Customer Reviews

Slayers Text, Vol. 6: Vezendi's Shadow (Slayers (Tokyopop))

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Slayers is probably my favorite anime series of all time. So when I found out that Tokyopop had released the first story arc of the novels, I immediately picked all of them up.

I have been very happy with the series overall, and this book is no exception.

The main purpose of this book is to tie up the loose ends associated with Zuuma the assassin and Seigram. Maybe in 2006 this book was mostly filler, but at this point in time, this book is actually what part of the Slayers anime season Evolution-R is based off of.

Honestly, yes, the character's don't "go anywhere," but the story still *happens*. Actually, in a lot of the Slayers novels I've noticed that there isn't a whole lot of character development. That doesn't make them bad, that's just how they're written and how they're paced: it's mainly an adventure/fantasy/action story.

And yes, no Japanese honorifics and no end notes by the author. Do we really NEED Japanese honorifics in an English novel? No. The novels are actually better off because of the lack of honorifics. I was a bit disappointed about the end notes, but they too do not a good Slayers novel make.

In this 6th volume of the "Slayers" series, Lina, Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadis are still together. The assassin Zuuma appears again, however he appears to have completely healed from his wounds where he'd lost both arms. However when Xellos appears on the scene, Zuuma retreats and warns Lina that if she doesn't meet him in the city of Vezendi, someone will die.

Upon reaching the city, the rich merchant Radok has received a death threat from Zuuma, warning him to hire Lina and company or he would die. Lina takes the job, but matters get complicated when the Mazoku Seigram appears along with some lesser Mazoku. With so many wishing to kill Lina, how will she keep herself and her client alive?

I have to say that this volume has been the weakest of the six that TokyoPop has published. In fact, the only part of the book that is really interesting is the epilogue. That contains a very interesting conversation between Lina and Xellos, the topic of which anime fans will already be aware of.

While getting some resolution on both villians Zuuma and Seigram is nice, it really is not that interesting seeing as how both wish to kill Lina for revenge. So we get a lot of desperate battles for Lina and company to fight. However, there's no advancement of any of the characters. Lina shows off a few new spells but that's it. Since there is no time spent on character moments (save for the epilogue as I stated), I found this volume to be nothing more than "filler" and not very interesting filler.

TP didn't include the author's note at the end of the novel as they have in the past. That's unfortunate as I'd enjoyed reading them. For those who don't know, the "L-sama" character mentioned in the previous novel's author-notes is supposed to be the Lord of Nightmares, who acts an awful lot like Lina. ^_^

Also as I've stated previously, no Japanese honorifics are used. Having discussed this with translator Jeremiah Bourque, I understand why he's not using them here (he used them in the manga "Mahoromatic"), but I still feel he should have. Oh well.

As I write this, it appears that this is the last volume of the "Slayers" novel series that TokyoPop has licensed (a/o Feb 2006), meaning the final two volumes for this story-arc aren't in the English-speaking world's near-future, nor are the volumes that proceed (there are 15 total volumes featuring Lina and Gourry). That's sad since I'd love to read the entire series. If you like these novels, I encourage you to let TokyoPop know.

Bottom line: the weakest of the novels to date, but the epilogue was good and set the table for the 7th & 8th volumes. Let's hope that TokyoPop will go ahead and license them for publication in English.