OBSCURE O.V.A.S, *Record Of Lodoss War

Beginning as a Japanese remake of fantasy games like Dungeons And Dragons, Record Of Lodoss War was developed into a related series of novels by creator Ryo Mizuno. This also prompted the printing of several different manga, and eventually into one of the earliest ongoing OVA series. Madhouse took up the Herculean effort of making the anime while it was produced by animation veteran Masao Maruyama. Having one volume released monthly in the early 1990s, all 13 episodes were put out within the span of less than two years. The anime itself was based on the first four volumes of the prose novels, plus the two-part manga, Record Of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch. The storyline was carried out further in the Record Of Lodoss War: Chronicles Of The Heroic Knight anime TV remake which expanded on a newer generation of characters, as each portion of the series' history deals with six different characters forming a party to save their land from darkness, largely in the spirit of The Lord Of The Rings.

Set hundreds of years after a war of the remaining gods, their final battle caused part of the continent of Alacrast(which would be the basis for the fantasy comedy Rune Soldier)into breaking off and forming the cursed island known as Lodoss. Centuries later, Lodoss is seperated into several kingdoms, most of which are allied to each other, except for the mirky smaller island nation of Marmo, lead by the reckless Emporer Beld. Marmo begins invading Lodoss with its forces of goblins, wolfmen, and dark elves, all lead by their general, the dark knight Ashram. While this is happening, the sturdy old dwarf Ghim seeks to find Leylia, the daughter of a high priestess that saved his life. Ghim sets help from his wizard friend Slayn, and the two come across the wannabe knight Parn with his friend Etoh, a recently graduated priest. The four team up to save Parn's village from Marmo forces, and then travel to the nearest kingdom to join in the struggle for freedom, which has them teaming up with the pretty high elf Deedlit. After gaining the thief Woodchuck to their party, the now six heroes go on various quests to prevent Beld's ambition from tearing Lodoss apart. However, all sides a secretly being played by Karla, a grey witch who keeps all the opposing forces in perpetual battle so as not to give any one side the most power to either conquer or unify all the kingdoms. Parn and his party have several members either leaving temporarily, or permanantly, and their quest leads to dragonslaying, epic duals, and the resurrection of an evil goddess.

Record Of Lodoss War wasn't Ryo Mizuna's take on the RPG-inspired genre, not only with the various spinoff titles, but also with his more recent Record of Grancrest War, which despite the similar title doesn't have any direct connection to the Lodoss franchise. There was an anime continuation titled Legend Of Crystania, even though it works more as a sequal to the TV remake, as some characters died in the OVA series who show up alive in the frst Crystania movie. There is some difficulty structuring together the collected plot of OVA series, which skips some chapters and characters from the original novels, in fact the premiere episode is more done as a preview of the anime as it takes place in the middle of the first story arc with the six party members having already gotten together. Another criticism is you can tell which episodes had a bigger budget due to the slight lack of quality in animation, or reusing footage from previous episodes, like a red dragon that was repainted black. But, despite the mileage, Lodoss War has achieved level of nostalgia unparalleled among other 90s OVAs, as its one of the few to actually get a Blu-Ray re-release. Whether it's gamers, Tolkien fans, or generic otaku, Lodoss War is an excellent example of bringing life to a genre which at the time wasn't as huge as it would be since fantasy anime was a niche market back then.