Anime: Lodoss-tou Senki: Eiyuu Kishi Den

[br]No, it's not a sequel, but rather a retelling of the events that follow episode eight of the original OVA. Actually, the Lodoss OVA are a somewhat streamlined telling of the novels they were based on. This longer, more drawn-out 27-episode television series hews closer to its source material, but in doing so causes for inconsistencies between the two programs. This has caused a lot of confusion for many viewers, although the booklet contained with the series (and the DVD-ROM bonus extras) do help to explain them. There have been a lot of mixed reactions to Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight, with many who dismissed it as a cheap, inferior spin-off of the (arguably superior) OVA. Once you get accustomed to its oddities, however, this series isn't as inferior as it has been made out to be. In fact, it can be best appreciated as an interesting, if more sluggishly paced, "alternate route" for the final five episodes.
[br]That said, Chronicles of the Heroic Knight starts out less than promisingly. The first eight episodes (the weakest of the show) concentrate on the struggle with the ruthless (and yet strangely not so evil) Black Knight Ashram for the Scepter of Domination which initially comprised episodes 9-10 of the OVA. While it's nice to see Parn, Deedlit, Slayn, and King Kashue again, their roles are actually less significant this time around. The only characters to receive any development are two supporting characters from the original, the headstrong mercenary Shiris and her quietly reserved (but easily enraged) Berserker partner, Orson. (In what may be an example of one of the many inconsistencies in the show, both characters are reintroduced to Parn and company as if they never crossed paths in episode 8 of the OVA.) There are several new characters, too, including a prissy mage apprentice, an easily deceived priest, a mischevious elfish grass-runner sprite named Maar, but all three are hardly memorable. The slow pace of the episodes are what really work against them, however; there's less action and more talky moments; even the climactic showdown at Fire Dragon Mountain between Ashram and the vicious red dragon Shooting Star is longer and more drawn out than one might expect. There is a surprisingly heartfelt sacrifice in episode 7, but the overall arc doesn't have the same energy or roller-coaster action of its predecessor.
[br]It is only at episode 9 and onward that Chronicles finally comes to life. The story jumps ten years after the Fire Dragon Mountain events, where the focus shifts to the evil wizard Wagnard's desire to awaken the Goddess of Destruction, Kardis. Again, Parn and company's roles are reduced to supporting ones, and consequently, come across as the least interesting in the show. The hero here is Spark, a blue-haired knight wanna-be who, at the surface, comes initially across as a more pale incarnation of Parn, but his troop of companions do provide the kind of banter and chemistry one would expect for any fantasy adventure. The smart-aleck mercenary Garrack is a well-realized character, as is his sassy half-elf partner, Leaf, who steals every scene she's in with glee. Just as interesting are the loyal thief Ryna and the dwarfish priest Greevus. This ragtag team of misfits are joined by a mysterious girl named Little Neese (daughter of Slayn and Leylia), who turns out to be one of the key ingredients Wagnard needs to revive Kardis. During all this, Ashram returns in a last attempt to unite Lodoss (to fulfill his late master, Emperor Beld's dream) while the shifty Grey Witch, Karla, also lurks in the shadows. It is the chemistry between Spark's comrades and the more lively pace that really bring much needed energy to this major story, which, many would argue, is just a recycling of the last story thread from the OVA, but this telling is more complex, introducing some twists that are alternatingly surprising and insightful. And even though the grand finale is less exciting than the OVA, it still wraps up the show on a pleasing note. (Although Wagnard's drawn-out rituals and Little Neese's continuous screams of pain get tiresome after a while.)
[br]Probably the only jarring thing about Chronicles of the Heroic Knight are the short three-minute Welcome to Lodoss Island segments at the end of each episode. These are super-deformed versions of the characters in goofy, cartoonish sequences, each of which clock in at around 2-3 minutes each. These wildly bizarre skits (which parody the world of Lodoss) will either amuse or drive you batty; I personally choose to give them a pass because they just don't click with me, but chances are your mileage may vary. (Interestingly, it's worth checking out these interludes with the English version to see how the Japanese puns--which make up a majority of the dialogue in these skits--are adapted into English, namely "I'm King Kashue, and this is my CASHEW! I'm really quite a nut!" as opposed to the more literal "I'm King Kashue, isn't my KATCHU (armor) nice)?"
[br]The character development and overall entertainment value of Chronicles provides for a pleasant enough way to pass the time for fantasy fans, which isn't to say that it is the most aesthetically or aurally pleasing show to watch. On the contrary. The Lodoss OVAs had some beautifully detailed, if sometimes limited, animation, but Chronicles' production values are another matter. Aside from a breathtaking opening sequence (underscored by a beautiful theme song composed by Yoko Kanno), the animation fluctuates throughout the series, with some episodes looking downright painful on the eyes. There are several episodes which do get a boost in overall quality, artwork wise, particularly the last ones, but all in all, the artistry is not one of Chronicles' strongest points.
[br]The audio portions fare signifigantly better, thanks in large part to the epic musical score contributed by Kaoru Wada. Fully orchestrated, with soaring, epic marches one moment and pounding, percussive action cues the next, this soundtrack arguably carries the whole show from start to finish. As mentioned, the opening theme is remarkable and impeccably delivered by Ma-aya Sakamoto, although the ending theme is a bit on the kitschy side. The sound effects are also very good.
[br]As far as the voice acting goes, the dub of Lodoss has received a mixture of praise and disgust from many fans, but I happen to be one of its biggest fans. The Chronicles dub, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. It does have its assets: Crispin Freeman does a surprisingly fantastic job as Spark (making this potentially monodimensional character more interesting than he is) and Angora Deb is similarly good as Leaf. (I might argue that both make this dub worth watching.) It also reprises much of the cast from the OVA dub; even though their acting standards are lower than that of the OVA (Parn's more mature-sounding voice in particular takes several episodes to find his stride), it's still nice to have continuity. Working against them, however, are the uneven performances by the lesser supporting characters -- several of which border into intolerable territory (Ashram's minions, Governor Rabido, and Prince Reona, in particular, are dreadful), and vocal inconsistencies (some characters receive new voice actors either temporarily -- Lisa Ortiz's Deedlit is annoyingly replaced for at least two episodes by a far duller A.J. Parks -- or permanently -- Garrack's Michael Gerard drops out after five episodes, Crispin Freeman plays him for the remainder of the show). That, in addition to the sometimes awkward-sounding dialogue and hit-and-miss synchronization, rank the overall dub a notch below its superior predecessor. It's by no means the worst around, however, and patient dub fans may find it to have some merit.
[br]In all fairness, the Japanese voice acting isn't all that stellar either. The entire Japanese voice cast from the OVA are replaced; while some voices are less grating than their English equivalents, others are actually sub-par in comparison to some of the better voices on the dub, particularly the seiyuu playing Deedlit, who is nowhere nearly as good as Yumi Tohma or Lisa Ortiz. There are also some parts of the Japanese language track which come across as cheesy, particularly the scenes involving the talking dragons (these scenes come across as very laughable in the English version, and the Japanese track sounds every bit as fake in this part). The common attitude I hear from dub detractors is that the Japanese language track is preferable, regardless of whether it has any weaknesses of its own, but in the case of Chronicles, I have to say that both audio tracks tie in quality. They have their strong points and are, at best, tolerable, but not particularly flawless.
[br]All in all, Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight isn't without its drawbacks and doesn't always live up to its predecessor, but it's still a fine series that holds its own ground decently. For every weak point, there is always an asset to counter it, making this one moderately enjoyable fantasy Anime series.

The sequel to the Record of Lodoss War OVAs, Chronicles of the Heroic Knight is more of the just more of the same; the story is actually pretty much a rehashed version of the OVA storyline with some new characters thrown into the mix.

The story can be seperated into two "arcs"; the first, episodes 1-8, consists of an arc with the old characters being featured, such as Shiris, Parn, Deed, Kashue, Slayn, Ashram, etc. The second arc consists of a new up-and-coming knight trying to prove himself who love Kashue (Parn 2.0) named Spark (yes that is actually his name) who falls for a 10-year-old girl named Neese, the daughter of Slayn.

After the first 8 episodes, the old characters pretty much cease to be important, only filling in once every couple episodes and at the end in minor roles. As to the band of merry men who travel with Spark, they are pretty much the same type of characters who travelled with Parn in the OVAs: a dwarf warrior, a magic-user, an elf, and a man and woman mercenary who fall in love.

Despite the lack of screentime, Deed continued to be my favorite character; Parn and Kashue were full of dramatic fluff and Spark was just an annoying brat.

As to the plot, the second arc plot follows the OVA plot and remains "save Lodoss from the evil Wagnard, who is trying to reincarnate the evil goddess, with the help of Karla", with a side of "Marmo invading Lodoss" and "Ashram doing his thing".

The story moves extremely slowly, and I found myself bored for the majority of this anime series.

The best part of this anime is the cartoon at the end of each episode, which makes fun of the anime series, usually with a dose of humor about the episode you just watched. They are fairly funny (more so because I found the series boring and cliche, and the cartoon parody was exactly what I was thinking about the series as a whole). It was these cartoons which prevented me from giving this anime a "1" as an Enjoyment score.

The animation is at times decent and at times terrible. I don't know about their budget or whatever, but the many still scenes during battles (the "action freezes") are extremely annoying and ruin any drama in the battles. The backgrounds are stiff and movements are not very fluid.

The voice actors were decent but not great; I really got tired of Sparks' voice pretty quickly though. The music was good, but not great.

I wouldn't reccomend this to anyone except fans of the OVAs who wish to see more, or someone who doesn't mind a lot of cliche dungeon and dragon stuff in his fantasy anime. You won't find anything original in this series.

Like the comedy-fantasy genre, the dungeons and dragons concept is pretty much a done deal. Let’s face it: Basing an entire design on the most banal video game material isn’t exactly my idea of genius. Although I mildly enjoyed the original OVA, I must admit it was riddled with role-playing game-like faults- mainly the prosaic characterization and the occasionally sleep-inducing story. Chronicles of the Heroic Knight corrects these flaws by replacing the dull characters with appealing ones and providing a plot that I didn’t find myself sleeping through.

Remember Parn? In my review for the OVA, I complained that he was one-dimensional, a character that I couldn’t have cared less about. He’s still paper-thin, but this time around he’s a little cocky. Dammit, he’s a hero, and in five years he’s learned to act like one. Fortunately, Parn is no longer the main character. Orson, (remember him? The berserker?) who was but a very minor character in the OVA, is the main character in the first part of the series. In fact, he was probably the best character in the entire thing: whether or not his "emotions will return to him" plays a significant role. In the second part, (taking place ten years after the first), Spark- a young dude whose greatest wish is to become a knight- is also a much better character than Parn ever was. All the other characters fill in their monotonous roles when the time comes for it. Neese was an irritating character; she reminded me of Sylphiel from Slayers. Magic users are never interesting. Give me a warrior any day. Or an elf.

Because the series takes place after a certain point of the OVA (not after the ending), Chronicles of the Heroic Knight ignores certain key events as if they never happened. At other times, it merely retells certain events; as a result, there were a few times where I had a sense of déjà vu. Most of the time, though, the plot is straight from something I’ve played on Playstation. They’re plenty of dragons in this. Dark elves. And three artifacts two parties must get before the resurrection of a certain god. The plot is so linear and processed that I almost expected for a save point to pop up. But I really couldn’t have cared less. After all is said and done, Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight is a cliché-ridden adventure story for a slow, rainy day.

Animation
The OVA is eight years older than the television series. The animation to this series is amazing. It’s astounding that the animation quality is actually worse than that of eight years before. And if you compare this to better looking anime of the same year (i.e., Bubblegum Crisis 2040, Cardcaptor Sakura), the animation is just plain cruddy. The magic is poorly animated (save for the elf magic) and the fight scenes consist of stills. They suck holy ass. I mean, you’ll see a dude jump in the air, sword in hand. He yells out a barbaric, “AHHHH!!!” and the only proof you have that something went down is the dead body that suddenly appeared on the ground. The art-work and character designs (which are what Record of Lodoss War is famous for), however, is relatively top-notch. When certain characters age, you can see it on their faces. Check out the way Parn looks in the second half of the series.

Sound
The excellent music makes up for the low budget animation. The opening theme, “Kiseki no Umi” is an excellent song and quickly became a personal favorite. By the way, it was composed by Yoko Kanno. Maya Sakamoto is the singer. The ending theme is not quite as good, but it’s still above average. Most of the background music is superb, as well. Voice acting is crap. None of the voices stand out at all. Except for Neese’s but that’s because she’s annoying. The dub isn’t much better. There are only about five voice actors for the dub. Nearly everyone plays multiple roles. To the dub’s credit, Crispin Freeman did a good job voicing Spark and Garrack.

Value
It’s popular consensus that the television series doesn’t quite reach the quality of the OVA. I again must go against the grain. Chronicles of the Heroic Knight is superior to its predecessor in terms of what matters- story and character. As a reference, there are silly omake skits at the end of each episode. In these skits, the characters are in “chibi-form” and they either tell non-funny jokes (usually involving stupid puns) or they retell the events of the episode, usually in a non-funny way. I mean, they spend the majority of them talking about cookies. I recommend just skipping these. They’re not important to the story at all (not to mention they’re out of place), and in the end, they’re just annoying.