The history of Shonen Jump manga is pretty extensive, but would you have guessed a manga based off a video game franchise would be one of its best sellers? Well that’s what Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai was back in the early 90s. And likely thanks to the recent anime reboot, VIZ decided to license the very early volumes of the series and release them in omnibus format. So now we get to experience what you’ve seen in likely a lot of recent fantasy or isekai works: a designated hero facing off against the great evil in the world.
…Maybe not surprisingly, this manga puts a lot of those works to shame.
Dai washed up on Dermine Island, a place full of monsters turned pure after Dark Lord Hadlar was vanquished by the Hero years ago. While he displays some fighting ability and impressive skill in befriending monsters, he can’t perform any magic and doesn’t quite come across as a hero with his tiny size. But one day a Hero and his party do show up at the island — Dai and the monsters end up realizing this group aren’t actually heroes, just four crooks aiming to capture the golden slime Gome-chan. They end up hurting the monsters and take off with their prize…but little did they know this would be the beginning of pain for the four members, and Dai’s arduous path to becoming the Hero himself…
It’s hard to explain this, but I’ll try: Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is about as shounen a shounen manga can be, and it’s glorious. Mysterious kid awakens a long-dormant power when the tide turns in battle? Check. A cute, strong-willed girl who’s feisty and the Princess of a nation initially denigrating the tiny hero but coming around to admire him? Check. A useless sack of space with courage and powerful magic somewhere within him? Check. A tough, fierce, but surprisingly gentle young girl who eventually joins the party? Check!
…There are even way more checks than this, but the point of it all is there’s nothing this manga does that is at all original. Yet I couldn’t help but turn the page as Dai lays waste to some loser’s grand scheme or laugh at Gome-chan transforming into cute versions of Dai and Avan to tell Popp that they’re in big trouble. For manga, you need to provide a flow that not only makes sense, but is engaging from start to finish. From the very moment we get (that thanks to the expressive lettering or logo designs of the chapter pages, the slick fights between Dai and his teacher, Avan, the terrifying threat of someone even stronger than Hadlar existing, and yet with the mysterious power Dai holds, the potential to save the world from the darkness exists. And that means we have to read and find out how everything turns out!
Well, I say read and find out how everything turns out, but I did watch the reboot that Toei did. The anime was pretty good stuff largely. Something about the manga just hits differently so far though. For what it’s worth, I think aside from how Dai rescued Gome-chan from the fake Hero’s party (I believe the rescue happened on the ship in the anime, but in the manga it was at the King’s Castle) the anime did capture the manga 1-to-1, from Princess Leona and Papnica guards showing up to perform a ritual — unaware of a betrayal brewing within their ranks — to the end of volume 2, with Dai, Popp, and Maam being made essentially heroes in name only to inspire the people as they deal with the Dark Army harming everyone.
But from the art to the pacing and to the narrative, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai just was a thrill from beginning to end. There are many different shounen experiences out there, and this appears to be one of the quintessential experiences a shounen fan should have. For manga fans that’s interested in the lore though, feel free to take in a pretty normal but exhilarating tale of adventure and fantasy, and of a wacky, flawed, but courageous group of heroes aiming to defeat the Dark Lord. Highly worth a read whenever you get the chance.