the king of Papnica where everyone despised him for his position out of jealousy. Matoriv grew tired of everyone’s jealousy and decided to become a hermit forsaking humanity for their selfishness and vowing never to get involved with them ever again (until today). Dai convinces him to help out and he says they’re going to need explosives to take down the tower of ice and fire (a little modern for my taste but okay). Matoriv gives Dai some training and personally trains Popp because he is weak. He teleports Popp to the other side of the world using zoom and leaves him behind telling him to use zoom to get back. When the bombs are finished and nighttime arrives, Popp makes it back just in time for the rescue to begin as they have until sunrise to rescue Leona or she’ll die. They head back towards Valge Island where we see Hadlar figured out what their plan was and has gathered a good chunk of the Dark Army there to finish off Dai once and for all.
In episode 17 things look bad for Dai and the others. Dai approaches the fire pillar only to get ambushed by leaders of the dark army who surround him with their overwhelming numbers. Popp and Maam aren’t much better as they get to fight against Hadlar (sucks to be you guys). In a shocking turn of events Popp is actually able to push back one of Hadlar’s spells with his own spell thanks to his training (what kind of insane world have I entered?). Of course that victory is short lived as Hadlar gets serious and starts beating them up. Just when he’s about to kill Maam, she gets saved by Hyunckel (I knew he was still alive somehow) and Dai gets saved by Crocodine who has returned to lend their aid to Dai.
Episodes 18-21
At the start of episode 18 we see that Hyunckel was saved by Crocodine. For the rest of the episode we see Hyunckel fight against Hadlar to avenge Avan (the forgotten disciple tries to avenge the master. Good storytelling). Hyunckel seems to be the stronger of the two as he’s able to stab Hadlar in the heart only for Hadlar to stab him back and reveal he has two hearts (in a body that small? How are you still alive?). Despite getting stabbed, Hyunckel refuses to give up and unleashes Grand Cross in a last ditch effort to bring down Hadlar. Unfortunately, Hadlar uses his minions as shields to protect himself from the blast and goes to rip off Hyunckel’s head only for him to use his helmet to stab Hadlar’s second heart and kill him (well hot damn, he actually pulled it off. Good on ya).
In episode 19 Hyunckel is still alive (how many times will this guy cheat death?) and Hadlar is nowhere to be seen. Dai, Popp, and Maam get ambushed by Flazzard only for him to get surrounded by Dai, Popp, Maam, Crocodine, and Hyunckel. Knowing the odds are stacked against him and he can’t win, Flazzard unleashes his ultimate attack, a flurry of elemental bullets made from his body. The only downside with this attack is that it chips away at his own life, not that he cares, all that matters to Flazzard is glory and rubbing it in the faces of his peers (he wants to be remembered for great things). In order to defeat Flazzard, Dai unleashes the final slash of Avan, the Air slash. It takes him a few tries, but Dai manages to slash the core of Flazzard to destroy him (once again he has sliced through something worthless).
Episode 20 starts with us seeing that Hadlar is still alive (no surprise there) thanks to Mystvearn the mysterious one of the Dark Army. Mystvearn explains that Hadlar’s body possesses the Black Aura which makes Hadlar immortal as long as Vearn and Mystvearn are around. To make matters worse, whenever he dies he’ll just come back stronger than ever (he’s essentially a Saiyan now). Back on the island, with Flazzard’s core destroyed he can’t keep himself whole and becomes easy pickings for the group. Popp destroys the ice side of Flazzard (dah! He actually did something useful) and Hyunckel goes to deliver the final blow but gets stopped by Mystvearn who fuses Flazzard with this suit of armor which turns him into dark fire energy and he becomes all the more powerful (and we’re back to square one). In a weakened and exhausted state, Dai rises up prepared to fight where he dodges all of Flazzard’s attacks with his eyes closed (wow, he is flowing with them like water) and unleashes the Avan Strash to completely destroy Flazzard. Mystvearn retreats (that was dumb of him. Finish them!) and the group goes to check on Leona (oh yeah, I forgot about her) where the ice still hasn’t melted despite Flazzard being defeated. Hyunckel explains that Leona lacks the strength to break free of the ice. Using Dai’s hidden powers, they manage to charge up a magic bullet to save Leona at the cost of Maam’s magic gun (and there goes the only technology in the world). They have a party that night celebrating their victory where Hyunckel and Crocodine head out in secret to check on the movements of Hadlar.
Nothing much really happens in episode 21. With her magic gun destroyed, Maam finds herself lost on what she can contribute to the team. She finds her answer in class changing (good idea). She decides to become a martial artist which means she’ll be leaving the team for a while to go and train with a master near her village. Popp drops her off where at first it seems like he’ll confess to her, but stands down because he realizes he’s not as brave or strong as she thinks he is (I couldn’t agree more). Back with the the Dark army, they receive a visit from Killvearn an assassin sent by Vearn to move the castle. We see that Baran the last of the commanders and leader of the Dragon Legion wants to face Dai next, but Hadlar won’t allow him to do it because Dai is a dragon knight (which makes Dai a broken character and I’ll explain why later).
Episodes 22-24
In episode 22 Dai and Popp go shopping with Leona in the next kingdom over for new equipment. It’s also hinted that Leona will be joining them on their quest in order to replace Maam (it’s like Pokémon when Misty left and they replaced her with a new girl each season). While shopping, the kingdom gets attacked by dragons from Vearn’s army (moving onto dragons already. Makes sense. We did just find out Dai is a dragon knight). Dai, Popp, and Leona leap into action to save everyone where we pay attention to a seer named Merle who goes to help out a person trapped beneath some rubble and just when she’s about to get blasted by a dragon, Dai saves her.
At the start of episode 23 Dai activates his dragon knight powers and goes on a rampage taking down the dragons with just his fists (holy shit that’s badass. Not even the out of place CGI Hydra takes away from how awesome this scene is). Once all the dragons are defeated and Dai returns to normal, everyone is afraid of him (oh you assholes! He saved your damn lives) Killvearn arrives and warns Dai that Baran will show up soon. Merle and Nabara, her grandma, recognize the mark of the dragon knight on Dai’s forehead and take him to Teran Kingdom (more like a village seeing as how there are only about 50 people there) so that he can learn more about who he is. Nabara takes them to a shrine where we find out the dragon knight mark is known as the Dragon Crest a sign of the God of Dragons’ power. Those who wield the Dragon Crest are called dragon knights and contain unmatched power, can cast any spell they want, and if they wanted to could destroy the world (and this is why Dai is a broken character. If he had this power activated 24/7, he would wreck everyone and I’m not just talking about the Dark army). Nabara tells Dai that if he seeks more answers into who he is, there’s a temple at the bottom of the lake that only the dragon knight can enter. Dai dives into the lake and enters the temple where he meets the Dragon Crystal who tells him that he’s not human or a monster. He’s an ultimate being created by the three gods, but before the crystal can explain why, they get interrupted by Baran who has broken into the temple by sheer force. In a shocking twist, he hasn’t come to kill Dai, but instead wants to join forces with Dai and destroy the human world (isn’t that what the monsters are doing?).
So yeah, in episode 24 Baran wants to wipe out humanity saying it’s the job of a dragon knight to maintain the balance between the three races of the world (so it’s like Avatar: TLA? Oh wait, this series came out before Avatar). Baran reveals that he’s also a dragon knight and has sided with the demons because he believes humans are evil and need to be destroyed (no, we’re just stupid when put together). Dai says no, so Baran tries to take Dai by force but the others interfere saying that they’ll never abandon him. Baran also drops the bomb that he’s Dai’s dad and his real name is Dino (https://youtu.be/FSWiMoO8zNE). Hadlar knew Baran was Dai’s dad this whole time and did everything in his power to keep those two far apart from each other (well that failed miserably and now your job is about to be up for grabs). Dai manages to get back up and tries to take down Baran using all of his power only for Baran to counter his attack and knock him out (he even destroyed the hero’s headpiece for good measure. That’s how you know he’s evil). Crocodine shows up to defend them, but not even he’s a match for Baran.
When one commander falls another one rises up to take their place and this one might be the strongest. How will Dai and the others overcome this battle? Find out next week on Project Nitsuj.