Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Episode 1 Outshines the Original Anime

Episode one of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, the 2020 anime remake from Toei, arrived after almost a year of waiting, and I liked it. I liked it more than the original anime's first episode. In my view, it blew away most of Dragon Ball Super on production and voice acting.

I saw the premiere on Crunchyroll with a Premium account. The show was set to air on Friday nights in the Western Hemisphere, around 10:30 Eastern, which is Saturday morning in Japan. That's close to the slot Dragon Ball Super used to have, except on a Friday night instead of a Saturday.

The Adventure of Dai remake set out to adapt the whole manga with Dragon Ball Super: Broly talent

This is a new adaptation of the original Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken manga. The original Toei anime never adapted the entire story, and this one was supposed to. It has a brand new production team behind it, including several people who worked on Dragon Ball Super: Broly.

If you like Dragon Ball, and Broly in particular, don't sleep on this show. You're missing out, especially on the animation quality. The first episode looked incredible.

The production was also far ahead of schedule. At the time, from what I understood, nine episodes were done and ready to go. So the trouble that hit Dragon Ball Super around episode 5, when production fell apart and everything was behind, wasn't happening here. This show had been well planned, well orchestrated and well pre-produced.

Episode one opens with the Dark Lord and more backstory than the original anime

The original anime started on the island where Dai is from and introduced him there. This version starts differently, with a flashback to the Dark Lord. The premise is that a Dark Lord was beaten by a hero, and now he's said to be coming back. That leads into the actual story.

If you're a fan of JRPGs, Dragon Quest, adventure stories like Zelda or classic Dragon Ball adventure, you can't miss this show. There's more backstory here than in the original's first episode, which was available on Blu-ray in Japan at the time. There's no point in going back to that one, because this is the one to watch.

We see the orphan Dai on the ship, which are scenes I don't remember from the original anime at all. It lays the foundation for where the story is going. If you've read the manga or seen the original anime, you know this adventure starts very small and gets very big. Dragon Ball began with Goku and Bulma; this begins with Dai on the island with his monster friends.

You don't need to play Dragon Quest first, but the Easter eggs reward fans

A question I know will come up: do you have to play a Dragon Quest game before you get into this anime? No, you don't. It does help, because the spells, the monsters and some of the characters are inspired by or taken straight from the games. The weapons and even some vehicles are borrowed from the old Dragon Quest titles too.

This is its own story, though, and it doesn't relate to the original Dragon Quest game. But there are tons of Easter eggs throughout it that you'll appreciate more if you've played the games. So it's not necessary, but it does help.

Dai is a tiny hero who can't cast spells, and Grandpa Brass knows it

Episode one is called "Dai the Tiny Hero." That's not because he's small, though he is a bit small, but because he's young. Shonen protagonists are usually kids or teenagers, and that's the case here too.

Baby Dai was dropped off on the island as an orphan and has been raised by a character named Grandpa Brass. Dai wants to be a hero but doesn't know how to cast any spells. In Dragon Quest, you have to learn spells to be a hero, so Brass is always coming down on him. As the story progresses that's going to change, because characters have to learn things. I'm not going to get into which spells. For now, Brass doesn't think Dai is ready, but instead of going to look for trouble, trouble comes to him.

There's a major Easter egg right away. Brass tells the story of the hero defeating the Dark Lord, but the image shown isn't the Dark Lord from this show. It's the main character from Dragon Quest III killing Baramos, one of that game's main villains. I've been a fan of this franchise since I was a little kid, so seeing this was mind blowing.

Then come Dai's monster friends. Gome, a little flying slime, is his best pal. Dai has made friends with all the monsters on the island, and they're all peaceful. Monsters out in the wider world are not all peaceful, which the show gets to in later episodes.

A fake Dragon Quest III hero party arrives and kidnaps Gome

Dai sees a boat coming to the island carrying four companions. They're meant to look like the main characters and job classes from Dragon Quest III: the warrior, the sage, the cleric and the hero, in animated form.

But the hero isn't really the hero from Dragon Quest III. He's a brash, arrogant guy who is not a good person. He looks like the hero so he can trick people into thinking he's this great hero when he isn't. I love it, because it's a subversion of expectations. If you're a Dragon Quest fan, you see him and think it's the hero from Dragon Quest III, and I assure you it is not.

Dai greets these supposed heroes and is thrilled, but they start killing his monster friends, slicing them up, and not for experience points. The monsters sense these guys aren't heroes. Dai freaks out, and I would too, because those are his friends. The phony hero casts Boom, causing a big explosion, and leaves with Gome because he wants to sell Gome to a kingdom and get paid.

The ship battle brings magic cylinders, a green dragon and King Slime

Dai is given magic cylinders that he can use to trap monsters and other things. He doesn't know how to use magic, but the cylinders work on their own. It's like Dragon Quest Monsters, the spinoff series that is Dragon Quest's take on monster catching, their version of Pokemon, though the gameplay has differences. Dai can use his monster friends in battle this way, which is awesome.

This version of events differs from the original anime. There, the fake hero goes back to a kingdom on land to turn Gome over. Here, the villains are on a ship, and Dai shows up ready to fight and take his friend back. It moves at a different pace, but that's not a bad thing; they're just differences.

Dai and his monster friends tear the ship up. The golem smashes it while Dai sword fights the fake hero. They cast Frizz and other spells from the games, including the ice spell, which is called Crack. Dai is forced to use the golden cylinders, and out comes a bunch of slimes. If you've played Dragon Quest from IV onward, you know that's not necessarily a good thing. Then he unleashes a green dragon, which was not in the original anime, doing the same pose from the games.

I've been playing these games since I was a kid and telling people how great they are, and this anime captures the games coming to life, even though it isn't based on their story. The monsters are, and they're all Toriyama designs. The villains threaten to kill Gome, so Dai has to back off and put the dragon back in its cylinder. Then the slimes come together to form King Slime, and it's like that line from Avengers: Infinity War: the villains were in serious trouble now. Dai then uses a cylinder to trap the fake hero. One shot of Dai fighting him had the camera panning around them in a single take with no jump cuts, and it was amazing.

Dai wins the Crown of Champions, and Princess Leona arrives

After all is said and done, the king steps in, says this is unfair and that this guy is no hero, and gives Dai the Crown of Champions. He says, "perhaps this brave child is the one truly worthy of wearing the crown of champions." I had a big smile on my face. Dai returns to the island, and all's well that ends well.

Some scenes from the original anime aren't in this version. The original had a funny scene where an anteater tickled the priestess's feet while the party was captured. I haven't read the entire manga, so I'm not sure whether those scenes are in it or what was changed. That's okay, because this episode was executed so well and the battle scenes were unbelievable.

Afterward, Dai and Gramps argue over whether he'll be a hero or a mage. A three month time skip follows, and Dai is training to learn Frizz. He almost does it but doesn't get the job done, so he's still learning. I don't want to spoil anything, but these characters get better over time, and he's going to be a hero someday.

The episode ends with another ship coming to the island, carrying two people who ask about Dai and Brass. This is Princess Leona's first appearance in the new Dai anime. I was expecting them to hold her back until episode 2, but they went a different direction. I knew what happened in the next episode from the original, but since this is a different adaptation, it might change.

Why I think Dai's premiere blew away most of Dragon Ball Super

I don't care if anyone gets mad at this: episode one of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai already blew away most of Dragon Ball Super, in production and in voice acting. I don't love Super, though I love parts of it, and I love the old Dragon Ball more.

It was better than I was expecting, and I was expecting a lot because of who was working on it and the quality of the original material. In high definition it looks amazing; the way this show looks is enough reason to give it a go, and there's a great story too. I'm excited and I can't wait for more. Give this show a chance. Trust me, you will not be let down.