Record of Lodoss War

Original Title: ロードス島戦記
Romanized: Roodosu-tou Senki
Literal: War Chronicle of Lodoss Island

Plot Synopsis

In the mists of legend the mythical island continent of Lodoss was torn away from the mainland during the war between Falis, god of light, and Falaris, god of darkness. But that peace, won at great cost in the distant past, is threatened by an evil force looming over the land. The evil rulers of the island Marmo are preparing their conquest of the peaceful kingdoms of Lodoss. But they are not the only threat--a mighty sorceress from a time long ago also has a hand in the dealings, and there may be an even more powerful force threatening all that is good. It will be up to a band of young warriors, misfits brought together by fortune, to find the source of the darkness and stop the evil that threatens Lodoss.

Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2008-02-04

Record of Lodoss War was very popular in Japan, and has also done well in the US, so I had fairly high hopes going in--if nothing else, a 13-episode epic fantasy OAV has a lot to work with. I was swept up by the opening credits--attractive visuals and a beautiful song full of wanderlust and journeys to distant lands. Unfortunately, pretty much everything from there on was downhill, so I'll warn you up front: I'm going to take an unpopular viewpoint when I say that I was disappointed. I've certainly seen worse, and there aren't many glaring flaws, but with the length and scope Record of Lodoss War has going for it, it could have been much better.

To start with, the setting is not exactly what you'd call original--based on a very popular (in Japan) series of novels, Record of Lodoss War is about as classic as fantasy can get, and not in a good way. A lot of the story is obviously based on Tolkien, and anyone who played the old Dungeons & Dragons game will be immediately at home in the land of Lodoss--there are clerics, elves, magic-users, fighters, thieves, dwarves, and dragons, and all of them behave exactly as you would expect them to. This is hardly a surprise, since the novels were actually an extension of some short stories that were in turn based on, yes, a D&D game.

This gaming-table-to-anime lineage has a certain amount of appeal (particularly considering that I'm a fan of tabletop RPGs), but it fits the classic fantasy mold a little too well: It's like an illustration of a fantasy role playing game so archetypal it borders on cheesy. You can practically hear someone saying, behind the character's voice, "Hi, guys, I'll be playing Parn the fighter." Again, that's not reason enough to dismiss it (and fans of fantasy RPGs may like it even more for that reason), but to me it felt a little flimsy.

The characters themselves are a likable bunch--some classic Dwarf/Elf antagonism, an antagonistic but sort of sweet romance between the hero and a spunky elf, and a tad more romantic depth behind the quiet wizard than I was expecting. Also on the positive side, the classic fantasy archetypes are by definition a little different from the standard anime fantasy mold; many of them are quite a bit more mature than the average anime hero (hey, and the cleric is a guy... not a very masculine guy, but still a guy).

Along the same lines, the heroes tend to be less hot-tempered than anime standard--even Parn, though not what you'd call levelheaded, develops a bit of grit and determination eventually. It was also nice to see a real collection of heroes rather than one young studly guy with a bunch of backup; Parn has a few big hero scenes, but he isn't nearly the ultimate swordsman that a lot of youthful anime heroes end up being, and many of the other characters (including some I wasn't expecting to do much, like King Kashue) play major roles in the story, a big plus for me.

Later in the series, there is some interesting interaction between a couple of the bad guys and some fairly good stuff involving a Berserker and his companion that get involved with the group. The banter also isn't bad, and keeps the mood light enough early on without getting in the way of the otherwise serious plot.

As for that plot, I'll give it a definite "not terrible." The first episode takes up a little ways into the story, and is almost laughably formulaic: Crawl through dwarven ruins, fight gargoyles, avoid trap, battle dragon, watch for falling rock. That out of the way, it gets much better--we go back to the beginning and a more leisurely plot-driven mode. The intent is basically a Hobbit-like story that starts small--with a few unruly adventurers--and builds into a grand battle between good and evil. Also, as the title implies, the story is built around a detailed fantasy war epic.

Although the two facets of the story work well together, it only partially succeeds on either level. On the successful end, the war story has the sort of political details, interesting villains, and collections of heroes, both small and large, that add up to an interesting tale for those who enjoy that sort of thing. The epic hero half features a decent assortment of characters brought together for a collection of adventures, and an appealing sense that they're only part of a much greater whole (as I mentioned above, a lot of non-central characters do important stuff).

There are plenty of negatives to go around, though. For one thing, none of it is original; again, it owes a lot to RPGs which are in turn heavily influenced by Tolkien, for both good and bad. With the exception of that initial bout of non-linearity, the storytelling is very straightforward and the attempts to be deep or clever seem forced (or at least overwritten) more often than not. The motives and power struggle among the villains provides some mystery, but in the entire series there is a grand total of one properly surprising plot twist, and maybe three lesser ones.

The series has a hefty 6 hours to build up momentum, but that ends up being both and advantage and a disadvantage. It provides plenty of time for leisurely development, but I found it a bit tedious after a while, and if the plot doesn't hook you, it could get downright boring. Worse still, the story was still cut short; the second half of the OAV series drastically compresses the original story in an attempt to wrap everything up. This results in a rushed second half and a vaguely unsatisfying ending.

The ending is unsatisfying because it wasn't really supposed to be the end, and that's where the TV version comes in. The beginning of the TV series re-tells a somewhat different version of the second half of the OAVs, then continues on to the "real" end. It's confusing no matter how you cut it, and if you wanted to get the best of both worlds you'd probably want to stop watching the OAVs at the halfway point and switch to the TV version.

Getting back on track, I'm willing to give predictable and unoriginal fantasy a lot of leeway if it's visually impressive, but sadly the visuals are Record of Lodoss War's weakest point. The character designs are quite good--Deedlit and most of the female characters have sharp, attractive features, and the more aged male characters--Slayn, for example--are equally appealing. The character art is certainly no slouch, and there are some creative backgrounds and one-shot visuals (a slow pan away from a pensive dragon and priestess early on, for example). Unfortunately, most of the backgrounds are generic, a lot of the minor characters and monsters are average at best, and some of the dragons come across as chunky and rather stiff.

Those last complaints are all symptoms of the tragic lack of budget that Record of Lodoss War suffers from. The chopped-up endgame is another symptom, but most disfiguring effect is the animation--it stretches the budget of two or three pricey OAV installments over a 13-part series. Honestly, the amount of motion ranges from so-so (in some of the first episodes) to absolutely abysmal, and it robs the grand story of much of its impact. Early on, the lack of animation could be overlooked as an attempt to be artistic, but as the scale of the story grows it gets harder and harder to ignore. It's frankly kind of sad when you see a climactic dragon battle coming, and you just know that the animators didn't have the budget to put anything exciting onscreen. The quality art is nearly enough to pick up the slack, but the scale of the story demands exciting battles and lush visuals, both of which are conspicuously absent in all but a couple of scenes.

So we've got a grand but not terribly clever story, decent but not terribly deep characters, and visuals that don't manage to compensate for either. What tips the balance one way or the other is the acting.

In Japanese both the casting and acting are solid. If you ignore Parn's over-the-top performance, the vocals carry the series--the acting makes the characters feel more three dimensional and keeps the drama relatively engaging.

The English dub, unfortunately, is not on the same level. The casting matches up well with the Japanese (particularly Slayn) and the acting isn't bad, but the dialogue is a bit awkward and the general lack of force behind the performances accentuates the weaknesses in the rest of the production. In some cases, where a scene didn't have much else going for it, the dubbed version seemed rather flat, while the Japanese acting was good enough to make it interesting. Basically the English version doesn't do any damage, but the Japanese version is good enough to bring the whole thing up a notch.

The music, thankfully, is quite good; a beautiful opening theme that captures more of the spirit of adventure than anything else in the production, a decent end theme (also with attractive, storybook-like visuals), and a lot of nicely orchestral, classically inspired music. Unfortunately the background music is rather repetitive--one dramatic theme in particular is used over and over, so even though it's pretty good it gets rather wearing after about the 20th time you hear it.

Overall, Record of Lodoss War does a passable job at what it's trying to do, and it does its darndest to work with a low budget and not enough length to complete the story. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lot of mediocrity and definitely doesn't live up to its hype or potential. That said, there are a lot of people who like this series a whole lot more than I did, so I think it's safe to say that if you are a diehard fantasy fan, and can overlook the cheap animation, you will probably love it. For some others, the epic scale, grand story, attractive art, or good Japanese acting might make it worth a try. Otherwise, I'd say it's too long and just not exciting, attractive, or satisfying enough to be worth the effort.

Related Recommendations

First of all, there is the Record of Lodoss War TV series, Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, which greatly fills out and completes the story started in the OAVs. The various Crystania anime also take place in another part of the same world as Lodoss Island. Lodoss War is also somewhat similar to Heroic Legend of Arislan, which is generally better. The solid and amusing series Rune Soldier Louie has a similarly classic RPG feel, but with a humorous lean. And, there's Fire Emblem which, which although somewhat cheesier and never completed, actually has some budget. Worth mentioning as a rather fun comedy take on the same fantasy RPG ground is Gestalt. Finally, Escaflowne, though it involves many semi-sci-fi things, is still an appealing mostly-fantasy epic that shares some themes and flavor.

US DVD Review

USM's old DVD set was minimal but a good deal--you got the entire series on two DVDs that come in a nice little outer slipcase. The discs feature fairly good video transfers (particularly considering the older source material), decent audio in both languages, a subtitle track, and nothing else. There aren't even any previews in the menus--just a chapter index. A minor annoyance was that the episodes were put together in the same way as the VHS tapes; that is, you only see the opening/ending credits after every 2nd or 3rd episode (although all the previews are there). They also lack Japanese casts, as usual for USM's early DVDs.

The remastered "collector's series" version is an improvement, with a full compliment of extra features: Japanese promotional videos, an art gallery, meet the heroes, scripts, cast list and credits, comics, and more.

Content Guide

Some violence, and generally serious situations putting it in at least the 10-up range, though I'd say 13-up.

Violence: 2 - A lot of war, but nothing very graphic.

Nudity: 1 - A loose outfit now and then, and one brief scene early on.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Nothing of note.

Language: 1 - Some light profanity.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a series of novels, which were in turn based on some short stories, which were themselves based on a Dungeons & Dragons game. The novels also spawned a comic book series, which is now available in English. Note that the story after the middle of the OAV series diverges somewhat from the original in order to make it fit into 13 episodes. A more accurate version is taken up in the Record of Lodoss War TV series, which begins by retelling the second half of this series for its first few episodes, then jumps forward several years and continues on.

Among the bonus materials on the DVDs (also on the first VHS volume) is a live action short chronicling the premier of the first OAV installment, shown in a theater as a promotional gimmick. This, though interesting, I found tragic in a way. To elaborate: There are several interviews with fans coming out of the auditorium, all uttering in hushed tones phrases like "I can't explain how I feel now" and "That was just amazing." I'm hardly one to bash somebody else's passion, but to hear comments like that about a mediocre half hour long show (whatever you think about the series, the first episode wasn't much to write home about) is frankly kind of sad.

Availability

The 13 OAV episodes are available on a remastered 2-disc collectors edition set [buy from RightStuf or AnimeNation]. There was also an older 2-disc set with fewer extra features, now out of print, as are the six subtitled or dubbed VHS tapes the series was originally available on.

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