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. Yoneyama Setsuko did the art for Deedlit’s tale. though I couldn’t find much out about her. Though in the bio in the book it says she had her first book ‘Forest of the High Elf’ published while she was still a student. If you have any info you know what to do

About the manga

This two volume series diverts drastically from the shonen aspect of the rest of the series, and in fact is a shojo. Everything from the story to the art screams shojo.

Setsuko’s art is nice, but overall it lacks the feel and depth of both the previously reviewed Lodoss series, as well as what I’ve come to expect from shojo manga in general.

It suffers from the same flaws as other shojo series, in  that at times the over use of ink causes the panels, an pages to be hard to read and feel.

The new look of the characters is a bit off putting as well, especially for those who like the original designs and feel. Parn is bit to bishonen for my liking at times in this series. Estas is a bit overly elven in design, in a shojo the airy feel of the series would be normal, but I can’t help but see Lodoss as a shonen, and mixing the two styles is something very few can pull off.

The story is the saving grace for this manga, as it fills in the gaps in the other stories. These were minor things, but it’s always good to have them answered.

The other thing about this series, as it’s a shojo, it focuses more on the relationship between Parn and Deedlit. The rest of the story feels like a platform to show the love between the two characters. While I think it’s a bit misplaced, it does sort of fit.

However it has a huge flaw, and it’s a flaw in both the original Japanese and the english release. The stories in the volumes don’t flow together properly. In fact they’re spread all over the place. Events happen in the first volume that can’t happen because certain events that are a prelude to them don’t occur to volume two. If the stories had been set in order properly, I would have enjoyed it more.

Like all of the Lodoss Saga this was released by CPM, and for the first time I have a complaint!! There are several repeated pages that are clearly misprinted. While it has no impact on the story, it is annoying and shows a lack of QCing on their part.

I also think it’s a shame they didn’t combine the two volumes together given how short they are.

Quality wise these are much like the others of the CPM stable, and are of a really high quality, printed on great paper with good covers. It’s really a shame that CPM closed down.

I’m adding this to my Essential Read list, though I have to admit that if this was a stand alone series I wouldn’t. The flaws are to many and to often. However since it’s part of Lodoss and does answer the questions the other doesn’t, I’m adding it to the list.

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.

You can also check out the Amazon Market Place, I’ve seen some volumes on there, however the quality is a bit, well, crap.