"Lodoss, the accursed island. Born in battle and baptized in fire, it has seen wars ravage its kingdoms for thousands of years. Now, an evil beyond any it has ever faced before is awakening, and a party of six are drawn together to battle for the future of everything dear to them. Among them: Pam, a young fighter who lacks experience and is driven by his desire to redeem his father's tarnished name; Deedlit, a young and haughty elf who is both attracted to the young fighter and infuriated by his lack of interest; Ghim, a grizzled dwarf warrior haunted by a personal failure; Etoh, a young priest; Slayn, a skilled magic user; and Woodchuck, a cynical but good-natured thief."
"Six who barely know each other. Six who must learn to act with a single purpose. Six who are destined to become heroes as they encounter enemies and allies beyond their wildest imaginations. Join the quest - the war for the future of Lodoss has begun!"
Screenplay: Mami Watanabe / Kanichi Kanemaki
Original story: Hitoshi Yasuda, Ryo Mizuna
Character design: Yutaka Izubuchi
Music: Mitsuo Hagita
Translation: Neil Nadelman
Copyright: SNE/Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co./
Marubeni Corporation/Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc.
VHS version:
Label: Pioneer
Language: English
Volume: 1 2 3
Running time: 87 mins 58 mins 52 mins
Certificate: 12 12 12
Catalogue no: PIO 10037 PIO 10038 PIO 10039
Price: £12.99 £12.99 £12.99
Release Date: 17th Aug 1998 7th Sept 1998 5th Oct 1998
Volume: 4 5 6
Running time: 55 mins 55 mins 55 mins
Certificate: PG 12 12
Catalogue no: PIO 10040 PIO 10041 PIO 10042
Price: £12.99 £12.99 £12.99
Release Date: 30th Nov 1998 30th Nov 1998 30th Nov 1998
Matt Barber: It's animated D&D basically. The artwork's beautiful, if a little static at times, and there's an excellent soundtrack. The plot is like something you'd get in a TSR novel (i.e. stuffed full of your standard fantasy cliches, and populated by characters straight out of the box) but that doesn't seem to bother people too much. It's also one of the longer OVA series around, at thirteen episodes, so if you like it you'll probably like it a lot. So, if you're a big D&D fan, I'd say go for it. Otherwise, I reckon there are better, more original fantasy anime films and series around. Stuart Dawson: It's generally regarded as a D&D players wet dream. I hate D&D but I still like RoLW. It's got the shoulder pads from hell, two sexy elves, swords which _always_ land point downwards, good guys, bad guys, a boy hero who could use a good slap, magic, dragons, and a whole host of other stuff. If you can get past the first ep, where you can almost hear the D&D die rolling in the background, it actually has a plot and story. Most of that is taken up by trying to introduce the next cool sequence but it's done well enough for them to get away with it. Shame about the dragons though. They get absolutely ZERO animation. Makes them look pretty cheesy. Deedlit's hair get's more animation in one scene in the first ep than all the dragons put together from the whole series! Then again, she's much cuter than the dragons. ;-)