Rune Soldier

Original Title: 魔法戦士リウイ
Romanized: Mahou Senshi Riui
Literal: Magic Warrior Louie

Plot Synopsis

In the kingdom of Ohfun, now thriving after a recent war of succession, there is plenty of room for adventurers to crawl dungeons and battle monsters. Meet one well-traveled all-female party: Gina the powerful warrior, Merrill the cunning thief, and Melissa, the pious priestess of Mylee. Their party is almost perfect, but they lack a mage to handle their magical needs. It would seem fate has a nasty sense of humor, though, since while the hero Melissa seeks to follow is ordained by her deity to be a mage, he turns out to be none other than the headstrong, brain-weak, and all-around beefy wizard-in-training Louie, master of the Louie Punch!

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2004-06-21

By Ryou Mizuno of Record of Lodoss War fame, Rune Soldier Louie delivers a humorous fantasy story that pays homage to the setting of classic role playing games without mocking them. By taking a collection of relatively straight characters with a collection of personality quirks and sticking them into a relatively straight fantasy world, it dishes up humor and light adventure with just a bit of plot and characterization to back it up, resulting in a lighthearted and thoroughly enjoyable series from the first episode to the last.

There are few series as consistently light and enjoyable as Rune Soldier, and I highly recommend it to any fan of fun fantasy.

US DVD Review

ADVs hybrid DVDs are characteristically solid, if not particularly flashy; they have crisp Japanese and English audio tracks, an accurate English subtitle track, and bright, well-encoded, and very crisp-looking video. The only noteworthy special features on the discs are clean opening and closings, plus a game of some sort on the third disc. Most of the actual extras are included in the packaging--temporary tattoos, art, booklets, puzzles, and reversible covers, in various combinations depending on the volume.

Content Guide

Rated 15-up by ADV on account of some nudity, violence, and the occasional mature joke.

Violence: 3 - A lot of monsters and a handful of people die, though there is little blood.

Nudity: 2 - A lot of revealing outfits and some nudity.

Sex/Mature Themes: 2 - Some crude jokes, but it stops there.

Language: 1 - Nothing of note.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a comic series by Ryou Mizuno and illustrated by Jun Sasameyuki, available in English from ADV. The story roughly follows the manga, but the backstory of the world (and the likely tie-in with Louie's never-clearly-explained past in the anime) is somewhat more clearly explained.

Though the original title clearly includes Louie's name, (as does the directly-translated original English subtitle, "Louie the Rune Soldier," which was used for the English comic release), ADV for some reason is just going with "Rune Soldier."

Availability

Available on 6 hybrid DVDs from ADV films, 4 episodes per disc.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store