Merrill, a quick-witted thief, Genie, a powerful warrior and Melissa, a priestess of Myree are three lady adventurers with a problem; they need a magician to open a magic door for them. Unfortunately, the town of Orfuun has no adventurers that fit their exacting criteria; female and willing to travel...

But they do find Louie... a brawny, brawling braggart who claims to be a magician. They steadfastly refuse him until a highly unlikely accident, which can only be called "divine intervention" (or alternately, "Hi, I'm Louie and I blow stuff up") deposits Louie at Melissa's feet, proclaimed by the god of war, Myree to be the hero that she is destined to serve. Seeing as Melissa is stuck with him anyway, they decide to give him a shot.

One open magic door, a broken wizard's staff and several goblins demolished by his fists of fury later, they begin to regret bringing him along. The girls tell him to come back when he has another wizard's staff, but to get one, he must go into the deadly Tartious forest. Impressed by his determination to go through with it, they accompany himc only to get attacked by demons and captured by elves. As they await execution by the xenophobic elves, Louie comes up with an escape plan that might just be dumb enough to work.

Louie was not what I expected... with an original story by Ryo Mizuno, I thought it was going to be a moderately serious fantasy with iconic heroes and clashing epic forces. Similarly, the gorgeous character designs of Mamoru Yokota lend the series a serious and refined look. However, all those preconceptions were torn asunder about five minutes into the first episode. What was it? Maybe the hilarious "cool" rock music that plays (with violin accompaniment) nearly every time Louie speaks. Or perhaps it's Melissa's constant daydreams about her ideal hero, a ludicrously generic "Lancelot" who does everything right, complete with pastel colors and shoujo manga roses floating in the background, daydreams that are later destroyed by an invading image of Louie. Whatever it was, it was pleasantly surprising.

Rune Soldier Louie is an almost pure comedy with some elements of romance and a little bit of hero stuff. Louie is a quintessential thug; a guy who thinks physical violence can solve everything (and sadly, it usually does) and is infinitely better with his fists than with magic. Naturally, the girls hate him at first, but they start developing a grudging respect for him, if for nothing more than his loyalty and tenacity (and brute strength, can't forget about that). I can't help but see a love triangle (or square, rather) develop between the four of them. I highly recommend Rune Soldier Louie to all fans of (not so serious) fantasy.