The Quest for Anime

There actually wasn't one. Thundercats pretty much marked the end of my cartoon/anime watching days for a period of several years. I soon turned 16 and got caught up in trying to be cool (a waste of time and effort). This involved making a general ass of myself, alienating a number of my friends and drinking to the point of stupidity for a number of years, which culminated in a wasted semester at the University of Wyoming. All I managed to do was fail my classes, alienate even more friends, and continue on a downward spiral.

After that debacle was over, I ended up joining the Navy for all the wrong reasons. Whilst serving in the Navy, I continued to generally be a douchebag, drink too much and piss people off. At least I was in good company this time though. The stereotypes regarding drunken sailors are all too accurate I'm afraid.

Somehow during all of this jack-assery, I started to renew my interest in all things geek. I started playing Dungeons & Dragons again, as it turns out the military is home to many a nerd. I soon ended up getting stationed in Okinawa with most of my D&D buddies. A couple of them were also Japanophiles, and had chosen Okinawa as one of their top choices for next duty station. We would regularly have movie nights together as a group, and it was during one of these that someone brought in the anime Vampire Hunter D. This was right up my alley, and I was frankly blown away by the gore, the fantasy setting and the downright coolness of it all.

I was fortunate to be in Japan, and it was easy to get my hands on other anime titles in short order. Unfortunately, most of them were forgettable and uninteresting to me. Anything that concerns giant robots fighting each other just bores me to death. Also, with the notable exception of Firefly and the original three Star Wars films, I just don't like sci-fi all that much either, so that ruled out a large chunk of anime as well.

During one of our movie nights, one of the Japanophiles (I guess I would now label him otaku), brought in a copy of Record of Lodoss War.  Once again I was blown away. Here was an anime that was clearly inspired by western notions of high fantasy. It was part Lord of the Rings, part Dungeons & Dragons, and incredibly enjoyable. It had all the traditional characters one would expect: noble knight, wily rogue, gruff dwarf, mysterious wizard, etc. battling the usual monsters such as goblins, kobolds, dragons, dark lords and witches. Regardless of the tropes and cliches which abounded, the story was well told and unpredictable. It was a story with the trappings of Western fantasy, but with Japanese sensibilities. No straightforward battle of good vs. evil here... plenty of shades of gray and a fair amount of tragedy and loss. It was brilliant, and I wanted more.

D&D Party: "Woodchuck" the Rogue, Slayne the Wizard, Etoh the Cleric, Deedlit the Elf, Gimm the Dwarf, and Parn the Knight. Roll initiative!

I later discovered that the anime was based on a series of Japanese fantasy novels of the same title by Ryo Mizuno, who had been inspired by the Dungeons & Dragons RPG. Although it has been decades since its original release, Lodoss remains popular and well regarded by both anime and fantasy fans worldwide; so much so that an online role-playing game (ala World of Warcraft) is being developed in Japan for worldwide release.

Lodoss MMO in development! 

My next post will take the focus away from anime, at least for the time being... stay tuned.