WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Dragon Quest: Adventure of Dai Episode 5, "THE INSIGNIA OF AVAN," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
Episode 5 of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai focuses heavily on the decision Avan makes when faced with a foe stronger than him, and the cards are not in his favor. He may not be the one who can ultimately bring peace to this world, but he can at least be the one to save the hero who eventually can. That hero is Dai, who makes a significant gain in the wake of Avan's loss.
After taking a mortally-wounding magic strike, Avan is relieved to see that neither Popp nor Dai have been injured. He's clearly in a lot of pain, but their sensei puts on a brave face. Avan asks Dai to one day defeat the Dark King. Before they can even process this request, Avan uses the high defense spell Kaclang on Dai, Popp, Brass and Gomechan. Slowly they all begin to turn to iron, leaving them unable to move.
In this state, their defense is high enough that Avan doesn't have to worry about them getting injured from what he's soon about to do. But before returning to his fight against Hadlar, Avan rewards his two students with "Avan Insignia," special pendants that signify that they have graduated to become heroes. It's a hard goodbye as Dai and Popp must helplessly stand and watch as their master walking towards his own demise and there's nothing they can do to stop it.
With all his magic depleted, Avan has to simply rely on his swordsman skill to fight Hadlar. But the Dark Lord is just as easily toying with Avan with his physical abilities as he would with magic. Things look hopeless until we're caught off guard by Avan using the spell Megante to hold Hadlar in place with him. This spell isn't powered by just magic, but by a person's life energy! It causes Avan to self destruct and destroy everything around him, taking his own life to save his students and put a stop to the wicked evil he now faces for the second time.
Dai and the rest look in mourning at the crater where their friend and mentor once stood. Their time to grieve is cut short, as Hadlar survived the explosion. The Dark Lord readies himself to finish off his nemesis's students, but Dai pulls free from the Kaclang spell as he's engulfed in a familiar blue aura. Dai not only manages to hold his own against Hadlar but damages him far beyond what Avan was capable of.
A blue crest appears on Dai's forehead, frightening Hadlar, who calls Dai a "Dragon Knight." Dai ends the fight by performing his master's technique, the Avan Strash, which sends Hadlar flying out of the barrier that protects the island.
While this episode was executed well, there are some issues that can spiral out of control at the rate the series is going. One of the biggest problems with shonen is power creep, where characters simply continue to grow exponentially stronger to face new enemies to the point it becomes boring and predictable. Dai nearly defeated the Dark Lord, who's been built up as the most wicked and powerful enemy the world has ever seen, and it's only Episode 5. Hadlar will be sending his dark army to fight Dai, but this lacks tension because it seems unlikely Hadlar's army would put up a better fight than Hadlar himself.
Not only that, but Dai also performed the Avan Strash, which seemingly mastered out of nowhere. When he began his training with Avan, his tutor made it clear Dai would need to learn how to cut Earth, Water, and Air before he could master the Avan Strash. However, Dai never got to the "cutting air" portion of his training. It kind of deflates all the training Avan put Dai through if he just had to believe in himself hard enough to learn a new technique.
All things considered, however, Dragon Quest Dai still makes for a fun shonen anime despite its flaws. Keep an eye out for Dai as he begins his journey to defeat the Dark King and Hadlar once and for all.
