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Slayers Text, Vol. 3: The Ghost of Sairaag

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With this 3rd "Slayers" novel, we still have not been introduced to Amelia, but Zelgadiss does return and the miko Sylphiel is a part of this. As one might expect, the story centers around the return of the Red Priest Rezo and the mystery surrounding it. As in the anime, Lina and Gourry have a bounty on their heads and they set off to the city of Sairaag in order to learn the truth behind Rezo's re-appearance.

Amelia being MIA aside, there are a number of differences from the anime. For starters, Sylphiel comes off as much more competent. She's already working with Zelgadiss by the time Lina and Gourry arrive. While she does have her feelings for Gourry (which doesn't come through as clearly in this novel since TokyoPop decided to translate the honorific "sama" to "master", CMP having translated the same honorific to "darling" in the anime -- and people wonder why I think honorifics should be left in the text untranslated), she's no ditz and very powerful.

Instead of Amelia or the swordsman Zangulus, there's the character of Lantz, who's a fighter that had a presence in the 2nd novel. He's rather uninteresting as a character and it is no wonder the anime never used him.

Also, Mazoku are present in this novel as well. It is interesting that Hajime-sensei has had the Mazoku presence from the begining whereas the anime ignored it until the "Slayers Next" series. Their dealings with Rezo were very interesting and even though I knew this story from the anime, the end was rather surprising to me.

Bottom line: another interesting "Slayers" novel. TokyoPop continues to seem to tone down the orignal material and leave out the important Japanese honorifics (used mainly by and for the priest and miko) but it is still worth buying if you are a "Slayers" fan.