Customer Reviews

The Slayers - The Complete First Season

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Slayers" is one of my all-time favorite animated series and the best of the sizeable anime fantasy/comedy genre. It's packed with action, adventure, bizarre characters, magic, monsters, and all the goofy humor one could ever want. Lina Inverse is the ultimate anime anti-heroine: a greedy, bad-tempered yet adorable genius sorceress who has made a career out of stealing from bandits.

The series' opening salvo is an absolute classic and will tell you right away whether or not this show is for you. The first episode has Lina-chan up to her usual business when she meets up with a dumb-as-a-box-of-hammers swordsman named Gourry. The two wind up "saving" a village from a dragon (if blowing half of the town apart can qualify as saving it) who insults our heroine and new companion by stepping over them "like two pieces of..." rather than squashing them. As many Slayers adventures do, the episode ends with Lina being run out of town by angry villagers. Is it really poor Lina-chan's fault that her spells are a bit overpowered and discretion is not in her vocabulary? Okay yes, but you've gotta love her anyways. One of my favorite episodes of any television show ever.

"Slayers" is a show with several arcs in a given season. The pacing is usual spot-on with each story building up to a climax, but not taking too long to do so. A few comedic standalone episodes are thrown in and then the next story begins. After some misunderstandings Lina finds herself tutoring a good-two-shoes princess, Amelia, who wishes to use Lina's ultimate technique, the atom-bombish Dragon Slave, to enforce her kooky idea of justice. Amelia's bizzare behavior proves to be a comedic centerpiece of the series and her magical abilites come in handy as well. The primary cast is completed once the first villain, Zelgadis, enters the fray. Zel is a chimera with rock hard skin, wicked combat skills both magical and as a swordsman, and a big chip on his shoulder. He's also a fan favorite. The supporting cast is also strong, but work best in small doses. White magician Sylphiel proves to be one of the series' stronger characters and her interest in Gourry and soft-spoken demeanor make her an interesting fit with Lina's rowdy band of stooges.

As Lina and her band move further and further up the villain ladder, the series really begins to excel at combining it's elements. The show can switch effortlessly from slapstick comedy to serious plot-driven drama and back again without the two detracting from one another. Can you feel the tension in the epic confrontations aganst impossible odds as Lina pushes herself to the limit for the sake of all humanity? Yes. Will you still laugh yourself silly at the chicken-toting henchman dressed up as Col. Sanders luring our starving heroes into a trap using 11 herbs and spices? God, yes. Are Gourry's overly dramatic cries of "SYLPHIEEEEELLLL!!!!" both ridiculous and somehow touching? Mmm hmmm.

I can honestly say there is nothing else quite like this show. It knows it's niche and it rarely stretches beyond it's comfort zone, relying on recurring gags and goofy character-driven humor along with epic confrontations and storylines that should keep fantasy fans interested throughout. The English dub has a lot of personality and jokes added into it and, as expected, the Japanese language track is a hoot as well. There are two more 5-star seasons of this wonderful television series available ("Slayers Next" and "Slayers Try") as well as a feature film and several OVA's which chronicle Lina's days before meeting Gourry. Those are fun as well and feature better quality animation, but the three seasons of the television series are the absolute must-owns. Personally, I own all of the original, pricier "Slayers" releases and THAT, my friends, is a whole lot of my time and money I've spent on this series. These new releases are remastered, the price is magnificent, the show is awesome, I love it. Fantasy fans must not go without; buy it.

This series got me into anime in a big way! An awesome voice cast (I saw it dubbed, for the most part, but the subtitle is pretty good...all in all, a pretty direct translation either way), even though a couple voice actors change part-way through the season (for the better). The first episode is what got me: Lina terrorizing a band of bandits, stealing their money (setting off the plot), then being ambushed by them, and being "rescued" by tall, blond, and handsome (and dumb!) mercenary Gourrey--"If I gave you my name, you'd get it dirty!" (awesome opening line). Add in Zelgadis, the tormented chimera-man, and Amelia, the ever optimistic do-gooder clutz white magic user, and you have a fun adventure, filled with monsters, demons, magic, sword-fighting, and a lot of witty banter (a great deal about Lina's ultra-petite chest size).

Story: Lina steals from bandits. Bandits were holding a powerful treasure that Zelgadis and his employer were searching for. First half of season revolves around the item and everyone scrambling for it. Then there is the climax where the head bad guy finds out that his problem is...well, that would ruin the plot. Second half is where bad guys' minions seek revenge and their means to get it.

Yes, this is hand-drawn art, but well done. A good plot, good characters.

I was introduced to Slayers ten years ago, when I was about 9, and I've always loved it. My brother and I used to watch every episode (we had seasons 1-3) on VHS, but sadly since the introduction of DVDs, it's rare to find a VCR in our household. So when I finally found Slayers on DVD, I was ecstatic and I had to buy it. I'm halfway through the first season now and it's just like I remembered.

It's a very old anime, released in around 1995 or so, and the artwork and the English dubs reflect the time period. The plot is kinda iffy; there are some loopholes that are never explained and many 'filler' episodes, but as such a longtime fan I look past it for the sake of the story. :) There is some cussing (though I'd consider it minimal compared to today's animes and movies), implied nudity (though never explicitly shown), and some adult humor thrown in (which I find amusing since now, when I'm rewatching the season, I finally understand the jokes in the episodes).

I think this is a good, decent introduction to the anime world, and it's certainly a series you can become addicted to. :)

I had never seen a single episode of The Slayers before buying this boxset. However after seeing a couple of trailers about the show on other previous FUNimation dvd's, I became more and more interested so I decided to go out on an impulse and finally purchase the first season.
And I was pretty damn impressed, for a fairly low-budget anime this is very entertaining and a good, well-written medievil spoof comedy that subtlely poke's fun at all the cliche's of older more serious historic shows it's taking off. Our main character Lina, although for the most part loud, kinda selfish, stubborn, has the best intentions in mind to (sometimes) help other's and stamp out evil doers, although she mainly does these good deeds for food or money (or both) instead of the kindness of her own heart.

Along her journey (well, on the very first episode) she encounters the tough but dopey Goury, a swordsman traveller who joins Lina to continue her quest for taking down demons, evil wizards, and trying to obtain treasure and wealth (if she's lucky enough). There's a semi-rival character named Zelgadis, a rock/golem clad warrior with great power, with a back-story about his strange skin condition, but I won't spoil it. They also encounter Amellia, a small fiesty young lady with some of the sloppiest heroic posing you've ever seen, but she plays a big role in the story but I can't go on too much about they're adventure without again spoiling most of the plot.
All in all, this boxset is still worth the money for a good laugh, one of the better anime titles out there for sure. My reasons for not giving this boxset the full five stars is that the english dub of this anime can sometimes sound less enthusiastic than the original Japanese, and can sometimes dim the atmosphere of what are meant to be exciting, thrilling action scenes or even scenes with just casual dialougue. The other is that some episodes aren't as funny as most fans of the franchise would have you believe, and other episodes can seem a little drawn out without engaging you into the story especially for a 26 episode season. Also, the english audio is in a slightly toned down mono track, while the Japanese audio is in a nice clear stereo soundtrack.

Extras include episode.1 alternative language options, textless opening & closing credits, and trailers. Not much else.
Overall, The Slayers gets better as the story progresses, check it out.

Meet sorceress Lina Inverse -- she's short, flat-chested, brash, loud, eats like a barbarian, ridiculously powerful, and has a temper as hot as her fireballs.

She's also the lovable anti-heroine of "Slayers - The Complete First Season," a thoroughly hilarious and warped little classic anime. The first season blends fantasy spoofs and a solid little story about good vs. evil (or justice vs. evil, depending on who you ask), when our heroes aren't dressing in drag or mugging bandit gangs.

Recently Lina robbed the bandit gang known as the Dragon Fangs of several valuable items, and when the gang's few surviving members attack her, she's rescued by a handsome but dumb swordsman, Gourry Gabriev. But the bandits aren't the only ones after her loot -- the mysterious Chimera Zelgadis and his weird minions want one of the items Lina stole, while the revered priest Rezo wants to stop Zelgadis.

But after being abducted and then freed by Zelgadis (and nearly molested by a giant fish), Lina discovers that she may have her allies and enemies switched around. And as Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis are pursued by Rezo's monstrous allies, they learn the real reason that Rezo wants the statuette -- yes, it's to unleash ultimate evil upon the world, and all that.

After all that, Lina and Gourry find themselves traveling with a justice-happy princess named Amelia, just in time for a bounty to be put on their heads. To find out who their new enemy is, they have to travel to the city of Sairagg -- dodging a crazy mercenary, a manipulative wedding-happy sorceress, a seemingly unkillable wizard, a gay sea dragon, and countless mercenaries and heroes.

But Sairagg only provides more questions, as Lina and her friends -- including Zelgadis and the timid shrine maiden Sylphiel -- confront the sorceress that has a grudge against him. But they're shocked to learn that the mastermind is an old foe that they had previously killed -- and he has a whole new evil plot to destroy the world. And all that.

Spoofs of the fantasy genre are a dime a dozen. The real challenge is creating a spoof that also has a story and mythology all its own -- and "Slayers" succeeds brilliantly at doing that. Not only is the complete first season gutsplittingly funny, but it also has a really solid storyline and thoroughly enjoyable characters -- although admittedly Amelia takes some getting used to.

There are two interconnected arcs of epic battles with Dark Lords and maniacal wizard-priests, with sword duels, hidden libraries, mystical ruins, frequent explosions, devastated cities and multi-coloured trolls ransacking quaint medieval villages. It's a solid enough fantasy series, and it takes the usual fantasy tropes -- big dumb guy with magic sword, sorceress, Dark Lord, plucky princess -- and promptly turns them on their heads.

And there's a lot of humour too, raging from a horde of Lina and Gourry clones ("It's... TINY!") to a series of running gags. At least half the episodes contain and/or end with some kind of massive explosion and possible rioting. And a couple stories wedged between the two arcs are entirely devoted to comedy -- including Lina being bribed to "marry" a rich boy, and the very macho Gourry having to dress as a girl ("Somebody please take my life!").

Lina is a brilliant fantasy anti-heroine -- she's flat-chested, assertive, hypersensitive and wonderfully bombastic, and Lisa Ortiz does an excellent job. Eric Stuart is a little more awkward as Gourry, a swordsman with a childlike attitude and a tiny brain, he improves as the season goes on. Hyperactive princess Amelia is kind of annoying at first, with all her jumping and yells about justice, but fortunately she becomes more likable when they get to Sairagg ("I hate fighting this thing!").

Zelgadis is the best-rounded character of the bunch, since he starts as a semi-villain but soon reveals that his only real goal is to become a human being again. Unfortunately Daniel Cronin voices Zelgadis for the first half of the series, and makes this complex character sound like a depressed stoner. Thankfully Crispin Freeman brings more humour, anger and power to the character after that.

The complete first season of "Slayers" is a solid fantasy series that also happens to be a hysterically funny spoof. Definitely a must-see.

Highly recommend all of Slayers series. First, I must say this is not your all action great story type of anime; it is more about the humor than anything.
Saying this I must make it clear that there is some action and the storyline is more than descent but this is not what make slayers special. If you are looking for a fun to watch anime then this is it. Pretty much every episode is full with humor ranging from slapstick to sly comments.

Slayers is a series that revolves around a 15 year old genius sorceress named Lina Inverse and her adventures and travels. Along the way she meets a master swordsman who's also very dumb, a shaman who is 1/3 human, golem and demon, another shaman who's a justice-freak and a cleric. Overall the series is basically a very entertaining high level D&D campaign.

I find the series very refreshing and the characters engaging. Many of anime's cliche's are broken or made fun of in this series and it's very nice to see. In most anime's you have the hero (almost always a guy) who goes into battle, tells his woman to get lost, saves the day, and the woman tries to contribute somehow but fails or isn't nearly as powerful as our hero and so can't do anything. Not so in Slayers. Lina is everything your typical anime female isn't. She is smart, she's a leader and her breasts are actually appropriately sized (as opposed to other anime's where women's breasts are bigger than their heads). The creators know this and they poke fun at typical cliche's like these. Speaking of humor, you'll find mostly slapstick humor but still some great references that many people will catch whether they be anime fans or not. The rest of the characters are quirky, fun, and each has their own unique style.

As for the plot, you can say that there are two main plots here with one leading into the other. While there are a few filler episodes, I actually really like them. They're fun, and serve to create a more enjoyable relationship with our heroes. Each season also ends with appropriate closure.

Now for the action. As the show's primary protagonist is a sorceress magic spell slinging is guaranteed in nearly every episode. The action doesn't break any new ground really. You're not going to see dazzling effects that will blow your mind. But what is done is done well. As well, when it comes to action the final confrontation does not disappoint in the least. When they bust it out, they really bust it out.

In conclusion, Slayers may not bring anything new and eye-popping to the table but rare is the anime where everything is so extremely well done. If you're looking for an awesome anime where everythihng is done right this series will not disappoint.

I bought Slayers back before I had a dvd player, needless to say I wanted to upgrade the first season to dvd since I already own the CPM dvds for the other seasons. The dvd case is something that I absolutely hate...it's just a tri-fold in a slip case, not that great but for $10 after shipping I can't complain about that really. The dvd does include both the English and Japanese audio tracks. I know it doesn't say anything in the information about having them, but it does. It's a great value for the show.

I have these on VHS and am wanting to buy them on DVD because I love the cheesiness! However, I am also wanting to share them with my mother whom is deaf. I cannot find out if this set has subtitles from the description. Can any of you tell me if there are subtitles or closed captioning for these? Many thanks!

This show is very funny, mix of fantasy and comedy. When this show was launched in DVD format some years ago, it used to cost about US$ 100. No costs only US$ 36. At this price, this is steal.