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. Natsumoto Masato is the artist for Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. sadly I couldn’t find anything out about him. If you have any info you know what to do

It’s rather sad really, he’s listed all over the place as the artist for dozens of well known titles, but so little info is available.

About the manga

Damn I love this series!!! Very few manga series have ever given me the amount of pleasure to read as the Lodoss series has. What’s more is that this is a flipped series!! The only other series that I’ve enjoyed on this level, and was flipped, is the original AMG releases.

Masato’s art scarily resembles that off Ochi’s art from the Grey Witch, though there are some differences in the way he draws the characters.

This is good because it helps keep the continuity. His art like Ochi’s also has a western feel to it, and if i didn’t know any better i think i probably would have sworn it was a home grown american comic. This is probably one aspect that helped Lodoss to be come so popular over here. CPM flipping it, as well as the art style, and the way it was originally released, in comic book form, increased the fan base.

Another aspect i think would of been the feel of the series. Since this series is based off a Pen and Paper Role Play Game sessions, it comes through in the manga. As someone who used to play AD&D i found myself being doubly drawn into the series. When CPM started to release the the collected Trade Paper Back versions of the series, AD&D was going through a revival, so i think more fans would have come along as well.

Sadly, CPM went under, i’d have loved to see what other parts of the Lodoss Saga they licensed and released, since there are still novels and manga yet to be licensed in this series. In fact Ryo is still writing them today

Back onto this series!!

Masato’s art is really allowed a chance to breath in this and there are some subtle changes in the art style as the series progresses over the six volumes. There are very few bad parts of the series, in fact i don’t think i found any, or it could be i was just engrossed in the volume to notice. Which is how it should be!!

Ryo’s writing has also improved a great deal, and because of the six volumes he’s allowed the time to develop the characters more.

However, despite it’s greatness this series has a flaw, the end is rushed. As each volume went by it got thicker and thicker, volume six is almost double the size of volume one. It’s a shame he didn’t take another volume to allow the ending the chance to breath and have a more fitting ending.

I was also a bit surprised at how the love aspect was handled. The Grey Witch had Parn and Deelit, which was fairly obvious right from the outset. However in this volume we have Spark and Lief. I was surprised that Ryo abandons Lief has suddenly brings in Neese, who had barely appeared a few times. I have nothing against Neese, i just don’t think she made a good love interest. As the damsal in distress she was perfect however.

Despite my misgivings, Ryo draws an awesome world that can’t help but draw the reader in, and submerge them in the Lodoss World. When i started to read this i had planned to read only the first volume, but found i couldn’t stop and devoured the entire series in one sitting (and missed a night out with friends lol).

I have to admit i was impressed with CPM over this release, the paper quality is pretty amazing for a manga to be honest. It’s more inline with the paper used in older graphic novels, such as the Green Lantern and Green Arrow ones.

I was also impressed with the wealth of extras included about the Lodoss world. It’s like an encyclodepia pf everything you need to know

Translation wise, it’s impossible to say. As i can’t read the original versions it’s hard to say what is actually being said, they could have done total re-write and i’d not know. However what we have here flows seamlessly and fits really well.

Needless to say this series, hell the entire Lodoss Saga, goes on my Essential Read list because they’re so freaking awesome!!

Where to Buy

Sadly, the entire Lodoss Saga is now OOP! You can find copies scattered on the Amazon Market Place, however the quality is something that can not be garunteed, and the cost can be exceptionally high.

I also reccomend checking eBay, i was lucky enough to find someone selling almost the entire collection on eBay, and when they arrived i was stunned to find them in near mint condition. Shame he didn’t have the Demon of Flame volumes as well, then i’d have them all