Our hero that will save the world from EBIIIIIIIIILLLL!
As promised, here comes the mini-review of Record on Lodoss War. Originally, I planned to watch the whole series, but after a few episodes of the second season, I have decided to drop everything apart from the first season that has 13 episodes. The reason will be outlined later below.
Story:-
The continent of Lodoss was threatened by the rising of an ancient goddess of destruction that, based on her job’s description, wanted to destroy the world. A bunch of adventurers went out to save the world by preventing the goddess from being resurrected.
The story in the first season is actually excellent, especially for its time, even though it is very predictable in today’s standard and laden with genre clichés too. But the story did not really develop smoothly, with plenty of scene transition problems and some holes in the plot. These problems affect the transitions between the arcs, making it not as seamless as it can be, plus there are things that happened in the series that simply can’t be explained, even at the end.
The character development is not that great because of 2 reasons; the low episode count and development methods that are too typical of the genre. Still, I do think the main protagonist has a lot of appeal, thus making him the best characters in this series. The ending was very well done too, although some of the questions posed in the series are not answered.
With the sequel in hand, I started watching the second season hoping that questions in the first season will be answered, but the very first episode floored me out, the way first episode of Comic Party season 2 does. That exact episode makes me wonder whether I am watching the sequel of the first season, because it seems to me that I am watching a sequel to a fictional remake of the first season. I then watched for another 4 episodes or so and then I decided to drop it mainly because:-
– The artwork has regressed; character designs look better in first season than the second one. Even Comic Party Revolution did not do this, although Di Gi Charat probably has.
– Almost zero continuity from first season. In fact, I wonder whether the recurring characters in the second season are the same one as the ones in the first season. Even Comic Party Revolution did not do this.
Nevertheless, scoring for this anime will strictly be based on the first season only.
The EBIIIIIIIIILLLL minions that our hero and friends has to defeat.
Character Design:-
This anime has great character designs, with that elf standing out from the rest. This is definitely a plus point of this anime. Why on earth the second season’s designs being dumbed down unnecessarily is still a mystery to me. Black hair is rare but then again this is a fantasy anime, thus it is forgivable.
Voice Acting:-
The voice acting in this anime is just plain average overall, with no outstanding character(s).
Music:-
Another positive point for this anime, all themes and the OST are great.
Animation/Direction:-
The animation in this anime is just average, although did not really affect any of the fast-paced scenes. Choreography for this anime is a hit-and-miss, but then again this is an old anime. Directing is not really good, for the reasons mentioned in the story section above.
Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Well, that’s about it. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai comes next, or is it?
Another evil antagonist who does not read Peter’s Evil Overlord List.
I agree, the second series felt boring and flat in comparison to the first. I actually hate the second series apart from it having one of the best openings. It seems like they dumbed down the animation even more. Tried to add unfunny humor to it. And alter the plot too much to cater to dummys. Overall the first OVA is to me a fantasy masterpiece. Second series is Meh