Dragon Quest Dai episode 10: Papnica arc begins, Hyunckel debuts

Episode 10 of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, the 2020 anime, is a slower reset episode. Its job is to close one arc, start the next, and introduce a batch of new villains. There isn't much to it as far as high quality animation goes, but you need episodes like this, and it ends on a cliffhanger that has Dai in trouble.

The episode is titled Onto Papnica Kingdom, and it begins a new arc. Before it gets there, though, the first part of the episode wraps up the previous one.

Dai is proclaimed a hero and gets a ship, just like in a Dragon Quest game

Dai receives an award from the king and is proclaimed a hero. Brass, meanwhile, goes back to the island, and his message is that Dai will be out there until the Demon King is defeated. We also see the villains putting together a new plan.

The early part of the episode builds to Dai getting a ship and heading to another continent. Once again, this follows the trends of a JRPG and of a Dragon Quest game. In the Dragon Quest games you eventually get a ship, at least starting with Dragon Quest II. Later on you usually upgrade to a flying vehicle, typically in the last third or so of the game, to explore the remaining continent. Of course, that depends on the game, because each one has a different world to explore.

Even if you've never played Dragon Quest, you'll recognize the pattern if you've played a JRPG. That includes the older Final Fantasy games, from Final Fantasy V and before, though maybe not the more modern ones. You usually walk on land for a while, then you get some kind of vehicle. It might be a ship, an airship, or a chocobo. As I've said in previous reviews, this show is like a JRPG, it's just an anime.

The ship conversation sets up Papnica and Hadlar's undead legion

Dai wants to make sure the princess, the same one from episode two, is still at Papnica Kingdom so he can protect her from the Dark Army. On the ship, a man delivers a lot of exposition. He explains that the ship is surrounded by holy water, so monsters won't attack it unless they're very strong.

He also explains the lore of Papnica. The continent used to be a big stronghold for Hadlar, who had a Dark Army legion made up of the undead, almost unkillable monsters. All of this is there to set things up.

Why the arcs in The Adventure of Dai are so short

Some people have asked why the arcs are only a few episodes long. They really are short. The arcs in the Dragon Quest Dai manga are not very long. Remember, too, that the adaptation is on volume four of the manga, not chapter four. I think each volume has nine or ten chapters, though it might be fewer, maybe seven. I don't remember for certain.

The story arcs here aren't as distinct as they are in some other anime. They're smaller, episodic arcs, but they all build to something and keep the story going. They're individual adventures linked together in batches. I believe it works out to four or five episodes each, because the first arc ended with episode five and the second ended with episode nine, even though part of it carries into episode 10. There will be longer arcs later on. For now, it's all planting the seeds for what comes later.

The half ice, half fire commander is one of the coolest villains in Dragon Quest Dai

The episode then introduces one of the absolute coolest villains in Dragon Quest Dai. This wasn't a Toriyama design, but it has that flair to it and comes off like one. The character is split right down the middle, half ice and half fire, like Two Face. Blizzblaze is his monster type, and he has his own name as a legion commander.

He looks absolutely menacing, even more so than Crocodine, and he comes across as sadistic and scary. The villains discuss Dai's battle with Crocodine. If you've seen Sailor Moon and other shows like it, or played other games, you've seen this before: the next general steps in to take the previous one's place and present a new challenge that the hero has to overcome. It's not that hard to figure out.

Baran and the Shadow Legion commander join the Dark Army council

The episode isn't done introducing generals. It also introduces Baran, the dragon master and commander of the Dragon Legion, and even he talks about how Dai has tremendous potential. The generals are coming together in this council to figure out ways to beat Dai.

The council also introduces the commander of the Shadow Legion, the shadow vizier. The names are wild, and this one looks impressive too. All of these villains do. The dragon commander apparently wiped out a whole kingdom very fast. These are the real tough guys, more so than Crocodine.

Hyunckel, not the fire and ice general, is sent to defeat Dai

I initially assumed the fire and ice general would be the one sent after Dai, but that was my mistake. It turns out Hyunckel, who isn't at the council, is the one picked. He's the one Dai faces next, while the others are being introduced for the future. I don't remember the order things go in the manga.

When the heroes arrive, they find the kingdom already under attack. As they're about to fight a group of skeletons, a big blast comes out of nowhere, and Dai recognizes it as an Avan style sword technique, the Earth Slash.

The big revelation as time goes on is that Avan trained many different people before Dai to carry on the mantle as the next heroes to save the world. Dai wasn't the only one he saw potential in, and perhaps Avan knew those others would become Dai's allies or work together to become the next batch of heroes. So more than just the three main characters we know have trained in his art.

Avan's first student has embraced the darkness

This case is different. The silver haired man tells them the kingdom was destroyed two days earlier and that Princess Leona is missing. He was Avan's first student. But he isn't what he seems, because he is Hyunckel, the commander sent directly by the Dark King to take out Dai.

Even though he's human and was trained by Avan, he says himself that being trained by Avan doesn't mean he believes in justice and love. He loves violence and has embraced the darkness. So Dai now has to face someone with Avan's training who isn't a good guy and is very strong. The heroes can't believe he's a member of the Dark Army.

The skeletons put themselves back together, which I don't recall from the games

When the heroes fight the skeletons, the monsters put their bodies back together, a form of regeneration. That's why they're called immortal. They aren't actually immortal, but they're very difficult to kill. This was added for the anime; I don't recall the basic skeletons having this ability in the games.

Dai takes Hyunckel on one on one and uses all of Avan's moves, and Hyunckel deflects or blocks every one of them. That's the cliffhanger the episode ends on, with Dai in trouble and the battle set to continue.

A slower episode, and a story I won't see coming

This was a slower paced reset episode that builds up the next arc through new villains, and you have to have those. I never finished the entire manga and don't remember some of this from back in the day, so I'm going in without knowing where things are going. That's going to make it exciting for me, and that's a good thing.