The Dragon Quest series of video games has been around since 1986, and the franchise is massively popular in Japan. It has spawned novels, anime, and manga, including Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, a serialized manga that appeared in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1989 to 1996. That manga resulted in two anime series of the same name, the first running for a year beginning in 1991 and the second launching in October 2020.
Both anime series of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai follow similar paths, with many episode names nearly identical, although the second series diverges in places from the original because it covers the entire plot of the manga. The second series is also experiencing a level of success that the first didn't, thanks to streaming services like Hulu and Crunchyroll that have made it more easily accessible to audiences around the world.
As with most popular video game, anime, or manga series, fans of both versions of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai can collect figurines, plushies, and all manner of swag. That merchandise will soon include a chess set that was created to celebrate the first anniversary of the second series and will cost the equivalent of $30,000 US dollars. The set will be sold by U-Treasure beginning in November 2021, and the website provides worldwide shipping using a proxy purchasing service.
In Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, one of the primary antagonists is Hadlar, supreme commander of the Dark Army. The chess pieces in the set represent members of the Hadlar Royal Guard, which is fitting because in the story these guards are also chess pieces made out of orichalcum. To reproduce this effect, the real-life chess pieces will be fabricated out of high-quality silver, with a black coating to differentiate one half of the set.
In the Hadlar Royal Guard, Hym is the pawn, Sigma the knight, Block the rook, Fenbren the bishop, and Albinass the queen. In Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, this special chess set was gifted to Haldar by Vearn, a king who serves as the main antagonist of the story and wants to destroy the human world. Haldar then uses Legendary Forbidden Magic to animate the chess pieces to serve as his elite bodyguards.
In addition to the manga on which the 2020 anime is based, there is also a prequel manga series, a spin-off manga, three short films based on the first anime series, as well as two published Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai video games and two more in development.
Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai is an anime series currently available on Hulu in the US.
Sources: Siliconera, U-Treasure