In issue 28, we spoke of a great anime called “Record of Lodoss War” which was based off of a series of fantasy novels written by Ryo Mizuno. His works were based around his own created world called Forcelia, which later became adopted for his own personal role-playing games. The plots typically followed that of which we would see in Dungeons and Dragons games. Stories revolved around a party of several characters of certain types undertaking a specific quest.
First let’s back up and talk a moment about how this awesomeness came to be as we now know it. Record of Lodoss War was created in the mid ‘80s, around the same time TSR was a booming empire, with Basic Dungeons and Dragons on the open Market, as well as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. This company named Group SNE, designed these Dungeons and Dragons serialized “replays” in a Japanese magazine called Comptiq. Now the replays are not novels, or articles, it was a transcript of their RPG sessions, to see what interest they could draw in for the magazine and also to document their world as they formed it. As popularity grew for the Group SNE and their Replays, Ryo Mizuno, thought of the brilliant idea to start adapting the story into high fantasy novels in ’88. As the novels sold like fresh hot cakes at an all you can eat buffet, it slowly became another book, and finally become a trilogy. All this time Ryo Mizuno was writing things based upon his own Dungeons and Dragons game. In 1989, Group SNE decided to drop the D&D rules and design their own rules called “Record of Lodoss War Companion”
- Later on all three parts of the replay (novels) series were eventually published as paperbacks by Kadokawa Shoten from 1989 to 1991:
• RPG Replay Record of Lodoss War I (??????? ????????Aru P? J? Ripurei R?dosut? Senki Wan – Parn’s party, retake played according to the Record of Lodoss War Companion rules and incorporating elements from the novelization
• RPG Replay Record of Lodoss War II (??????? ????????Aru P? J? Ripurei R?dosut? Senki T? – Orson’s party, retake played according to the Record of Lodoss War Companion rules and incorporating elements from the novelization
• RPG Replay Record of Lodoss War III (??????? ????????Aru P? J? Ripurei R?dosut? Senki Sur? – Spark’s party, played according to the Record of Lodoss War Companion rules - The last volume of Mizuno’s novelization was published by Kadokawa Shoten in 1993, and followed by two collections of short stories in 1995:
• Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch (??????? ?????R?dosut? Senki Haiiro no Majin)
• Record of Lodoss War 2: Blazing Devil (???????2 ????R?dosut? Senki Ni: Hon? no Majin)
• Record of Lodoss War 3: The Demon Dragon of Fire Dragon Mountain (Part 1) (???????3 ??????(?)R?dosut? Senki San: Kary?-zan no Mary? (J?)
• Record of Lodoss War 4: The Demon Dragon of Fire Dragon Mountain (Part 2) (???????4 ??????(?)R?dosut? Senki Yon: Kary?-zan no Mary? (Ge))
• Record of Lodoss War 5: The Kings’ Holy War (???????5 ??????R?dosut? Senki Go: ?tachi no Seisen)
• Record of Lodoss War 6: The Holy Knights of Lodoss (Part 1) (???????6 ????????(?)R?dosut? Senki Roku: R?dosu no Seikishi (J?)
• Record of Lodoss War 7: The Holy Knights of Lodoss (Part 2) (???????7 ????????(?)R?dosut? Senki Shichi: R?dosu no Seikishi (Ge) High Elf Forest: Deedlit Story (??????? ?????????Hai Erufu no Mori D?doritto Monogatari)
• The Black Knight (?????Kokui no Kishi)
The first volume forms the basis for the first eight episodes of the Record of Lodoss War OVA series, as well as the Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch manga series. The second was also adapted in manga form, and as a 4 CD radio drama. The final five episodes of the OVA series are loosely based on the story told across the third and fourth novels and, having caught up with the ongoing novelization at that point, feature an original ending. The Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight TV series is a more faithful adaptation of volumes three to seven. The first collection of short stories was adapted into the Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit’s Tale manga series. Mizuno later went on to pen two new series of novels: a prequel titled Legend of Lodoss (???????R?dosu-t? Densetsu) (1994 to 2002) and a sequel titled Record of Lodoss War Next Generation (????????Shin R?dosu-t? Senki) (1998 to 2006), the first of which forms the basis for the Record of Lodoss War: The Lady of Pharis manga series.
<More to come…>
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