Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Welcome to the fourth week of our review of Dragon Quest where we’re finally entering the halfway point of the series. Before getting into the review, here’s another Dragon Quest fact for you. It was one of the first games that allowed you to side with the villain. In today’s culture, video games often give you choices. Be a good guy or a bad guy. Back in the 80s this was rare, and players didn’t get this choice. It was either be good or nothing else. In the first game you could choose to side with the evil dragon and if you did the Hero would go into a deep sleep ending the game right then and there. When it was re-released on the Gameboy, they changed it to just being a nightmare that the Hero was having. Again, minor by today’s standards but this was a big deal back then. Now onto the review.
Episodes 38-41
In episode 38 we find out that Leona is planning a world summit to contend with the Dark Army. It’ll be held in Papnica (or what’s left of it) in a few days. Using Popp’s zoom ability, he teleports Dai, Maam, and Chiu to Papnica. Hadlar catches wind of the summit and sends Mystvearn to Papnica to destroy them. As preparations for the summit get underway, Dai asks a few of the leaders if they know of any legendary weapons. With the help of Merle they discover that there might be a legendary weapon in Lankirks Village which is where Popp is from (hopefully it doesn’t suck like him). Dai, Popp, Maam, Chiu and Merle go to Lankirks Village where they get to meet Popp’s parents who run a weapons shop. While the mom is happy to see him, the dad body slams him for running away without a word (I like him already). Popp’s dad directs them to Lon a darkling who is a legendary blacksmith and even made the armor and spear Hyunckel used in the past. Dai and the others go to see Lon who refuses to make a weapon for them because he’s tired of dud wielders using his works (it’s like a world famous painting being used as a coffee table by some idiot). However, Dai manages to show him his power and this reinvigorates Lon to make him the ultimate sword. After returning to monster island and getting some orichalcum as material for the sword, they zoom back to Lon. Meanwhile, Mystvearn has arrived in Papnica and he brought an army with him.
Not much happens in episode 39. Mystvearn attacks the summit with the actual island fortress of the Dark Army. Once the others catch wind of this, they return to Papnica to fight while Dai stays behind and waits for his sword (time to go Zoro on that giant rock).
Alright, episode 40 is an awesome episode. The first half is straight up action as everyone fights to defend Papnica and they all get a chance to shine (even Popp does something useful for once). Hyunckel also shows up to help out (next to Dai he’s the best thing) and in the second half we focus on him and Mystvearn. We find out that Mystvearn was the one who taught Hyunckel the dark arts so there’s a lot of layers to this fight. Even though Hyunckel has returned to the side of light, he still can’t forget the past and what he’s done, so this battle against Mystvearn is a way for him to show his resolve to follow the teachings of Avan, become a shining example to his kohais, and move on from his past once and for all. The fight between the two begins where Hyunckel tries to use his dark magic to defeat Mystvearn, but thanks to his change of heart the dark aura within him has diminished and his dark magic isn’t as strong as it was before. Hyunckel tries to reignite his hatred but Maam stops him saying he doesn’t need to become that person again (could it be any more obvious that she loves him?). This works on Hyunckel and he instead switches over to light magic.
Not much happens in episode 41. Dai finally arrives with his new sword and saves the leaders of the world by going Zoro on the giant walking rock island (I do love it when my jokes make it into an anime). Hyunckel continues to fight against Mystvearn where his face almost got exposed.
Episodes 42-45
In episode 42, Mystvearn angered by his failures prepares to unleash his true form on everyone, but he gets stopped by Killvearn (I’m just going to assume they’re related). Killvearn is the assassin of Vearn. His main job is to go around and kill any of the dark commanders when they fail (well then he sucks at his job because 3 of them have failed. 2 have changed sides, and they’re still alive while the other one has gone AWOL). He orders Mystvearn to retreat and after insulting Popp (at this point that’s like a free shot), Popp chases after them (like a dumbass) hoping to find their real stronghold. Popp chases them to some remote island where Killvearn attempts to kill him (don’t get my hopes up), but Dai arrives to save him. Realizing they don’t have the advantage, Dai and Popp attempt to hit and run, but Hadlar arrives in his new perfect form demanding a fair one on one fight with Dai.
The one-on-one fight between Dai and Hadlar begins in episode 43. It’s a decent fight with lots of flashy moves of Hadlar flexing his new body (alright, we get it, you used magic steroids. Try doing a pushup and then we can talk). Dai appears to be exhausted from using his powers earlier but still puts up a good fight. Just as it seems like Dai is close to losing Popp intervenes and flies away with Dai only for Hadlar to catch up to them and resume the fight. Using up all of his power, Dai hits Hadlar with everything he’s got and this results in the two taking each other down to end the episode.
At the start of episode 44 Popp gets rescued by Crocodine and the two retreat for the time being. We see Hadlar is still alive and Dai is nowhere to be seen but Hadlar believes he’s still alive. Popp and Crocodine return back to Papnica with Popp blaming himself for what happened to Dai (as you should dammit. This is why he should have died a long time ago. Nothing but trouble). Popp, Crocodine, and Chiu go out to find Dai while the rest of the rulers prepare for an assault. We finally get to see Vearn and. . .not really all that intimidating (Hadlar looks more frightening. Vearn looks like he could die from a stroke at any minute). We see Dai is still alive and being protected by his sword which now has a crack in it (Lon is going to kill you).
The search for Dai comes to a short end in episode 45 as Popp, Crocodine and Chiu manage to locate him. As they prepare to leave Zaboera shows up to kill Dai himself. He’s lost a lot of standing within the Dark Army (what did you expect? You’re like the scientists who built the rocket to the moon. Nobody cares about you, all they care about are the people who landed on the moon) and now sees this as a way to earn his keep. We quickly see the Mystic Legion is very weak as Crocodine is able to easily beat them back, but it’s Hadlar’s new soldier Hym who steals the show. A gift from Vearn, Hym is a magical chess piece brought to life and made entirely out of orichalcum which means magic and weapons have no effect on him. He knocks out Zaboera by orders of Hadlar because he wants to be the one to kill Dai and Hym takes his leave. Zaboera gets locked up and we meet the rest of Hadlar’s new chess piece soldiers Sigma (knight), Fenbren (bishop), Block (rook), and Albinass (the queen).
Episodes 46-50
Nothing much happens in episode 46. Everyone goes off to train for the big fight that will determine the fate of the world (will it be ruled by light or darkness?). Meanwhile, Vearn gives Killvearn the mission of finding Baran and killing him. While Baran hasn’t made a move and is just watching from the sidelines, Vearn doesn’t want to leave things to chance and have him interfere (then leave him alone. Don’t provoke him to get involved).
In episode 47 Killvearn finds Baran and gets killed by him (damn, I was expecting a bigger fight), but he gets revived. Back with Dai and the others, they all gather and head to Carl Castle where they’ll meet up with other warriors brave enough to answer the call and then head to the Field of Death. This place is also the homeland of Avan. As everyone awaits for the completion of the ship, Hadlar’s royal guards attack the port and Dai and Popp volunteer to go there and fight. Before they take off another warrior by the name of Nova offers to join them (I don’t trust you, you’re too cool-looking).
Nothing much happens in episode 48. Turns out Nova is a prick who calls Dai and the others weak and says he’s the true hero. He then goes off to fight against Hadlar’s royal guards where none of his attacks really do any damage and he’s forced to see just how weak and stupid he was acting. Just when he’s about to die, he gets saved by Hyunckel (he is becoming the Vegeta of this series).
Episode 49 gives us a good 5-on-5 battle between Dai’s team vs the royal guards (even the CGI looks smooth. Most of the time). In the end it’s Popp who uses his extreme magic to take out the royal guards in one blast (oh we are at the end of days if Popp is winning fights for us).
At the start of episode 50 we see that Popp’s attack didn’t kill the royal guards (okay, false alarm on the apocalypse. My bad) thanks to Block who used his body as a shield to protect the others (it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for). Just when it seems like the fight is about to continue Hadlar appears in astral form saying that only Dai and his party are allowed onto the Field of Death where he is waiting for them. Anybody else will be eliminated because they are not worthy. Hadlar orders the royal guards to retreat so that he can heal them up and then we cut to Chiu who managed to infiltrate the Field of Death while everyone was fighting (like a rat). Thanks to the King’s Flute he got from Crocodine he’s able to recruit other monsters to his side and he uses them to investigate the island. He does manage to find a forbidden door underwater and gets found by Fenbren who comes close to killing Chiu and his followers, but they all get saved by Baran (I warned you! Didn’t I warn ya!? Don’t go provoking a sleeping dragon).
And we’ll stop here. 50 episodes down only 50 more to go. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.