If you’re a fan of all things JRPG then you’ve no doubt heard of the legendary franchise called Dragon Quest. Spawning several dozen games, spin-off titles, and various manga, Dragon Quest even had an anime that aired back in the late 80s to early 90s proving the impact of this franchise. Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai recently has been making waves with a more modern remake this entire season and we’ve been consistently watching it with some thoughts that’d we like to share with you readers today.
Improved Visuals and Modern Shounen Pacing
Even if you never saw the original Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai series we can quickly tell you not much in terms of narrative has been altered. In fact, this new version of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai feels almost identical to the original but with some stronger visuals and improved pacing. Rather than have episodes focus on dialogue-heavy chats and typical shounen themes—like powering up and getting new skills every episode—Dragon Quest now feels more streamlined with quicker stories and some truly improved action set pieces that definitely are better.
Exciting Adventures
What makes Dragon Quest games so exciting isn’t just the fun turn-based combat or stellar visuals but the adventures your party embarks on from the game’s beginning to the usually epic conclusion. Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai has been great at capturing that adventure feel with some fun stories and cool issues for Dai to deal with like rescuing villages from various threats or meeting new party members with complex stories. If you love Dragon Ball-like anime then you’ll love Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai.
Cliché Tropes
Unfortunately, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai suffers from the same issues found in the original series and most shounen like it. Quite often we noticed cliché themes galore such as Dai gaining confidence from failures in less than one episode or the atypical training arcs to boost up our hero’s skills. Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai won’t win any awards for originality and that can hamper your overall enjoyment.
Unknown Episode Count is Worrying/Intriguing
Unlike most of the anime from the winter 2020 season, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai hasn’t been given a definitive episode count, and that both worries us and excites us in equal measure. On one hand, unknown episode counts mean a series can be canned for poor ratings or lack of publicity—which probably won’t happen to a Dragon Quest title—but it also means the show could go well past the original 46 episode count. Those who love longer series will no doubt wish Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai go on for hundreds of episodes but if the series keeps on its current plot/theme we don’t want hundreds of ho-hum episodes to ruin what we think is a solid shounen series.
Final Thoughts
So far, Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai has lived up to our expectations and has become a truly enjoyable shounen adventure. That doesn’t mean this series will continue being amazing as it could fall victim to the various pitfalls we’ve seen from other shounen works but for now it’s still a bit too early to worry about that.
Here’s a question for you fans out there enjoying the series. Do you believe Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is doing a better job than the original or is just a good show overall? Comment below with your thoughts and for more articles about this series keep stuck to our adventurous hive here at Honey’s Anime!
Author: Aaron
