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.

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, especially the scene with the dragon—with Toshiyuki Inoue 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 all 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, and hardly even during or after that point. 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 or Ken Burns' direction or a subpar bout of storyboarding or bad and reused animation (I swear 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.