On Slayers

weeeh. . .. my favorite anime adventure is back . . . it's finally back. . tadada!!

i remembered the time i used to watch this series every saturday. . . wait, when was that? grade six? i could scarcely remember already. there were three of them lined up in a row and the last one was rayearth . . . or was rayearth on sunday? again, i could not remember clearly. anyway, at first, i treated this series as merely an ' appetizer ' because i thought it was humorously shallow, just blasting your enemies when you felt like it or when they piss you off isnt really gonna cut it as an anime with a good storyline, and i had always been looking for one.

but the humor and the well-made consistent characters grew on my senses and later on, i found out it had a lot more to offer than mere fun.

there are basically three consistent things that I like about this anime more than most of the others.

1. the humor - i remembered a time when i couldnt stop myself from laughing half an hour after its airing on saturdays but back then, i could barely remember why. watching the new series now (Slayers Revolution), i could recall half of the stuff that made this series fun. It was like the irony of Hitler declaring a nuclear war on an entire continent because Roosevelt told him he looked like Charlie Chaplin (though in truth, Chaplin did outlive Hitler and even made a film with him as a dictator as an act of Nazi defiance). on a more precise term, levelling an entire city because somebody insulted the protagonist (Lina Inverse) calling her "Ms. Flat chest" which she actually was and not even a bit pleased of being reminded so.

2. the well designed characters -

Lina had problems reconciling her claim of being a beautiful sorceress with her short figure and 'flat' chest. . . . and anyone who tried to remind her of the painful truth ended up the bottom of the crater caused by her powerful spell, Dragon Slave. In Gouddy's case, a simple whack to the head or kick in the 'behind' usually had him shutting his mouth.







well, Gourry is Gourry, and he is nothing but. . . with that being said, he's always a recipient of the Lina fireball and kick and the infamous Filia mace. . . and why is that? because he lacks in whatever kind of quotient you can think of (intelligence quotient, emotional Intelligence quotient, social intelligence quotient. . . etc). he manages to get himself into trouble by saying the wrong words at the wrong time at the wrong people. sometimes it can be attributed to his naivette, .. . but more often than not, Gourry is just being Gourry.








and then there's Xellos. . . oh how i like this guy. a dear ally a second ago. . . a pain in the ass the next. he had his little secret agenda going on in which Lina and co. does for him albeit without their knowledge. it's amazing how the series creators had switched his character from being a comic relief to a trickster and finally, to a dark dangerous character without even making it seem like Xellos made any effort to be all that. Xellos is simply, all that.


from a distant perspective, the characters have that generic nature, primarily because it had an RPG feel to it. but unlike other series, the characters here never tried to step into boundaries they where never meant to fill. you don't get to see a Lina acting all emo crying into a corner or getting all mushy with Gourry, (suppose to be was her love interest). . . which was fine with me. it was all designed to be consistently linear which is actually good if you're looking for fast paced action, fun and a little intrigue, but nothing else.

3. the myth and mystery - this was really the last straw that made this one of my favorites. perhaps, it may have been because i had always have an addiction for myths and names. . . and i find this series' character names to be one of the most original in any i have seen especially in the fantasy genre. . . such names as Phibrizo, Gaav, Cepheid all have a somewhat aggressive and archaic feel to it and though some were derived partially from western lore, they were nevertheless unheard of. even the spells themselves were named impressively. . . and finally the story of the Slayers universe , the myth of the dragons and the demons, and how everything came to be was well told. i also like the fact that the characters themselves were caught up in all this mysteries without actually overstepping on it. the series was like a treasure box full of little stories and information that you'd really believe there was a real wacko world like that somewhere. . . and even if there isn't, you'd still like to think there is one.

*whew* all in all, im just glad there's a new one that's released. i am just so happy i needed to write this why-do-i-like slayers post.

P.S. i also hope you watch kure-nai. nice anime. . . and please, don't get the wrong idea that it's lolicon. i've had enough just reading from some of those shitty commenters who want it to turn out that way.