With the sci-fi and mech genres of anime going from strength to strength in recent years with quality titles like Full Metal Panic! and Mazinkaiser, the sword and sorcery fans amongst us have had to make do with whatever scraps we can find. New fantasy titles have been thin on the ground, with only Escaflowne and Dragon Half providing respite from the glut of sci-fi related anime. But fear not, ADV have gone a long way to redress the balance in recent months, with Final Fantasy Unlimited, King of Bandit Jing, Slayers and most recently Rune Soldier adding a little variety to the shelves.

As with Slayers and Dragon Half before it, Rune Soldier is a light hearted comedic spin on the time-worn dungeons and dragons theme. Louie, adopted son of a legendary magician and scholar of the local magic college, is the unlikely hero of our tale. As the subtitle suggests, Louie isn't exactly the most graceful of magicians and prefers to use his fists than his wand, his brash attitude and clumsy nature giving him more than enough opportunity to do so. Yet it is his questionable skill with the dark arts that earns him the attention of a group of all-female adventurers, Melissa, Genie and Merrill, (treasure hunters to me and you) that require the services of a magician to open

the sealed door of a castle dungeon that houses unknown treasures. They're not best pleased with their new recruit and would sooner see the back of the blue-haired oaf, but sadly don't have much choice in the matter - divine intervention has done its intervening and has (entirely against her will) ordered the devout Melissa to fight at Louie's side under the pretension that he will one day become a great hero.

From the moment we learn that Melissa (presumably a white mage of some sort, although it isn't made absolutely clear) will receive a prophecy that may reveal to her the heroic warrior to whom she must devote a life of servitude, it becomes abundantly obvious that this great hero can be none other than the unlikely Louie; a transparent but surprisingly effective little plot device that helps set the tone for the rest of the series. Louie's bumbling hijinks provide the majority of the laughs, while the girls play the straight man, moaning and groaning in the background and cursing his ineptitude. It's hardly sophisticated stuff, but if you've ever laughed at a guy getting hit in the groin by a football (I know I have) then you'll doubtless find something to tickle your funny bone in Rune Soldier's repertoire of slapstick.

Thankfully comedy isn't Rune Soldier's one and only attribute. The

story may be far too predictable to please the Evangelion crowd, but I've found to be an accessible, enjoyable little adventure thus far. The central characters may be a wee bit on the stereotypical side (at least within the confines of the genre), but their relationships to one another are less straightforward. I was surprised to see a fair amount of screentime devoted to this aspect, and whilst it may not be of the highest standards, a little character development goes a long way in a title like Rune Soldier. How the story and its characters will progress over time is uncertain at this early juncture, but early signs are promising. However, one thing that Rune Soldier is sorely lacking at this moment in time is a good bad guy to give our heroes some much needed motivation. None has been introduced during the four episodes on this disc, and if it continues like this for much longer I'm afraid that it might be too late to really establish a character as the bad guy of the piece. Rune Soldier is just crying out for a evil overlord with a purple cloak, red eyes and hackneyed cackle, but it has yet to provide.

Another string to Rune Soldier's bow is the capable action scenes that crop up every now and again to help

spice things up. Fight sequences are more often than not the result of Louie's ineptitude and therefore the brunt of a joke or gag, but they're neatly directed and well animated considering the budget. Watching Louie punch and smash his way through a horde of goblins is every bit as fun as it sounds, while the sword wielding Genie and the thief Merrill lend a little grace to the action. Unfortunately the character designs are unspectacular and fail to add visual impact these sequences, with the entire aesthetic of the show feeling about five or ten years out of date in comparison to the likes of Escaflowne and King of Bandit Jing. This is especially true of the enemies that Louie and the gang face, which have varied from dull to even duller over the four episodes so far and lacked any kind of imagination whatsoever. This is offset somewhat by the detailed, colourful artwork and decent computer-aided animation, but it's really no replacement for some good quality visual design.

Visuals aside, Rune Soldier is actually one of the better fantasy based show available at the moment. Often amusing, occasionally exciting but always fun, this is recommended viewing for those of you who crave a little sword and sorcery but have exhausted your stock of El Hazard, Record of Lodoss War and Escaflowne.