I WATCHED DRAGON QUEST: THE ADVENTURE OF DAI (2020)
June 27, 2024
pictured is me (left) and Dai
- slow-paced fights that are at least 50% the cast talking loudly about their powers and politely listening
- ridiculously close saves and characters going "that attack definitely killed them!" like 1-2 times an episode
- inequal treatment of women (.......)
In seriousness that was probably the fastest i'd ever knocked down such a long series (100 eps)! usual Shonen Woman Treatment aside (and even then I was surprised at how it managed to keep almost all of the female cast relevant to the very end, even if not to the same intensity as their male counterparts) it was a genuinely compelling, fun watch that felt pretty well-aged in the writing department. I got a great cast with one of the best deuteragonists I'd ever had the pleasure of following, some extremely entertaining and interesting villains, and tons of intense action with twists and turns that rewarded my longterm dedication.
The "hero must defeat the dark lord" setup is deceptively straightforward and unassuming, but in execution the narrative progression felt anything but derivative or boring, regularly finding new scenarios and challenges to throw the heroes in, with seemingly no end of ways to shift the battles and keep them interesting. Compared to a lot of newer series it manages to be very structurally engaging in execution and doesn't actually feel like it's mindlessly ticking down some kind of story/fight checklist, even though the premise is literally "defeat the six evil captains oooo". Chekhov's gun is played to great effect here too, where it doesn't feel like there's a single wasted idea or character; everything gets wrapped up well by the end of the series. i left with a lot of fuzzy feelings after this long journey and ended up ugly crying at least three times!
I'd seen this series heralded as a real shonen classic and while I hadn't read the manga (I hear from serious manga fans that they did cut and trim some things), I certainly was able to understand and appreciate the appeal through Toei's work on the recent anime. It made for one hell of an adventure, a great binge, and i'll even say it's become a new favorite for me :) and I'd never played a Dragon Quest game in my life actually but you bet I made a soy face at the few references I did get!!
Anyway the vibes were so impeccable it made me feel a greater compulsion to play Dragon Quest, so I'm bumping XI up on my list :]