For Lina Inverse, the ideal life involves mountains of
treasures, taller mountains of food, and…well that’s it. But that ideal life is moving further and
further away as her true enemy reveals himself.
Rezo the Red Priest seeks the Philosopher’s Stone in order to resurrect
the dark and powerful Shabranigdo, Lord of the Demons, and satisfy his own
desires. The end of the world is bad for
everyone, so Lina’s gotta step up. But
she isn’t alone. Not only is she
reunited with the dim witted Gourry, but she’s also got Zelgadis and his men
watching her back. Facing a legion of
Trolls, Monsters and Rezo himself, Lina Inverse: Dragon Slayer moves forward to
save the world…and all the food she has yet to devour.
I’d say that we had a complete 180 from last week. But bless Slayers, even when things got a bit
more bleak and dire in this weeks set of episodes, it still had time to laugh
in the face of the darkness. And in the
end, that’s gotta make you feel pretty good about things to come, even if it
looked as if we’re building to a season finale so soon in this first season.
Ive gotta say, I love Lina and Zel’s short time together. Zel’s more serious minded nature both clashed
and meshed pretty well with Lina’s impulsive force of nature attitude. I think they bounced well off of each other. I’d dare say they’re “ship worthy” but much
like the old Indiana Jones adage goes, “No time for love Doctor Jones.” Cause it was finally time to bring the gang
back together and Gourry was bringing more than just his lack of
perception. Nope, Gourry also brought a
lightsaber…more or less. His reveal of
the Sword of Light hidden within the hilt of his blade was pretty cool and I
doubt we’ve seen even a fraction of its true potential. Given that Lina, Gourry and Zel have a Demon
Lord to contend with next week, I think we’ll see that fraction pretty soon.
Let’s talk about Rezo and the summoning of the Demon Lord
Shabranigdo. First off, Rezo’s plan:
destroy the world using the Philosopher’s Stone (yes it shares the same name as
that pesky maguffin from Fullmetal Alchemist) in order to get his sight back…even
by the usual destroy the world scenarios even that end goal is a bit
overkill. Granted Rezo’s ultimate plan
backfired as Shabranigdo was (somehow) sealed behind his eyes…will that ever be
explained? Logic aside, the Dark Lord of
the Demon World was every bit fitting of his title based on his design
alone. Multiple arms, horns, blood red
eyes and teeth the Alien Queen would be jealous of, clearly this is a foe not
to be trifled with and it added an air of dread to the proceedings (also he’s
animated nicely to boot). No moment
highlighted this than the (seemingly) unfortunate demise of Zel’s two
servants…who have been on his side the whole time? Yeah that also bothered me. If they were loyal to Zelgadis the whole
time, why didn’t they escape with him and Lina at the end of last week? I shouldn’t complain too much since Lina and
Zel’s team up alone worked just fine without them. Still, RIP Zel’s men (Zolf the Mummy Man and
Rodimus the Axe Man).
Needless to say, things took a much darker turn with more
powerful enemies to face, the deaths of characters both good and evil and the
promise of a big final confrontation to come.
Again, it feels like we’d be on the doorstep of a Season Finale with
this setup. But more on the mind at the
moment is Slayers ability to crack a joke even under all this pressure. Gourry’s inability to keep up with the story
can be aggravating but still feels in line with the humor of Slayers. Same with Lina facing a monstrous Troll only
for the creature to cut the battle short because he spotted a pretty girl and
decided to ignore Lina. No way was Lina
taking that…but seriously, Lina is pretty hot imho, no way was the waitress
(cute as she was) hotter in anyway…but that’s just me. Point is, things got serious for sure. But Slayers still knew when to break the
tension with both well timed and surprise, out of nowhere humor. If you’re not laughing at it by this point,
then clearly this isn’t the series for you.
So with Lina back at full strength, Zelgadis on her team
and Gourry revealing a secret weapon, do the Slayers stand a chance against one
of the most legendary foes of darkness?
I think playtime might be over for a little bit but ive also gotta
wonder just what’s going to happen with the second half of this season after/if
the big bad is destroyed? No sense
pondering over it now. We’ll all find
out together next week as The Slayers continues right here on the Gundam Anime
Corner.
No comments:
Post a Comment