Slayers Evolution-R (Slayers series/season 5) - A No Flying, No Tights Review.

SOURCE: Slayers Evolution-R (Slayers series/season 5)



Fresh off a victory over the demon beast Zanafar, the sorceress Lina Inverse and her companions – the bold warrior Gourry, the naïve warrior priestess Amelia, the stone-skinned sorcerer Zelgadis, and the pint-size plush Prince Pokota – have little time to rest on their laurels. As their friends in the kingdom of Seyruun struggle to rebuild their homes, the party begins their search for an artifact of legend – The Hellmaster’s Jar! It is rumored their old enemy The Red Priest Rezo has found a way to defy death itself and that his soul is hidden away, awaiting resurrection, inside the mystic container.

Naturally, the idea of bringing such a dangerous villain back from the dead isn’t something Lina Inverse relishes, even if she had the first clue about how to do it. But Rezo is the only one who can reverse the spells that turned Zelgadis into a stone-skinned demon, trapped Prince Pokota’s soul in the body of a plush animal, and forced the plague-stricken people of Pokota’s homeland into an eternal sleep. And there’s also the hope that the Red Priest, once hailed as a great hero and healer, may be cleansed of the corruption that turned him to villainy.

Ignoring the difficulties in finding the jar in the first place (and the unreliability of their guide, an animated suit of armor named Nama), Lina and her friends aren’t the only ones seeking the Hellmaster’s Jar. Some of Lina’s old enemies, such as the ruthless, shadow-manipulating assassin Zuuma, aren’t quite as dead as they seemed to be. And the manipulative monster priest Xellos is still watching the party, showing up when he’s least wanted to taunt the party with secret knowledge he refuses to share.

The fifth and final chapter in the long-running Slayers anime series, Slayers Evolution-R is surprisingly accessible to new viewers. Despite picking up precisely where Slayers Revolution ended, great care was taken in the scripting of this series to make sure that those who stumbled across this volume would be able to jump into the action without being confused. Cleverly, the characters are able to avoid being overly repetitious, as most of the exposition has to be laid out multiple times for the dim-witted but good-hearted Gourry. This season also features more one-shot episodes which focus more on the humor and the characters than on the over-riding plot. One particularly amusing episode centers upon the justice-minded Amelia getting locked inside of Nama and then setting out to become the personal guardian of an increasingly horrified village.

Technically, the animation style is smooth, but of standard quality for a televised comedy anime. The characters all have distinctive designs, so there is no difficulty in telling anyone apart. The voice acting in both the original Japanese and English the dub is top notch. And as with the earlier Slayers series, this one is rated PG for some mild scariness (gross undead thingies), mild bloodshed (a few lost limbs), and numerous jokes about Lina’s figure (or lack thereof).

Slayers Evolution-R (Slayers series/season 5)
FUNimation, 2010
directed by Michael Sinterniklaas, Takashi Watanabe
312 minutes, Number of Discs: 2, Season set
Company Age Rating: PG
Related to: Slayers by Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi

Slayers Revolution (Slayers series/season 4) - A No Flying No Tights Review

SOURCE: Slayers Revolution (Slayers series/season 4)




According to Lina Inverse, she is the most stunning, beautiful, wise, powerful, and indescribable sorceress adventurer in the world. According to everyone else, she’s a destructive lunatic, barely preferable to the monsters she combats, with an appetite as large as her bust is small. Accompanied by her bodyguard, the stout-hearted and thick-skulled swordsman Gourry, Lina has been destroying cities left and right with her magic – all in the name of monster-slaying – for several years now. So, when a new wave of destruction washes over the land and someone starts blowing up all the state-of-the-art magical tanks several city-states have recently purchased, Lina is the prime suspect. Indeed, she’s the ONLY suspect to the mind of Inspector Wizer Freion, who is out to arrest Lina Inverse on charges of…being Lina Inverse.

Surprisingly, Lina is innocent – for once. But with Inspector Freion unwilling to investigate any other leads and actively trying to tie her into any other crime that happens around her, Lina has got her hands full staying out of jail. But a strange bunny-like creature with a zipper in his tummy and prehensile ears may be a more serious threat to Lina’s life and livelihood than the crazed cop. And there’s always a chance that Inspector Freion’s ramblings about a conspiracy organized by a criminal mastermind involving the tanks may hold some truth…

Thankfully, Lina’s not alone in trying to puzzle all this out. Along with Gourry, she’s joined in her quest to prove her innocence by some old friends, the pacifist princess priestess (try saying that five times fast) Amelia and the rock-skinned sorcerer Zelgadis. And it’s a good thing Lina has her friends, for there are enemies, old and new, watching from the shadows, waiting to strike.

Slayers Revolution is the fourth anime series (or fourth season) in the long running Slayers series. Originally started as a series of light novels in Japan in 1989, Slayers is one of the most adapted works of fiction in the world, having inspired a manga, a television series, several animated movies, a radio drama, a number of video games and a pen and paper role-playing game. Revolution was the first season of Slayers to be produced after a ten-year gap in production and FUNimation was able to get most of the original dub cast from the first three seasons back for this production.

The look of Slayers is best described as classical anime. It was one of the first series to achieve wide-spread popularity in the United States back in the 1990s and it’s easy to see why. With its mix of action and humor, the series works both as a straight fantasy epic and as a parody of traditional fantasy epics. The humor is not limited to the tropes of sword and sorcery literature, however, and just as much comedy comes from the characters as it does from the absurdity of their world. So while the Dungeons And Dragons crowd will find a lot to laugh at with this series, the more traditional otaku should enjoy themselves, too.

The series is rated PG and I think that is a fair rating. Apart from a running gag regarding the flatness of Lina’s chest and one character taunting her over it, I cannot think of anything in this series that would be considered objectionable for most audiences. Indeed, I would say the entire Slayers series is a must have for any anime collection.

Slayers Revolution (Slayers, series/season 4)
FUNimation, 2008
directed by Takashi Watanabe
312 minutes, Number of Discs: 2, Season set
Company Age Rating: PG
Related to: Slayers by Hajime Kanzaka, Rui Araizumi