Note: This review originally appeared on my site.

A few years ago I did a video review of the original OVA for Record of Lodoss War. At that time, the OVA was out of print, as was (and still is, sadly) the manga adaptation of the novels. Since then, Funimation (not the company I expected to do it) license rescued all of the anime, and now Seven Seas has done something I never expected to happen - they licensed the first novel, and gave it a fantastic edition in 2017.

The OVA and the novel share a common framework and characters, but have some very dramatic changes from the novel to the anime. Some of these are clearly due to the change in medium. Others appear to be due to budgetary restrictions and length.

The book follows the party of Parn - a young inexperienced warrior seeking to prove himself and try to make the world a better place, Deedlit - an elf looking for adventure who finds herself drawn to Parn and his companions, Etoh - a priest of Pharis and Parn's childhood friend, Slayn Starseeker - a wizard searching for knowledge and something else... he doesn't know what yet, Woodchuck - a thief out for wealth and with a chip on his shoulder, and Ghim - a Dwarf looking for the missing daughter of the priestess of Marfa and his friend, Neese. The party goes on their adventures along the backdrop of an invasion of the island of Lodoss by the forces of the dark empire of Marmo, lead by Emperor Beld. Beld is advised by a mysterious sorceress known only as Karla.

And that's where a lot of similarities end. Probably the biggest example of this is the characters of Ashram and Pirotess. In the anime they are set up very early on as the dark opposites of Parn and Deedlit - both are skilled warriors (though Ashram is very skilled from the beginning), and both care for each other, though Ashram and Pirotess aren't particularly able to show it because in Marmo it would be a sign of weakness. In the anime, Ashram and Parn first meet during the sacking of an Alanian fortress, with Parn witnessing Ashram's attack and swearing revenge. Further, throughout the anime, when the narrative moves to the Marmo camp, in addition to seeing Beld and Karla plotting, we also see Beld and Ashram together (setting up Ashram as Beld's #2), and Ashram and Pirotess (again, setting up Ashram and Pirotess as the dark version of Parn and Deed).

In the novel, on the other hand, while we cut back to Beld and Karla, Ashram barely shows up in this the book, only appearing briefly in the battle between the Empire of Marmo and the Valis Alliance, and Pirotess doesn't show up at all. Wagnard, Beld's court magician, is dramatically much more visible, and has a much more direct connection to our protagonists, though he and the Heroes of Lodoss don't interact in this story.

This leads to the other really dramatic change. Much more time is spent on characters backstory in this installment. In the OVA, we get backstory for Parn and his goal to redeem his father's memory, and Ghim and his goal to bring back Lydia to Neese. However, here we also get more backstory for Woodchuck and Slayn. We learn about Slayn's time at the Wizard's academy, why he left, and we get a connection through him and Wagnard - that Wagnard was a classmate of Slayn's who was not only expelled, but also had a lock placed on his magic so he cannot cast spells without great physical pain. Also, the book sets up that Woodchuck had been incarcerated for almost 20 years for a heist gone wrong, and was only just released, putting a chip on his shoulder that leads to him making a particular decision at the end of the story that he didn't make in the anime.

Additionally, the dungeon crawl that takes up the OVA's first episode takes up about two paragraphs in the novel.

The other changes are a little less dramatic. Parn and company meet Deedlit and Woodchuck in the middle of a festival in the novel, which would have been really expensive to animate in the OVA. Also, in the OVA, the battle between the Valis Alliance and Marmo is just a general pitched battle, without any real tactics or maneuvering (and which generally goes badly for the Alliance before the end), while in the book, it's a more strategically planned battle, with Parn and Kashue taking on a flanking force of Marmo, and only after they are repelled successfully do they join up with the main force, and then at that point do they lose the track of the battle and things start to look closer.

As an aside, there's another change from the book to the OVA, but the Chronicles of the Heroic Knight TV series incorporates and shows the book version, so it less merits mentioning.

Karla is still one of my favorite antagonists, because her worldview is internally consistent, and while it doesn't make sense from a human perspective - that's the point - she's lived so long and through so many bodies that she's effectively lost touch with her humanity, which makes her a more interesting and unique protagonist. The character of Mordenkainen in Greyhawk is the closest character in tabletop RPGs as far as motivations go, through as near as I can tell, the depiction of his motivation as being similar to Karla's doesn't seem to appear until after Lodoss gets a US release in the late 80s, so I don't know if that aspect of the character was inspired by Lodoss .

The Grey Witch isn't exactly a ground-breaking novel now, particularly when it comes to modern heroic fantasy. As with Legend of the Galactic Heroes, it's a genre that has become well trod, and numerous other works have paid reference to and been inspired by. Still, it's worth reading seeing where all those stories came from, and honestly, it's an exciting read. ( )

There is nothing I appreciate more than a re-release of an older title, especially when those of us in the US may have missed out on a translation the first time around. These are the light novels and manga of my youth, before my youth, the ones that have formed the genres and tropes we know today. Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch by Ryo Mizuno was first published when the concept of light novels was still new. Now, thirty years later, it is brought to the US for the first time.

Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch introduces us to Parn, a young swordsman looking for answers and determined to restore honor to his father’s name. Along with a ragtag group of heroes, Parn find himself embroiled in a war that is quickly sweeping over Lodoss. Those who were once friends are now enemies, and someone is pulling strings behind the scenes, an ancient evil that must be found at all costs.

The sheer quality of this light novel is something to be praised in and of itself. The vast majority of the light novels I personally own are paperbacks, most with some scattered black and white images. This is a beautiful hardcover edition with faux leather and gold embossing on the front and back covers. The endpapers are high quality patterned paper. Most of the images are in full color. Even the headers and footers of each page are nicer than normal edition.

This book does what every good light novel should – it is incredibly readable – and it does it with ease. Genre staples that can bog down any typical high fantasy novel are missing here. We don’t get the page long descriptions of the scenery that can grind a scene to a halt. There are no chapter long exposition dumps filled with details of the world and its history which may or may not be completely relevant until the next book or twelve. The activities of the group are touched upon as they make their way from one plot point to another, but the author never gets lost in the endless side stories that can turn an otherwise fast paced fantasy into a ‘story about walking’.

Instead, we get to know the character’s through dialogue, their actions in battle, and a very good use of third person omniscient narration. We see into each character’s head, however briefly that may be. Each character has joined this group for a specific reason, many following a quest of their own. We also get to see into the minds of other characters – kings, wizards, villains – allowing the reader a full grasp of the overarching story of the war enveloping Lodoss.

Despite only being one book and having some time small time skips, the passage of time is easily felt. Parn develops both in mentality and in skill. The effects of war are seen, even if the war itself is not always present on the page. The effects of time upon the heroes of old who now fight against one another are stark, the irony and melancholy still felt despite the reader not having followed these characters on their own heroic missions.

This is a standard high fantasy novel in many ways. Many hallmarks of the genre are found here, not only those typical to light novels, manga, and anime, but of high fantasy literature in general. Elves and dwarves grace the pages. Parn is an orphan setting out on a coming of age/heroes journey. Dragons and other fantastical creatures, while found in great abundance, are also found within the book. Magic is abundant, with different characters using different types of magic. And of course we have ancient, forgotten civilizations, evil emperors, and conflict across the continent.

In fact, this works in the books favor, especially outside of Japan. This book is extremely accessible to a wide range of people. Like the older anime adaptation? Read the book! Like light novels? Check out one of the first in the genre! Like fantasy novels? This one has all of the staples you’ve grown to love!

There is some wonderful art within the book as well. The opening pages bear color images of the main character and his companions along with a short description of who them along with a map of Lodoss. The end of the book has more images, these being more full color images showing scenes and characters from the book. All of the full color images are soft, using muted colors and a watercolor-like quality. Backgrounds are usually not very detailed, instead being a swath of blended watercolor paints.

Yet my favorite images are found scattered throughout the novel. These are beautiful images made in much the same manner as the rest only this time in black and white. Each picture is a mixture of watercolor and pencil. Backgrounds are minimalistic, lending well to the play of light and dark within each image, especially in certain pictures. This creates a very interesting minimalistic quality to the images, something I really love.

Record of Lodoss War: The Grey Witch is a book which fans of manga, anime, and general fantasy fiction are bound to love. I sincerely hope that further titles in the Record of Lodoss War series are translated and released in the future. This is a truly wonderful series that I urge everyone to read, and sits in a place of honor on my shelf.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This review originally found on Looking Glass Reads. ( )

I am a huge fan of the Lodoss franchise, and was extremely happy when I saw this book had finally been localized. The writing is really simple, belying the complex story underlying it. ( )