Lodoss-tou Senki

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!

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.

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.

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!

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

This show is based on the first novel of THE classic Japanese high fantasy series. If you were born in the '60s or '70s (if you were Japanese) or '90s (if you were anywhere else) you must have heard of Lodoss at least once. The novel series was based on an actual TRPG playthrough of the series' writer Mizuno Ryou and his friends: the story involved was modified after the playthrough was done.

This show cut down on almost every sidequest/filler within the novels, and some more: hence the story is abrupt, confusing, and not very well developed throughout the whole running time. The story has ... a tendency to either jump between certain points in time, or not explain what happened between events. Notably, the transition from episode 5 to 6 was quite confusing, so much that I thought I'd turned on the wrong episode by accident. Also, no one gets any character development time, not even Parn, and if our protagonist is susceptible to this then no one is exempted. Deedlit is in love with Parn out of the blue because reasons, and everyone else are likewise cookie-cutter characters, such as the supportive wizard, the gruff dwarf fighter, the morally gray rogue, the mentor/father figure and king, the scheming advisor, etc. Expecting a well-woven, fantastic and complex story of a grand scale in a meager 13 episodes is the fastest way to disappoint yourself: Treat this show as an appendix to the novels, as a teaser video series of what a properly visualized Lodoss could have been, because the visuals, while a bit static (or borderline ridiculous) in a few key action scenes, are for the most part absolutely gorgeous and emblematic of the late 80's ~ early '90s aesthetics, with animators that worked on/would go on to animate incredible visuals from various works like Galaxy Express 999, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, RahXephon, Cowboy Bebop, and many more.

This OVA series' greatest contribution to the otaku subculture is how they managed to perfectly animate Deedlit, arguably the most influential elf character in ALL of Japan--at least, in terms of character designs. Blonde, long and pointy ears, well-endowed with a slender frame, green clothing, nature something something, with a high chance of being a tsundere? That's from Deedlit. I can immediately think of five elf characters with similar hair and cloth color coding--and most of them originate from NSFW material. To say that Deedlit influenced EVERY female elf character in Japan since her creation might not be an overstatement. It's not just her character design though: Deedlit is probably the best 'character' (if anyone can properly be called so) in Lodoss, simply because she gets so much screentime even when it's not her turn to shine, in addition to having the best voice acting. Deedlit is strong and resourceful without being overpowered (unlike Parn), wise and composed (unlike Parn), haughty but not overbearing, compassionate yet level-headed, possesses unrivaled beauty, and, most importantly, has the power to significantly increase the budget of the sakuga and frames of every scene she's in while Parn stares at her or zones out into the distance. Truly the fantasy girl that every otaku wants.

I talked more about Deedlit than the actual plot. That should tell you what to expect from this show: a visual feast and a narrative famine.

Lodoss follows in the tradition of D&D rather than literary fantasy, and it suffers from it. It has a nostalgic appeal, but only because back in the 90s, we didn't have many options for medieval fantasy anime, and this scratched that itch. It does have its good moments, but it is otherwise forgettable.

Let's get this out of the way first: "Record of Lodoss War" is an adaptation of a D&D campaign run by the author. No attempt is made to hide it. The grand back story and world building by the DM/author are used for flavor and to motivate events, but ... they otherwise have little connection to the story. The characters are straight out of the early D&D manuals, and obvious choices at that: fighter, elf, dwarf, cleric, magic user, thief. In episode 8, the group must have got their hands on a supplementary D&D manual, so they introduce a berserker. The final battle is at the bottom of a multi-level dungeon, just as you expect. Even villains seem to come straight from the D&D manual—you can pick out the chaotic evil and lawful evil villains the moment they appear on screen.

In the end, what makes up the story? A love story for the hero, training to become a better fighter, and a bit of a tragic love story in the background, all set in front of an eternal battle between light and dark. This comfortable predictability makes it an excellent target for nostalgia. The pacing becomes problematic as the series goes on—more characters, more stories, more viewpoints, and more exposition all slow things down towards the second half. The story then lurches forward to meet an ending that it hasn't quite earned. In the meantime, characters and plot seem to happen independently of each other.

But it's not really that bad. In spite of the cookie-cutter character concepts, the characters themselves are filled out and seem real. We sympathize with heroes and villains alike. The story treats its setting and characters with respect. Finally, he animation and soundtrack are great—at least, much of the time.

So if you can't get enough medieval fantasy, or if you're on a nostalgia kick, Record of Lodoss War is just what you need. However, if you're just curious, don't bother. The 90s has better series to offer.

Lodoss-tou Senki (Record of Lodoss War) is a very western-style fantasy story. The protagonist is a village-boy-turned-swordsman, his love interest is an elf, they’re joined by a priest, a wizard, a dwarven warrior, and a thief. They fight against evil wizards, dark elves, orc-like beastmen, and ultimately an evil kingdom, all of which are in service of resurrecting an evil god. They meet various allies throughout the series, including kings, lords, and mercenaries. They explore ruins and travel the land.

If you’re a fan of fantasy novels or video games, all of this probably sounds fairly familiar. I don’t know what Japanese audiences would have ... thought, but Lodoss is rather cliché. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, of course. Cliché stories can be comforting (eg. in the form of nostalgia) or sources of easy entertainment. And even a bad story (cliché or not) can be saved by having exciting or complex characters. But this is where the first real problem with Lodoss’ writing emerges: the characters aren’t particularly great.

Of maybe half a dozen major characters, only one, the protagonist Parn, sees anything resembling character development. Parn starts out as a reckless teenager who doesn’t know how to use a sword. Over the course of Lodoss, he learns how to use a sword, becomes less reckless, and appears to mature at least a little. However, these changes are rather superficial. Parn is fundamentally the same person at the beginning of the story, in the middle of the story, and at the end of the story. Likewise, Parn never seems conflicted or in doubt about his choices, nor does he ever despair in the face of evil. Parn’s entire personality and character arc could be summarized with one word: protagonist.

The other characters don’t differ, really. They all fit into familiar archetypes, none of them demonstrate any hidden depths or complex motivations, and, unlike Parn, none of them have any kind of character growth. None of this is to say that there aren’t any likeable characters – Ghim, Woodchuck, and Ashram all stood out for me – but for every likeable character, you can probably find at least one or two who feel superfluous. For example, I can vaguely recall both Slayn the wizard and Etoh the priest doing things, but neither really felt integral to the plot, despite being two of Parn’s companions.

A lot of these problems with characterization could be solved if Lodoss was better paced. Lodoss’ pacing is odd. The OVA was adapted from a series of novels; however at the time, only the first three of seven novels had been published, and only three more would be published by the OVA’s conclusion. And whilst those novels were, in turn, adapted from a DnD campaign run by the author and his friends, at best that would have only provided an outline to the production company. Whilst one can’t know for sure, I suspect that this had some impact on the production, pacing, and writing of the episodes.

Lodoss’ first episode is in media res, taking place probably around the same time as episode six. It doesn’t really spare much time in introducing the characters. As a story about six companions adventuring in a dungeon, it’s pretty entertaining, but I admittedly found it hard to follow at times, especially when it cut away from our heroes to focus on conversations being had by various villains and supporting characters. The second episode is the true beginning of the story, and from there the series progresses normally. Lodoss is primarily about a war staged between the evil empire of Marmo and the various other kingdoms of Lodoss, and this war transpires over the course of the series. However, for the first eight episodes, at least some of the narrative focus is on Ghim’s quest to find a young woman, Leylia, who had disappeared some years before. These eight episodes are probably the best part of the series, and if the story told during them had been expanded to the full thirteen episodes, I suspect that many of my complaints regarding characterization would have been moot.

Unfortunately, after episode eight, Lodoss’ story takes a nosedive. The last five episodes concern the bulk of the war against Marmo, and five episodes isn’t enough to tell the story of a war. Often times, I felt as I were missing something – as if, for example, the characters had decided something or come to some realization between episodes. I’ll admit that I had trouble maintaining interest by this point, so I may simply have missed something, but these final episodes definitely felt rushed when compared to the eight that preceeded them.

If there is a bright spot to Lodoss, it is the fantastic art. The characters designs are all richly detailed and are an interesting blend of Eastern and Western art styles. Any one of the characters wouldn’t look out of place in a DnD manual from the eighties. On the other hand, the animation leaves something to be desired. I’m not the greatest judge of these kinds of things, but I suppose one expects a bit more fluidity from an OVA, whereas Lodoss – character designs aside – felt more like a television series in terms of quality. That’s maybe not the best way of putting it, but I’m not an art guy. The color palette is also more muted when compared to other fantasy anime (such as Slayers), though I think that’s fitting given how seriously Lodoss takes itself.

As I mentioned before, I think that Lodoss would have been more enjoyable overall had the story arc of the first eight episodes been extended to all thirteen. However, as it is, I don’t think Lodoss is without it’s appeal. It is a solid, if predictable and cliché fantasy story, and I suspect those with an interest in the fantasy genre will find something to enjoy here, whether it be the nostalgia or the art. Likewise, I don’t know how faithful it is to the novels, but I imagine fans of the novels would appreciate the OVA, as well (and perhaps get a lot more out of it). Then again, fans of the novels might take issue with any deviations the OVA made, and given the OVA was being released before the series was fully published, I can imagine there were a few.

However, you probably already know whether Lodoss is the kind of series that will interest you. It is exactly what it seems to be, for better or worse.

“Record of Lodoss War” is a 13-episode OVA series that is part of the mixed media franchise of the same name. “Lodoss” was quite popular when it was released and influenced just about every anime in the fantasy genre that succeeded it; this series’ importance is not to be understated. However, while “Lodoss” has excellent music, nice artwork and character designs, every other aspect of this series, especially plot and character development, leaves a lot to be desired.

The gist of the plot is that a wizard is trying to resurrect an evil goddess to rule and/or destroy the island of Lodoss, and a traditional party ... led by a hero has to stop him. They are aided by a neighboring kingdom and a couple of rogue characters. On the villain’s side, there is some infighting, as a couple of characters don’t get along with the wizard. There’s also an “observer” whose alliance is left unclear, and seems to switch between the two sides. So, in essence, it’s a traditional good-versus-evil setup, which isn’t a bad thing, but the the narrative gets repetitive. It’s basically: fight the villain because they’re evil. Defeat them. Fight the next villain who is also bad just because. Rinse and repeat until you’re holding a half-naked elf woman in your arms.

The plot sounds simple, but the story jumps around a lot, particularly in the first half of the series, so it can be difficult to follow. For instance, the first episode starts in medias res style, with events that chronologically happen around the middle of the series. Then from episode 2, it jumps back to the beginning, and there are also some flashbacks here and there that aren’t transitioned into well. In addition, the series mentions various kingdoms around the island, and we see characters traveling to and from these kingdoms, but we never get a sense of where these kingdoms are in relation to each other, or the distance between them. It would have been helpful if they had shown a map once in a while.

The story does have a conclusive ending, but many key questions are left unanswered, especially regarding the fates of some of the main characters. One character, in particular, seems to have been forgotten by everyone else. A group of multicolored dragons is featured prominently in the opening sequence, and we start seeing some of them in the latter half of the series. However, one of them simply shows up and strikes a pose in the last episode, and doesn’t do anything after that. The significance of the dragons and their relation with the other inhabitants of the island are not explained well, if at all. We also never really learn much about the other races/species living on the island, or what lies outside of the island.

As “Lodoss” was based off of a series of novels that were in turn based off of “Dungeons and Dragons” roleplaying sessions, the characters are about as archetypal as you can get. They don’t have any personalities beyond stereotypes, and we don’t get too much background information on them. Character motivations, particularly for the villains, are simplistic, contradictory or simply left unclear. There is a hint of development for two of the antagonists, but it’s too little, too late. It’s suggested at the end that the main protagonist has changed somewhat (as stated by the narrator), but we don’t actually see him change.

As for technical aspects of this series, some of the artwork is good, particularly with regard to the character designs for Deedlit and the other female characters. The male characters, on the other hand, look rather plain to me. The backgrounds are also dull. The dragons have interesting designs, but due to the lack of animation, their fights are underwhelming. Regarding the animation, most of the time it’s not that fluid. Action scenes tend to rely on still shots and slideshow-type shots which use minimal animation. Occasionally, the characters appear to be off-model. About the only time the animation is actually good is during closeups of Deedlit’s face.

As mentioned earlier, there is a lot of jumping around the timeline, and the scenes aren’t transitioned into very well, so the direction is not that great. The voice acting is decent, but due to the cliched dialogue, none of the actors really have a chance to shine here.

The best thing about “Lodoss” is the music. I love the airy, ethereal feeling of the opening and ending themes; they really add to the atmosphere of the series. The insert song in the last episode, and all of the instrumental background music, are good as well.

Regarding potentially objectionable content, this series is full of fighting (it’s called “Record of Lodoss *War*,” after all), and a couple of the many scenes in which people get killed or seriously injured are rather grotesque. There’s a slight bit of nudity in the last episode, and some implied nudity in the ending sequence. Also, it should be noted that most episodes of this series, especially around the beginning and end, have frequent flashing light effects, so caution is necessary while viewing this if you’re photosensitive.

Overall, “Record of Lodoss War” is an important show that is watchable, but due to the confusing way the story is set up, as well as the lack of interesting characters, it’s not a particularly satisfying watch. The music and atmosphere of the series is nice, though, so if you don’t mind the lack of character development and having a bevy of key questions left unanswered at the end, you may enjoy watching this.

Watching Fantasy Anime part 1: The classics

I've been playing dnd and getting into fantasy books/series lately cause i like the worldbuilding,aesthetics and the story( when i'ts good of course). Decided to give a shot fantasy type anime so here we go.

Lodoss-tou Senki or Record of Lodoss war is you standard medieval high magic type adventure anime, you got your hero swordsman, elfs, dwarfs, wizard, evil warlods/witches/magicians trying to take over the world, orcs, goblins, kobolds, and most important dragons. Its inspired by a novel who also took inspiration from a tabletop game and it shows. With that out of the way lets dive into the ... aspects of the anime.

Story: Parn is a not so good swordman from a village that got attacked by a group of goblins, after helping fend then off with the help of Deedlit the elf, and others. He goes into a journey with his party members to save the continent of Lodoss from Marmo a evil empire that is trying to control everything, an evil spirit, and a crazy wizard that is trying to revive an ancient godness or something to destroy everything, thats pretty much it. I'ts old school dnd fellas, it doest not really have a very deep and interesting lore for you to get invested or a bunch of worldbuilding like other fantasy godfathers like Game of Thrones, LOTR, Narnia, Conan the Barbarian, etc. It doesn't help that the pacing very rushed and the characters barely have any time to develop, So what else does Lodoss has to to offer? lets find out.

characters:
Parn-> Anime protagonist short black-brown hair, green jumpsuit, brown armor, and holy shoulder pauldrons they are huge, thats all i can remember of him, because other then that Parn is pretty much a cardboard. He starts off like really shitty swordman, gets better and a little bit more mature and laters is able to defeat the villain that in earlier episodes could easily stomp him and his intire party if he wanted too, he doesn't have any other personality and really generic props for him for being one of the first cardboard protagonists.

Deedlit-> Honestly one of the best of the bunch in my opinion, she is a pretty elfy lady with a very kind personality, thats falls in love with our MC,their romance feels very forced again because of the rushed pacing. She is elven royalty that really cares about her people, uses nature based magic, and she is very cute i guess. Some peole i saw around here were bragging about how she was the 90s waifu or some shit because she was so hot, but to be honest other then her pretty face her design is not that sexualised. I feel like in the novels and the spinoff games there is more stuff about her backstory, more dialogue that shows more about her kind personality.

Etoh->carboard on cleric clothes, he is there

Ghim->grumpy dwarf that makes sometimes talks about how Parn is reckless and gets grumpy with Deedlit cause she is a elf, he had some backstory with some princess that made him go into a adventure to save world, i'ts not very fleshed out again because of the pacing.

Slayn->Very calm and colective wizard, i kinda love how everytime he casts spells he does a long chatting to summon then kind like in real dnd

Woodchuck->Rogue asshole, greedy and sometimes likes to annoy our MC

others: We got Lodoss Knight, Evil Knight, Evil Wizard, Evil Witch than wants to keep the balance between good and evil, and that hot black elven chick that was friends with evil Knight

Art/Animation/Music: thus far one of the best things about the anime( except the PNG moving dragon) is that in my opinion the art was really good, i love the weapon designs, the visuals of the monsters, the armors, the visuals of the dragons and for a old ass 90s anime the animation looks really good and doesn't suffer from being slow and static like a lot of counterparts. Music was alright some adult contemporary ballad for the opening, some good ambient and half decent battle music i guess.

Conclusion: it was pretty alright for a anime, loved the visuals and animations, but din't liked the pacing wich was very fast and it din't let the story breathe a little very much and the MCs dint feel very fleshed out and pretty generic.

Anyhow a 5/10