Bodysuit 23 #491

I'm pretty sure everyone who reads the comic knows about my fascination with Record of Lodoss. Large chunks of the comic has been based around things regarding Record of Lodoss. But as a whole, the story or Lodoss is very by the books fantasy and not super interesting. The OVAs have kick ass character designs and some sick animation (when it bothers to animate), the TV series is a bit of a slog and looks worse, outside of the opening. Legend of Crystania is, well, bleh. After being spoiled by the original OVA, seeing this is a major downgrade IMO. There wasn't that much in terms of tolkien esque fantasy anime back then, so it kinda gets a pass for being very by the numbers. I mean, hell, every elf girl's design in anime has roots going back to Deedlit. What I'm getting at is Record of Lodoss is more of a historic piece rather than something I'd go back to to watch for entertainment.

And then comes Rune Soldier, which I was finally able to start watching as I owned volumes 2-6 for months but not volume 1. After watching 4 volumes so far, Rune Soldier is now probably my favorite work that's connected to Record of Lodoss.

As I assume everyone here has got around to watching the Lodoss TV opening, you may recall it mentions how Lodoss is south of the continent of Alecrast. Rune Soldier happens to take place on said continent, and it's effectively Slayers in tone, as it's a comedy.

The main protagonist Louie is suppose to be a wizard, but he resorts to using his fists to solve a lot of his problems instead of magic, even going magicless for a bit because he used his wand to hit a goblin in the head. His idiocy makes him fun to watch unlike Parn or Spark, who are the lame ass knights in training when the story follows them. All three have a sense of justice and fight for what they believe in, but Louie is entertaining, which is key. Watching a stupid wizard fail by trying to punch a giant monster in the face is more fun than a couple of young knights who fail in a serious battle and feel bad for not being able to protect their allies.

As I was talking with Cooper about it, he had me try to think of what is it about Lodoss that I like about it. Outside of the character designs, some of the music, and cuts of animation, I'm more interested in the idea of Lodoss than the actual product. You watch the opening for the TV series and go "Wow! Just wonder what kind of cool badass story this is telling!" Only to watch it and go "Eh, okay." In the end Lodoss is still a writer's Dungeon and Dragon's campaign where everyone played their roles straight that he decided to write down and turn into novels. Rune Soldier, meanwhile, is a dumb campaign where all the players decide to fuck around and have stupid adventures, such as an entire episode where the thief  ̶M̶a̶d̶i̶s̶o̶n̶ Merril gets a shit ton of money through gambling and then becomes obsessively protective of it. It's dumb and the adventure ends with a return to the status quo, but I like dumb shit like that.

If you like Slayers (more so the OVAs, as Rune Soldier has way less serious story beats than Slayers TV), then Rune Soldier is a fun romp.