Manga Review: Dragon Quest Monsters + Volume 1 by Mine Yoshizaki
Terry was a hero summoned to another world. Though a mere boy, he had a way with monsters, and was able to convince them to team up with him on adventures. He put together a strong team of monsters to match against other Monster Masters’ teams in battle. Finally he won the championship in the Tournament of Starry Night. But that was then.
Kleo is a young fellow who blows off study and chores for running off to the woods to play hero. The village of Motile is peaceful, but there are some weak slimes in the forest. Kleo, despite his ambition to become a legendary hero, is no match for even the feeble monsters here. His mother and little sister wish he’d concentrate on becoming a respectable member of society.
It wouldn’t be much of an adventure story if Kleo settled down and studied, would it? Instead, the magical creature Watabou offers to transport the boy to another world where he is needed. And so Kleo finds himself in Greattree, a kingdom carved out of a giant tree.
However, he isn’t being recruited as a Hero who fights monsters, but as a Monster Master who tames monsters to battle others! It seems the previous Monster Master, Terry, has not returned to the kingdom for quite some time, and efforts to contact him have been in vain. And a phenomenon known as the Wave of Evil has been turning previously tame monsters into feral creatures that attack humans.
Indeed, the only available starter monster is Slib the Slime, a seemingly weak creature who has somehow lost access to the combat techniques it learned when it worked with Terry. It and Kleo don’t get along at first, but Slib has hidden potential.
The Dragon Quest series is one of the favorite video game franchises in Japan, fantasy adventure stories with character and monster designs by Akira Toriyama (Dragonball). Dragon Quest Monsters is a spinoff series using the monsters for battle against each other ala Pokemon. The “Plus” symbol in the title refers to the New Game + feature where you can play the game over with extra optional content unlocked.
The manga creator, Mine Yoshizaki, has done a number of video game based manga before, but is probably best known in anime fandom for the Sgt. Frog comedy science fiction series. His cartoony style works well with the subject material.
The plot is pretty standard stuff–unlikely hero must put together a quirky team of misfits to defeat the powerful Dragonlord and save the kingdom. Kleo’s kind of a dumbass, and has to have everything explained to him, but has the essential hero quality of not knowing when to back down.
This is very much a boy’s story; the female characters exist to be temporary obstacles or support characters; the female Monster Masters have more experience than Kleo but are considered irrelevant by the kingdom in regards to finding Terry or protecting the people. There’s also some objectification going on as Kleo is assumed to be way more interested in girls’ breasts than he actually is.
Generally, though, this is suitable for boys eight and up who love monster collecting games.
