Record of the Lodoss War was one of the most beloved fantasy anime ever produced. It was originally designed as a role playing system and has been translated into manga and games in addition to the anime. The show followed many clichés of the genre and each race fit their stereotype to the letter. Being a lover of all things fantasy, I of course adored the series, but felt that the show took itself a little too seriously at times.

The creator, Ryo Mizuno, decided to shake things up and created a new series with an undoubtedly more lighthearted tone. Rune Soldier originally aired back in 2001 and while the adventure is significantly different than Lodoss War, the concept remains the same. The show focuses on an eclectic arrangement of characters that each fit the typical fantasy adventure party, but tosses in a great amount of humor and clashing personalities.

The main character of the show is a blue haired magician named Louie, who is prone to getting drunk and beating monsters up with his fists. He certainly breaks the mold for what a magic user should be and he seems to possess more physical prowess than mystical ability. Unfortunately despite his supposed skill, he is also clumsy, arrogant and very hot headed. He always seems to be the main source of trouble for the group and tends to leap into the fray before coming up with a strategy.

Louie is in advertently sought out by a trio of female adventurers who are on a quest for a magic user. The kicker is that they want a fellow gender mage and not some knuckle dragging blue haired oaf. The characters are quickly put at odds and while each of the women have completely different personalities, they each feel the same way about poor Louie.

Genie is a busty red headed Amazon of a warrior who knows her way around the battlefield and sword. She's the brute strength of the group and is a former guard who prefers to fight for herself instead of for a country. She always seems to be calm and collected and only really snaps when Louie does something stupid (which happens to be quite frequently).

As a priestess for Mylee, god of war, Melissa is the holy power of the group. She is very faithful to her religion, but when her god decrees that she is to follow Louie and he is her beloved hero, she cracks. Melissa was dreaming of a handsome and heroic stud, but starts protesting to her god when she winds up with a clumsy dud. There are some very funny scenes where Louie emphatically reminds her that she is supposed to follow him no matter where he goes. To make matters worse one of the women in charge at the church keeps telling her to sleep with him.

Bringing up the rear of the group is an abrasive young girl who seems to be the brains of the operation. Merrill does whatever it takes to see that the group has enough cash to go on their next adventure. At first Louie views her as the thief of the female trio and she possesses a lot of similar traits, including knife throwing (which is her specialty). Each of these characters work very well off of each other and the girls are at odds with Louie most of the time, though they eventually warm up to him.

The characters are what really elevate this show from generic fantasy to hilarious adventure with a good amount of action tossed in. There are many running gags and slapstick humor, but the jokes never really elevate beyond that and stuff of a reactionary nature. As with a lot of anime, the comedy here is purely visual and zany, so if you are looking for intelligent laughs you'll have to look elsewhere. The show still comes off as very charming and entertaining though.

In all there are 24 episodes for the series and each of them varies in quality. Most all of these episodes are stand alone adventures that get wrapped up in one or two episodes. This is certainly a change of pace when compared to Record of the Lodoss War, which took most of that series' to tell its tale. Part of me liked the way that Rune Soldier did its thing, but another part of me was hoping for a longer lasting adventure, instead of smaller capsulated ones.

Even so, the adventure of the week feeling of the show combined with the humor give it a much different tone than just about any other fantasy comedy. It's borderline harem anime with a touch of goblin slashing fun with memorable characters and a charming tone. I had a lot of fun watching this series and recommend it for anyone who gets their jollies off of sword and sorcery.

Rune Soldier is presented in its original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 full frame. The show has an undisputable lighter tone than its cousin Record of the Lodoss War and features tones of vibrant colors and bright areas. I noticed very little aliasing in the image, though there were a couple of minor examples of it that appeared now and then. Some grain is present but isn't much of a problem and there was very little pixilation in the darker areas.

The character designs for the show run the gamut from incredibly generic to wildly imaginative. The probably with a series of this nature is that the fantasy clichés are undeniable especially when you have elves, goblins, mages and warriors running around. It really all depends on your personal preferences if you will appreciate that and I felt that there were many appreciative nods to the genre, instead of an attempt to copy the style. The animation is very fluid as well with few repetitive frames or cut corners, so in that regard the show looks great.

Similar to many other releases, Rune Soldier comes with the options of 5.1 English and 2.0 Japanese. Depending on what your particular taste is each offers a good degree of quality and enjoyable voice work. The English track offers a greater amount of directionality with some rear channel play, but it's a little subdued compared to some other series I have seen. The Japanese language track is pure stereo quality with optional English subtitles. Overall the show sounds decent, but it's nothing that will blow your socks off.

While most every thinpak collection doesn't offer anything except for the complete episode roster of the series, Rune Soldier includes textless opening and closing animations. The only confusing bit is that each of the six discs included in this set offers this same exact feature so it's more than a little redundant. More content would have been appreciated but since this is all that was featured on the individual releases of the series, you can't expect all that much more.

While it's not as grandiose an adventure as Record of the Lodoss War was, Rune Soldier is another great creation by Mizuno. The show proves to be wildly entertaining and humorous, all the while offering up some great fantasy action. The only problem is that the show feels very generic at times with many clichés and stand alone adventures. Fortunately the characters are also memorable and easy to fall in love with, so that only adds to the charm of the show.

The video presentation is very good with extremely little to complain about aside from some very minor grain in a few scenes. The audio quality is above average but is nothing to get too excited about. Overall the Rune Soldier thinpak is a great collection for anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre or comedy adventure anime. Recommended

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