Lodoss-tou Senki

“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.

Story - The main story itself is not half bad for a fantasy themed anime. Some things are a bit unclear that I don't think I missed yet go unexplained. The whole thing feels like a small part of a the novels it was adapted from. That said, you can follow along with what's happening for the most part so it could be worse. It's no Lord of the Rings but the story was absolutely fine for it's genre. Art - The art for me is really great, I'm a sucker for the genre and this classic style. However, Deedlit and Pirotess' ears really shot out a bit too far. I guess they really wanted you to know they were elves. Just a small quirk of what otherwise is a pretty beautiful style, but may come off as "boringly realistic" to people who don't like that stuff. I however, loved it. Sound - So this is a real mixed bag. The quality ranges from poor to good. The sound effects are mostly actually quite good and never feel too stock. The music is also extremely hit or miss, and it's less about the writing of the music and more about the quality and whatever weird synth they used to make said music that sounds extremely fake for what's supposed to be a beautiful orchestral score. I think if it had a bigger budget this could have been ironed out. As it stands it's only ever distractedly bad a couple times and I'll forgive it. Character - I wish characters got fleshed out more, but the couple that did were pretty good. Parn is a decent MC if not a bit plain. Ashram was really cool as well as King Kashue. I wish they had more time to expand on the campaign characters as they feel largely glossed over and probably the anime was made for people who already knew the characters from the novel series. It doesn't make the story hard to follow but it just leaves me wanting in the character development department. Enjoyment - I actually quite liked this a lot. Some episodes are far better than others, sometimes the animation and budget really plummets and it gets unevenly cheap looking. However, I could see myself watching it again in the future. Easily one of the better series I've seen lately. It left me a bit frustrated that it didn't have more episodes to expand on things or a bigger budget to really make the good ideas look better in execution. They did well with what they had I think. Overall - If you like that type of old school Swords and Sorcery through the lens of Japanese people you can hardly do better than Record of Lodoss War. It fulfills it's niche and if you don't fall into this western fantasy sort of fandom you may find it to be a dull or average watch.

When I first watched this series back in 2005 I never cared to much for it. It was enjoyable but never really could get into it. Now in 2021 having this on Blu-ray being able to see there stunning art as it was meant to be helped a lot. This time around I was far more invested in the story even though it kind of falls flat at the end and feels a bit rushed. The characters are really what sell this show. The first few episodes are a bit slow and honestly felt like just another fantasy story, but those episodes really help with the character development and get you invested in them, because by the end of this OVA at least there are things that happen that really make you appreciate those earlier episodes. Overall I had an absolute blast with this series. It's far from perfect, but for what it is trying to do it's a lot of fun in you are into D&D type fantasy. The animation is stunning and has a rather unique look to it.

I enjoyed the old school animation style in this anime. The different effects and still shots were very nostalgic. I enjoyed the fantasy elements of the story; dragons, magic, etc. Record of Lodoss War is a classic take on an adventure story with fantasy elements. The story can be interesting at times though I found that the characters while likeable lacked some depth and their development through the story was rushed. As for the story and dialogue, I felt like it left a lot to be desired. The writing and storytelling is very dated and can make the show a bit of a slog to get through. It's definitely not bingable, but if you're looking for something comforting to watch one episode of right before bed, I'd say it's at least worth a watch for the artwork and nostalgia aspect.