Rating: Summary: Great, if watched with the proper mindset Review: OK. This series has seemed to be slammed a bit for the changes in storyline it made. I myself was always left with a feeling that the OAVs seemed to really compress the story, even without having read the novels. It seemed like Parn was fighting Wagnard and he had not even lifted a sword for the first time a year before. There was just something ... off about the timing. This series retells the latter half of the story in a much more believable fashion. If I were going to make a reccomendation, I would say watch the oavs through the Karla storyline and then watch this series to get the full story. The Shooting Star storyline was a bit marred by time limits per episode and animation quality, but the writing and plot grabbed me more than the oav telling. The meat of the series is in the second two thirds, however. This makes Lodoss seem like a much more epic storyline. I was amazed to see Parn actually a strong swordsman and leader. People have said they would like more romance between Parn and Deed, but it has been ten years since the WoH, and their relationship has grown into one of comfort and respect, which i feel is presented well just in the way they look at each other. The new Characters are fun, and better still, they are not mere rehashes of "Parn's party" This series really broadens Lodoss into a sweeping history (i.e. The Six Heroes, The Heroes of Lodoss, and the new Heroes of lodoss). By Late in the series, the animation has been improved, and the storyline is paced more evenly. I really enjoyed this series even above the latter half of the OAV Series.
Rating: Summary: THE BEST D&D STYLE ANIME Review: Okay.. This is it... The best Lodoss collection. And in my opinion the best set of animation series ever made. This series takes place after the original Record of Lodoss War, right after a certain charcter dies. All the characters are back, and have grown up a bit, and are ready for action. There is even more magic and fighting and romance than before. More dragons, more monsters, more elves. About halfway through the 10 1/2 hour series... -YES 10 1/2 HOURS! Twice as long as the first series- a whole new cast of characters are introduced, and you see how they, as well as the original cast of characters work together to fight a common cause: Another possible war. This time it is Ashram, the late emperor Beld's right hand man who you will remember from the first series, who is causing problems. The sound, music and animation quality is dramatically improved compared to the first series, but there is one drawback- In-between each episode is a synopsis of the episode you just watched, however it is done with a cheesy, set of characters from the series, drawn small to scale and have a very odd sense of humor. The first time you watch them it will be entertaining, yet after you have seen them, they will just really annoy you. The Good part however is that you can skip them since it is a dvd. They should in no way keep you from buying this AWESOME series. This is my highest recommendation for a fantasy story lover.
Rating: Summary: Read the incuded booklet thingie Review: People complain about the repeats in the story line and such, it seems as if they didn't take the time to read the booklet that was in the first disc. It explains that much of this series *is* just a rehash of the OVA because the OVA was an incomplete adaptation of the novels, the animators decided to do a more complete and accurate retelling of the novels. The things in this series that negate the previous series are suposed to be taken as true, what you saw before didn't happen. Just pretend it was something you heard 2nd hand from an unreliable source. I find it different enough to remain intersting, the animation is great, as is the music (the opening sequence is fantastic on both aspects). At the end of every episode you get a super-deformed short called "Welcome to Lodoss Island". I find it hilarious in an "Oh my god that is so stupid" kind of way. Those episodes alone are almost worth buying the video for.
Rating: Summary: A rehash of the superior first run Review: Take the rehash last few six or so episodes of the original and throw in some new lifeless characters, stir well and you have Heroic Knight. The new characters are never really delved into in the same way you felt about the original characters - in fact, even the appearance of the original characters is glossed over and reduced to throw-away lines. Not to say the new characters could not have held up the movie, but they are never really given the muscle to come out from the shadow of the original. In fact, by the time we get to the end I was hoping for the heroes to fail so that we could cut their numbers in half and pray that those who survived wouldn't sit around whinning about how terrible things are and how much they will rise to the challenge. In fact the entire last half of the series sounds like the one-liners from motivational posters.
Rating: Summary: The first was so much better Review: The first 6 or so eps were good, after that it becomes very boring, battle after battle with none of the heroes getting hurt at all. Still it has its moments and some of them make up for the boring parts. Also it has a nice intro =-)
Rating: Summary: Above average but not as good as the OAV Review: There seem to be a lot of mixed reviews on this continuation of the original lodoss series, so I thought I'd share my bit. First thing is the animation. Although some people say that it has improved compared to the original thirteen episodes I failed to see this. I thought the actual animation was like before, and that the drawing style had gotten more simplistic(i.e. Parn and Deedlit compared with their OAV characters). The story itself is basically a retelling of the last six episodes of the OAV but with new heroes. I didn't find this particularly bad, but it certainly didn't provide with any new suspense. A little more than a disc(out of four) is contributed to the old heroes, and they take part later on as well. And although it was at first good to see Parn and Deedlit again, I grew tired of them pretty quickly - they seemed pretty lifeless and not like the characters I knew from the old series. I liked the new heroes - my only gripe here is, as someone else mentioned, that with the old heroes still hanging around, many of the new characters were not given enough time in the story. They ought to have left the old characters behind and focused on the new ones. I don't think this series is as good as the OAV but I did enjoy it. And considering it's a little over 10 hours long, I was mostly satisfied. A final note though - I thought the price, although fair, was a lot to pay and I found myself wondering if the money had been better spent on some other anime. If you're a lodoss fan it's not a bad buy, but otherwise I'd spend the money on some of the other great anime out there.
Rating: Summary: one of my fav fantasy anime series Review: This is an excellent series in almost all departments -- visuals, plot, character development, occasional humor... The opening and closing music is excellent, though the incidental background music gets a bit repetitive. (Of course, it's not as repetitive as in some series, including the previous Lodoss series, which used maybe 35 minutes of music clips total.) It's also a bit more coherent than a lot of anime. Lodoss has a bit of a similar feel to Krynn, the setting of the Dragonlance series; if you like Dragonlance, you'll very likely like Lodoss. One important thing to note is that this is not a sequel or continuation to the other Record of Lodoss War series. That series took about a third of the original storyline from the books, and compressed it into something that fits on two DVDs. This series is truer to the original story, in which groups of characters gradually grow from green new adventurers into the hero role-models of the next generation. Both are worth seeing, but this one is, in my opinion, by far the better of the two. Update: Somebody pointed out to me that I did not make any notes about the dubbing. I personally prefer subtitles anyways, but I have to say that the English voice cast for this series is far superior to the cast that did the original Lodoss series -- no more valley-girl Deedlit! Yay!
Rating: Summary: Wonderful Series, An Anime Must Review: This is one of two Lodoss War boxed sets. This is the TV series, which consists of 27 episodes. Story wise, the two Lodoss series are wonderful (though I can't say as much for the odd Crystania offshoot series). If you like Final Fantasy, Lord of the Rings, or Dragon Warrior and the like, I'm sure you'll enjoy this series, with it's incorporation of magic, elves, dwarves, humans, dragons, and other fantasy elements. This story picks up where the OVA left off (for the most part, there are a few story discrepancies that can be traced to the comic series.) Although very long, this is one of the best anime series I've seen. If you're familiar with the OVA, this picks up with the story of Parn, and continues to a new hero. If you liked this set, check out the 2 DVD OVA series, but most who see the TV series have already seen the OVA.
Rating: Summary: Lodoss War Rocks. Review: What can I say. I am a big D&D fan and this series is just so dang cool. They have the best Berserker ever. ....It might seem like it cost alot, but if you really like fantasy like I do then you have little choice but to spend the $$bucks$$.
Rating: Summary: a Lodoss anime fan says... Review: What on earth happened? Who did this to Lodoss? It was too shallow, too predictable, and too repetitive. The events were far too sequentially arranged and not very original. This is more of a poor rehash/remake. As a sequel, it definitely falls short of the earlier and more mature script of Lodoss War (2DVDs). I believe this series (4DVDs) may have been targetted towards younger audiences (perhaps 7-15yrs old). Part of every episode even has a short two minute SD (Super Deformed cartoon) show of the main characters that runs in parallel to the series. I found this irrelevant, unecessary, and out-of-place in any "serious" anime. Character development was much too "scattered". Unlike the first Lodoss War, characters like Parn, Deedlit, etc. were all given lots of time on the screen to be fully appreciated. In this new series, there were far too many characters trying to get viewing time (similar to the mess of characters in "Legend of Arslan"). Here, Parn and Deedlit are given less emphasis as the lead characters. They appear out of nowhere (like Zorro) to help out in times of trouble, making them look too much like guest stars (or special appearance by..) in the series. Deedlit and Pirotess seem to have lost their earlier girlish - WOW appeal. I almost didn't want to see them around anymore. I even found Etoh too "stuck-up". He wasn't like that before. They should have just "retired" the old characters properly and focused on developing the new and younger heroes of Lodoss (Spark, Neese, Leaf etc). In my opinion, these new characters are what really made this series hold together. Another major disappointment, was the fact certain events that took place in the earlier Lodoss Wars are assumed to have never occured in this new series. Example: Parn, Deedlit and Shiris and Orson new each other well, but in the new series, they just met for the first time. The series is suppose to have taken place 5 years after the first Lodoss Wars, then 10 years...what happened in all those years? Did I miss something? How did one of the characters become Queen all of a sudden? Are they trying to tell a story or not? They even try to connect another sorry mediocre sequel "Legend of Crystania" to this series when Ashram (that's never say "die" Ashram by the way) and Pirotess leaves Lodoss by boat (and that's where Crystania starts). They must have been trying to make an epic or genre around Lodoss...you just can't do that by weakening the appeal of your main characters and then trying to make them hang on to the story even just a little bit. Overall, it was a disappointment for this Anime fan. I am quite sure though that Lodoss War fans would still view the series no matter what...to judge for themselves. I did like the opening and closing trailers...the songs are indeed beautiful. The new characters and heroes, definitely have potential for a much better sequel. Just please don't use the same story-telling formula that was used here. Definitely NOT the best, and MORE doesn't mean better.
|