Anime Profile: Dragon Warrior

The Dragon Warrior series was about a young hero named Abel, and a young heroine called Tialah. It starts out in a small village outside of Aliahan on Tialah's 16th birthday. She's called into the house by her mother because an old sage called Master Yogi came to see her. Master Yogi gives her a red jewel necklace and sash.

She runs out, with her slimes Chi Chi and Ka Ka, to see Abel who is out fishing at the lake. Abel is trying to catch a gigantic fish (what is it with Toriyama and big fish?) when she arrives. After getting thoroughly beaten by the fish, Tialah asks Abel to try out her new invention (some sort of hang glider). It works, sort of. Abel rides it for a while until the wings melt and goes right into the lake. Tialah goes into the lake to help him and while underwater they come across a sunken stone tablet. They read about the Legendary Dragon and how it can be released with the Red Stone and sealed again with the Blue Stone. Whoever drinks the blood of the Dragon is awarded eternal life, but the Dragon can only be cut with a special sword and the blood can only be caught in a special cup.

They head to shore to see the flying fortress of Gaim arrive over them. Out of the fortress flies Moor, a fish like magician who rode in a pink energy ball. After a failed attempt to fight him, Tialah and Abel are pulled into Gaim and wind up face to face with Baramos. With sheer will, Baramos levitates Abel and throws him into the walls. He is then ejected from the fortress. Before he falls, Tialah tells Chi Chi to look after Abel. Defeated and injured, Abel falls into the lake with one of Tialah's feathers from her hang glider landing on his face. Abel swears to get her back at any cost.

Realizing that Tialah knows nothing about the Red Stone around her neck, Baramos sends Moor to attack the village and retrieve information. Mokomoko and a priest nurse Abel back to health and the priest tells Abel that Tialah is carrying the Red Stone and only he can get her back. He gives him the Blue Stone, which is attached to a headband. During the village attack, Moor finds Tialah's parents and Master Yogi. He puts them into a trance and learns details of the Dragon from Master Yogi. During Moor's escape, he leaves behind a Giant Anteater (from DQ III) to wreck everything. A recovered Master Yogi manages to call upon the power of the Dragon to give Abel the opportunity to kill it. But the ordeal is too much for Master Yogi to handle and passes away.

Abel and Mokomoko leave for Aliahan castle to receive more information from the king. Along the way, the wizard Yanak and the fighter Daisy join their cause. As always, Baramos is one step ahead of them. They receive a map of how to find the Dragon, but it is stolen by Baramos.

This is where the 13 U.S. episodes stop at, however the story itself continues on. The Red Temple which Baramos was heading to. Baramos has already left and had trashed the place. There, Abel has a vision of the Dragon being released and it being sealed up again. When the vision is over, the group receives the Sailor's Bone (seen in DQIII).

Gaim has gone back to Escheat to be recharged. It is here that Zoom, Baramos' master is introduced. I was told later on that Mokomoko gets into a fight with a Metal Slime. It breaks his clubs and he has to wind up buying new weapons. After crossing the bridge into the other countries and going on a few side quests, the group finally stocks up on new weapons and supplies.

Tialah and Deeding escape Gaim without Baramos noticing. But once again, Abel had boarded Gaim to fight Baramos. Tialah had just had the resurrection power transferred to her and she meets the rest of the group. Tialah and Deeding had been teleported away before the rest of the group found Abel. Abel had gotten the crud beaten out of him again. This time the fight left him in a coma. Yanak took him to his master, Zanak (seen in episode 11), to be revived. While Able is being revived, Tialah takes his place in the party.

When Able is healed, Yanak decides to stay with Zanak to train and improve his magic skills. After this, Able fights a man under the control of Baramos. After Able defeats him, Able learns that the man is his father, but he soon dies in an attack from one of Baramos' generals. The group then winds up back in Aliahan and Abel meets up with the king of Aliahan. He gives Abel a map that allows the Blue and Red Stones to track each other. The priest also gives Tialah the knife in order to to cut the Legendary Dragon. She leaves with Deeding and Mokomoko to find the cup needed to summon the Dragon.

While Abel, Daisy, and Daisy's brother Toby search for the orbs and Liamland, the come across Hagon and Shido (Hargon and Malroth from DQII). To help out in the fight, Yanak returns to the group. When Hagon is defeated, Able is lead to the shrine of Ramia (from DQ3). He places the orbs and the egg hatches and Ramia is born.

Meanwhile, Tialah finds the Holy Cup and General Ludolph returns and Baramos powers him up. Abel's group finds the Holy Sword and Ludolph attacks. Of course, Abel defeats him.

Later on, Baramos returns to Zoom. Zoom gives Baramos a boost of energy causing him to change his form and he's now twice as powerful. In one of the final battles, Toby, Zanak, and Deeding are killed.

Tialah resurrects the Legendary Dragon at Aliahan. But, it's only a baby! Baramos steals the Holy Sword and Cup and cut the throat of the Dragon. Before he can drink the blood, Mokomoko knocks the cup out of his hand prompting Baramos to kill him. The Dragon grows to an adult size. The Dragon attacks Baramos and manages to kill Moor and destroy Gaim. The Dragon and the Red and Blue stones unite to form Roto's armor, sword, and shield on Able. After a huge fight, Able finally defeats Baramos.

The year is 1989. On ABC, at least in my area, one of the first examples of anime on a major network channel appears. This show had a run of a single season. Whatever it was that happened afterwards made this series very difficult to find, especially with over 10 years gone by since it was canceled. And nothing was able to get me up at 7:00 in the morning to watch it like this did. This site is dedicated to being an upcoming resource on this all but lost piece of anime in America.

The primary artist involved in the Dragon Warrior series is none other than Akira Toriyama, most well known in America for his Dragon Ball Z series. Toriyama has also been the character designer for all of the Dragon Quest/Warrior games and for the game Chrono Trigger, and he's done so much more work as well. If you have any interest at all in his other works, I recommend taking a look at this series as well.