Monday, August 20, 2018

The Slayers Part 1 Episodes 1-5


Meet Lina Inverse.  Slayer of dragons, scourge of thieves and bandits, monster of the countryside, Lina has many names…and not all of them are nice ones.  True she tends to bring more destruction with her acts of salvation but there’s no denying her power.  And Lina’s going to need all the power she can get when a mysterious foe comes after her for a statue she acquired during her recent plunder.  Pursued by a shadowy force, Lina and her dimwitted “bodyguard”, the swordsman Gourry, certainly have their work cut out for them.  But no job, no battle, no table of food is too big or small for Lina the Dragon Slayer.

Well break time’s over, time to get back to the grind.  And after thinking about it quite a bit, ive decided to head back to a pretty big nostalgia title, another one I feel has lost some of its presence in later years.  Welcome to the world of The Slayers.

Long before the days of Gate and the digital fantasy realms of Sword Art Online and Log Horizon…there was an age undreamed of…ok the Conan bit is a little much but still.  In the early to mid 90’s fantasy was finally starting to make more headway in the world of Anime after the mecha influx of the 80’s.  While Record of Lodoss War was more traditional Dungeons and Dragons style romp, Slayers is something else all together, even if it has some shades of its more serious fantasy brethren (the animation of the 90’s and some of the music does sound Lodoss like).  Lodoss was played for full serious fantasy storytelling, Slayers is here for the laughs and entertainment.  While it might divert from that path a couple of times in this intro set, the course is set and it looks like we’ll have little deviation…which isn’t a bad thing.

So what sets this series apart from most other fantasy titles?  One name, Lina Inverse.  If you think about it, this cute little sorceress is the template for several anime characters to come down the line (the short stature of Edward Elric (and the same temper when called short); the Haruhi Suzumiya levels of extortion and admiration for her own legend; and the unintentional destructive reputation of Vash the Stampede).  Lina is a hit from the get go.  While she is prone to leaving scorched Earth wherever she goes, theres no denying Lina is good at what she does: beating up bad guys, slaying monsters and stealing their treasure.  Lina isn’t without her own sensitive side as we see with her interactions with fellow main cast members Gourry and Zelgadis (we’ll get to them in a second).  It shows that for all her arrogance, she can be nice and give credit where credit is due.  Lina also gives Slayers most of its humorous edge at her own expense.  My favorite joke (wrong as it may be) has to be when she loses her powers for…particular reasons she doesn’t want to discuss and it’s hilarious that Gourry doesn’t get it and Zel is actually shy about bringing it up matter of factly.  Point is, with Lina at the helm, Slayers is off to a good start right away.

Along for the ride, at the moment anyway, are Gourry and Zel.  Gourry is a bad ass with a sword with the intelligence of a kindergartener.  His humorous moments of dumb can be hit or miss, since most of his schtick is poorly repeating exposition and obvious facts.  But his heart is always in the right place, especially when it comes to Lina…eventually after he quits calling her a little girl (just wrong).  Zel is an instant cool character that I want to see more of.  His cloaked bandit look, his skill with a sword and magic, his tragic backstory (it seems), it’s almost a basic template for a bad boy Shonen character…except Zel isn’t brooding too much.  He can even sort of match Lina in magic and hand to hand combat, making him a welcome addition to the cast, a bit of serious mindedness to balance Lina’s impulsiveness and Gourry’s…well dumb.

The first few episodes of Slayers provides a surprisingly equal amount of laughs and action.  The humor takes the front of the pack but never feels too forced (that much, there are admittedly some moments and bits that went on for far too long) and isn’t afraid to step back and let the swords clash and magic fly with a little less levity.  It’s not bloody like Lodoss and not as rapid fire as Dragon Ball Z but it’s fun enough (it does have the destructive level of DBZ with Lina’s ultimate Dragon Slave attack though).  I will wonder if the series will ever take a more serious, darker turn like Martian Successor Nadesico did.  Granted, Nadesico was a parody of the scifi/mecha genre and still stayed true to itself, even with the change in direction.  I hope Slayers will do the same when/if that time comes, though I think it will eventually.  After all, there’s also the aforementioned sad backstory to Zel and his encounter with Rezo, the red priest.  While Zel was first introduced as a baddy but his motives began to change, Rezo immediately screamed “bad guy” maybe even “big bad”.  Just the way he talked and his look (im wondering if his blindness is him playing dumb for Lina and everyone else), I felt he could be trusted.  So it was odd to see Lina so welcoming of him during their initial encounter.  Granted, Rezo is a big deal and she would fanboy over him a little.  But Lina questions everyone she meets, or tries to swindle them.  It seemed out of place early on for her to be even a little trusting (it took her about three episodes to warm up to Gourry).  Im probably nitpicking a bit as she does theorize about Rezo being a fake later on.

So, we close out Week 1 of The Slayers on a pretty good note.  The humor is likeable and legitimately funny.  Lina Inverse rocks and her companions have their strong points too.  There’s a little dark overcast for those who want a more serious central plot.  And there’s plenty of 90’s nostalgia Anime in the presentation from the art style to the extremely catchy opening and ending themes (side note: it’s cute that the main lyrics of the opening theme are “Get along, try again,” as the third season of Slayers is Slayers Try and before Slayers Revolution, the proposed fourth season of Slayers was dubbed Slayers Again…yeah coincidence but it makes me chuckle).  Well we’ve spent a summer dealing with Holy Grail Wars, unbearable sacrifices and Shiro Emiya’s head to wall slamming logic…yeah The Slayers will be a welcome change of pace.  And the laughs will continue (along with a continuing story im sure), next week.

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