| Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Cover of the firsttankōbon volume, featuring Dai (front), Hadlar (back), Gome (bottom) and Brass (bottom right) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| DRAGON QUEST –ダイの大冒険– (Doragon Kuesuto: Dai no Daibōken) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Created by | Yuji Horii | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Written by | Riku Sanjo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Illustrated by | Koji Inada | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Published by | Shueisha | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| English publisher | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Imprint | Jump Comics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Magazine | Weekly Shōnen Jump | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Original run | October 23, 1989 –December 9, 1996 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Volumes | 37(List of volumes) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai (Japanese:DRAGON QUEST –ダイの大冒険–,Hepburn:Doragon Kuesuto: Dai no Daibōken;lit. 'Dragon Quest: The Great Adventure of Dai') is a Japanesemanga series written byRiku Sanjo and illustrated byKoji Inada, based on the popular video game franchiseDragon Quest. It was serialized inShueisha'sWeekly Shōnen Jump from October 1989 to December 1996, with its chapters collected in 37tankōbon volumes.
A prequel manga series began inV Jump in September 2020 and a spin-off manga began inSaikyō Jump in October 2020. The manga was adapted into ananime series, produced byToei Animation and broadcast onTBS from July 1991 to July 1992. It is the second anime adaptation based on theDragon Quest franchise afterDragon Quest: Legend of the Hero Abel. The manga received a second 100-episode anime adaptation by Toei Animation, which was broadcast onTV Tokyo from October 2020 to October 2022.
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is one of thebest-selling manga series of all time, with more than 50 million copies in circulation by 2022.
The story begins with a young boy named Dai remembering a story told to him by his adoptive grandfather, the monster magician Brass, about the defeat of the Demon King Hadlar by the hands of a hero known as Avan. After the defeat of the Demon King Hadlar, all of the monsters were released from his evil will and peace reigned supreme around the world once again for ten years. Some monsters and demons moved to the island of Dermline to live in peace. Dai, the young protagonist of the series, is an orphan and the only human living on the island. Having been raised by Brass and with his best friend, the monster Gome, Dai grows up dreaming of becoming a hero.
After Dai befriends Leona, the princess of the Kingdom of Papnica and saves her from peril, Avan comes to the island accompanied by his apprentice, the magician Popp, to become Dai's teacher by her request. However, his training is interrupted by the return of Hadlar, who was resurrected by the Great Demon King Vearn and became the commander of his vast army. Avan sacrifices himself to protect his disciples and Hadlar is temporarily driven away by Dai after he awakens a mysterious power within himself.
To honor Avan's final request, Dai, Popp and Gome leave the island and begin their quest to defeat Hadlar and his master to bring peace back to the world. During their travels, Dai's party gains three other members; the healer Maam, who later also becomes a martial artist, Hyunckel, one of Hadlar's former subordinates, and Leona herself. Their enemies include Beast King Crocodine, an honourable but ruthless commander of Hadlar's army, the Mystic legion commander Zaboara and his son Zamza, a magical elemental of ice and fire known as Flazzard, the illusive Mystvearn, who himself is a greater servant of Vearn and is Hyunkel's teacher of black magic, Killvearn, a jester who is Vearn's personal assassin, and Baran, a legendary warrior and Dai's father who sided with Vearn after the death of his wife and the disappearance of his son.
After learning that it would takeYuji Horii three years to finishDragon Quest IV,Weekly Shōnen Jump deputy editor-in-chiefKazuhiko Torishima had the idea to create both an original anime and original manga based on the video game franchise.[2] When Horii could not do it himself, Torishima tappedRiku Sanjo to write the latter.[2] Torishima would still have Horii supervise the manga to make sure it did not feel out of place in theDragon Quest world.[3] When the artist he originally planned to have illustrate the work turned it down, Torishima offeredKoji Inada the job. Inada also initially turned it down as he was dead set on creating his own original series, but accepted when Torishima threatened to drop him if he passed on the job.[2]
Although aone-shot, "Gush! Gulp!" (デルパ!イルイル!,Derupa! Iruiru!) was a two-part work, so Inada had to enlist help from his brothers and friends in order to finish it.[2] The story reached between fifth and seventh place in the reader surveys and was followed by a three-part one-shot, "Dai o' Might!!!" (ダイ爆発!!!,Dai Bakuhatsu!!!). When this story reached number three in the rankings among popular series such asDragon Ball, serialization was approved, andDragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai began inWeekly Shōnen Jump in October 1989. Torishima left the project after reviewing the storyboards for the first three chapters.[2]
Inada said Sanjo's scripts allowed him to put his own spin on things, which helped satisfy his desire to create his own original work to some degree.[2] When Sanjo described the character Matoriv as "Torishima-like", Inada closely modeled him on their former editor because he was short on time. Inada said drawingThe Adventure of Dai was tough, and he was always struggling to make his art a little "cooler". Commenting on how the final chapter hints at Dai's return, Inada suspects that Sanjo had ideas on how to continue the series if he was up to it. But Inada was burnt-out, explaining that he did not sleep three days out of every week in the latter-half of serialization.[2]
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Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is written byRiku Sanjo and illustrated byKoji Inada. A short story "Gush! Gulp!" was first published for two chapters inShueisha'sWeekly Shōnen Jump in June 1989.[4][5] A short story, "Dai o' Might!!!", was published for three chapters in August 1989.[6][7][8]Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai was serialized for seven years inWeekly Shōnen Jump from October 23, 1989, to December 9, 1996.[9][10] The manga was collected into 37tankōbon volumes published between March 9, 1990, and June 4, 1997.[11][12] It was later released in 22bunkoban volumes published from June 18, 2003, to March 18, 2004.[13][14] A 25-volume edition that includes the color pages from its original magazine run and newly drawn covers by Inada was published between October 2, 2020, and July 2, 2021.[15]
On July 9, 2021,Viz Media announced they licensed the series for English publication.[16] The first volume was released on March 1, 2022;[17] the fifth and latest volume was released on November 8 of that same year.[18]
A prequel manga series, titledDragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai – Yūsha Avan to Gokuen no Maō (ドラゴンクエスト ダイの大冒険 勇者アバンと獄炎の魔王,Doragon Kuesuto: Dai no Daibōken Yūsha Avan to Gokuen no Maō) and illustrated by Yūsaku Shibata, with Sanjo credited for original work, began serializing in Shueisha'sV Jump magazine on September 19, 2020.[19][20] The series is centered around Avan before he met Dai and his companions. Its first part, the "Hero Arc", ended on July 20, 2024, and the second, the "Teacher Arc", began on November 21, 2024.[21]
A spin-off manga written and illustrated by Yoshikazu Amami, titledDragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai – Xross Blade, was serialized in Shueisha'sSaikyō Jump magazine from October 1, 2020,[19] to January 4, 2024, and collected in seven volumes.[22] It is based on the October 2020 video game of the same name.[23]
Produced byToei Animation, the anime adaptation ofDragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai aired for 46 episodes onTBS from October 17, 1991, to September 24, 1992. Despite no official Japanese DVD release, the show reran in 2007 on Toei's channel with a new master.[24] The series uses two pieces of theme music, both composed byKoichi Sugiyama and performed byJirō Dan. "Yuusha yo Isoge!!" is used for the opening theme, while "My Road, My Journey", which was the original ending theme forDragon Quest II, is used for the episodes' ending theme.[25] The series adapts the events of the first ten volumes of the manga, with initial plans to continue onward until scheduling and time slot changes at TBS lead to the series ending after 46 episodes. To accommodate the abrupt ending, Sanjo helped to provide an adjusted finale to the anime.[26]
On January 6, 2020, the whole series was released in Japan for distribution on severalvideo on demand (VOD) services, the first time the series has become officially available after the VHS release of the 1990s. In March 2020 it was announced that the 1991 anime will be getting a Blu-ray box for the first time, released on July 3, 2020. The set contained all 46 episodes, and the three Toei Anime Fair short theatrical films (including the first film never before released on home video), which have been scanned from their original 35 mm negatives with high resolution and recorded as high-quality full HD remastered images.[27][28]
Three short theatrical films were produced based on the first TV series, all of which premiered at the Toei Anime Fair film festival.
| No. | Title | Original release date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "The Great Adventure of Dai 1" Transliteration: "Doragon Kuesuto: Dai no Daibōken" (Japanese:ドラゴンクエスト ダイの大冒険) | July 20, 1991 (1991-07-20)[29] |
| 2 | "The Great Adventure of Dai 2: Avan's Disciples" Transliteration: "Doragon Kuesuto: Dai no Daibōken Tachiagare!! Aban no Shito" (Japanese:ドラゴンクエスト ダイの大冒険 起ちあがれ!!アバンの使徒) | March 7, 1992 (1992-03-07)[30] |
| 3 | "The Great Adventure of Dai 3: Six Great Generals" Transliteration: "Doragon Kuesuto: Dai no Daibōken Buchi Yabure!! Shinsei Roku Daishōgun" (Japanese:ドラゴンクエスト ダイの大冒険 ぶちやぶれ!!新生6大将軍) | July 11, 1992 (1992-07-11)[31] |
It was announced during Jump Festa 2020 that there would be a new anime adaptation that would premiere in fall 2020. The anime was produced byToei Animation and was a hybrid of 2D and CG animation.[32] The series ran for 100 episodes, premiering onTV Tokyo and other affiliates on October 3, 2020. The series halted broadcast since March 12, 2022, when episode 73 was originally scheduled to air, and the series' entire schedule was subsequently delayed until further notice shortly after Toei Animation revealed their internal servers had been hacked by an unauthorized third party.[33] The broadcast resumed on April 16, 2022, and finished on October 22 of the same year. The band Macaroni Empitsu performed the series' opening theme "Ikiru o Suru" and the series' first ending theme "mother".[34][35] XIIX performed the series' second ending theme "Akashi".[36]
Muse Communication licensed the second series in Asia-Pacific, and streamed the first 50 episodes onNetflix in 2022 and also later streamed on Muse AsiaYouTube channel for a limited time in 2023.[37][38][39] Toei Animation simulcasted the series with English subtitles in North America, New Zealand, Africa, and Europe viaCrunchyroll, as well asHulu in the United States. An Englishdub was produced byToei Animation Inc. andOcean Media. It was initially the subject of a do-no-work notice issued by the American actor's unionSAG-AFTRA.[40] The first 25 episodes began streaming in theUnited Kingdom onBBC'siPlayer on September 26, 2022.[41] In North America, the first 50 dubbed episodes were made available on a variety ofdownload to own platforms beginning November 8, 2022.[42] The entire series began streaming in the United States on Hulu on July 1, 2023.[43]
DuringJump Festa '20, a video game based on the series has been announced.[44]
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai – Xross Blade, an arcade game with collectible trading cards, was released in Japanese arcades on October 22, 2020,[45] and closed on March 31, 2024.[46]
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai – A Hero's Bonds, a smartphone RPG for iOS/Android, was released worldwide on September 28, 2021,[47] and was closed on April 26, 2023.[48]
Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest – The Adventure of Dai, an action RPG forPlayStation 5,PlayStation 4,Xbox Series X/S,Nintendo Switch and PC viaSteam, was released worldwide on September 28, 2023.[49]
Dai appears as a playable character in the 2019 video gameJump Force, marking the first appearance of aDragon Quest character in aWeekly Shōnen Jump crossover game.[50]
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is one ofWeekly Shōnen Jump'sbest-selling manga series of all time,[51] with over 50 million copies in circulation by 2022.[52] OnTV Asahi's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150,000 people voted for their top 100 manga series,Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai ranked 30th.[53]
Grant Jones ofAnime News Network describedThe Adventure of Dai as being in the classicshōnen mold; "a soft bubbly tale for a younger audience that is neither too complicated nor thought-provoking". Although noting this could make the manga predictable, he found the first volume to contain plenty of subtle but meaningful changes that "spice up" the formula. Jones praised Inada's ability to reproduce the art style and comedic timing ofAkira Toriyama, the character and monster designer of the originalDragon Quest video games, and found the story reminiscent of Toriyama's ownDragon Ball manga.[54]
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