Drink deep of my sorrow as I entertain you with tales of Japanese Animated debauchery.


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Sunday, August 1, 2010

Ha ha, you SLAY me!

I'm a nerd.

I'm sorry, internet. I know you had a different image of me in your head, but I really am just a big ball of nerdness.

It's true! I can comfortably confess that I've never wielded a 20-sided die, but I have had relations with... role playing games of the videogame variety. As such, I've been drawn in my own share of the nerdy Tolkien-esque fantasy wandering, ragtag warrior tales popular in both eastern/western RPG games.

As such, it was without much struggle that I was pulled into the doofy D&D style world of Slayers...






(I know she's annoying as hell, but... she's got such a great personality! RIGHT?? Uh, anyway, Naga is debunking the authenticity of their tour's hot spring waters when the establishment's proprietor emerges from the depths...ugh.)

Slayers is the story of Lina Inverse, a sorceress-in-training, whose temper, greed and gluttony frequently derail her from completing any clear goal. In her journey with no clear goal in mind, she manages to assemble a party of fools (or just a partner in Naga's case) for a series of quests that sort of fall in her lap while she's robbing bands of thieves, blowing up towns by accident, cleaning out restaurants and then running out on the bill or just walking along a trail. She's a walking disaster and her fame is legendary EVEN in hell as the Slayers devil himself actually shows up to take her on in the second season. So to keep things interesting she keeps bumping heads with run-of-the-mill hoodlums and then putting the smackdown on gods of darkness.

Anyway, let's talk about Slayers, my #4 favorite anime of all time.



Slayers, Season 1

Lina inefficiently takes down one band of thieves (their defeat comes in 3-4 separate parts) in the first episode which ends in her nuking the town she was hired to save and recruiting Gowry, blundering idiot and master swordsman, to her nameless cause. Actually, it's not nameless, the name is BOOBIES and she's looking for a mystical method of increasing her bust, a lacking physical trait she is frequently reminded of by new additions to her merry band. They soon comes across a fellow whose good deeds mask his hidden, darker ones and he becomes the primary villain for the show, Rezo the red priest. Along the way they recruit an assassin that came to do them in as Zelgadis feels that Lina may be on the right track to finding the revenge he thirsts for and a cure for his bizarre chimera body (Rock skin, needle hair, etc.) courtesy of Rezo. They also stumble into the company of Royalty as Princess Amelia, with her fire burning for justive, but nothing but wind whistling between her ears, joins the group giving Lina a serious case of breast envy (keeping in mind that her older sister is Naga the White Serpent whose assets command fear and sound effects). A late addition joins to request their help and Gowry's lovin' uh, Sylphiel I think? Whatever, she's just tacked on anyway.

Slayers is awesome. It's not shy about wheeling out perverted gags and borderline fucked up things like when the beastmen eat the zapped (to cooking perfection) remains of their fishman companion during an impromptu mourning service. I'm not kidding. They do a blithering superior gag where every time their leader starts delivering his sappy, insincere eulogy for fish guy the beastmen literally jump in for another mouthful. Hilarious gag, but it's pretty messed up if you think about it.
Consistently, slapstick gags pop up in ways that remind me a lot of Ranma, but to be fair Slayers embodies a lot of great things that make anime so wonderful. Its primary product is comedy with elements of action, romance and drama acting as pillars of support for what turns out to be a surprisingly epic story! It balances all of these elements pretty well, but I do have to admit that the cheese is in copious amounts.




Slayers Next, Season 2

Since she killed the recently resurrected God of Darkness, Lina is a popular lady! The Monster mafia wants her dead, but at the same time they want to manipulate her into killing a few more fellas before they finish her off themselves. Some guys don't exactly get the memo though and we're introduced off the bat to the most eccentric and needlessly mysterious badass in the franchise, Xellos (self-proclaimed "mysterious priest") who shows up to aid Lina & Co. on their journey to find the Claire Bible.
Things escalate pretty far and when things seem like they're a their absolute worst, they surprise you and introduce a bigger, badder villain who is essentially the devil.

There's some cheese still on the front and back ends of this horse, but it takes everything you liked about the previous show and turns it up a notch. Greater development of new and old characters with the addition of an improved budget and some great art direction make this a satisfying romp in the Slayers' backyard.



Slayers Try, Season 3

The monster mafia is in shambles trying to put itself back together post-Phibrizzo and one of their loose ends is looking to undo all of creation out of spite. A golden dragon disguised as a human joins the Slayers crew to seek Lina's help in quelling certain disaster as the last member of a race of ancient and powerful dragons prepares to erase existence as a final act of revenge.

This one is strangely is not my favorite, that isn't meant to imply that I don't adore it because I do. However, at this point unraveling creation seems to be all the bad guys want to do and that horse is getting a little sore. They've already gone so far as to summon the very essence of destruction and all she wanted to do was kill all the bad guys and go back to sleep, so the train of logic in the canon is clearly not checking in at the station, but whatever right? So Dragons... In the usually loose and fancy free "I'm old and I say NO" sort of antagonistic behavior that creates drama for anime when the writers can't think of anything more concrete or useful to stand in the way of characters completing a goal (Bleach and Naruto still use this stupid plot obstacle to this day). The Golden Dragons have this uppity way of interfering with our heroes to keep them from saving the world resulting in their annihilation. This wouldn't be such an issue, but this puts a big damper on story progression for no reason other than to eat up episodes and screen time.


(Opening for Slayers Revolution)

Slayers Revolution, Season 4 (technically 1st half of season 4 in 13 eps)

A weird puppety thing is wandering the countryside unleashing frequent dragon slaves and people are blaming Lina. To prove her innocence, she investigates only to find this thing is as gluttonous, ill-tempered and otherwise as house trained as she! Then there's the ominous evil engulfing an ancient kingdom.
This series gets cut off at the knees since they slice it in half to make two series and make its air time last longer... I guess.

Meh.


(Opening for Slayers Evolution-R)

Slayers Evolution-R, Season 5 (technically the OTHER half of season 4)

Closure is established for last season's big mess that our heroes fall into and... basically, it feels like they're running in the same rut they've been running forever. The puppet thing is revealed as a prince trying to save his sleeping people who were sold a lemon of a cure for their weird, mystical predicament.
I honestly hated the puppet-ish, hands for ears character so much I can't be bothered to care. I watched it to its end and the only real new element is the digitally assisted, cheap animation.

It was alright, but it's probably the least memorable Slayers show they made and cutting it in half was a cheap dick move to save money and milk the franchise for an unnecessary period of time.



(The Demon revealed in Slayers: The Motion Picture, Joyrock the demon introduces himself in the dub as Joyrock, Michigan J. in a fun Looney Tunes reference)


Slayers OAVs & Movies

My love for Slayers is only marginally attached to the TV series. The real sexy stuff is from the OAVs and the movies. The high budget animation coupled with the high-end ADV dubs are what really make Slayers such a huge favorite of mine.

Instead of long winded stories about angsty fuckers out to unzip all of creation because of mommy issues, revenge against some specific dudes or something equally stupid, you've got two crazy-ass women with god-like destructive powers roaming the land for fame, food and fortune.

The normal lead into their adventures is that they stumble into mercenary gigs that typically blow way out of proportion unleashing flawed clones, ancient demons, Elvish Doomsday Weapons, angry mothers,

The lion's share of the movies and the entirety of the OAVs cover Lina's pre-tv series adventures with her self-appointed greatest rival, Naga the White Serpent, a dominatrix-leather clad, tall and giant-breasted sorceress (the two primary enviable elements in Lina's case) with nothing but contempt for Lina and nary a thought passing through her head and an obnoxious laugh that causes entire towns to run screaming in fear as it peels the paint from their homes.

I should also note something the anime only HINTS at, Naga is actually the elder princess from Seyruun making her King Phil's older daughter and obviously Amelia's older sister (in the tv show Zelgadis makes a point noting how her departure had something to do with a scandal). It makes instant sense if you think about it for any amount of time if you've seen the royal family in action and then watch Naga's social graces.



Personality-wise, if Naga is left unattended for more than a minute or so her eyes glaze over with stupidity (which explains why Gourry & Lina get along so well given Lina's previous doofus herding) making her liable to do some random bit of arson, unless there's an opportunity to directly harass/humiliate/annoy Lina, scarf down food (again, like Gourry) or drinking herself MORE stupid and each of these actions are traditionally followed by Naga emitting her ear-splitting cackle.


(Above: Lina is faced with Naga clones that utilize their most fearsome weapon; their use of that weapon revives the original who was knocked unconscious as she brandishes her own weapon to the dismay of the nearby townsfolk.)

She's much smarter than she lets on, but she is a pretty big doofus much of the time and to Lina's chagrin she is an extremely skilled sorceress roughly operating on the same level as herself (though in the show Lina becomes so overpowered that she can obliterate existence on a whim. I'm doubtful Naga has been doing the same regimen of exercise). Naga is the ice to Lina's fire and the white magic to counter Lina's black magic and despite their dislike of one another, their combined powers make them a force to be reckoned with as many, many, many poor townsfolk are made acutely aware.

Let's be fair, the duo come off as a D&D style Dirty Pair going from land to land meeting interesting people and "accidentally" changing the face of the earth on which their homes once stood. Oh yes, and usually setting those same people on fire.

These girls are dangerous as hell if that wasn't already obvious. As their tempers flare they unleash Golems on one another, meddle with time itself and blow up enough people and places that you even THEY eventually realize that they're running out of landmarks.

It's antics like that which define Slayers as my #5. I want to rank it higher, but some things like the god-awful Software Sculptors dub for the TV series (tv subs good, OAV dubs better!) keep me feeling a little embarrassed about the franchise's general attention to quality, domestically speaking. My biggest gripe is the circular logic of continuously building up to an encounter with a villain that wants to hit the reset button and it's what makes the comparatively simpler and more entertaining OAVs so much fun.

That said, start with the good stuff if you can find it (since ADV Films went under, ya gotta dig a little to find their DVDs). Funimation snagged the rights to the TV show and their dub for the 4th & 5th seasons are all new, shich should be promising... if the newest seasons were really worth that much excitement. Meh.


(Following the roundup of the baddies behind the Naga cloning experiment Lina and Naga dine on their hard-earned reward and Naga explains why keep the Naga clones around isn't such a poor financial decision after all.)

On a fun side note, there was technically a 4th season of Slayers already in the anime series Lost Universe, the protagonist is a red-haired wielder of a light-sword (clearly Gourry & Lina become more than friends and their unique personalities bleed into their descendant here) who ends up with a diminutive blonde companion with a fiery temper. There's a lot of cute references to Slayers that are somewhat subtle. This was also an ADV Films property, so check it out if you're willing to hunt it down.


(opening for Lost Universe, sort of a Slayers in Space spinoff. Kinda. Sorta.)

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