The Adventures of Dai is a brilliant return to the Dragon Quest universe for me. Funny, strangely reminiscent of the old Beano comics and fast paced.
There were several colour inserts and the artwork itself is great quality, super readable.
It looked like there were a few nods to One Piece, and I'm excited to see if Dai's adventure is as epic as Luffy's!

Dai is a fun young warrior, albeit naïve, and he wants to become the best while also protecting his friends. His mentor hopes he will become a strong sorcerer, but he's better at hand-to-hand combat. When his island is invade by other "heroes", Dai springs to life to safe his best friend who gets kidnapped off the island. Dai is quick to return to his refuge, just in time for the next set of invaders. The monsters that surround Dai are awakened with the revival of the dark lord, and they become rabid and vicious again, so Dai has to work together with strangers to save his home and his friends.

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai may be one of the best releases ever done under Viz Media's Shonen Jump imprint. The series has received an amazing localization, with the lettering from Steve Dutro being particularly impressive. The retouch and sound effect choices feel seamless, perfectly retaining the original feel of the Japanese release. It's awesome to see a classic title like The Adventure of Dai get such high quality treatment, and I'm confident that this will only continue in future volumes.

While the story has humble beginnings, it stays true to the core feel of the Dragon Quest games. That said, The Adventure of Dai is still easily accessible to those unfamiliar with Dragon Quest, and it can be enjoyed on its own merits as an action adventure title. Koji Inada's artwork also reaches an appropriate middle-ground of feeling unique, while still embracing elements of Akira Toriyama's iconic character designs from the games. Overall, this is a must=read manga for comics fans!

A Big Thanks goes to Viz Media and Net Galley for the chance to review this title.

It’s the first Manga Review in a month, today’s review finds us going on a Nostalgic Journey in the Dragon Quest Mythos. Based on the best-selling video game franchise, Dragon Quest, The Adventure of Dai made its debut in Japan in 1989 and was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump and ran till 1996. The Chapters were collected into 37 Tankobon Volumes and led to getting adapted into an anime twice, in the early 90s, and most recently the second adaption from October 2020.

After the defeat of the demon lord Hadlar, all of the monsters were unleashed from his evil will and moved to the island of Dermline to live in peace. Dai is the only human living on the island. Having been raised by the kindly monster Brass, Dai’s dream is to grow up to be a hero. He gets his chance to become one when Hadlar is resurrected and the previous hero, Avan, comes to train Dai to help in the battle. But Hadlar, announcing that he now works for an even more powerful demon lord, comes to kill Avan. To save his students, Avan uses a Self-Sacrifice spell to attack but is unable to defeat Hadlar. When it seems that Dai and Avan’s other student Pop are doomed, a mark appears on Dai’s forehead and he suddenly gains superpowers and can fend off Hadlar. The two students then go off on a journey to avenge Avan and bring peace back to the world.

This first volume serves as the perfect jump-on point for new readers of either manga or the RPG Series. Another fascinating fact about this story, and the Dragon Quest Franchise is that Dragon Ball creator, Akira Toriyama, served as a Character Designer for the Video Game Series. Another series that I would also recommend to fans of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, would be Beet the Vandel Buster, it is a series that was written and illustrated by the same creative team that created this series. This book consists of 330 pages and covers the first five episodes of the new anime, the perfect way for the reader to get a good grasp of what kind of hero Dai is and what to expect in future volumes.

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is based on the well-known RPG video game franchise Dragon Quest. Although this focuses on the main protagonist Dai, a boy who lives alone on the monster island of Dermline. The story holds true to those found in the gaming franchise. The manga is one of Shonen Jump`s bestselling series of all time with millions of copies sold. So there is nothing to wonder at, as to why Viz picked up the series for re-release.
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, succeeds in telling a rather entertaining story. It has to be said that at least for me there were a lot of elements that reminded me of Dragonball which looking back at it was entertainment enough. Should you read The Adventures Dai? if you loved the games and enjoyed the anime then this should be a good read for any fan of the franchise.

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is a manga series that began its serialization in Japan in 1989. It’s based on the Dragon Quest video games, which had character designs done by Akira Toriyama.

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Volume One
Written by: Riku Sajno
Publisher: Shueisha Inc.
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: March 1, 2022

In the world of the series, the Dark Lord was taken down, and his minions were released from his clutches. These monsters left humanity behind to live in a faraway place in peace. That place is Dermline Island, and our main character, a human named Dai, has been raised by these monsters after a ship he was on as a baby was shipwrecked and he washed up on shore. Dai dreams of becoming a hero, but a monster called Brass (who has essentially raised Dai) wants him to become a mage.

One day, a group of phony heroes come to the island, in the hopes of finding a certain monster and killing the rest in order to get monetary rewards. Poor Dai doesn’t realize that they’re not acting like heroes, and he summons the monsters together. When these “heroes” show their true colors and capture the certain monster (who happens to be Dai’s best friend), Brass gives Dai magic cylinders to use against them. Dai catches up to the phony heroes when they’ve met with the king, and through the use of the magic cylinders, he’s able to defeat them and to expose them to the king as the frauds they are. Dai makes an impression on the king, which leads to the start of Dai’s adventures.

The king starts spreading the word about Dai, and a group of sages arrives on the island with Princess Leona. She has to perform a ceremony to receive the Earth God’s blessing, which they are planning to do on the island. Dai is asked to accompany the group. It turns out that some of the sages aren’t what they appear to be, and they try to kill Leona and Dai. The robot that the sages use is quite… interesting. But during the fight, Dai has a dragon symbol appear on his forehead, and he’s suddenly able to use high level magic that he normally isn’t able to master, which he uses to take down the robot and the sage using it. By the end of this story, Dai and Leona become friends, which now gives Dai a second ally in the series. It also seems to be hinted that Dai finds Leona attractive, so perhaps this could lead to her becoming a love interest for him in the future.

The bulk of this volume, though, sees the return of the Dark Lord. At the same time, two new characters appear on Dermline Island: a “hero tutor” named Avan and his disciple, Popp. Avan takes Dai on as his disciple and intends to train him to be a hero within seven days so he can take on the Dark Lord. Thanks to Dai’s determination and his heart of gold, he starts learning and excelling at what he’s being taught faster than expected. Unfortunately, before they can reach the seven days, the Dark Lord makes an appearance on the island. There ends up being a twist as to who Avan is, and it turns out there’s more to the Dark Lord and his powers as well. While Avan puts up a good fight, it’s up to Dai to try to finish things after his teacher makes the ultimate sacrifice. The dragon symbol makes another appearance, and Dai once again easily uses magic that he normally isn’t able to do. While this doesn’t outright defeat the Dark Lord, it injures the enemy enough that he has to flee in order to fight another day. Right at the end of the volume, Dai sets out on a journey in order to take on the new menace that the world now faces.

After I read this volume, it hit me that Dai comes across a lot like the young Goku in the original Dragon Ball manga. While it can kind of be seen in his character design, I get that sense if of his character from the way Dai’s personality is depicted.

For the story itself, the manga uses its roughly 330-page length to effectively establish the world of the series, as well as the character of Dai. The volume ends at the perfect spot, which is when Dai leaves Dermline Island and heads out on his journey. Volume One spent its time establishing the hero, and it seems that future volumes of the series will follow him as he goes on his “Hero’s Journey.” I’m curious to see how Dai’s adventures are going to continue in the next volume.

When it comes to the art in this volume, you can easily tell that it’s a shonen manga from the late 1980’s. It has a strong Dragon Ball feel to its style. In part, this is due to the fact that the manga artist (who wasn’t Akira Toriyama) was drawing characters that were designed by Toriyama for the Dragon Quest game series. But even outside of that, there are ways that the panels are done and the use of sound effects that bear an uncanny resemblance to Dragon Ball. In some respects, this made reading this volume a little disconcerting for me at times, because I had to keep reminding myself that I wasn’t reading Dragon Ball and that the art in the volume wasn’t drawn by Akira Toriyama himself.

Even with that issue, I think that Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai will have an appeal to readers who are familiar with the Dragon Quest video game franchise. It will also likely appeal to fans of the Dragon Ball manga or other shonen manga titles from the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.

The nice thing about this Dragon Quest manga is that it doesn't require a lot of prior series knowledge to get into. I say this as someone who has played a fair share of the RPGs. The basic premise has been done before, but it still works here. Dai's a fun lead who is having a fantastical adventure with action and humor. Everything is nicely balanced. I found myself enjoying my time with this one. .