Monday, September 24, 2018

The Slayers Part 6 Episodes 23-26


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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