Slayers: Next - Volume 2

Introduction

You try coming up with a witty, interesting and original introduction to your sixth straight Slayers review (fifth actually, as the volume 2 checkdisc of Slayers was buggered), it's not as easy as it looks. I'm just proud of the fact that I'm keeping up with the monthly release schedule, and hoping for the next review that I'll have something worthwhile to put in this bit. At the moment, quite frankly I'm just throwing words at random at the screen, and hoping that they'll form coherent sentences. I think this is the first volume in the Slayers franchise that I have actually looked forward to. It's not an instant title that springs to mind, with old-fashioned animation, and possibly past its sell by date at this point in time. But it was the debut of the second series last month, Slayers Next, which actually showed me that there was something to the rabid fan intensity behind this show. I've actually been anticipating Slayers Next: Volume 2 in a far more favourable frame of mind. Candied chicken on ripe steering wheels of destiny… (Sorry, had some words left over there.)


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. 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. Their adventures continue in the second series, Slayers Next.

This time, it's personal, as the heroes search for a copy of the Claire Bible, a tome that promises to hold the cure to Zelgadis' curse, the one that makes him an attractive alternative to a ship's anchor.

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


33. Follow! The Phantom Dragon
It's time for another break in the quest, as Lina spies another restaurant. It's not just any restaurant though, as this one has dragon on the menu, and as everyone knows, dragon cuisine is the greatest in the world, a once in a lifetime experience. But when the four adventurers place their order, it causes a headache for the staff, who are in no mood to go dragon hunting. They decide to substitute whale and orc meat instead. Lina's about to level the place, when master chef Ashford arrives, proud and irate and ready to round on his unruly customers That's until he realises that his staff have been cutting corners, so as an apology, he promises to prepare the finest dragon cuisine for his guests. Only he'll need a little help catching the dragon.

34. Be Eternal! The Day Prince Phil Died
Seyruun is the centre of white magic in the world, and there's sure to be a copy of the Claire Bible there. It's also Amelia's home, her father Prince Philionel is the ruler, and she is ecstatic to be returning home. Lina isn't too excited though. Amelia's do-gooding nature and belief in justice is hard to take at the best of times, but coupled with her father's enthusiastic pursuit of pacifism through superior firepower, it all gets too much to take. But the adventurers aren't expecting the streets to be deserted, and the flags flying at half-mast. The news can't be worse, Prince Phil has been assassinated.


35. Hidden Ambitions! The Shocking Confession
Of course he hasn't, but I did have you going for a bit though, didn't I? His life is in danger though, there is a plot against him, and Lina senses the spectres of Monsters behind it all. But who has most to gain from Phil's death, his brother Christopher, his nephew Alfred, or the sorcerers Kanzel and Mazenda? Phil hires Lina and the others as bodyguards, but investigating the threat leads them into big trouble.

36. Take Back! That Magic Power
Lina has lost her magic! At the last minute during their confrontation, Mazenda cursed her and sealed her powers away. There is a hope for Lina though, and Phil points her to Mount Rune, where a white Sorcery Doctor named Runan retired. Lina has to travel alone to the mountain, but on the way she encounters Martina, who in between nursing a grudge has found the time to fall in love with Xellos. Xellos on the other hand has been waiting specifically for Lina. But they aren't expecting Runan to be a ten-year-old girl, they aren't surprised when Martina tries a couple of sneak attacks on a defenceless Lina, but they really ought to have expected Kanzel and Mazenda to follow them. Finally, the last thing they expected was to find a genuine Claire Bible manuscript in the last place they could have imagined.


37. Slash 'em to Bits! Ragna Blade
Xellos' talismans may have restored some of Lina's magical ability, but certainly not all, and she'll need it, as Kanzel and Mazenda attack Phil and his bodyguards again, transporting them to a parallel world where their powers are diminished. But Lina's been studying the Claire Bible like mad, and may have discovered a new spell even more powerful than the Dragon Slave. If only Runan's granddaughter Kira hadn't coloured in the final page…

38. The Unexpected End! The Shocking Truth.
Kanzel has taken Phil hostage! Hold on, wasn't the point to kill him? The monsters are after something else, and Lina has a good idea as to just what. The gang are ready to confront the architect behind the plot, but their chief suspect takes himself out of the running by renouncing his claim to the throne. That leaves young Alfred, but he's sorely mistaken if he thinks the Monsters Kanzel and Mazenda are dancing to his tune. The monsters have something else in mind, and top of the list is recruiting Lina.


39. The Moment! Of Ambition's Defeat
A big chunk of land, floating in the sky is the unlikely arena of the showdown between the Monsters, and Lina and her friends. It looks as if our heroes are outmatched, and Lina could use having her powers restored about now. When Kanzel's recruitment pitch fails to work, poor Lina gets pitched off the edge of a precipice.

Picture

Slayers Next 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. It does seem a little more fluid and brighter than Slayers though. However, I've recently seen the trailer for Funimation's US re-release of Slayers Next, which has been digitally remastered. It looks a whole lot brighter, colourful and sharper, and it's a shame that version couldn't be 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 Next. 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.

Extras

There are only trailers for FLCL and The Adolescence of Utena movie for your perusal here.

Conclusion

Would ditto be sufficient at this point? Apparently not. But if you've stuck with Slayers this far, then nothing I can say will dissuade you from investing in this volume, and conversely, this isn't the most logical place to induct new fans into the Lina Inverse appreciation society. More of the same is the mantra of the review, more of the same madcap, fast paced, witty nonsense comedy, and more of the same venturing close to, but never wholeheartedly grasping a serious storyline. Not that you'd want a serious storyline from Slayers anyway, especially as when the first series did occasionally get dramatic, I began drifting off to sleep. No such worries here, as even when drama impends, Slayers Next keeps things light and with tongue in cheek.


The first episode is my favourite on the disc, and the last of the stand-alone stories. Dragon meat is the lunch of choice for our adventuring gastronauts, and the unlikeliest of master chefs Ashford is the guest star. This is a man who has waited all his life for someone to come into his restaurant and order the dragon, but being such a rarely prepared delicacy, he hasn't had a lot of experience in catching one. The quarry in question is an elusive lake dragon, and he recruits Lina and her friends to help him hunt it. He's even more out of his depth than the others though, leaving dock without an anchor. When they decide to use stony skinned Zelgadis as an alternative, I realised I was watching probably the zaniest episode of Slayers so far, and I have to admit that I laughed more at this one episode than I have at the rest of the series put together. That shouldn't be taken as denigrating the series as a whole though. It's just that this episode is exceptional.


Then comes a major story arc that takes us to the end of the disc, as the heroes arrive at Amelia's home of Seyruun, and find that her father Philionel is the target of an assassination plot. In the first series, the plot arcs toned down the comedy to focus on drama, much to the show's detriment, but not so here. The drama does take a more central role, but not at the expense of the humour, which remains rich and madcap. It's here that we learn that what seemed like the central thrust of the show, the search for the Claire Bible and a cure for Zelgadis, was just an appetiser. The main villains of the piece are the Monsters, they are up to something nefarious, and Lina somehow figures at the heart of their plans. The ambiguous figure of Xellos simply increases in ambiguity when the monsters recognise him, but at no point does he look as if he's betraying Lina and the others. However his loyalties do come into question far more often in this volume, when he isn't being lusted over by the returning Martina.


An interesting development, which I had hoped would last a while longer, is Lina's loss of her abilities. She regains some of her strength when she obtains Xellos' talismans, but she's just a fraction of her usual self. The thing about Lina is that early on we see that she has the Dragon Slave under her belt, as well as the Giga Slave and a whole host of other magical WMDs. The trouble is that it's a pain to live by your wits when you can solve a tiff by using the equivalent of a tactical nuke. When she loses her powers in episode 35, it looks for a while as if she will have to start being cannier, live on her wits more, and require the writers to come up with some more imaginative resolutions to problems. That promise is fulfilled for the next few episodes, but I suppose it would have been damaging to the character to have her neutered for too long. Still, it was nice diversion as long as it lasted.


Far more surprising in a show like this is character development! Rather than maintain the status quo, they actually move the characters forward, and in a way that I wasn't expecting in the slightest. Lina and Gourry's good-natured, mutually abusive friendship threatens to develop into something… First Lina carefully tends to Gourry's wounds after a tough battle, and then Gourry exhibits concern for Lina when it looks like she's faced her final curtain. Could it be?


I was worried that older shows would have trouble finding a market today, especially something as mainstream as Slayers, as it's the mainstream that dates the fastest. But with Slayers Next, I hardly noticed the old-fashioned animation and character designs, it certainly didn't feel old to me, in fact it felt livelier and more energetic than many more contemporary shows. I have no reservations in recommending this. It will entertain and tickle your funny bone.