Dragon Quest: Your Story

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Dragon Quest: Your Story
Theatrical release poster
Film
Released	2019-08-02 (jp)
Direction	Takashi Yamazaki (chief), Ryuichi Yagi, Makoto Hanafusa
Scenario	Takashi Yamazaki
Music	Koichi Sugiyama
Studio	Robot Communications, Shirogumi
Distribution	Toho

Dragon Quest: Your Story (ドラゴンクエスト ユア・ストーリー) is a Japanese anime film based mostly on Dragon Quest V. It's the first Dragon Quest anime that has been produced with 3D computer graphics and computer animation.

The film was first released in theaters in Japan on 2 August 2019 by Toho. It was animated by studios Robot Communications and Shirogumi. The chief director of the film was Takashi Yamazaki with Ryuichi Yagi and Makoto Hanafusa as co-directors. The script was written by Takashi based on the original work by Yuji Horii. Famed Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama was in charge of the music.

Netflix released the film internationally on 13 February 2020 through its service.

Plot

The film follows the same basic plot of Dragon Quest V with some variations for narrative sake. It starts with the 16-bit graphics of the original game depicting the birth of the protagonist and the kidnapping of his mother Mada. Most of the childhood events are quickly brushed over in this style, including his first meeting with Purrcy (his great sabrecat cub), Bianca and Nera as well as the acquisition of the dragon orb. After that quick recap, Lucas meets an stranger who ask him to show him the dragon orb, which he does and gets it back quickly as well. No long after, Pankraz calls him.

Some time after, when Luca and Prince Harry are chatting outside the castle of Coburg, Bishop Ladja's minions abduct the Prince, prompting Pankraz to rescue them. However, Ladja appears and captures Luca, forcing Pankraz to allow himself to be beaten to death by his generals, Kon the Knight and Slon the Rook. Just before dying, Pankraz compels Luca to find and rescue her mother Mada, who he reveals is still alive. After this, Ladja uses Luca and Harry as slaves

Ten years later, Harry and Luca are still slaves. At Harry's urging, the manage to concoct a plan to escape and eventually succeed. They are able to meet Dr. Agon who hides them and helps them escape. After escaping, Luca goes to his old home, where he finds his father's secret room and a diary in which he discover that his father was looking for the Zenithian hero and that he believed Luca was the hero himself. He also discovers that Ladja kidnapped his mother Mada in the hopes of opening the portal that guards Grandmaster Nimzo and that she is still alive. He later encounters Sancho in the cabin, who at first doesn't recognize him. After thinking over the situation, Luca decides to embark on a quest to become stronger and to try to become the hero to rescue her mother. He meets Gootrude and re-encounters Purrcy along the way, who join him as part of his party.

Luca goes to the Briscoletti estate to find the Zenithian sword, which supposedly only the chosen hero will be able to use. He finds that Rodrigo Briscoletti is trying to get rid of Bjørn the Behemoose and is rewarding the one that does it by offering his daughter Nera in marriage since the situation has become desperate. While not interested in the reward, Luca takes on the quest as it turns out that Bjørn took the Zenithian Sword. Luca also meets Nera and remembers the time they spent together as children. Bianca also shows up and reminds Luca of the time that they used to play as children.

Bianca offers to help Luca in his quest to defeat Bjørn, believing him to be the legendary hero that will be able to defeat Bjørn once he gets his hands on the Zenithian sword. They sneak into Bjørn's lair and, while they inadvertently awake Bjørn, they manage to get the Zenithian Sword, which they were hoping would allow Luca to wield it and unleash its power. However, Luca is unable to use it, so they try to escape. Luca eventually notices Bjørn's weak point and with Bianca's help, he manages to make Bjørn yield.

Having defeated Bjørn, Luca has earned the right to marry Nera and plans to do so, but a strange old woman confronts him and tells him that he really wants to marry Bianca and gives him a potion that will show him his true desire. He drinks the potion and, indeed, he notices that he really wants to marry Bianca. He tells that to Rodrigo, who comprehends his decision, but tells him that officially they had a quarrel due to this. Luca then goes to the tavern and proposes to Bianca, who accepts. Shortly after, Luca thanks the old lady. When the old lady goes to hidden street, she transform back to her true form and it's revealed that it was Nera all along, who, despite loving Luca deeply, cannot bear to see him lie to himself so she decided to help him realize his true feelings.

After getting married, Luca and Bianca embark on Luca's mission of finding his mother and the hero. Bianca eventually gets pregnant and gives birth to their son Alus. They continue their quest, but are eventually confronted by Ladja, who notices something about Bianca and decides to kidnap her. Luca is unable to stop him and Ladja turns him to stone.

Ladja returns to his lair and reveals that Bianca is a Zenithian, so he tries to convince her to open the gates to free Nimzo, but Bianca, who had telepathically communicated with Mada, refuses, so Ladja turns her to stone.

Eight years later, Alus, who managed to escape with Sancho, gets a staff with which he restores his father. While they are confronted by the monsters that were guarding the staff, Alus takes the Zenithian Sword and uses it successfully, thus showing that he is the prophesized hero.

With the legendary hero finally found, Luca looks for a way to infiltrate the heavily fortified fortress of Ladja. They come across information that a dragon is living disguised as a person near Ladja's lair. They eventually locate Dr. Agon and ask for his help, and it turns out he is the Zenith Dragon, but he can't help them without the Dragon Orb. Luca recalls that he kept a fragment of it after Ladja broke it, but Dr. Agon tells him that it's a fake.

They go to the fairy kingdom in order to request the help of the fairies. They have to penetrate the kingdom's defenses, comprised of powerful robot monsters. With Gootrude, Luca is able to enter and meet a fairy. He request the closure of the gates to Nadiria, where Nimzo resides, and the rescue of his mother, but the fairy tells him that that's not possible, so, instead, she sends him back in time to meet with his younger self and retrieve the real dragon orb from himself, which he does successfully, showing in the process that the stranger he meet as a child at the beginning was himself from the future.

With the Dragon Orb, Dr. Agon is able to transform into his dragon form and they are able to penetrate the fortress. Then, they go to Bianca's rescue and break the spell that petrified her. Finally reunited, the family goes to rescue Mada, who warns them not to do it since Ladja has become stronger than before. Ladja and his minions are waiting, so the final battle erupts, but not before Mada, whose protective barrier was finally broken by Ladja, says her final goodbye to Luca.

While they appear successful at first, Luca and his family begin to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies. Then Sancho, Bjørn, Prince Harry and his troops show up and turn things around, allowing Luca to focus on battling Ladja and his generals Slon and Kon, who killed Pankraz. Luca is able to destroy the two generals, but is unable to deliver the final strike to Ladja. His son then intervenes and, with his help, Luca and Alus are able to pierce Ladja's chest, defeating him. However, Ladja, before dying, is still able to absorb the powers of Mada and opens the gates for Grandmaster Nimzo. As the gates open, Alus throws the Zenithian Sword to close them.

Suddenly, the world stops except for Luca, and a strange figure that at first appears to be Nimzo, reveals himself to be a computer virus. It is then revealed that all previous events are in fact a virtual reality (VR) simulation and that Luca is an adult playing a VR game in the role of the protagonist of Dragon Quest V (thus the name of the film). As programmed by his creator, the virus chastizes Luca about how it's stupid to still play the game at his age and that he should grow up and stop deluding himself into thinking that playing the game gave him a true experience. Luca clings on to his memories of the game, both old and new, but all seems lost as the virus is erasing everything in the virtual world. Suddenly, Gootrude shows up and starts talking, revealing that he's the antivirus program of the VR game, and gives Luca a sword that looks like Erdrick's sword. With the sword in hand, Luca attacks the virus, who tries to stop Luca's attack, but, by touching the sword, the virus starts getting purged and soon after it's completely destroyed.

With the virus gone, Luca returns to the final part of the game, as if he had defeated Nimzo by himself. With peace achieved, Luca and his family travel back to Luca's kingdom, while Gootrude goes away having fulfilled his mission. Thus, once the game is completed, Luca will always remember this adventure as the time when he was the hero that saved the World.

Changes from the game

Most of the Zenithian themes mentioned in the film are not in the game. These are some of the major alterations.

• In the game, Nimzo was sealed by God's wrath, not Zenithians.
• Mada is from an elf bloodline, not Zenithian.
• There is no significance to the eye color in the game.
• There is no spell to open the gates that keep Nimzo imprisoned, neither does the Zenithian sword have the capability to close them.
• Rodrigo Briscoletti has the Zenithian shield in the game, not the Zenithian sword.
• The quest to find the Circle of Fire and the Circle of Water is ommited in the movie.
• Debora Briscoletti does not appear in the film
• In the game, the protagonist also has a daughter.
• The film does not mention the story arc that takes place in Gotha.
• The Gold Orb in the game is changed to the Dragon orb in the film.
• Zenithia does not appear in the movie.
• In the game, only the protagonist and his family battle against the forces of Ladja and Nimzo in the final part of the story.
• The film ignores the Prince Wilbur subplot with Prince Harry.

Development

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Main cast

• Takeru Satoh as Luca
• Kasumi Arimura as Bianca
• Haru as Nera
• Kentaro Sakaguchi as Prince Harry
• Takayuki Yamada as Pankraz
• Kendo Kobayashi as Sancho
• Ken Yasuda as Dr. Agon
• Arata Furuta as Bjørn
• Suzuki Matsuo as Rodrigo Briscoletti
• Koichi Yamadera as Gootrude
• Arata Iura as Nimzo
• Chikako Kaku as Mada
• Kotaro Yoshida as Bishop Ladja
• Reo Uchikawa as Alus
• Chiaki Nagatomi as the fairy

English dub

• Yuri Lowenthal as Luca
• Julian Lerner as Luca (child)
• Stephanie Sheh as Bianca
• Xanthe Huynh as Nera
• Zeno Robinson as Prince Harry
• Elijah Rayman as Prince Harry (child)
• Parker Simmons as Pankraz
• Shaun Conde as Sancho
• Neil Kaplan as Dr. Agon
• Jacob Craner as Bjørn
• Frank Todaro as Rodrigo Briscoletti
• Steve Blum as Gootrude
• Paul Guyet as Nimzo
• Cissy Jones as Mada
• Jason Marnocha as Bishop Ladja
• Steve Blum as Kon the Knight
• Trevor Devall as Slon the Rook
• Hudson Loverro as Alus
• Kari Wahlgren as the fairy

Main staff

• Chief director: Takashi Yamazaki
• Director: Makoto Hanafusa, Ryuichi Yagi
• Script: Takashi Yamazaki
• Original work: Yuji Horii
• Music: Koichi Sugiyama
• Storyboard: Ryuichi Yagi
• Art director: Makoto Hanafusa
• Sound director: Keiichi Momose
• Editing: Ryuichi Yagi
• General supervision: Ryutaro Ichimura
• Supervision: Yuji Horii

Reception

A lot of Japanese fans of the original game did not appear to like the film due to the turn of the events that takes place within the plot that deviate from the original to make it an Isekai story, contrary to expectations that it would be an adaptation of the original game story. The film was also criticized for not using the original Akira Toriyama character designs as well as the decision to use regular popular actors instead of professional voice actors.

Author Saori Kumi noticed that the name of the protagonist, Luca, appears to have been taken from the 1993 Dragon Quest V novelization that she wrote, as the protagonist does not have that name in the video game (the default name is Abel), as well as other elements, such as Bianca becoming the protagonist's wife (the game doesn't favor the player to choose her and can instead as easily select Nera instead), that were first introduced in her novel, which prompted her to sue the film's production.

In box office sales, the film sold 215,000 tickets, earning ¥309 million JPY ($2.91 million USD) on its first week, placing fifth in the Japanese box office of that week. As of January 2020, Your Story has reportedly earned $11,114,288 USD in total from the Japanese box office.

As of April 2020, the film has an audience score of 77% in Rotten Tomates, while two of the available three critic reviews of the film were negative. The script is the weakest element, according to those critics, both pointing out that the film is mostly for fans of the series.

At IMDb, as of April 2020, the movie has rating of 6.6 out of 10 with a total of 1,430 ratings.

Martin Robinson of Eurogamer, offered a positive review of the film, pointing out that it might be a good starting point for new fans of the series due to it having the warmth, humour and innate humanity that characterize the Dragon Quest series.

Gallery

Promotional art

Netflix promotional image with Bianca

Character gallery

Luca

Bianca

Nera

Prince Harry

Pankraz

Sancho

Dr. Agon

Bjørn

Rodrigo Briscoletti

Gootrude

Mada

Bishop Ladja

Videos

「ドラゴンクエスト ユア・ストーリー」予告①

Trailer 1

「ドラゴンクエスト ユア・ストーリー」予告②

Trailer 2

Dragon Quest Your Story English Dub Trailer

English dub trailer

Dragon Quest Your Story - Movie Review

Dragon Quest Your Story In-Depth Review

DRAGON QUEST YOUR STORY REVIEW - DQ's FIRST MOVIE! - sackchief

External links

• Official website (Japanese)
• Offical account at Instagram
• Offical account at Twitter
• Film at Netflix
• Article at Wikipedia
• Film info at IMDb
• Film info at Anime News Network
• Film info at MyAnimeList
• Film review at RPGamer