Review: RECORD OF LODOSS WAR: THE GREY WITCH

Well, it's time to this site to emerge from its own quarantine (which has nothing to do with my falling headfirst into Yakuza 0) for another month of reviews.  Since much of my readership is unable to travel or hang out with others in-person, it's a good time to look at some manga about fantastical adventures with brave warriors.  As such, there's no better place to start than with the franchise that started Japan's love affair with Western-style fantasy.

RECORD OF LODOSS WAR: THE GREY WITCH (Rodosuto Senki Haiiro no Majo), based on the novels by Ryo Mizuno with art by Yoshihiko Ochi.  First published in 1994 and first published in North America in 1999.

PLOT:

Parn has always yearned to be a heroic knight like his late father.  He gets his chance when he reunites with Etoh, his childhood friend and newly minted priest.  When the two set out to attack a group of goblins menacing their village, they end up meeting with other adventures: a wandering magician, a dwarven king, a mysterious elf, and an enterprising thief.  Together they learn of a dark and terrible conspiracy against the land of Lodoss, and together they decide to set out and stop it.

STORY:

It's well known that Record of Lodoss War got its start as fictionalized version of Mizuno's Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.  Based on what I'm seeing in this particular adaptation, perhaps he could have put a little more effort into hiding it.

Parn and his merry band might as well be pulled straight out of the player's handbook for one of the older editions.  You have a paladin, a priest, a mage, a thief, a dwarf, and an elf (back when the last two were character classes instead of races), and they act and behave in precisely the way you have come to expect from countless other D&D-inspired fantasy tales.  It seems that most of the effort went into Parn, our ostensible party leader protagonist.  It's too bad then that while Parn is gallant and eager he's also incredibly naive and his daddy issues aren't terribly compelling.  

Even the story structure feels like a campaign.  After a steady stream of introductions, we see a series of introductory battles - a few goblins here, a street fight there, and an encounter with a couple of monsters complete with loot and an introduction to the larger plot.  That larger plot is no more inspired than anything else, with evil kings and wizard killing and plotting for nakedly evil reasons.  It's certainly not enough of a hook to keep me compelled.  Maybe it was just the sheer novelty that made this such a sensation back in the day.

ART:

The art here is decidedly dated.  It lacks the elegance of Akihito Yoshida's original illustrations, mostly because Yoshihiko Ochi gives just about everyone the same broad, wide-eyed, round-cheeked faces.  It makes them all look goofier than they are clearly meant to be, regardless of the tone of any given scene.  This is especially distracting on Deedlit, whose chipmunk cheeks don't match her slender, willowy frame.  

Ochi's paneling is no better, lacking any sort of style or dynamic quality.  Of course, CPM's presentation doesn't do it any favors.  While it's published in a large format (similar to that seen in Western comic trade collections), the art is flipped and the blacks are murky like a lesser-quality xerox.  Worse still, some pages were magnified to the point where the tops and sides of panels are cut off.  

RATING:

The Grey Witch is a dull retelling of a very basic D&D-style fantasy, lacking in artistry or inspiration.  If you want to experience the story of Lodoss, stick with the original novel or buy the original OVA on Blu-Ray.

This series was published by Central Park Media.  This series is complete in Japan with 3 volumes available.  All 3 volumes were published and are currently out of print.