Customer Reviews

Rune Soldier - Enter the Klutz (Vol. 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hoping for adventure (and money) three young women band together to seek treasure in the ruins of the countryside around Ohfun. These are Merrill (the thief), Genie (the warrior), and Melissa (the cleric). Admittedly, they seem better at sitting in taverns getting drunk, but they are determined. Unfortunately, on their first essay, they find a magically sealed door and realize that they are missing an important addition - a mage.

Returning to the city, they discover that there is only one magician in Ohfun who would be more interested in adventuring than hiding in their libraries. This is Louie, an inept magic student whose instinctive reaction is to use his fists rather than his wand. This DVD is subtitled 'Enter the Klutz' for a perfectly good reason. It doesn't help that Louie also isn't of 'the feminine persuasion,' or that Merrill thinks he is a pervert. But, against everyone's better judgment (except Louie's) they take him on as magician and luggage carrier. Louie gets the door open but then promptly falls afoul of the dungeon resident.

Louie breaks his wand smashing goblins, which puts a temporary stop to his magic career. Although they have been saved, the women are utterly disgusted with his lackof style and good sense, and send Louie on his way. Only for Melissa to find out that her god, Mylee, has other plans. 'This is against my will,' she shrieks as the band comes back together to find Louie a new wand, and the situation goes from bad to worse. Much to the delight of the audience.

Generally, I watch an anime DVD by listening to the English dubbing and turning on the subtitles. There are always deviations, and some are enlightening, and others funny. For the most part, they are fairly close. Occasionally, the texts differ so much that one has to wonder if the translators saw the same script. This is one of those cases. It's not that the English is unlikable, but it takes quite a few liberties. Purists will have to decide for themselves, but I would up listening to the Japanese and reading the subtitles.

Other than the dubbing, this is an unexpectedly good start to the series. The artwork is good, much finer that that of 'The Slayers' (to which there will be inevitable comparisons). The animation captures the slapstick nature of some of the action perfectly. And most important, the writing is surprisingly intelligent for what is, so far, light comedy. This bodes well for wherever the series finally goes. Recommended.

More of a Saturday Matinee than a Fantasy Epic, but don't let that fool you. This is one of the best comedy series to come out in a while. The story of a sorcerer who'd rather be a swordsman and joins a group of female adventurers on their missions for fame and fortune. Riui is a bit of an idiot, but like so many idiots before him he becomes the glue that ties people together with his simple faith and honesty. And there's a prophesy in there somewhere too. Can't wait for more of this to come to video!

Rune Soldier (originally titled: Louie the Rune Soldier) never seemed to get much attention--it certainly flew by under my radar, because volume 4 was out before I heard about it. This is a shame, because it is by far the best fantasy comedy released in the US. On the technical side, Rune Soldier features generally attractive character designs, fairly strong animation for a TV show, and a nice soundtrack. This disc, which is the first of six, contains 4 episodes.

For its story, Rune Soldier is not an epic of originality. A creation of the same author who created Lodoss War (but I'm not sure if it's meant to be the same world), Rune Soldier focuses on a team of three female adventurers: a cleric named Melissa, a fighter named Genie and a thief named Merrill. What they need is a magician. What they don't want is Louie, a brash, undisciplined man, who prefers to fight with his fists than use his magic. Although you see the initial setup coming a mile away, it works: the god of battle Melissa worships decrees that Louie is the valiant champion she must serve. This is, of course, entirely against her wishes.

Rune Soldier succeeds because of the intelligent writing. Although Louie may often act like an idiot, none of the characters are stupid--they all act reasonably given the circumstances. The show follows its own rules about how and why magic work. The characters play well off one another, with each of the girls fighting a grudging admiration about what Louie can do well and unleashing their frustration over the things at which he fails miserably. Because the creators clearly like their own characters, the humor flows naturally, instead of the forced dumb humor that plagues many shows.

As far as any potentially objectionable content, there isn't much. It's rated as 15+, but that seems largely on two points: first, Genie dresses as if a chainmail bikini would be too constricting (she is, however, usually wearing a cloak); second, Louie has a bit of an imagination. The most that shows up is a rear end, and it's for a few seconds across the entire four episodes on this disc.

I absolutely adore this little treasure. Normally, fantasies just leave me cold and dry. I just never got along with them in general. But this show is just so much fun and I'm very glad that I took a chance with it. Louie is a very interesting catalyst and it's quite amusing how all the other characters, especially Melissa, react to his antics. Again, it's a very good show and I highly recommend it for good laughs and solid animation.

Great animation!! The characters are interesting and funny. It has PLOT!! I own the first four volumes and am absolutly in love with this series.

The girls, Merrill, Genie, and Melissa, need a mage to help them open a ruin that they have found. They seek a female mage, but none are willing to or powerful enough to go. Up steps Louie. He's very different. Louie likes to fight, and has the muscle to back it up with.
The first thing Louie does is break his wand over the head of an enemy. He'll spend the rest of the series trying to live that down along with some other mistakes he makes.

i am really over thirteen, but my settings need to be upgraded. I'd give rune soldier a 5 star rating because it is so comic. I laughed many times while watching this DVD. even though the rating of the DVD is only 15+ i think it should be 16+. i let my little brother watch it, and felt bad that he had seen such nutity in an anime. I love anime a lot, and i think that Rune Soldier should get 5 stars... although I also believe that it is not suitable for children under 14.thanks.

I'm not a big fan of the anime comedy genre most of the time. I think that stems from the fact that a lot of anime comedy stems from laughing at someone being not the brightest, which I personally don't find all that amusing. I do happen to find humor in the more serious animes always enjoyable.

Rune Soldier is watchable though. I can understand how fans of anime comedy would enjoy this series. There are genuinely funny moments, even for me, though most of the humor revolves around Louie, the rune soldier's, stupidity. Here's where the humor hit a bit of a snag with me simply because Louie isn't really all that stupid. He's good hearted but klutzy and he's also a good fighter. The group of adventurers he joins delight in pointing out how stupid and annoying he is, yet by the end their whining about him is more annoying that anything Louie could possibly conjure up. Yes, he's egotistical. Yes, he's a bit crude. And yes, he doesn't think things through to the end, but poking fun at him and treating him with disdain seems more like stupidity on the girls' parts as he does prove he has his uses and is genuinely kind.

I was fond of Louie's best friend, a young magician who seems to be able to see past Louie's ineptitude and appreciate him for being a pretty nice guy. Maybe the others will warm up to the good natured, but bumbling Louie later in the series. One can only hope, since the priestess Melissa actually has good comedy potential, since she's in charge of serving Louie, her valient hero, even though she was expecting to be assigned to someone more valient and perfect.

There's potential for the series to become something really amusing, and there is a definate influence of Slayers in the series, but as of now there's just something missing from making it more recommendable.

Rune Soldier is a nice little comedic romp through a fantasy world. It is indeed very funny, but I can't help but hope that there will be more to it than that in future releases. Don't get me wrong, I like funny, but this has so much potential! It could pull off the same amount of funny and little bit of plot too! And if it did it'd be so much better! The animation is very nice, the character designs are also, the colors are bright, the list goes on. I was especially surprised at the depth of this fantasy world that had been created. I'd hate to see it follow the same formula for all of its episodes. The story follows three female adventures who are in need of a magician, instead they get Louie, a dumb-witted brash magician in training. The story thus far follows the same pattern. Problem-usually created by Louie- characters set off to solve adventure- problem somewhat solved, with comedy thrown throughout. I'd like to see a bit more depth and story, while still keeping up with the comedy. It reminds me of Sailor Moon's famed "villain of the week" pattern, but this anime creates a "mishap of the week" pattern for its self. Of course this is just the first disk and things could pick up!

ADV also did a nice packaging job here, a clear DVD case with a reversible cover, what looks like temporary tattoos and my personal favorite, a booklet with episode summaries and a few character designs. So far it's a nice show, but nothing I'd write home about. I'm not sure if I'd add it to my anime collection either, but it's definitely worth watching.

Yey finally another crazy, insane, elf-including fantasy anime! This series caught my eye the other day in the store, basically I couldn't see what the hell the title of it was from afar...Anyway on to the review! The first thing you hear when watching an anime is the opening theme song and I can definetly say it's very high up there in my favorite opening list.

On to the actual series, I thought the first episode was only so/so...however, after the weak first episodes I think it really finds its niche quite nicely and delivers on yet another comedic fantasy. The characters are in my opinion quite good, although yes there are some typical anime-sterotypes it manages to both spoof and change the characters just enough to be orignal.

Moving on to the art style I found it to be quite detailed and clean. Except for some of the female characters design I thought the style was quite good.

Lastly, the next episode previews weren't that orignal, but still managed to entertain. The end theme was pretty bad the first time you hear it but it does gradually grow on you.

Louie is a magician...and not a very good one. I.E, he breaks his magic wand by using it as a sword. He's the "Champion" of the Priestess Melissa, though it is against her will. With Melissa is the amazon-like Genie and Meril, a thief who loves swimming in gold coins ala Scrooge McDuck. This is one of the best animes out there. Straight to your home...LOUIE PUNCH!!!