Slayers

This is my first review, so please bear with me ^_^ Slayers, based of of the novels of the same name written by Kanzaka Hajime, is the story of a young sorceress named Lina Inverse and her 'protector' Gourry Gabriev as they travel the land in search of anything that can get them treasure. Inspired by one of the original Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, fans and players of the game can step into the series with ease as it feels just like the game. Even if your not a D&D player or a RP'er in general, the characters alone are enough to pull you in andkeep you enjoying the series from beginning to end. Story: The story, though in my opinion not the main driving force, still moves the series alone nicely and evenly. It sets up the same style all other Slayers series that come after follow, starting fairly light hearted and movie along until eventually the fate of the world is at stake. Though sometimes it does seem like they try to make it funny at a time when the humor could be left out, it doesn't effect the flow that much. The only thing I really had a problem with story wise is there are two main story arcs. The story gets going, builds up to a climatic battle, then falls back to ground zero again and has to build up some more to get back to that high point again. Though the two arcs are linked together overall, those few episodes in the middle are somewhat of a let down after all the action from the previous episodes. Animation and Sound: The series first premiered in 1995, so the animation and sound reflect that. Though I feel this series got the short end of the stick, because other series from the same year (Gundam Wing and Evangelion to name a couple) have much better animation and sound quality. Though not as good as it probably could of been for it's time, it still doesn't take away from the overall thrill and enjoyment of the series. Character: I said above that I felt the story wasn't the main driving force of the series, because that role is filled by the characters. Lina's short tempered and violent nature make her an instant iconic anime character. Her and her alone could make an entire series with just her misadventures and it would be a masterpiece. Throw in her 'protector' Gourry, a superb swordsman with, as Lina would say, "the brains of a jellyfish," Zelgadis, a Chimera adept with both a sword and magic, Amelia, a "Justice-Happy" princess, and Sylphiel, a ditzy shrine priestess, and you have a well rounded cast of characters that excel in both comical and serious situations. Enjoyment: I really enjoyed this series from beginning to end, and was hooked from the first episode all the way up to the last, and couldn't wait to get more, and thankfully theres 3 sequel series, several prequel OVAs, and 5 movies to keep someone occupied for several weeks (or days if you decide to marathon them like I did) Overall, in my opinion, one of the best series from the '90s, and a anime classic that will stand the test of time. And thankfully, Slayers Next (The second season) takes everything lovable about the first season and takes it to a whole nother level.

As a person who is actually quite a lot into old anime, in fact even stuff much older than Slayers, I'm honestly bewildered by the amount of praise this show gets, and I think its status of an old classic might be heavily influenced by nostalgia. The anime is severely lacking in multiple areas, most of all it's just boring and completely devoid of anything unique. Slayers tells a story of Lina Inverse, a powerful yet inconspicuous magician who travels around, kills monsters, fights bandits and robs them of their treasure. Over the course of the show, new adventurers, starting with a travelling swordsman Gourry, joinher party and together they explore the fantasy world. You know the drill, and have probably heard something similar many times, because this is nothing new. Nevertheless, this extremely popular idea can definitely turn out very nice and become its own thing, if the authors bring their new twists and details to it. Sadly, this is not the case with Slayers. Everything, starting with the setting, is bare of nuances and unique ideas. The anime is set in a generic medieval-fantasy world, with magic, creatures like trolls and dragons, princes, knights and the like. Philosopher stone and sword of light. Old and boring. There is also the demon-king sealed long ago and sought to be revived by his followers. You have never heard of something like that, have you? While this could still allow for a great and compelling story, with brilliant and interesting characters, Slayers definitely doesn't deliver, it actually doesn't even seem to try. The plot progresses in a pretty messy pattern, and despite not being very long, brings to mind 300+ episode shounens. It randomly jumps back and forth between important events revealing old mysteries, and completely meaningless, inconsequential fillers that shouldn't even be there, because they are neither interesting nor funny. The story just lacks direction. The characters don't pursue any real goal to drive the plot. Something is happening, our adventurers just get dragged into it, do their job to solve the problems, rinse and repeat. Some of it can be pretty cool , but it all feels kind of pointless. The mood and atmosphere also swing in completely unnatural manner, and it does stand out sometimes. Two characters are killed shortly after finally uniting with the main party, and you know what? Not even a minute later, the main trio is back at an inn, stuffing themselves and laughing out loud joking. There is not even a moment of grief or sadness, just a few shocked faces for a second. Speaking of jokes, the humour is one of the weakest points of Slayers. It's extremely repetitive, childish and ham-fisted, appearing regardless of danger or situation at hand, and is at fault in the show rarely having the proper atmosphere. Lina has small breasts. That is the joke, hahaha... I won't be discussing wether this alone is funny or not, as that's purely subjective, but repeating this time and time again, episode after episode, is definitely boring and actually gets quite annoying, even if it could be funny at first. Gourry is stupid and doesn't understand the simplest of explanations, Amelia is clumsy, trips over and falls on her face. Oh, there was another joke with Lina, you know, she's on her period and can't cast powerful spells then, isn't that funny? You know, it's THAT time of the month, wink wink, haha... This humour is also detrimental to characters themselves, because it's all around, and in fact pretty much defines them. While there is focus on Lina, and she does get enough screen time and characterization to be more than just her breast size, it's a real problem with other characters. It's hard to say anything meaningful about Gourry other than that he's stupid and has bad memory, and Amelia being also silly and clumsy, because most of their scenes are either fighting or reusing the old jokes. Most of the characters are just very poorly characterized and thus it's hard to truly care for them. They're not unlikeable, but they definitely are forgettable and undeveloped. This should never happen in a show that wants to be more than a silly comedy. The arstyle is mediocre, and character designs, save for Lina and Zelgadis, seem effortless. The animation is poor even considering the time it was made, and just screams low budget. Overall the anime doesn't look terrible, even if it's aged, but the visuals definitely don't help to make up for other aspects of the show either. The music is actually pretty good and fitting, and few of the tracks are especially good and memorable. It's nothing spectacular, but it does its job well, and in my opinion, is the strongest aspect of the show. Overall, Slayers is a very disappointing experience. It's a huge cluster of overused ideas and tropes. The story has weird pace and goes nowhere, the characters are basically running jokes, and at times just annoying. It's full of bad, repetitive humour and lacks fresh air, making the whole show pretty boring. It's not the worst watch ever, it's not offensively bad at anything, but it doesn't really have anything going for it either, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, because there are shows better at everything Slayers does. It's just completely mediocre. I really can't see why it achieved the status it has now, and personally see it as just another, uninspired fantasy adventure, severely lacking in character. I would only watch it if you want to see what one of the most popular 90s anime is all about.

Overview: Time for another wonderfully nostalgic anime review! Slayers was a very popular anime in the mid 1990s, but most young anime fans in 2015 either haven't heard of it, or they are only familiar with the less spectacular later seasons. After 5-6 seasons of the same formula, Slayers has sadly become like the Simpsons of anime. It is one of those series that older fans love and younger fans are baffled at how the franchise ever gained fans and can't even imagine a time when it used to be good. To truly understand what made Slayers special, we have to go back to 1995 andlook at the state of the anime industry. Story and characters: 7/10 Slayers was written in 1995, which was the year when DBZ and Yu Yu Hakusho had just ended. The most popular anime of that year was the surprise smash hit Neon Genesis Evangelion. However, Eva was an exception to the rule and most anime still used a very generic shonen formula with very paragon protagonists. Slayers was created to parody many of the tropes and cliches of shonen anime of the time, early JRPGs, and D&D. Slayers was a "tongue in cheek" action/comedy that spoofed all the staples of geek culture, but was also a love letter to that culture. If elements of the story seem generic, that is because it was actually done on purpose to add to the comedy. The main character is Lina Inverse, who is a fire sorceress and one of the most beloved anime characters of her era. The reason is that Lina was NOT a moral paragon and instead a "loveable jerk" whose morally questionable acts were played up for comedy. Lina uses her fire magic to slaughter bandits, then keep the bandit treasure for herself. She rather cheerfully murders people with her fire spells and is insanely greedy for gold, jewels, and shiny treasure, making her like a "moe girl" version of Smaug from the Hobbit. Lina is accompanied by a brainless, extremely ADHD swordsman. Together they go on many hilarious misadventures. Art: 6/10 The art is a bit dated, but truly not bad for 1995. If you compare it to other anime of the time like Yu Yu Hakusho or the original Hunter X Hunter, you will see it compares quite favorably. Sound: 6/10 The soundtrack is nice, although not my favorite. The English dub gets extra comedy because it has all the 4kids voice actors from Pokemon, but it is uncensored and they are allowed to swear and commit not so kid friendly actions. Overall: 7/10 Should Slayers have had 6 full 26 episode seasons? Probably not. However, the original is a charming little series with great comedy, fun characters, and great use of parody. It is a series that older fans can look back on fondly and younger fans should try out! I give Slayers a well earned 7/10

Slayers is a comedy/adventure/fantasy anime directed by Takashi Watanabe (directer of Kino's Journey and Boogiepop Phantom) and in many ways it can be seen as a parody of conventional RPG video games. it revolves around Magician Lina Inverse, and Swordsmen Gourry Gabriev as they travel around meeting new people, fighting demons and monsters, and getting into various predicaments along the way. Story: In my opinion the best aspect of Slayers. The events flow nicely into one another and they frequently recall past events, making it feel as though nothing watched early in the series was a waste of time. Although the plot is quite linear, itis still very enjoyable. Reversely however, the atmosphere in many places is compromised by the shows non sequitur and random humor. So at times when the mood is serious, it can be quickly destroyed with a random crack about Lina's chest size. Additionally, although in many cases genuinely funny, there are alot of times when it feels like they are trying to hard in getting a joke across. Animation: Being a few years old, the animation of Slayers reflects that. Although overly it is good. The anime has a medieval setting and the characters apperances do a good job to match the setting.There are a few parts with recycled animation, like when a character is casting a spell or attacking. On downside is that, although they have a numerous amount of magical spells, many of them have similar animations to one another. Only things like "Fireball" and "Dragonslave" get unique animation. Alot of the Shamanist spells used by Zelgadis just look like bright white light. Sound: Nothing really spectacular about the music. Seemed to match the anime well and I enjoyed it. No major complaints. Characters: The characters worked well with the story, but they either didn't really stand out or were fairly generic. Lina is a quick to anger and selfish female lead (think Bulma from DBZ). Gourry is your typical slow yet powerful male lead (I don't think an example is really necessary). The other characters seem pretty bland that way as well. Enjoyment: I did enjoy it overall, however, it wasn't anything all that spectacular. There was a time during the middle where the plot lulled a little and it got a little boring, but the beginning and end were very interesting and fun to watch. check this out if you like the fantasy/adventure genre. Definatly not something to watch if you are looking for comedy primarily.