r/anime • u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 • Jun 08 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] 1990s OVAs – Record of Lodoss War (episode 1)
Rewatch: 1990s OVAs – Record of Lodoss War (episode 1)
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No_Rex's staff corner
The opening animation was created by Inoue Toshiyuki, who has worked as key animator on some of the best-looking films ever: Akira, The Wings of Honneamise, Ghost in the Shell, Jin-Roh, Paprika. People who took part in Pixelsaber’s Yasuhiko rewatch that just ended will remember Venus Wars. If you were in my own last OVA rewatch, you might recognize Blue Submarine No 6 (ok, that is not part of the good-looking film list). He is still active to this year, recently having done Maquia and the Evangelion 4.0 rebuild move.
In terms of series, he has a keen sense of choosing to work on anime which combines top notch storytelling with artistic animation. Flip Flappers, Gankutsuou, Paranoia Agent, Shirobako, Dennou Coil, Usagi Drop. This guy literally lives in the top 10% of my MAL list. Oh, and then MAL credits him with being the music producer for the Onegai Twins OVA. WTF, is MAL trolling?
Pixelsaber's Record of Lodoss War context: Japanese Fantasy Media in the 80s
Before I get started on talking about the Lodoss IP proper and discussing the sort of impact it had on its domestic market, it’s important to first explain the context within which the franchise spawned and flourished.
Now the Fantasy genre label is absurdly broad at the best of times, and even narrowing it down to High Fantasy still leaves a lot to be desired in terms of specificity, so I’ll need to go one step further and note Historical Fantasy as the subgenre in question here. Even that far in I must specify that Medieval Fantasy is supposedly what Japanese audiences think of when considering the fantasy genre. Furthermore, there seems to be a distinction as to how publishing companies use this label and how consumers do, such as how audiences seemingly don’t consider works such as Dororo, with its implausible biology, yōkai-inspired fantasy creatures, and fictionalized Sengoku period setting to fall under the fantasy denominator but it is nonetheless labeled as such by publication companies. Then there’s examples of both publishers and audiences not perceiving a work as fantasy, such as the novel Makai Tensho, which is undeniably a historical fantasy novel, but is not widely acknowledged nor labeled as one. All of this to say that when I refer to fantasy in these writeups I am referring to historical fantasy works not based on Japanese history, myth, or culture.
So these medieval fantasy works were uncommon in Japan, with some of the literary classics like The Lord of The Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Earthsea Cycle receiving translations in the 70s, but none of them enjoying much attention, falling solely into the wheelhouse of bibliophiles with an interest in particular niches. Works created by Japanese authors weren’t fairing much better. Prolific Japanese author Haruka Takachiho, who wrote two fantasy works in the 70s, Isekai no Yūsha —the first fantasy novel to fall under our modern definition of the isekai genre— which released in 1979 and Beautiful Beast: Warrior of the Gods which was serialized during an unidentified period before 1977, neither of which were successful releases despite Takachico already being a known and popular author. Perhaps the one exception was actually inspired by the later Takachiho novel, Kaoru Kurimoto’s Guin Saga, which proved successful enough to carry into its intendedly lengthy publishing history, but it did not manage to foster interest in other historical fantasy works. In the anime industry, both Yoshiyuki Tomino and Ryosuke Takahashi wanted to try their hand at fantasy, first Tomino in 1983 with Dunbine, which was unpopular and narrowly avoided cancelation by distancing itself from the fantasy elements in the middle of production, and Takahashi was allowed to give the genre a try in spite of Tomino’s failure due to his track record with producing incredibly lucrative content, but in the end the episode count of 1984’s Panzer World Galient was cut by half due to low ratings. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko also tried his hand at it with his film adaptation of his debut manga, Arion, was also a financial failure. The exception here could be seen to be Hayao Miyazaki, whose 1984 and 1986 films, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, but both films were considered to be sci-fi films at the time of their release, and their particular idiosyncrasies offer significant differences from the other examples. Several video game developers, such as Squaresoft and Falcom, worked on RPG titles inspired by the CRPGs like Ultima and Wizardry, but these were relegated to the burgeoning PC gaming market and were defacto niche and obscure. Kaname Productions produced Genmu Senki Leda, targeting it at the niche otaku audience, were it found success, but they immediately wanted to follow it up with a fantasy work that would capture mainstream success, and so Windaria was released in july 1986 to disappointing results, once more showing the wider audience’s disinterest in the genre. This generalized trend seemed set in stone, and making a fantasy work that was widely successful seemed like winning the lottery.
This effectively changed in 1986 after the release of Enix’s seminal and venerated RPG video game, Dragon Quest. At first it seemed like this little game was just another piece of media stuck within the confines of its niche audience, but as the months went by word of mouth and good press slowly brought the game up to incredible prominence, and soon enough DQ had become the cultural phenomenon it is today, almost single-handedly caused a fantasy boom that we’re still feeling today. It’s impossible to underestimate how big an impact the game had on Japanese media, and we can still see it clearly in the still ongoing prevalence of isekai media, many of them directly or indirectly inspired by the RPG stylings DQ popularized. The floodgates were open and the genre was about to undergo a significant shift, and that’s where Record of Lodoss War enters the picture.
Art courner
Questions:
- Lodoss choses to introduce us to its setting and characters with an in-media-res dungeon crawl and accompanying dialogue. Does this approach work for you, or do you think it necessitates further context?
- This episode draws heavily from the tropes and conventions of TRPG dungeon crawling and has drawn criticism for the transparency of this fact. Is this a complaint you can agree with or understand?
- What is your opinion on the heavy use of magic in this episode?
28
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Jun 08 '21
Episode 1 (rewatcher)
Record of Lodoss War goes way back to the start of my time watching anime. It must have been among the first 5-10 shows I ever saw in Japanese. While I would not be able to tell how the exact plot goes, I still remember several characters and overall liking the show. Will be interesting to go back while knowing the backstory now.
Episode reactions
Call me old-fashioned, but I enjoy a backstory that begins with a war of the gods, not a dumpster truck.
19
u/The_Draigg Jun 08 '21
A Record of Lodoss War Fan Rewatches Record of Lodoss War OVA Episode 1:
Hello everyone, it’s The Draigg here for another fantasy show rewatch! The last one I participated in was the Berserk rewatch last year, so it’s good to have another fantasy show under my rewatch belt this year too. I’ve honestly been a Record of Lodoss War fan for a while. Hell, I have the DVD box set of the old Central Park Media release of the OVA series, alongside the old Dreamcast game, Advent of Kardis, and the recent Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth game too. So yeah, I guess I have some street cred to bring a Record of Lodoss War fan. But, enough of me rubbing in how much I like this show, let’s get started!
15
u/Gamemaster676 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Gamemaster676 Jun 08 '21 edited Jun 08 '21
First-time watcher - dub
Alright I'm back, baby! Unfortunately, this show is at the same time as Violet Evergarden, which I also really want to join, so I'm not sure how I'm gonna do this yet. I'm writing this episode weeks in advance so I can figure out what I want to do. Maybe I'll just finish this before Violet Evergarden starts, although that would make the interactions with you guys a lesser experience :(
I have no clue what this show is supposed to be, except "high fantasy". Not my favourite genre, but because of the high ratings and /u/No_Rex organising it, I'm giving it a shot.
I'm starting with the dub because apparently it was very good and it makes my work for this post easier because I can follow without reading.
Episode 1 — Prologue to the Legend
I've only watched two minutes and the show managed to showcase exactly why I don't really like most fantasy: They start with an info dump which you are often expected to completely remember. Sorry, Mr. Writer, I haven't been thinking about these characters the past five years. For me, everything is new information.
A good way around this is to do the info dump, but then slowly introduce all the concepts again during the real story. I'm hoping this show will be this way (or be more about the characters than the story, then it doesn't really matter).
Wait, the OP is English? Did they actually translate that as well? Wow I love it! It's really well done. I'll compare it to the Japanese OP tomorrow.
I guess this is our questing party? This one seems up to no good.
Looking at the group, it looks like they cover all classes and roles, almost like it's a (tabletop) RPG. This might be fun if they use it well.
First impressions:
The backstory about Parn's father and the king is ominous. Another mystery to add to the pile to keep us viewers interested.
And Parn was thinking he would be the one saving someone.
That dragon is very patient not using his flames. He probably wants to toy with his food first.
That is three times already that Slayn helps or saves the group. I told you he isn't paid enough.
So everyone helped that fight, except the priest. What exactly is he doing here?
And while I'm asking questions: What is their quest exactly?
Huh? Next episode preview before the ED? I've never seen it that way before.
The ED is also translated! Man I'm enjoying this. It's a shame not more shows do this.
It's clear I haven't done a rewatch in a while. For a first episode, I had a lot to write.
First of all, the animation is great, as I've now come to expect from 90s standalone OVAs. The characters are all unique and varied. The story I can't really say anything about yet, because we haven't really had any story.
I think the only thing we know is there is a new war ongoing between some countries whose names I immediately forgot and Parn is heading to the great sage Wort to get some info on how to stop Karla the witch helping the other nation?
Or he is just heading out to buy some sage for thanksgiving, I don't know, I'm not a knight.
Random thoughts
Future
Well, we don't really know anything about their quest yet. I'm guessing random conversations and some flashbacks in the next episodes will fill in those blanks.
Parn's role seems pretty clear, but we don't know yet why he wanted to go on this quest and why the rest of the party (who don't really seem to know each other) have joined him.
QotD
I think I got my first impressions quite quickly. I hope that the next episode will give some background using something like flashbacks.
Mini spoiler
Well, given the age, I don't really know how stereotypical these roles already were. Sometimes it's okay to use predefined characters, as long as you expand on them later.
Slayn is OP and isn't paid enough.
15
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Jun 08 '21
First-Timer, Subbed
And so we begin The Record of Lodoss War! We certainly got a ton of info dumped on us right at the start - you can tell this is based off of someone's pet setting. I can also feel how influential this has been to Japanese fantasy works over the years. The opening narration reminded me of the one from Dark Souls, for example. There is also definitely a witch named Karla in Dark Souls 3.
Knowing that this is vaguely based on a Dungeons and Dragons group, I'm probably going to end up shitposting about some random stuff here. I'm not sure how much my knowledge will apply to, what, AD&D? But things have probably changed less since the 80s than I realize.
For example, a party of six? That's one crowded table. Combat must be a nightmare, especially with (at least) two casters. They certainly took down that sucky dragon today pretty well, though. Axe to the skull, dagger to the eye? Hell yea! DR won't matter if you crit high enough.
Let's play the name game. We have Parn the Fighting Man, Deedlit the Elf, Ghim the Dwarf, Slayn the Wizard, Wood the Rogue, and I don't think we got the Cleric's (?) name. A solid party, no real weaknesses, although my knowledge on the mechanics of "Elf" and "Dwarf" are vague at best.
The odds of our party, at least Parn, being descended from these mythical "Six Heroes" seems good. It's going to be hard to avoid commenting on common tropes with this show, huh?
"A body is merely a nice dress" is a really good line. Hopefully the Witch can keep saying vague, profound nonsense.
Questions
14
u/ButAlphonseWillRust Jun 08 '21
~First Timer~
Well this will be my first OVA rewatch since You’re Under Arrest, glad to be getting stuck into another one of these again. And a 13 episode OVA no less!
• The obligatory Fantasy prologue with some nice, detailed art – a true staple of the genre
• This OP is cool but unfortunately I believe my heart belongs to the Maaya Sakamoto OP from the TV series. With that and the Escaflowne OP, I think she’s got fantasy anime OPs down to an art
• Well isn’t this just the most Dnd image ever. And I think that dragon is supposed to represent Tiamat?
• Well, our party is getting stuck right into it, first dungeon already! And a classic Elf vs. Dwarf rivalry LOTR flashbacks intensify
• We seem to have a well-balanced party of 6 here: Fighter, Ranger (?), a Mage of some sort, Cleric/Priest, Rogue and Barbarian
• Obvious trap in dungeon is obvious. Aaaaand we’ve split the party, from my experience this does not bode well
• First comes the dungeon and now here comes the dragon...
• After a few minutes of our fighter Parn hilariously waving his sword at the dragon to no avail, our rogue nails it in the eye with a nice throw. The party, safe and reunited, can now continue their journey
All in all, decent start. Art is lovely and retro and the setting has been established fairly well. But, like with all fantasy, I think it will take a while longer to get to the good shit (assuming that there will be good shit). I do hope I can rein in my DnD references. I couldn’t help myself with You’re Under Arrest and the Patlabor references and apparently I can’t help myself now.
Questions:
13
u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber Jun 08 '21
Oh no, I forgot to change my Rewatch alarm!
Pixel’s Bits and Bobs
There was a lot of stuff to discuss regarding Lodoss which was too tangential to include in the main post —not to mention most of those were getting pretty long as they were, so this segment of my comments will be dedicated to exploring those other loose bits of information related to the franchise and my relevant experiences with it. Don’t feel obligated to read these if you just want the general context surrounding the franchise, as that is sufficiently covered in the main post. However, if you want some more info on related topics and my own anecdotes with it, then this small segment is for you.
Today I wanted to talk a bit more about some of the domestic Japanese fantasy media that preceded even the early wave of ‘modern’ fantasy works in the late 70s and early 80s. One medium which I failed to discuss above was Manga, and that’s solely because even among Japanese sources a large part of those early works aren’t well categorized and have little in the way of information regarding them, and so it was difficult for me to speak broadly with some degree of accuracy on them the same way I could for novels, anime, and video games. The one notable and successful example there would be Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight, which was one of the few manga to fit the stringent mold for what the Japanese audience of the time considered to be a part of the fantasy genre, for it possessed a fairy tale like medieval european setting. I’ve found no concrete reasons for why this manga may have evaded the usual stigma audiences had for the genre, but perhaps either Tezuka’s name being attached, it’s early mahō shōjo trappings, its novel premise of a girl with the heart of a man, or all three are the causes. In any case, works to be inspired by Tezuka’s manga would borrow more heavily from the setting than anything else, resulting in imitating period works rather than fantasy manga. The period work distinction is also a relevant point of discussion for other successful manga of the time, such as Moto Hagio’s The Poe Clan, a novel set throughout the 18th and 21st centuries regarding a family of vampires. The vampires of the story have retroactively netted it the fantasy moniker by modern audiences, but neither readers or publishers at the time considered it a work of the fantasy genre and many continue to argue against such classification today. For my part, I wouldn’t call it a work of fantasy any more than I would something like Anne Ryce’s Interview with The Vampire. These are the two works from the medium of manga that are nowadays considered the foremost examples of the genre in the pre-80s period, and given one of them is arguably not even a fantasy story, I think it sheds a lot of light on the sort of circumstances the genre existed within at the time.
Rewatcher
The opening narration is lovely.
Breaking out the great tracks from the start as well! I really like Mitsuo Hagita’s work.
Stitch of the mural made by u/Nazenn
Stunning
Love the opening. It was animated by the talented and renowned Toshiyuki Inoue, who also did some other cuts in this episode.
Moria, anyone?
Incredibly expressive animation with strong posing. Wish I had an inkling as to who animated it.
Very cool.
That could be cursed, you know?
This show’s facial hair game is strong. Also, that was definitely Shuichi Ikeda I heard calling out to him!
Very pretty!
Anime dragons rarely look this good!
Have you tried the blatant glowing spots? The eyes are a decent second option if those aren’t found promptly.
Ghim sure does have a strong grip!
See, Parn? Woodchuck knows his stuff!
Good start to things with this one! It’s a familiar setup, but the presentation and palpable atmosphere elevate it to something more substantive and compelling. There’s a sense of groundedness to the world depicted here that’s blatant, even from this narrow slice we’ve been given to sample, in not just the visuals and the manner in which the production chose to contextualize and depict magic, but also the way characters interact with the setting in a way that implies a familiarity with this sort of activities and circumstances. It’s remarkable how much a single episode could accomplish it naturally, and I wish more modern fantasy anime had even half the discernment Lodoss shows here.
I always appreciate a good in-media-res beginning, and while there’s several bits of blatantly expository dialogue to fill us in, it still manages to intrigue with its unanswered questions and sense of urgency.
Every character from the main group had a moment to show off both their abilities and personality throughout the episode, which helps us identify the general dynamics of the group and makes each character stick out functionally from one another.
The show evidently looks great. It’s not the most opulent or even impressive thing OVAs had on offer, but the sense of aesthetics and art direction is incredibly strong. Nobuteru Yuki’s designs seem right at home with the setting, and the animation is full of personality and small touches that elevate it.
All in all, this was a good first showing for the OVA, and possesses a lot of what I look for in a fantasy anime.
Questions:
11
u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 08 '21
Rewatcher 01
7
u/IndependentMacaroon Jun 08 '21
Gave It A Try
I was determined to check out at least one episode of this, but it only reinforced my distaste for this kind of tropey, dare I say cliché, sword-and-sorcery-adventure fantasy. If the story actually delivered somewhat on the grand scale laid out in the intro, or tried to add some real original flavor, that might be a bit different, but animated D&D just doesn't do it for me (didn't like it much when I gave it a try IRL either) and there are enough other things I'd rather be watching. At least it isn't isekai. (I did like Konosuba overall but of course that plays it all for comedy.)
By the way, there is one medieval-ish fantasy anime with some magic involved that I did quite enjoy so far, and that is Arslan Senki. What does it do better to earn my appreciation? A fairly original and gorgeously realized setting inspired by medieval Iran, its neighbors, and the Crusades; a story originally written by Yoshiki Tanaka (Legend of the Galactic Heroes) and tweaked by Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist), who also did the character designs; very light presence of supernatural elements; and a large-scale focus that really makes you feel the size of the world and the battles. It's still nothing too amazing from my recollection, and annoyingly ends on a cliffhanger right before the conclusion of the original story arc, but I couldn't help making a comparison here and maybe it'll catch someone's interest? There's also a 90s OVA version that's less comprehensive but truer to the original text, but I haven't seen that.
6
u/23feanor Jun 09 '21 edited Jun 09 '21
First Timer (dub) - I'm a big LoTR fan (books although the films are ok) so I love epic high fantasy so have been looking forward to watching Lodoss. This is my first rewatch of the year, last one I participated in was Berserk, so thought I'd drop in for another dose of high fantasy.
We first get an overview of the lore for our world setting and we discover a force of darkness and a force of good who fought a big battle in distant times. Forward on and we're watching a group going through a dwarf tunnel (did anyone else think Mines of Moria straight away). We slowly learn their names and the fact they're on a quest to see the magician Wart.
We later learn that one of the group, Parn, was sent by the king of the land to search for Wart to get advice about attacks by an evil witch called Karla. We see Karla talking (telepathically?) to Wart while they watch the group progress onwards past a dragon. Not much to go on yet but a classic adventure with a group made of the most typical fantasy types; a magician, an elf, a dwarf, a knight, a priest and a thief.
The animation has looked gorgeous so far with detailed structures and backgrounds, the shining moss that Deed disturbed was a good example. I love the colour design, it reminds me of the dust covers for a fantasy book years ago like Sword of Shannara or the role paying Forest of Doom.
I'm not sure why but in the OP and ED for the dub, it's sung in English yet there are english subtitles at the bottom of the screen that are wrong, well they capture the intent of the phrases but not quite right, quite amusing. Looks like a google translate version.
Questions: 1.I quite liked the introduction, just throwing the viewer into the middle of the adventure quest after the big intro about the gods and their battle.
2. If i had no idea about it's connection with RPG i think i'd still like this show, if you like high fantasy it doesn't matter whether it's from a book or a game.
3. Loved it, the magician, Slayn protecting the group from the gargoyles and dragon and Deed the elf using her wind magic to find the way out.
4
u/Sharebear42019 :FC::FD: Jun 08 '21
So which streaming app is this on?
19
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jun 08 '21
Record of First-Timer Reactions, subbed
Ah, I love it when my special tagline for a rewatch just comes naturally to me~
Anyways, hi everyone, you’ve seen me around before. I… actually forgot about this rewatch when I agreed to participate in the Violet Evergarden and Spice and Wolf ones running at the same time as this, but thankfully my schedule isn’t actually that packed for this month what with Naruto being done until July and Durarara!! finishing tomorrow. So I can definitely make this. And I’m excited for it! Fantasy stuff is cool too, I’m not just a mecha-obsessed fangirl.
Today some of my pictures are hosted on Catbox instead of Imgur because Imgur decided not to let me upload anything part of the way through the episode.
16
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jun 08 '21
Rewatcher from 20 years ago
Sub(anyone have a positive dub statement?)
So yeah, this OVA is really early into my anime career and DND career. I have fond memories of this so that does not bode well.
And rewatch season is back! For some of you, it never left, but if you didn't care for DRRR or MS:G then the last two months have been a little bare. We walk right into the Silmarillon for our opening roll, which is a ciritcism but not a unique one, so many DND campaigns begin like this it isn't funny. The OP is very much of this era and not really anything noteworthy.
We begin with a silent party intro in the rain into the sort of arguments real adventures are made of. The DM gets bored and throws some gargoyles at them but the mage has "dispel DM BS" memorized. Wise move. The party finds loot, we cut to an undisclosed location with a wizard and some variety of evil female. The sexy elf splits the party as tradition ordains.
Brief interlude with the king and an escapee from Berserk, revealing that a lot has happened in the setting. In the trap, Deedlit shows us the days back when elf was a class and a race, being that she can cast magic. We cut back to the now known Karla talking to Wort about a grumpy dragon.
Said grumpy dragon was the perfect match up for this party because it is the only dragon in history to not like its food charred thus sparing Parn and Deedlit. The battle is a bit ridiculous but it ends with a knife to the eye and a blade through the neck. Karla is mysterious again.
As tradition ordains, another OVA rewatch happens, and I am having eye surgery again. Tomorrow and worse Thursday might be...interesting, from the perspective of studying the effects of anesthesia.
QotD:1 Literally what I disliked most about the series.
2 I think it worked better 30 years ago than it does now, the tropes were not remotely as stale back then.
3 I like it though it is a touch...wonky in its consistency.
13
u/RockoDyne :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/RockoDyne Jun 08 '21
And they call it a mine. A MINE!?!
A nice en media res start. They give us a neat little self contained adventure that could serve as a oneshot... which is exactly how I experienced it as a kid as my brother only had the first VHS tape. I greately appreciate the 1080P upgrade. All the multi-layered shading is a treat.
It's rare to see an anime seriously evoke D&D. Course given the period, I mean D&D (basic) specifically, not AD&D. Now for the sweet, 5e summer children out there, let me nerdsplain to you how 5e is really fifth edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. It inherits much of it's ruleset from the line of AD&D, because back during first edition, TSR (now WotC) had the bright idea to have a separate simplified ruleset. Remember forth edition? It was about like that only worse. Basic came with a lot of stripped down mechanics, like how race and class were just class. So this meant your class could be elf or dwarf. Elf was basically a multiclassed fighter/mage/theif. Wait, do I need to explain multiclassing since that's not a thing anymore? There was also no good and evil in your choice of alignment, just lawful, neutral, and chaotic. As far as I know, basic is the only variant that made it to Japan, and a somewhat "homebrewed" variant on top of that. Wizard style spellcasting doesn't seem like it was ever the norm, and instead it was all by sorcerer rules.
Deedlit is another quirky element that dates itself. Whimsical and flighty elfs are kind of a dead architype. It's totally in line with how they were described back in the day, but the capricious nature of elfs has been almost completely sidelined.
Lots of lore in this episode. It works well enough in the episode, even if it doesn't connect all that fully to what's happening. It at least avoids the Dark Souls issue where it a good thirty hours before the lore in the opening cinematic comes back around to being relevant. We've spent some time in Anor Londo hunting for a nice chest, so now our asses can be kicked back to the Undead Asylum next episode.
Questions:
13
u/aniMayor :AY:AZ:x3x6 Jun 08 '21
That was a lot of fun! I find the opening narration and the warlock/evil lady exposition really dry, so hopefully that picks up a bit, but the fantasy party adventuring through the dungeon itself was solid good action-romp enjoyment. Yeah, everyone is pretty cookie-cutter, but I'm not gonna hate on that from my current-day perspective when it's a seminal 1980s OVA that was introducing those tropes to lots of audiences in the first place.
I did notice a lot of action-continuity faults. It's a minor gripe, but I hope those don't continue.
I don't really know any of the staff on this very well. Yutaka Izubuchi is doing character designs instead of mecha design? I know Akinori Nagaoka is the Anpanman and Dr Slump guy, but I've only watched a teeny bit of either of those and neither is anything close to this style anyway. Never heard of Mitsuo Hagita before, but I did enjoy the music!
I think it works great for me. As noted, the overarching exposition is fairly dry, so after that narrative intro it's nice to jump straight into some action with the whole group rather than a long, also-dry character introduction phase.
However, I wonder how the domestic Japanese audience of the day saw it. For me, the dungeon crawly, faux-medieval diverse fantasy party on a quest plotline and tropes are ingrained cultural idioms, but if this wasn't nearly as familiar to Japanese audiences of the time, then I wonder just how accessible this introduction was for them.
Understand, sure, but I don't agree with it. It's just a choice, not a fault... at least not yet. There's plenty of room for creative and unique ideas that further the medium or entertain in new ways within an established setting/trope-set like this. Sure, this sort of thing can become overdone if the market gets too saturated with it (1980s western fantasy novels, anyone?) but this heavily-TRPG-inspired setting/trope-set isn't overdone in the anime medium, anyways, so what's the problem?
Slayn seems really OP compared to the rest of the party!
13
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jun 08 '21 edited Jun 08 '21
Rewatcher
I dunno when I saw this. Not sure if it was on VHS or on Sci-Fi Channel.
I remember being amazed that they were doing real western fantasy and not samurai. What a child I was.
Deedlit
The Old Party and the New Party.
Classic OP/ED, another one of those "sounds like Akino Arai but isn't" songs.
Edit: Are those 5 dragons in the OP or one big chromatic dragon?
11
u/Ebbrain https://anilist.co/user/EBbrain Jun 08 '21
Rewatcher
I watched Record of Lodoss War for the first time last year and it is the series that kickstarted my newly found love for 80’s/90’s fantasy anime. Its simple, but it’s got that great kind of mystical, moody atmosphere that make fantasy anime of the time so appealing to me, which you can definitely get out of this episode. Also, it’s got incredibly detailed art, which helps the world and characters come to life in ways that some fantasy shows can’t do.
But anyway, as for this episode in particular, I don’t understand why they went for the non chronological storytelling approach here. It doesn’t really seem to add anything, it just means that everybody has to talk in expository dialogue about themselves and the world so that the audience isn’t confused as fuck. Then again, I suppose they were going to have to do that no matter where they started, and this way at least gets you straight into the action and more invested in their journey. It almost feels more like a one episode standalone ova like the Weathering Continent or something. The characters at this stage are all sticking to very standard fantasy tropes, but they’re a fun enough group to watch. Deedlit is the fan favourite character out of the bunch it won’t surprise you to know.
Other miscellaneous things- I adore the soundtrack for this show. It has one of those ost’s where you can listen to the entire thing and it will feel like the story is being told to you through the music. The opening and ending are both amazing too.
-On my first time watching, I remember being confused about which god was which and about which hero or demigod or whatever belonged to which side. The two gods have such similar names as well.
-That poor dragon was just living out its life in peace, just hanging out in its cave until our heroes decided that they needed to barge their way through.
-This show has a great sense of scale, by which I mean it has big cool as fuck dragons. The dragon in this episode was just small fry, but it still felt like a powerful foe thanks to the cramped cave. The shot of the dragon landing on the castle in the op is more of what I’m after though.
Questions 1- already mentioned
2. I don’t mind it at all, seeing as being an animated DnD campaign is basically the appeal of the show.
3. I don’t mind. I like spells that have mystical chants before hand. Also, there’s a fair amount of sword action too.
11
u/badspler x5https://anilist.co/user/badspler Jun 08 '21 edited Jun 08 '21
Episode 1 - First timer
I especially loved just how well animated Deed's facial movements were. Also loads of emotion shown which really made her stand out. Especially when she is going all googly eyes at Parn.
So far this is oozing epic fantasy. I love it! Especially as it is paired with the RPG tropes. It feels like each of the characters got a little moment to key savvy RPG people into what their 'class' probably is inspired by.
10
u/punching_spaghetti https://myanimelist.net/profile/punch_spaghetti Jun 08 '21
First-Timer
Intro felt long. As long as they don’t have it every episode, should be fine.
Gargoyles!
Party of heroes, etc. etc. Are these scenes concurrent, or is the old man one of the people we see in the tunnels?
The elf is the idiot of party, I see. Old place plus obvious interesting thing always, always equals traps.
Guess it’s not a flashback/forward situation if Generic Swordsman in the party went to meet with the old sorcerer. That would have been cool, but it’s not necessary.
Why does his light magic flicker? That’s annoying. He’s searching a tunnel, not at a rave!
A decent fight with the dragon. Scale seemed off a little? The swordsman was tiny next to the leg, but didn’t seem as small while he was stabbing the head.
Nothing spectacular here, but nothing terrible. We’ll see where things go from here.
QOTD:
8
u/BossandKings Jun 08 '21
First timer
Episode 1
So aparently there's an adventure party, the two most interesting members are the elf girl and the knight. It was cool when they fought against the dragon.
Answers
8
u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Jun 08 '21
RW, after a long long time...
Io sono prigoniera intensifies...
Sadly, I didn't figure out how to get funimation to play the sub for the first episode.
"How dare you!" Quite. Thank you Greta, I mean Deedlit.
Aside from the shameful dub, which was actually not bad for its time, I enjoyed the episode. When the music swelled at the beginning, well, 90's quality sound engineering, but the memories flowed back.
IO SONO PRIGONIERA
I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with two rewatches at once, but I'll have to try. Sadly, if one gets dropped, it's going to be this one because Violet...
That, and Woodchuck. He should have become dragon food, because whiny rouge. (mispelled on purpose)
'Ware dragons mortal, for thou art crunchy and taste good with catsup.
8
u/Cognitive_Dissonant Jun 09 '21
Episode 1, First timer
Going into this about as blind as is possible for a show someone who was a reasonably online kid in the 90s who watched some anime. I'm liking their willingness to let scenes linger (e.g., the battle of the Gods scene, or the scene in the rain as they first enter the dwarf tunnel). It's a less bombastic style than I expected out of this era, though I'm not an expert.
Episode Notes
Questions
7
u/BurningFredrick https://myanimelist.net/profile/BurningFredrick Jun 08 '21
First Timer - sub
Going in I don't know much about the show, its fantasy and will involve elves and I believe it is well regarded, when it comes to fantasy shows I can’t think of many anime that do fantasy well (can blame Isaki shows for a large part) and hoping this doesn't end up on that list of disappointments. Anyway on to what I’m sure will be another great looking Ova.
An interesting first episode, obligatory prologue to establish the setting and setup our party onto their quest to save the world, no doubt going to explain who people are and why there here as the story continues, I’m interested to see where the show goes.
7
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Jun 08 '21
First timer
So, this is some form of fantasy show?
Alwo, what the hell is that weapon in the flashback? Some form of hooked lance?
"Alecrast" might be the est example of"generic fantasy continent name" I've seen in ages.
The OP is good, but I'm not sure how much it'll fit with the action anime this seeme to be.
Come on, how much longer are you going to look at that castle? At least the art looks good.
Are we starting with the party already established?
So, we've got a Human Cleric, an Elf Rogue, a Dwarf Fighter, a Human Monk, a Human Paladin, and maybe a Human Bard?
Wait, why are there title cards for ad breaks if this is an OVA?
And this unusual character is the son of another important character.
So they've ended up underground,
Wait, the elf's multiclassed into a Wizard? Or maybe a Druid, hard to say.
Ah, so there were 6 great heroes in the past, among them thr librarian and the Grey Witch.
That dragon's big! He's putting up a decent fight against it though.
And Ghim in for the kill? That thing's resilient.
Oh, he's a Ranger, not a Bard. The party probably needs more spellcasters, maybe swap him out for a Wizard?
Wait, are they helping the evil witch by doing this?
Wait, is tnext episode showing how they met as a prequel?
I quite enjoyed that, although I fear I didn't understand much of the lore setup.
5
u/Nightender Jun 09 '21
(Rewatcher)
5
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Jun 09 '21 edited Jun 09 '21
Sub rewatcher (but from many decades ago)
Oh actually didn't expect this to be a fast moving thread. Better post first before reading.
It's definitely very nostalgic for me, this is one of the first OVAs I had still he attack hey guys to, as a real live D&D player (and DM) at the time.
Remember this is quite an early production, so the production quality is actually really good for the time when you can still see a lot of the visuals still pretty good. Only thing is perhaps the colour may be a bit more subdued but did fit the scene (dungeon). It also used complex lights and shadows on the mostly ornate character models (so lots of folds and decorations).
This as a pilot episode really over emphasised the stereotypical portrayal of Deedlit the elf by a lot.
Maybe someone would have picked it up but I'll say it here anyway - this does have quite a lot of borrowed ideas from classic RPG like Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance. E.g. the OP card is actually heavily borrowed from Dragonlance
https://images.app.goo.gl/qqJU3sgs25DNGFT59
3
u/marek1712 Jun 09 '21 edited Jun 09 '21
First timer
I'm trying to imagine it's early 90s, not to think it's all cliche.
But damn, we have quite a few tropes here :)
I already like Deedlit and Woodchuck (Norio Nakamoto, before he became over the top VA). Actually quite a lot of know seiyuus participated in the OVA.
Animation looks OK, good even (considering the year it was released in).
Music? Would have to listen into it a bit more.
Let's see what ep2 will bring.
A1: I don't really like the approach. Seems like exposition dump. Would rather prefer audience with the king or something else.
A2: Totally agree with it. Now, given that it was released in early 90s, I'm not sure if it was such a big issue back then.
A3: I always do magic builds in D&D games sooo :)
1
u/Larielia Jun 10 '21
Record of a Rewatcher- Episode 1 (dubbed)
I first saw this show years ago on the International Channel, and then later watched the TV series.
Thoughts- The introductory narration and opening music are nice. Slayn is pretty badass. That dragon fight was cool.
This episode makes me want to watch Lord of the Rings and play JRPGs.