About the Mangaka

Mizuno Ryo an author and game designer. He created not only the Record of Lodoss War game, but also Rune Soldier and the Sword World RPG system, and also the Starship Operators novels. He was also involved with the Galaxy Angel manga. He has shown talent in both dramatic and humorous genres. He was one of the founding members of Group SNE.

The art for the Lodoss War manga was done by various artists. Ochi Yoshihiko is the artist for The Grey Witch. sadly i couldn’t find anything out about him/her. If you have any info you know what to do

About the manga

This series is the pinnacle of great manga of it’s genre, but sadly it’s extremely hard to find.

This three volume series is a co-operation work between Mizuno Ryo who does the script, and Ochi Yoshihiko who does the art.

Oddly when i first fund this series i was convinced it was American, i had recently started playing AD&D and this has a AD&D feel to it. though given that Mizuno was behind the Sword World RPG system it’s not surprising there’d be similarities.

The main thing that convinced me of it being American was the art style, even now when i read it i can’t help but feel the art is American as everything about it is similar to the American comics of the day. This was further emphasised by it being released in comic book format and flipped so as it read left to right.

Though that was back in the day when i hadn’t even heard of manga yet and thought everything was a ‘comic’ hehe

Ochi’s art is awesome, and fits the story perfectly. I especially liked the sparse use of chibi characters which off set the tension at times.

However it’s not without it’s flaws, occasionally Ochi slips up on the faces of the characters and they look a little off.

Mizuno’s writing is truly amazing in this series. While it’s impossible to verify the translation, what we have flows really well, and to be honest reads freaking awesomely!!

Though given he wrote the original novels this is to be expected. Conversions from novel to manga can end up feeling strained at times, and weak at others, this series has neither flaws. Mizuno wrote his piece perfectly, the picture he paints is smooth and fun. I especially loved reading the characters developments through the series. His writing style, and the flow of the story perfectly match Ochi’s art.

However it also has a few flaws, for one there are some weird flows in the story. initially it starts off good, but as time goes by it gets a bit jerky. It’s like he realised he was running out of space so decided to jump events. However these jumps weren’t done smoothly resulting in obvious gap in the flow.

This was a CPM release, and sadly CPM no longer exists, and this title is now next to impossible to find. It occasionally turns up on eBay, or in second hand shops, but that’s it.

There are supposedly three versions of this series. The one i have is the individual comic books that were originally released in 2004. It was later gathered in three trade paper backs, and apparently, just before they closed up, they released a true manga version of it.

Like most manga of the time, this was released in comic book format and flipped, reading left to right. As i said it’s impossible to confirm the translation, but what we have here is a smooth flow in the wording. Though from what I’ve found out CPM did do some rewrites. It’d be interesting to see what the true version of this series reads like, if the rewrites is true.

About Lodoss

Lodoss is rather unique, while i said the manga was based off of novels, this is a bit incorrect. What it’s actually based on are transcripts of gaming sessions of Dungeons and Dragons. They were released in book format under the RePlay label in Japan and became hugely popular.

The first one appeared in Comptiq magazine in 1986, published by Kadokawa Shoten, There are three original combined Replays that were later released as novels, they were marketed as some of Japan’s first high fantasy.

• Record of Lodoss War – Parn’s party, game system is Dungeons & Dragons.
• Record of Lodoss War II – Orson’s party, game system is Dungeons & Dragons.
• Record of Lodoss War III – Spark’s party, game system is Record of Lodoss War Companion.

They were eventually made into proper novels and released in Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko.

The manga was released in six individual stories spanning eighteen volumes.

• The Grey Witch – 3 volumes
• The Demon of Flame – 2 volumes
• The Lady of Pharis  – 2 volumes
• Chronicles of the Heroic Knight - 6 volumes
• Welcome to Lodoss Island – 3 volumes, four panel manga
• Deedlit’s Tale - 2 volumes
• Legend of Crystania (I had no idea this was part of Lodoss!!)

Mizuno is still writing Lodoss novels today!!

I hope that some company *cough*Yen Press*cough* picks up either the manga or the RePlay’s and release them. I’d love to see these in print!!

Needless to say, this title is on my Essential Read list, firstly because it’s a classic manga, and secondly because im a huge AD&D fan. Also Deedlit is my secret wife )

Where to Buy

Sadly, as i said, the entire Lodoss series is out of print, and since CPM no longer exists there’s almost no chance of them ever being back in print. Best bet is to scour EBay and specialist second hand comic stores who have access to the second hand comic industry. However be prepared to pay for it. I’ve seen the entire series of manga, spanning six individual stories, and eighteen volumes, selling for a whopping $890. That was for a brand new unread and sealed set.