Editing Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team

{{Infobox manga|image=[[File:dq1-secret-vjump-manga-chp-1-pg-1.png|250px|center]]|caption=''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' Debut Page|jpn_title=DQI秘 伝竜王バリバリ隊|rom_title=Dora Kue Wan Hiden Ryū-ō Baribari-tai|eng_title=|author=[[Riku Sanjō]], [[Kōji Inada]]|publisher=[[Shueisha]] <small>(JP)</small>|publication=''[[V Jump]]''|demographic=Shōnen|date=''V Jump'' Trial Run #1, Issues 1 & 2 (1990-1991)|chapters=2|volumes=}}

'''''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team''''' is a two-chapter manga series written by [[Riku Sanjō]] and illustrated by [[Kōji Inada]], with supervision from [[Yūji Horii]].

The series ran in the first two issues of the original 1990-1991 trial run of [[Shueisha]]'s ''[[V Jump]]'' magazine, and remained uncollected for over a decade after its original serialization.

== Plot ==
Set in the world of Enix's 1986 title, "Dragon Quest", this story depicts the struggle of five humans—transformed into monsters—to secretly protect humanity from other monsters. The timeline at the start of the first chapter is set one year before the protagonist (the Hero) of the original game embarks on their journey. 

== Title ==
The title begins with "DQI" written out with English letters and the Roman numeral for "1" respectively. ''Furigana'' above the "DQ" indicates a pronunciation of ドラクエ (''dora kue''), the Japanese shortening of the full title "Dragon Quest" (ドラゴンクエスト ''Doragon Kuesuto''), and the English pronunciation of the number "one" (ワン ''wan'').

The Japanese word for "secret" or "mystery" (秘 ''hi'') is appended to the "DQI" title.

In its original serialization, a space separates the rest of the manga's title, 竜王バリバリ隊 (''Ryū-ō Baribari-tai''). 竜王 refers to what gets localized as "Dragonlord" in the ''Dragon Quest'' franchise's official English translations, and literally means "Dragon King" (or "King of the Dragons"). The onomatopoeia バリバリ (''baribari'') refers to something vigorous or loud, while 隊 (''tai'') means a group, team, or squad.

Putting that all together, and based on the content of the story itself, one could reasonably adapt this full title in English as something along the lines of ''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Pep Squad''.

In the post-chapter column following its debut, a splash about a mail-in giveaway for an emblem spells out the squad's name in English directly as "Bari Bari Team". As this is an official spelling (that accompanies its debut), we have chosen to present it as-is for this article's formal title.<ref name="chp1extracolumn">"アレフガルド㊙MAP". ''V Jump'', December 12th Issue, ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' Special Edition (First Trial Run; Issue #1). Japan: Shueisha, 28 November 1990. (pp. 112)</ref>

== Characters ==

=== Main Characters ===

* '''The Knight Abhorrent, Zan''' (死神の騎士 "ザン" ''Shinigami no Kishi Zan'')
* '''The Cosmic Chimaera, Patata''' (スターキメラの "パタタ" ''Sutā Kimera no Patata'')
* '''The Golem, Bokka''' (ゴールドマン "ボッカ" ''Gorudoman no Bokka'')
* '''The Tearwolf, Gaoss''' (キラーリカントの "ガオス" ''Kirā Rikanto no Gaosu'')
* '''The Metal Slime, Byu''' (メタルスライムの "ビュー" ''Metaru Suraimu no Byū'')

In the post-chapter column following its debut, a splash about a mail-in giveaway for an emblem spells "Zan," "Patata," "Bokka," and "Gaoss" directly as such with Roman lettering; Byu's name is not written.<ref name="chp1extracolumn" />

Note that "Knight Abhorrent," "Cosmic Chimaera", "Golem," and "Tearwolf" are all the modern English localization names for these respective monsters in the ''Dragon Quest'' series; in the original Japanese, these are "Death Knight," "Star Chimaera," "Goldman," and "Killer Lycant," respectively. "Metal Slime" is the same between both languages. The aforementioned emblem giveaway spells Death Knight as "Des Night," but otherwise spells the other monster names correctly according to their Japanese naming scheme.<ref name="chp1extracolumn" />

=== Supporting Characters ===

* '''The Dragonlord''' (竜王 ''Ryū-ō''; literally "Dragon King" or "King of the Dragons")

== Production ==
[[Riku Sanjō]] and [[Kōji Inada]] produced the ''[[Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai (Manga)|Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai]]'' manga series, which ran from the 1989 No. 45 to 1996 No. 52 issues of Shueisha's ''[[Weekly Shōnen Jump]]''.

During this time (and about a year into the run of ''Dai''), the same duo of Sanjō and Inada collaborated on ''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'', which debuted in the first issue of Shueisha's new ''[[V Jump]]'' magazine — the magazine had just launched as a special extra publication of ''[[Weekly Shōnen Jump]]'' in 1990 with a three-issue trial run, and ''The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' ran in the first and second issues.

For the third issue of ''V Jump'''s initial trial run, the same team instead produced a single-chapter one-shot called ''Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai Extra Edition Outside Story - The Hero Avan''; the chapter told an original story with a young Avan, a character from ''The Adventure of Dai'' and was being featured at the time in the respective new animated television series adaptation.

For both chapters of ''The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' (as well as the Avan one-shot that followed it):

* Horii received the "Supervisor" or "Editorial Supervisor" (監修 ''kanshū'') credit
* Sanjō received the "Original Work" (原作 ''gensaku'') credit
* Inada received the "Comics" (漫画 ''manga'') credit

Following its first chapter, a single page special column shared a map of Alefgard (the setting for the original ''Dragon Quest'' video game), as well as short blurbs describing where each of the monsters originally came from as humans.<ref name="chp1extracolumn" />

Following its second chapter, a single page special column included a mock interview with the Dragonlord himself discussing the Bari Bari Team and his own dark ambitions.<ref name="chp2extracolumn">"DQI秘伝竜王バリバリ隊". ''V Jump'', June 26th Issue, ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' Special Edition (First Trial Run; Issue #2). Japan: Shueisha, 12 June 1991. (pp. 208)</ref>

''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' remained uncollected outside its original ''V Jump'' trial run serialization until 2002, when the collected edition of Sanjō's and Inada's later ''[[Dragon Quest IV Side-Story: Infernal Labyrinth]]'' (DRAGON QUEST IV 外伝 地獄の迷宮) manga included the two ''Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' chapters as extras. In between its two chapters, Sanjō included a lengthy recollection about ''The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'', noting its unfinished status and preempt by the the ''Avan'' one-shot in the next issue, and plans for a full volume that would have potentially included additional story beats from the narrative of the original game while weaving in the manga-exclusive characters:<ref>Sanjō, Riku; Inada, Kōji. ''Dragon Quest IV Side-Story: Infernal Labyrinth''. Japan: Shueisha, 2002. ISBN 4-08-873309-6. (pp. 162-163)</ref>

{{quotation|「竜王バリバリ隊」は、まだゲーム誌として創刊する前に漫画誌形態で発行された「ブイジャンプ」（1990年度）に掲載されたものです。なんと、12年もの時を経て今回初めてコミックス化されることになりました。

当時はまさに「DQIV」の全盛期というか、「もうすぐ『V 』が出るぞ！」という時なのでまさに世代一周という感じです。そこでジャンプ本誌とは違ったドラクエ漫画を要求されたので、まず鳥瞰的に「モンスターを主役にしよう」という事を思い付きました。『ダイ 』との差別化として人々に称えられる勇者の物語ではなく、人氏れず世界を守る者たちのストーリーを書いたら良いのではないか、と思ったのです。

そこで題材をあえてドラクエの原点である『I 』にしました。ばくはシリーズの中では『II 』が一番好きですし、『III 』や『IV 』の方が派手で良いのですが、モンスターの魅力という点においては設定・デザインともに『I 』がダントシとの思いを常に持っていたなです。（とにかく、『I 』のモンスターは手強くって忘れられない！主人公が一人のせいもあるけど。）

かくして人間でありながら魔物にされてしまったバリバリ隊の活躍は始まったわけですが、この『ブイジャンプ』自体が３号でひとまずお休みとなり、しかも３号目には『ダイ 』のアニメ化にあわれなアバン先生の読切（『ダイ 』１３巻に収録されたいます）が載ってしまったために、２話のみで未完となってしまいました。まったく人間に戻してやれなくて申し訳ない、といったところです。

自分としてはコミックス一冊分ぐらいの構成を考えていてこの後、「光の玉を取られるラダトームの攻防」「勇者と出会いローラ姫救出をサポート」「最終決戦で勇者は竜王を倒し、バリバリ隊は竜貴妃を倒す」という展開をザン、ボッカ、ガオスの過去話とからめながら描いていくつもりでしな。稲田先生の暖かみのある画風にも良くあっていて、今読んでも結構好きな作品だなあ、と思えまするね。それにやっぱり、ゴールドマンとかキメラなど「I」のモンスターは素晴らしい！

傑作デザインという以外に無いです。|<hr><br>
ENGLISH TRANSLATION TBD}}

== Chapters ==
Title page splashes for both chapters come on their second respective page, with chapter 1 in particular spilling across the spine into part of its third page. The pages showcased here in this table are the actual first pages of the respective chapters.
{| class="wikitable"
!First Page
!Chapter Number
!Pages
!Publication
!Issue
!Sale Date
|-
|[[File:Dq1-secret-vjump-manga-chp-1-pg-1.png|link=Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team Chapter 1|100x100px]]
|1<ref>"Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team". ''V Jump'', December 12th Issue, ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' Special Edition (First Trial Run; Issue #1). Japan: Shueisha, 28 November 1990. (pp. 81-111)</ref>
|31
|''[[V Jump]]''
|Trial Run 1, Issue #1
|28 November 1990<ref>"TBD". ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'', 1990 #TBD. Japan: Shueisha, TBD. (p. TBD)</ref><ref>{{Cite web|URL=https://dragon-ball-official.com/news/01_2592.html|Website=Dragon Ball Official Site|Title="月刊ドラゴンボールレポート！　第6回はナメック星での激闘・後半を振り返る!!"|Date=20 April 2024|AccessDate=02 March 2026}}</ref>
|-
|[[File:Dq1-secret-vjump-manga-chp-1-pg-2.png|link=Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team Chapter 2|100x100px]]
|2<ref>"Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team". ''V Jump'', June 26th Issue, ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' Special Edition (First Trial Run; Issue #2). Japan: Shueisha, 28 November 1990. (pp. 177-207)</ref>
|31
|''[[V Jump]]''
|Trial Run 1, Issue #2
|12 June 1991
|-
|}

== Releases ==
''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' remained uncollected outside its original ''V Jump'' trial run serialization until 2002, when the collected edition of Sanjō's and Inada's later ''[[Dragon Quest IV: Infernal Labyrinth]]'' manga included the two ''Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' chapters as extras. The table of contents for this volume appends the "secret" (秘 ''hiden'') to the rest of the title, which could cause it to be understood (and therefore translated) entirely differently; however, the comments in between chapters from original author Riku Sanjō explictily puts the 「伝竜王バリバリ隊」 as such inside Japanese quotations marks, explicitly separate from the first part of the title.

The same manga content was re-released in 2006 in the newsstand "Shueisha Jump Remix" format, which itself was repackaged again 2011 for an "encore" as part of a "Dragon Quest Anthology" (ドラゴンクエスト作品集) manga release under the same "Shueisha Jump Remix" line<ref>{{Cite web|URL=http://www.dragonquest.jp/25th/goods/24|Website=ドラゴンクエスト誕生25周年記念ポータルサイト|Title="集英社ジャンプリミックスで幻のドラゴンクエストコミックスが復活！"|AccessDate=05 May 2026}}</ref> (with the next two volumes collecting chapters of [[Osamu Kaneko]]'s ''[[Slime Adventure]]'' and ''[[Slime Morimori]]'', respectively), all as part of the ''Dragon Quest'' franchise's 25th anniversary celebration.
{| class="wikitable"
!Cover
!Volume Title
!Primary Contents
!Pages
!Price
!Release Date
!ISBN
|-
|[[File:Dq4-gaiden-manga-tankobon-cover.png|100x100px]]
|DRAGON QUEST IV 外伝 地獄の迷宮
''Doragon Kuesuto Fō Gaiden Jigoku no Meikyū''
'''Dragon Quest IV Side-Story: Infernal Labyrinth'''
|''Dragon Quest IV Side-Story: Infernal Labyrinth'' Chapter 1
''Dragon Quest IV Side Story: Infernal Labyrinth'' Chapter 2
''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' Chapter 1
''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' Chapter 2
|202
|&#xA5;390
|2002
|4-08-873309-6
|-
|[[File:Dq4-gaiden-manga-sjr-cover.png|100x100px]]
|DRAGON QUEST IV 外伝 地獄の迷宮
''Doragon Kuesuto Fō Gaiden Jigoku no Meikyū''
'''Dragon Quest IV Side-Story: Infernal Labyrinth'''
|''Dragon Quest IV Side-Story: Infernal Labyrinth'' Chapter 1
''Dragon Quest IV Side Story: Infernal Labyrinth'' Chapter 2
''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' Chapter 1
''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' Chapter 2
|212
|&#xA5;350
|2006
|4-08-109316-4
|-
|[[File:Dq-anthology-manga-vol-1-cover.png|100x100px]]
|ドラゴンクエスト作品集Vol.1　地獄の迷宮
''Doragon Kuesuto Sakuhin-shū Vol. 1 Jigoku no Meikyū''
'''Dragon Quest Anthology Vol. 1: Infernal Labyrinth'''
|''Dragon Quest IV Side-Story: Infernal Labyrinth'' Chapter 1
''Dragon Quest IV Side Story: Infernal Labyrinth'' Chapter 2
''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' Chapter 1
''Dragon Quest I Secret: The Dragonlord's Bari Bari Team'' Chapter 2
|212
|&#xA5;350
|16 September 2011
|TBD
|-
|}

== External Links ==

* http://www.dragonquest.jp/25th/goods/24

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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