Record of Lodoss War CPM 355 minutes English/Japanese English Subtitles Released: 07/09/2002 Reviewed: 01/31/2006

Back To R Listings

Friday night was a conspicuously (and surprisingly!) long affair. I left my apartment at 5:30 or so in the evening and I returned some time in the early morning on Saturday, which was a beautiful day as I recall. It almost made me feel foolish taking out such a heavy jacket the night before. Well, heavy is a relative term. It was a leather jacket which, thanks to the drafty-as-hell house I grew up in, feels rather heavy to me. It is my preference to not wear jackets at all before the first snowfall of the year. But this is not a story about my nighttime excursions, or my peculiar taste in outerwear. When I tumbled home sometime around 8:30 in the AM I was reminded of times long gone past. Probably about ten years ago I would sit down in the very same AMs on Saturday mornings and I would turn on the Sci-Fi channel and watch whatever anime they decided I was gonna be lucky enough to experience. This is long before I discovered the joys of sex or drinking, so I was allowed to be an oblivious dork. Though, really, what else are you gonna do at 9:00 on a Saturday morning? I'd like to meet the man, even of my age, who's got better plans.

Record of Lodoss War was one such anime that appeared on Sci-Fi. Or at least a part of it was. With only two hours to spare the show really couldn't go through the entire thirteen episode epic that describes the trials of a group of adventurers so cliché that it almost pains me to think about it. There's a wizard and a dwarf and a good-natured-but-greedy thief and there's a sexy-but-immature elf and a young warrior who's aching to prove himself. They fight a whole bunch of stuff like dragons and it's all very exciting for a 13 year old who knew a thing or two about Dungeons and Dragons but never had the attention span nor the imagination to actually indulge in such silly things. But like I said, they really didn't have time to show the whole adventures of the band of travelers. Instead we were forced to watch just the first three episodes. And since "Saturday anime" had like, four shows, we were forced to watch the same three episodes every month or so. I suppose I could've gotten off my duff and done something productive like reading or homework, but that wasn't (and still isn't) really my style. Y'know?

So these guys get to go out and chill with people like the awesome Mercenary Prince Kashue (pronounced "Cashew"!) and fight off goblins and gain levels to unlock sweet new powers (maybe, it probably happens behind the scenes). Some people will die, and some will turn evil and turn back again, and you can get this all for $20-30 without the painful waiting that comes part and parcel with the Sci-Fi Saturday anime experience. The best part, for those that saw it on Saturday anime like me, is the waiting is never rewarded... it's worth the price of admission just to pay off on 5-10 years of twiddling your thumbs wondering what the heck happened next. I don't think I've been particularly roundabout in my views. I generally don't care for fantasy anime. As far as alternate timelines are concerned, I'm really more interested in the future because the future has robots (and maybe dinosaurs). These rules are flexible, in the cases of such robot animes that decide going back in time is a viable option. Lodoss doesn't deign to do such things. It's strictly fantasy through and through. Not even that fake fantasy like the earlier Final Fantasy games where everything was normal until you got to the giant metal tower with robots at the end.

No, Lodoss is supposedly based off a series of novels which, in turn, was based on some crew of Japanese dork's role-playing game sessions and it doesn't vary from the archetypical fantasy norm. Whatever the result, the show is pretty reasonable. It doesn't prissy foot around issues like some other fantasy shows will, it doesn't make boob jokes, and slowly I start to realize that I don't really have a problem with fantasy anime... I just hate Slayers. It almost seems like not a whole lot has changed between ten years and today. I sort-of liked Lodoss then and I sort-of like Lodoss now. It sure as heck is a good way to fill time on a Saturday morning, whether it be 2 hours or 6... though the latter is probably a bit much for anyone, much less the hardened non-fantasy fan like me. Lodoss isn't gonna break down any boundaries or repair years of regret about not knowing what happened (ps: the good guys usually win), but it was a heck of a lot cheaper than my night out and sizably easier on my liver. Sometimes moderation is a blessing and sometimes it's nice to just kick back and enjoy the memories.