|
|||||||||||||||
Now, in volume five of the manga series, we are quite familiar with Spark, an upstart young knight, who wants so badly to prove himself, but lacks the confidence of another knight with the same tale...Parn. His first attempt at proving himself went horribly unsuccessful. Charged with protecting the Crystal Ball Of Souls, Spark was unable to keep it from being spirited away by the evil Marmo dark-Elf forces. It was learned that the Marmo-loyal sorcerer, Vagnado desires the artifact because with it and the Staff Of Life, he will be able to resurrect the evil god Kardis. The Staff must not be lost! But again Spark failed to protect the item and now Vagnado has both components necessary for the mastery of Lodoss Island!
But now, with some of his friends missing, some captured, and some feared dead; there is not a great deal of hope living within Spark for the future. But if Deedlit, Parn and the half-Elf girl Leif (who has a crush on Spark, but needs to come to terms with her own self-image before she can proceed further) have anything to say about it, all hope is not yet lost. It is here that we take up the tale in Volume Five of this awesome manga, and it is a great time to join in the fun. You see, I began with this volume, having missed the first four, and I can tell you that within 10 pages I was hooked and couldn't put down this book until I was done.
Meanwhile, the kidnapping of the lady Neece, as an important part of the resurection ritual of Kardis adds the dynamic of the "damsel in distress" to the story and gives an already exciting story another kick in the ass. Overall, there is not a page in this book that does not in some way convey excitement and intrigue to the reader; making it a fun and wild read.
But, how exciting can sword and sorcery battles be in drawn form? Well, through creative use of movement and the restricting of most battle to epic army scaled skirmishes, the action remains intense and frantic. There is plenty of excitement here to make you wish your eyes moved as fast as your hands can turn the pages.
So, for all fans of Lodoss and fantasy in general, you could do a lot worse than these Lodoss War mangas, but not much better. Go ahead and indulge the inner Dungeons and Dragons nerd that is buried inside you. Just don't start wearing armor around or saying "Huzzah!" at inappropriate times.
-aaron-
|
|||||||||||||||
Based
on the events that take place in the sixth and seventh novels of the
long running series, "Chronicles" picks up where the action
left off in the eighth episode of the Record Of Lodoss War
OVA. Thus, one can consider it an alternate (yet true to the
original story) ending for the OVA. Either way, it means more
Lodoss for you and I, so how can we go wrong.
The
exciting sword and sorcery present in all of the on-screen incarnations
of the Lodoss mythos is more than adequately represented in this manga
series; and all former fans of Lodoss should begin reading these manga
immeadiatelt. This is such an exciting time to get on board!
The heroes are just building the foundations of a plan to overrun
the Marmo's evil plans, and their spirits are high. The friends,
who were scattered across the coast of Kanon in the last volume, are
slowly beginning to be found and regrouping for the final fight. 
I
am extremely pleased to see that the inherent humor present in the
animated versions of Lodoss is intact here in the manga as well; as
the laughs were some of the greatest moments of the series.
Rest assured that the relationships between potential romantic interests
are exploited for every bit of humor here, just as they were in Record
Of Lodoss War.