The animated series "Dragon Quest: Dai's Quest", a new adaptation of the cult eponymous manga, makes its debut this weekend in simulcast on the DNA and Crunchyroll platforms.
Tôei Animation Company
Announced this week, the simulcast broadcast of the new series Dragon Quest: Dai's Quest has created a phenomenal craze on the networks, up to the expectations generated by this second adaptation of the cult manga signed Kōji Inada and Riku Sanjō. After a first test in the early 90s, well received by fans but unfinished for commercial reasons, this reboot therefore arrives with the double intention of seducing the public of the time but also a whole new generation of viewers.
Why Dragon Quest: Dai's Quest remains to this day a cult manga? Because of its thrilling history, its big-hearted heroes, its epic battles, but also for its universe derived from the video game saga Dragon quest, the series indeed had all the cards in hand to conquer the public and establish itself as an emblematic shônen, as Steve Naumann, editor-in-chief of the specialized magazine Animascope, confirms: "Dai is the perfect archetype of the hero of shônen, orphan, with a powerful power that lies dormant within him and who thirsts for justice. He opposes another justice, that of the wicked, which, as and when story, realize that they are wrong and join the heroes group. There is also a strong heroine, Maam, who contributed to the success of the series with a female audience. "
For The Disciples of Avan, a French-language site entirely devoted to the franchise, the success of the series is also due to its time of publication, since it was published during the Golden Age of Weekly Shonen Jump, the famous Japanese weekly magazine: "The manga was fortunate to be born during the golden age of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine alongside major works like Dragon Ball, Slam Dunk or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. (...) It also has the particularity of be taken from the cult license of Dragon Quest video games, which will ensure it a very special status in the hearts of Japanese readers. This link and this "cross-media" aspect is perceptible throughout the adventure, which will be overseen by Yuji Horii himself, the creator of the Dragon Quest saga. "
Unmissable success in Japan, Dragon quest She was also talked about in France during her visit to Club Dorothée from September 1994. Without showing an equal popularity to the series already installed like Dragon Ball Z and Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque, the anime renamed Fly - because the hero's name in the original version "Dai" looks like the english word "Die" ('to die' in French) - finds its place in the program's schedule, and in the hearts of viewers. To the point of being considered today as "one of the classics of the show", as Steve Naumann points out.
Stopped overnight, following the cancellation of the program on the TBS channel which broadcast it, Fly will never have been completed, an interruption which however did not impact the phenomenal popularity of the manga which is still considered one of the great shônen of Jump. A timeless work, which brings together all the elements to seduce the new generation of readers and viewers, despite the passage of phenomena Naruto, One piece and My Hero Academia. For Steve Naumann, the reboot Dragon Quest: Dai's Quest has all the cards in hand to be a success: "She has everything to seduce an audience who loves the shônen outright. The younger generation may be used to new readings of the codes of the shônen, but she remains ultimately the children of Dragon Ball which remains the most cited title even with younger."
With Dragon Quest, Toei's objectives are as multiple as they are ambitious, especially since the studio must already prepare for the post-One Piece series, its flagship series, whose manga has just entered its final arc (but should remain in publication for "at least five years" according to Eiichiro Oda): "The first objective is to adapt the entire manga. (...) Tôei Animation intends to relaunch the license already to have a new mastodon series. It only has One Piece, the other great shônen are at d ' other studios, and the sequel to Dragon Ball Super is still pending. If success is there, the series should last several years. " explains Steve Naumann, who also recalls that a prequel and a spin-off of the manga are also in preparation.
A finding also shared by the Disciples of Avan : "Many fans of Japanese animation consider this new adaptation as a 'replacement' for Dragon Ball Super because many of the staff are similar. By redoubling their efforts to provide a quality series and building on the success commercial of Dragon Ball Super, Dai's quest may become popular and win over a new generation of fans. "
Faithful - and therefore complete - adaptation of the manga Dragon Quest Dai no Daibouken, will the series live up to expectations? Before discovering it, optimism is in any case at the rendezvous among fans, and especially among Disciples of Avan : "I also want this anime to pay homage to the initial work on character psychology which I believe is the fundamental point that sets it apart from other Shōnen" Poppu tells us about this, while Deltras sets his expectations on "Anthology fights with smooth animation and punchy effects, and music consistent with the action, whether sad, epic or scary."
Whatever the end result, impatience is already there!
