Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight

When translating something from the written medium to film or animation there can be certain aspects of the story that may be lost in translation. However it is sometimes wise to sacrifice certain things, and to that I will explain further, but first, normally I do not write a review to the series I have watched unless what I watched was so bad that it was worthy of a cautionary summation to future viewers. Now mind you I did not find anything that bad or appalling in this series, but I felt that the viewer ratings didn't reflect the true quality of the series. SoI will begin this by saying that the author wrote this story well out of their normal comfort zone. It is hard to take and tell a tale that is not in relation to your heritage, for instance it is hard for a storyteller who lives in the West, to write a story about things that relate solely to the East, and visa verse. This author however did a very splendid job in doing just that. But, the story itself is very linear and predicable. Now while this can be a good thing in this case it is not. Since the story itself is so visible it cannot and will not be able to draw the viewer into the storyline. To complicate matters even more, the unnecessary amount of characters actually bogs the storyline down further. Characters were so numerous that any depth that could have been given wasn't due to the amount of them. The screenwriter chose to add characters in that really were not needed other than to provide a plot vehicle or romantic interest. Less is more, and in that allows for better character development and a chance for the viewer to connect with the characters. Unfortunately this story did not allow for that, and should have sacrificed some characters. For future screenplay writers, not all stories need romance, nor do they need characters who's sole responsibility is to help provide plot line. Production values were better for this series than the first. The characters were diverse in features to allow a pleasant indulgence in them. For the most part the clothing designs were true to a European style fairy tale, but there were a few Asian influences in them as well. I'm sure that however was the artists trademark and quite acceptable even nice to see. One of the problems however in production values were the action, or fight scenes. These were very far and few between with most of them being nothing more than SFX and quick color flashes and stills. I would venture to guess that the budget was shoestring and some sacrifices had to be made, I personally just wish they would have made them in the character department and not the action department. So overall with a huge cast of characters, poor production values in animation, this series has, in my opinion, a higher rating that it deserves. Storyline was weak, art values were high along with sound and styling, this series should actually rate closer to 6.5 than the 7.6 it currently holds. Which again is what triggered this review. This series would be good for a viewer who is wanting a simple plot and storyline with good art but poor production values.

Having watched the original Record of Lodoss War, I went into this title with a little bit of apprehension. Sequels have a notorious reputation for being sub par in comparison to their predecessors. Luckily, Chronicles of the Heroic Knight breaks that stereotype in a fairly big and entertaining way. For some reason, I could not get into the original Lodoss, try as I may. However, Chronicles had me hooked from episode one, despite the fact that the first batch of episodes are basically a rehashed version of the OVA storyline. Fair warning though; don’t get used to seeing Parn and Deedlit in every episode. After theintroduction, it’s as if the original Lodoss story never happened. A new cast, and a large one at that, is introduced with new enemies and new motives. While it was great to see that the producers took the time to make sure that no one was just another nameless warrior, keeping track of a cast this size proved to be a daunting task. The story to go along with this new group was equally complex, but very intriguing and captivating. That is, until the end of the episode, when super-deformed versions of the characters make a parody of the story just displayed. It was funny at first, but then became just plain annoying and took away from the real storyline. Probably the brightest star of this series is, arguably, the music. Yoko Kanno, already famous for her work in such titles as Ghost in the Shell: Stand alone Complex and Vision of Escaflowne, whips up a fantastic orchestral score to fit every scene on the screen, making this series pleasing on the ears. The opening and ending themes, Kiseki no Umi and Hikari no Suashi, are a joy to listen to every time they play and are definitely two of my favorite anime themes. The animation sequences to go along with them were stunning. It’s a bit of a shame that the series couldn’t have the same luster in its animation. By no means am I saying that the animation is bad. I was just a little disappointed at the dip from the opening and ending sequences to the series. If you liked the original Lodoss, then by all mean, pick up Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. It’s just about everything that the OVA was and better. Just skip the last three minutes of each episode and enjoy the ending theme instead.

Honestly, I was very disappointed by this. I'm a big lover of fantasy, I read a lot of fantasy novels and play D&D, I also loved the original OVA, but this one was far below what I expected. The writing was extremely predictable and often, I found myself wanting for more. Something unpredictable, something that would explain character motivations, particularly the villains who came off as "evil for evil's sake" and not someone with actual meaningful motivations for the things they did. I didn't care for most of the characters and honestly, it was a drag to get through. I still love the character designs, honestly, Istill think they have one of the best designs for elves and even if the animation is subpar at times, I can't complain about the art style itself. But I still wouldn't recommend this at all - stick to the original OVA and keep away from this one.

Kind of like this one better over the Lodoss War OVA series, biggest reason being the greater amount of character depth and development. The OVA series just breezed by with its plot developments, leaving little time to develop its characters. Here though, many of the characters get fleshing out over their motives and some even grow over the course of the series. Even baddie Ashram gets focus to show that he has honorable reasons for fighting alongside the enemy faction. There are still some characters that were underdeveloped, such as Parn and Deedlit. But the character depth here is of great improvement from the OVAseries. As for the show's plot, it is your standard fantasy adventure series with the first eight episodes having a different take to the Scepter of Domination storyline from the OVAs and having another adventure years later with the knight Spark. I hear this TV anime is supposed to be a more faithful adaptation of its fantasy novel source material, but I don't know enough about the novels to know of how faithful it is. Regardless, the anime goes through the motions of having the audience know of its world, the gods worshiped and the creatures that inhabit it. To a great extent, the series follows the standard plot setups of a fantasy RPG game with our male hero of a knight (Parn for first eight episodes, Spark for rest of series) having a party of differing classes (mage, dwarf, mercenary, thief, etc...) accompany him in a journey to combat the plot of an evil baddie (Wagnard). The greater character depth here gives many of the characters more dimension than what their "class" archetype would give, though the fantasy setup occasionally milks cliches in its plot developments that cause the series to drag at points or suffer in quality. This is especially noticeable in the final several episodes of the series that milk enough cliches that you could find used in the final level of an RPG game's storyline. In addition, the series also comes with an SD omake mini-episode at the end of each episode to the show which is quite silly in tone compared to the main series and your mileage will vary on how well you enjoy them (winded up skipping them after a few episodes). Visually, Lodoss War TV appears to use a more traditional character design style here compared to the OVAs, meaning most characters in the show have the "big eyed" and attractive look you can find used in many popular anime titles. The designs are nicely drawn and have a good amount of visual detail to them. Same treatment is given to scenery which have a diverse number of environments drawn thanks to the different locales that the parties of warriors travel through and fight in. The animation for the TV anime isn't much different from the OVA, meaning you can expect frequent use of still shots, speed stripes and other animation shortcuts during heated battle scenes. The music to the series is perhaps the high point of Lodoss War TV for me. Insert music mostly consisted of orchestral music pieces that give the series an epic feel and Yoko Kanno's composition of the title's opener song, "Kiseki no Umi" sung by Maaya Sakamoto, make it among one of the better openers I've listened to from an anime. Overall while still having its issues from its typical fantasy-adventure mold, Lodoss War TV is still an improvement from the OVA series thanks to its greater character depth and focus on exploring the world of Lodoss. If you have interest in medieval/ fantasy-style adventure titles, this is a decent series worth having a look at.