Back to the Vaults: Record of Lodoss War OVA Review
ロードス島戦記
Lodoss-tō Senki

When I first watched Record of Lodoss War OVA and reviewed it at the end of 2005, the series was compelling enough, but wasn’t quite there. Now, I think I know why.

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The Story, in Brief

A wannabe hero tries to save a girl from goblins. His village is not happy about this, fearing the goblins will attack them. Nearby, a dwarf named Ghim is out looking for human High Priestess Neese’s daughter, Leylia. He visits his old mage friend, Slayn. Meanwhile, Parn girds his deceased father’s armor and sword. With his priest friend Etoh, the two go out to stop the goblin attack, aided by a female High Elf.

After the battle, the village chief decides to send Parn to investigate why the goblins are on the warpath. Etoh, Ghim, and Slayn join him. The female High Elf, Deedlit, saves Parn from an ambush and joins the party. However, they are arrested by Alanian soldiers as Marmo spies, since Marmo has invaded the continent. After clearing things up, the castle they are at comes under attack by a Marmo force, aided by the Grey Witch Karla.

The thief Woodchuck joins Parn’s Party. After recovering King Fahn’s daughter, they go on a mission to see the sage Wort, surviving an attack from a dragon in the process. War breaks out between Marmo and the rest of Lodoss, resulting in King Fahn and King Beld’s deaths, due to Karla’s influence. Beld’s general Ashram takes command of Marmo’s forces. King Kashue takes command of Fahn’s forces.

After eventually defeating Karla, she possesses Woodchuck and escapes. The dark mage Wagnard breaks from Ashram to resurrect the evil goddess Kardis. As such, he kidnaps Deedlit as a sacrifice, forcing Parn and allies to try to rescue her and stop the ritual.

A Reimagining, Not an Adaptation

Folks told me that Record of Lodoss War OVA was partially canon to the source novels, with the writers making up an ending. At the time, I figured that this was why things didn’t quite feel right to me. However, now that I know the story of the first Record of Lodoss War novel (The Grey Witch), I see more of the problem. This OVA wasn’t an adaptation with an invented ending. It was a reimagining of The Grey Witch novel, using characters and situations from said novel, but telling the story differently. Add to this elements from the sequel novels that were published at the time.

What do I mean? Well, for a start, in the novel, Parn’s party meets Deedlit in the city of Alan (Allan). In the OVA, she’s there to warn them about the goblin attack, then later, just gets attached to the party. They never go to Alan in the OVA. As I understand it, Parn’s party doesn’t fight a dragon in Moria in the novel. They do confront Karla, twice. Only in the OVA, the one key encounter is reduced to a tiny flashback. The other one has no meaning since Karla just rolls over.

So in addition to changing the characters and events of The Grey Witch into a different and weaker version of the original story, Madhouse also does the same to the remaining source material. Granted, at the time, the Record of Lodoss War novels were still being written. As such, Madhouse just brings in the five chromatic dragons without explanation. Suddenly, Wagnard is droning on about Kardis. Deedlit becomes the sacrifice instead of Koneese.

So compared to what little I know of the source material, this OVA tells a very poor version of those events.

No Character Development

Another thing I disliked about Record of Lodoss War OVA was the lack of character development. Parn is given a cliched “follow my father’s footsteps” crumb of a backstory. However, there’s no resolution to this.

In the novel (what I’ve scanned, and what I read in the apparently very faithful manga adaptation), Parn is a capable if hot headed warrior. He just has a tendency to leap before he looks. However, he proves himself by outwitting Karla, defeating her dragon tooth warrior and Marmo guards, then getting the kidnapped princess back to her father. As such, the king knows he can count on Parn’s party to see Wort.

In the OVA, Parn earns nothing. Everyone just assumes Parn’s going to be amazing. He doesn’t do anything to rescue the princess as Karla just rolls over and leaves. So not having earned anything, he gets granted the mission to see Wort. What?

It isn’t until late in the series that Parn finally takes notice of Deedlit, who’s done almost everything to gain his attention. Thus when Deedlit is kidnapped, only then does Parn actually somewhat feel like a real character with a proper motivation. Even then, while Deedlit’s getting slow-killed, Parn still acts all wishy-washy. I hated that.

Speaking of Deelit, we know nothing about why she left her homeland, or why she’s taken an interest in Parn. Ghim wants to find Neese’s daughter, but we don’t know why. How does he know the mage Slayn? What about Etoh? Why do they follow an idiot like Parn? None of it made sense.

Deedlit & Pirotess

While Parn may have been an annoying character, Deedlit is the light of Record of Lodoss War OVA. I love how charming she is as a character. Thankfully, the art team made her ultra cute. She’s a bit flirty yet very dedicated and loyal to Parn. Deedlit truly is best elf.

From that perspective, I can see why Madhouse chose to use her as the sacrifice to resurrect Kardis. And since as an audience, we’ve been wanting to smack Parn for ignoring such a lovely elf, her potential sacrifice does have a bit of meaning.

It is just a shame that Madhouse didn’t do more with the romantic prospect between Deedlit and Parn. Granted, I don’t think that went much of anywhere in The Grey Witch. But if you are going to make such radical changes to the source material, why not go further?

Ironically, the second most interesting character in this series is the Dark Elf Pirotess. Again, she’s not fleshed out much as a character. Yet she has a deep devotion to the human Ashram, even though he seems cold toward her. So why does she love him so?

Madhouse invented Pirotess for the OVA, presumably as a counter to Deedlit. As I understand it, MIZUNO Ryo-sensei liked the character so much, he incorporated her into the official novels and gave her a backstory. I wish I could read that someday.

Other Issues

Sadly, I had many other issues with Record of Lodoss War OVA. Right out of the gate is episode 1. For some inexplicable reason, Madhouse made up a story (as far as I know) to take place between episodes 5 and 6 of the series. Why? To me, episode 1 was a, “Oh! Here’s a Tolkienesque story with an OG Dungeons and Dragons party.” But otherwise, there’s no clue about what’s going on or who or why.

Next is the slow pacing of the series. There were so many times throughout the series when I would think, “Can we move on, please?” Good grief. In the final couple of episodes, Deedlit is dying, but Parn keeps stopping ’cause someone in the party wants to provide him cover.

As I mentioned, I didn’t like how the Parn x Deedlit romance went. However, that wasn’t the only romance that got jacked. In the source material, the priest Etoh and Princess Fianna become a romantic couple after the mission to rescue her. But, the OVA cuts this mission to almost nothing. Thus there’s no romance between the two, other than maybe a background scene showing them near each other.

Further, the Slayn-Leylia romance is not explained. I’ve already talked about the poor character development. One would think that after Leylia became free of Karla, we might get her speaking about it, even if to say, “I’d rather not talk about it.” But we don’t. However, out of the blue, it seems that Slayn and Leylia are a thing. Why? Don’t know, other than that’s how it was in the novels. Brilliant!

Art, Animation, and Music

For the most part, I don’t think the art of Record of Lodoss War OVA is that bad. It holds up fairly well to this day. The character designs work quite well too. As to the music, it performs its task well enough. It isn’t anything that special, in my opinion.

However, despite its status as an Original Video Animation, the animation for this series is subpar much of the time. Usually, OVAs received a higher budget per episode. Indeed, the first episode seemed to be the best animated. Unfortunately, the episodes that followed tanked quite a lot. It is really noticeable during the dragon fights. They are not animated much at all.

Indeed, many scenes of this OVA series are just pan-and-scan shots. Even when I watched this so many years ago, the lack of animation really stood out to me. I guess Madhouse spent all of their budget in the first episode. That one looked the best.

So What’s the Appeal?

With all of the complaining I’ve done about Record of Lodoss War OVA, you might be wondering what’s the appeal of the series. It doesn’t sound like one to really watch.

The thing is, as an OVA, one can see the diamond in the rough. Clearly, Deedlit helps a ton, but there’s an intriguing lore beneath the surface. It is hinted at and touched on, but never delved into. And yet what we are given will usually create a desire to know more. Indeed, I do plan to review The Grey Witch novel someday (the only one that will ever get licensed in the West). I do want to know more about this world.

In better hands, this OVA series could have been amazing. However, even with the kernels we are given, I find that many folks quite enjoy this viewing experience, more so when they don’t know the source material. And since Record of Lodoss War is a beloved franchise in Japan, I think Record of Lodoss War OVA is worth at least a watch.