Click it to see this shot in full size.  There are 2 DVDs, and this part folds over and goes into a slide in sleeve, which you can see on the desk above it. Sorry about the angle, but if I took the shot straight on the reflected flash would wash it out.

DVD case flap close up.

The two guys here, with the dragons, are good and evil.  You can probably guess which is which by the colors.  They have two sacred swords of good and evil, and the dragons are tied to their side as well, almost god-like, creatures that personify (animalify?) good and evil. Click the thumb to see the right side, or click here to see the left side in full size.

The basic plot is that the land (Lodoss) is a mystical continent with various ruling kings, in the feudal monarchy style of so much fantasy.  Thousands of years ago the entire land was nearly destroyed in a huge battle between the forces of light and darkness.  Each side has a massive dragon that is sort of their force personified.  The evil and the good dragon battled, along with their human and monster forces, but have been asleep since then, though various lesser dragons are still roaming around.  Apparently good won on the main isle, but evil wasn't so much defeated as it retreated to another island.

The dragons in this cartoon are how dragons should be; enormous, hundreds of feet long, and basically forces of nature.  They swoop overhead and send down fire breath from hundreds of feet above, frying the puny humans before they even see it coming.  Of course they're still likely to die if you stab then in the nose with a spear that's less than a toothpick in size to them, but this is just one of the many logical fallacies in the show.

With the set up of the world, the action of the 13 episodes is a party of adventurers who are on their own individual quests but work together, and their progress through the world as it girds for total war, and the forces of evil attempt to revive the ancient evil dragon.  The party is exactly what you'd expect.  A she-elf, giggly but powerful and very cute.  A dwarf, old and bearded, gruff, very strong.  A thief, joker and cynic, skilled with throwing knives.  A cleric, young and innocent and kind, healer and fighter with mystic energy.  A mage, peaceful and reserved, but powerful with sorcery.  And a fighter.  This is the one where anime styling takes over most heavily, since instead of being a Conan-type sword master and powerful leader, he's instead a teenager, young and impetuous and unskilled, but clearly very determined, and clearly destined for great things.

In addition to these there are various kings and soldiers and a couple of mercenaries.  The enemies are all archetypal as well.  Evil back-stabbing sorcerers, all-powerful and mysterious witch, power-hungry warlords, and tons of anonymous minions.  The enemy monsters are great, mostly subhumans, half wolves or bears or dogs, all slavering teeth and blood lust, wearing their battered and cheap armor and fighting with much more savagery than skill.

The world and characters aren't very imaginative, but are very epic and legendary.  I love the whole world concept, the types of characters, the monsters, the battles, the series of great deeds they must accomplish to achieve their objectives, etc.  It's all extremely promising, and that's why I bought it, since all I knew about it worked for me on various primal levels.

Unfortunately the actual execution of things, especially the writing, is by far the weakest link.

Record of Lodoss War was a TV show, and I think it's written on a juvenile or even childish level.  There is a lot more violence and T&A than you'll see on US cartoons for kids, and lots of the monsters would be quite scary to someone under 10, I think.  But the dialogue and the character's actions are always so predictable and telegraphed.  In addition the whole world and plot unfold in such an amateurish fashion.  Everything comes down to the main characters, every time.  There are always huge long battles with thousands dying, but none of the main characters ever get hurt or caught up in that.  They always end up facing off with the main bad guy.  There's no sense of a world; the enemy forces invade and destroy much of Lodoss, and we see mighty castles being laid siege to and destroyed, and a few wrecked villages, but there aren't any people.  No floods of refugees, no huddle masses, no famine from destroyed crops.  There's never any reality in the time of travel, none of the heroes need to carry any food or supplies on their treks, armies seem to appear wherever and whenever they are needed, etc.  The battles are just random fights; there's no generalship in terms of troops movements, no siege engines, no artillery support, no tactics whatsoever.

The less you know about how war actually works and the less you think about logical issues, the more you'll enjoy the series.

The actual battles are pretty anticlimactic also, mostly due to the animation.  By which I mean their lack of money/time to draw combat scenes.  You get one big picture of a battle, and it pans across the screen for 10 seconds while you hear swords clanging and death screams.  Then another shot of two guys crossing swords, with monsters behind them, for 5 seconds.  It's all typical Anime style, and the artwork is great, but it would be nice to see some actual combat technique, rather than just two guys up close with crossed swords grunting.  All the dragon stuff is much the same; two dragons in flight, one dragon biting the other, dragons falling.  No in-between images.

The plot has a lot of missed opportunities also.  There is a very cool character named Orson, who is a Berserker.  When he gets angry he loses his mind and becomes super-powered and can cut through the side of a mountain, defeat any foe, etc.  So he does this over nothing the first time he appears, and then he's around for another 3 or 4 episodes and never does it again, despite having numerous times (especially in the final episode) where he had far more cause to become angry, and in fact it would have been greatly-useful to the party if he had become angry. Despite his never doing it they mentioned it constantly, and used his berserker ability to frighten off bad guys.  You're sure he'll whip it out again at any point, since it's very cool... nope.

You also expect there to be an all-out war between good and evil, especially the main good/evil dragons.  Nope.  In fact the whole thing sort of ends with a whimper.

On the whole it's worth watching, but you'll be happier if you rent, or get a friend to buy it. I spent most of the time thinking how much better everything could have been, with such a great world and mythology to set it all in.  I'll probably watch it again at some point, but it's not one you'll watch over and over again, unless you are very easily entertained.