This Week in Anime

Dungeons & Dragons & Wizards

Coop
Hey, Lucas. Y'know how we were just talking about Dragon Quest references being dime a dozen in most isekai titles? Well, it turns out that the storied video game series and its notable contemporaries are a bedrock of Japanese fantasy on the whole. And strangely enough, there's a solid chance that the North American anime industry would be looking a lot different these days if Japan never dabbled in a little Wizardry.

I knew slimes were around, but I never expected them to appear quite like that.

If we're going back that far, we should start with the meat and potatoes behind all these games: Dungeons & Dragons.

While D&D certainly wasn't the only tabletop game on the block back in the mid-to-late 1970s, it most assuredly captured the imaginations of its players. As long as they could imagine it and write down a few details, any would-be dungeon master could craft their own world filled with fascinating characters, cultures, and secrets to be discovered. These concepts eventually crossed-pollinated with the burgeoning game development scene of the time, leading to computer RPGs like Ultima and Wizardry. That's more or less the condensed version of this story, but if you're looking for a more dense and nuanced exploration of the history surrounding this scene through the lens of Ultima, I'd recommend checking out Majuular's extensively researched retrospectives on the series.

On that note, it's also worth mentioning that Goblin Slayer's Kumo Kagyu has his own series of light novels, Blade & Bastard, which are set in the Wizardry universe.

And as I alluded to earlier, it's safe to say that North America's anime industry owes quite a bit to Wizardry as well. While working on Wizardry IV: The Return of Wernda in the late 80s, Robert Woodhead and Roe Adams III were futzing around with a video board that allowed them to put graphics over video. Adams was apparently a big anime fan and saw the potential uses for this tech, and the popularity of Wizardry in Japan meant that Woodhead was often there on business, so... A little company called AnimEigo popped up. Woodhead writes further about the company's origins in the Secret History of AnimEigo (as does Justin Sevakis in reference to the company's recent history under MediaOCD), but this sudden synthesis of interests and opportunity led to the creation of America's first anime publisher.

Seems that Mamoru Oshii and the folks behind Patlabor didn't mind those first couple of floors; in fact, they loved them so much that it was kind of a plot point in an episode of the New Files OVA series.

A follow-up on a Patlabor TV series episode, this adventure sees the SV2 gang venturing into a labyrinthian sewer system in search of a man gone mad. Oh, and there was a huge gator running around, too. However, that's not the only time an Oshii-related work took notes from Wizardry. A few years back, Oshii sat down with for a discussion with Woodhead and discussed the influence of the series on his work. The anime nerd in me was especially oooing and aaaahing when the director was seemingly thrown off by this little tidbit.

On that note, it's worth mentioning that I've worked on Urusei Yatsura's recent Blu-ray releases and with the modern AnimEigo. But man, it's both cool and a little surreal to even be tangentially related to these classics through degrees of Wizardry.

The Dragon Quest series (and Final Fantasy as well) managed to take the pre-established Computer RPG trappings of the mid 80s and refine them for console-owning audiences. Might've been a little shaky at first with Dragon Quest I, but each game kept on refining and innovating on itself. Through that constant growth, it's no wonder that millions of people jumped onto it. There's an old rumor that goes around from time to time: Mainline Dragon Quest games come out on Saturdays to avoid bringing Japanese society to a screeching halt. Who knows just how true that is, but I could be convinced to believe it. But I do know that you can't go a couple of meters in Japan without tripping over a Dragon Quest cartridge. They're just that ubiquitous.

However, there's also the 800-Pound Toriyama in the room we've yet to mention. With a creator that legendary (and profitable) defining the visual style of a series, I can easily see why Dragon Quest lodged itself inside the imaginations of many players. Even before I knew what a Dragon Quest was, anything in Toriyama's style would hit me with the fuzzies—memories of being a grade schooler, watching Dragon Ball, and playing Sly Cooper on my PS2.

Our collectively perfect son.

Toei Animation's 2020 take on The Adventure of Dai is classic shonen action perfected—not unlike Yu Yu Hakusho. It's a simple tale of unlikely heroes coming together to take down a great evil (and his many generals), but it's immaculately paced and gorgeously animated. It's one of those shows that occasionally makes me jealous of just how good the kids have it these days. But seeing as the series aired amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I can't help but be mentally transported back to the dinky apartment I was cooped up in (pun not intended) while watching it.

Despite that, Dai also served as something of a warm blanket to crawl back under—a nice reminder of those aforementioned grade school fuzzies in uncertain times. Given that mindset, it makes sense that so many modern Japanese fantasy and light novel authors return to Dragon Quest time and again in their work. I understand the need to channel those feelings into a work of your own. It might result in a flood of incredibly similar stories, but that emotional intentionality still rings true.

Of course, there's more than a little D&D blood pumping about with titles like The Slayers and Record of Lodoss War, but I'm not sure if it holds the same Japanese cultural cache that Dragon Quest does. I will say Lodoss War might've kicked off the actual play craze before anyone knew what a "Critical Role" was or who those "Friends at the Table" were. In 1986, the series started as published transcripts of a tabletop campaign before morphing into so much more—including that little OVA folks can't help but drool over.

But just as you said, Lucas, the Japanese fantasy we know, love, and sometimes loathe wouldn't be here today if it weren't for the dungeons, dragons, mad overlords, avatars, and slimes that inspired it to begin with. And I'll be more than happy to raise a mug of grog to them!