Record of Lodoss War - Chronicles of the Heroic Knight (Complete Series)

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Record of Lodoss War began as a serialized role-playing game in Comptique magazine in 1986. The story was adapted to novelizations, audio books, and video games, followed by a 13-part OAV (original animation video) series, which was released in two parts in 1990 and 1991. Five years later, the 27-part broadcast series was completed. Although some characters, settings, and incidents appear in both continuities, the OAV and broadcast versions of Lodoss War were made independently, and the discrepancies in their sword-and-sorcery narratives can't be reconciled.

The broadcast series is divided into two linked adventures involving the supernatural treasures hidden by the last rulers of the Kingdom of Sorcerers 500 years earlier. The first tale (eight chapters) centers on Parn, the honorable Free Knight, and his High Elf companion Deedlit, the heroes of the OAV series. With some help from an assortment of allies that includes King Kashue of Flaim, an annoying grass sprite, and a berserker mercenary, Parn defeats the megalomaniacal knight Ashram, who seeks to rule a united Lodoss with the Scepter of Domination. The second adventure takes place 10 years later and focuses on Spark, a young Knight-in-Training at the court of King Kashue, who idolizes Parn. Spark and a veritable army of secondary characters battle the evil sorcerer Wagnard, who plots to resurrect the destroyer-goddess Kardis. Kardis will destroy every other living thing in Lodoss, leaving Wagnard to rule an eternal Kingdom of the Dead. From these adventures and Parn's counsel, Spark learns what it means to be a true knight; he wins the respect of his men and the love of his lady. Unfortunately, the story line breaks down in the later episodes, when writer Katsumi Hasegawa seems to lose track of the plot and many of the characters. Ashram returns--despite having fallen into a lava pit in episode 8--but as a noble and prudent ruler. Karla, the ancient gray witch, opposes Wagnard, then allies with him. Several "dei ex machinae" appear at the last minute to save situations. The lapses in the storytelling may help to explain why many fans prefer the shorter OAV series, although both versions offer plenty of ancient prophecies, spells, dragons, duels, star-crossed romances, and apocalyptic threats. The individual episodes are separated by "Trailers," odd little segments in which child versions of the main characters make fun of each other and the story. Unrated. Suitable for ages 13 and up: minor nudity and profanity, considerable violence and grotesque imagery. --Charles Solomon

Description

Five years past, a band of six adventurers defeated the conquering armies of Marmo, the dark island, and saved the accused island, LODOSS. Since that day, the survivors have been honored as heroes, and their deeds have become legends. But the darkness never perished... Now, a mad wizard threatens to raise an ancient evil — the goddess of destruction. Old heroes must heed the call to defend their homeland and new heroes are forged as the battle for LODOSS begins anew.

Customer Reviews:

I unbiasedly liked this one........2007-05-07

I actually watched this one (Heroic Knight) "out-of-order" (having bought it BEFORE the original Record of Lodoss War). I genuinely liked it, and feel it stands well on its own two feet.

I partly wanted to watch it on its own because I didn't want to prejudice or bias my review by having seen the "prequel" first. IE, I didn't want to have anything to compare it to, or for it to have to "best in mortal combat."

If taken on its own, and under its own power, it appears to be internally consistent, has decent animation. Though I like the opening credits animation BETTER than the animation of the series itself. If they'd used animation similar to opening credits throughout the series I'd have LOVED the series. Honestly the opening credit artwork is pretty cool. But just on its own merits I liked the series. It looks and feels like a fantasy epic. Perhaps not AS sweeping as some others out there. There were a few bad voice acting moments in the opening episodes (episode2, especially, with Parn, if I recall right), but that clears up by the time the series really gets going. So I won't dock them for it. Call it opening night jitters.

I'd say that if you like "fantasy anime," this one's decent. HAven'tseen many to compare it to yet. But as I said, on its own merits it's pretty good, for wht it is. I'd have no qualms recommending buying it.

Not as bad as some say.......2007-04-16

This sequel to Record of the Lodoss War catches a lot of heat and for some good reasons. But if you look past this not being consistent with the first one you can actually appreciate this one for what it is.

I'll admit that when I saw the first episode and noticed the main characters from the last one didn't even know the characters they fought together with turned me away and I didn't even want to see it because of that. I gave it a chance and tried to erase everything I knew about the original and I started to enjoy this.

The first chapter had me glued to the series. I enjoyed every minute of it. The character development, the action scenes and the story. I started to get a little aggravated when they spoke on the past great battle and completely changed the events around. I just don't understand why it was done that way. But I was still able to over look that.

Later on when the new main characters are introduced and a new story begins. I enjoyed this chapter also and couldn't stop watching it. The plot twist and story development just captured me.

The animation was pretty good to me and I love the opening theme. The collection is 27 episodes on 3 disk and as far as I'm concerned there is no filler episodes. At the begining I really thought I was going to hate this collection. I would have hated it had I not took the bad with the good. The bad is the inconsistent storyline and voice actor changes. The good is a very good story, character development, and action. If you never seen Record of the Lodoss War you are missing out. Especially if your a fan of the swords and sorcery genre. I would recommend to pick up the first one. Those who already seen the first one. I dont really know what to say to you. All I can say is I enjoyed this one even though they made it seem like the first one didn't even exist.

The Lodoss War Series...(Spoliers).......2007-03-08

Their are spoilers in this review, so don't read if you want to look at the series with "fresh eyes", as it were.

This review will be simple, and to-the-point.

First the good, then the bad.

The good:

This arrived in GREAT SHAPE, and arrived early!

The series comes on 4 DVDs, and the packaging presentation is very professional.

The price, at $34.95, was a GREAT value (And even BETTER VALUE when you get the OVA boxed set of 13 episodes in the same order, for under $80!).

Deedlit and Parn, they are great charachters to watch, with great voice actors, they are always good...

The bad:

Not ENOUGH Deedlit and Parn...what a shame...this series should have been about D and P with more adventures, until the very end...

ALl of a sudden, on Disc B, all the charachters voices are changed! And their actors are terrible to the originals!

Also, all of a sudden, the main cast completes their quest all too early, then switches to a new rag tag group you have never met before (except seeing Spark as a child earlier on...)

Deedlit and Parn never kiss, after going through all of that together, not even one kiss...this is a serious lack of closure for me, as a big fan of Lodoss War.

The new crew that takes over after Parn and the others is pretty annoying at first, especially that punk Spark. Man, I hate his charachter...

Compared to the OVA, the animation, while not terrible, suffers in the quality department.

I hated the ending, it should have been about Deedlit and Parn, not Spark and his group!

In spite of the faults, the incredible value elevates this to FOUR stars out of FIVE. To think, fo years, they sold this same set for nearly $130!

Take my advice, wait for the series to lose popularity before buying it, that is what I am doing with Wolf's Rain...once it is $50 or below, I will get my copy of it!

In the end, the OVA is much better, but the series is still worth a watch.

Just buy the cheaper import..........2007-01-31

I bought the $129.99 original US release of the series and it was costly. I watched and compared it to the original Record of Lodoss War, and I was just surprised how off the series is in a way. Personally, I should have bought the imported version of the series, since they're much cheaper and the US release isn't even worth it much. In a way, I regret buying the US release, but don't get me wrong, I still liked the series, although the Remastered Edition of the original Record of Lodoss is much better in detail and animation. The only things wrong with this series and the previous one are some of the bad english dubbing (Man, if you listen to Prince Reonna or whatever his name was in this series, you'll get a good laugh on how pathetic, and mismatched his voice-over really is; picture a large, broad blonde man speaking like as if he was a short or rather weak man).

re: Avoid entirely.......2006-12-29

I just watched this with friend and family, and we're all very confused. None of us are constant anime followers, but we aren't novices either.

The story is simple enough, but there are considerable loopholes and bad characters.

Despite what the editorial reviewer from Amazon says, King Kashue does NOT idolize Parn, it's PARN who "idolizes" Kashue. Kashue is fond of Parn, but does not idolize.

Here's the lowdown: the first DVD chapters 1-14 tries to focus on Parn, who is a simplistic village boy, son of a Heroic Knight of some distant war. Parn grew up in the same village with Etoh, the cleric. Meets up with the High Elf Deedlit, and the Enchanter Slayn and Ghim the dwarf.

They almost save the village from random total annhilation by possess goblins and Parn barely wins his first experience one-on one melee with the lead goblin.
From there, this groupgoes on a series of seemingly random adventures. They have a loose collective idea to go meet an Archmage named Wort.

Viewers are introduced to the uber-bad guys, the Black Knight (who's name we don't learn until episode 12, Ashram) his little gang that includes a powerful mage and some powerful fighter that we learn in episode 17 is Emperor Beld and the mage ended up being the central player named Wagnard. We learn HIS name in episode 24.
The "Hero", Parn, ends up saving the elf girl from some nonsensical plot that I won't reveal in any "spoiler".

Main complaints: it's slow and boring. Too much talk. For example: the hero group (Parn, etc), spends three frames and two episodes talking about the Forest of No Return; and they "return in less than ten minutes?" It also didn't make sense how they returned. They just fell out of the forest into another more normal forest (!)
The prologue did not connect with the rest of the story and they kept injecting it in the story. They didn't' have a map, so the viewers had no sense of the kingdoms or alliances.
They built the story of Wort and getting to him up and then used the Heroes' adventure there in a flashback?
the whole thing with Karla and Wort didn't play for me; it took Wort too long to intervene. Karla switching to the last body didn't make sense either.
They took too long to introduce character names and added two new characters in the middle of the story (the Beserker and his companion) for no rhyme or reason. Deedlit's voice was annoying, and it seemed weird that the enemies always picked on her; is she the only High Elf? Who knew? No explanation?
Who is Prince Jester? Which group did he belong to? What happened to him after the battles?
They focused way too much story time on the two swords, and the dragons. The dragons they built up to, and then they dropped the storyline for three episodes?

The names, by the way, is too funny, it's sad. Couldn't they have come up with better names? They're awful!! Deedlit???[what are those things coming out of her head, ears, or carrots?] Parn? Wort? Wagnard? Sheesh. Woodchuck? Is Etoh a female or male?
oh well.

the music was good, the dark elf woman was good looking. Ashram was cool

Avoid, though kids may like this....and TRUE anime fans may also. If you can put up with how slow it is.

Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight

Average customer rating:

Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight
Starring: Record of Lodoss War
Manufacturer: US Manga Corps Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Anime & Manga | Genres | DVD | Video

Feature Films | Animation | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Action & Adventure | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 Anime & Manga | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000A2WBXM
Release Date: 2003-10-28

Record of Lodoss War - Chronicles of the Heroic Knight - Anime Test Drive

Average customer rating:

Super Cool

Record of Lodoss War - Chronicles of the Heroic Knight - Anime Test Drive
Starring: Nobutoshi Kanna , Shiho Niiyama , Mitsuru Miyamoto , Michie Tomizawa , and Shotaro Morikubo
Manufacturer: Us Manga Corps Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Anime & Manga | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Animation | Genres | DVD | Video

( R ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Anime | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0000CABFE
Release Date: 2004-12-07

Description

Try it... Buy it... Get $10 Back! • Epic sword and sorcery in the tradition of Lord of the Rings • "A+…simply perfect" - Animejump.com • The warrior hero Parn must unsheath his sword against an evil wizard! • Each Anime Test Drive DVD includes a $10 mail-in rebate coupon (for use with the purchase of the corresponding box set at a great low price) • Contains the first 2 episodes and over 45 minutes of cool anime trailers!

Customer Reviews:

Super Cool.......2003-11-07

This is a great series for those who like action and magic/sword fighting..in the traditon of LOTR. They lowered the price on the box set too to under $69! Pick this one up and then use the coupon to get $10 off the box set..great idea

DVD:

DVD

DVD