Hello and welcome to Project. We’re still continuing our look into Dragon Quest the Adventures of Dai with part 3 of the anime. But first, another fun fact about Dragon Quest. The series was actually inspired by Western games. In 1982 Enix sponsored a video game programming contest where the winners would win a trip to America and go to Applefest ’83 in San Francisco. Contest winners Koichi Nakamura and Yukinobu Chida (who would play a major role in the development of the games) went to the fest with Yuji. It was there that Yuji discovered the Wizardry video game series as well as Ultima. Yuji and the others became big fans of both games and used them as a base to start working on Dragon Quest. The overworld view came from Ultima and the idea to make the game pure fantasy instead of science fiction came from Wizardry as well as the gameplay. To this day the inspiration from these two games can still be seen in Dragon Quest. Many people didn’t think the game would take off because of its fantasy setting, but thanks to Yuji’s writing, Akira’s character designs, Koichi’s music, and the programming of Nakamura and Chida the game wound up being a big hit. Even bigger than Mario. And now, on to the review.
Episodes 25-28
In episode 25 Dai rejoins the fight and together with Crocodine they manage to hit Baran but it doesn’t really do any damage (your dad’s a beast Dai). Realizing that Dai’s power comes from the bond he shares with everyone, Baran decides to alter Dai’s mind reducing him to nothing more than an infant mentally who has amnesia (that’s low man). Baran retreats for the time being (they barely harmed you. You’re like Mike Tyson, you have poor stamina). With Dai in the state he’s in, the group is defenseless (so what are you waiting for Hadlar? Get down there and finish the job, you know where they are. Sometimes I think I’d make a better villain than 90% of the villains in anime). While everyone tries to figure out what to do next, Baran summons his dragon masters, his three strongest men to finish off Dai and the others.
Popp makes himself the sacrificial lamb in episode 26. After retreating to safety, Merle senses Baran and his three dragon masters heading in their direction. They lock up Dai in a prison cell underground (which pretty much scars the kid. (Isis): I want to give him a hug to make him feel better) while Popp decides to make everyone hate him and go off to fight against Baran and the dragon masters himself knowing full well that he’ll most likely die if he faces them (God, I hope so. We can trade him in for another mage that’s likable). Baran goes ahead of his dragon masters who stay behind to fight Popp where they don’t take him seriously and Popp manages to piss off one of the masters (don’t mess with da master) and gets beat up for it. When it’s finally time for Popp to die, he gets saved by Hyunckel the last person he wanted to save him.
In episode 27 both Popp and Hyunckel take down two of the dragon masters, but the third (who is obviously the strongest) manages to defeat Hyunkel (oh shit, we are screwed) and Popp passes out from using way too much magic. Baran approaches the castle where they’re keeping Dai and thanks to the dragon crest, he can detect Dai no matter where he’s at.
In episode 28 we learn why Baran hates humans so much. In the past, it was supposed to be Baran who defeated Hadlar, but Baran was busy fighting against another threat to humanity, the last intelligent dragon who was trying to conquer the world. Baran defeated the dragon but was mortally wounded and had to crawl desperately to a spring in order to heal himself. It was there that he met Soala, princess of Alkeed Kingdom, who healed him and the two fell in love with each other. At first, the king was alright with this, but the vassals who were jealous that an unknown person came in and won the princess over (don’t hate the player, hate the game. Literally) got into the king’s ear and convinced him that he was a servant of Hadlar. With the fear of Hadlar still in the minds of people, the king banished Baran, but Soala chased after him and revealed that she was pregnant with his child (when did you two have time to do the deed?). They eloped for a couple of years until they were found by the king and his soldiers where Baran gave himself up in exchange for the safety of Dai and Soala. The king complied and sent Dai to an island of monsters (good thing they were friendly otherwise that kid would have been eaten alive) while Soala was returned to the palace. At Baran’s execution, Soala sacrificed her life to save his where she begged him not to hate humans. Sadly, just like Dracula from Castlevania, Baran allowed rage to consume him and vowed to destroy all humans who took everything away from him (so, if there’s anything to take away from this: don’t ask men to do anything on your deathbed. They never follow through). Back with Hyunckel, against all odds he manages to rise back to his feet and defeat the last dragon master. However, the one who Popp fought is still alive (figures. That guy couldn’t finish the job even if his life depended on it) and he threatens to squash Popp’s head unless Hyunckel gives up (jokes on you, you have a hostage nobody cares about).
Episodes 29-32
At the start of episode 29, Hyunckel lays down his sword to save Popp (noo~, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the useless). However, the dragon master gets killed by the dragon master Hyunckel defeated because he was fighting dishonorably and against a human no less. The dragon master gives Hyunckel his dragon armor and passes away asking him to look after Dai and Baran. Speaking of Baran, we see him arrive at the castle where they’re keeping Dai (well it sucks to be anyone besides Dai right now). You would think he’d take everyone down with ease, but nope, Crocodine’s determination and will along with Leona’s healing keeps Baran at bay long enough for Hyunkel and Popp to arrive where they try to get him to stop the madness but he refuses. He decides to stop playing around and unleashes his full power by transforming into the dragonoid (half human, half dragon, half darkling, and all Trogdor the Burninator).
Not gonna lie, episode 30 might just be the best episode so far in the series. As you would expect everyone is no match for Baran and Dai makes it outside of the castle where it seems like he’s going to go with Baran (now hear me out. Even though he’s evil, I can’t imagine him being a worse father than Goku). Popp wanting to save Dai and repay him for everything he’s done not only for him but for everyone, uses Megante on Baran to kill him, however it’ll also kill Popp as well (saying that slightly turned me on). Pouring all of his life energy into the attack, Popp unleashes Megante releasing a huge explosion. Sadly, just like all of his previous encounters, he couldn’t finish the job. He loosened his grip at the last minute which allowed Baran to escape and make Popp die for nothing (but he still died and I couldn’t be happier. I know it sounds like I’m picking on this character, but you have no idea how annoying and stupid this guy has been throughout the journey. But, I will say this, they give him a very heartfelt death which is more than he deserved). The only real upside to all of this is that it allowed Dai to regain his old memories and he’s now ready to take down his papa dragonoid.
Episode 31 gives us the fight between Dai and Baran (son vs dad. I haven’t seen a family this dysfunctional since Guardians of the Galaxy). The fight takes up the whole episode and it’s a pretty awesome fight (it’s like a fight out of DBZ). Dai and Baran are flying through the air, Baran hits Dai with energy blasts, Dai powers through and hits back, it essentially is a DBZ fight that I enjoyed (there’s like one or two scenes where they incorporate CGI which is odd as the fight was mostly done in a 2D format, but despite this the fight is still good and a joy to watch).
Dai and Baran continue to fight in episode 32 with Hyunkel tossing his sword to Dai. As Dai continues to fight (gotta love that DBZ-inspired fight choreography) we see Leona tries to revive Popp (noo~, let him die, let his death actually mean something) but her spell doesn’t seem to be working. We see Gomo, go into Popp’s subconscious to try and get him to return to life where even after dying he still acts like a lazy douchebag and is content with going to the afterlife (please let him die. Seriously, we can find a better mage). However, Gomo gets under his skin and his corpse unleashes a spell which distracts Baran and allows Dai to deliver the finishing blow to win the fight. However, Dai’s blow doesn’t kill Baran and instead just wounds him to the point that he can’t fight anymore. Baran says he’s leaving the Dark army (it was beneath him anyway) but hasn’t given up on killing all humans. Instead, he’s going to rest, heal his wounds, and then come after Dai once again to settle their score. Before leaving, out of respect for Popp, Baran revives him (okay, now I know you’re crazy. You really want your son traveling around with that lazy idiot?) and takes his leave. Back with Hadlar, he gets called to Vearn who is pissed at all his failures so far and how he kept Dai being a dragon knight a secret (that alone would be all the reason I need to kill him). Vearn gives Hadlar one more chance to defeat Dai and if he fails then he’s done.
Episodes 33-37
Not much happens in episode 33. Hadlar and Zaboera launch a sneak attack on Dai and the others who are resting from their injuries. While Popp stands guard (oh that’s not reassuring at all) Zaboera diguises himself as Maam to fool him and unleashes a powerful poison that puts everyone into a deep sleep aside from Popp who manages to hang on. Hadlar decides to kill him first (don’t play with my emotions. If you wanted to kill him you would have done it already) but gets saved by Matoriv. Matoriv does his best to hold off Hadlar with his magic, but old age is a bitch and he unfortunately can’t hold off Hadlar and Zaboera. Luckily, Dai manages to wake up and reflects their sizzle spells back at them. They of course survive and Hadlar forces Zaboera to transform his body into the ultimate body, so that he can defeat Dai. Back with Dai and the others, Matoriv hands the group a book written by Avan (he had a best seller?) to them on their journey. The next day, they all decide to return to Papnica.
Nothing much happens in episode 34. The group arrives back in Papnica where Leona runs off to do her own thing. Hyunckel goes off to do some training (see you later Vegeta. Whoops, wrong show). Also, Maam returns. She’s completed her martial arts training and is now traveling with a talking rat named Chiu who was her senior. Right now, they’re both participating in a martial arts tournament where the winner will receive a rare sword. Dai and Popp catch Maam up on what they’ve been up to (yes, tell her how Dai’s a dragon knight and how they teased me with Popp’s death. (Yume): Oh please, you knew they weren’t going to kill him off. (Nitsuj): Shut up and let me dream). They ask Maam to give them the sword once she wins the tournament, however she refuses to assist Dai in killing his own dad.
In episode 35, after Dai and Popp tell Maam about the dangers of a dragon knight and promising to use the sword for good instead of evil (yes, stopping a guy who wants to kill humanity is seen as evil in her eyes), Maam changes her mind and promises to win. We see Chiu lose in the tournament because of his short limbs (give that mouse a spear) and we see he too has a crush on Maam (man, Maam just has a way of attracting men that are below her league). When the tournament comes down to the final 8, they all get captured by Zamza the son of Zaboera (that guy reproduced? How and who?). Zamza plans to turn them into soldiers of the dark army by experimenting on their bodies (Baron: Ah~ that takes me back to my college days of studying magic). Dai fights against Zamza using his dragon knight power where even that isn’t enough to defeat him because his body has been strengthened thanks to his past experiments. He finally transforms into a freak of nature combining the aspects of 100 monsters to form what he believes to be the ultimate body.
So in episode 36, Dai fights against the freak Zamza where his body reaches its limits and he collapses. Popp tries to step up and fight (ahh~, he’s actually doing something heroic), but even he gets defeated and Dai gets eaten whole by Zamza. Chiu tries to fight Zamza even going against his natural instincts that are telling him he’s in over his head, but of course he’s no match for Zamza either. We see Popp and Chiu team up where they force Zamza to regurgitate Dai back up but don’t capitalize on pulling him out (because Chiu is an idiot and Popp is useless). Thankfully, Maam manages to break herself and the other fighters out of their imprisonment and she apparently holds the key to defeating Zamza.
The fight against Zamza comes to an end in episode 37. We start with Maam fighting him where she manages to do some damage and even rescues Dai. Sadly, it doesn’t take long for Zamza’s body to re-heal and go on the attack while Dai goes for the Blade of Champions hoping it’ll be strong enough to pierce Zamza. Dai manages to reach the sword and using what little stamina he has left manages to slash through Zamza and defeat him. The Blade of Champions also breaks where Zamza reveals that the real blade is in the hands of Hadlar. Speaking of Hadlar, we see Zaboera begin transforming his body into the ultimate being and with Zamza’s research, there’s no telling just how powerful Hadlar will become.
And we’ll stop here for now. I hope you’re enjoying the review so far and have a good day. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.