Product Details

• Actors: Megumi Hayashibara, Yasunori Matsumoto, Hikaru Midorikawa, Bin Shimada, Masami Suzuki
• Directors: Osamu Yokota, Makoto Noriza, Masato Sato
• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Central Park Media
• DVD Release Date: June 11, 2002
• Run Time: 600 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000065U3N
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #88,444 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #17 in	Movies & TV > Animation > Characters & Series > Slayers
  #53 in	Movies & TV > Anime & Manga > By Studio > Central Park Media

• For more information about "The Slayers DVD Collection" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
These four discs constitute the first broadcast season of the well-liked Dungeons and Dragons-style farce The Slayers. Red-haired Lina Inverse has a typical anime heroine's hot temper and insatiable appetite for food but also a rare talent for swordplay and casting powerful spells. As she roams from town to town, she acquires a cadre of able but quarrelsome companions: Gourry, a big, blond, dumb knight; Zelgadis, a once-human chimera who practices shamanic magic; sorceress-in-training Amelia, who makes Gourry look bright and Lina appear graceful; and the shrine maiden Sylphiel. Together they make short work of the hordes of bandits, golems, werewolves, trolls, mercenaries, and evil spirits their enemies send after them. They also have to face some more formidable foes, including the wizard Vrumugun, ace swordsman Zangulus, and archsorceress Eris. But the greatest threats come from the exceedingly powerful Rezo the Red Priest and the Dark Lord, Shabranigdo. All Lina's adventures involve a lot of slapstick humor, but these episodes have a more carefree tone than the later feature and the OAVs that paired her with the overendowed Naga. The convoluted plot lurches and stumbles along, much the way Lina fumbles around after getting clobbered. Although the fate of the world is supposed to hang on the outcome of these adventures, the broad comedy prevents the various episode directors from creating much suspense or a sense of menace. The Slayers is featherweight entertainment, but one that has won many fans in both Japan and the United States. Some viewers may object to the jokes about a mincing gay dragon, Lina losing her power at "that time of the month," and the many wisecracks about her being flat-chested. Japanese filmmakers and audiences clearly have different standards of what qualifies as PC humor. "Suggested 13 Up" for violence, profanity, brief nudity, and sexual humor. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vaudeville Meets Dungeons and Dragons, January 7, 2004

By	Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

I'm not sure if The Slayers was the first anime effort at building a series on an RPG game framework, but it is certainly the success that defined the genre. It stars Lina Inverse, a teen-aged war wizard with the appetite of an army and a temper to match. She quickly pairs up with Gourry, a golden guy with the sword of light. Gradually, over these episodes and entire team of adventurers come together.

A large part of the episodes are basic treasure hunting and demon slaying fare, but the driving story arc is about the Red Priest Rezo who has sold his soul to the demon Shabranigdo so that he might see again (*and rule the world while he is at it). Lina crosses paths with Rezo and his minions repeatedly until a final showdown ends the series.

The story is loud, brash, slightly off-color, and funny in a slapstick sort of fashion. It's actually hard to pinpoint what it is that actually makes the series the success it is. But the writing is well done and there is a host of dizzy characters waiting to pick up the pace on a moments notice. Perhaps it is the interaction between these characters which makes the series work so well.

The Slayers has a strong influence on both adventuring and magical girl genre, the latest of which is Rune Soldier. The latter, like The Slayers, places as much emphasis on character development and interaction as does The Slayers, but with a bit more sophistication. After all, The Slayer's audience is now eight years older.

Central Park's decision to package all 26 episodes on four DVDs makes this a cost effective purchase, but it also means that there is little in the way of extras. In fact, other than some short bios on the first CD, there aren't any. Indeed, don't expect any fanciness at all as part of the package. But do expect a lot of entertainment for your dollar.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's good, but not the best of Slayers, August 18, 2002

By	Argy (Moscow, Idaho, USA) - See all my reviews

Slayers is my absolute favorite anime, but that doesn't mean I'm going to blindly rant on about how perfect it is, because that would be far from the truth. When watching Slayers for the first time, assuming you're starting from the beginning, you might find the first several episodes to be rather, dare I say, boring. You might end up thinking, "If THIS is what everyone's recommending, I'm not getting it."

But, keep watching, because slowly the show will grow on you. Once it gets to the middle of the series with the "filler episodes," you'll find yourself wanting more. The few non-plot episodes in the middle are a great break from the slightly heavier material that came before it. And then as soon as you start to wonder what happened to the main plot, it comes back. And it's great. Even though it's a tad cliche, part of this is because Slayers is a series that makes fun of the fantasy genre while seemingly ridiculing itself.

If you've watched the whole (first) series and STILL think you're missing something, you are. The second season, "Slayers Next" is, in my opinion, the best of Slayers and one of the best storylines in all of anime. But this review isn't about Next.

Now for the DVDs...

Even though the box states "remastered audio," Software Sculptors made a few mistakes correcting the problems. On some episodes on discs B and C, the Japanese audio track is inverted. This can cause varied effects depending on your audio setup. I've played them on two different TVs- on one of them the dialouge sounds perfectly normal, with the exception of sometimes the theme songs sound a bit muffled. On the other TV, the audio sounds like it's coming from behind instead of from in front. It's not really that big of an issue, to me at least. All the dialouge is still understandable and I can even go as far to say that it sounds a lot clearer than when it's in the proper format. However, you might not get the same results with your setup, so it's best to, when and if you buy the set, make sure that there is a sticker on the bottom of your box that says "REMASTERED AUDIO" with a picture of Lina on it. Or, like me, you can take your chances. If it sounds horrible, you can always exchange them through The Right Stuf. People I've heard from say that they received their replacements very soon after sending in their defective discs. If you have any questions about the program, I suggest e-mailing The Right Stuf, because when I talked to them, they were very prompt in replying to me, and they provided helpful information.

By the way, on my audio setup(s), I noticed that the English track was significantly quieter than the Japanese track, although this wasn't an issue or a glitch.

The video transfer was of very nice quality, much nicer than the Next DVDs and an improvement on the original set, I'm sure.

The extras really do nothing to enhance the series, so if you already own the series on VHS and are considering buying the DVDs because of these, don't. The interviews are with the main four voice actors (Lisa Ortiz, Eric Stuart, Crispin Freeman, Veronica Taylor) and they're only a couple of questions about them and their jobs. If you already own the Next DVDs (like I do), you might be disappointed to find out the interviews are not done by video like on that set.

The art gallery is basically screenshots and official art that you should have no trouble finding on any website with a fairly large image gallery.

The graphic novel pages are only a couple of pages from the book "Medival Mayhem," and the pages aren't big enough to read the wording, much less know what's going on. You're much better off just buying the book if you're that interested.

The only thing I really enjoyed in the extras was the sketch gallery. It was a lot larger than the one on the Next DVDs, and my only problem was that I couldn't print them onto paper so I could use them when drawing fanart!

I don't have a DVD-ROM, so I can't vouch for the quality of those extras. I wouldn't expect much, though.

So, overall, this is a very nice DVD set, if you ignore the slightly annoying audio glitch. The show itself is very solid entertainment and a classic favorite with anime fans. If you buy this set, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have.

53 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A SERIOUS defect in these discs!, September 19, 2000

By	In_BOS "In_BOS" (Boston, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Slayers - DVD Collection (Vols. 1-8) (DVD)

A defect in the Japanese language track has resulted in phase-inverted audio. On pro-logic and 5.1 systems this will result in a spacey sound with extremely low volumes making it nearly impossible to hear what is being said.

Central Park Media in their official press release has decided to leave this defect in place making no effort to correct this obvious flaw in their product.

Consider this before you spend the $100 on this set.