The Secret of the Divine Dragon, Volume 4

This volume is Volume 4 of The Secret of the Divine Dragon (Japanese original title: DRAGON QUEST -Dai no Daibōken-, also translated as Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai), a shōnen manga written by Riku Sanjo, illustrated by Koji Inada, and supervised by Yuji Horii. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1989 to 1996, with 37 collected volumes, and is the most influential of the manga spin-offs derived from the Dragon Quest series. The story begins after the Demon Lord Hadlar is defeated by the hero Avan: a group of monsters who have regained their gentle nature hide away on a remote island, where they adopt a baby, Dai, who washes ashore. When Dai grows up, he meets Princess Leona, who has come to the island, and reveals a mysterious power for the first time. The monsters are then corrupted once more, the Demon Lord's army revives, and Avan arrives on the island to train Dai and his senior disciple Popp, setting them on a journey to fight the Demon Lord's forces. This is the fourth volume of the series. Following Avan's training and Hadlar's assault, the plot moves on to the attack on the Kingdom of Papnica, where Princess Leona and her companions lie low and wait for a chance to strike back. General Flazzard of Ice and Flame suddenly appears in a surprise attack, and Dai rushes to rescue Leona, who is in grave danger. Then come Matoriv's training, the landing on Vearn Island, and the all-out assault by the Demon Lord's army, fierce battle sequences in which the growth of Popp and other companions gradually unfolds. With a classic RPG-style heroic adventure as its backbone, the work succeeds through solid character portrayal and an ensemble depiction in which each companion plays a distinct role. Its spell battles and special sword techniques are strongly game-like, and it is a shared shōnen manga memory for readers born in the 1980s and 1990s.