Episode 154 of Key Frames, a podcast about anime. Another episode, another discussion about Western fantasy's many forms in anime and manga. This time, at least, we're not retreading our decade-old discussion of Record of Lodoss War (though maybe we should...) nor are we glazing contemporary faves like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and Delicious in Dungeon. Instead, our conversation keeps returning to a relative obscurity, the Heroic Legend of Arslan OVAs from the early nineties. They're not particularly good, in an absolute sense, but they raise some excellent questions on the ever-fading line between historical fiction on the one hand and neomedieval fantasy on the other, as well as providing for a uniquely fruitful source of people and places to look up on Wikipedia! Then, after being such good boys for staying mostly on topic, Ben and Duncan can't help but ramble a bit about alcohol, trauma, and of course yuri. Enjoy!
