Leina Stol in Wolf Sword Legend I

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Leina Stol in Wolf Sword Legend I "レイナ剣狼伝説I"
Production company	Ashi Productions
Release date	February 5, 1988
Original presentation	OVA
Written by	Hideki Sonoda
Directed by	Takao Kato
Animation studio	Ashi Productions

Who is Leina Haruka?

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Synopsis

Present day Japan; a 16-year old girl appears on top of the Toho Seimei Building in Tokyo during an intense storm - with nothing but the Wolf Sword. Later in a girls' school the depressed Nami Kojima reads of the story of the Three Girls of Aileas, which ends with a prophecy that a girl with a sword will ward off approaching darkness of Tide Tyrant; her classmates are tired of her obsession with the story, and Nami is isolated from her peers. When new girl Leina Haruka arrives in the class Nami greets her with familiarity, believing her to be part of the prophecy. Leina is bemused, and Nami's classmates make fun of her once again. Kyoko Yoshida, Sara Yamada and Yuko Sano all befriend Leina, but she is more interested in the lonely Nami.

Leina walks home with Nami and her tales of the Wolf Sword triggers something in Leina's memories. Nami explains that she is obsessed with the prophecy even though she doubts its veracity, and explains to Leina about the story of Alice in Wonderland, showing her a broken fob watch her mother gave her, featuring a motif from the story. Meanwhile Yuko vanishes from a shopping expedition with Kyoko and Sara in the city, and they interrupt Leina and Nami to tell them about it.

Nami uses the school bell to raise the alarm but only their teacher Sonoda responds, attacking Leina. She fights back and uses Nami's watch to reveal his true form – Tide Tyrant, who was behind the abduction of Yuko. This unlocks some of her memories as Leina Stol and she races to find the Wolf Sword, hidden in the school, to fight him; grabbing it gives her a version of her previous armor. Tide Tyrant uses the watch, inducing visions where Leina and young Rom are training with Guardi before her friends appear to tell her they are gone. However the Wolf Sword fights back with a real vision of Rom, inspiring her to fight back. Leina destroys the watch, vanquishing Tide Tyrant.

The next morning at school Nami, Kyoko, Sara and a returned Yuko can't remember the events of the previous day, though Nami's broken watch is working and she is happier, with a feeling of meeting someone with great strength.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Humans	Others
Nami Kojima (2) Kyoko Yoshida (4) Sara Yamada (5) Yuko Sano (6)	Leina Stol (1) Tide Tyrant (3) Rom Stol (7) Guardi Stol (8) Blue Jet (9) Rod Drill (10) Triple Jim (11)

(characters in italics are only present in flashback and/or dream scenes.)

Notes

• Nami Kojima is based on Kina from "Burn and Run, Brother and Sister Warriors!"; Yuko Sano is inspired by Rury from "Jet! Defeat the Double Death Blade!"; Sara Yamada is inspired by Sara from "The Heart of a Protecting Angel"; Kyoko Yoshida is based on Sophia from "Sophia, Warrior Woman of the Leo Clan", even being compared as a lion and showing feline behaviour. Whether this implies that they were somehow taken across the dimensional barrier (despite being dead), were somehow created by Leina's mind, were part of Tide Tyrant's plan or if it's just a bit of fun by Ashi reusing the voice actresses for some fan references is unclear.
• The new human forms of Blue Jet, Rod Drill, Triple Jim and Rom Stol are seen in the opening titles and feature as visions while Tide Tyrant taunts Leina.
• In what was presumably a bit of misdirection, Sonoda is voiced by Rom Stol's actor, Kazuhiko Inoue.
• Sonoda's name is a reference to Hideki Sonoda, who not only wrote the OVA but invented the Stol family for Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos.

Real-world references

• References to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland naturally abound. As well as the pocket watch and numerous other motifs, the text from the Three Girls of Aileas is the opening to chapter 7 of the Lewis Carroll original.
• The Toho Seimei Building was a real Tokyo landmark; these days known as the Shibuya Cross Tower.
• Pocky chocolate and Calbee chips are visible.

Trivia

• The opening title sequence has the theme tune "Mirai Romancer" by Ema Watanabe, who had provided “Aoi Heart no Stranger" – the end music for the Revenge of Cronos cartoon. She also provides the OVA ending song "Never Escape".
• The events of Lightning Trap: Leina and Laika somehow seemingly happen within the narrative of this story, presumably somehow before Leina regains her memories. There's not really a gap, though, and the later OVA might just be a flight of fancy from Ashi.

Home video releases

VHS

1988 — Leina Stol in Wolf Sword Legend (Toshiba EMI, Japan)

Betamax

1988 — Leina Stol in Wolf Sword Legend (Toshiba EMI, Japan)

Laser Disc

1988 — Leina Stol in Wolf Sword Legend (Toshiba EMI, Japan)
1993 — Leina Stol in Wolf Sword Legend Box (Toshiba EMI, Japan)

DVD

2001 — Leina Complete - From Birth to Travels (Toshiba EMI, Japan)
2004 — Leina Complete - From Birth to Travels (Toshiba EMI, Japan)

Blu-Ray

2022 — Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos (Discotek Media, USA)