Anime Review: The Slayers

The Slayers is a comedy classic for a reason.

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So... my question is that because of the comedic nature, is it better then "Record of Lodoss War," because I'm either going to watch that or this next.

Go with The Slayers, Lodoss is very tiresome and cliche'd and The Slayers manages to have some good "moments" of story, the overall plot is just a little... silly.

Didn't Slayers also star that purple heared chick with the huge knockers and the God-awful laugh?

Im currently getting this on DVD from Amazon. After this article I watched the first few episodes on youtube and its amazing!

Casual Shinji:
Didn't Slayers also star that purple heared chick with the huge knockers and the God-awful laugh?

In later series, yes, they replaced Gourry with Naga. She wasn't present in the particular series that was reviewed here.

Ah I haven't seen the Slayers for years! That was some good stuff! I actually had a crush on Lina at one point. Hey can you blame me, she is so damn cute! ...if deadly.

Casual Shinji:
Didn't Slayers also star that purple heared chick with the huge knockers and the God-awful laugh?

That was in the movies when they replaced her usual companions with Naga the serpent, the scantily clad, purple-haired sorceress with big boobs and an incredibly annoying laugh.

Mstrswrd:
So... my question is that because of the comedic nature, is it better then "Record of Lodoss War," because I'm either going to watch that or this next.

I would say overall, Slayers is more enjoyable than Lodoss War; both are decent, but Slayers ultimately manages to still work in a good fantasy story on top of all the goofball comedy. ROLW is more serious (certainly has its comedic moments) and is a more "epic" fantasy in some ways, but the pacing is slower, and I find the characters less interesting.

Casual Shinji:
Didn't Slayers also star that purple heared chick with the huge knockers and the God-awful laugh?

As others said, that's Naga. She traveled with Lina before she met Gourry, and she appears in the OAVs and several of the manga. There is one OAV that is about the TV series cast ("Premium"), but Naga makes a cameo appearance.

The latest Slayers TV series called "Evolution-R" features a character named "Nama" who seems to be Naga's spirit trapped in a suit of armor, but it's never said outright.

DeathQuaker:

Mstrswrd:
So... my question is that because of the comedic nature, is it better then "Record of Lodoss War," because I'm either going to watch that or this next.

I would say overall, Slayers is more enjoyable than Lodoss War; both are decent, but Slayers ultimately manages to still work in a good fantasy story on top of all the goofball comedy. ROLW is more serious (certainly has its comedic moments) and is a more "epic" fantasy in some ways, but the pacing is slower, and I find the characters less interesting.

Thank you. Slayers is first, than Lodoss War.

Wow, Slayers. I had all three seasons of the main series back in the days of VHS. Another thing this review doesn't mention is that the DVD collections of each season are dirt cheap I got them for under $30 on Amazon when I upgraded my copies to DVD last year.

Slayers is great comedic anime, if you want plot go for Record of Lodoss war (but be prepared to suffer some boredom and cliches), but if you want a laugh go for Slayers. Tangentially the plot for the second season (Slayers Next) is much better than the first season reviewed here. I'm conflicted about the third season (Slayers Try), but I have been since I was in high school, so nothing new there.

Also you need to be a real Slayers geek to know, but the Naga character mentioned above is actually the older sister of the TV cast member Amelia.

I really should look these up again, now that I can. It was one of the titles that got me into anime in the first place, and Megumi Hayashibara's songs for the show (especially the opening and ending themes) were what originally got me into J-pop.

Because The Slayers is a comedy series, each gag-filled episode leaves little room for a connecting plot throughout the series and the progression of the series is its weakest point. The first half of the series pits Lina, Gourry, and Zelgadis against a powerful figure who unleashes an evil godlike monster set on killing them. After the monster's defeat, the series seemed to have no idea what else to do. After introducing Amelia in the second half, the season ends with a climatic battle against a copy of the powerful figure from the first half-he is even referred to as a copy-who unleashes another evil godlike monster set on killing the heroic quartet. It begs to ask where the plot of future Slayers seasons can go.

Well...to be fair, that's pretty much what happened in the light novels the anime is drawn from. The first half of season 1 is based on the first volume, and the second sounds like they did some rearranging of the next three (I don't know when, or if, Halcyform shows up in the anime). Technically, Amelia wasn't there for the Copy Rezo incident (volume 3); she was introduced in the next volume.