With Seyruun safe and Prince Phil’s rule secure, Lina and
her friends hit the road again. There’s
a powerful Dragon Lord intent on adding Lina’s powers to his own and only one
thing can stop him: The Claire Bible.
Lina had a copy in her hands before but it was lost in battle. Now The Slayers need to find another one
quickly. You’d think they’d get a break
after all their hard work recently. Well
tell that to the legions of bounty hunters, monsters and various roadblocks
popping up left and right. Whether
there’s money or food in their future, it’s time for Lina and friends to cut
loose and enjoy some lighter fare before things get serious again.
At some point during this set of episodes I had to feel
for Zelgadis, or at least agree with him.
While there were plenty of incredibly fun stand alone adventures to be
had this week, at some point we needed to get to the freaking Claire Bible
already and get this story moving towards its final act. In a way, I wish we didn’t end on such a dour
note of an episode (it wasn’t bad don’t get me wrong), cause Slayers was back
to being all about the fun travels and wacky escapades. Though I suppose we had to get serious again
eventually, more on those mixed feelings in a bit.
This weeks set of episodes had something for everyone in
the comedy department. In the span of
four episodes we got to see Lina and Amelia perform a cute Jpop number, watch
Zelgadis dress up in a cute bunny costume (Zelgabunny as Lina dubbed him) AND
as a girl, and witness the evolution of Lina and Maritna’s rivalry through a
round of magic tennis. Like many
episodes before, the stories as a whole were hit or miss but there was always
one thing to enjoy about all of them. My
pick for favorite of these four episodes goes to the Tennis Match episode. Not only did Lina and Martina both look cute
in their sports uniforms but Martina showcased again why she’s one of Lina’s
best adversaries yet. After all, Lina
wasn’t going to partake in the match until Martina made that crack about her
small bust. Lina and Edward Elric should
get drinks sometime, considering they both have an image inferiority
complex. For a time, Slayers was back to
what made it great to begin with: excellent taste in humor and great chemistry
amongst its leads. Even Martina and
Xellos seem to have found a more or less permanent spot on the team now, which
is a long time coming, even if theyre not being helpful.
Thankfully, however, we got to the Claire Bible at
last…sealed away in a desert dimension containing millions of monoliths guarded
by an adorable old woman. Considering
the contents of the Bible counldt simply be recopied, this kind of worked as a
reveal for me. But we got a lot
more. We got some nice bonding between
Lina and the Bible guardian, Auntie Aqua, along with an innocent enough
declaration from Gourry: that he’d protect Lina for the rest of his life. Annnnnd then we got to watch Lina have a
nightmarish vision of screwing up a Giga Slave and killing everyone in the process. That is going to make you breathe really hard
watching The Slayers die in such terrible fashion (not Berserk levels but
still). It’s effective enough, if a
little disturbing, as it highlights the stakes have never been higher. If Lina uses the Giga Slave, she destroys all
of existence and loses the ones she loves most.
So it’s fitting that we end a week of fun with a dash of
gut punch revelations with the arrival of Gaav, the Demon Dragon King. And he looks ready to rumble. I really hope he lives up to the hype. There’s eight more episodes for him to do
some damage and try to match Rezo for threat level. Personally though, whatever happens, please
don’t show me Lina and the gang dying again.
My mind might not be able to handle the sleepless night it will
bring. See ya next week.
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