The Slayers Anime has three seasons: "Slayers", "Slayers Next" and "Slayers Try". The later seasons, especially "Try", often refer to events and persons in the earlier ones. Besides that, there are several movies and OVA episodes. Lina is travelling with Naga there instead of her normal company. In the first season, Lina has taken away a treasure from a gang of bandits, not knowing that the famous Philosopher's Stone is among the items she stole. She is then being followed by the mysterious Zelgadis and his henchmen who are after the Philosopher's Stone, too. And even the Red Priest Rezo appears... As it turns out, Rezo has a contract with the Dark Lord Shabranighdo . In return for resurrecting him, Shabranighdo promised to heal Rezo's blindness. Despite all of Lina's and Zelgadis' efforts, Rezo manages to awaken Shabranighdo... and Lina and her friends are in for the battle of the century. In the second part of the first season, Amelia, princess of Saillune, joins Lina on her travels. Soon, they have to face a copy of Rezo and his henchmen. They want revenge for the death of the real Rezo. Plus, they are trying to resurrect the legendary Magic Beast Zanaffer. In the second season, "Slayers Next", Lina is searching for the Clair Bible, a magic compendium that contains knowledge from another world. The Chaos Dragon Garve is after her this time. Garve was a Mazoku who was reborn as a human again and again and gradually turned against the Monster Race. He had learned about a plan of Hellmaster Fibrizzio to destroy the world. That plan included Lina Inverse, so Garve tried to kill her in order to interfere with Hellmaster's plan. However, in the end, Hellmaster killed Garve and captured Gourry to lure Lina to his fortress. His goal was to make Lina cast the Giga Slave, make the spell get out of control, and thus destroy the world. However, the whole thing didn't quite turn out the way Fibrizzio had planned...
In the third season, as a result of Fibrizzio's death, a magic barrier that had enclosed the lands Lina is wandering for about a thousand years, had suddenly vanished. The kings of the countries that were behind the barrier have been building a fleet to explore the outside world. Amelia was designated to be sent out as an ambassador with the fleet. Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis were in town, too, and boarded a ship. By accident, Lina destroyed the rest of the fleet (and parts of the city) in a fight with a Golden Dragon who turned out to be their new client Filia. When they finally arrived at a town of the outside world, they soon noticed that strong magic was unknown there. And it doesn't take long till they meet a new enemy: Valgarve. During the war of the extinction of the Ancient Dragons, he was deadly wounded. Chaos Dragon Garve resurrected him as a Mazoku. Ever since, Valgarve has only thought of getting revenge for the extinction of his people, and to kill Lina Inverse to avenge Garve's death, even if it meant destroying the world. Valgarve had joined forces with Almaze, a warrior from the Overworld, who is trying to summon the Dark Lord Darkstar to this world... Hmm, neat show, but what else is there? In addition to the TV anime series, there are two 3-part OVA (Original Video Anime) series, Slayers Special and Slayers Excellent, based on the SP. storyline. There have been 4 movies, Slayers, Slayers Return, Slayers Great, and Slayers Gourgeous also roughly based on the SP. storyline. There have been two radio drama series, the first (Slayers EX.) of which was run somewhat concurrently with the first season of the TV anime series, and the second (Slayers NEX.)) with the second season. Both have storylines that parallel actual SP. short stories; however, Lina's companions in each radio drama series are likewise her companions in the corresponding TV anime series (thus Gourry and company replace Naga). Voice actors and actresses are the same as those in the anime. While for the most part confined to the Japanese market, the Slayers series has quickly been gaining popularity in the U.S. Much of the anime either has been or will soon be made domestically available by various commercial companies. Simitar Entertainment has also released two poses from the first TV series of their limited edition Chroma-Cels. Araizumi Rui's standalone Slayers manga collection -- in most people's opinions the only Slayers manga worth owning -- has also been translated by CPM and released as a six issue series. Curiously enough they are advertised as "all ages manga," which I find slightly annoying... though they did quite a good job with the translations, as far as I can tell they did edit one scene, albeit only slightly. On the multimedia side, in addition to a multitude of anime LDs, DVDs, and soundtrack, vocal, and radio drama CDs, there is a 6-part CD-ROM release: Slayers Digital Collection. Video game RPGs for the PC98, Super Famicom, Sega Saturn, and Playstation also exist. Art books, anime comics, video game strategy guides, and an assortment of anime guidebooks comprise the remainder of Slayers-related written media worth collecting. There's also a whole slew of character goods out there that serious (or fanatical) collectors will probably want to check into.
Uhuh, well, enough of this, where can I go to see some REAL Slayers action? Well, here I have collected just a few links that caught my interest and can explain the entirety of the series more thouroghly than I. |
