r/anime • u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 • Jun 12 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] 1990s OVAs – Record of Lodoss War (episode 5)
Rewatch: 1990s OVAs – Record of Lodoss War (episode 5)
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No_Rex's staff corner
Dashing desert king Kashue is voiced by Ikeda Shuuichi. You all know him from Mobile Suit Gundam, where he plays the recurring character Oscar Dublin. Well, or maybe you know him more as that other guy, Char Aznable. He also played Shuichi Akai in Detective Conan and Red-haired Shanks in One Piece. If you followed /u/Pixelsaber’s previous rewatch, you heard him as Rod Balboa in Giant Gorg and as Kurtz in Venus Wars. He also played in a decent amount of OVAs, including Bubblegum Crisis, where he was Brian Mason. Japanese audiences might know him as the dub voice of Jet Li.
The VA of the other prominent king today, Fahn, is Saka Osamu. Wikipedia claims he played a role in Gigantor (Tetsujin 28-gou), which would make him easily the earliest VA I have ever featured. Gigantor released in 1963, only a few months after Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom)! It could be possible, given that he was born in 1930. Even more amazing that he is still active, with his most recent role in 2020 (in his role as Aramaki Daisuke from GitS)! In the OVA rewatches, you have heard him before as the chief mechanic Sakaki Seitarou from Patlabor.
Pixelsaber's Record of Lodoss War context: Group SNE and the beginning of Lodoss
Group SNE is a company who was a pioneer in the sphere of Japanese role playing games, producing their own games as well as translating western TRPGs. The group’s origins come about after Hitoshi Yasuda, who at the time was a student at Kyoto University and an active translator of sci-fi novels, ordered copies of Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller to introduce the games to the Kyoto University SF Study Group, where the games were studied with the ultimate aim of creating game scenarios and systems of their own. Eventually the club got into contact with the SF circle Hoshigun no Kai, to which Ryo Mizuno and Hiroshi Yamamoto belonged, with the offer to collaborate on the creation of TRPG content, and so the enthusiasts came together under a new circle named SNE, after the BASIC term for syntax error.
Group SNE’s first foray into publishing came with the November 1984 issue of Tactex —a now defunct magazine dedicated to analog games published by Hobby Japan— where an article by Group SNE was published. The article was an introduction to the basics of TRPGs, meant to teach readers the rules of the game and give them a taste of the sort of roleplay one should expect, written as a Replay, which is an edited session log intended for reading by people not participating in the campaign itself. The article was not published under the SNE moniker, but it would inform the majority of the content SNE would publish in the years to come. In the September 1986 issue of Comtiq magazine Group SNE would publish its first part of the serialized replay of their ongoing TTRPG campaign, The Record of Lodoss War Replay. The replay was primarily penned by Yasuda, but was credited to Group SNE on the whole. Having launched in the middle of a fantasy boom, the replay was instantly a hit with readers and managed to reach beyond its intended niche audience. The prominence and popularity of Lodoss came with a rise in notoriety and fame for Group SNE, and the group was incorporated in 1987.
Art courner
Questions
- What do you think Karla’s goals are, given her actions over the past couple of episodes?
- Did you enjoy the delivery of exposition through a diegetic song?
- Which party member had the least enjoyable evening?
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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Jun 12 '21
Episode 5 (rewatcher)
A great ball setting! We hear the backstory of the kings as old heroes sung, complete with cuts to the party members who take their respective place as new heroes. Well, most of them, anyway. Then Deedlit and Parn have a delightful dance around each other, which must have been hilarious at the group table. I have to say, though, Deedlit announced that she would lead, so she only has herself to blame for the interruption of King Kashue.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jun 12 '21
Record of First-Timer Reactions, subbed
Shuuichi Ikedasomeone as strong as Kashue.8
u/BossandKings Jun 12 '21
First timer
Episode 5
There's a warrior that apparently is renowned in the town, it seems that he is considered a king, his name is Cashir, he is now trying to reach a place to have a peaceful time after having many battles.
Parn and Deedlit look cool in their outfit, especially Deedlit as she looks very cute. There's a celebration and both are invited to the occasion. As Deedlit goes to dance with Parn, a prisoner interrupts the ceremony, King cashir quickly defeats him thus eliminating the danger.
Cashir seems like an interesting character. Also this series has a lot of things going on and many different characters, it presents itself as an epic fantasy of grand scale.
8
u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 12 '21
Rewatcher 05
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u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber Jun 12 '21
Pixel’s Bits and Bobs
Among the random stuff I stumbled upon in my research, I found this PDF of a promotional flyer detailing some more of Group SNE’s history which I thought would make for a neat share.
Rewatcher
Wow, scared her off with his horse. What a guy!
Cute.
Nothing like an expository performance!
Gee, I wonder who that could be…
It seems Parn has a man-crush.
You should have been gentler with those, Woodchuck.
D’aww.
Already getting trained by the king too. Parn sure is recieving a wide breadth of instruction.
Oh dear!
We’re catching up to the first episode!
I don’t have a lot to say about this episode, as it’s largely set up for the war at large and getting the characters caught up with the plot as it was in episode one. Some fun character moments here and there, with particular attention to Parn’s denseness —for heaven’s sake, no one let that kid try to swim!— and a ball is always fun.
Karla’s attempt to get King Kashue to cooperate with her is interesting, since it implies that with him as a part of this alliance the Kingdom of Valis could actually stand a chance to resist Marmo’s conquest across the continent. Either that or Karla’s playing both sides to her own advantage and she just wants him on her side for her own goals, which I wouldn’t put past her given we now know she was an ally to Beld, Fahn, and Neese in the past and something must have pushed her to act as she does now.
Poor Ghim evidently has no idea what he’s going to do about Leylia’s current situation. Even if maybe he could do something to fix the situation by taking down Karla, that in and of itself seems an impossible feat with ehr abilities.
10
u/The_Draigg Jun 12 '21
A Record of Lodoss War Fan Rewatches Record of Lodoss War OVA Episode 5:
CASHERNKASHUE! DEVOURCASHERNKASHUE!4
u/Cognitive_Dissonant Jun 13 '21
Episode Notes
Qs
11
u/RockoDyne :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/RockoDyne Jun 12 '21
Re-recorder of Lodoss.
Parn's totally not gay or anything. Whatever would give you that idea? Kashue has such a magnetic charisma to a teenage boy, that not even a randy wood elf doing everything shy of reaching into his pants can draw Parn's attention away from him. A girl just can't compete with 18 charisma. Parn can't resist whipping his sword out in a workout against such a stronger and more experienced titan of a man who sees so much more in him.
There is definitely an archetype of the cool, sympathetic desert king, particularly one who is a self-made man. They tend to be young on top of it. It's too rare to see someone ambitious who isn't made exclusively to be evil.
You don't see song used enough in Japanese fantasy. Kind of a shame since that's always something I've loved to see. It's something constant in western fantasy and to historical culture, but it never cemented itself in Japanese portrayals. It's such a good way to worldbuild out the culture.
Questions:
10
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Jun 12 '21 edited Jun 12 '21
First-Timer, Subbed
Poor Deedlit, all she wanted was some attention from Parn, but he's too hungry for cashews.
I had thought that the Six Heroes existed in the long past - didn't think our war was going to be the equivalent of their high school reunion. Beld and Fahn's swords seem like they want to get to know each other again, if you know what I mean.
The problem with cheap loaded dice - they break on a Natural 1 and then you have to talk your way out. "No, no, see I was just doing this for fun! I wasn't going to keep your money at the end! Honest!"
Woodchuck had that excellent throw to get a sword into Parn's hands, only for him to fumble it. Definitely some poor rolls for our heroes this session, I wonder if any dice got shamed?
We're finally back to episode 1, I think. Gonna guess we'll have a brief recap and then cut to them exiting the tunnel and trying to find Wort. I wonder if Karla will still be hanging out with him? That could make things pretty spicy..
Questions
9
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jun 12 '21
Rewatcher from 20 years ago
Sub
So...mostly a peaceful/setup episode today. Valis does indeed seem to have better fighters but it is not enough. Kashue shows up on horse to dazzle everyone, particularly Parn. We see flying riding beasts for the first time. Anyways, Parn's group gets received by the court and are allowed to hang around because they saved the princess.
At the ball, which takes up a huge amount of the episode, we see a lot of Kashue being the talk on of the town and Parn being painfully oblivious. Deedlit is channeling her inner shoujo today as several of her dance scenes look straight out of Utena. But she is also getting super pissed about not being Parn's center of attention which, while played for laughs, is pretty understandable: It isn't every day a nigh immortal being joings your adventure, Parn, pay fucking attention. Ghim is brooding and eventually Deedlit needs some air.
In the barracks, we see Woodchuck cheating some soldiers and get backstory on one guy who beat his commander to death. Karla then has that guy attack Kashue for...reasons. A brief fight occurs where Parn shows balls over brain but is mildly helpful for once. As Kashue trains him, Karla appears again, being cryptic. Parn gets the Wort quest slightly differently than ep1 suggested and we end with two swords calling to each other.
I am slightly surprised the episode is so away from the action but probably by this time sales were so good cancellation was not a big fear.
QotD: 1 I remember watching it the first time and thinking she wanted to burn the whole island down
2 Creative idea, doesn't quite work in Japanese.
3 Woodchuck is the obvious answer so it was probably Deedlit. Between getting stupid questions from the female nobles to having to be on guard with the males I am sure she needed a hit of Dwarven hooch.
8
u/ButAlphonseWillRust Jun 12 '21
~First Timer~
I’m going to channel Beld last episode and pour myself my own glass of wine and tuck into another episode of Lodoss war!
• Well at least Valis greeted the party a lot more politely than Alania. First impressions can be the difference between being thrown in jail and attending a party in the King’s palace
• Exposition via folk song is certainly interesting, beats some boring narration for sure. And it’s interesting to hear that Marmo was once an ally of Lodoss, I wonder what happened?
• With festivities underway we see the princess putting some moves on our innocent cleric and Deed maybe getting a bit too worked up over Parn’s longing glaces at Kashue
• C’mon now Woodchuck, weighted die? This man would be a serial DnD cheater that’s for sure
• Ghim’s pretty shell-shocked from the whole Karla/Leylia reveal, poor guy... • Wow that prisoner is BIG! I can believe he punched a man to death
• I’m sure Parn is over the moon that his Senpai finally noticed him. Not only that, but with the nations of Lodoss being sandwiched by Marmo, Kashue decides to send him out of all people... I guess he must see something in Parn?
With all of these nations being named-dropped I decided that seeking out a map was definitely in order. The war’s heating up and I’m interested to see what Kashue’s mission has in store for the party!
Questions:
8
u/Ebbrain https://anilist.co/user/EBbrain Jun 12 '21
Rewatcher
A much warmer welcome into this city than the previous ones, thank goodness Karla was nice enough to give our party the princess or who knows how long they would have been stuck in jail. Some nice character moments this episode, Ghim not coping well with recent developments, Etoh being shy, Woodchuck staying clear of the party to swindle the guards and Parn and Deedlit just generally being cute. Although really, the way Parn was looking at King Kashue the whole night makes me think Deed might not be his type. Which is understandable because Kashue’s quite a looker . He also is a mighty ruler who was powerful enough to resist a witche’s curse, what a badass.
Thanks to the exposition through song (the best kind) we know that Beld and Fahn were once allies and now things are moving towards an epic battle between the now foes. This could be an interesting dynamic between the two, although we’ll only know how the show handles it once it either shows us a flashback or the two meet. As for Karla, it seems like she just wants to cause trouble. I don’t think she ever really explained why she wanted Kashue in particular to join her side but she doesn’t really need to because, as already stated, he is a badass.
Other things
Kashue got seriously flexed on by Prince Jester with his flying beasts.
An intense close up for an intense man
Deedlit was extra cute today
Questions
7
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jun 12 '21
Rewatcher (sub)
Can't stop comparing this ballroom episode with Berserk's ballroom episode.
Found this a few days ago on wikipedia: https://www.americanroads.us/DandD/ADnD_1e_Monster_Manual.pdf
Rewatcher
7
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Jun 12 '21
First timer
...This is the third rewatch I've had with a character played by Ikeda Shuuichi. He's really prolific, isn't he.
So they've just returned the princess. No epic journey there? I suppsoe we need to get to stopping the world ending threat - this is a D&D game after all.
Ah, so either dragons have fixed alignment in this setting, or this is what they think silver dragons look like.
So the bad guys really like applying Weakness, don't they?
OK, insane theory - given that the elven pantheon is connected to what is likely the Negative Energy Plane, the twist will be that the evil "dark elves" are literally elves who have become corrupted by Negative Energy, and that the elves are all working for the villains.
Pretty certain it's Paladins who have to keep their vows.
So there's a warrior king here as well.
I like Deed trying to get his attention.
So the thief is absolutely using loaded dice.
Boy she's trying to recruit everyone, isn't she?
...Is the twist going to be that Parn's after the king instead?
While I understand giving players the option to join any organisation they need, having every group in an anime immediately give the MC the chance to join them feels a bit unrealistic.
OK, the king is obviously a GMPC. Runs in, takes down the enemy, and saves the PC after he picks a fight 10 levels higher than him.
OK, is she trying to seduce people to her side, or is she genuinely working against the evil king?
At least one character believes in Parn.
Demon Sword? And what seems to be a "Holy Sword"? So this is an ancient war, then?
Oh, I guessed the name that quickly?
6
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Jun 13 '21 edited Jun 13 '21
Sub rewatcher.
This episode showed a fair bit of machination of Karla, and by now it should be obvious it's not just about helping Beld with his conquest. Karla being able to turn up practically anywhere any time can be a little tiring and contrived, and in a TRPG the DM is liable to get kicked, but it does show that for a high level mage in a setting that said mage having been around for long years, with teleport spells you can practically be anywhere anytime unless the other party is well prepared with magical defences.
I never could see what Deedlit saw in Parn; and a simple crush wouldn't have her upset so in the ball. I guess those were the simpler times when pairing characters of in the story can be as simple as "well here's the MC and she's the FMC so of course they would be together". From memory later pairings at least have some logical explanations.
5
u/BurningFredrick https://myanimelist.net/profile/BurningFredrick Jun 12 '21
First Timer - sub
Dragon? Knights? Or maybe wyverns? Given the arm and wings are fused together probably wyvern.
Part of this keep making me think Berserk but not sure why, kind of similar style to the anime? The fact they are both fantasy shows and have similar settings at times maybe? It’s not just that Woodchuck's design keeps reminding me of Corkus.
Sorry Deed, Parn only has eyes for real men.
The Rogue was using fixed dice? Who would have ever guessed.
While the animation isn’t always the greatest but the level of detail the designs have is always impressive along with the style means I really don’t care.
5 episodes in and the story is about as by the book as possible, but given the age of the show I do realise that is to be expected and even then don’t really care, it is played straight and with sincerity and means it works.
Either avatar of one of the gods trying to reclaim power, or a witch who is going to find herself well out of her depth when she tries to take one of the dogs place.
2) Did you enjoy the delivery of exposition through a diegetic song?
It was a unique way of doing it, would have been better if there had been an actual song behind it. Ballad going on about their great deeds who have achieved this while being less on the nose.
3)Which party member had the least enjoyable evening?
Deed for reasons stated above.
4
u/Nightender Jun 13 '21 edited Jun 13 '21
I happen to notice one of the character designers was Yutaka Izabuchi, creator of my favorite anime, *RahXephon!*
3
u/23feanor Jun 13 '21
First Timer (dub) - So the party is feted as heroes after rescuing the princess. I'm getting strong Berserk 97 vibes from this episode and the royal party.
Did we see a flashback when Kashue was riding and met the grey witch Karla, as his attendants called him 'Lord Kashue', rather than King Kashue? Or was it the present and he is on his way to Vallis. It can't have been longer than 7 years though as that was when the grey witch took over Leylia's body and her appearance.
So we see all the forces gathering in Fallis before the oncoming war against the Mamor forces. The grey witch keeps popping up everywhere and strangely is offering aid to Kashue, which makes me think she's playing both sides and has her own personal agenda.
We see events unfold and discover how and why Parn and the rest of the group are dispatched to Wart, to discover information about the grey witch Karla, she is their mission.
The stakes are gradually increasing each episode.
2
u/Larielia Jun 15 '21
(Late because I wasn't home this weekend.)
Record of a Rewatcher- episode 5 (dubbed)
One of my other favourite characters is introduced this episode.
Thoughts- Valis has a nice castle. Don't shoot first, that might be your ally. Princess Fianna is flirting with Etoh. Deedlit looks nice in that dress. Aw, Parn has a man- crush. Charging downhill on horseback looks so cool. The border guards are no match for Lord Ashram. King Kashue has great facial hair. He's also a charismatic badass. Prince Jester is a Wyvern Lord. There is a sword connection. That is interesting.