What do you get when you cross Dungeons and Dragons with an animation studio? After watching Record of Lodoss War, I can safely say what you would get. Elves, dwarves, sorcery, swordfighting, thievery, and more action than you can shake a stick at are all contained in this relatively long OVA (by OVA standards). Despite having never actually played Dungeons and Dragons, I was still instantly drawn into the fantasy setting.

What played a very large part in the overall feeling of Record of Lodoss War and what drew me into it was definitely the musical score. From the prologue music to the ending theme of the very last episode (which brought a tear to my eye because it was so good), each piece is played so well that there's practically nothing to complain about in regards to it. Unfortunately, though the music was fantastic, the sound effects themselves left a lot to be desired. For example, normally you'd expect to hear a loud "THUD" when a character hits the ground. Apparently, "THUD" is not a word that anyone in Lodoss has heard of since it's rarely ever used.

Normally I'd shrug off something as trivial as that, but this being an OVA, which usually have much higher budgets than television series, I was expecting something more like a high budget series. The animation is also a big letdown in Record of Lodoss War. The fight scenes are anything but fluid, and the same couple of frames are repeated ad nauseum. There's just no fun in seeing the same goblin attack the same person five or ten times over the course of a battle.

Thankfully, those few problems didn't really ruin the experience. The story started to really pick up a couple of episodes in and the pace never slowed down after that, keeping me on the edge of my seat. Though the ending is just a tad predictable, the story as a whole was done very well. Filled with quite a large number of plot twists for a thirteen episode series, the only problem with it is that the first episode actually takes place somewhere in the middle of the series (similar to what Divergence EVE did). Using the first episode to put the viewer right into the action is a technique that I really dislike, especially when it's a crucial story element. Not only does it make the viewer quite confused, but you also have to revisit the episode later so you can catch all of the story developments in the episode.

In short, Record of Lodoss War is sort of like Slayers, only without the comedy and with a much deeper story. If you like your action anime to have substance and fantasy, or you want to have your Dungeons and Dragons fix (only without the 20 sided die), then Record of Lodoss War is definitely for you.