Slayers: Try - Volume 2

Introduction

The first week of September arrives and there's no Slayers Try: Volume 2 review disc to peruse (I get them a month before retail). There must be something wrong with the world. Oh, it's not my calendar that's running a week slow; it's a stupid postal strike. False alarm, the world isn't about to come to an end. Yet with what evil plans Valgaav and Almayce have in store for Lina and her friends, I may be speaking too soon. Let's find out what happens in the next exciting instalment of Slayers.

Lina Inverse is a powerful sorceress in a pint-sized package. She's into wealth redistribution. She takes on the toughest of bandits, the meanest of monsters, with an arsenal of powerful and destructive spells, and then liberates them from their gold, gems and magical artefacts, redistributing it into her own pocket. Somehow though, she's become one of a group of adventurers, working together to fight evil, defeat monsters, and make enough money to fill their stomachs. After all, fighting the Dark sorcerer Rezo, and the resurrected Shabranigdo tends to unite people against adversity. And if that isn't enough, searching for the Clare Bible and defeating the nefarious plans of the Monsters, taking down the Dark Demon King Gaav in the process ought to suffice. Gourry Gabriev is the heroic figure, who is a dab hand with a sword, if not too bright of intellect. Zelgadis is a powerful warrior/magic user, who in the pursuit of more power was cursed so that his skin turned to stone, and is now looking for a cure. Amelia is a trainee sorceress, and heir to the throne of Seyruun, who has an unwavering belief in goodness and justice, and who as an apprentice, continually manages to rub Lina the wrong way. Even more of their misadventures are presented in the third series, Slayers Try.


Defeating the Monsters has changed the world, the magical barrier that surrounded the land has vanished, and now travel outside is possible. But there are ominous signs on the horizon, both literally and figuratively. A glowing pillar of light heralds something dire, and there are rumours of other lands preparing to invade. As you would expect, Lina and her friends are all fired up, ready to board ship, and head out to sample all that foreign cuisine. But there is a small matter of a dragon with a prophecy, and one of Gaav's minions named Valgaav looking for revenge.

The next seven episodes of Slayers Try are presented here on this disc from MVM, although the episode numbering counts the episodes in the first two series as well.

59. A Peace Conference?
The dragons welcome Lina to the Fire Dragon Temple, after she crashes the ruins into it, knocking down a major segment of the structure. But they're not peeved, not in the slightest. They even go as far as supplying a slap up repast for the weary travellers. As they stuff their faces, the Supreme Elder takes Filia aside and asks her if she is sure of the prophecy. There will have to be a test, someway of proving that Lina and the others will be the ones to save the world. The dragons decide that they will tell Lina what her mission will be, but first she has to prove herself by rebuilding the temple she demolished. So much for not being peeved. But when the travellers go to the Dragon Cathedral to hear their mission, there is an unexpected, and uninvited guest.


60. The Plan Has Begun!
Almayce confronts the council of dragons with a proposition. Hand over the Sword of Light, and he won't summon the dark lord Darkstar to this world. Darkstar is a force that rivals Shabranigdo, and his manifestation would prove disastrous. The Dragons are ready to make the deal, but no one has asked the sword's current owner, Gourry. Or Lina depending on who wins the punch-up. Valgaav isn't too pleased either, as he sees his chance for vengeance slipping away. But Lina and her friends know better than to make a deal with the likes of Almayce, and they'll stand against the dragons too if they have to. Surprisingly, Filia stands at their side as well.

61. Continuous Fire!
For Almayce to call forth Darkstar, he needs five of the weapons that Darkstar created. He has three, Gourry has the Sword of Light, and one remains to be found. Lina's mission is to find it first, and in this outside world where magic is practically unknown, the best place to look is where strange stories of magic have arisen. Their first stops are the twin kingdoms of Alto and Baritone, where legends tell of two magical vessels, which if reunited will show a new road for the two nations. Since then, Alto and Baritone have been at war, each trying to take the other's magical artefact. While Lina, Gourry and Filia go searching in Alto, Zelgadis and Amelia head to Baritone. And then the cannonballs start flying.


62. Ready For Exile!
The war is about to get serious, but Princess Sera of Alto, and Prince Marco of Baritone are in love, they want the fighting to end, and they realise that the only way to do it is to defy their respective parents and get rid of the magical vessels. So Marco persuades Amelia and Zelgadis to steal their artefact, while Sera does the same with Lina and the rest. They aim to meet on the island midway between both nations, but both nations send their respective navies after them. At the same time, Valgaav's minions recognise the magic power in the artefacts, and set forth to steal them for themselves. Lina finds herself in the middle of a three-way battle.

63. Jillas's Hidden Power!
The next potential hiding place for the fifth weapon is a temple devoted to the God of Marriage, perched atop a rather obscene looking mountain. Following the rumours, Lina and her associates pick up a local guide who offers to take them to the temple. But there are a whole lot of tiresome rituals to observe, and the guide is behaving most suspiciously.


64. Pursuit Through the Labyrinth!
Jillas has the Sword of Light, and Gourry's depressed, so much so that Lina has to literally drag him on the chase. He leads them to a mountaintop lair belonging to Valgaav, but this lair is a veritable maze that leads them all, including Jillas to get lost. They split up to search for him, and while Amelia and Zelgadis wind up chasing Jillas, Lina and Gourry bump into Almayce. But rather than try and kill each other, Almayce finally comes clean with just why he is after the Darkstar weapons, and why he wants to summon Darkstar to this world. But Filia and Xellos wind up encountering Valgaav, and although Xellos ditches Filia, she finds him again, only to learn that he is betraying them all.

65. The One Who Holds the Key!
What do you expect from a Monster? Lina certainly isn't surprised, although she is remarkably forgiving of Xellos, probably because Valgaav turned him down. But disaster strikes anyway. Almayce needs five weapons to open the gate and defeat Darkstar, but Valgaav only needs two to open the gate and summon him into the world. Now that he has his hands on the Sword of Light, he has the two weapons, and he vanishes. Almayce tells Lina that she has to find Valgaav and kill him before he can open the gate, or this world will be destroyed, just as Almayce's overworld was.

Picture

Slayers Try is an anime from the mid-nineties, so there's no pixel perfect CGI perfection. This is traditional, hand painted, cel acetate animation with all the inconsistencies and flaws that implies. It looks pretty good for all that, with a decent transfer of a good clean source. There's no sign of age or print damage here, and the animation may be comparatively rough and ready, but it still has all the vibrancy and imagination that I have come to expect from anime. It isn't all that flash or high budget, but the character designs are memorable and the world design does what it needs to, to get the story across. Once again, it's a shame that the remastered Funimation version couldn't have been sourced for the UK.

Sound

You have a choice between DD 2.0 English and Japanese, along with optional English subtitles (except for the credit reels, where the subs are burnt in). My instinct as always was to go for the Japanese language option, and I wasn't disappointed. I was dreading the English track though, the mid-nineties wasn't a period known for its excellence in dubs, but I was pleasantly surprised by the English audio in Slayers Try. For one thing it's quieter than the Japanese track, and not just in terms of audio levels. For once, a dub cast plays comedy for the jokes, rather than the misapprehension that by screaming a line they make it funnier. Also, there are some occasional choice diversions from the Japanese script, responding to the onscreen action, that are actually funnier than the original dialogue. It may be sacrilege to some purists, but I think in this case it works. The sad thing is that this dub is from the old days, where technology wasn't as good as today, and the English dub feels layered on top of the anime, rather than an integral part of it. There are also a couple more nice themes to get the toes tapping, from Japanese voice of Lina, Megumi Hayashibara.

Conclusion

It's a tad dispiriting to have to write about a show on a monthly basis, especially when the reviews boil down to a rather mind-numbing 'more of the same'. That isn't necessarily a judgement on the show itself, but I must say that even though the volumes were spaced further apart, I didn't have the same problem with 14 instalments of Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex. If you want tongue-in-cheek, RPG comedy mayhem, then you have come to the right place, as Slayers Try: Volume 2 gives you just what you hope for, and in much the same vein as the first Slayers series, and Slayers Next as well. Yes, it really is more of the same. I'm just glad I don't have to review Big Brother on an episodic basis.


But some of that ennui is beginning to transfer from my writing about the show, to the show itself. Last night, it became clear to me that Slayers is the last vestige of a televisual storytelling style that I had long considered dead. It's the last gasp of eighties television. You could easily watch a comedy or action show in the eighties and not care in the slightest about continuity. Something like the A-Team of Baywatch were prime examples of shows that employed a character reset button at the end of each episode, and were self contained stories in 60 minutes, that didn't require viewers to keep note of what happened, when, and to who. You could miss an episode, an entire season, and come back and watch an episode as if nothing had happened. The producers were less interested in story, and more interested in making sure that viewers got just the elements that they believed each episode would deliver. It could have been slow motion running of bikini clad blondes in Baywatch, it could be the General Lee jumping a gulch in Dukes of Hazzard, the ingredients had to be present and correct.


Now stretch the episode out to a 26-part series, and you have the same thing in Slayers. Each series has a villain, a demonic plan of world domination for Lina and her friends to thwart, and a few twists and turns along the way. The characters' growth is minimal, and as evinced at the end of Slayers Next, prone to an occasional reset. There must be scenes of etiquette abuse at a restaurant as Lina and Gourry devour a kitchen's annual output in five seconds, there must be quips about Lina's lack of breasts, Gourry has to be oblivious and stupid, requiring pummelling by Lina, Amelia must mention justice and the power of love and good at least once an episode, and Zelgadis must be moody and the voice of reason. These are all ingredients that fans of Slayers expect, and they are always present to some degree in each episode. The thing about ingredients is that it's the recipe that counts; get the recipe wrong and you're left with an unpalatable mess.


The first Slayers series was something of a trial run, and while it had promise, the ingredients just didn't mix right. Slayers Next was where the animators perfected the art. It all fit together seamlessly, and the show was a joy from beginning to end. But something has gone wrong with Slayers Try. It's as if they've forgotten about the recipe and concentrated on the garnish. The story is pretty much a rehash of the earlier storylines, world in peril, big bad evil sort of thing, although there are some interesting diversions on the route to the big bad magical finale this time around. Almayce certainly isn't the typical villain, while Valgaav is a much more sympathetic character, having suffered personal loss on more than one occasion, and his desire for vengeance is understandable, if misplaced. He's the sort of character you hope can be redeemed, rather than utterly defeated. The problem is that all those ingredients I mentioned earlier, the comedy trademarks of Slayers are much more noticeable this time around, much more prominent, as if the writers are going out of their way to remind us that this is Slayers. My heart sinks as I see them doing the old pigs at a trough routine for the 50th time, I roll my eyes with each flat-chested Lina gag, and it's all beginning to distract from the story, rather than add to it.


Slayers Try is still entertaining, and it certainly doesn't have the problems that I found with the first Slayers series, but familiarity is beginning to breed contempt. Hopefully the story can be brought back into focus for the final two volumes. There's also hope to be had with the next series Slayers Revolution, as a decade gap in production means that it may have had a fresh perspective applied, rather than just continuing on in the same vein. Slayers Try: Volume 2 is funny, but forcefully so.