Record of Lodoss War

Lodoss, accursed island and pretty good anime. Although this twenty year old series shows its age, and has slightly cheap animation even considering that age, the story of Record of Lodoss War is completely enjoyable. Every episode opens by explaining the basic setting – a long time ago, the gods fought, splitting the island of Lodoss from the mainland.

Time passes by, and Parn is a young man whose father went off to war a long time ago and never returned. Parn lives in a village that finds him to be just a bit of nuisance, and the sympathetic mayor of the town realizes that in order to avoid trouble between Parn and the townspeople, he should send Parn out to “investigate” the unknown evil building throughout Lodoss. Donning his father’s armor, Parn sets out with an elf, a dwarf, a priest, and a wizard.

There are three things that might prevent you from enjoying Lodoss – the quality of the animation, the over-the-top dialog, and the bold jumps in time that occur. Stills and animation loops are frequent. Characters spend up to a minute muttering to each other about how dangerous and risky their plan is. Months and years can pass between the end of one episode and start of another, and the story isn’t told in a strictly linear fashion. If you can get past these flaws, Lodoss has quite a bit to offer, however.

It’s heavily implied by the opening that Deedlit, the elf, and Parn have a romatinic relationship, which is puzzeling at first but becomes clearer as the series progresses.

It is rumored that Lodoss is based off of a tabletop RPG session, and it’s easy to see this in the characters and strong enemies of the series. The relationships between these characters is well thought out and complex. The villains fight among themselves, and have different motivations. Lodoss can be a bit bloody at times, but it is, after all, “Record of Lodoss War” and not “Record of Lodoss Beach Volleyball Tournament”, so this should hardly be surprising. Overall, Lodoss is highly memorable and well worth viewing.