Evil does not extinguish love.

[Ronin Aquila]

Ashram is one of the most outstanding anti-heroes ever portrayed. Although utterly ruthless and amoral, he is a man who staunchly lives by his ideals, and although evil, fully capable of loving and caring for those he is bound by honour to.

His tender embrace of Priotess prior to her fiery demise is easily one of the most touching moments of genuine love in animated fantasy. And most amazingly of all, it was true love between two undeniably evil people.

Notwithstanding his awesome swordsmanship and calmness in combat, the above positive qualities make him one of my favourite anime villains of all time.

[Robotech Master]

Agreed. Avenging her death by Killing Wagnard was also nice.

In the TV series (and Novels), Pirotess and Ashram both live, so they go off together and live happily ever after...

...until they reach crystania, but thats a whole different story that ends up taking place several centuries after Lodoss War.

I'm talking about Legend of Crystania. I would recommend the novels, but they were never translated. The OVA they made was rushed into development, sot he Crystania Anime is not that good, but the novels are supposed to be very interesting.

[cloakactive]

I've heard so much negative feeback from Crystania.

What does everyone in here personally think about the anime? Would it be worth buying or should i just borrow it from a friend??? :confused:

[Robotech Master]

Borrow it from a friend.

Its not bad because its bad. It still has a great story.

The problem is that their were problems with Kadokawa company during its production. The company itself was in danger of shutting down because of the sudden loss of one of their main bosses, so they had to rush the development of Crystania. This is also one of the reasons why there weren't any Lodoss releated anime for nearly 6 years.

Because of the rushed development, the animation changes quality from pretty good to almost horrible. The story is also rushed into one movie and a few OVA episodes. Unfortunatly, you can't rush a 4 novel storyline into a few episodes and a movie.

Theres still a chance that you can appreciate its story though, so borrow it if you can. Once again, I say that the novels are supposed to be good, but they haven't been translated. Thats why we need to petition to get all Lodoss-related novels translated (there are over 12).

[Drizzten]

Ashram has an even-handed glare that stops you in your tracks. When he burned that castle/fort to the ground at the begninning of the OVA and had that staring match between himself and Parn, I knew he was someone not to screw with.

[Ronin Aquila]

Just like Shinomori Aoshi of "Ruronin Kenshin", he is the human embodiment of "ice."

[Slayn210]

yeah ashram is awsome i don't think they should of killed him in the series(don't remeber witch one) he was an awsome charater and would have made an even better enemy if he would have survived and piortess would have died

[DrZepp]

Ashram is DEFINATELY one of my favorite villians. In the tv series more than the OVA i think he was more "justified" i guess. In the end i felt his overall intentions werent as bad as i originally thought, creating a deeper level to his character i think. And i LOVE that kind of villian.

[Ronin Aquila]

Like the mighty Hitokiri Shishio Makoto of "Ruronin Kenshin", Ashram of the 1st "Lodoss" OVA is a man who would fight and die to sustain his ideals, and that makes him a most admirable man indeed.

[Slayn210]

Hitokiri Shishio Makoto
^^^^ witch episode was he in?

yeah the villians with the ideals aren't really evil they(in a somewhat bad way) just want the world to be better, even if it means destroying it

[Ronin Aquila]

There is no specific episode in which Shishio Makoto appears, for an entire SEASON of the series (Episodes 28-62) is devoted to stopping his insane plan of dominating Japan.