Roudosu Tou Senki: Eiyuu Kishi Den

Title:Roudosu Tou Senki: Eiyuu Kishi Den
Chronicles of the Heroic Knight
Lodoss Tou Senki: Eiyuu Kishi Den
Record of Lodoss War (TV Series)
Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight
ロードス島戦記 英雄騎士伝
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , , , , , ,
Notables: ASAKAWA Yuu
Music - KANNO Yoko
Music - WADA Kaoru
OOTSUKA Chikao
R1 License - Central Park Media(Defunct)
R1 License - Media Blasters

Five years after the "War of Heroes" (from the OAV prequel's episodes 1-8, or better yet, manga series "The Grey Witch") Lodoss is still in chaos. Ashram, a hero from the defeated Marmo empire, is in search of the scepter of power (the most powerful magic item that remained from the ancient magic kingdom Kastuul) which would now allow him to conquer Lodoss.

But the mages of Kastuul hid their treasures in five different places, each of them protected by one of their mighty dragons. Parn, Deedlit and their friends are trying the same to prevent Lodoss from another war. Which group of adventurers will succeed? Will Karla, the only survivor of the Kastuul empire, interfere? And who else is trying to get this magic item into their hands? And years later, will the knight in training Spark follow in Parn's footsteps?


[TV series based on a series of RPG novels of the same title, 27 episodes, 23 minutes each. Formerly licensed by Central Park Media. R1 licensed picked up by Media Blasters in February 2010.].
1:44min Series Opening - YouTube Video
[edit] The ↗Lodoss franchise:

Lodoss continent: Northern Island (same setting, different story/characters): Crystania continent (far future, some characters from Lodoss):
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 8 6 7 8 7 7 Ggultra2764 [series:176#1552]
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 OVA series.

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.

Last updated Thursday, March 21 2013. Created Thursday, March 21 2013.
Watch 7 7 8 8 6 6 AstroNerdBoy [series:176#436]

I started watching Lodoss Tou Senki (OAV) because of a catalog from RightStuf and from there, I decided to watch the TV series. It's a true mixed bag when it comes to how things were done with the greater episode count the TV series provided.

On the plus side, I liked Parn in the TV series much better than Parn in the OVA (though I think I liked the OVA voices for him better, and I know I liked Touma Yumi better as Deedlit). In the OVA, he was an idiot and I never really understood what Deed saw in him. In the TV series, he is a professional soldier and on the road to be an excellent knight and leader. Deed's love of Parn is much easier to understand here. However, I wasn't overly-attached to the series despite this improvement.

At episode 10, the main characters change from Parn and Deed to Spark and I suppose Neese. Spark was introduced earlier as a child, so now that he's a young man, it isn't a shock to see him. However, he's a complete and total smeg head. Indeed, he's so dumb, "Spark's Disease" was named for him. That's where a character does something so incredibly stupid as to defy all reason. Spark clearly does a ton of stupid things which is why he gets this disorder named after him. He's so stupid that I kept wondering, "Why do all these other folks hang around with him?" Whenever they would cheer him or whatever, I would just cringe because a faux-leader doesn't inspire such faithful followers.

Anyway, Spark gets a party of adventurers and frankly I was bored. In fact, I was so bored, I stopped watching for many months. I just hated Spark and the other characters weren't much better. Heck, even when I forced myself to pick things back up a few weeks ago (at episode 16), it was a struggle. It wasn't a complete and total loss and there was some mild interest to the overall story, but with no character development for Spark or his party, I couldn't care less. Indeed, they all could have died, and I would have gone, "Whew! I'm glad that's over." Too many characters that contribute precious little combined with no character development is not a good thing in my mind. For some reason, I was always a bit more happy whenever Parn and Deed showed back up in the story, even if they didn't have much to do.

The story is a typical RPG one, which while providing the mild interest, wasn't handled well. So there are way too many shounen clichéd moments to allow me to enjoy this a great deal (and I hate Spark so...). Plus, there were many things that weren't answered in my mind such as the fate of Naneel, Kardis, and Karla. Frustrating.

The comedy shorts at the end of each episode (where all the characters are in chibi, super-deformed mode) were nice, though toward the end, I grew weary of those as well. My hatred of Spark carried over to that, I'm afraid.

A word on the music. It is the normal stuff one would expect to hear in a fantasy title -- orchestral music. However, the OP theme "Kiseki no Umi" by Maaya Sakamoto is beautiful, enough for me to consider importing the CD.

Bottom line: clichéd shounen fare set in a D&D-type fantasy setting. While all the ingredients for a really good story and interesting characters are there, sadly things don't come together well enough for me, thus all I can recommend is a "Watch" and see if for yourself.

Last updated Saturday, August 18 2007. Created Thursday, January 19 2006.

Rent 8 8 8 7 7 9 Devil Doll [series:176#752]
[Score: 77%]

Let's sum up what we learned from watching Lodoss Tou Senki (OAV) which told us three stories: "The War Of Heroes" (featuring Ghim and Leilia, episodes 1-8), "Shooting Star" (featuring Kashew and Ashram, episodes 9-10) and "Kardis" (featuring Parn and Deedlit, episodes 11-13).

The TV series starts after the War of Heroes but five years later. For some unknown reason (remember that neither the "Shooting Star" nor the "Kardis" story happened yet in this time line!) Parn is already a great hero at this stage who is praised for "saving Lodoss during the War of Heroes" - which is quite incompatible with what the OVA told us about this war (little did Parn contribute to its result). But let's just assume he did something valuable back then...

Now the first 8 episodes of the TV series are a rewrite of the "Shooting Star" adventure, which this time isn't so deeply interwoven with the "Kardis" story - and has a very different ending. Of course having eight episodes to tell the same story that the OVA covered in only two allows for much more character development this time (I consider Orson the most interesting character in this story), and for much more detail in the battles. (This series is much closer to a RPG in technical terms such as mechanically introducing all these dozens of characters and explaining each and every magic spell during a fight. Looks as if this one was targetting the Dragonball market, eh?)

At the beginning of episode 9, another 10 years have passed; our original heroes are still present but the focus of narration is handed over to the "next generation". Here begins the new story for the remaining 19 episodes, providing a rewrite of the "Kardis" story with new protagonists. Again the typical D&D group of a young hero (Spark, this time), two mercenaries (human and half-elf), a warrior priest, a wizard, a thief, plus Slain's daughter Neese (as already capable priestess) are about to face a new adventure that will change their life forever, and possibly the world they live in as well...

The style of narration for both series reminds me of The Lord of the Rings - several groups of the same party acting at several locations but fighting for a common goal... taking all the different Lodoss stories from different ages into account, one should possibly rather compare it to the Silmarillion. Of these two Lodoss War series the OVA has the more intense narration style; sometimes the TV gives me the impression of a video game (including all those detailed fighting scenes) rather than a dramatic adventure. On the other hand, the storyline in the OVA is rather confusing as for how the individual stories are related (see other reviews here about why this is so). The TV series has a lot more space and time to explain certain developments; therefore it is easier to follow and can also focus more on the development of certain characters. Ashram was hardly interesting in the OVA but became a great character in the TV series, for example. Of the leads here, I like Neese best - she's both strong as well as charming. Although Spark is improving slowly he remains an idiot almost to the end: Pretending he were protecting Neese while actually this little girl is winning all the battles against the most powerful enemies is just fatuous. But maybe that's how heroes must be...

Towards the ending the audience is flooded with clichés. The Lord of the Rings feeling is used excessively, and it can be unnerving to watch the protagonists discuss for minutes while they have not even a second of spare time. At times the story tried to be more dramatic that necessary, thus bordering the ridiculous. In this aspect this series is weaker than, say Tenkuu no Escaflowne.

Between each episode ending and the trailer song there are two minutes of comedy add-ons featuring the lead characters' SD versions ... think Aa! Megami-sama: Chichai tte Koto wa Benri da Ne, only even more silly and full of puns & lame jokes. Those who expect a serious and dramatic epic might probably want to skip these sections while others might love the series exactly because of this. I was quite skeptical at first but now I love these hilarious little scenes (which are also available as separate "Record of Lodoss Wars TV Special")

So each of these two series has their own strengths and weaknesses - but if you love one of them you have to watch the other (and probably the Hajimari no Boukenshatachi Legend of Christania and Crystania no Densetsu as well) just to learn what else happened in this world.

Last updated Tuesday, December 18 2007. Created Friday, December 10 2004.
Buy 7 7 8 9 8 MarX [series:176#1033]
Well the rest of the reviewers had there turn critiquing Chronicles in good or bad sence. Well it's time to add my two cents.That's because that's all I have. Anyway, I agree the animation isn't that good. The battle scene's sucked. They could have been better and that's a fact. The opening and ending theme song's I enjoyed and the art that represent the song. But the animation during is misleading in the sence that it's as good as it's gonna get. I still go for a buy and that's for the fact I still enjoyed the character's even with their flaws. The Welcome to Lodoss Island I enjoyed as well. Reminded me of Blue Seed's omake.Fond memories for me. I bought the series because I'm a collector and I like Record of Lodoss War. Though it was a bitch to watch the alter version from the ova....

Last updated Tuesday, October 21 2003. Created Tuesday, October 21 2003.
Rent 9 9 7 9 7 7 Sesen Kelader [series:176#471]
I like the music, I like the art, I like the anime, I like the setting, but I don't like the character and the story. It's old-style hero and heroine story. But what's more is the characters' personality, stubborn, not-wise, proud, and sometimes ignorant. However the magic and sword fighting are great scenes. It would be good if u like Heroic or adventure stories.

Last updated Saturday, January 04 2003. Created Saturday, January 04 2003.
Buy 8 9 8 9 8 8 nodoubt [series:176#399]
I watched this TV series right after the Record of Lodoss War OAVs. First off, the TV series is not supposed to be a continuation of the OAVs. Several reviewers mentioned that they "changed" the story, but they are wrong. The original RoLW OAV's first 8 episodes follows the graphic novels faithfully. However, the novels were not done yet at the time of the OAV's production so the animators made up the rest of the story with some input from Ryo M the writer. This TV series tries to tell the story according to the novels, thus when watching the TV series, you should ignore episodes 9-13 of the OAVs. Some people who do not know this fact may be confused by the reintroduction of Shiri and Orson and certain characters who are supposed to be dead are alive. With this in mind, you should not really compare the two (OAV and TV), just enjoy both at what it is supposed to be.
If you have read my review of the RoLW OAV, you know that I love that series. This TV series did not disappoint me in any way, in fact, it was very very enjoyable. The first 8 episodes of the TV series picks up where the OAV left off (after that big confrontation with Ghim and Karla...) Ashram is looking for the sceptor of domination to take lodoss and the old favorites (Parn, Deedlit, Slayn, Leylia..) meet up with new ones (Shiri, Orson, Maar..) to stop him. After that segment concludes, the story splits from Parn and Deedlit's and follows a band of new heroes led by Spark to save Lodoss. Their story will last through the rest of the TV series.. Don't worry, Parn and Deedlit will pop in every now and then to help. The story is very good throughout the series and I did like the new characters (Ryna, Neese, Leaf, Aldo, etc..), though some of the characters did not get developed that much (at all in some cases...)
I did notice a slight drop in the artwork, but an improvement in the animation department (the dragons are more animated, etc). The music is just great, especially the song in the opening. The opening and ending are also amazing! However, if I have to find a fault in this anime, it is the fact that they never really go in depth with Parn and Deedlit's relationship (I want a wedding! =P) or even Spark and uuhh, another character's relationship... In addition, Woodchuck's fate was never resolved, a minor issue..
This is one anime series that I would watch again in the near future and I am so glad I own it.
10-21-02

Last updated Monday, October 21 2002. Created Monday, October 21 2002.
Avoid Anonymous #364 [series:176#364]
Avoid this garbage. Okay, the TV opening was good, I'll give it that, but the rest was truly awful.
The storyline was very predictable (the ending...boo!!)...that's all that needs to be said about that.
There are so many characters that very few of them are properly developed. I really could care less who lived or died. Let's not forget about character conflict. The entire party is all "Okay, yeah, let's follow Spark..." Everybody agrees; they are all the same essentially, providing some VERY stale moments.
The animation quality has improved since the OAV (as it SHOULD, it's been a few years after all)...but I found the art style to be much more appropriate in the OAV. This isn't Slayers, dammit. Lodoss War is supposed to be a serious fantasy with a real sense of urgency! Of course, the overly happy-go-lucky art style doesn't reflect this.
As for action scenes...boring. There is no blood, rarely any loss of life (at least, with the main characters). The title is Record of the Lodoss WAR. But nope, somehow, all of the main cast members will come out okay, one or another...and if not, the death was heavily foreshadowed.
And the dub is not good. Parn, especially, sounds like an idiot who has no commanding skills.

Last updated Monday, August 12 2002. Created Monday, August 12 2002.
Buy 9 9 10 8 110 0 Anonymous #353 [series:176#353]
Okay, first of all, I don't know why everyone is complaining about how they thought that the OVA was better, because to tell you the truth, it sucked. The animation in the OVA was terrible, the storyline was very good, and maybe the changes were a little kind of not that great, but still Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight TV was much better! I loved it so much, I cried while watching it, it was so good. They improved it so much, and made it interesting for the people to actually watch. I have never seen anything better in an anime section than this, I think that they actually did an excellent job.
Over All: These movies is definitely worth buying! Buy it dubbed, it's kind of funny with the voices, but a lot of the voices are well done!!!!!!!!!

Last updated Monday, July 29 2002. Created Monday, July 29 2002.
Rent 6 6 10 7 7 Kaitou Juliet [series:176#137]

The first thing to know about this series is that it's supposed to take place right after the big scene with Ghim and Karla in episode 8 of the OAV's, replacing episodes 9-13. Without this information, you may be scratching your head wondering why (for example) Shiris acts like she's never met Parn.

There were several things I liked about this series. Some characters get more development than they did in the OVA's, particularly Ashram, Pirotesse, Shiris, and Orson. (Oh yes, and Etoh takes on an unexpected second career!) I also loved the "Welcome to Lodoss Island" shorts. They were really silly, and kudos to the subtitle writers for explaining the Japanese puns. Finally, this series has some of the most gorgeous and appropriate music I've ever heard in an anime series, even better than the OAV's in my opinion.

Things I didn't like so much: The artwork is several notches below the OAV's, although well above the level of the Crystania series. And the storyline has a big, ugly 9-year hole in the middle. After a certain point, they pretty much abandon Parn and his friends to focus on a new party led by a guy called Spark. There are way too many new characters who are never fleshed out, and I found Spark himself to be very annoying.

Bottom line: Flawed, but definitely worth seeking out for a fuller exploration of the Lodoss world and a more decisive conclusion to the saga.

Last updated Wednesday, May 09 2001. Created Thursday, April 26 2001.

Rent 6 4 1 5 5 6 Lickylick [series:176#133]
This would be a pretty good anime... IF THE OAV'S HAD NEVER BEEN CONCIEVED!!! The storyline changes pissed me off during the beginning segment that tries to tie together the OAV and the later episodes. And then everything about the later episodes pissed me off. I couldn't take anymore at like episode 15, so I just watched the only good part of the series, the ending "Welcome to Lodoss Island" bit. It is the only good thing about this series.
Watch either for the endings or if you haven't seen the OAV.

Last updated Sunday, February 04 2001. Created Sunday, February 04 2001.
Buy 6 4 2 7 8 Anonymous #130 [series:176#130]
The TV series ends up finishing the Parn and friends saga and starts a new legend with Spark 10 years later. This is supposedly 5 years after the OAV series (without the ending of the OAV). The series was pretty good, I did have to laugh because the animation was really bad. They could have done a lot better.. I mean when there's a shot from above, you see someone sitting at one angle and everyone stands all at different angles all over hte place and its like, are you standing on some uneven floor? Anyway, the character designs for the 2nd group of adventurers were horrible, they all wre really really bad... but the story was pretty good, ending extra with the SD characters were good (for the Parn ones and not the Spark ones). You can tell I don't like Spark that much hehe.

Last updated Saturday, January 27 2001. Created Saturday, January 27 2001.
Rent 7 6 7 5 6 Kaneda [series:176#87]
This would be a pretty anime if it where not for the ova's. The ova's where so brilliantly done compared to this, it makes this look a bit shabby in comparison. The little cartoons in between where pretty cool too. Howeve if you really want to get into this series you should go for the ova's and well judge this after them, and pretend crystania doesnt exist (see chrystania review).

Last updated Tuesday, November 21 2000. Created Tuesday, November 21 2000.
Watch 7 6 8 5 CatWoman [series:176#65]
It was Ok. I was not as pleased with it as I was the OAV's! I didn't like the way they continued it, if they were going to change it that much they really should have started the hole story over! I did like the way they continued the relationship between Parn and Deed!

Last updated Sunday, August 20 2000. Created Sunday, August 20 2000.
Rent 5 5 7 5 7 The Coyote [series:176#64]
If your looking for something as good as the record of lodoss war oav's you will be sorely disapointed. The story line takes turns in places that you wish they'd leave alone and really dose a half hearted and confuseing job of continueing the story from the oav's the art and animation take a serious drop off and the story seems drawn out and tedious at times. two reasons to watch they wisely leave parn and Deedlets relationship alone and actually strenghen it and the little cartoon after each episode that paridy the show. (These are absolutely hilarious and worth watching the episode just to get to the short cartoon)Overall rent if you get a chance don't buy

Last updated Friday, September 01 2000. Created Monday, August 07 2000.

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