The Record of Lodoss War Still SLAPS. 

PINNED IT, Hi everyone and welcome (/welcome back) DISCLAIMER: when we say "fantasy" in the title, we mean high fantasy, there's a difference. Either way, once again we're wanted to go back to an awesome classic this week. We debated for a couple days on what to cover and eventually landed on lodoss war Tuesday night, which left us 3 days to get this done -we managed. I would imagine probably 20% of our audience has seen this show TOPS so hopefully this spoiler free in depth look gets you curious enough to watch! as always the goal is to entertain, introduce, and get people thinking so hopefully we accomplished that with this one. we've got some really aesome surprises coming in the next couple weeks so get hype! In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and enjoy the show. see you next time -Mike

I miss when female anime characters actually had noses! Go Deedlit!

Truly an iconic show. It’s nostalgic hearing about it now. Many people have never even heard of this.

Studio Madhouse was behind this MASTERPIECE and will always be my fave fantasy next to BERSERK. I had the honor of meeting Lisa Ortiz( Deedlit) and thanked her for her wonderful performance! She was quite sweet and very lovely!! Also, has anyone noticed...THEY KNEW HOW TO DRAW EPIC DRAGONS!?

The opening for Record of lodoss wars is so nostalgic to me.

One of my favorite anime of all time. More people should know about this.

"You die twice. Once when you draw your last breath, and again when your name is spoken for the very last time." -No idea-

I remember buying this VHS boxed set because I wanted a complete anime story. Back then we had to walk 3 miles through the snow up a mountain to buy or rent our Japanimation. I'm so glad I lived long enough to have practically all of anime history at our fingertips.

"They don't make 'em like they used to" comes to mind when rewatching Record of Lodoss War. Gonna put that out there before they ruin it with some awful Berserk 3D animation reboot.

"A war with no meaning, a war that saved no one." I felt that.

The art style of this OVA is incredibly details. Simply beautiful.

i miss old style animation and old anime art style, managing to blend the bubbly nature of manga style with a slightly western aesthetic it was real nice

Deedlit is ~160 years old, so she's totally legal

It's also interesting to note that Beld and Fahn were friends and fought a demon lord together and Beld's fall into madness because of that demon lords soul locked away inside the very blade he wields. Also the battle of their ideals that they could not come to terms with each others ideals.

Lodoss War is the campaign the DM wants, Slayers is the campaign the Players want.

Literally Never heard of this anime but shows its influence on the art form and general culture in every aspect. Very impressive work. Definitely deserves a watch

My dad and brother thought anime was stupid, but they got hooked on Record of Lodoss War when then saw it.

The Blu Ray remaster is a must-watch. DVDs used to go for $300+ for a cruddy VHS transfer, but now you can finally watch this show they way it was meant to be seen.

The character designs of this show are exceptional. Even if it is decades old it's still one of the most beautiful designs in the Anime world. Especially Deedlits iconic design.

There's more to the story as well. The OVA's cut and changed a lot of the latter archs. There was also a tv series that wrapped it up called Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. I recommend watching both.

Hell yeah man just rewatched this last night. Still own the VHS copies of this.

nothing makes me a sad fan than seeing orson get done dirty by that other lodoss ova or spinoff w/e it is. but also, picture 5-8 year old me watching it in its entirety. then not watching it until im 21. "Goblins? Out in broad daylight?" wooshes away. the entire dub is so good and just remembering tiny me crying at the second to last episode with deedlit and just oof. memories.

Fun fact: this was the first series I owned on DVD. When it came through the pawn shop I was working in, it was actually one of the first DVDs our shop had ever received as part of a pawn. Yes, I am that old, and this happened that long ago. I even had to rent a DVD player from a video store to watch it, as I didn't even own a player at the time. That's how much I wanted to see this. I literally sat down and binged the whole series in one night. I regret nothing. I still have this series in my collection to this day. I'll probably hand it down to my grandkids. It will probably still hold up then. ⚔️😎⚔️

Remembering Orson's introduction still gives me chills. Tried numerous times to recreate him on paper but the D&D sandbox didn't seem able to do him justice.

This is the core vanilla Epic Fantasy anime. It's a classic, iconic. All the tropes in it are portrayed magnificently.

Haven't seen or heard of this anime, but already feeling nostalgic.

I really like that you guys don't just cover what's poppin. trends are for sheeple

It's true, the first disk is a fully capable party laughing at Parn consistently failing upwards.

Lodoss War aged like the finest of wines. I love it so much. 90's anime sure hits different. What I like about Deedlit's design is that it doesn't try to fanservice. She doesn't have a massive rack and other than her legs she doesn't show much skin. Yet she still is charming in her own adorable way.

I never even heard of this anime and I was a teen in the 90s. I will be giving it a watch now. Looks good.

This series has a lot of meaning for me. It was the first anime series I ever collected. I had no Idea it was based on D&D until one day a friend introduced me to D&D and I just fell in love with it because it was like Record of Lodoss War. Years later...I was absolutely floored when I found an article explaining that the series was created based off of an actual D&D tabletop session and each of the characters were played by actual people.

Record of Lodoss War is one of my favorite from my childhood. I love the epic dragons. Deedlit and Etoh are my favorite.

mike likes star wars.

And the opening/ending songs in japanese and italian are simply MAGNIFICENT

This was my first anime I'd ever seen, totally on accident too. I was probably 5 years old and it came on a random cable tv channel. It was episode 3 of the OVA with Captain Jeffrah. That episode really drove the emotions home and I think defined what other games and anime that I'd grow to love.

This classic was one I rented on VHS during summer break way back when. It's timeless, cathartic, and amazing. Animation that had a flow, purpose, maturity, and sometimes made you care for every character (including the villains). It always stuck to me, even though there are many Fantasy titles now. This was one you had to see. It raised the bar on storytelling, character designs, atmosphere, and world building. I recall the D&D origin. Still an epic. I miss animation like this

I owned the vcr tapes of this and the spine covers when properly align formed a mural on your shelf.

MAKE EM BIG! This is still one of my favorite animes. :3 Great work guys!

This is a good old anime, they don't make anime like this anymore

Lord of the Rings looks different....

#proudpatreon Fun Facts: Rune Soldier Louie takes place in the same world as Lodoss but the tone is way different. Also, yay for the Dreamcast game shout out Mike!

I haven't even watched this video yet but the moment I saw my boys upload a Record of Lodoss War video I stopped everything I was doing to come here. This show *IS* what got me where I am today, what got me into anime, geek culture. What got me the friends I have. This show gave me everything I have today. Thank you.

The duel between the two old kings was one of the best plot twist I've ever com across.

I’d like to make a correction, the “a” in OVA does not stand for Adaptation, it stands for ANIMATION, Original Video ANIMATION. Other than that, you made a damn good video here.

What I found interesting about the record of lodoss wars. Was that it was the first time elves were ever depicted with mobile ears. Several times throughout the series including the books elves ears perk up and move. They can move up and down and in the direction of somebody who is speaking in the series. It's not showing often but it does happen in several scenes and it's the first time this has ever been used. One of my favorite authors E William Brown uses the same thing for his elves in his Daniel Black Series. They are effectively elves from the record of lodoss wars.

THE anime of my childhood. I was 6yo when my neighbour lent me his VHS of RoLW. My first anime binge ever...actually first binge of anything. Good memories. It was around christmas break too so almost 30 years ago to the day. I remember personally fanboying over Orson of all people, just cause I was impressed at how he split that rock in two lol (And then proceeding to mostly play berserkers in my DnD campaigns in his honor)

They rarely make fantasy anime like Record of Lodoss War these days. I’m getting sick and tired of all the isekai stuff thee days dominating the fantasy genre.

I watched Lodoss Wars a lot in high school . Timeless perfection

Jesus... this guy is like a modern philosopher. Great video.

You won my Patronage with this one, friends.

Woodchuck is the best damn thief, and him being voiced by Wakamoto makes it him even better.

This video is actually life learning, huge respect

I've never watched this one but I do love Slayers and Escaflowne

My name will be forgotten except by those that have have touched through my healing hand throughout the years. This brings me solace and I can go to my grave with that.

All these awesome videos about nostalgic 90s anime makes me hope you guys make a video on the vision of escaflowne and Orphen both of those are real gems in my opinion

This was the first ever anime that I purchased and watched knowing it was "anime". Before that, I just recognized things like Voltron, Saber Rider & the Star Sheriffs, Ronin Warriors, & Teknoman as just odd cartoons that I recognized as being from... somewhere else. Lodoss War was young me walking into the mysterious "Japanimation" section at the local Media Play and throwing down $100+ for the whole box set of dubbed VHS tapes. It is still one of my top 5 favorite anime of all time, tied for first with Scrapped Princess. Orson is the best. And mostly good dub, but I'll never forget Slayne's stilted "Hey. Parn. Get over there now" in the first episode.

An absolute classic and the story with the Berserker always hits me in the feels.

If anyone is curious about the "game" from 1:18. It is from an episode of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. The characters are playing a game called Dragon Souls lol. I legit thought this was an old RPG in a soulsborne style . . .

I watched Lodoss war years ago on polish channel called "Canal +" they provided lots of awesome anime like "Ghost in the shell" , "macross". I also had that on VHS. I remeber playing "record of lodoss war" on sega dreamcast. I was an awesome diablo clone. Btw that opening was so awesome!

One of my favorite shows of all time! Collecting all the VHS, back when this was released, was a quest in itself and cost like $200 for the entire series. It's so much easier being an anime fan these days.

One of my favorites. It has special importance to me. I’m so glad to see that it’s appreciated by many fans around the world.

I accidentally stumbled upon Lodoss War one day while browsing crunchyroll. I was immediately enamored by it: its flowing animation, its dedication to atmosphere and its diverse character designs (that bit you said about being able to distinguish these character by the shapes of their noses? 100% correct and so refreshing compared to many modern anime art styles.) Even its cookie cutter party and formulaic story setup felt comforting and tried and true. And while I initially watched it in Japanese, when I had to change streaming platforms I was forced to try the English dub and surprise surprise its actually pretty good! I very much enjoyed Lodoss as a beautiful, nostalgic look at the high fantasy genre through the lens of the East. Though I tried to show it to some friends and they seemed to think it was too slow paced and weren't very interested. That left me with an odd sense of "I recognize something of value here, but maybe it doesn't have mass appeal." This video came in my feed out of nowhere so thank you for letting me come to understand the lasting cultural impact of this gorgeous show. And I can see it now, and see why it impacted me so deeply only seeing it for the first time in the late 2010's. Because its art style is foundational to all sorts of things I grew up on (Legend of Zelda being a major one). This was a very cool analysis of a great show.

I just learned that Ryo Mizuno was the supervisor Galaxy Angel's visual novel.

8:17 u had me lmafo boy. 😂 he totally does look like the bad guy from Zelda

I guess I was watching a sequel series this whole time. The one with the barbarian Orson.

In the end even history will turn to dust. Kismet.

6:23 coal the coward has good taste in anime Carla is a fantastic girl

This series was amazing. It reminded me of Ultima, as it had different characters of different professions.

I like how you pronounce it cashuwe, as if the character is not named after a nut.

I ought to watch this anime. My husband said it was in his top anime picks and I saw him the other day trying to find a good animation cel for that series.

Orson's berserker transformation in episode 8 gave me SEVERE Super Broly vibes. The way the camera zooms in on his arms. I almost wonder if Broly's power up scene when he begins the fight with Goku is a visual omage.

Thanks for the recondition. Definitely gonna check it out

i used to watch this on the cartoon network website as a kid along with daft punk music videos. this stuff meant so much to me.

I love this anime and the opening song is my favorite!!!

Every time I watch an older anime (Ranma 1/2, City Hunter...), I find you've done a video on it and I'm so happy to see someone talking about these shows. Thank you!

Thank you for putting this in my radar! I'll for sure give it a watch at some point~

I loved the original VHS. When you had the entire collection, the spines on the cases made a picture of the dragon, Shooting Star.

Nice call back this brings back some fond memories of watching this when I was younger. I was hoping you would do a follow up on the other spin offs like Legend of Crystania OVA that deals with Ashram and Pirotess, Record of Lodoss War Chronicles of the Heroic Knight a pseudo retelling of Record Lodoss War covering the OVA's and extended as a 2 season TV series witht he second season introducing a new Parn-like character, Spark and his adventuring party. Two other spin offs while not tied to main story or continuity, none the less occurs within the same universe and I believe the same Island. These are Rune Soldier a comedy adventure and Meshimase Rōdosu Senki: Sorette Oishii no?, translation, Have Some, Record of Lodoss War: Is That Delicious? parodying the Lodoss franchise. You might enjoys these as it extends the lore and influence that was Lodoss Wars. Thank you for the reigniting why love this franchise.

@5:40 "DUNGEONS & DRAGONBALLS"...say what??!!

Started with this, FotNS, Wicked City, MD Geist and Akira. The only anime in my VHS-store back then lol

super well-crafted video brother, great work and thanks for putting me onto this Classic ~

2:23 the first thing that comes to my mind when I see the characters sideways is Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, and Lodoss' style is quite similar to it.

This was one of my first anime I watched I still have the DVD

I love how Emperor Beld's skin and hair are colored like a bog mummy.

this was my first anime movie. yeah i know it is a series but in my country it was shown as a movie, just glued together in 2 movies on tv. i think i was 10 or younger when i first saw it at night.

Could you imagine if modern JRPGs actually took inspiration from high fantasy and medival literature again? Not that I'd say the execution would be 100% perfect, but at least we wouldn't have to constantly deal with what we have now.

I'd love to watch this again, but I have it on VHS and my player broke years ago.

Own the entire box set on DVD. Saw it back in the day on Sci-Fi Channel, and everything just hits.

I remember picking the series up at a Blockbuster when I was a teen and sleeping through most of it. Even after watching this video I don't recall most of the characters or any of the plot. Maybe it's time to give it another shot and see if Parn irritates me less.

I got existential crisis crushing just now... I fight to overcome. Right now it’s my debt, I moved to Missouri from California to try and make my debt disappear so I can begin an adventure. Then I’ll figure out the next thing I’m moving toward!

Oh shit never heard or seen of this and I love all these themes. Thanks for turning me on to this Bonsai Pop!

Mike out here lookin like a snack

My brother and I spent 13 years looking for this. We used to watch it when our uncle came over and needed to talk to my dad, but wanted us to have something for us to do. So we used to sit down and watch this on a VHS tape until they were done. But we could never remember the name of it, and out dad and uncle forgot that this even existed. We found it a few years back when we were in high school.

Completely forgot about this - this just opened a mental blank spot. Thank you dude

Only came across this video now. Speaking of the influence the Record of Lodoss War has had on anime, it is interesting as academics who study the influences of Alphonse Mucha have noted his influences on Akihiro Yamada, who worked on both Record of Lodoss War and The Twelve Kingdoms - this influence is especially noticeable in artwork focused on Deedlit. (For those who arent't familiar, Mucha's that early 20th century Czech Art Nouvea artist who created a genre of pretty women ads in 1920s Paris - you'll recognise his style the moment you google him).

This anime has always left an impression on me. Akira may have been my first anime (I was way too young when I seen it) but RoLW, along with maybe Ronin Warriors/Samurai Troopers, were that anime that got me INTO anime.

"Tyler hit em with the anime elfs, EfRU" Nah... I'm good thanks Chief.

I remember the trailer popping out in other anime vhs intro trailers section, the song gives me feels

Great video essay. Thanks. This too is one of my favorite anime series.

Oh, wow! This is a throwback. I must’ve been about 6 when I first saw this anime.