Lodoss-tou Senki

Of all the Anime series that I have viewed, Record of Lodoss War holds a special place in my heart. If you happen to be fond of fantasy adventure videogames as I am (or great literature such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings), then this 13-episode video series is a very clever hybrid of these two great works of art. It's got everything fans could ask for--dragons, elves, dark gods, unlikely yet compelling heroes, villains you'll either hate (or love, depending on who you side with), action, suspense, romance, a small dose of humor, and an engaging feel to keep on watching ... by the time each episode ends.

This is a direct-to-video animation series produced back in 1990, which unfolds over thirteen half-hour episodes. Adapted from the fantasy novels of the same name by Japanese author Ryo Mizuno, Lodoss is a classic good-vs-evil story, exploring the chronicles of six adventurers: these include Parn, a young, inexperienced warrior eager to (literally) jump at any chance to clear his father's tarnished name; Deedlit, a spunky, mystical high elf who tries (with varying degrees of success) to prove her love to Parn; Etoh, a loyal, good-natured cleric; Slayn, a gentle wise mage; Ghim, a gruff and tough dwarf; and Woodchuck, a wanted criminal who nonetheless provides loyalty (and occasional chagrin) to his pals.

The story is hardly original, and the plot tends to "jumps around" from one event to the next (for instance, the first episode starts off in the "middle" of the heroes' quest; chronologically, it'd be best to see eps 2-5, 1, and then 6-13)--yet the overall show is so engrossing that this fault (in addition to a few others I'll come to in a moment) becomes irrelevant.

It's the characters which make Record Of Lodoss War so much fun, and much of the best scenes belong to Parn and Deedlit; especially in a royal banquet episode where she forces Parn to dance with her (one of my favorite sequences from the show). As is typical of a elf-dwarf rivalry, Ghim and Deed bicker about each other's differences yet maintain a somewhat begrudging level of self-respect. It's Parn, however, whose plight stays with you long after the show approaches its climax. Eager to discover whether his father died in disgrace or not, he finds a father figure in Kashue. (This gets on Deedlit's nerves; she continually competes with the king for Parn's attention--a running gag that plays out unfortunately for only a couple of episodes.) In the latter episodes, we meet two new characters who don't get much screen time but are no less fully realized. Shiris, the hotheaded young mercenary who vies with Deedlit for Parn's affections is strongly depicted, as is her partner (and secret love), Orson, the moody Berserker, who becomes an angry, uncontrollable monster at the sight of Shiris in trouble.

Even the bad guys are richly developed. Ashram, as mentioned, isn't driven so much by malice as he is by what he believes is right; in fact, he becomes the most three-dimensional of the villains for that reason alone. For support, he has a Dark Elf accomplice named Pirotess (the opposite of Deedlit) who'll do anything to prove her loyalty to him... including sacrificing herself. Karla, incidentally, is no ordinary villainess. Her primary goal is to bring to Lodoss the balance she feels has been so greatly disturbed... yet her psychologically unbalanced persona leads her to cause far worse chaos with deadly consequences. She is shifty, cunning, manipulative -- an almost deadly combination. Wagnard, on the other hand, is just plain evil -- every bit the equivalent of Kefka from Final Fantasy III who cackles fiendishly as he puts his dark plans into action. When we first meet him, he appears to be a nondescript character, but when he becomes possessed by Kardis, he becomes frighteningly villainous. (Every scene he's in sends shivers down my spines.)

Its the strength of the characters and their chemistry as well as the compelling (if jumpy) plot that make Lodoss as a whole that one can overlook its occasional shortcomings, notably the animation, which, although gorgeously drawn, uses a low cel count resulting with some stiff movements. Taking into account that this is an older show, however, this doesn't really detract all that much (although there are some later episodes where some of the same footage is reused, for cost cutting purposes).

No fantasy adventure would be complete without a stirring soundtrack, and Record of Lodoss War delivers this in style. The musical score by Mitsuo Hagita is mostly symphonic, although it is (obviously) generated by electronics. Yet the compositions were so rich and lovely that they eventually grew on me over the course of the show. Equally lovely are the opening and ending theme songs, "Adesso e Fortuna -Now & Fortune-" and "Fantasia of the Wind", both of which are excellently sung in Japanese by Sherry. As a nice bonus, these songs were even translated for the English version; the woman who sings the dubbed songs, Lisa DeSimone, sings with an equally splendid voice.

One aspect of Lodoss often criticized is the English dub, produced by New York-based Central Park Media in 1996, a time when most dubs had a low reputation. I've read all kinds of mixed opinions about this English track; some say its fake and/or mediocre while other claims its unbearable, but here's a better review from one of its several (albeit outspoken on the net at least) enthusiastic fans (that's me). No, it's not perfect, and some lines do come off as a bit awkward, but a lot of the voice-overs are really good. In particular, Billy Regan (Parn), Lisa Ortiz (Deedlit), Al Muscari (Slayn), Jacques Le Can (Woodchuck), Simone Grant (Karla & Leylia), John Knox (Ashram), Jayce Reeves (Wagnard), and Alexander J. Rose (Wort and the Narrator), are among my favorites. Plus, the dialog is close to the subtitled script and packed with some memorable one-liners (Parn: "Quick, Deed, what's this dragon's weak spot?" Deedlit: "I'm not a dragon expert! How should I know?!") and great chemistry between the actors. I especially loved the interactions between Parn and Deedlit, the banter between Ghim and Deed, and a lot of other things. Which is why it saddens me that some would find all of this "inferior" to the Japanese language track. I listened to parts of the Japanese language track, too, and while I did find it to be of top-quality, I find that the dub still holds its own position decently. Of course, it may be in danger of being overshadowed by some of the better dub productions of today, but for a dub made in 1996, its a rather decent, if unspectacular listen. I'm still fond of it, as a matter of fact, even after hearing some better ones.

Record of Lodoss War has received its share of detractors over recent years, probably due to its cheap production values and/or inconsistent plotting. However, it is important to remember that these "shortcomings" is mainly because it's an older Anime series. While Lodoss may show its age in places, its infectious appeal and complexity rings true even after other shows of its ilk, and like most classics, it can stand against the test of time.

Overview:

Record of the Lodoss War was a HUGE hit when it came out in 1990 Japan. It also gained strong popularity among the tiny US anime fandom of the early 90s. Unfortunately, this anime has not aged gracefully. Normally I hate using the phrase "aged poorly". It's something that young punks use too often to just shit on anything over 10 years old. In this one instance though, I'm afraid it's kind of unavoidable.

Background:

Record of the Lodoss War was a 1990 OVA based on a Japanese short novel... based an a Japanese tabletop RPG...which was a ripoff of Dungeons and Dragons. Take the most cliche ... Western high fantasy tropes and they are ALL here in Lodoss War, distilled down to their most basic. The characters go well beyond archetypes and into the realm of laughably generic. The plot was already just a standard D&D campaign in the novel, but the 10 episode OVA had to cut out a LOT of the novel. If Wheel of Time is like bare bones high fantasy, this OVA is like sucking the marrow from those bones.

Popularity:

As I mentioned previously, this OVA was a smash hit and spawned a ton of video games, radio dramas, manga, and a 27 episode sequel! So HOW did it get so popular?! To understand this, we have to go back to the year 1990 and look at it from that perspective. Ring the bell sucka! School's in session!

Just as it used to take a few years for a Japanese fad to spread to America, it took a little bit for American trends to spread to Japan. In the early 90s, Japan was heavily influenced by American culture of the 1980s. High fantasy was HUGE in the 1980s. The utterly mediocre Wheel of Time books were dominating the best seller lists in America. WOT gained such popularity in the Southern US that Atlanta created Dragon Con as a WOT convention. To this day it is the largest geek convention in the Southeast US! Dungeons and Dragons was an absolute cultural phenomenon. He-Man was the most popular toy in the US. You couldn't go anywhere without running into Tolkien inspired high fantasy with elves, dwarves, orcs, and all the rest. There were plenty of high fantasy based video games in Japan by 1990, but not really any high fantasy anime or manga at the time to meet this demand. Record of the Lodoss War was created to fill a hole that NEEDED filling back in that time. Today, there really isn't the same thirst for Tolkien style high fantasy and there are already 100 fantasy anime better than Lodoss War. Keep in mind that Japanese gamers LOVED Hydlide when it hit home PCs back in 1984. Today...there isn't much of a Hydlide fandom. Lodoss isn't THAT bad, but at times it feels close.

There is one other reason that Lodoss sold like hotcakes back in its day. Deedlit the Elf chick and her sex appeal. Deedlit was in many ways the first true "waifu" in anime. Before this you really didn't see lonely virgins collecting TONS of figurines and body pillows of their favorite anime girls. You've probably heard lots of people online waxing nostalgic for the anime heroes of the 80s. They all had chiseled muscles, hard jaws, broad shoulders, and looked MANLY! When have you heard people talk about how they want female designs from 80s anime back? That's right. You haven't. Look at the top 300 waifus on MAL. You'll see Yoko Littner, Senjougahara, Rei and Asuka, Lucy Heartfilia, Nami, Erza, Hinata, etc. NONE of these were around in 1990. Even Android 18 and Major Kusanagi weren't around yet. The only rivals Deedlit had were Lunch from Dragonball and Cutie Honey from the 1970s!

Story:

A young swordsman with no parents must team up with an elvish archer, an axe wielding dwarf named Gim, a Wizard, and a thief to go on a long journey and thwart an evil God. Did I mention this series has little imagination of its own? The only creative thing to come out of this series was an evil sword called "Soul Crusher" that took possession of its owner and had a giant eye in hilt. The game Soul Calibur BLATANTLY stole this from Lodoss War. I mentioned this before, but the novel had to be very abridged. In one episode, our heroes decide they need to go meet an old wizard and learn the weakness of an evil sorceress named Karla the Grey. In the next episode, it just announces that they have returned from seeing the wizard and learned all about her. Lodoss has a firm policy of "Tell, don't show."

Characters:

The characters once again are SO generic that I can't really say much about them. Instead I'll focus on Deedlit, who is the only character ANYONE remembers from this series. She was drawn with long blonde hair, massive bouncy breasts, and very soft facial features. Deedlit was being drawn by a young Satoshi Urushihara, the KING of breasts! That's all I need to say. She IMMEDIATELY falls in love with the young swordsman right after meeting him and plays his sexy sidekick. She doesn't really have any chemistry with our leading hero Parn, but her looks still win her "best girl of 1990". Fuck Bulma! She was still being a total bitch on Namek at this point.

Art:

The art by Studio Madhouse is decent for the most part, but this wasn't Madhouse's top performance here. In the 80s and early 90s, Madhouse was at its best with feature films like Wicked City or Ninja Scroll. It could also do 3 episode OVAs like Cyber City "God Damn Vampire" Oedo, which looks WAY better than Lodoss. With a 10 episode OVA, the budget got so strained that we end up with a still image of a dragon getting dragged across the screen in a moment of unintentional hilarity.

Music:

The soundtrack is pretty damn limited and plays the same tracks over and over. The closing theme is awesome though and contains the line "please fall asleep on my breasts."

Overall:

Lodoss is not an anime that's going to knock the socks off new anime viewers in 2018. Still, if you are interested in anime history and want to see a neat time capsule of the year 1990, it is worth checking out. Just go into it knowing what to expect and put on your archaeologist hat.

Knights, clerics, elves, dwarves and dragons occupy some of our biggest inner-nerd imaginations. Some of my fondest memories were playing old school dungeon-crawler video games on the PC, and interacting with this type of fantasy lore. Lord of the Rings, Willow and the Chronicles of Narnia all come to mind when reminiscing of some of my favorite fictional fantasies, and there’s plenty of anime out there that scratch the itch. Legendary anime studio Madhouse attempted to tackle Record of Lodoss War in the early 90’s, a time when fantasy novels and movies were undoubtedly on the rise. It has a palpable Dungeons and Dragons feel, ... and is nostalgic of those all-nighters with friends, chugging our Mountain Dews and munching on Doritos while rolling the 20-sided die one more time. Unfortunately Lodoss is plagued with a sense of “generic” that’ll have you thirsting for more depth… which’ll sadly never come. Coupled with some of the most inconsistent English voice acting I’ve ever heard, it’ll be an anime you’ll probably forget soon after watching it.

My biggest complaint about Lodoss is that it wasn’t given the proper amount of episodes to expand its story properly. It has such an engrossing atmosphere and massive worldbuilding potential that is squandered terribly due to a lack of time investment. What we’re left with is a marginalized “good vs. evil” approach, thinning the cast of characters to generic protagonists and antagonists. A series with this much imagination needs the proper nurturing to ensure success, and 26 episodes would’ve given it more of a fighting chance. On top of that, they decided to drop the viewers into the middle of what is chronologically after the 5th episode… only leading to the confusion. I don’t know if different mediums of media were trying this reverse storytelling at the time, but it was entirely unnecessary and only confused the hell out of me, and I’m assuming a lot of other people.

You follow Parn (yep, sounds like porn) and his stereotypical group of fellow travelers (a cleric, wizard, elf, dwarf and thief) as they seek to prevent the destruction of the planet by baddies that want to control the universe. Sound intriguing? Well, I can assure you that this is the Dynasty Warriors button masher of plots. Considering the source material is actually written to emulate a D&D experience, the dungeon master must’ve been rather disappointing. The main character transforms from useless fodder to going toe for toe with the most powerful foe on Lodoss (which has definitely never happened in an anime before), all in the course of like 5 episodes. There's a loose backstory referencing his father and restoring his family’s honor, but it’s unconvincing at best. Generic quotes like “I'll get you!” and “you're no match for me!” resonate from his vocabulary on occasion, and you sense there isn't much there are on his intellectual level. Parn’s childhood friend Etoh, the with perhaps the worst English voice actor of all time, accompanies him as a sworn companion.

Deedlit, a high elf and Parn’s hinted love interest, is a princess that randomly decides to join the adventure. Given the fact that she’s actually of royalty, she naturally drops everything to answer the underlying question of what is happening to her people. And honestly, the rest of the main pack is irrelevant. A gaggle of genericized fantasy tropes, which doesn’t create the best selling point. The most interesting character in the entire series is Ashram, a knight who seeks the highest power, but has some serious self-identification and reflecting to do in the process. He’s initially perceived as a villain, but can actually draw some empathy and understanding as the series elapses.

In addition to being a relatively generic series, Lodoss is littered with bits of randomness along the way. Although the “potential” romantic relationship between Parn and Deedlit never actually develops, there are plenty of awkward exchanges or long stares that force the viewer into thinking there’s something there. I’m just not buying it, there’s almost no chemistry between the two. Not to mention the interest fellow traveler Shiris (the girl with the berserker friend) has in Parn…. something that's awkwardly left by the wayside. There's also the evil witch Carla, with perhaps the most unassuming name in anime villainy existence, and another dark elf that sporadically falls for Ashram along the way. The more I get frustrated with the lack of finesse in writing, the more I realize what the anime was modeled after: a D&D quest. Speaking from experience, the element of randomness doesn’t even scratch the surface of the ridiculous stuff me and my friends used to come up with when we played. So…. I guess there’s that.

Sometimes I don’t consider it fair to criticize animation from the 90’s or earlier, because it’s merely a sign of the times. In Lodoss’ case, the art style isn’t necessarily my cup of tea but it’s consistent with the art out at the time in terms of quality. From what I remember reading, the studio actually utilized a sizable budget in order to get exactly what they were looking for in terms of emulating various fantasy elements and characters. Some of the fight scenes are actually quite fluid as well, something that earlier anime had issues with. No choppiness or quality drop during the heavier action sequences, something I can really appreciate. Especially when you consider the issues modern day anime have with frame drops and inconsistent animation, likely without any legitimate excuse.

Did I mention how bad the voice acting is? Central Park Media, a NYC based company took the reigns dubbing Lodoss. It was clear they had no idea what they were doing. Some acting is decent, but others are absolutely atrocious. It’s almost as though when the producers signed off on it they were doing more of a “screw it”, knowing they’d be out of a job anyway. If you’re a fan of dubs due to convenience, I strongly suggest you watch the Japanese version or avoid it altogether. It’s THAT bad. Performances like this employs hopefulness for my future seiyuu career… I digress.

The rest of the music is slightly unfitting, but about what I expect from an early 90’s series. Anime was largely in a learning period, starkly evident by the slow female ballads present in their OPs. For a show so focused on action and fantasy elements, the OP just...doesn’t work. As a standalone track it’s quite present, reminiscent of “Fly Me to the Moon” from NGE, but not an anime fit. The background tracks depict the genre much better. They’re full of orchestral life, and build crescendos left and right.

As much as I disliked certain aspects of Lodoss, I enjoyed it overall. However, one must understand that most of my enjoyment comes from a mix of nostalgia and relatability. I was a HUGE nerd in my high school days, so Lodoss speaks to me in some ways other anime cannot. On the other hand, it’s leaps and bounds from being “good” by any normal definition. Perhaps I would’ve enjoyed it more if I had watched the Japanese dub vice the English, but a generic plot, short run time and forced romance all work to cripple Lodoss, dooming it from the start. I would recommend this series to fans of other fantasy anime or earlier shows, or those just looking for something different. As always, thanks for reading!

Story:

Overall though this was a good OVA. However, the Story is very scattered and doesn't have proper closure. The completest in me tells me I have to at least see the TV series that follows. I haven't had any luck finding it, however. This anime has a special place in my heart due to the nostalgia factor. I only hope that the TV series that follows this up somehow gives better closure. And one minor gripe, I think all of us understood the backstory of Lodoss by the 3rd episode so it really wasn't nessesary to retell it prior to every episode.

Art:
It's very good looking ... for an older piece, however it's not so old as to forgive some of the shortcuts and mistakes that are noticable.

Sound:
I love good sound. This doesn't really diliver however. IMHO there's no excuse for 2.0 now that dvd has been on the market so long. other wise it's got repetative music that you'll never forget. But that doens't make it good. Sigh...

Character:
All of the characters have some sort of charisma to them. Parn and Deedlit are still one of the most recognized anime couples of all time. I just wish there was more down to earth characters like Woodchuck.

Enjoyment:

I really do like this anime alot. It's more nostalgia than anything but I do like it. I recommend this Anime to fans of Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons or other swords and sorcery stories.

Overall:

Fanboy opinions and nostalgia aside you should...

Borrow it!

See reviews and more at my site BRANS!: http://bumrapanimeneverseen.blogspot.com/

Nostalgia can be such a nice feeling, evoking vivid memories and moods. On the negative side, it can result in a depressive malaise or obsessive longing; more positively, it can lead one to aspire to something new, even greater. In the case of media, though, the rose-tinted image from memory is usually better, especially if it leads back to childhood. That's certainly the case for Record of Lodoss War: It's visually striking enough and well presented to the point that it can seem grander of a fantasy than it really is, and contrary to the emperor with no clothes parable, RoLW is an emperor peacocking ... in lavish and ornate robes at the behest of his advisors who hope to distract the populace from realizing their puppet king's drooling idiocy.

As is so common to the fantasy genre, it loses any sense of the fantastical due to the mundanity of its endlessly recycled, clichéd roots, and the production values tank so often that the illusion of solidity cannot be maintained. Anime has often been known for its limited animation, usually making up for this with more calculated direction and editing of highly detailed and shaded (ahem, maybe not so much now...) character designs and backdrops—exposition, dialogue, and storytelling are all prioritized a bit more heavily than is the norm for animation as well. Madhouse is a solid studio, but they take the above formula to its extremes here. The character designs, even if some of them are on the generic side, are often rendered with so much detail, you'd be hard-pressed to believe these characters will be animated at all, and the staff often heap loads of stills on us with the bare minimum of movement. The dragons look immense and fearsome next to our puny heroes, but good luck not laughing once you see them tugged across the screen like a kite on a wire that is stiff as a board.

The animation can be striking when they pour in enough time or budget. The opening is lovely, and the first episode is filled with stellar work: notably, the scene with the dragon, with Toshiyuki Inoue being responsible for most of the choice bits. There are often bursts of stylish limited animation throughout, but the relief becomes scarce. Of course, they make sure to squeeze the most detailed animation into Deedlit so they can sell their endocrine-disrupting PVC figurines, which you need to make absolutely sure to never touch, should you be brave enough to wander into the dungeon of a weeaboo or otaku, torch in hand.

There is a greater problem at hand than the animation, however. In fact, the series often manages to transcend the sometimes poor animation via solid storyboarding and directorial magic. What cannot be so easily dismissed is that the story, the setting, and almost everything about this anime is impressive, first and foremost, in how it is the most generic of all generic fantasy stories to have ever been generic. It's so generic that I have to use the word a plethora of times to emphasize how generic it is and to make it absolutely clear that I am not exaggerating by calling it generic—not in the slightest. This is the quintessential generic fantasy: a basic elemental magic system, sexy female elves, a short and stout dwarf with a battle axe; mindless hordes of goblins, kobolds, orcs, etc., and a few big dragons along the way; bog-standard D&D-styled classes for all of the characters, such as priest, thief, warrior, etc.

While this is a fairly standard tale of good guy versus bad guy, there are some betrayals and shifting alliances, but most of the "complexity" comes from the most tiresome cliché in fantasy, where a god or the heroes have to maintain the world's balance. I'm getting sleepy already. I hate this in fantasy. I mentioned this in my reviews for Ellcia, Final Fantasy... and while I'm not sure if I broached the subject with Mizuno's Crystania, it does apply there as well. I'm sure if you did a large survey of fantasy anime/manga, you'd find a similar pattern (I feel this tends to be less pronounced in isekai, but that is in no way an endorsement of the genre). You'll see this concept often in novels, video games, TV series, movies, and whatever other medium. That's probably part of what led to Made in Abyss being so popular. It has a fantastical, unique world, and the thematics are more personalized and meaningful than "Okay, gang, we gotta make sure the fire spirits are nice and toasty over here and we water the earth spirits" or whatever inane variant.

With RoLW, it's a little more realistic, with a powerful witch/warlock entity conspiring to ensure that no great power conquers the continent, playing the different sides against each other and manipulating them directly. It's actually more of a political realist take on the genre than any kind of ecological or spiritual focus that is more common. Yet the presentation of it is diluted into tedium because of the focus on the witch so effortlessly pulling Jenga blocks out of empires, as opposed to a more complex conspiracy that might lend this the depth it sorely needs.

Mizuno, as far as I can tell, is something of a hack fantasy writer. I've only seen his adapted work, so I can't say much about his novels. It probably doesn't help that the novel series this anime was based on was actually a novelization of the transcripts of some kind of D&D game. That's why this series is so generic and cliché, and it feels like the characters were ripped straight out of an RPG—that's because THEY WERE, in the most literal sense possible of an actual BO-drenched dork fest, and when the budget drops and we're panning over slideshows of dragons and knights, I feel like Ken Burns was there that day and made a documentary comprised of paintings documenting the epic and valiant D&D game and charted the perilous journey that inspired the legendary RoLW franchise.

Most of the characters don't have much of a purpose to the story. The whole point of these characters is to form a party like in an RPG. Most of them are not useful. Woodchuck hardly ever does anything, and Etoh is pretty much dead weight other than to heal characters after battle. The two mercenaries feel as if they were written in at random (they were) and almost none of the characters have distinct personalities or even motivations to maintain the party or do anything in particular. The dwarf at least had a motivation separate from the party, but nothing about his story was compelling. Why was Deedlit even there in the first place? Because there was a sexy female elf quota, and all that fetish fuel merchandise isn't going to sell itself. Parn is kept as everyman and bland as possible so any schlub can imagine himself wooing Deedlit.

Parn and Deedlit lack any chemistry, but what was especially amusing is when he was asking her to stay behind and not enter the war. The intent was to show he cared about her, but he never appeared very interested in her up to that point, during, or after. Honestly, he spent more time casting googly eyes at King Cashew for like an entire episode than anything substantive with Deedlit. The Parn-Cashew tension was so thick I probably would have mistaken this for a yaoi, where the sought after Parn had grown jaded with female company and rejected numerous beautiful female suitors so he could mosey off with his tall and tan dessert man (don't worry, I'm sure there are plenty of fanfics fulfilling this function), and the two of them being swordsmen leads to all kinds of potential jokes that even I am tasteful enough to forego.

With the immense genericness that I've alluded to, it's hard to even recognize whether or not the writing is good, as it's so unbelievably familiar, like you could have written it yourself and then start to wonder if your fanfic was plagiarized. For what it's worth, it doesn't seem too badly scripted—just unoriginal and predictable to the point of tedium. Half of the time, I didn't pay attention to the story, my eyes glazing over in boredom, yet I never felt like I missed a plot point at all because none of the specifics really matter. Everything they do revolves around acquiring knowledge or an item that will allow them to thwart an antagonist or some such. It could even be said that the world building is horrendous, but it's probably more accurate to state that the world itself is too dull for there to be any world to build upon at all.

The way this story was plotted was a little weird, and I wouldn't say it worked too well. The first episode is the best, and it takes place somewhere in the middle of the plot, then we're back to the beginning with Parn being a wuss, and it remains a long, bloated story that never really goes anywhere. The last few episodes are more viscous than the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, and I thought they would never end. Instead of an open ending, it's really unfinished, and you'll have to watch the lower-budget TV series that remakes most of the OVA and then continues the story. Both are mediocre at best. Immersion into the world is broken either by tedious storytelling, Ken-Burns'-tier direction, or a subpar bout of storyboarding or bad and reused animation (they even reversed some of the footage's orientation and shifted the colors in an attempt to trick the audience).

What is RoLW? A fantasy, if you can keep it. A fantasy should transport you to another world, but I don't get any sense of that at all. When I'm watching this, I feel like I've been transported to Mizuno's dank basement in the 1980s with a bunch of lard-asses (now I'm spinning fantasy—fat people don't exist in Japan) with cheese poof-fingers huddled around in a circle. It smells like death and the air is thick with sweat. They're pushing around cheap figurines that look just like the heroes in the dreck we know as RoLW. Mizuno is madly recording transcripts and there's the palpable dread of knowing he'll adapt this tripe into a novel that will become a sensation.

I don't know what it comes down to. Maybe it's the color composition and background art. Maybe it's the contrast of digital vs. hand-drawn animation. Maybe it's the fact that the characters are all adults or at least adult-looking, rather than children or teenagers. Maybe it's a combination. Maybe it's all of the above. Maybe it's something I'm missing. Whatever the case, watching fantasy anime from before the advent of Sword Art Online is a wild, quasi-mystical experience. They just have such a different look and feel to them. The result is a world that instantly captivated me from its opening sequence.

In today's day and ... age, even some of the better fantasy anime that do not outright copy the SAO formula, their worlds and environments still somehow end up retaining that same plastic, candy-colored look and feel. I believe that Martin Scorsese’s point about contemporary superhero cinema very much also applies to the state of the modern isekai and fantasy genres. Exceptions always exist, certainly, such as Kouta Hirano's Drifters, but there's a reason they are called exceptions. They are few and far between. We've become so accustomed to the SAO aesthetic, that it's not until we see a fantasy show that came before it, that we realize or are reminded of what was lost, and how different and unique each show used to look.

The OVA opens on a narration scene of the universe’s history, very much akin to Galadriel’s exposition at the beginning of Fellowship. Is it as tight? Is it as concise? Is it as relevant? Is the premise as unique and inspired? No, absolutely not, but after more than a decade of being brainwashed by SAO clones and derivatives, a return to classic fantasy made me feel as though I was awoken from a deep sleep and I was instantly drawn in.

There’s not much point in me talking about the plot, for an abridged version of the aforementioned narration scene will be featured at the start of each and every single episode, but the basic idea is as follows. War is once more coming to the island-continent of Lodoss, and it is up to our merry band of 6 adventurers to prevent it, and if they can't, then they must at least make sure Lodoss itself still exists in the aftermath. This gave the show a sense of purpose I had forgotten was possible in fantasy. What do you mean this isn't a journey to collect bitches for your harem?

Parn is our swordsman hero protagonist, and he is accompanied by Deedlit, the beautiful elven user of spirit magic, Ghim, the stoic dwarf axe-user, Etoh, the priest healer, Slayn, the sorcerer, and Wood, the skeevy rogue. Do any of these characters have even a sliver of an original bone in their body? Not a chance, no, but there is a qualitative difference between the unoriginal characters of today and the unoriginal characters of yore.

The overwhelming majority of characters today are clichés and stereotypes that pander to the fans’ desires and fetishes. That's why a lot of them feel like they don't belong. Fate/Apocrypha‘s Atlanta isn't a cat girl in because it made sense for the story. She's a cat girl because weebs love cat girls. Did the story of Re:Zero need Ferris to be a trap? Do Rem and Ram need to be wearing maid outfits? No, again, Ferris is a trap because weebs love traps. Rem and Ram are dressed as maids because of how popular the look is. None of it serves the story’s universe. It simply serves the fans, hence the term fanservice.

All of Lodoss’ characters, though wildly derivative and unoriginal, feel like they belong to the world they’re in. None of them feel shoehorned in. They are all stereotypes that serve the story and setting, not the audience, and you would be surprised what a massive difference that makes.

The resulting effect was so radically different, that even something as generic as chanting spells through poetry, which is a trope so trite that even modern isekai shlock makes fun of it, somehow felt compelling to me here. The first time we see Slayn chant a barrier into being to protect his mates as they retreat, I could not be more enthralled and wanted to know more!

Record of Lodoss War was an OVA released by studio Madhouse in 1990. The anime was based on a Japanese short novel, which was in turn based on a Japanese tabletop RPG, which was in turn a rip-off of Dungeons & Dragons. The OVA was such a smash hit that it spawned a litany of video games, radio dramas, manga, and even a 2 cour sequel, though this initial OVA is the only entry in the franchise that found any substantial success in the West.

I often see terms like “cliché” and “breath of fresh air” thrown around a lot in conversations like these, typically in order to describe one's positive or negative experience with any given story. Before we can have an intelligent discussion about the subject, however, we need to define our terms, for they do not always mean the same things at all times. When talking about whether or not something is a cliché or a breath of fresh air, rather than “what”, the more important question is “when”. Would it have been reasonable to call the content of Lodoss cliché back in the 90s? Perhaps, but is that assessment still fair today?

Consider the following. The 80s and 90s were saturated with super serious and overdramatic fantasy and sci-fi stories that, after years and years, had become exhausting and stale. Enter Mike Myers’ big dumb green ogre. In 2001, DreamWorks Animation released an instant classic in Shrek. Shrek was the solution that Hollywood came up with in order to fix the state of cinematic fiction at the turn of the millennium. It felt like a breath of fresh air because it beautifully parodied the pretentious and predictable tropes of Disney movies. Alas, like I said, it's a matter of when, not what. In the words of Terenas Menethil, “No king rules forever, my son.” By its third installment in 2007, Shrek’s own formula, which originally made it such an international runaway success, had itself become cliché in turn.

Regardless, DreamWorks opened the floodgates to the parody genre. Every single armchair writer who previously never got anywhere because of a lack of creativity, was now free to rip-off every already-existing IP in their purview under the guise of parody and satire. This led to the genre completely jumping the shark with dumpster fires like Meet the Spartans, The Comebacks, Scary Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Date Movie, Stan Helsing, The Starving Games, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and so on, and so forth.

We now live in the world of 20 years later, and every single mainstream movie in recent memory has either been some kind of openly satirical work, or has at least contained substantive satirical elements. Granted, while the MCU had a humoristic tint from the beginning – what with RDJ’s Iron Man – starting with the success of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel has turned this into an exact science. There’s a reason the phrase ‘Marvel humor’ exists. Some of their latest entries, such as Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder, are legitimately difficult to categorize into a genre. Do they even count as primarily action movies with comic relief anymore? Or are they just straight up comedy movies with some action relief? And herein lies the importance of asking “when”.

After all, what is a cliché? A cliché is a trope that has become overused in recent memory. Well, when every single piece of entertainment that has come out in ages is a parody or satire of some sort, then the turns table, and the parody becomes the cliché and the serious drama becomes the breath of fresh air once more.

For the benefit of the jury, I present to you Exhibit A: Aquaman. In spite of being inextricably linked to a sinking ship of a cinematic universe and its protagonist having been the butt of every superhero joke for the past half a century, the success of Aquaman proves that audiences were clamoring for a return of the unironic fantasy genre – a classic, archetypal hero’s journey that takes itself seriously and attempts to sincerely sell you on its premise without subverting it with self-deprecating humor or self-aware meta gags. Mind you, the relative failure of the Aquaman sequel, which included a whole lot more of the aforementioned self-satirizing elements, serves only to further prove my point.

As such, it is my contention that, to a contemporary audience that has spent the last 2 decades being force-fed a constant stream of media that mocks everything that is beautiful and sincere, it is inappropriate to describe Lodoss as cliché. If you are as desperate as I am for even a whisper of a genuine story, then Lodoss will feel like, dare I say it, a breath of fresh air.

Nevertheless, nostalgia for a bygone era can only take you so far. What matters at the end of the day is the quality of the material itself. Does Lodoss hold a candle to the heavy hitters of Western fantasy? Surprisingly, until the release of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, many considered Record of Lodoss War the de facto king of cinematic fantasy. Even after it was dethroned, in the eyes of many critics, it still reigns supreme in the realm of animated fantasy.

Alas, as is the case with all trends, the genre became populated by and bigger and better IPs, and Lodoss slowly became lost to the void of cultural oblivion. The shadow cast by Berserk was too deep and too dark.

The tragedy of Lodoss is that it lives and dies with its aesthetic. I so wanted to like it more. I really did. Regrettably, once the retroactive novelty of the non-SAO fantasy feel wore off, and the return to a Tolkienesque aesthetic alone was no longer sufficient to keep me engaged, it became utterly transparent that the show had little to offer beyond that.

Though the setting and worldbuilding initially drew me in, before long, it became apparent that the emperor is wearing no clothes. Now, you might think to yourself, and you would not be wrong, that Lodoss has better worldbuilding than 90% of fantasy anime, so how can I possibly be unhappy with it? It has always been my belief that any given work of art needs to be judged, not by some universal standard, but by the standard of what it is attempting to be. Lightweight entertainment like Cautious Hero, My Next Life as a Villainess, and How Not to Summon a Demon Lord have no real worldbuilding to speak of, but then again, they don't need it. They have no lofty aspirations to rise to any kind of standard of fantasy excellence. Lodoss, on the other hand, presents itself with all of the haughty pretense in the world. It expects itself to be taken seriously as definitive epic, and it simply falls utterly short of said expectation.

The main narrative thrust of Lodoss is the big war backdrop constantly going on in the background. Our main characters are not OP light novel guys and gals. It is made very clear to us that they can't solve everything single-handedly through brute force. For most of the story, their primary goal, more than anything else, is to just stay alive, for the war is too vast and unwieldy for them to get involved. They eventually get dragged into it in spite of their best efforts, and they don't really… do anything. For all the hype about wars and battles, there’s not much of either. When actual battles are shown on screen, it's mostly either stills or recycled shots of the same action animation over and over again. And then, at the end, through some kind of pretzel logic, Parn solves everything single-handedly through brute force.

In a sense, I was reminded of Made in Abyss. You are constantly told that this is a world full of cool shit, and you are told that cool shit is always going on, and it is – just never really around you. All of the cool shit is contained in the stories other characters tell you about things that happened elsewhere or in flashbacks, but what you actually see happening around the main cast is fairly mundane. If I were inclined to be cruel, I would say that a more fitting name for the show would be Record of Lodoss People... Which Tangentially Touches on the Lodoss War... Briefly... Sometimes. Fortunately, I am a very polite and kind person and would never say that.

Perhaps the best (worst) example of this is the fact that for the first few episodes, the party’s main objective is to find this wise old sage and ask for his advice concerning the coming strife. You spend several episodes with them struggling on their way to meet this dude. Naturally, you can't help but get a bit excited about what he's gonna tell them, what they're gonna learn, the things that are about to come to light. Then, midway through episode 6, you learn that they're back in the kingdom and the meeting with the sage happened off-screen. You then get a CliffsNotes version of what they learned from the sage. What's the Japanese expression for “show, don't tell”?

Much of the same goes for the characters. They have very little to offer beyond the appeal of their archetypes. They are all very nice for as long as you can indulge in the feeling that you’re watching anime LotR, but as soon as that spell wears off, it becomes apparent that what you're watching is something more akin to Rings of Power – mind you, minus the political poison, just the hollow characters.

Speaking of which, even accounting for my initial enchantment with the characters and their designs, I disliked Deedlit from the get-go. Make no mistake, she's beautiful and all that, but literally one of her first speaking lines is some tsundere shit where she's blushing while frowning. Remember how Akira Toriyama-sensei used to draw pouting girls as having inflated cheeks? As though they’re blowing air into them, all ready to burst? That’s exactly the visual I’m talking about. I think she was mad she wasn’t getting enough attention. Maybe she was quarreling with the dwarf? Fuck if I remember. No, I'm sorry, we haven't yet come full circle to making that cliché cool again. As far as I was concerned, she was kind of dead in the water from that point on.

As time moved on and the series progressed, I grew to genuinely dislike Parn, the protagonist. If I've said it once, I've said it 100 times. I don't understand the appeal of protagonists who are the literal worst at everything and easily the least interesting and likable out of the entire main cast. As a wanna-be swordsman, Parn is not the best melee fighter of the group. That would be Ghim, the dwarf. He can't use offensive or protective magic like Deed or Slayn. He can't use healing magic like Etoh. He's also not as cunning and crafty as Wood. In terms of conventional intelligence, the argument can credibly be made that he is legitimately the dumbest of the group. So, then why is he our protagonist? Why is this the dude we follow around? Why is everything centered around him? Why does everyone take him so seriously?

The one thing he's got going for him is bravery. Full disclosure, even there, I don't accept that he is any braver than some of the other party members, but let's pretend, for the sake of argument, that he is. Ok. In principle, I don't have a problem with a protagonist who's got nothing going for him except bravery, because the bulk of the enjoyment stems from the journey – his journey to become cool, that is.

The rub here is that Parn never really goes through any meaningful change. He is the epitome of hype without action. He is the leader of the group and we are told he is a born leader, but we never see any evidence of that being the case. In fact, we never really see any evidence that he is exceptional in any way, shape, or form. We are told that he is our last hope for this, that, or the other, but we never see any evidence that he is special or uniquely equipped to do much of fucking anything. He will often be praised and honored for his actions, and he is the one chosen to inherit Lodoss’ version of Excalibur, but again, we never get any indication of tangible growth or evolution on his part, so as to be worthy of any of it. By the resolution of episode 13, he still very much felt like the same dickhead from episode 1.

The finale was a rush to get to the main bad guy and save the day. On the way there, various threats and obstacles interfere with Parn et co. Every one of the obviously stronger, more experienced, and more competent supporting characters stays behind to deal with said obstacles and they all tell Parn some variation of “Go! You have to make it! All of our hopes rest on your shoulders! You are the key!” and I'm just left thinking, why? Literally why? Where's this assumption coming from that he would somehow perform any better than any of you? What's special about him? It was a feeling very reminiscent of The Philosopher’s Stone, when Ron said: “Harry, it's you that has to go on, I know it. Not me, not Hermione – YOU!” Again… why?

The argument can be made that a lot of these issues are to be laid at the feet of the anime, not the source material, for the OVA had to cut the story up pretty drastically in order to make it fit the 13-episode length of the series. Would the epic have felt more fulfilling had it included all of the novel’s contents? Perhaps, but there are some problems that cannot be hand-waved away in that manner.

It got to be so unfocused, that by the end, I tuned out completely. It took me a whole ass week to motivate myself to watch the final episode.

Oh, and lest I forget, a word of advice to any aspiring worldbuilders out there. If you're going to have less than 50 names of items, characters, and locations in your story, make sure to name them something more distinct than: Falis, Falaris, Fleve, Flaim, Fianna, and Fahn. Those are all real names that all represent very different and important elements of the Lodoss narrative. I mean…

Still, Lodoss is a forgotten gem of the Japanese take on Western fantasy. If you’re at all a fan of fantasy or isekai anime, you owe it to yourself to check out the big poppa. This is ground 0. This is where it all comes from. Will it lose you eventually? Maybe, but the journey up to that point will be well worth your time, because somewhere within us, buried deep, I think we all feel this indescribable sense of loss. We’re all longing to go back, pining for something artful and perhaps a little dark, if for no other reason than just exhaustion with today’s retina-burning flashy colors.

Take Disney, for instance. If you look at Disney movies today, it’s as though Toy Story never ended. If you go back, however, and take a look at Sleeping Beauty, 75% of that film consists of frames you would be unsurprised to find on someone’s wall. Lodoss is not quite Sleeping Beauty, but it is the Oliver & Company to The Lord of the Rings’ Lady and the Tramp. That is to say that it’s nowhere near as good, largely derivative, but still very enjoyable because it is representative of the era and satiates the same deep-seated yearning. To many, to this day, it is an unshakable staple of the genre.

Besides, if you’re not as critically-minded of an asshole as I am, and it is highly unlikely that you are, most of the problems I outlined here might not even register with you, let alone bother you.

P.S.: Under no circumstance whatsoever are you to watch this show if you suffer from photosensitive epilepsy. There are so many scenes of brightly and rapidly flashing lights in this anime, that on occasion, it came dangerously close to giving even me a headache. No matter how you cut it, it’s just an irredeemable aspect of the visual production. Even in the absence of the danger of causing seizures, the attempt to fabricate excitement by way of shoving strobe lights in your face every 5 minutes is just disturbing and tiresome.

Going into this anime, I didn't have very high expectations, but it was part of one of my favorite genres. Also, this is one of the anime where I had some of the hardest time actually deciding on how to rate it. Then, I realized that it is probably going to be just above average. And it did just that.

Story:

It revolves around the wannabe swordsman named Parn and his fellow adventurers who are trying to avert further warfare and save Lodoss from the oncoming evil. This is a setup for a good anime, and I liked it. However, there were many plotholes that could ... be dug into this anime, and for good reasons, and not necessarily bad ones. This story was meant to be more of a story about a hero who triumphed against all odds, and trust me, the odds were stacking against him WAY more than I anticipated, but he prevailed in the end, and got the girl. Also, it felt like it was VERY rushed too, so there is that. So basically, it wasn't horrible, but it definitely was what I expected, and did have some twists and turns I did not expect, but overall, it did its job. (5/10)

Art:

Oh, I dreaded actually getting to this part, because it is a 90's anime, and I know I shouldn't bash a 90's anime for not looking very good, but sadly, the animation was bad, and that is even when you consider the times it was in. There was a whole lot of reused shots and reused still images. Also, some of the flames didn't look like flames, some of the blood didn't look like blood, and even some of the lip movements didn't even happen when a character was speaking, despite them not being too far away. It just looked like a big mess. Sure, I did enjoy seeing how some of the characters looked and how they moved, but oh my word, I sometimes had to pause the anime, when a particularly badly animated scene or movement occurred. (3/10)

Sound:

Now, the anime surprised me a little by adding in music that wasn't exactly fitting the tone all the time, nor was it varied, but it was consistent and knew what it was trying to say, even if it didn't always say it. It had a couple of REALLY good songs, or selections of songs, and some of the sound effects weren't that bad either. However, there were a couple songs that were mediocre at best. The voice acting was pretty good, but it just wasn't as great as it could have been, both dubbed and subbed included. It was just above average, but it didn't pull through all the time. (6/10)

Characters:

Well, what can I say, there were some I really liked and some I really disliked. Parn, for example, has some of the best luck I have seen of a fantasy anime protagonist, like seriously. He didn't even know how to fight with a sword until almost halfway through the third episode, and by the time the anime ended, he apparently was good enough to handle one of the main villains, who could easily kill him in the first few episodes. and even though this is the character section, another problem I had was the lack of time notifications about whats going on. I really didn't like that part, especially when it came to the development of characters. Also, the love story between Deedlit and Parn felt SO forced that I could become one of the most confused people on the planet after seeing it, and yet it was still so interesting, because you know it is part of the story. Also, everyone else just felt more like someone who was just there to fulfill a necessary spot, of both the different classes and races like humans, elves and dwarves. I don't know. They were all very likeable, but at the same time, there was not much time to explore into many of their stories. (5/10)

Enjoyment:

However, this was the highest rated part of the series, and it is the shortest. I REALLY enjoyed watching this anime, despite all of these mediocre findings of mine. What can I say? I love fantasy, and this anime fulfills the role nicely, even though it has a lot of flaws in it. To me, its like seeing Lord of the Rings. Sure, there are a number of plotholes in it that I can think off the top of my head, but it definitely was very enjoyable to watch, and after watching this anime, I want to explore more of the lore in this universe, because it is so fascinating, and yet there was so little that was put forth out there.

Overall, I really enjoyed this anime, despite its flaws. It may need a lot of work in different areas, but I do recommend you watch it, even if it might not be that great.

Overall: 6/10.

An excellent job of sword and sorcery, that has become an everlasting classic for anyone to enjoy. Many others like it fail where this anime grabs you and truly enthralls from the very beginning. Its character progress is a defining aspect that leads to a wonderful adventure. It has everything in just the right dosage, not too mention great character interaction. The art work for its time is sure a landmark in anime. If i had never seen this great masterpiece i would have never acquired my addiction for all things anime.

I'll go ahead and get the inevitable comparison out of the way. Record of Lodoss War is The Lord of the Rings of anime. Maybe not as highly regarded as Tolkiens fantasy trilogy but still a spectacular addition to the genre.

One of the very first OVAs I was introduced to back in the late 90s ROLW was everything I'd ever wanted out of american animation but never recieved. A dark and serious fantasy adventure that touched on all the familar qualites that the genre is known for. Knights, Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Wizards, and epic bloody battles. This was a show strictly made for Fantasy fans.

The ... story is pretty straight forward with a few twists and surprises here and there but it's mostly the world is in peril from a great evil and our band of heroes must set out to defeat this evil and save the peoples of Lodoss. It's simple but satisfying. Theres great characters throughout the entire series and just when you think theres no one else to introduce we get treated to probably my two favorite characters Shiris and Orson. A couple of bandits that join up with our heroes around the midway point that gives the show a breath of fresh air after the few dark eps leading up to their introduction.

Last thing I want to touch on is the animation. Now remember this is 1990. So its not going to be nearly as pretty as what your use to watching these days. But theres a certain charm to its dark and dirty old school style approach that makes me apprechiate it even more today then I did back then. It's a great product of an art style long gone.

Record of Lodoss War. Fantasy fans shoud love it. Casuals should apprechiate it. Whichever catergory you fall under one things for sure. You should respect it.

This is one of anime's most beloved titles, even though I never learned about it until this year on TVTropes. Plus I felt bored of watching nothing but Pokemon and Sword Art Online all throughout the semester, so I figured I might as well try something I've never seen before. This has gotten a lot of praise from fans, and I thought I'd like it. To an extent, I did, but...honestly, I can't really see why people like this. Now don't get me wrong, it's not a BAD anime. Heck, I'd watch this over every ecchi anime in the world! However, there's just too much ... wrong with it to really be conceived as anything other than decent. But the show's main problem is that it's just way too short and way too convoluted for its own good. By convoluted I mean like Digimon Adventure 02 convoluted. What do I mean? Let's explain, shall we? (Note: this review is only about the OVA, not the TV series. I haven't seen the latter, and don't know if I'm going to or not)

There's definitely a story to this anime. But the problem is, I can barely comprehend it, as there's just WAAAY too much being shoved down my throat. All I managed to comprehend was that a group of people meet and join forces, an evil empire called Marmo is trying to take control of Lodoss, there's some evil spirit trying to manipulate everything, and at the end, some wizard tries to resurrect one of the goddesses that split Lodoss. That's about it, really. Remember when I said Escaflowne isn't giving people time to absorb its story? Well, I take it back. Lodoss does it too, but far worse. There's so much going on within that timespan that it tries to bite off more than it can chew. It doesn't help that everything jumps around like a kangaroo high on sugar, so you can barely tell exactly what the heck is going on! Part of it could be the fact that its thirteen episodes long, and had it been extended to 26 or even 52 episodes, the story would be more comprehensible, and everything would feel more connected and flow better. If you want to tell a good story, don't just throw in a bunch of events and shove them down our throats without giving us time to chew it! Popolocrois had 25 episodes, yet it had a perfect balance between the story and the characters, the episodes felt more connected, and they kept a consistent yet restrained output. It gave time to develop its story and explain what was going on, and it didn't need to rely on adding in as much stuff as possible. It knew how much it could chew at a time and managed to come out fine in the end. Lodoss really needs to work on that.

The animation...I'll be honest here, it really hasn't aged well, and there's lots of errors. Heck, one part of the opening sequence looks like two of the characters were cut from paper and pasted on a background! There's too many still frames, and I think the animators wasted too much budget on making everybody's costumes as elaborate and fantasy-like as possible. But I do like the character designs, though! Plus nobody looks the same. In a time where modern anime characters look too much the same except with different eye and hair colors and different hair lengths, the character designs in this are very refreshing. I'll at least give the show credit for that. The music...while the opening and ending are nice, they're still a little bit generic, and the background music isn't really all that memorable. Some pieces sound like they came from popular video games, like Zelda or Final Fantasy.

The characters...eh. They're all kinda bland to me. Nobody was even remotely interesting to me. We have the hero, the chick, the mage, the skeevy guy, the evil villains, etc. Because the story is so freakishly convoluted to the point of looking like an overflowing trash bag, it really suffered in characterization. They could have made these characters into real characters, but here they're just a bunch of bland archetypes. The only characters I thought were even remotely interesting were Orson and Shiris, and they don't appear until episode eight! I really want to like these characters, but even after 13 whole episodes, I still feel like I've only JUST started getting to know them. They could have been more fleshed out, which is a shame. Had the creators gotten more episodes and didn't try so hard, they could have been able to do great things with them.

There's a difference between balancing things out and biting off more than you can chew, and unfortunately, Lodoss is the latter. While I appreciate its efforts, it was just trying too hard, and because it tried too hard, it suffered greatly as a result. Escaflowne had somewhat the same problem, but it had 26 episodes (it was going to be longer but their budget was cut so they had to make do with 26), and it at least tried everything it could to get its story out, and it wasn't freakishly convoluted either. It also did its best to fit in a lot of character progression, even though it was also extremely focused on its story. Plus, their characters were more interesting! Escaflowne, while it didn't entirely succeed in its effort, at least tried to balance out its story and characters, and for what its worth, it did a good job. Popolocrois has 25 episodes, yet it knew what its story wanted to be, didn't try to go for anything big, and balanced out its story and characters in whatever time it had, and it really worked in its favor. Lodoss...it just wound up biting off way more than it could chew, and wound up suffocating in the process. All it really needed was more episodes and more time to flesh out both its story and characters so we'd be able to comprehend everything better. Maybe they had budget issues and couldn't do it? Were they not able to get it to air on TV? I dunno. Also, we also get reminded that there was a great war resulting in the creation of Lodoss. It'd be one thing if this was said once, but he explains it in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE!! We freaking get it! The story's hard enough to comprehend as it is! That pointless opening scene was really not necessary, and Lodoss has suffered enough as it is.

All in all, Lodoss isn't a bad anime. It was just too short and took on more than it could handle. All it really needed was more episodes and a lot of polishing. But I can at least appreciate its good points, and if you're looking for an escapist fantasy anime, check it out.

You know, when I first told people that I was going to watch Record of Lodoss War, the first reaction from fans of the series was always “Oh, Lodoss? God, the soundtrack for that is amazing!” Immediately after saying this, they would hastily insist that the rest of the show was great too, but I found it funny how that was always the first thing they thought of when they thought of the series, especially given how much of a big deal it was back in the 90’s.

If you were a part of the 90’s Western anime fandom, it was impossible for you to not ... at least be aware of Lodoss. It was a staple of that era of Suncoast Video and Animerica Magazine, and its influences can still be seen today. Ever wonder why elves in anime have really, REALLY long ears? Lodoss, that’s why.

However, the thing about a lot of media which is emblematic of a specific time period is that it can age with that time period. Case in point, George Macdonald’s Lilith was ground-breaking when it was first published, but it has largely been forgotten now in the wake of its superior successors, like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.. Some shows and books can be like that local restaurant everyone in your town eats at. To those from that time and place, it’s the best and a source of precious memories, but to any outsiders, it may be nothing special, or even outright unappealing.

So, as someone who was born in this period of anime fandom, but never grew up in it, how well does Record of Lodoss War appeal to me? Well, first, let’s explain

What is Record of Lodoss War?--
Record of Lodoss War is a 13 episode OVA series, based on a series of “RPG Replays”. During the 80’s in Japan, magazines such as Comptiq would serialize replays, which were transcripts of tabletop RPG campaigns, and Lodoss began as one such replay of Dungeons and Dragons. The replay proved to be so popular, that the sessions were collected and published as three novels, which would in turn spawn short stories, audio dramas, film and tv adaptations, video games, and a new tabletop RPG based around the replay’s world and characters. It’s kind of a big deal.

While it is a pop cultural phenomenon in Japan though, the 13 episode OVA which I am reviewing now is really the only piece of this phenomenon that ever caught on in the West, though it caught on like a house on fire. Indeed, to quote Mike Crandol of Anime News Network,

“This causes many fans of the fantasy genre to fairly drool upon seeing Record of Lodoss War for the first time. In fact it was not until Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" adaptation that Lodoss War was dethroned as the king of cinematic fantasy, live-action or otherwise. In the animated realm, however, it still holds absolute sway.”
-Record of Lodoss War DVD Collection - Review - Anime News Network

So what’s the plot? Well, uh… there’s a dwarf named Ghim, and he goes looking for the daughter of a high priestess who went missing a while back. And then along the way, several characters like the protagonist Parn join him on his search. And then there are these evil dark figures who want to do something evil and their campaign to take over the world plays out in the background while our heroes go on their quest.

If you’ve noticed that the answer to this question has less to do with the actual plot and characters, and more to do with the OVA’s place in pop culture history, well, I think you may begin to see the main issue.

How does the world of Record of Lodoss War work?--
Okay, so long, long ago, Marfa, the goddess of creation, went to war with Kardis, the goddess of destruction. The ensuing battle was so huge, it ripped the earth apart, and caused a new island to break away from the continent. That island’s name was Lodoss, and it's where our story is set.

The setting is pretty barebones and basic, although I’ll admit I found myself drawn to it. Admittedly this basicness is largely a product of its inception. Tabletop RPG’s are less concerned with making worlds with intricate politics, economics, or cultures, because the main purpose of an RPG world is to give our players a place to explore, and in that regard, Lodoss succeeds brilliantly. Easily one of its strengths is that the big war which is raging between the various kingdoms of Lodoss remains a constant backdrop to our heroes’ quests, and said heroes get dragged into the war despite their best efforts. But rather than being all-powerful protagonists who are able to single-handedly solve the war on their own, the main goal of Parn’s group is simply to stay alive, with the war being far too large and multifarious for them to do anything else.

It’s a nice subversion of fantasy cliches, although the same cannot be said for the series’ handling of fantasy races. Agan, this series started out as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, so there are certain races that exist solely as enemies for our heroes to kill. However, while this sort of thing makes sense for a game that requires player input and challenges, it makes significantly less sense for a story with characters and motivations.

In the second episode, Parn helps a young woman in his village who is being attacked by goblins, but later gets chastised by the other villagers for this. Y’see, even if the goblins are violent, the mayor of the human village has told everyone that they need to leave the goblins alone. If the humans don’t bother the goblins, the goblins won’t bother the humans, and peace, however tentative, can be maintained. While Parn was right to protect the fair maiden from the filthy hands of the goblin horde, by killing one of them, Parn has almost certainly given the goblins an excuse to gather their forces and enact revenge on the entire village. It’s a serious moral dilemma, and Parn is now faced with the quandary of what to do next.

What does he do next? Well, he and his best friend Etoh leave the village without telling anyone so that they can enter the goblin settlement and kill all the goblins before they try a raid. Really. Now, there are two possible ways to interpret this action.

The first way is that the goblins really are pure evil and monstrous brutes, and Parn is right to want to kill them all like you would want to kill some rats or cockroaches. If that’s the case, then he’s being incredibly stupid about the whole thing. At the very least, he should warn the other villagers, so that they have time to prepare if the goblins attack in retaliation. It’s clear from his earlier fight that he only killed that one goblin the first time around through dumb luck, and there’s no way he has the skill to take on an entire settlement of goblins, even with Etoh. So if he really wants to mount a raid on them, he’d do best to at least get some other people to help him.

The second way is that the goblins aren’t all evil, and the actions of the marauding band is as chastised in the settlement as Parn’s actions were in the village. The goblin leaders may be punishing the band and trying to come up with a peaceful solution of their own. If that’s the case, then either Parn is willingly escalating the conflict simply because he wants glory and hates goblins that much. Or, an even less charitable interpretation, Parn and Etoh don’t see anything wrong with killing goblins simply because they aren’t human. Their actions then are akin to someone in our world going “Hey boys, y'wanna go on down to the Rez or the Pale of Settlement and have some fun?”

Parn’s actions make perfect sense for a game campaign, when our players need enemies to fight, but they make significantly less sense for an actual story, where people need reasons to do what they do beyond simply “I need XP”. The worst consequences for a player’s actions in an RPG setting is that they die themselves, or they get their party killed. But thanks to Parn’s actions, a shit-ton of people die! He couldn’t even leave a fucking note to the mayor. Like, hey man, you should like, fortify or something. And yeah, this makes a bunch of the surviving villagers mad, but that’s the only negative consequence Parn faces. Parn NEVER looks on the events of that day and thinks “Oh, huh, maybe I should have done things differently.” or “Maybe I bear some responsibility for all those people dying.” The narrative actually rewards his actions, by allowing him to tag along with Ghim’s quest, attaining glory and honor and all that stuff, and possibly finding out what unknown dark force made the goblins so violent. And for the rest of the series, or at least what else I could get through, this pattern keeps happening. Parn’s recklessness and stubbornness continuously make things more difficult for his companions, especially since he doesn’t have the martial skill to back this attitude up. But instead of his friends calling him out or him going through some realization, everyone he meets can’t help but love him and praise him and reward him for all his actions.

And let’s take a look at the heroic group itself. From a purely narrative standpoint, it makes no sense whatsoever. Like Geralt’s Hanse in the Witcher, the characters have almost no depth or backstory of their own. They run into each other largely out of coincidence and then stay together because that’s what is needed for the plot to advance, even when there is no reason for them to stay together at all.

Take, for instance, Deedlit the elf and Ghim the dwarf. They are constantly at each other’s throats and making snide comments about each other’s races, and it all begs the question “Why?” Why do Deedlit and Ghim hate each other so much? Why does Deedlit hate dwarves and Ghim hate elves? As far as I know, this never gets answered, at least not in-story. The out-of-story answer is, of course, because that’s what Tolkien did. Tolkien’s dwarves and elves hated each other, so these dwarves and elves must hate each other too.

Okay, fine. But then, that still leaves the question, why do Deedlit and Ghim stay together in the group? Even if we leave aside the question of why they hate each other, why would they ever stick together for more than five minutes if they hate each other so much? In The Lord of the Rings, Gimli and Legolas started out hating each other, but given how the one ring needed to be taken to Mordor or else the world would end, they were willing to put aside their differences for the greater good.

In Lodoss though, even though there is SOME weird, dark force lurking around with evil plans, none of the group knows what those plans are. The main reason they are traveling together is to find the girl Ghim is looking for. That’s it. There aren’t any world-ending stakes at play here, they’re just looking for a missing girl that Deedlit doesn’t know or care about. So she has no reason to stay with the group at all, besides Parn.

And again, that’s the thing. While there aren’t any in-universe reasons for things to happen in Lodoss, there are always out-of-universe reasons, and in the case of Deedlit, her entire purpose is one massive, out-of-universe reason. Deedlit is in the group solely because she is in love with Parn. Why is she in love with Parn? Because the writer of the Replay novels, who played Parn in the RPG sessions, wants a sexy elven waifu. That’s it. You’re never going to get any other explanation besides that. Even if Parn does nothing but badmouth or ignore her, which happens CONSTANTLY in the series, Deedlit never stops being totally enamored with him. Does she have friends, family, a backstory? Who cares, she’s a sexy elven waifu, that’s all you need to know. From what information I could gather on the replays, it seems Deedlit was played by a buddy of the writer’s, and I am not at all surprised, given how Deedlit’s actions in the OVA perfectly resemble how two dudes think women act, despite these actions making no sense when you try to imagine her as a character and not a wish-fulfillment fantasy.

There is no reason why several of the main characters couldn’t have been combined or excised for this story. Indeed, that probably would have made the story stronger. If you combine Parn and Ghim, say, make the quest about Parn trying to find his mysterious dad who disappeared, that’s already a more compelling narrative than “I got kicked out of my village and am going to wander around until I find out things.” If you cut Slayn out and gave his magic duties to Etoh, it wouldn’t really change anything in the plot. And if you beefed up Deedlit’s backstory and motivation, she might honestly be more than just a waifu mascot. Woodchuck… he’s alright. Good comic relief. You can keep him.

The problem with the world of Lodoss isn’t so much the world itself, but the people living in it. I don’t mind cliche settings if the characters are compelling. But in the case of Lodoss, the characters are cardboard.

What does Record of Lodoss War have to say?--
Nothing, really. It’s a bog-standard fantasy quest, and there’s nothing in the way of deeper themes or messages. Again, it’s an RPG campaign. You’re watching an RPG campaign, but you don’t have the benefit of it being your own campaign with your own group of friends. Which leads to my

Final Verdict--
I can’t speak for everyone who plays Tabletop RPG’s, but I think I can say without fear of contradiction that the biggest draw of games like Dungeons and Dragons is the fact that you play it with your friends. Maybe you enjoy collecting the figures and designing the dungeons, but the main reason you like to play Tabletop RPG’s is that you’re with your buddies. You know your friends. You know their idiosyncrasies, their jokes, the way they play their characters, and so you know more or less what to expect from a DnD session with them.

If you are not from that friend group though, if you are an outsider looking in and you remove the element of friendship, it simply isn’t as enjoyable. The characters of Record of Lodoss War are really flat, but that’s because they were meant as vessels for a friend group to play with. They were never designed to carry an actual, proper plot on their own, but it’s because of this that I, as an outsider looking in, simply cannot get into Lodoss.

The soundtrack is indeed amazing. The animation is top quality. The world, while basic, is still pretty engaging. But the characters are dull as a brick, and even though they are my only real, major complaint with the series, that one aspect is honestly enough to kill any enjoyment I have. I’m sure that some diehard fans will complain that, because I only made it five episodes through, I’m not in a position to judge Lodoss. But if you can’t finish eating an unappetizing meal, that’s a bad meal. If you can’t sit through a boring movie, that’s a bad movie. And even if Lodoss may “get” good in the future, that would still mean I’d have to put up with the nonsense that made me quit for who knows how much longer.

I couldn’t even finish Record of Lodoss War, and when I can’t even finish a work, that gets it a 1/10. Maybe, as Mike Crandoll said, Record of Lodoss War did indeed set the bar for animated fantasy, or at least for fantasy anime. If that’s the case though, then it set the bar very, very low.

First of all, i can slap myself for not watching or seeing it as an kid, though i noticed it decades ago the collection in the VHS store´s, but i had no idea about it until recently and its MAGICAL.
This ova serie´s that i think a side or continuation of the t.v serie´s ( 1990) that was a cornerstone for fantasy anime till this day with exception of Y´S ( 1989).
But there is a catch if u watch it for the 1st time ever, and its that u have to watch the epidose´s in the right order, start with episode 2,3,4,5 after that ... watch the 1st episode , than # 6 till 13 in order wich i never was able to solve why they did it.
Storywise it was definetly a epic fantasy , dark and well put together with the whole package, dragons, Knights, spells, ancient kingdoms, sort of a ´fellowship´, princesses, trolls, treasures ect. ect. and ofc could be very violent at parts.
As for the animation , in my eyes it was almost flawless for its time, very low background animation fails, charachters and villians design was quite well done and had the right outfits, but what i love the most are the DRAGONS!!!!!!! for 1990 it looked tight and well animated , fluend movements and drawn to look terrifying, we don´t see it like that anymore , sad.
FANTASY OPERA as i call this,and i not mean only the intro but througout the ova serie´s has numerous moments with opera music blended in nicely, to me the intro alone i played it repeatedly in my head, rememberable.
Most of the charachters had a good relationship , likable and not the sort to be forgotten easely, especially if u are an anime fantasy fan, only the main protagonist has still some of that oldskool hotheaded type like that rushed in fights without thinking , those kind of chara popped out everywhere in the late 80´s and 90´s, a bit tasteless, but does have a good turnaround later on.
Elves are some of the main basis as charachters and storywise, if ur talk about fantasy ofc, and they have a great role in lodoss.It was more than entertaining, it was a very colorful and memorable experience to me that finally i watched lodoss war, till i gonna get the full t.v serie´s, too bad i never saw it aired because it somethinf like Record of lodoss war could fill up lots of today´s fantasy anime that has rushed or weak substance!

This one is a little bit serious. If you want to talk about this in DnD perspective, these are the guys that take everything serious and say that you can’t talk out of character and all that. Sure there is a little comedy but it is pretty much ether nurd-ifide or magically complicated. Maybe this is why I don’t really get along with the serious people… because I didn’t much care for it. Now this doesn’t mean that it is bad, oh no. It’s far from bad even to today’s standards. It just takes a lot of talking and standing around before anything really significant ... gets done.

The characters are alright though I have to wonder about the names and character designs. Ghim, the dwarf, reminds me a lot of Ghimbli from Lord of the Rings, and I’m not sure but depending on when Rune Soldier was made, Deedlit looks a lot like Crysta, the elf girl they meet. No matter how you try to sugar coat it, Parn is pretty much a weakling trying to fit into his father’s armor, though that’s mostly what he looks like. He does have a brave heart though, which I have to sit down and roll my eyes at since it’s pretty much generic. The whole thing is freaken generic and rather boring to me most of the time.

The animation, though beautiful, felt more like still shots with lips flapping because The fight scenes aren’t well done in today’s standard. They might have been fine back then but I come from a generation where we like our active fight scenes and not this ‘clash swords and talk’ thing most of the characters do.

The voices, mostly actually miss in the English version and since I couldn’t find the Japanese, I couldn’t see weather it was the same there too. This is just one that I really wish had some more comedy to keep me interested. The narrator got on my nerves a hell of a lot more then the others though. It seemed ever part that could have been better without any sound was voiced over to talk about what was right in front of us!

Once, a young man toured the empty, echoing halls of an ancient dungeon, a place abandoned by time and now slowly, painfully grinding towards a final collapse named "Blockbuster Video". A few petty coins were left behind for his prize, a priceless treasure known as "Record of Lodoss War"...

OK, enough of that, you want to see a review of the 13-episode OVA series Record of Lodoss War. So, right off the bat, here's my objective opinion: This is a flawed, often deeply-flawed series, but one that has a lot of high points to go along with its flaws. Personal opinion, though? ... I love this series. I love this series because its creators clearly loved it, and that shows.

So let's talk about those flaws. The story is strong, but the pace of the story is fairly uneven, taking its sweet time here and there while rushing (or even skipping) ahead at other parts. In fact, 'uneven' could probably be the big criticism of Record of Lodoss War as a whole, since it can, thanks in part to those pacing issues, be applied to the problems with the characters as well, since we're missing or at least have poorly emphasized elements of their development and arc.

The animation is another thing, and part of where I'd like to point out being able to see a creator's love for something: The images are all gorgeous. Look at just about any still from the show and chances are you'll be able to like what you see. Now, I don't actually know the production history of Record of Lodoss War, but later on, when you just know the budget was running dry and corners had to be cut they just use... less of it, relying on slow pans over their scenes and very limited movement. It never looks worse, just less animated. The "Budget is out, have to cut corners" ending situation is hardly unique to Lodoss, but unlike other examples the creators of Record of Lodoss War knew where they could cut those corners and where they absolutely could not cut them in order to still tell the story they wanted to tell and transport the viewer to this fantastical world. Again, trying to think of it objectively I have to mark the show down for what it did there, but I think they found the best solution they could to their problem that it seems clear from the final product that they faced.

For all its problems, Record of Lodoss War has a very timeless quality to it, a trait it tends to share with the best of the best in fantasy if not in media in general. It's very earnest. It feels natural. It feels, I dare say, real. Or perhaps more than real it feels like an actual legend. In this day and age when so many works pillage their predecessors all the way back to the myths and legends of the world and end up feeling hollow or artificial it's somewhat astounding to see something, much less something with the fairly shallow roots of Record of Lodoss War (which clearly owes much to the 1974 genre-shaper Dungeons & Dragons) that feels like it could stand up alongside them.

Part of that is because, I personally feel, that the people involved clearly wanted to tell this story and tell it well. Another part I realize now might actually be the very flaws of the piece helping to propel it forward. Few indeed are the myths and legends that are complete and self contained, so when Record of Lodoss War frays at the edges but manages to do so in a graceful manner it ends up invoking not dissatisfaction with what was missing, skipped, accelerated through, or seemingly riddled with plot holes or continuity errors, but rather it evokes the sense of those old tales that are generally told and retold through many sources, leaving them misty-edged glimpses of a tapestry that can never be beheld in a full and finished state. Whether by design or by accident, it seems possible to me that the elements that make Record of Lodoss War technically weaker may be, in some ways, actually enhancing the emotional experience.

And in the end, that's what Lodoss best delivers: an experience. If you're going to come in to this like a health inspector setting foot in the kitchen of some old, beloved diner you're going to find problems here and there and you certainly won't enjoy yourself as would the patron soaking in the warm hues of the yellowed wallpaper and rich bread-and-grease aroma of the patty melt brunch on its way to them. To an extent, that's true of any work of media. Someone watching something as a critic can't be forced to get invested if they're too busy thinking and analyzing to feel. But it's especially true for works like Record of Lodoss War that play more strongly to the viewer's emotions, rather than a mystery or think-piece that goes primarily for the intellect.

This OVA is Considered An Underrated Masterpiece!! Yep!! The characters are Well developed. Parn & Deedlit's Relationship is way better than generic Anime relationship. The Music Of This Anime IS FREAKING ORCHESTRAL-LIKE MASTERPIECE. The Story is Reminded Me Dungeons and Dragons With Mix elements with Lord Of The Rings(BTW, I Didn't Watch Lord of The Ring movie trilogy yet, Surely I Plan too). The Artstyle is Unlikely Generic Fantasy light novels yeah!! This Artstyle Looks Mature Period. Animation is The Best If you watch in Blu Ray Version. This Could Be Everyone's Favorite & Became My Favorite OVA. Also English & Japanese audio Are Great. ... I've watched in Japanese Audio cause Ashram is Voiced By Akira Kamiya(Voice of Kenshiro from Fist Of The North Star, Ryo Saeba from City Hunter & Kinnikuman From Kinnikuman)

Oh Boy...I Wish I liked you More Lodoss...

Ahem, Lets get this out of the way, The art, Sound and animation are for the most part really great. but as soon as we come down the Characters and cinematography, problems start to arrive in Spades.

I see what Lodoss is trying to do with their limited 13 episodes and only giving us the nessesary bits and pieces to link the story together. but because of this it feels like the anime lacks a lot of focuss on what it actually wants to tell. and this effects the relation between it's main cast members the most.

some of the ... characters have pre-existing relationships and are together naturally from the start. others join the group seemingly out of convinience for the story. Both, without ANY naritive reason to stick together for the long run. there is ZERO character chemistry between any of them. it doesn't feel like a group that has been through thick and thin who came together for a collective cause. but more like a DnD-group that the DM threw together for the sake of it.

Another thing that bothers me are the jumpcuts in the episodes. Some of them are place very akwardly and really make you go "Eh Wait? was a part of the episode just cut out?" Which makes everything feel very Choppy. One of the most notable example's of this is an assasination atempt inside a ballroom which instantly jump-cuts the main cast resting and the main character training with someone. WHAT HAPPENED INBETWEEN?

I can see why Record Of Lodoss War is considered a classic by it's tone, style and aesthetic, but it's terrible jumpcuts and lack of character development makes it ultimately a very mediocer show.

Record of Lodoss War Review


Record of Lodoss War is one of those oldtaku “classics” that a lot of people have heard of but in my experience you find less and less who have actually seen it, especially with the oldtaku continuing to age out and newer younger generations joining the fandom in much larger numbers. Nowadays it’s kind of most notable for being that thing Lisa Ortiz was in before Slayers, and that series that Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth was based off. I only know two people who have seen Record of Lodoss War other than me, both only saw it once and ... one saw it over 20 years ago. Where I live, in the US, we have only received a handful of Lodoss properties but in Japan it’s quite a bit bigger with multiple novels and games in addition to the couple anime that were released in the 90s. However the two anime are meant to stand on their own and the OVA series was the first of these two making it the entry point to the series for many people, such as myself. Did it succeed in properly introducing and explaining the world of Lodoss Island to fresh audiences? Kinda.

Lodoss is a by the books fantasy story. What's the first thing that comes to your mind when I say “fantasy adventure party”? The mental image you just got there is identical to the composure of the Lodoss group. We get Parn, the warrior, his friend Etoh, the priest, Slayn, the wizard, Ghim, the dwarf, Deedlit, the elf, and Woodchuck, the thief. None of them are really all that notable other than Deedlit, who is strikingly beautiful and has a personality that isn’t as easily summed up as just stating her character class. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Parn, who at times comes off as so empty he feels like an RPG player character still awaiting a player to come in and personalize him. Parn is the main character. The people in charge of the anime though clearly knew who you were gonna watch it for however. Both the opening and ending heavily feature Deed, with the ending cutting all party members who aren't her. Pretty artwork of a pretty elf to keep you going. But other than the party make up what is Lodoss like? Pretty standard.

The basic plot outline of Record of Lodoss War is that the party is on a quest to stop an invasion by the evil emperor of Marmo, Beld, and to take down his powerful ally, the witch Karla. Ghim and Slayn are looking for Leylia the daughter of Ghim’s friend Neese who went missing seven years ago. If you want to know the particulars of why, read the novel. An English copy currently has an asking price of around $70 so hopefully you got one while they were still in print. Salyn and Ghim get roped in with Parn and Etoh after they help them fend off some goblins attacking the town they live in. They meet Deedlit when she shows up to warn them of the attack. Woodchuck they meet in prison when the party is arrested for a miscommunication later in the series. However this is not where Lodoss chooses to start. Instead the first episode is smack in the middle of their adventures when they are already on their way to meet the sage Wort. Unlike some series, Berserk for instance, having the first episode set ahead then flashing back does not help establish a tone or foreshadow anything. Instead it’s more akin to Violence Jack, just having one random episode out of order. It’s odd and confusing because the viewer doesn't know any of these characters yet and they've just been thrown into the middle of the story. In addition Parn’s first two lines are both negging Deedlit which doesn’t help endear him to you. This weird out of order episode left one of my friends so confused it effected his ability to understand the story. He told me “Yeah they were like ‘okay we’re gonna go see the wizard’ then the next episode they’re like ‘okay now that we saw the wizard’ and you never see them go there!” I had to tell him they did, they just did it in the first episode then flashed back for seemingly no reason. However this is not the biggest flaw of Record of Lodoss War. It’s biggest flaw would be its pacing.

The strength of any fantasy rests on the back of its lore. From Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones all successful fantasy franchises have had deep lore. Record of Lodoss War is no different. It opens every episode with a brief summery of the history of Lodoss’ creation. However there are only 13 half hour episodes of the original OVA franchise, they were never going to be able to pack everything in. This did not stop them from trying. Things move at an absolutely break neck pace in Lodoss War. In those 13 episodes alone there are 4 separate villains. That means there are 4 separate climaxes. You barely have time to rest on the end of one part before the series has moved on to the next. Okay they’re fighting Beld, now they’re fighting Karla, now they’re fighting Ashram, now they’re fighting Wagnard. Those last two take place during the final three episodes leaving them feeling even more rushed and crammed than anything that came before them. Characters can be introduced and then made lifelong friends or bitter enemies in what seems like an instant because the show cannot slow down if it wants to get everything in there at once. I’ve watched it multiple times and I can’t say for sure if Wagnard is possessed by Kardis, the god of destruction, or if he just remembers his evil scheme in the middle of a battle. Personally I don’t think he should have been in the series and that they should have cut both his and Ashram’s battles using those last 3 episodes to slow the series down a bit and ending it with their battle against Karla. She was the villain with the most connection to the main party and the battle against her felt the most climactic out of the 4 villain battles. If, however, you can get past a level of pacing so fast it would pass an F-1 qualifier there are things to enjoy in the series.

Lodoss has some genuinely good fantasy action and designs. The dragons are huge and intimidating. The sorcery, while standard at times, gives you that classic fantasy magic feel. And the larger party means there’s more of an opportunity for individuals to use unique class abilities. Not to mention for those into that sort of thing Deedlit is total eye candy. Her ability to commune with the spirits of nature sets her magic apart from the type used by Slayn so it doesn’t feel like they just did the same character abilities twice. And for those willing to put in the time and attention to detail there’s some pretty interesting lore behind the scenes. Such as how emperor Beld wields the demonic sword of the demon king that he previously felled and that it grants great power but in exchange will corrupt the user. I also think the sword my crave blood and has a mind of its own but it is hard to tell given the speed at which this information is dumped and how easy it all can be to miss. Ghim’s obsession with rescuing Leylia, while lacking in the motivation provided by the novel, ads a more personal component to the group’s questing beyond just “stop evil thing from destroying world”, a personal connection later echoed when Parn has his battle against Wagnard at the end of the series. Karla makes for a fairly interesting antagonist. Unlike many fantasy villains who’s motivation is “I am evil because I am evil” Karla is trying to strike a balance in the world. She believes that the world can be neither fully good nor fully evil and will throw her weight and influence behind whichever side she deems weaker in the sake of maintaining a perfect balance. If you’re willing to look past the under cooked characters and rushed delivery you can appreciate Lodoss on its aesthetics and world then later return and finish cooking the characters yourself with additional research. It’s a very standard fantasy, but that also means it’s not a poor fantasy.

In the end it’s hard for me to recommend Record of Lodoss War, and this is entirely because of its insanely fast pacing. I personally enjoy it, and found that I liked it even more on my second viewing than on my first when I wasn’t all that impressed. The more layers of the Lodoss onion I peel off the more I enjoy it. However taken as a stand alone this OVA series is ridiculously rushed. It bites off far more than it can chew and both story lines and characters suffer because of it. It would easily be a much stronger show if it cut down on a couple of plot threads and gave the others room to breathe. The creators of the show don’t believe in pruning their trees however, and allow every tiny branch to suck away the energy of the whole rather than cut them off to allow the stronger ones to continue to grow and flourish. If you’re the type of person who really loves fantasy stories, or this sort of pacing issue isn't a dealbreaker for you then I would say go ahead and give Lodoss a shot. On the other hand if you're not big on fantasy and really need a strong, slow story to feel a deep connection with the characters then just go ahead and pass on this one, it’s not going to offer much for you. I would say it is the stronger of the two Lodoss anime but that doesn’t mean its fantastic or that it is for everyone. In the end its a heavily flawed work and the enjoyment is going to vary wildly by individual. I like Lodoss, it’s not my favorite, its not going to be topping my chart of all time greatest fantasy stories, but it’s an enjoyable way to fill my time and is a world I can get into. Maybe that will be how you feel, maybe not. But in the end the only way to really know for sure is decide if thats an adventure you want to take.

7/10

A fantastic piece of fantasy anime that feels like it brings alive the lore of Dungeons & Dragons in the medium of Japanese Animation. I really liked the heroes who were all well-drawn personalities despite their fantasy archetypes and the villains were well imagined as well with several morally 'grey' entities inhabiting the moral ground between the armies of Darkness and Light struggling for Lodoss such as the Grey Witch Karla and wildcard Dragons. With even secondary characters like the Good King Fahn and the Dark Emperor Beld receiving some impressive development the series has a sense of history and worldbuilding that helps create an ... impressive series, despite some of the limited animation that plagues some of the larger set-piece moments in the OVA series.

After watching so many fantasy story I can say finally I found the true fantasy story I've been looking for something fimiliar to final fantasy or maybe elden ring or even lots of the ring something that can the complete universe of fantasy story with various factions such as humans, elves and dragons something has hat that classic typical story about good and evil something that talking about legends and heroes, this anime could be the ultimate fantasy story you can find in anime community, no overpowered main character , and there is no friendship power , no harem bullshit , just a ... story that could be too realistic than entertaining, and trust me ain't exaggerating at all , it has some dark theme elements like berserk , ppl here can easily die and every fight they struggle and they face their weaknesses.

im sick of shitty isekai or OP MC I wanna see something that will make love all characters without favorite any one of them , with some true love story without harem and over ecchi things , and we don't have that silly or cringe comedy here like most of shows have .

the soundtrack were stunning I loved em , classic and fancy and honestly that's why I prefer 90s anime , at that time ppl create stories with pure love , you can feel how much hard work they put on it , short amount of episodes with decent stories no filler no several seasons .


i really hope this anime get a reboot because there is a lack of lore hereI feel the plot needs more episodes to explain the universe during my walkthrough I noticed they kinda rushed the story to the end and that's why can't give it full besides that I believe the source material here needs at least 25 episodes to adapt it .

The age of this series shows, but the OVAs still hold up today as a classic high fantasy anime. The story itself isn't anything special and plays out like a D&D campaign, and the characters are pretty much ripped out of a D&D session as well. But that's the charm of it, It's just a straightforward high fantasy story. I'll also admit the influx of the "Isekai" genre has influenced my review as the most generic fantasy plots are masterpieces compared to that garbage.

Animation and sound wise it still holds up fairly well for something it's age, and the first episode in particular ... had animation that puts some series today to shame in comparison. Story wise as I said before, it's pretty much a D&D campaign in animated format. Your enjoyment of it hinges on whether you like those kinds of plots, I did so I liked it. The characters are all pretty generic, but that's what makes them endearing. They aren't some ridiculous over the top anime trope like a lot of "fantasy" anime does these days. Parn the main character isn't a Japanese teenager who got killed by a truck and sent to this fantasy world where he's given a ridiculous OP power that's considered weak. He's just the son of a knight who starts off as a complete greenhorn, and by the end you see his progression both in his combat skills and his personality.

All in all, it's a classic series that I'd recommend anybody who loves Fantasy or those who are tired of the bland self insert Isekai genre to check out.