Dai no Daibouken

Dai's Big Adventure, more or less. A Shounen manga (and later anime) series, spun off the wildly popular Dragon Quest RPG series, with a scenario by Sanjo Riku and art by Koji Inada. The titular hero, Dai, is a young kid who's been raised by monsters on Delmarine Island after he was washed ashore as an infant, the only survivor of a shipwreck, and who dreams of being an adventure hero. Since the Demon King had been defeated many years before, the monsters have been freed from his influence and are actually quite peaceful — but suddenly, one day, the Demon King comes back to life, and the monsters start raging again.

Just then, a "hero trainer" named Aban  lands on the island with his wizard trainee, Pop, and sets up a magical barrier, which frees the monsters from Evil's influence. He then proceeds to train Dai to be the next Great Hero, but before they can complete the training the Demon King himself shows up, Aban sacrifices himself and fails... but Dai flies into an Unstoppable Rage, and chases the Demon King away.

After the battle, he and Pop decide to fight the Demon King, to rid the world of evil once again.

Not to be confused with the Konami 3D Fighting Game Lightning Legend Daigo no Daibouken.

This show provides examples of:
 * Action Girl Maamu, Leona, Emi and Princess Fiora.
 * The Ace Dai; Aban; Baran
 * All of the Other Reindeer humans are usually viewed in a positive light, but it's clear more than once that Dai has been and will be rejected by most humans for being half dragon knight and 'unnaturally' strong. The reason Baran snapped.
 * The final arc revealed that Aban was playing dumb since his teen years, both to fool his enemies and to avoid awkward comparations with his (vastly inferior) allies. This even gets it's own sub-story where it's explained with lots of details.
 * Anguished Declaration of Love Played brutally straight when Shrinking Violet Merle, during a decisive battle against Vearn's army
 * Merle blames herself for not having enough courage to
 * Think it's already dramatic enough?
 * Later, having regained their composure and finished their respective battles against the Shinei Kidan, Pop  Maamu interrupts him, asking Pop for some time to sort her own feelings about him so she could give him an honest answer about accepting his love or not.
 * Art Evolution - Starts off looking like a Dragon Ball doujinshi and eventually evolves into its own distinctive style.
 * The Atoner Hyunkel.
 * Back From the Dead Crocodine; . Actually due to a Deus Ex Machina amulet.
 * Also, Hyunkel somehow fitted this trope, as he definitely looked dead in every other arcs, only to be found alive a few chapters later.
 * Badass
 * Battle Aura
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Played straight with Pop and Maamu.
 * Berserk Button Hurting Dai's friends is a very bad idea.
 * BFS - Quite a few of the ultimate weapons, though for the longest time Dai was running around with a kickass dagger.
 * Big Bad Demon Lord Vearn. After he is defeated, takes his place.
 * Big Damn Heroes Happens regularly, several times per arc to be precise. Listing every instance of it would take a LONG time. However, it's worth noting that both Crocodine and Hyunkel like doing this a lot.
 * Bishounen Aban; Hyunkel; 's true appearance.
 * Blind Idiot Translation the French manga translation by publisher J'ai Lu is notoriously awful. Most of the characters and places have names transliterated directly from the Japanese kana (Poppu, Hadora, Demurin, exception: Fuam for Maamu), the translators couldn't decide in the first volumes if Aban was male or female and thus wrote "he (she)" and the masculine and feminine alternatives of adjectives whenever he spoke or was mentioned, and in at least one instance "Yuusha" (grand hero) was considered the name of the hero ("the grand hero Yusha!"). The "Aban strash" also became the "Aban slah." Very obnoxious and literal sound effects ("freeze," "hug") were added in small font next to the Japanese sound effects. To add insult to injury, it was printed on low-quality paper (think newspaper quality) that made the ink stick to your fingers. Thankfully, another publisher is remaking the whole translation from scratch, almost ten years later.
 * Blush Sticker especially Dai and Pop.
 * Break the Cutie Baran; Hadler and Vearn's numerous attempts at making Dai snap and/or join their ranks.
 * Can't Catch Up mild subversion: While it's true that Dai's friends can't catch up with him, if it weren't for them he would have died every single time he battled one of the six generals.
 * Cast From Hit Points Several techniques work this way, the most notable being Megante, which consumes all the user's life to turn it into a massive explosion. Hyunkel's Grand Cross is a less dangerous form of it; it doesn't kill him, but it renders him extremely exhausted
 * The Chessmaster Hadler and Vearn; so very Lampshaded.
 * Changed My Mind, Kid Pop leaves Dai and Maamu when they go fight the big bad Crocodine, then shows up in the nick of time to help when they're in trouble.
 * Chrome Champion the Shinei Kidan are made out of the legendary metal Orihalcon. It turns out it makes them not only Made of Shiny but also Made of Explodium.
 * Chekhov's Gun Avan's pendants, the Mirror of Shahal,
 * Cloudcuckoolander Aban is a schoolcase.
 * Actually, Aban just pretends to be an idiot to hide his own abilities from foes and friends. A side story explains how he has been doing that since his mid teens, and how the goofy glasses he wears all the time were given to him by princess Fiora herself to complete the disguise.
 * Comedic Sociopathy (in real life, Pop would be acutely brain damaged and Maamu in jail from beating him up all the time. But Hilarity Ensues, and Pop acts like a jerk after all.)
 * Coming of Age Story
 * Cowardly Lion: Even pre-Character Development, Pop was showing signs of being this. By the end of the series he's discarded all of his cowardness and represents the pillar of Courage.
 * Crazy Prepared Avan. Just... Avan.
 * Played hilariously with Chu the mouse, and the random items he carries with him all the time.
 * Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Say what you will about Aban, but if he decides to get serious, even Vearn will not take him lightly.)
 * Cue the Sun: Dai receives  this way in the final battle against Vearn.
 * Cut Short The anime ends after Dai's first encounter with Baran, which is less than a third through the Manga's full length, and which also ends on a rather different way. In the Anime . But in the Manga . Needless to say, it would have been more infuriating if they took the Manga route in this case.
 * Defeat Means Friendship Crocodine and Hyunkel; quite a few of the minor antagonist characters are much better inclined towards the heroes once they've crossed swords.
 * Eventually, also . But not without consequences.
 * Defrosting Ice Queen Baran.
 * Demoted to Extra: Crocodine sadly loses his status as a main character after
 * Subverted, as he did in fact participate in the final battle against the Big Boss. His battle abilities fitted his role at the time, which is spectator. Also, Dai and Co. needed to at least grow out of his shadow, having been rescued by him for so many times
 * The Determinator - Everybody on the hero side, main character or not. In fact, taking on almost Blood Knight levels of determination seems to be a prerequisite for Heel Face Turns.
 * Deus Ex Machina - Dai's hidden abilities, though a nice plot arc is eventually made of it.
 * The Dragon Hadler is a textbook example. Turns out, so is.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Baran. Also Hyunkel, &
 * Everything's Better with Princesses Leona, & Flora.
 * Evil Counterpart Hyunkel, before his Heel Face Turn
 * Baran also gives a fairly good idea of what Dai could become if he grew disillusioned with humankind.
 * Expy at first, Dai looks like a young Son Goku (Akira Toriyama did the character designs for Dragon Quest after all). He gets better. Other characters are clearly influenced by Akira Toriyama's characters too.
 * Fan Service if you still don't know after a few volumes that Maamu and Leona are "bouncy," you must be blind.
 * Fantastic Nuke The dreaded Black Cores. On the back-story, one of them was powerful enough to destroy an entire continent
 * Feed It a Bomb Pop pulls a particularly brutal variation of this by unleashing a fire ray spell into a dragon's mouth. Its rider was not pleased, at all.
 * Also a serious Tear Jerker for some who felt that Garudandi was the most likable of the Ryuukishuu, but then again, What Measure Is a Non-Human??
 * Fille Fatale Leona is very aware of her charms. Averted with Maamu, who doesn't realize she's very attractive.
 * First Girl Wins: Played straight with Dai and Leona. Awesomely subverted with Pop, as after the final battle
 * Final First Hug Baran.
 * Five-Man Band:
 * Dai - The Hero
 * Hyunkel - The Lancer
 * Maamu - The Medic
 * Pop - The Smart Guy
 * Crocodine - The Big Guy
 * Leona - The Chick
 * Later, Flora asks Leona to join the team as Aban's hypothetical fifth disciple and Crocodine is more or less relegated to the background..
 * Foe Yay Hadler's obsession with Aban grows as he becomes a more honourable villain who wants to defeat Dai in a fair fight. So obsessed that he starts lecturing the heroes' team if they don't live up to his image of what Aban's disciples should be and eventually . By the same token, he grows obsessed by Dai and gives passionate speeches about how the only thing that excites him and keeps him alive is the idea of fighting Dai. We suggest you don't count at how many levels it's wrong.
 * Frankenstein's Monster Flazzard, one of the six generals; Hadler's Shinei Kidan are created through the same forbidden spell.
 * The Dragon Knights themselves were created by the gods by fusing Human, Dragon, and Demon traits to create the ultimate killing machine.
 * Flight Not quite common, but some characters can use it via the spell Toberuura.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Pop  The bios show that Pop has an extremely high luck stat, and he serves as the Butt Monkey of the team, similar to the Jester/Gadabout class from the games.
 * Game-Breaking Injury After receiving constant injuries and still pushing his body beyond its limits, Hyunkel ends up permanently crippled just BEFORE the final battle. And no, he doesn't get better.
 * Generation Xerox (emphasized by the fact that Maamu's father was on Aban's team and that princess Flora is practically just an older Leona.)
 * Genius Ditz Dai and Pop start out as this.
 * Get a Hold of Yourself, Man!: Everybody gets their share of pep talks; in fact, Pop is brought back from the brink of despair by the lack of the usual Bright Slap reaction from Hyunkel.
 * Grand Theft Me
 * Half-Human Hybrid Dai, and another character, Laharlt, in the Baran Arc.
 * Hannibal Lecture Vearn. Just...Vearn.
 * Hard Work Hardly Works Subverted. While Dai's friends cannot catch up to Dai's level of power, they all go through harsh trainings to increase their powers and are able to assist Dai tremendously. There are always multiple threats that need to be dealt with Dai's being only able to tackle the strongest one.
 * Heel Face Turn Way too many instances. Crocodine, Hyunkel; even.
 * He Who Must Not Be Seen Demon Lord Vearn is always hidden by a veil when he speaks to his subordinates until the final arc.
 * Same for Myst-Vearn, who's actually.
 * Heroic Sacrifice Many characters including Aban; ; ; ; ; at the very end,.
 * Some of them actually survived the experience, like ;  and
 * Hoist by His Own Petard
 * Hopeless Boss Fight The first encounter of Dai's group with Demon Lord Vearn turned this way.
 * Humans Are Bastards Played with. Most people and even demons and beasts turn out to be great folks deep inside (sometimes after their HeelFaceTurns). On the other hand, Baran had such a horrible experience with human beings (save for Soara) that he ended up going on a rampage.
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes - Everybody, but especially the magic armors that Hyunkel has.
 * Infant Immortality Dai was found as a baby in a classic baby Moses cradle on the sea.
 * Jerkass Facade Hyunkel and Baran want you to know they're macho. In Baran's case, paired with a Defrosting Ice Queen process.
 * Kamehame Hadoken There is a fair share of techniques that work this way, including Crocodine and Baran's Finishing Moves
 * Kid Hero: the main characters
 * Killed Off for Real  and his team  ;   and his team.
 * Large Ham Crocodine; Hadler and Baran, in a more edgy and cynical style.
 * Crocodine is a level above even the others; if Dai no Daibouken was ever made into an anime, he would have to be voiced by Brian Blessed in the English dub to do him justice.
 * It was made into anime. Unfortunately, it was canceled before the story finished. No Brian, although. Link to opening http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R Jt H 7 p Ouq Rk
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia Happens briefly to Dai during the Baran's arc
 * Literal Split Personality A variation. The ritual magic that Hadler used to create the Shinei Kidan also imprinted them with fragments of own personality. Though, he thinks of it more like a case of Like Father, Like Son
 * Luke, I Am Your Father
 * Made of Explodium The Shinei Kidan explode when they die, and there's a good reason to it that's not explicitly stated in the Manga: Since their bodies are made of the extremely rare and powerful Orihalcon, it would be disadvantageous for them if the heroes could scavenge their remnants to forge some new weapons and/or armor with them.
 * For the same reason, their severed body parts also tend to explode.
 * Male Gaze: Embodied in Pop. He once notices Gome hitching a ride in Marm's clothes because her bust looks bigger than normal.
 * Manly Tears Aban; Hyunkel.
 * Meaningful Name "Dai" means "grand", but there is also a variation of his name that means "hero". His original name,, was said to mean "strong dragon" in his mother's language. "Leona" means "relating to lions," which may explain her 'feline' personality. Marm and Pop are probably named so because they're taking their parents' positions at the Hero's side.
 * The Messiah Dai, evident by the answer Crocodine gives Baran when he asks why he gives it all to protect Dai: "Before I met him I thought humans were worthless, but he showed me I was wrong. And not only me, Hyunkel was like that too... to us, Dai is our Sun."
 * Monster Clown Kill-Vearn reaches Hisoka levels.
 * Moral Myopia: Galdandy of Baran's Dragon Riders is as ruthless of a monster as you can expect from the villains. He probably wouldn't care about killing someone close to you, but kill his dragon Ruudo, you're dead... andpointing out how many people the dragon has killed will not help your case, Pop.
 * Moses in the Bulrushes - both Dai and Hyunkel
 * Nakama the disciples of Aban -- Dai, Pop, Maamu and Hyunkel -- plus Crocodine and Leona.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity Aban is a strange mixture of this and CloudCuckoolanderism. The proportion of both is up for debate.
 * Oblivious to Love: Maamu is completely oblivious to Pop's feelings for her, while Pop doesn't realize that Merle has been in love with him since they first met. Meanwhile, their friends sigh and facepalm.
 * The Obi-Wan Aban
 * Oedipus Rex Dai's conflictual relationship with Baran. Played for laughs with Pop's brutal blacksmith dad.
 * One-Winged Angel Vearn's final form. Heck, he even looks like Bizarro Sephiroth.
 * Only Sane Man: Maamu.
 * Panty Shot Maamu's second set of clothes and her last armor makes her a walking panty shot, much to Merle's dismay.
 * The Power of Friendship
 * Hadler and his Shinei Kidan learned to get their own as well, much to Dai and company's surprise.
 * The Psycho Rangers The Shinei Kidan develop this kind of dynamic when confronted with Dai's group
 * Psycho Supporter Albinasu towards Hadler. She seems somewhere between Unrequited Love & Stalker with a Crush.
 * Raised by Wolves subverted: even though he's been raised by monsters, Dai isn't uncivilized at all. On the other hand, he starts off very naive and largely unaware of human social conventions.
 * Redemption Equals Death.
 * Subverted by Crocodile, as he came back to life later and pulled a Heel Face Turn
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni Maamu vs. Pop; Aban vs. Hadler.
 * Ridiculously Human Robot the Shinei Kidan amount to this.
 * Rule of Cool - All the time. The writer even confesses to writing in abilities and spells that are not in the Dragon Quest franchise for the sake of coolness.
 * Scary Shiny Glasses - Aban when he gets serious.
 * Senseless Sacrifice Defied as Dai releases his hidden power to fight off Hadler after Aban gave his life trying to defeat him
 * Ship Tease especially Maamu-Pop, Dai-Leona and Flora-Aban.
 * Shoo the Dog - Inversion: both Pop and Hyunkel pretend to abandon the party when in reality they're running off to face the threat alone.
 * Shounen
 * Shrinking Violet Merle fits this trope like a glove. The fact that she is Maamu's polar opposite and how she is painfully aware of how Pop only has eyes for Maamu makes it hurt even more.
 * Shout-Out this troper has trouble in not thinking Hyunkel is something from Saint Seiya. Seriously, look at his armours and how he equips them. He even looks a bit like Hyoga.
 * He was dubbed by Phoenix Ikki's former seiyuu Hideyuki Hori. Think about what army he is in charge of, and how many times he comes Back From the Dead. The connection is more than obvious.
 * Dai and Baran's Kamehame Hadoken. There's even one instance where Dai shoots one, and the recipient of the blast sees the ghostly image of Baran standing behind him in the same pose, a Shout-Out to how Gohan defeated Cell in Dragonball Z.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism (with its emphasis on The Power of Friendship and its easy conversion of villains, the series is close to the far end of the idealism side. At the root of the conflict with Vearn and his demon army, who've been living in less than ideal conditions while humans were having it good, from their point of view.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil subverted: after normal troops prove to be no match for Dai's team, the Big Bad sends his best warriors — the six generals — after him.
 * But also played straight in the order in which the generals fight Dai, at least at first: Crocodine is a lot weaker than Hyunckel, who gets his ass handed to him by Flazzard, who in turn is a joke compared to Baran.
 * Granted, from the moment Crocodine failed, Hadler had wanted to send all 6 of his generals at once, but the order was belayed by the Big Bad
 * Spell My Name with an "S" particularly extreme if you take into account the Blind Idiot Translation in the French manga. Dai was renamed "Fly" in French and Spanish to avoid the phonetic equivalent of "die" ("fly" is an impressive name, thank you very much); Hyunckel/Hyunkel/Henki (in the French translation of the anime); Marm/Maamu/even Fuam in the French manga; Pop/Poppu (ditto); Aban/Avan/Ivan; Hadler/Hadlar/Hadora; Dermlin/Delmulin/Dremlin/Demurin/Whatever island; Crocodin/Crocodine/Krokodine; Vearn/Ban; Freezair/Flazzard/Freeze; Gome/Gomen.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers Baran and Soara's story is very close to a classic Romeo and Juliet plot. Where Romeo goes horribly wrong and they have a kid with Infant Immortality.
 * Story Arc
 * Super-Powered Evil Side Dai's "Dragon Knight personality" isn't evil, but it sure is terrifying and shows a darker, more violent side of his personality than we are used to.
 * Taking the Bullet Plenty of examples. Crocodile actually used this as his main fighting tactic against  to buy time for Dai.
 * Team Mom - The aptly named Marm, who even represents Compassion.
 * Team Pet Gome, which
 * Also, Chu the karateka mouse.
 * Ten-Minute Retirement when  freaks out and runs away in his pyjamas after.
 * Took a Level In Badass Many characters, but especially Pop, who according to Hyunkel, Kill-Vearn and Vearn themselves, is even scarier than Dai.
 * You know you're a badass when you
 * This gets even more evident when, during the final battle against Vearn
 * Triang Relations Merle loves Pop, Pop loves Maamu, Maamu loves Hyunkel but so does Eimi, Hyunkel loves Maamu but thinks she's too good for him...really, this gets more to Love Dodecahedron levels.
 * Tsundere Maamu; Leona has many traits too.
 * Unstoppable Rage - Dai and Baran when their crests are present.
 * Warp Whistle Hadler uses an artifact named Chimera's Wings to retreat after his humiliating defeat during his first fight with Dai
 * The spell Ruura also works this way, being a teleportation spell that requires a clear image of the location where the user intends to go; therefore, it's only possible to transport to locations he/she has already visited.
 * Weak but Skilled: Hyunkel. He starts as one of the strongest characters, mainly for his exceptional swordsmanship skill, but quickly becomes relatively average when compared to other characters. Dai is the hero, Pop can use magic, and Maamu is infinitely stronger physically than he is..
 * Avan himself fits this trope, as he wasn't abnormally strong. His skills and superhuman intelligence, however...
 * What Measure Is a Non-Cute? Lots of minor characters, especially non-humans, are subject to this trope.
 * Whip Sword Hyunkel's weapon.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy Hyunkel, sort of;.
 * The Worf Effect: Happened to Crocodile with the appearance of Baran.
 * Worthy Opponent Baran, after he and Dai both collapse exhausted after battling.  eventually becomes this too, along with his.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair (and ridiculous oversize curls, Aban. Also notice Maamu's pink hair and Leona's orange/beige hair.)
 * Zettai Ryouiki Leona.
 * Zettai Ryouiki Leona.