Lodoss-tou Senki: Eiyuu Kishi Den

This anime is sortof a sequel, sortof a retelling of the original Record of Lodoss War OAV. Continuity-wise, it seems to be something of a combination of the two. Some things distinctly happen after those events, some things seem to happen during the same period of time. In my own head, I think of it as a sequel.

This anime is a more "anime" anime. The characters are more colorful (visually), and although it is good, I don't like the animation quite as much as I did the animation from the OAV. Although I think the characters are a bit more interesting. This one is longer, ... and it has more time to flesh out the characters.

The music is lovely.

I also do really enjoy the short animations at the end of each episode. I think they're hilarious.

Honestly, I was very disappointed by this. I'm a big lover of fantasy, I read a lot of fantasy novels and play D&D, I also loved the original OVA, but this one was far below what I expected.
The writing was extremely predictable and often, I found myself wanting for more. Something unpredictable, something that would explain character motivations, particularly the villains who came off as "evil for evil's sake" and not someone with actual meaningful motivations for the things they did. I didn't care for most of the characters and honestly, it was a drag to get through.
I still love the character designs, honestly, I ... still think they have one of the best designs for elves and even if the animation is subpar at times, I can't complain about the art style itself. But I still wouldn't recommend this at all - stick to the original OVA and keep away from this one.

It might not be fair to write a review on a show which was made two decades ago from now, but i'll write it anyway. It might also not be fair to compare it with the shows that exist today, but I'll do it anyway.

The STORYLINE is good... but it's implementation is concise and lacks details. Watching it felt like 27 episodes weren't really enough to briefly describe the events, character development, which are the MOST SIGNIFICANT ISSUES with this show.

The CHARACTERS were really immature (especially SPARK), although the quotes they said from time to time were really motivating. The first 8 episodes ... has PARN as its main character, but after that the mc role is taken by SPARK. I would be fine with any protagonist, but the immature personality of SPARK stopped me from liking him as a character. SPARK didn't develop as a character till the last episode, although we saw many other characters who praised him for things he barely did, sudden romantic development, his desperate decisions...

ASHRAM and PARN matured a lot after episode 8, and they were my favorite characters in this show. DEEDLIT is also adorable when she tries to get attention of PARN. But their screen time just becomes less and less with the consecutive episodes, that it isn't enough to counter the dislike towards SPARK.

The background MUSIC has classic RPG theme, and it's really compatible with the desperate development of the story events. The Op & Ed songs are perhaps the best aspect of this show imo.


OVERALL : The show could have done better if not for its FAST PACING of the events which ruined the show significantly (from a perspective of someone who's watched this two decades later).

As a note, I am thankful for the fact that many 'fantasy' based shows that exists today are refined from this show ; In this sense, Lodoss-tou Senki can be considered as the predecessor of many fantasy shows. BUT as someone watching this two decades later, one may feel this show is far from even the decent ones that exist today. For that very reason, I wouldn't recommend this show to anyone. (Just my opinion)


(4/10)


Thank You!