War erupts on every corner of Lodoss. Kings Kashue and Etoh begin their
counterattacks against the Marmo that invade their territory, looking to unite
their forces for a final confrontation with Marmo itself. With renewed spirits, Spark and his comrades
set out to join the battle, taking on small Marmo forces along the way. Along the way, Spark begins to grow closer to
Neese, the Holy Maiden he has sworn to protect no matter what. But will Spark be able to keep that promise
when Wagnard the Wizard personally comes for Neese to complete his dark plans?
Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight,
trudged along its merry way again this week and I don’t think much of what ive
found wrong with this show is ever going to improve. For every seeming attempt to improve, it
either feels set to take a giant step backwards, or feels too little too late. At this point a full series of thirty minute
Welcome to Lodoss Island episodes feels preferable.
After last weeks convoluted plot to get from Point A to
Point B, Spark finally had the revelation he should have had five episodes ago:
Screw orders, it’s time to save Neese and the World. I guess it’s better late than never but the
road to get there has been frustrating.
Given what we know of Kashue and Etoh from the OVA, theyre good friends
(through Parn at least). No amount of
trouble making Spark has been doing in his spare time trying to complete his
quest would ever endanger that. So why
the hell was Spark ever worried about just that? Isnt he Parn’s biggest fanboy? He should know all about his early adventures
before the War of Heroes and the allies he met along the way. Part of me would like to think that Spark
finally realized that Kashue and Etoh have been having fun at his expense
making him think he’s kind of sucked at doing his job (though Sparks track
record is far from flawless really). But
finally deciding to cut out the mini quests and just trudge to Marmo with Neese
is…as I said, better late than never.
Kashue, on the other hand, was busy himself clearing out
the Marmo riffraff from his territory.
The more we saw Kashue in action, the more I wondered why we haven’t
seen a prequel series featuring his rise to power. Kashue is probably the most bad ass character
in this entire series, so much he can charge armies without getting a single
scratch and mow them down too AND chuck terrible kings off Castle walls with a
simple shove. This energy was definitely
siphoned off by Spark and his team as they got into some decent skirmishes
themselves. However, one thing held all
the action back from true greatness. The
Still Frames returned with a vengeance and man is it such a letdown to see them
being used in lew of animated action sequences that either weren’t planned or
weren’t done for the actual episode.
From a stylistic standpoint, I could understand this being used from
time to time. But I faulted the OVA for
an overreliance on this production saving tactic and Chronicles of the Heroic
Knight isn’t doing much better, I dare say it’s doing worse. Only one thing could top this badness…a
freaking filler episode of Spark and company traveling through the woods to
meet up with Parn. There, we got it,
Episode 19, a completely skippable episode unless you want to hear everyone
complain all the way to the end. Oh and
Shiris is the Queen of the Dragon Riding nation of Moss…HUUUUUHHHHH????!!!!! Plus Karla reappeared and she appears to have
ditched Woodchuck’s body off screen in favor of another sexy female body…RIP
Woodchuck I guess?
Ok, ok, complaints, complaints, but I’ve mentioned some
good stuff right? Well there was a bit
of saving grace for the end of this set besides the action and Welcome to
Lodoss Island. Ive really been trying to
peg down Spark’s age in this story and I really wanna say ballpark 15-16 years
old. Truthfully, that’s the only way id
accept him being in a relationship with the confirmed 13 year old Neese. Seeing as how their romance is now essential
for the climax of the story, Chronicles really needed to make me see past their
height difference and make me care.
Well…it was fun watching everyone tease Spark and Neese about their
obvious feelings and the two did share some cute, tender moments…though they
were kind of upstaged by Parn dancing with Deedlit cause man I forgot how nice
they were together. Funny enough, I dare
say that the animation got slightly better than previous episodes for the bulk
of Episode 20. Wishful thinking? A fluke?
Maybe it’s a good sign that Chronicles has been saving the best
animation for the end…yeah that might be wishful thinking considering this
shows track record with me.
Once again, Welcome to Lodoss Island highlights all the
troubles I could rant about in any set of episodes and makes them
entertaining. From a beach episode which
featured the Jaws theme when a “Shark” attacked Neese to Spark trying to dig
himself out of a hole, could this parody be more on point with its meta
humor? Even the moments dealing with the
Spark/Neese romance had a nice touch of WTLI snark, particularly from the more
foul mouthed Neese, to keep things lively and fun. I wont lie, I am way more invested in Spark’s
quest to get Neese and her cookies to whatever their destination is than
anything in the main storyline right now.
These shorts are often times worth the 20 minutes of boredom and
disappointment to get there.
Well Neese is in the hands of the enemy. Spark’s probably gonna beat himself up over
that for an episode and somehow we’ve still got 8 episodes before the end when
we should really have 3 or 4. Chronicles
of the Heroic Knight keeps reaching to justify itself and try and match its
predecessor’s splendor. But even when it
reset the table with a new cast and a fresh quest, it’s returned to something
familiar but not nearly as good (basically Neese is the sacrifice for Kardiss
instead of Deedlit). There’s still two
more sets of episodes left for Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic
Knight…God help my fragile mind as I trek through it. Be seein you.
No comments:
Post a Comment