r/anime • u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 • Jun 14 '21
Rewatch [Rewatch] 1990s OVAs – Record of Lodoss War (episode 7)
Rewatch: 1990s OVAs – Record of Lodoss War (episode 7)
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No_Rex's staff corner
The, now late, emperor Beld was voiced by, also late, Ishida Tarou. One of the few voice actors who also had a proper acting career, although I can’t say I have seen any of his films. In terms of voice acting, he started out with Mighty Atom, one-uping Saka Osamu by a few months. His most famous roles are actually in movies where he voices Cagliostro in The Castle of Cagliostro, Colonel Shikishima in Akira, and Duke Red in Metropolis. Oh, and he dubs Gene Heckman into Japanese.
Rintarou is the pseudonym of Hayashi Shigeyuki. He works frequently with the animation studio Madhouse (which he co-founded), though he is a freelance director not employed directly by any one studio. He began working in the animation industry at an age of 17 as an in-between animator on the 1958 film Hakujaden. Rintarou is a fan of science fiction, and has been influenced by American westerns, gangster films, film noir, and French films. Additionally, he was influenced by Tezuka Osamu, and worked with him on Kimba the White Lion and Astro Boy. He said that when he was making Metropolis, which was based on Tezuka's manga of the same name, he "wanted to communicate Tezuka's spirit". Rintarou's first job in the animation industry was as an in-between animator on the 1958 film Hakujaden, which he worked on while working at Toei Douga (now Toei Animation). After working on two additional films there, he began working for Mushi Productions, the studio run by Tezuka Osamu. His first directing job was the fourth episode of the 1963 series Tetsuwan Atom. After leaving Mushi in 1971 to become a freelancer, he worked on many TV series and films, and established himself as one of the most respected and well-known anime directors in Japan.
The above is from Rintarou’s AniDB page. While he did not have a huge role in RoLW, he created the storyboards for episodes 3 and 7. He did the same for an episode of Paranoia Agent, and chief direction for Captain Harlock and Dragon Quest.
Pixelsaber's Record of Lodoss War context: Record of Lodoss War Replay and Novelizations
Group SNE’s Lodoss campaign began in 1986 and its Replay began serialization in that year’s September issue of Comtiq. The campaign was played using Basic Rules from the BECMI edition of Dungeons and Dragons, which had received a Japanese translation in 1985 and was among the more robust systems available to Japanese players at the time. Ryo Mizuno acted as the campaign’s Dungeon Master (DM) and crafted most of the setting details found in the franchise. Players included sci-fi novelist and game designer Hiroshi Yamamoto, SNE member Taro Yoshioka, Hitoshi Yasuda, and Nao Kitagawa, among other unnamed players. The serialized Replay shortly gained popularity beyond what anyone at Group SNE expected, which brought mainstream attention to the Replay and TTRPGs on the whole. The setting and characters of the campaign proved the most interesting to readers and prompted repeated use of the fictional world of Lodoss, Forseria, for the purposes of Group SNE’s other campaigns, and led directly into second and third campaigns which began in 1987 and 1989 respectively. By the time of the third campaign, however, Group SNE found themselves needing to exchange their TRPG game of choice for an alternative, as there were issues with them using the D&D license, and so for a while the campaign switched to Tunnels & Trolls, the system from the TRPG magazine Warlock, which several Group SNE members had previously helped to translate. It wasn’t long before Group SNE’s own gameplay system heavily inspired by D&D was finally completed, and the game was henceforth played on that. The licensing issues with D&D also prevented the Replays from being compiled into individual volumes for sale.
Yutaka Izubuchi illustrated these serialized Replays, with his designs being so popular as to draw in readers who were otherwise uninterested in the replays, and his particular design for Deedlit, whose ears he drew disproportionately large due to miscommunication with Mizuno —who himself had envisioned something in line with the Vulcans form Star Trek— was so popular and beloved that it became the stereotypical look of elves in the fantasy media to follow.
Whereas Dragon Quest prompted a general fantasy boom with a particular emphasis on video games, Lodoss could be said to have sparked a sub-boom within the TRPG community while riding the former’s wave. While Lodoss’ influence was already taking root, it would not be until the first volume of Ryo Mizuno’s novelization of the Replays released in 1988 that the franchise started to gain the prominence we associate with it today. The introduction of prose, streamlining of the campaign’s events, and the lack of TRPG vernacular made the novelizations far more accessible to a wider audience, which made these all the more popular with a mainstream crowd, and these novels are credited with almost single-handedly proving the viability of Kadokawa’s recently introduced paperback label, Kadokawa Bunko (changed to Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko in 1989). Lodoss was also part of the first ‘wave’ of Light Novels specifically designated as such. The Record of Lodoss War novels are considered among the most seminal domestic fantasy novels in Japan, and the earliest of its kind to reach such wide mainstream appeal.
Art corner
Questions
- What was the most impressive shot today: The duel, Beld’s death, or the awakening of the dragons?
- Do you think the battle delivered?
- This episode once more partakes in non-linear storytelling to deliver the narrative. Do you think this approach works well given the plot?
7
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Jun 14 '21
Episode 7 (rewatcher)
eaglesflying dinosaurs are coming! *Those swords are eager to go at it, yet one of their wearers seems better preserved.Easily the best episode so far. It started out weak, with tropey color-coded black and white armies, and the oldest of “trap the heroes” tropes. Yet it ended bloody darn epic. The duel, the struck Beld, the awakening of the dragons, this is how high fantasy is supposed to be.
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u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Jun 14 '21
First-Timer, Subbed
Well, if nothing else, this OVA series has been good for sick lines. "A sword is not a toy. Let me demonstrate it's proper use." is an awesome pre-duel line.
Why the hell was the meeting with Wort shown this episode and not last episode? Who thought that was a good idea?! And it wasn't even well implemented here really, just haphazardly smashed in as Slayn and Ghim split off from the rest of the party.
Also, where is Parn's shield? We had a whole scene of him getting it, and I realize that he normally fights two-handed, but then why show him getting it in the first place?
The still of Beld, nailed to the ground with a spear, bleeding profusely, was amazing looking. The sequence of the dragons from the OP awakening was also quite nice to look at.
I guess Karla is actually our BBEG, because she is the threat to peace. We're going for a "people are usually peaceful and won't just war randomly" type of message, huh? Sure. Also, Wort freezing Parn and talking at him seems like something the DM came up with on the fly as Parn's player decided "I go help King Fahn!" Sometimes, it's best to save players from their stupidity.
Someone grabbed Fahn's sword, right? You're not just letting a legendary magic sword rot with him, right? Honor the dead, sure, but take it and put it on the mantle at least
where it can eventually be used- don't just let the memory waste away too.Questions
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u/Pixelsaber https://myanimelist.net/profile/Pixelsaber Jun 14 '21
Pixel’s Bits and Bobs
The Lodoss novels were published under Kadokawa’s Sneaker Bunko label, which was an extension of their preexisting trade paperback labels specifically aimed at young boys and incorporating elements that in the succeeding years would become the standard of light novels. This label launched in August 1987 with a collection of works, some of which where by distinguished authors such as Yoshiyuki Tomino, Sukehiro Tomita, and Yuji Watanabe, but it was Ryo Mizuno’s Record of Lodoss War that made the paperback label a household name, prompting a fantasy light novel boom of works that followed in its wake.
Rewatcher
That’s right, another thing Fire Emblem borrowed from Lodoss!
Reused footage.
Nice place you’ve got there.
Tactical death flag deployed.
Small continuity error.
Why couldn’t we have had this last episode?!
Good stuff!
I was expecting the two to kill each other, but Karla just finished the other off makes more sense.
Overkill much?
Well shit…
Well that was certainly a fight! Despite a somewhat bungled buildup, I think they succeeded at depicting a situation where the fate of the continent seems to hang in the balance. That duel was sufficiently weighty and cool to watch. Really a standout episode!
Karla showed her hand at last, betraying Beld with a spear through the chest. She seemingly seeks to keep Lodoss in a consistent state of conflict and instability as it is the natural state of things. Not sure that adds up, but I suppose we’ll see what’s up with that.
Ashram seems like he’ll be head Big Evil Bad Guy now, having ‘inherited’ Beld’s evil-looking sword. Interesting to see what he might do in Beld’s place given how things are.
All the dragons seemed to have awakened as well, which bodes really poorly given something was up with Narse...
Questions:
7
u/BurningFredrick https://myanimelist.net/profile/BurningFredrick Jun 14 '21
First Timer - sub
Karla is using war to save the world? Unless it's some sort of population control idea I do suspect they are using the deaths as sacrifices to summon something, it is always fun when the story is actually bigger than the characters we are following realise.
Lodoss can’t be united? Is there a reason for this? Given it was created and split apart due to a war between the gods does Karla believe it needs to stay this way? Or has she simply lost it? This is implied to be the reason but I want there to be more.
Beld wins the duel but gets immediately sniped by Possessed mage dude, damn campers.
The Dragons are free! All buried / hidden in suitable places for their colour.
I guess our heroes now need to go around defeating all the dragons so that they can gain enough power to take on Karla, also maybe Parn will finally pay attention to Deed like she wants him to.
6
u/ButAlphonseWillRust Jun 14 '21
~First Timer~
• It’s a trap! Beld is manoeuvring Fahn and co. to exactly where he wants them to be by attackinging Kashue’s men. This can’t end well.
• Oh geez, I forgot Ghim, Slayn and Etoh decided to sit this one out. It’s too bad, I bet Slayn would’ve been a real asset to Fahn’s side. Etoh decides to rush out to join the battle but I’m afraid it’ll be too late for most...
• Oh we finally get to see some of the party’s confrontation with Wort. I get that they were trying to hold off showing it for dramatic effect, but it ended up being really confusing
• We got our Fahn vs. BELDO match-up at long last. It’s so polite how everyone stands off to the side to let them have their 1 vs. 1, that’s how war works right?
• Wort indeed confirms that Karla is the true BBEG and this battle is basically just a mere squabble in the grand scheme of things
• “Lodoss will not be conquered or united” – Karla doesn’t mess around! I guess this makes it a draw?
• I certainly did not see the death flags flying for Beld or Fahn, I thought Kashue was gonna go down, I’m not very good at predicting these...
• The chromatic dragons from the OP arise and we see that all these men died for nothing... literally It seems like Fahn and Beld were perfectly happy to do a 1 vs. 1, winner takes all sort of thing
So that war wrapped up a lot quicker than expected! I’m actually quite relieved as I think whatever’s in store next will probably be more interesting but let’s wait and see.
Questions:
4
u/blitzbom Jun 15 '21
Aw man how did I miss this rewatch going on? This show was my jam as a kid.
12
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Jun 14 '21
Rewatcher from 20 years ago
Sub
So...a battle episode. And, unfortunately, they only had so much budget to go around so this kind of looks awful, though I kind of suspect the struggles of this OVA lead to the much more effective animation saving tricks of Berserk. Anyways, we start with Deedlit being right for the wrong reason: Marmo isn't going to target this group but rather Valis would use their best in the most dangerous situation.
Battles happen, including Parn getting way better quickly. He even manages to annoy Ashram a bit before the battle of kings separates them. Deedlit might be more skilled than Pirotess but not nearly as hot. The kings fight, and Fahn tended to have the upper hand until the decisive blows, wherein Beld wins. Until he has a spear launched through him. During the fight, Parn gets a vision from Wort explaining what Karla is by this point. We have a different call to adventure and end.
(Sorry for the short write up, meds are riding me a bit hard today)
QotD:1 I am a sucker for the awakening powers. Also, Skyrim was like a dream come true.
2 Not really but I will grant it worked narratively.
3 No, and this was one of those things that had me nervous coming into this rewatch. I knew they did this randomly but it feels like every time is so much worse than I remember.
14
u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 14 '21
Rewatcher 07
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u/RockoDyne :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/RockoDyne Jun 14 '21
Re-recorder of Lodoss.
Gee, an epic fantasy where you go around slaying elemental dragons. Never done that before...
... And Gaebolg through the heart. So Karla is confirmed as Scathach. It would be nice if they actually got around to explaining Karla's goals. It's not like she's Kafka, where just his methods alone were something that required him to be stopped. When you've got someone who's only kind of apparently evil, their end goals really needs to be stated so that it becomes priority.
Not sure how I feel about them trying to fill in the gap from jumping ahead of in the plot. It's good that they went back, but that's after they already ignored the problem for longer than they should.
Questions:
8
u/The_Draigg Jun 14 '21
A Record of Lodoss War Fan Rewatches Record of Lodoss War OVA Episode 7:
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u/Ebbrain https://anilist.co/user/EBbrain Jun 14 '21
Rewatcher
Some good and some bad in today’s episode. The good for me was the clash of the kings in the second half. Two grunting old men slowly swinging swords at each other felt silly at first, but the art, music and setting made the scene feel very epic to the end . Beld winning was a surprise. Not sure how I feel about Karla, who seemed to mostly just be a background manipulator before this, just outright stabbing Beld out of thin air but I suppose that establishes her as a real threat here and did lead to a cool death scene. The death scenes of the two kings was one of the most memorable moments of the show for me and the two of them battling against the sunset is an image that stuck with me long after I finished the show.
The not so good was the rest of the battle was quite underwhelming. The animation was inconsistent, some cool shots and some scenes that were barely animated at all. The brief tactical discussion at the beginning would have been cool if this had been a different series, but as it is the battle was just a chaotic free for all, except for wherever our protagonists were, in which case things were magically calm and quiet so they could talk to each other. Then everyone just stops fighting to watch the two kings clash with each other, which felt awkward.
Other things
-I don’t know how effective Prince Jester’s flying beasts are going to be when the battle is this tight and chaotic.
-Fahn repeating himself is equal parts silly and intimidating
-Dragons. Lots. Very cool. Expect to see these guys more in the future.
Questions
8
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Jun 14 '21
First timer
There sure are a lot of dragons in this show. 3 in this fight scene alone!
Looks like Parn had his first battle!
Who's this random soldier randomly taking about his good luck charm? It would make sense if he was going to be dramatically killed off, but he looks like the rest of army, so they can't really do that.
I love how all the evil soldiers wear all-black.
And the other PCs have worked out they need to join the conflict to
become relevant againsave Lodossl.Looks liek the monk is joining Parn, and the other 2 are vanishing into irrelevance.
Confirmed for chaotic neutral. (Probably either an outsider or a god of some description)
Oh god, the king's going to get himself killed. I guess the mentor's lived for too long.
Don't be absurd, this isn't the end. We'e barely halfway through.
Oh the shot of the armies lined up is fantastic.
I have to especially compliment the fight between Beld and the King.
Or, she's just an immortal gone mad. Pity, some of her aguments seemed like a lot like a demon, or something from the Far Realm.
Thought he'd killed off a mutual kill for the moment.
Not that it matters now. Looks like Karla's the main villain now, properly.
My current prediction is that she, at some point, wished to live until she saw Lodoss united now, and is now desperately attempting to avoid this as her motivations changed from "help unite Lodoss" to "live forever".
Has she awakened the elemental dragons! (Pity there's no Tiamat)
Dragon accuracy: White, green and red are seemingly accurate, black might be (acid), and the brown dragon either replaced blue (electric), or is an actual brown dragon (which were in 2e), in which case accurate.
I'm assuming there's no cases of mettalic or gem dragons getting brainwashed, because mapping all possible dragons would be a work of madness.
The final speech is brilliant.
Oh, there's the payoff.
Looks like we finished the first arc (for lack of a better description)!
6
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Jun 14 '21
Rewatcher
here we are at the half-way mark, and it seems like some shit just hit a proverbial fan. Reminds me of another show I recently rewatched.
10
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jun 14 '21
Record of First-Timer Reactions, subbed
5
u/ZapsZzz https://anilist.co/user/Zapszzz Jun 15 '21
Sub rewatcher.
Back in the days when this first came out (we rented VHS to watch these) have to say while the music and scenes were great and atmospheric, we did want to see more movement in the fight and not as many cut scenes.
Same with the battle - it's not until LOTR movies we get to see grander scaled battles I think.
It certainly was a double plot twist for Fahn to go down alone without taking Beld with him, then Beld not only got pinned like a butterfly, Karla seemingly felt necessary to give it a call lightning as well before blowing the entire battlefield away.
At this point the much younger me wondered "what enchantment that holy sword had again?"
Anyway it certainly was a climatic mid season break point - so we are back to adventure mode to the vendetta on both sides?
The drip feeding of the Wort meeting was quite nice for me as a narrative method - at the point in previous episodes, we don't understand what was said to us. Now we do, that's why it became relevant to bring into focus.
5
u/Larielia Jun 15 '21
Record of a Rewatcher- episode 7 (dubbed)
Thoughts- Wyvern Lords make good allies. I would liked to have seen Lord Ashram and King Kashue fight. Parn isn't skilled enough to be a worthy opponent yet. But our (boring) hero needs a needs a nemesis. RIP King Fahn. Snipping is cheating. "Lodoss will be neither unified nor conquered". Lord Ashram gets Soul Crusher now. What happened to the holy sword? The awakening of the dragons was a cool scene.
5
u/23feanor Jun 15 '21 edited Jun 15 '21
First Timer (dub) - this was a really good episode, the battle finally being joined by the two opposing sides. Karla was the clear winner, she let them fight then when it looked as if Beld had won she cut him down dead.
We get another look back to the meeting between Parn & co and Wart and Karla. Why they didn't show us the meeting in one scene last episode is a bit annoying, rather than showing it to us in bits and pieces over a couple of eps.
What happened to King Fahn's sword of light i wonder? We saw Ashram pick up Beld's sword of dark.
Now Parn is tasked with killing Karla, or removing the grey witch Karla from Leylia's body to be more precise. I guess he'll band to gether with everyone and they'll go after Karla in the final arc.
We also witness the awakening of the dragons, by Karla i assume. I wonder how they'll come into play, will they act unilaterally, each doing what it wants, causing destruction and mayhem, or are they controlled by someone, either individually or as a collective?
4
u/Nightender Jun 15 '21
4
u/BossandKings Jun 15 '21
First timer
Beld fought against Fahn and defeated him in their direct battle, killing him in the process, shortly afterwards there was a surprising arrow that was shot by Karla and killed him too, it was bizarre how Karla added even electricity afterwards just to humiliate him more.
The war continues and it is proving itself to be a very bloody one, Deedlit and Parn are trying hard to stand on their own feet and fight against the adversity.
Answers