It’s all hands on deck as The Slayers learn the truth
behind Rezo’s return. But that’s the
least of their worries when Eris sets her sights on unleashing the darkest form
of vengeance on Lina Inverse and her friends: a demon even more powerful than
Shabranigdo. Lina, Gourry, Zel, Amelia
and Sylphiel have come a long way since they first met but now they face their
ultimate test. The fate of the world is
at stake and now they face a foe only one man in history was able to
defeat. So that means Lina’s getting
paid double for this job right? Cause
The Slayers are here to save the world…but they aren’t going to do it for free.
If watching a full season of Slayers has taught me
anything, it’s this: no matter the level of darkness, the size of the monster,
the vastness of despair…there’s always time to crack a joke or break the 4th
wall and remind everyone that this is first and foremost a parody of the
Fantasy genre. Not every joke works but
you can never fault Slayers for trying.
And that goes double for the epic Season One finale.
The finale started off great and even opted to do the
smart thing and remove Eris from the playing field quickly. She was always just a means to an end and a
character with little depth. Though they
tried to make her death tragic, I wasn’t too moved as she was never that
memorable to begin with. This gave the Rezo
clone the full stage. I guess he managed
to free himself from Eris’ “control” crystal by sheer will and ill admit, he
definitely seemed to trump the original Rezo in a couple of ways. No longer blinded by his quest for sight
(literally and figuratively), Rezo 2.0 only wanted one thing: to surpass the
original by killing Lina and the Slayers (he even took in the power of another
demon but at least Rezo got to fight as Rezo without transforming this time). And too his credit, he came pretty damn
close. Lina getting mortally wounded had
all the effects you’d expect, especially from poor Gourry. Of course Lina was going to survive but it’s
never a fun sight to see the plucky heroine so close to deaths door. It sounds mean to say so but Lina’s near death
brought the Slayers together better than before. Luckily, her epic comeback reset things for
one helluva finisher.
The animation quality of the true final battle was really
something. Normally you’d see some of
the best animation in the first episode to make an eye catching pilot with
which to pitch the show. In the last
episode, however, it looks like the best was saved for last. Every spell attack, sword slash and full on
charge of every single character flowed a lot smoother and packed an almost OVA
quality punch (fitting since the direness of the situation felt almost Record
of Lodoss War like. It was a wild rush,
right down to the final thrust of a sword from Lina. She got her big damn hero moment for
sure. She even Rezo 2.0 a peaceful
farewell, kind of mirroring how Shabranigdo congratulated The Slayers for
defeating him.
Things were pretty intense for sure but Slayers didn’t
forget to let the trademark humor take off some of the stress. There were plenty of 4th Wall
breaks. Lina and Zelgadis made several
cracks about the end of the series being near and Lina even ranted about being
denied screentime because of her injury.
Sure said injury killed playtime a little bit but I was never worried
the show was ditching all of its hilarity just for the finale. Nope, Slayers has always been about the humor
right til the end and I hope this formula doesn’t change, even when it doesn’t
work out for the best. One thing that I
hope does change is Sylphiel’s voice actress from the English Dub, who I think
has been my real problem with the character.
In the beginning of the series, there were several soft spoken
characters like Zel and Rezo. Zel’s
voice changed when he returned later in the series to Crispin Freeman (who
voices Zelgadis from here on out) and Rezo’s voice actor managed to sound a bit
more maniacal and less boring with Rezo 2.0.
Sylphiel, however, was so one note in her acting it was irritating. At moments when she should have been shouting,
she sounded so quiet and dull. When she
should have been terrified, she sounded so bored. None of her lines worked with the character
on screen and it really took me out of the moment, even in the climax of the
final battle in which Sylphiel plays a vital role. It’s time like this that the voice work of
Lisa Ortiz as Lina Inverse really saves the day as she brings all the energy
and fury to make up for most of the other castings weaknesses in spades.
So, the land is saved, Rezo is done (hopefully for good
this time) and The Slayers are going their separate ways. And just what did I think of The
Slayers? It was good, not 100% great but
still really good. Lina Inverse steals
just about every scene she’s in better than she does the gold she’s trying to
poach. Her charm, confidence, power and
humor in the face of certain death make her a character you cant help but love,
even at her most greedy. The world
around her was lively and full of both danger and jokes from Demons to walking
Fishmen. And the supporting cast shined
and grew…mostly. Gourry and Zel never
bothered me in the slightest. Amelia
started off irritating (and infuriated me big time in one episode), but she
grew a lot too and became a powerful ally by the seasons end. The villains were hit and miss. Rezo 2.0 was an improvement over the original
and Zangulus was an excellent rival for Gourry.
But Verumugun and Eris never hit their stride and original Rezo’s plan
was…well im kind of glad he got swapped out for a scarier demon adversary. And while some bits overstayed their welcome,
the humor of Slayers remained it’s strongest spell in its arsenal. For every moment of intensity, there was
equal levity and neither competed for screentime, being balance reasonably
well.
In the end, I award Season One of The Slayers 7/10. If some of the voice acting choices for the
English Dub were better, it might be an 8, but 7 still isn’t bad. Record of Lodoss War this show isn’t but it’s
still a very strong and confident fantasy epic that’s all about the journey and
not the destination. It was fun running
around with Lina and her gang and I cant wait to go another round. While Supernatural:
The Anime Series is up next for Halloween, look forward to more adventures
with Lina Inverse and crew when Slayers
Next kicks off 2019 in a few months.
Til then, see ya around everyone.
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