【 Dragon Quest Die’s Adventure】Why does Pop have such a strong following? An in-depth examination

As mentioned above, Pop’s slacker period only lasts for two volumes out of the 36 volumes.
From then on, although there are a few scenes where he gets carried away or is a little sluggish, he becomes a character that is typical of Jump at that time, which emphasizes friendship, hard work, and victory, and makes numerous appearances.

In fact, he has so many scenes that he eclipses the main character, Dai.

Dai Dai itself is known as a work with many famous scenes that are still talked about today, such as “Aban’s Megante,” “Balan’s last moments,” the famous battle against Old Byrne with “…that wasn’t Merazoma…that was Merah…”, “Hadler’s awakening and There are also many great scenes in episodes where Pop is not the main character, such as “The Last Days”, “Hyukel’s Final Battle”, and “Dai’s Determination in the Battle of Young Burn” …….
However, there are many more great episodes involving Pop.

The second battle against the Crocodyne, the scene where he and the Crocodyne leave Dai to escape, learning the Medora, the encouragement to Dai after the defeat of Old Byrne, the battle against Sigma, the scene where he jumps into Kilburn’s trap to save Dai, and the attack on Kaiser Phoenix are all great scenes that die-hard fans can easily remember. But that’s just the beginning.
In terms of Pop’s best scenes, the “Battle of Balan” in which he used Megante in order to protect Dai, the “Battle of the Dragonriders” in which he used his past as a coward to trick his friends into stopping a powerful enemy, and the “Like a Flash” in which he showed off his short-lived human life to Burn at the end of the final battle are the top three. In particular, “Like a Flash” is the best of the three.
In particular, “Like a flash of light” is such a famous saying that many people still use it as their motto, and it can even be said to be a saying that transcends the framework of the work.

Pop, who burned his presence into the hearts of so many fans with his dialogues and scenes, continues to be remembered by Jump readers even after the series has ended and years have passed, and his name is frequently mentioned online as “the most developed character in manga history.

In a survey conducted by the online news site Netorabo in 2020, “Which fellow character from ‘Dai no Daiboken’ do you like the most? In a survey conducted by the online news site Netorabo in 2020, “Which of the characters in “Dai no Daiboken” is your favorite?
At the time of the series, Dai was always number one in the popularity polls, but now Pop is the undisputed signature character of Dai Dai.

Is the drastic decrease in growth characters a tailwind?

出典 : Amazon.co.jp

The appeal of the character Pop is that he is a weakling, not the strongest among his peers, has no special bloodline, and was technically and mentally inexperienced, but over a long period of time he grew and became one of the strongest characters in the series.
This kind of character was rarely seen today, let alone in the 90s when Dai Dai Dai was serialized.
As a comparable character, Tadao Yokoshima of “GS Mishin: Gokuraku Daisakusen! but his parents were quite capable, and it is hard to say that he was born from an ordinary person, making Pop an extremely unique character.

One of the reasons why characters like Pop have not been created over the years is because of changing trends.

Before the year 2000, there was a strong tendency for stories to be about the protagonist growing up in the story.
The main character of a battle story is often a character who grows up in an easy to understand way, and it is a standard trend that a character who is initially ineffective and young inside will gradually grow physically, technically, and mentally until he becomes a leader and defeats a great evil. It was also a big part of the story.

However, in recent years, this trend is disappearing, and there are many stories in which the protagonist is the strongest from the start, which inevitably means that there are fewer opportunities to depict growth.
In the past, it was normal to depict training and discipline over a long period of time, but gradually the view that the discipline part is unnecessary has increased, and many works omit it.
As a result, although there are characters who undergo dramatic growth, most of them grow up immediately due to reasons such as the awakening of their talents, and there are considerably fewer works that take the time to depict human growth.

Also, it has been a standard setting for a long time that the main character has a special bloodline or extraordinary talent, and Dai is a special being with the blood of a “dragon knight” as an example, but the reason why this kind of setting is so common is because it is the easiest to understand as a reason for rapid growth.
The fact that everyone agrees that a person becomes strong because of his or her talent is what makes his or her strength so compelling.

There is no particular reason why Pop, the son of ordinary parents, became the world’s strongest wizard, and if we do the same thing today, when people try to make the training part as short as possible, it might be called opportunistic.
Pop was able to become Pop because it was a time when it was possible to slowly portray the growth process, and when it was possible to tolerate the portrayal of slackers in the beginning.

In other words, in recent years, the foundation for the birth of a character like Pop is disappearing.

Summary

The pop-up around the time of volume 2 and 3 is pretty awful looking back on it now, so if these scenes are aired in the anime, it’s going to be a total slap in the face from the generation that doesn’t know the original story.
Including the promised flip-flop after that, I’m pretty excited!