For a thousand years, the land has been entrapped by a
barrier created by monsters. With the
demise of Hellmaster Phibrizzo, that barrier has fallen and the world is now
open to explore. And guess who’s ready
to plunder it all? Lina Inverse that’s
who. But there’s more then treasure and
glory to be found. Lina’s got a special
mission (given to her by someone she fears more than any monster) to safeguard
a Dragon Priestess…who’s also a Dragon.
Thankfully, Gourry, Zelgadis and Amelia are coming along for the ride
and is that Xellos sneaking behind too?
And who’s that blue haired, fanged warrior with a bone to pick with our
favorite heroine? The new world had
better get ready…cause The Slayers are coming.
Come on, be honest, you missed them too right? We kicked off 2019 with Slayers Next and I
was so happy to be reviewing this franchise that I made Slayers: The Motion
Picture my big review for the 5th Anniversary of the Gundam Anime
Corner. Originally this was going to be
the series that kicked off Year 6 of the blog, right after Slayers: The Motion
Picture…until I realized April 2019 marked the 40th anniversary of
Mobile Suit Gundam…then I just had to shift things a bit but hey a one month
wait isn’t too bad, right? Well without
further ado, let’s get back to the crazy world of Lina Inverse, shall we? Welcome dear readers to Slayers Try.
There’s a whole new world for Lina and company to explore
this season and that’s an exciting prospect.
It invokes the feeling of playing Pokemon Gold and Silver after Red,
Blue and Yellow. The group gets to
travel to a new region, visit new sights, battle new monsters…and yes pig out
to their hearts content (cause that’s how The Slayers roll). There’s so much potential to be found in this
setup and I am hopeful, especially when its accompanied by a beautiful guitar
laden theme song (seriously when it comes to opening and ending themes, Slayers
can do no wrong)…but am also a bit worried after the first set of episodes.
The premiere was one of the strongest starts to Slayers
yet with Lina and Gourry reuniting with Amelia and Zel and battling a Golden
Dragon. After they set sail for the new
world, however, things got…iffy. It
almost pains me to write having outright issues with Slayers at this point but
I cant shake it this time. There are two
mains sources for my concerns. The first
is Filia, the Dragon Priestess (and the aforementioned Golden Dragon Lina and
crew fought). She’s the one who brings a
new quest to save the world cause Lina is the (second most candidate) “chosen
one”. Filia is as uptight a character as
we’ve seen in Slayers so far. She’s
prim, proper, loves tea and is super sensitive to just about everything
(nevermind her tail keeps popping out from under her dress when she’s human…which
leads to Gourry getting an amusing thrashing when he lifts up her skirt). To see her basically fuss about every little
detour Lina makes gets old and annoying after a bit. Filia feels like the embodiment of a brand
new viewer coming into Slayers three seasons in. They might not get that Lina and her team
WILL save the world…theyre just going to enjoy the journey to get there…by
plundering and eating to their hearts content.
Filia is not a great fit for this group and that’s worrisome since she’s
going to be around for pretty much the whole season. I’ll be honest though, her battle against the
Slayers in the premiere was great, as was her Godzilla style rampage in Dragon
Form through a town to try and kill Xellos.
Still, Filia needs to do a lot of growing if she wants to recoup a
pretty dismal introduction this week.
My other point of worry is the villains. I’ve had to temper my expectations when it
comes to any bad guy introduced in Slayers.
Most times they can bring the physical challenge but they always lack a
depth that makes them more than just characters with a ton of brawn. It is worth noting that unlike Slayers Next,
Slayers Try isn’t waiting until the last act to bring in the big bads of the
season. Valgaav and Almace do seem
menacing at least in their character designs.
The fact that Almace was also able to send a shiver down Xellos’ spine
says volumes as well. The problem is
that I wish we had waited a little bit on bringing them in so that we could
have some more stand alone adventures in this new setting. Im not saying spend 15 episodes doing nothing
before we get to something. Im just
saying it would be nice to take in the sights and see how Lina and company
react to everything.
Bringing in the villains early does have its advantages,
that being advancing some of the lore of Slayers, particularly in regards to
Gourry’s Sword of Light. Turns out
Valgaav and Almace have their own weapon as well (a cool double bladed weapon
of light) and they’ve said there’s a total of five of these kinds of weapons
out there. The creative possibilities
boggle the mind. I’m also hopeful that
when we do meet the rest of Filia’s Dragon Priestess order (they have a proper
name but im blanking on it) that they’ll make a better impression than their haughty
represenetive. Like I said, for all my
worry, I have high hopes for Slayers Try, especially after coming off an
overall stronger second season. Of
course, the Slayers themselves are still bringing their A Game no matter how
dull things can get sometimes. I’m glad
they haven’t completely forgotten Lina and Gourry admitting there’s a spark
between them, at least Zel hasn’t. Also
(and I feel this should be a given), never, EVER get between The Slayers and
their dinner. One of the best moments of
this opening set of episodes was Lina and her friends arriving in a new world
port, starving to death (Gourry almost skeletal) and rushing to save a town
only because they want their food and nothing will stop them. I love these guys. Plus Xellos is back too and while I did think
his “It’s a secret” schtick got a little old in Slayers Next, I am willing to
give him a pass since he’s poking fun at Filia almost non stop…yeah I don’t
like her character that badly. One thing
I know ill have to accept is that, true to the openings proclamation, we will
only see a shadowy glimpse of Lina’s dreaded sister Luna Inverse right in the
intro and that’s it. Lina’s reaction to
seeing even one simple demanding note (with one sentence “just do it”) was
enough to make Lina build a pyramid and a sarcouphagus and bury herself
alive…dammit I wanna see Luna in person now just to see how that would truly
shake Lina up.
Slayers Try got off to a bit of a rough start. There’s endless potential in shifting the
series setting to halfway across the world and I think Lina and company could
have a lot of fun here if theyre allowed.
However, a less the great addition to the cast (who is supposed to be
important) and a desire to get the main quest going as soon as possible rather
than exploring the new world kind of hampers things a bit. However, this is only the start of a season,
growing pains can be expected, especially when something as important as the
setting is shuffled and swapped out. The
new journey’s just beginning and I hope The Slayers can remember the immortal advice
of Lina Inverse “Eat, drink and enjoy the journey.”
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