Hello and welcome Project Nitsuj. It’s time for the second half of Dragon Quest as Dai’s adventure continues. As always, let’s start with a fun fact about Dragon Quest. When the series was first brought over to the West it had to change its name to Dragon Warrior. Why the hell did it have to do that? Well, it was all thanks to Tactical Studies Rules aka TSR. For those of you who don’t know, TSR is the creator and publisher of Dungeons and Dragons. In 1983 they acquired Simulations Productions who released a tabletop game called DragonQuest (all one word) back in 1980. Simulations Productions would continue to release DragonQuest games under TSR until the late 80s. Due to the fear of copyright laws, Square Enix changed the name to Dragon Warrior in the West to avoid getting sued. This name continued until 2001 when the copyright expired and Square Enix snatched up the rights to the name Dragon Quest finally ending the Dragon Warrior name. If you can you should probably track down those Dragon Warrior games. I’m sure they’re worth something. Now, let’s continue.
Episodes 51-55
In episode 51 Popp, Hyunckel, and Crocodine go the Field of Death to rescue Chiu. They manage to find Chiu and Hyunckel tells Popp to go on without them because he senses Baran nearby and knows that Popp would freeze if he saw him again (and hopefully finish the job). Baran has come to kill Vearn and Crocodine tries to get him to join their side but he refuses as he still hates humans. Hyunckel figures out that Baran plans to sacrifice his life in order to defeat Vearn and protect Dai (he is still a father), but Hyunckel won’t let him go off on his own to die. The two have a quick duel which gets interrupted by Albinass (you bitch) who attacks Hyunckel forcing him to redirect his attack at her and leave himself defenseless against Baran’s attack where he takes the full brunt of it. The three retreat, with Hyunckel unconscious and according to Baran he will be unable to fight anymore. Moved by Hyunckel’s sacrifice and will in battle, Baran decides to repay him by joining up with Dai’s forces to take down Vearn.
Nothing much happens in episode 52. Dai and Baran sneak into the Field of Death and use that forbidden door to reach Vearn while Popp and the others keep the Royal Guards busy. Dai and Baran run into Fenbren who denies them entry and Baran fights him. Meanwhile, Hyunckel wakes back up and decides to go and fight despite being injured and getting confessed to by one of Leona’s mages.
At the start of episode 53 Fenbren meets his end at the hands of Dai who finally drew his sword and performed the Avan Strash to slice through Fenbren and destroy him (1 down. 4 to go). Dai and Baran break through the gate and enter only to be greeted by Hadlar. Dai steps up to fight him where he does a good job holding his own. As the two fight, it gets revealed that Hadlar has a black core implanted in his body. The black core is essentially a bomb and once Hadlar dies he’ll take himself and everyone in the Field of Death down with him (at least Popp will get what’s coming to him).
Episodes 54-55 see Baran take over the fight in order to protect his son. Baran tranforms into his dragon form and manages to grab the black core within Hadlar who had no idea it was in his body and he’s relatively hurt by this (in the end not even Vearn had faith in you). Mystvearn shows up and activates the core where Baran uses up all of his power to contain the blast and save everyone. Vearn activates his sky palace, and everyone goes flying into the sky with the Royal Guards also getting destroyed (and that’s a checkmate).
Episodes 56-60
In episode 56 everyone teleports to Dai where they see he’s okay. Baran on the other hand dies protecting Dai and everyone else (redemption complete). We get a heartfelt goodbye between father and son where Baran’s soul merges with Dai and he tells him to keep moving forward. After this, Vearn makes his appearance before everyone where he congratulates them for making it this far and exceeding his expectations (slow clap all around everyone). As a reward for making it this far, he decides to take them on himself without the assistance of Mystvearn and Killvearn (wow, talk about looking down on your opponent).
So in episode 57 everyone fights against Vearn (it goes about as well as you expect). Vearn completely owns everyone. Even knocking out Dai from the get go and toying with everyone else. Dai of course gets back up and manages to deliver a powerful attack which hits Vearn and may have actually destroyed him (it can’t be that easy).
Sure enough Vearn isn’t dead in episode 58. He uses full heal and gets back up where he is not happy. He then takes out his ultimate weapon, the Staff of Edacity. Using the staff Vearn breaks Dai’s sword and he loses his will to fight (this. . .is power). Vearn unleashes his attack where Hyunkel and Crocodine put their bodies on the line (for like the 50th time) to protect everyone but it doesn’t matter as the attack knocks them out of the way and heads toward Popp and Maam where they get rescued by the last person you would expect, Hadlar. Not only is Hadlar alive but so are his royal guards (Christ, this anime has more fake outs than Fairy Tail). Hadlar and Vearn fight where Hadlar actually comes close to defeating Vearn because the staff drains him of his magic. Before Hadlar can land the final blow, Zaboera appears (oh yeah, I forgot he was still alive) to bind him. As Vearn gets ready to end Hadlar, Block switches places with Hadlar sacrificing his life to save his king. Hadlar and the rest of the royal guards escape while Block is destroyed. As for the others, Popp and Maam fall into the ocean, Hyunkel and Crocodine are nowhere to be seen, and Dai gets taken away by the Mother Dragon which signals that he’s dead.
In episode 59 four days have gone by since Dai’s defeat and Vearn has been dropping bombs on everyone (his goal isn’t to conquer the surface world. He just wants to destroy it). Popp and Maam get rescued by the knights where even they’re not sure if they can win but get inspired to keep on fighting. Meanwhile, Dai talks to the Mother Dragon where she confirms that he’s dead and that he will be the last of the Dragon Knights (going out on a whimper. How sad). The Mother Dragon sees just how powerful evil has become and thinks not even the power of a Dragon Knight can save the world so she’s just going to end it. Baran appears saying that the person who died was him and not Dai (she really couldn’t differentiate the two souls?). Baran tells the dragon not to give up on the world and begs her to allow Dai to return. She grants his wish using the last of her powers to resurrect Dai and return him to the world of the living. The others find him and Vearn sends out a message to the world that they’re all going to die (kind of obvious at this point) and that he plans on executing Hyunckel and Crocodine in two days (of course they’re alive).
So in episode 60 once Hyunckel and Crocodine find out they’re going to be executed, Mystvearn offers them one last chance to join Vearn’s side and Hyunckel considers it as he has someone to live for (stop thinking with your dick, man). Meanwhile, Dai runs away (really Dai!? I expected this from Popp but not you). Dai is finally feeling the pressures of his title as a hero and after his last battle he isn’t sure he can live up to the expectations of everyone and defeat Vearn (when an overwhelming wall appears right in front of you you’re both scared and in awe at this amazing feat). Popp manages to find Dai and comforts him (and the world truly is doomed. When Popp is the one inspiring people you know Hell has frozen over). Dai returns and gives a rather cliché speech about not giving up. With everyone motivated their next step is trying to get past Vearn’s spell that stops everyone from getting inside. In order to get inside they’ll need to master the spell, Kaglimmer and it’ll require five people. Dai, Popp, Maam, Leona, and Flora the princess of Carl Kingdom who once led humanity against Hadlar and seemed to have a crush on Avan.
Episodes 61-64
Episode 61 shows us some of the past of Avan when he started off as just a regular knight serving under Flora and how he suppressed his powers until the kingdom was attacked by Hadlar (I have to admit I do find his past interesting. I wish they made an anime following his story).
In episode 62 the ladies journey down into the abyss to retrieve the spell they need. While this is going on Dai continues to train with Nova and Popp begins to doubt himself (yet again). Remember those necklaces Avan gave to his disciples? Well it turns out those necklaces are the keys to activating the spell. Once a disciple of Avan has fully graduated the necklaces will glow a certain color. While Maam, Flora, and Dai have been able to get their necklaces to glow (and I’m sure Leona will have no problem getting hers to glow) Popp has been unable to do it and believes he’s holding the team back (you’ve been holding them back all anime).
In the first half of episode 63 the ladies manage to find the spell they were looking for and managed to escape (they made it look easy. (Neo): That’s what we ladies do). In the second half, Popp is still struggling and doubting himself, but Matoriv tells him to have confidence in himself. He wasn’t born the hero, he’s not the son of former heroes, a fighting prodigy and he’s not royalty. He’s the son of a weapons shop owner and therefore worked harder to distinguish himself and keep up with those around him (and yeah I have to admit that’s one of his traits I admire).
Nothing much happens in episode 64. It’s the night before the final battle and everyone has acquired new weapons and are dealing with their own emotions. Amy (a priestess who works under Leona) confesses that she’s in love with Hyunckel. In the past, she was watching over him and doing her best to get him to stop fighting (and you failed). After hearing her confession Maam’s heart is in pain as she herself doesn’t know how she feels about Hyunckel (geez, Hyunckel gets a harem? I thought that was only reserved for the MC). Is she in love with him as well or is she jealous that someone besides her understands him the way she does (you’re joking right?). Maam turns to Popp for advice (that is the last person to go to on matters of the heart. I thought you were the smart one?) where he lets his anger and jealousy show (and he has once again shot himself in the foot) and he still hasn’t figured out how to activate his necklace. The next morning Popp apologizes for last night and the two meet up with Dai and Leona to save Hyunckel and Crocodine before the final battle.
And let’s stop here. Need to take a break and catch my breath. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.