Jared, Oriana and Ned discuss Ned’s choice of topic: The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim. Announced three-and-a-half years ago as a fast-tracked theatrical production by Warner Bros., the Kenji Kamiyama-directed anime film resulted from a combination of factors: a desire by the studio to maintain certain rights building off their release of the Peter Jackson-directed theatrical films, an interest in working in the increasingly familiar and popular world of anime well outside of its Japanese origins and the participation of Phillippa Boyens and others from the original Lord of the Rings theatrical trilogy. The resultant fusion, drawing on a story Tolkien including in the appendices to the original book regarding a civil war in Rohan two centuries before the War of the Ring, received a slightly delayed release in December 2024; while it’ll yet take time for any full reputation to take hold, initial opinions – including among your podcast hosts – can best be described as mixed. What story choices were made in terms of expanding on the original Tolkien tale, especially in terms of establishing the character of the otherwise unnamed Héra? How did the production’s decision to adhere closely to the design established in the theatrical films play out, and was there anything positive to be gained from that? Where did the examples of a specifically anime-derived form of staging and presentation occur and how did that impact the overall film? And do we really have to talk about the bumbling page or whoever that was? (Honestly, we didn’t.)