by AstroNerdBoy on January 27th, 2006, 3:25am

---

User rating of this review - N/A out of 5
Story/Plot - 3 out of 5
Characters - 3 out of 5
Drawing Style - 3 out of 5
Enjoyment - 3 out of 5
Overall - 3 out of 5

Click here for series information

Plot/Story

There are several loosely connected stories in this manga. First, a few years after the events of "The Grey Witch," Parn and Deedlit are living together, though not in the 'biblical' sense. Deedlit loves Parn dearly, but he is more concerned with protecting the village of Zaxon from Duke Rastar, as that village, lead by Slayn and his wife Leylia. Slayn has declared the village to be independent, something the Duke will not tolerate. During the crisis, a High Elf named Estas comes to visit Deedlit. However, his intentions are to make Deedlit return to her High Elf home. What will it take to convince him that immortal Deedlit should live her life with the very mortal Parn? Will Parn "look" at Deedlit as more than a friend and battle companion?

In the second story, Parn and Deedlit are at the Forest of No Return, where Deedlit's village remains. The High Elves had opened the forest to non-elves for the first time and had freed all those trapped inside. Those trapped had remained suspended in time. One powerful sorcerer named Strall (Straw) decided that revenge must be taken on the High Elves for trapping him for 500-years. Can Parn and Deed protect the forest and save her people?

In the third story, the forces of Marmo are pressing forward and free knight Parn along with Deedlit must lead an evacuation of the people of Kanon. This means going through the cursed Forest of No Return, where Deedlit's village is hidden and non-Elves are forbidden to pass through. The curse traps them and suspends them in time within the forest. Among the evacuees is a half-elf girl named Lief (Leaf). As they enter the forest, all but Deed and Lief succumb to the curse, though Parn desperately attempts to fight the effects and nearly succeeds. Estas meets the pair, but convincing the female 'elder' of her village to release the curse and open the forest will take more effort than Deed can provide, but something that maybe Lief can.

The fourth story tells of what happened the sorcerer Strall after he was released from the Forest of No Return and what fueled his desire for revenge. The fifth story tells of Deedlit's birth and how some 160-years later, she came to decide to leave the Forest of No Return to live among the humans.

Characters

• Parn -- A male, human hero of the events in "The Grey Witch," Parn is now a free knight who alongside the High Elf Deedlit is determined to protect the citizens of Lodoss from those who would harm them. Along the way, he discovers his feelings for Deed.
• Deedlit -- She is the youngest of the High Elves at 160 and the first to be born to that race in a 1000-years. Having fought along side Parn, she finds that she loves him dearly and will not leave him even knowing that at best, he will one day grow old and die while she will remain eternally youthful.
• Estas -- He is also a High Elf, and one whom Deedlit knows and cares for a lot. He loves Deedlit and only wants to see her truly happy, but doesn't think this can be done living with humans.
• Lief -- She is a half-elf whose mother was a human fighter and her father was a regular elf mage. Because of her mixed heritage, Lief finds herself the target of scorn from both humans and elves, including the High Elves. Still, she manages to be positive and carry on despite this.

Drawing Style

Setsuko Yoneyama, replacing Yoshihiko Ochi, does the art for this manga. While I'm sure she's a fine artist, for this manga, I did not like her character designs, or her style in drawing, which goes for a lighter feel (though some of this may be the print quality As such, Deedlit no longer displays a range of emotions as she did in "The Grey Witch" and I find that to be very disappointing.

Enjoyment

I didn't enjoy this manga as much as I did "The Grey Witch." This is due in part to the artwork failings, but also to the way these various short stories are presented. The initial story was interesting, if a bit over the top, dealing with Deed and Parn's relationship. The next story was interesting dealing with protecting the Forest of No Return. However the third story goes back in time to where the Forrest of No Return is still closed. There's no warning about this, so at first I was left scratching my head as to what the heck was going on.

The next story dealing with the mage who attempted to get his revenge on the High Elves was completely uninteresting to me. The final story telling how Deedlit was able to come to live among the humans was somewhat interesting.

I would have enjoyed this more had the story been laid out in chronological order. Further, the romance between Deedlit and Parn could have been done better in my opinion.

Overall

Central Park Media publishes this manga Western-styled, which annoys me to no end. I guess they don't feel the need to re-publish it Japanese-style due to the age of the title. And I always question CPM's translations based on my experiences with their anime titles.

That aside, fans of "Record of Lodoss War" will certainly wish to read this to gain additional insight on Parn and Deedlit as well as see some of their additional adventures. So it is worth a read, but even if Del Rey published this, I can't say it is worth a spot on your bookshelf.

---