Dragon Quest: Your Story is an anime film adaptation of the 1992 video game Dragon Quest V, released in Japanese theaters on August 2019 and distributed by Toho.
The plot of the movie is essentially the same as the original; A boy named Luca and his father are traveling the world until misfortune fell upon them in the name of the Order of Zugzwang. The order’s leader, Bishop Ladja, murders Luca’s father and forces him into slavery for ten years. When he is able to escape, Luca remembers the final words from his father regarding his missing mother, and decides to search for her and rescue her from the clutches of the Order. To do this, he needs to look for the Zenithian Hero, the fabled savior who can wield the sacred Zenithian Sword, and the only person who can fight back the darkness.
You can watch the first trailer here
and the second trailer here. Netflix picked up the film for international release on February 13, 2020.
This film contains examples of:
- Adapted Out:
- Deborah, one of the possible choices for a bride in the DS remake, does not appear in the movie, although it does adapt several elements from it (most notably Bishop Ladja's role as the Hero's arch-enemy).
- Honey does not appear since Luca only visits Faerie Lea once he's an adult.
- The Hero's Daughter is likewise also absent, as well as the near-entirety of the Kingdom of Gotha. Gotha however remains part of Luca's family name and a gets a mention in a single line by Sancho, when he refers to Luca as "Your Majesty."
- Harry's love interest, half-brother, and Wicked Stepmother, along with the entire God Save Us from the Queen! subplot in Coburg, are all absent.
- Of the whole Order of Zugzwang, only Ladja, Kon and Slon remains, and no mention is made of their titles. King Korol an Queen Ferz do not appear.
- Nimzo is also technically absent, although the virus that takes his place is refered to by his name in the credits.
- To simplify the plot, Lofty Peak, the Zenithian Castle, and the entire Zenithian Equipment apart from the Sword have been removed. As a result there is no mention of the castle being shot down by Nimzo, or the chosen hero needing to be born from the union of a Loftian and a Zenithian.
- Adaptation Species Change: As Lofty Peak is absent, Madalena is made into a Zenithian like Bianca rather than a Loftian.
- Adaptational Heroism: Bjorn the Behemoose becomes this as a result of Luca sparing him, as he shows up later to help the heroes out against Bishop Ladja’s forces in the climax. At this point in the original game, he was already long-dead.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Mr. Briscoletti adored the Hero in the game, to the point where he happily arranged his wedding even if it's not with one of his daughters, and gave him several gifts. In this movie, he becomes gravely offended by Luca rejecting Nera's hand, accuses him of being just a bounty-hunter, and kicks him out (although he lets him keep the Zenithian Sword so he can hand it to the chosen hero).
- Anti-Escapism Aesop: A very cruel invocation by the hacker who created the virus. He designed it so it would stop the game right at the moment of victory, explain to the player that the events of the game aren't real (the game blocks out the player's memories of the real world for maximum immersion) and then kicks them out before deleting everything. Inverted by Luca, who makes clear that he doesn't cares about the Dragon Quest world being fictional, he loves it all the same.The Virus: I have a message for you. Don't worry, it'll be quick. It says: "grow up, loser!"
- Bare-Handed Blade Block: In the climax, the virus tries to stop Luca's anti-virus sword with this... but since he touched the blade, he ends up dissolved anyway.
- Big Bad: Bishop Ladja is the biggest recurring threat to Luca and his friends, but it is the virus that is injected in Nimzo’s code that is the ultimate threat to the game’s world.
- Big Damn Heroes: When Luca and his family find themselves surrounded by Ladja's army of monsters, suddenly a giant ship, carrying Harry, Sancho and a small army of soldiers join the battle, alongide Bjorn the Behemoose.
- Blow You Away: Luca specialises in wind magic, being able to cast Woosh, and later Kaswoosh during the final battle.
- Brainwashed Bride: Luca does not hesitate to choose to marry Nera over Bianca because he is in a VR game, and the player had applied self-suggestion to choose Nera beforehand, influencing Luca's decision within the virtual reality setting.
- But Thou Must! Enforced in an example not present in the original game, when the player chooses to marry Nera, the VR game goes out of its way to make him switch to Bianca.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Discussed note by Bianca, when Luca tells her he refused the hand of Nera for the sake of another woman, prompting her to misunderstand and asks him if he fell for the first Brainless Beauty with a nice rack he ran into.
- Calling Your Attacks: Unsurprisingly, spells get called out loud by their in-game names. Averted by Ladja though.
- Canon Name: It dubs the hero of V Luca. Subverted, actually, since it's set in a VR version of DQV, and the player always names the hero Luca.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Gootrude, the Slime who join's Luca's party, is revealed to be an antivirus program. When the hacker's virus begins dismantling the world, Gootrude gives Luca the means to destroy it.
- Degraded Boss: True to the game, one can spot monster deadringers of Kon and Slon in the army of monster fighting near the end.
- Disneyesque: Instead of the traditional Akira Toriyama art style the games are known for, the film uses a style more akin to Disney's 3D CGI films.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: The virus and its creator clearly fail to understand why people enjoy video games.
- Epic Fail:
- Luca hunting Metal Slimes ends in failure when a King Slime pounces him from above and crushes him under his bulk.
- Luca's first attempt to take on Bjorn on his own: one moment, he's marching towards his dungeon, the following one he's showing up at the inn, covered in soot and begging for healing herbs.
- Foreshadowing: There are bits and hints to the finale's big reveal. The most obvious is the Love Potion sequence, where the backdrop changes to a strangely digital and modern looking interface as Luca goes over his love for Bianca and Nera. Another one is Dr. Agon responding to Luca pointing out the oddity of fairies being guarded by robots with "that's just how things are this time around."
- Everything Fades: Monsters dissolve into a quickly-vanishing black mass upon being killed.
- Forced Sleep: Kon casts Kasnooze on Bianca and Purrcy while chasing them.
- Fusion Dance: As his very last trump card, Ladja does this with Mada's corpse, obtaining the knowledge of the spell required to unlock the gate to the dimension where Nimzo is sealed. He still dies right after that though.
- Go for the Eye: At first, Bjorn seems unstoppable... until the hero figures out that his Third Eye is his weakspot.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The jackass hacker who created the virus and unleashed it in the Dragon Quest VR game.
- Halfway Plot Switch: Or more like "climactic fight switch". The Isekai twist is very subtly foreshadowed, with most of the details being a Rewatch Bonus, but the reveal is still pretty abrupt — especially because the hacker explicitly looked for it to happen in a moment where it could cause maximum shock.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Bianca goes out of her way to help Luca propose to Nera, despite her own feelings for him. Later, despite her feelings for him, Nera disguises herself as a crone to give Luca a potion that reveals his true feelings for Bianca.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Ladja is introduced taking a child hostage to kill a hero. He dies when said child, now grown up, runs him through with the sword of the man he killed, helped by his own child.
- Letting the Air out of the Band: Luca's attempt to unsheathing the Zenithian Sword before Bjorn the Behemoose. The classic, riveting Dragon Quest Overture plays as he prepares to use the fabled blade against this monstrous foe... only for the music to hilariously sputter out when he fails to get it out of its scabbard, making it evidently clear that he's not the Zenithian Hero.
- Lip Lock: Downplayed in the English dub. While this inevitably happens sometimes as a result of the mouth movements being animated for the Japanese dialogue, the English dub does a good job with not falling into this for the most part.
- Meaningful Name: Ladja in the Italian dub is renamed "Skriterioska", a port-manteu of "matrioska" (to go with the Russian accent and motif Nimzo an the Order had in the games) and "scriteriato", which can mean both "reckless" an "unhinged", fitting Ladja's Ax-Crazy persona.
- Mook Chivalry: Before reinforcements arrive, our heroes are only able to hold their own against the huge monster army thanks to them attacking with only a few at a time.
- My God, What Have I Done?: This is Luca's reaction when he realizes he's engaged to the wrong woman.
- Mysterious Past: Other than his gender, probable nationality (Japanese, given where the SFC game was released), and year of birth (no earlier than 1985, given that the game — released in 1992 — was a present for his seventh birthday), we know nothing about the player. He could indeed be a NEET loser, but he could also be a successful man indulging in a bit of nostalgia on a well-deserved holiday. This underlines the senseless and gratuitous cruelty of the hacker, whose virus indiscriminately targets people both of the above categories, as well as boys whose fathers want them to experience a game the fathers enjoyed when they were young.
- Mythology Gag:
- When Luca explains to Bianca that he turned down the offer to marry Nera because he actually loved someone else, Bianca accuses him of falling for some bimbo from a Puff-Puff parlor.
- The sword Luca uses to defeat the virus is based on Erdrick’s sword from the first three games.
- The movie's soundtrack consists entirely of music from the series, mostly from V, but also from IV, VI, IX, and XI.
- Named by the Adaptation: The Hero, foregoing his usual names Madason (English) and Abel/Five (Japanese), goes by the name Luca in the movie. His son is also named Alus here, rather than Parry. This is a clear hint to the film's Plot Twist.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Ladja has one mixed with rage when Luca's family receive reinforcements. He has an even bigger one when Luca finally gets serious and blasts him with a giant tornado spell.
- The virus has one when he realizes that the antivirus program Gootrude is about to eliminate him and undo the damage it caused.
- One-Hit Kill: Bianca casts Thwack to kill a group of monsters during the climax.
- Playing with Fire: Bianca specialises in fire magic, casting Kasizzle and Kafrizzle.
- Rewatch Bonus: With The Reveal, viewers realize that the opening scenes of the movie, far from being a lazy exposition, are actually a Flashback of the protagonist's memories of playing Dragon Quest V as a boy. Even the title makes more sense, as the movie is about an individual's unique experience of a VR adaptation of the game.
- Schizo Tech: Despite the medieval fantasy setting, the door to the land of fairies is guarded by Killing Machines. Luca lampshades how weird that is, and it's actually because he specifically asked for robots in the game, although they are a DQ staple anyway.
- Shout-Out: The whole set-up of The Reveal by the virus definitely apes that of the Architect.
- Single-Stroke Battle: How Luca defeats Slon and Kon on his way to Ladja.
- Sinister Scimitar: Aversion, Pankraz's weapon is a large curved scimitar, which he later passes to Luca. Both are undeniably heroic characters, in spite of the weapon's association with bad guys. Alus also briefly wields it before unsheathing the Zenithian Sword.
- Slasher Smile: Ladja's general performance has plenty of these. Even as he dies and is disintegrating to fine ashes he still wears a creepy smile.
- Stable Time Loop: Turns out, Adult!Luca went to the Fairy to obtain the true Golden Orb for Dr. Agon since the one he had with him was fake... but in order to get it, he's given the fake Golden Orb by the fairy, travels to the past to meet his younger self and tricks him into giving him the true Orb he takes to the present, while giving his younger self the fake orb which will eventually be destroyed by Ladja.
- Supernatural Golden Eyes: Zenithians and their descendants can be distinguished by their golden eyes. Bianca's were hidden by a spell.
- Take That, Audience!: The entire purpose of the virus infecting Your Story is to take the piss on players, simply because the virus dev could. The end of the game is supposed to freeze right at the moment of victory, with the virus then coming in to tell the player that their experience isn't real.
- Taken for Granite: Ladja, as expected, does this to both Luca and later Bianca. From how he comments on it, it's kinda like a hobby for him.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: How Alus manages to seal the gate before Nimzo appears... or it would have worked if it weren't for the virus.
- Toilet Humor: Luca and Harry smear themselves in what's highly implied to be dung, fresh from sewage, to pass as corpses. They stink so much the Orcs immediately throw them in the river without checking their pulse.
- Vocal Dissonance: When Gootrude reveals himself as an antivirus program during the final battle against the hacker, his voice drops down to an octave or two.
- The Worf Effect: Dr. Agon is easily beaten by Ladja even in Dragon Form, because apparently the virus made Ladja more powerful in "this version" of the story.
- You Don't Look Like You: Dr. Agon has a completely different design, being an old man with white hair and beard, instead of the middle-aged man with a black pompadour, bowtie, and suspenders from the game.
