Record of Lodoss War OVA Review

Record of Lodoss War OVA has been one of the few animes I have seen that actually used a full fantasy based story and also focused primarily upon the story itself rather than allow the characters to continuously get into silly scenerios.

That is not to say such a thing is not a bad thing, but it can pull the viewer out of the experience sometimes.

The OVA is around 13 episodes and in entirity lasts aboutt 290 minutes, almost 5 hours long.

Separating the review into the usual catagories of visuals, story, sound, and overall.


Visuals -

The animation for Lodoss War is very good. It details the characters features, clothing, weaponry and backgrounds fantastically. You can easily imagine the area the characters are within and feel the realism behind every scene presented, be it a town, castle, plains, mountains, or the more mystical areas.

Story -

One of the strongest portions of Lodoss War is the story. Every main character involved is fleshed out in some manner, some more than others, but they are not the same cookie-cutter concepts one usually sees in the generic fantasy motif.

One example is Parn, the human warrior who has looked up to King Kashue because of his leadership and also that he holds command over soldiers, which Parn is eager to try for considering he has little experience in combat. Over the course of the series, you see Parn's evolution to a real warrior able to stand on his own.

Beyond the characters, the story revolves around Lodoss itself, a cursed isle and what the strange Gray Witch Karla has in store for the heroes and if she is merely manipulating their actions toward her own goals.

Even so, the characters are not merely two dimensional. Each have ambitions and goals, fears and traits that make them believeable as people. The story over the 13 episodes is very well told and keeps its pace throughout the entire OVA.

Sound -

The sound also does well enough providing proper volume levels for voices and soundeffects, along with the music. Most movies seem to have the issue of their soundtrack drowning out the vocals, or at the least the vocals being so quiet that the music blares when it cues up. Overall I did not have much an issue with the sound. The voices for both English and Japanese are well done and make sense to represent each character. The Wizard Slayn has a somewhat calm and reserved voice, while Ghim the dwarf has that usual gruff, to the point sort of voice.

Overall -

I would recommend Record of Lodoss War OVA to anyone who enjoys anime, the fantasy genre, or Dungeons and Dragons. It has been stated that the series drew inspiration from D&D (as did many), and Lodoss War does play out much like a D&D or Fantasy adventure. The characters themselves are presented in a gray area rather than black and white, even the "villians" have reasoning behind their actions.

Finding an anime like this feels rare considering the amount of science fiction or giant robot anime that exists. Typically the Fantasy anime revolves around modern day settings in some fashion, or a post-apocalyptic setting where people exist in a fantasy setting, but ancient technology can still be unearthed.

Lodoss War is one of the few true fantasy anime's, and it may contain a few issues here and there, but they are minimal and do not become an issue to lose the viewer from the characters or story.

Despite being made back around 1990/1991, I believe Lodoss War still holds up today as a wonderful Fantasy story that takes itself seriously and knows what it wants to be and tell as a story.

Although all 13 epsiodes are around 5 hours total, each episode is split into 30 minutes, making it easy to watch one or two at a time. It soon becomes hard not to, as the episodes entice and grip you like the end of a chapter, urging you to turn the page, or watch the next until you reach the end.