Merry Month of Manga: LOUIE THE RUNE SOLDIER

 LOUIE THE RUNE SOLDIER (Maho Senshi Riui), based on the light novel series written by Ryou Mizuno and character designs by Mamoru Yokota, with art by Jun Sasameyuki.  First published in 1999 and first published in North America in 2004.

PLOT:

Louie is the foster son of the powerful mage Carwess, but he would rather drink and schmooze with women than devote himself to his magical studies.  His real dream is to become an adventurer, but that dream seems out of reach until a trio of ladies declares that he is the hero they need.  Can this hapless, brawling doofus transform himself into a true hero?

STORY:

There was a time when there was no bigger name in anime fantasy than Record of Lodoss War.  It was such a phenomenon that the same author behind that series could his name and a handful of place names from the same universe to sell what is otherwise a rather ho-hum adventure series.

Louie is OK as a character.  He's actually got some decent motivation: he wants people to recognize him for his skills and not his famous foster father, and while he's got some skill for magic he really just wants to go out and beat up some monsters.  It's a shame that beyond that he's the sort of doofy, mildly hedonistic protagonist with a secret heart of gold that you can find all over manga and anime.  The only thing distinguishing him is that he looks like he's cosplaying as Domon Kasshu from G Gundam.

That more than you can say for literally everyone else in this book.  Melissa, Genie and Merrill are stock D&D character types, there only to create conflict and the occasional falling-into-boobs gag.  Everyone else is purely incidental, and the adventure so far is features a lot less adventuring and a lot more hanging around the tavern.  I've never read a manga that feels so much like the filler episodes of an anime.

ART:

At least the art here is decent.  Honestly, it's aged pretty well.  The characters are tall and angular (although not to the extremes you sometimes see in late 90s art), but there's a decent amount of detail put into them and their expressions are lively.  Sadly they don't have much of a knack for action and don't care to fill in much about the world, so this series is mostly a lot of talking heads and slapstick.

RATING:

Louie the Rune Soldier only has its pedigree and some halfway decent art going for it.  Otherwise it's a basic-ass comedy adventure that you've likely seen done ten times better in god knows how many anime series.  It's completely inessential.

This series was published by ADV Manga.  This series is complete in Japan with 6 volumes available.  4 volumes were published and are currently out of print.