After some time of not watching Anime (and I'm not even updated on Dragon Ball Super) - I decided to watch through Toei Ltd.'s Dragon Quest: Adventures of Dai remake. Speaking of which, only if Toei will stop being so selfish with their properties and let the world view them with subs. It's a sad fact that there's no sign of an Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger DVD or that most of the shows on Toei's Youtube channel have NO ENGLISH SUBS. Just learn Japanese? Ugh, that advice sounds burdensome since I don't feel the need to learn the language except for employment or academic reasons. Now, I'm going to talk about how Dragon Quest: The Adventures of Dai is for me.
I remembered watching the 1991 version on IBC-13 but on an irregular basis. 1991 would be the same year when Chojin Sentai Jetman saved the Super Sentai franchise from cancellation. I didn't see much of it since I only watched the really badly scheduled Toku in IBC-13. I confess I never played Dragon Warrior on the NES (or Famicon in Japan). My first exposure to the Dragon Quest game was that rather tedious Dragon Quest VII which required patience of a rock. The only Dragon Quest games I've completed are Dragon Quest VIII, Dragon Quest Heroes, and its direct sequel Dragon Quest Heroes 2. This series had Akira Toriyama involved and hasn't had a game based on it. However, it's obviously based on the Dragon Quest franchise.
The designs and concepts of Akira Toriyama are all over it. It's obvious that Dai (or Dino) is a Goku-Gohan hybrid. Like Gohan, Dai is half-human and half-something else. Popp and Maam are almost like Yamcha and Bulma. Hyunkel (my favorite character) might remind some of Vegeta or Trunks. The secondary antagonist Hadlar is obviously similar to Bojack from the non-canon Dragon Ball Z: Bojack Unbound movie.
For a franchise that's made in Japan - it sure has Western influence written all over it. That's why I even wished Toei and Saban made a Dragon Warrior live-action show together. Though, it seems that Toei and Saban both had to pay fines after a dispute with Akira Toriyama. I wonder how true that story is since Toei still has a partnership with Saban. Will Hasbro (the current holder of the Power Rangers right) take the task of dubbing Adventures of Dai into English? I usually listen to the English audio when playing Dragon Quest Heroes games to feel "authentic" even of the original voices are Japanese.
So far, I'm enjoying it. It's about time I take a short break from the Korean craze. Hopefully, Japan will go back into the world arena and compete head-on with Korean craze. I just want to see more J-Drama go against K-Drama. I'd like to see more Japanese products compete against Korean products. There'll be plenty of cool stuff in healthy competition.
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