Record of Lodoss War

We just re-watched the Record of Lodoss War OAV. It has been many years since I have seen this, and it is definitely a trip back to a different era… both a different era of anime, and a different era of RPGs. Old school fans will remember this show from way back in 1990, when anime was still an extreme oddity in North America.

Record of Lodoss Wars is a pure fantasy anime that lacks a lot of the tropes of modern fantasy anime and modern JRPGS. There are no mecha, guns, or other sci-fi elements that tend to get peppered into stories nowadays, mainly as a result of everyone trying to copy Final Fantasy 7. People may be are aware that the origin of Lodoss was actually a Dungeons and Dragons campaign ran in 1986, before it became a series of light novels, manga, and anime. For a full overview of the history of the Lodoss setting, I suggest reading the Wikipedia Article. It has a lot of interesting information in it regarding the origins of the story.

The age of this show is clearly apparent in this OAV. Despite the DVD re-release, there is no widescreen mode or Dolby 5.1 surround sound available. The animation is fairly poor compared to a modern show, and it is complemented with a heavily synthesized soundtrack.  Truly, watching this made me feel like I was back in the late 80′s/early 90′s, swapping fansubs with the other nerds who were into anime or paying $25 for a single licensed episode on VHS. The character designs themselves, are , in my eye still pretty cool. The colors are drabber than what is typically used nowadays, but the proportions are more realistic, and some of the armor looks badass without being extremely ridiculous. It works very well for the type of setting that Lodoss is, which is basically the type of world that you’d see with First Edition or early Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons.

Despite the fact that Deedlit (the iconic elf character in the show) is still somewhat well-recognized, I doubt that newer fans of anime or your typical gamer who has only played a modern FF game or WoW would really appreciate this show. However, if you enjoy old school D&D, I recommend renting this and watching through it. It’s a pretty fun view of how things were back in the day, both for RPGs and for anime.