Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai (DRAGON QUEST -ダイの大冒険-, "Dragon Quest: Dai's Great Adventure") is a long-running manga by Sanjo Riku and Inada Koji set in the Dragon Quest world, based mainly on Dragon Quest III, Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest V. It features filler pages giving game-like character stats of the heroes, and often explains details of the spells used in the games. The manga was originally published in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump from 1989 to 1996, and was compiled into 37 paperback volumes.

The series began as the 2-chapter manga Derupa! Iruriru!, which introduces the protagonist Dai as a boy raised by friendly monsters on a remote island, who must contend with a group of poachers masquerading as a game-style hero party. This would receive a followup in the form of the 3-chapter Dai Bakuhatsu!!, where Dai defends the visiting Princess Leona from assassins by awakening a strange power in the form of a dragon-shaped crest on his head.

The series proper would incorporate these adventures as its opening arc, continuing with a new storyline of a strange miasma that causes Dai's monster friends to become violent and murderous. The Hero Avan arrives on the island with his cowardly apprentice Popp, placing it under a protective spell and explaining that monsters are falling back under the influence of the dark lord Hadlar, who has somehow returned to life stronger than ever. Avan begins training Dai in swordplay, but their curriculum is cut short when Hadlar himself arrives, kills Avan, and reveals that he now serves as marshal of the dark king Vearn, the legendary "God of the Underworld". Dai and Popp flee the island and set out on a quest to defend the world from Vearn's forces while gathering allies and discovering the truth of Dai's origins.

Two anime television series based on the manga were produced by Toei Animation, the first being an incomplete adaptation in 1991, and a new adaptation starting in 2020.

Characters

• See main article: List of characters in Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai

Series revival

In 2020, a series of projects to revitalize the series began. This push includes: a new anime adaptation which aims to cover all the story, a prequel manga, a new line of merchandise, a card-based arcade game, a manga focusing on said card game, a high end action console game, it's own gacha mobile game, collaborations with other popular mobile games such as Dragon Quest Tact, or Puzzle & Dragons, and more.

The new anime is the center piece of the revival, with everything else borrowing from it, be it only the aspect or the music too. The 2020 adaptation cuts all the filler the older anime had, only adapting the content available in the original manga series.

The revival project also includes making the series available internationally, in some cases for the first time ever, with the new anime and gacha game being available in multiple countries. The anime can be watched on the Crunchyroll and Hulu streaming services, though Hulu only has the 45 first episodes.

Episode List (2020 Adaptation)

• See main article: List of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai episodes (2020)

Influence on the series

Being the most popular and longest-running Dragon Quest spin-off, Dai no Daibouken left an impact on the video games that inspired it. The most significant influence is the introduction of Ability List performed by human characters. Characters routinely perform extraordinary feats that go beyond the scope of the generic attack battle command seen in the series up until IV.

A number of techniques which debuted in the series would receive appearances in the games, either with the same name (e.g. Grand Cross/Pearly Gates and Medroa/Frizz Cracker) or in modified form (Great Ball of Fire's Japanese name being an anagram of Refractor Fist, Flame Slash being based on Fire Earth Slash). The "-splitter" series of moves from XI also uses the motion of Dai's signature Avan Strash and includes three entries named after its component Earth/Sea/Sky techniques. Interestingly, many such skills are presented as far more dangerous in the manga than their later game appearances, requiring perfect execution to prevent one's body from tearing itself apart due to the incredible power output.

In particular various lightning-element sword strikes such as Giga Break and Giga Strash (originally exclusive to the Dragon Knight) would be adapted into standard Hero techniques such as the Gigaslash of VI onwards; in a meta sense this can be tied into the line of pureblood Dragon Knights coming to an end over the course of the story, with their abilities being passed down to Dai's human descendants to protect the world in their place.

In Videogames

Starting around 2017, the Dai series started having presence in videogames through collaborations, and starting in 2020 it starting seeing full games adapting the manga series.

Xross Blade

Xross blade is a card-based arcade game where players can place and move cards on a board. The positioning of the cards is key to the gameplay, as players can do attack combos if placed correctly. Xross blade follows the story of Adventure of Dai but also has a new story with new characters. The game has recieved a few collaborations with mainline Dragon Quest titles like Dragon Quest XI.

A Hero's Bonds

A Hero's Bonds is a mobile title developed by DeNa. Players can move forward in three lanes and attack the incoming monsters, using skills and changing lanes when needed. The game has equipment gacha -like Dragon Quest of the Stars and Dragon Quest Walk-, and supports real-time multiplayer for up to three players.

It includes two story modes: Dragon Tracks and Bonding Journey. The former is a retelling of the story from the Adventure of Dai, while the later is a brand new story written under the supervision of Riku Sanjo, the original writer of the series. Koji Inada, the original artist of the Dai series, designed Pinky, the pink dracky that accompanies players through the Bonding Journey storyline.

Infinity Strash

Infinity Strash is an action console game. Not much is known about it yet.

Portable Adventure

Portable Adventure is a small handheld device with Tamagochi-like depictions of Dai. It has connectivity with Xross Blade

Collaborations

Some characters and monsters from the Adventure of Dai series including Gomechan, Chiu and Mystvearn among others are featured in Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional.

The Adventure of Dai has had collaborations with some mobile games including: Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light, Dragon Quest of the Stars, Puzzles and Dragons, and Dragon Quest Tact.

Dai is a playable character in the base roster of Jump Force, a console fighting game featuring many other characters from Shonen Jump comics like Goku, Luffy or Yusuke Urameshi.

See Also

• List of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai manga chapters

Gallery

• 

  The cover of the first volume of the series.

External links

• Wikipedia
• https://www.dqdai-official.com/ Official site (in Japanese)
• https://dq-dai.com/ Official site for the 2020 Anime.(in Japanese)