Rune Soldier Louie

Louie PUUUUUUUUUNCH!!

When an all-female adventuring team needs a mage, the only one they can get on short notice is the burly adopted son of the head of the local mage guild. Not only does Louie look more like a fighter than a mage, he acts like it, too, getting into all manner of trouble and trying to solve it with his fists. And when the team's cleric learns that her god has assigned to her a special relationship with Louie, well, let's just say she's less than happy.

A slapstick comedy set in the world of the ultra-serious high fantasy drama Record of Lodoss War, Rune Soldier Louie (Mahou Senshi Riui) has fun playing against type with the tropes of the fantasy genre. Lodoss's roots in Dungeons and Dragons are just as clear here as they are in the original series, with the stereotypical character classes – who don't always act anything like you would expect they should.[1]

Tropes used in Rune Soldier Louie include:
  • Abuse Is Okay When It Is Female On Male: Very much played straight... at first but was rather subverted later on in the series when Louie actually fought back when Genie was about to use him as a punching bag again, Melissa and Meryl were worried about this but the scene was generally depicted as a good thing as this is when Genie got softer around Louie a little later on afterwards.
  • In Another Man's Shoes: Episode 21 is about this for Melissa when she covers for Merrill, with a variation. The focus is on the difference between Melissa and Louie, rather than between Melissa and Merrill.
  • Adjective Noun Fred
  • Amazonian Beauty: Genie.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Genie and Merrill.
  • Beach Episode: Well, lake episode anyway.
  • Beautiful Condemned Building: How Merrill sees the run-down house she buys in episode nineteen.
  • Because Destiny Says So: Melissa working with Louie, although it is against her will. Also subverted with Isabel, who eventually confesses she faked having a revelation of a hero to serve, but it turned out the man she chose by herself was a real hero anyway.
  • The Big Guy: Genie, moreso than Louie even.
  • Big No: When Melissa discovers that Louie's the hero she's destined to serve.
    • Her special personal variant "Even if it is AGAINST MY WILL!!!" comes up several times in each episode, always in response to Louie's actions.
  • Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Melissa, Merrill, and Genie.
  • Blue with Shock
  • Boobs of Steel: Genie.
  • Busman's Holiday
  • Butt Monkey: Louie. Conrad too, whenever he shows up.
    • Also Merrill. Episodes that focus on her generally show a series of terrible things happening to her.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Actually pretty rare, but Louie has a habit of doing it occasionally.
    • Louie Punch, anyone?
  • The Cameo (Be on the lookout for Rei, Makoto, and Ami in the bathhouse Louie peeps into in episode 1.
  • Canon Foreigner: Isabel, Renard, and their party.
  • Catch Phrase: "Louie Punch!", "It's against my will!"
  • Child Mage: Lilly.
  • Chosen One: Louie as Melissa's champion, although it is against her will.
  • Cleavage Window: The cleric dresses Melissa and Isabel wear.
  • Combination Attack: Complete with portraits.
  • Dark-Skinned Redhead: Genie, the swordswoman.
  • Destructive Savior: Louie a couple times.
    • Especially in the final episode.
  • Dunno What's Going On, But...
  • Facial Markings
  • Fan Service
  • Fiction 500: The nobleman who mistakes Merrill for his true love.
  • Five-Man Band
    • The Hero: Louie, of course.
    • The Lancer: Merrill, though Genie has shades of this.
    • The Big Guy: Genie.
    • The Smart Guy & The Chick: Melissa and Ila, when she tags along. Both of them play both roles.
    • Sixth Ranger: Louie tends to trust Celesia. The others tend to make snide comments and treat her like an outsider though in most events they're not wrong in their views.
  • The Fool/The Messiah: Louie
  • Form Fitting Clothing: Impossibly so and usually only the lead female characters but it's all for fanservice, sweet sweet fanservice. Yeah.
  • Gender Bender: In one episode, and made all the more disturbing by the fact that Louie is most decidedly not an Attractive Bent Gender, looking pretty much like normal except for a pair of large breasts. It would appear Genie is the only one in the show capable of pulling off the strong lady look well.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: In episode nineteen of the English dub when Merrill buys a house she says "Mi casa es su casa" (My house is your house) to Louie, Genie, and Melissa.
  • Harem Anime: Subverted, it's got the trappings of a harem comedy but the emphasis is on parodying fantasy tropes. All three main female characters at the beginning of the show actually dislike him and by the end have a good amount of respect for him with no romantic elements involved. On top of that, Louie always thinks of them as his buddies and seems to be in a perfectly stable relationship with his girlfriend Ila.
  • Hermetic Magic
  • Hot Chick with a Sword Genie, again.
  • Identical Stranger: Odessa for Merrill.
  • Improvised Weapon: Louie is capable of swinging a wild boar around, seemingly effortlessly.
  • Innocent Innuendo: In an early episode, a scene begins showing sweet young thing Ila bouncing up and down, eyes closed, apparently in the throes of sexual ecstasy as offscreen Louie is heard grunting and huffing; it turns out that she is actually sitting on Louie's back as he does a set of pushups. (Given Ila's feelings about Louie, she may well have been in the throes of sexual ecstasy, but the scene still isn't the one the viewer initially thinks it is.)
  • Knight in Shining Armor: Parodied by Conrad, played straight by Leonard.
  • Left Hanging: Although there are sufficient clues for the observant viewer to deduce who Louie's parents probably are and why he was fostered with the head of the mage guild, no one in the cast has access to them all -- or any interest in the question, for that matter -- so there is no chance to find out for sure.
  • Limited Wardrobe
  • Little Miss Badass: Lilly, mild version.
    • Merrill has shades of this dependant on how old you think she is.
  • Magic Knight: Louie is more this than a straight up wizard.
    • He seems more a Bare-Fisted Monk, as he's rather unreliable in the magic department and prefers his fists over his sword.
  • Medieval European Fantasy
  • Meganekko: Ila
  • Money Fetish: Merrill
  • Mooks: Demon mooks sure but nonetheless...
  • Nobody Poops: Averted in the episode where Merrill spends pretty much the whole episode in the restroom because of some laxative-laced cookies she eats.
  • The Not Love Interest: Melissa for Louie.
  • Panty Shot: A rare case of some pretty damn realistic skirt physics.
  • Peek-a-Bangs: On Genie, which is a tad strange, given that fighters usually need to be able to see their surroundings.
  • Pillar of Light
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Spoofed -- Merrill, who is mistaken for a nobleman's true love, she is offered a whole bunch of dresses to wear. She can't decided so she layers several on at once.
  • Potty Emergency: Merrill has to get to a restroom very quickly when she eats some laxative-laced cookies.
  • The Power of Friendship: Louie's punching isn't enough to break the Big Bad's barrier at the finale, but when the girls join him, their punches are strong enough.
  • Pretty Freeloaders: Inverted -- Louie becomes an unwanted companion to Melissa, Merrill, and Jeannie.
  • Rebellious Princess: Melissa was a noblewoman who ran away from an arranged marriage.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: Inverted. Louie has blue hair and clothing but possesses the characteristics typically associated with a Red Oni. Genie has red hair and clothing, yet acts like a typical Blue Oni. Their rivalry is played up a lot outside of Genie's master/student sessions teaching Louie how to swing a sword.
  • Role Playing Game Terms
  • Role Playing Game Verse
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: The prince is an adventurer, but you don't find out who until 2/3 into the series. It's a minor character, though.
  • RPG Anime
  • Running Gag: "Against my will," by Melissa about Louie's status as her hero.
  • Shorttank: Merrill, the thief.
  • Show Some Leg: On a stupid clay golem. And it worked.
  • Snot Bubble
  • Spanner in the Works: Louie ruined one of the bad guys' schemes because there wasn't a ready bathroom nearby. Of course, odds are he was doing it to mess with his teacher, as well.
  • Sparkling Stream of Tears
  • Stay in the Kitchen: Subverted, Genie thought this happened to her in her army days. It turned out one of the soldiers didn't let her stay and die because he was in love with her, not because she was a woman and he thought he should do it instead.
  • Stripperiffic: Genie doesn't even bother with a Breast Plate, apparently being so Badass that she doesn't need armor, or even much clothing.
    • And one of Merrill's day jobs is an exotic dancer, which Melissa found out to her horror when she tried doing Merrill's jobs when she was sick, and had to put the dancer outfit on.

Melissa: "If this is what he means when he says the word 'costume', then I don't want to know what he means when he says 'dance'".

  1. ↑ For example, it's pretty obvious that the party mage – who in any other D&D party would be the Smart Guy – used Intelligence as his Dump Stat.
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