Anime: Slayers

A fantasy anime with a healthy dose of comedy, Slayers is a story about Lina Inverse, a sorceress. However, she is not your typical anime heroine; Lina isn't interested in justice or doing the "right" thing: she just wants food, money, and treasure. Her exploits have earned her a reputation as a fearsome bandit killer and made her an infamous villian around the world, even though she is only 15.

Lina is probably one of the most entertaining female leads I have seen, but I wish the series had given her a bit of background; we have no idea how she became so proficient at magic, where she learned her spells, why she started killing bandits for money, and though there is a passing reference to her sister we find out nothing about her family beyond that.

In fact, lack of background is probably one of the most problematic things with this series. Goury, the airheaded swordsman, is also given a bit of background, but we never really find out why he was travelling, who he is exactly, how he became such a good swordsman, and where he is from.

As for the side characters like Zelgadus, Amelia, Phil, and Syphial: I found them all a bit annoying, though it was amusing to see the contrast between Amelia and Lina at times.

The villians were fairly silly just like the main characters (if theres one pet peeve I have it is silly and mood-ruining villians) though the ultimate villians were fairly good.

There is little character development; Lina, Goury, and the gang are the same characters at the end of the series that they are when we first meet them. There isn't even much development in the relationships between the characters, despite the time and hardships they went through.

As for the story: there were WAY too many filler-type episodes which served little purpose in advancing the main storyline. While some were amusing and interesting, most weren't as entertaining as the rest of the episodes. Also, there is fairly huge break between the first serious storyline and the beggining of the new one.

There were some interesting and surprising plot twists in the story, and the spells and items were all very original and interesting as well.

The animation was fairly mediocre; rehashed animation for most spells many times throughout the anime, especially Lina's "Fireball" spell, and Goury's sword effect. Also, the 2D backgrounds lacked detail. The fight scene effects were decent but not spectacular, though the last episode's fight was pretty exciting.

The soundtrack wasn't too great either; I didn't really notice much about it during the series and the OP/ED weren't too great. The voice actors did a good job, however, and the sound effects for the spells and action sequences were well done.

This isn't for people who want a completely serious fantasy experience (Watch 12 Kingdoms or something similar for that) this anime is more of a comedy than a fantasy. I enjoyed the anime, but I did get a bit bored during some of the non-storyline oriented episodes.

Overall, a mediocre anime that had potential but had too much filler and not enough story or character development.

(Writers note: If you read this review, RATE this review. Authors thrive on feedback, whether it is a simple happy face, or an in-depth critique.)

What makes Slayers so enjoyable is its excellent sense of humor. No serious situation survives for very long before it is deflated by a sudden piece of random comedy, or another amusing personality quirk from the series’ heroine. Slayers looks good, sounds good, has an excellent fantasy storyline, and most importantly, has a great sense of humor.

The animation in Slayers is quite good for a 1995 production. Since there are no computer-generated effects, there is no disconnect between the ways magic is animated versus the way characters are animated. There is a lot of repeated footage when it comes to the magic animation, but there is so much magic in Slayers, with literally dozens of spells being cast in each episode, that it is all but impossible to discern which scenes are repeated and which are fresh. The magic itself is both beautiful and frightening, eliciting more than a few gasps of shock when one of the more powerful spells hit home.

The characters are uniquely drawn, and easy to tell apart. Amazingly, the facial features and mannerisms of each character accurately reflect their ages, something that is overlooked in lesser anime where characters of all ages look exactly the same. The backgrounds are well rendered and moderately detailed. There’s not a lot of eye candy, but the backgrounds do manage to give each new scene and destination a different feel.

The frequency with which one sits through the opening and ending credits in a series is based on a number of factors, the main ones being, “How good is the opening/ending song?” and “How badly do you want to see what happens next?” With that in mind, the opening and ending music in Slayers is very good, although I did not sit through either one more than a handful of times. The opening song is a medium paced soft rock song with a female vocalist, prefaced by a few words from Lina Inverse, the main character. The ending song is a softer piece with a powerful female vocalist. Background music is cliché for an adventure series, but it works well nonetheless.

The seiyuu (voice actors) do an excellent job overall, with special attention going to the voice of Lina Inverse, the main character. George C Scott once said that, and I’m paraphrasing here, when a good actor or actress is in the right role, the audience can sense an almost overwhelming joy of performance. In Slayers, it is made abundantly clear by Megumi Hayashibara’s voice acting that she is having the time of her life. The voice of Lina is exuberant and joyful in all things and all situations. Whether she is happy, angry, irritated, scared, or just plain dumbfounded, Lina Inverse’s personality is filled with raw emotional energy thanks to the incredible job done by her seiyuu.

The sound effects are also done well, especially with regards to magic spells. Each magic spell, and boy are there a ton of them, has a unique sound, adding to the realistic feel of the series.

Besides Lina, Slayers is populated by quite a few plucky and interesting characters. There is Gourry, the blond knight with the mind of a blond bimbo. Amelia, the delightful young cleric/mage/fighter/shaman who gets Lina and her friends in a lot of trouble with her “I am a warrior of justice!” antics. The villain, who will remain nameless so as to not to spoil the twist, is both ruthless and cunning, with a back-story and development that makes him more than just a run-of-the-mill one-dimensional bad guy.

The plot revolves around Lina Inverse, a powerful, young, breastless magician who gets involved in a lot of weird and often times hilarious adventures with her companions. The creators of Slayers refuse to take any situation seriously, going so far as to have the characters comment on their situation as if they knew that they were in a cliché-filled adventure anime, making jokes about stock dialogue, winking at the audience, etc. This occasional self-awareness by the characters would frequently is very funny, and along with a plethora of continually running jokes and gags, made Slayers a very enjoyable roller coaster ride.

Besides the comedy, there is a lot of action in Slayers, most of which involves spell casting. The way magic is used is a combination of Dungeons and Dragons and your average fantasy video game, with spells having casting times and auditory components beyond just yelling out the name of the spell (though with smaller spells, just the name is enough). There are a lot of different spells used during Slayers’s 26 episodes, and each one looks and sounds different, and has a different effect. This helps with the series’ immersion factor, as well as the believability of the world, with the overall feeling that there are rules that govern it, and that magic use is not just the whim of the writers.

Slayers stands as proof that just because a series is getting on in years does not mean that it can’t still be entertaining. Ten years since its creation, and Slayers is still both funny and entertaining. The animation, though dated, can still hold it’s ground against the 05’ releases, and the story is funnier and more interesting than many of the anime storylines that has succeeded it. Slayers is equal parts Record Of Lodoss War and Excel Saga, with a large, sweeping, epic storyline and wild, zany humor that will put you either on the edge of your seat, or on the floor in fits of laughter. Definitely a must see for any fan of comedy and/or adventure anime.

Slayers is some anime, what can make anime fans!
Although there are a few things which isn't the best, but that's because it's a bit old anime :)

The animation...not the best-ever, but compared to some animes in '95 it's quite nice.

Sounds...it was one of the things that caught my attention. Very great openings/endings! The opening is adrenaline-pumping.
And the voice actors made good job, too, especially Lina's Seiya.

Story...it's interesting, but if it weren't for the good and funny situations it maybe wasn't the best. Yet it's still good enough for this kinda anime!

Characters...the characters are the 'very best' in this anime! I liked both of them for different reasons, and I think in one team they are super-characters.

And it's a very enjoyable anime, together with some friends it's great to watch. You will laugh at the strange humor of this anime and while you watch it it will grip you in one place ^^

An aged, extremely popular anime - and I see why.

Lina Inverse is a powerful sorceress. With her mighty Dragon Slave, she can take out anyone! She is rescued (well, sort of) by Gourry, a baka-swordsmen bigtime. After some goofy adventures, there is finally a good match - Zelgadis, a chimera magician! However, Rezo, a priest, manages to come across the scene...and Lina finally begins to get trouble!

From what I derived of this anime, it really never gets serious enough. The story trips back and forth between comedy and violence, and once every 3 or 4 episodes will get serious enough. It is really a vast adventure, with some ethics and a lot of immature violence. The Slayers still, however, has some incidents that will blow your mind - as well as half of the land in surrounding villages and towns in the story!

Animation: 1995...can't blame them though.

I suppose it would have been the average for it's day - much action and goofy faces, lacking the details that 21st century anime has begun to unfold. I also think it has a lack of appeal with the repeating sword slashes and slides of magic attacks...I could taste Power Rangers in the some of the scenes, and I often frowned at the childish comedic interruptions that occured.

I don't know about everyone, but I thought Lina was pretty hot - maybe cuz most animated chicks are. :D Well either way, I think the characters do have an overall decent appearance, despite the excess of goofy faces and such.

Action-based characters.

The characters are mostly super powered, whether by being outstanding swordsmen, or stoic sorcerers. Lina's character really relies on her voice, as she has a more realistic attitude than the rest of the characters (besides the merciless abuse of Gourry). Zelgadis is absolutely awesome, which might explain why I've seen a few people use his name as screennames and such. Everyone else is weird as hell. I couldn't really understand some of the thinking of Amelia, Gourry, and Prince Phil, as they just couldn't get serious until the very end of the story.

Likewise to Lina, the voice actors made more presence in their roles than they did as characters. This may be the more binding interest in The Slayers, as they all have a lot of emotion.

The lack of some important dialogue is made up with kickass battle music and superior sound effects to the day. Everytime I saw the Dragon Slave I got the chills from the sound effects...they really make it effective no matter how many times you see magic used. As for the opening and closing, they are average - I didn't find anything catchy about them (although the opening sounds a bit too much like 80's rock to me.)

Slayers is an honest classic.

One of my friends recommended I get this. He wasn't an otaku - in fact he hates anime (yes, I involved with the evil group of people ^^;), so I was preparing myself to see a weakness in this story. I can't say I'll ever notice a deep thought - perhaps the very end gives some of that credit - but the story really remains as an action flick. I probably won't rewatch it, since I didn't like it as much as most people would. The enjoyment is high because the comedy still is good, and the story is complete from back to front.

I can recommend this to mostly anyone. Action lovers can stare at this all day, with often some really fast and violent sequences...with a low blood splatter level. Newbies would appreciate the humor, as well as the action, and most age groups can see this as well. Otakus of course should see this, but they can take their time before picking it up. Great anime, watch it if you are interested.

Slayers is the kind of anime you'll have to like. But if you do, then you'll love it.

The animation is pretty okay. Considering it's been quite a while since this has been made, the quality suffers a bit. Still, the characters look good, the surroundings too, it's just that you can feel the inferior quality compared to the current ones.

The voices are excellent, especially the one from Lina Inverse. Note that the voiceactress has done very different characters.
The songs are great, very nice and they feel good. Even after all this time, the music (and especially the OP/END) feels like they'll never bore.

The anime is mainly based on comedy, so the story isn't that strong. But since it still has a pretty decent storyline, you can't say much bad things about it. There are even a few twists in the plot to make things more interesting.

The characters are funny; they've put very different characters together for this anime, but all of them worked out really well. They have all their own characteristics, but the one thing they have in common is that they don't really get along with each other due to ones stupidity, righteousness or whatever. But then again, that makes them even more interesting.

Is this worth rewatching? Probably, but it's best to keep a long time between it. After all, there are also 2 other sequels and tons of specials, ova and whatever. Still, it's a classic, and therefor you should at least have seen this one!