Thread by @Herms98

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai sp.1: it’s a clip show. Frankly I think the staff have earned a break or three after the Baran arc, so I don’t mind too much. And this might be a good time to go through some stuff from the Dai Perfect Book. #DragonQuest

This guide starts off the Memorial Story section, reviewing Dai and co’s journey (just like a recap episode!), showing where each major battle was fought and what levels the characters were at. Yep, it’s character levels just like a DQ game. What could possibly go wrong?

This isn’t the first time the characters have been given proper DQ stats: the manga volumes feature periodic character stat sheets (left out in some releases), which Riku Sanjo came up with by raising a party in DQ III (as the Perfect Book explains later on).

The Dai Perfect Book also contains a timeline for the series, which obviously is right in my wheelhouse. It tracks Dai and Popp’s journey, so it skips the pre-Hadlar chapters. Let’s take a look at this, with the Memorial Story stuff thrown in.

The beginning: Hadlar interrupts Dai’s training, and Avan uses Megante. The next day (Day 1), Dai and Popp set sail for Romos. It takes them 5 days to reach the mainland, after which they spend 3 days wandering the forest.

Day 10: Dai and Popp meet Maam, and fight Crocodine for the first time. The next day they begin 3 days of training in Maam’s village. On Day 15 they head to Romos, and on Day 16 they defeat Crocodine. They next day they’re given a heroes’ reception by the people of Romos.

Next they spend 3 days taking Brass back to Dermline Island, then 5 days sailing to Papnica. On Day 26 they face Hyunckel for the first time. Dai and Popp train for 2 days, then beat Hyunckel in the rematch on Day 29.

On Day 31 they face Flazzard for the first time and Leona is frozen (around this time, Baran begins his attack on Karl). They train with Matoriv for a day, then beat Flazzard (and Hadlar) on Day 33, with a victory feast the next day.

On Day 36, Baran finishes conquering Karl after just 5 days. On Day 40, Maam departs to begin her martial arts training. After 2 more days in Papnica, Dai and co head to Bengarna to shop. The next day (Day 44) their department store visit is interrupted by dragons.

They head to Teran, where on Day 46 Dai encounters Baran, who steals his memories. Baran takes 2 days to recover and assemble the Dragon Riders, so Day 49 is the climatic battle. Day 50 sees everyone recovering, and Zaboera and Hadlar’s sneak attack.

Finally, the group returns to Papnica and spends 7 days there, before Dai and Popp reunite with Maam at the Romos martial arts tournament on Day 58. They defeat Zamza, and that’s where we are now.

The guide keeps on going, but I’ll stop here for now. I haven’t bothered checking how well these timespans accord with the series itself, and I’m sure at least some of it is affected by manga/anime differences.

Next Week: reverie!