Ranked #822

Slayers Evolution-R

"Destroying the undestroyable... You truly deserve to be called "Slayers"."-Xellos

Story: Now, I felt this was levels above Revolution. 7 might be a bit too generous but I really enjoyed all of it except the fish people episode. For the most part I have the same complaints as usual with a Slayers series but episodes 10-13 showed that they could do a semi-good job with Slayers if they felt like it in terms of giving a viewer some satisfaction because any Slayers fan knew that each season of the Anime was far from amazing. What they did with Zelgadis in episode 10 was quite a surprise. I don't quite remember everything from the older series of Slayers but this was pretty well written. It was a great episode and really made me excited from that point on. Anyway...

We have the basic "dead end" episodes where they're looking for something but end up doing something stupid. The plot picks up episode 5-6 so it's not that bad in terms of the number of filler episodes. Now for the criticism, kind of spoilers ahead I guess. It seems that Revolution and Evolution-R are basically a rehashed version of the original Slayers but they tossed in the jars. A lot of things didn't make sense and they tried to tie it all together at the end which was sloppy and too quick. It would've been better to cut the filler but then that wouldn't be Slayers. The pacing would've been better if this series took up some of Revolution because like I said, it's mainly the end of these 13 episodes where you really care about what's happening so if they stretched out some of the plot points or important character events, you wouldn't get that rushed feeling in the final episodes.

Art: For whatever reason, 10. It's not top quality animation but better than the older series of Slayers of course. I also have to give some credit for the eyecatches of episode 13. The first one showed all of the protagonists from every season of Slayers. The second had all of the antagonists from every season. I thought that was a cool little thing to throw in for fans who have watched all the Slayers episodes.

Sound: I'm a bit conflicted as to whether or not I liked the opening and ending of Evolution-R. They're pretty okay songs though. I didn't give them a very good listening but I liked parts of each song.

Probably one of the best things about this season was during the final episode. They played the opening of Slayers Next during a fight scene. No Slayers/Megumi Hayashibara fan or most people for that matter can say they did not like Give a Reason. Nostalgic... it made the scene even more awesome.

There was also a new song played at the end kind of like what they did with Try except it's not in English and Megumi Hayashibara sings it. A nice song to close the series with. Too bad it wasn't in the opening/ending single... Where can I get this?

Voice acting, obviously no problems here. Ost, nothing special.

Character:

Ozel - I didn't really mind this character. During Revolution, I didn't really care about her. I was too focused on hating other minor characters. Some of her bits are amusing in Evolution-R and it's a shame about what happens to her in the end. Wouldn't have minded her sticking around since she actually gets development. To see that play out more would've been nice.

Nama - Name sound familiar to those who watched Slayers movies? At first glance, she's a pretty unique character, different from what I'm used to seeing in Slayers anyway. She goes away pretty early meaning -1 minor character to annoy me. While I said she was unique I'm sure if she stayed she'd get to me. I'll never know though... Perhaps she would've made the series better.

Zuuma - Well, here's a bit of a problem. They don't really explain properly why he's after Lina. I'm sure many hardcore Slayers fans figured it out but I wish they would've straight out explained it. If you didn't watch the original Slayers you may guess right away why he's got a problem but you may not. Then you'd just consider him a maniac but he had a somewhat good reason I guess as far as a villain's reasoning goes anyway. My thoughts on him, there were way better mid-series villains in Slayers. Hated how this fool kept running away. Although that happens a lot with Slayers villains, what Zuuma added to the series seemed unnecessary.

Enjoyment: The end battle seemed rushed and predictable but everyone took part in it and it was quite an explosive ending. Glad I watched it. So highlight episodes this time around are 10-13 as mentioned before. Got to take a look at Zelgadis's past which I definitely liked. Playing Give a Reason was awesome. Not bringing Duclis back (Even in the ending song/cameo part of the series) was a big plus. 8 should be a fair score. Wasn't perfect but it had its moments.

Overall: Now this and Revolution together didn't have as much of an impact on me like the other seasons. I felt that people new to Slayers starting with Revolution or this half-season would not catch all the charm and quirks of the characters we saw from 10 years ago. I mean, c'mon, Xellos didn't say "It's a secret." nearly enough in Revolution and Evolution-R... I'm not saying it's a horrible show. Evolution-R was pretty fun to watch despite the flaws. As a followup to Revolution which I thought was a wreck, how could I be disappointed? I'm definitely hoping they do more seasons but maybe get new people to work on certain parts of it. Let's just hope it doesn't take another 10 years, they have material to pull from.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated. Hope this helped. read more

And I thought Revolution was bad...

Evolution-R started off with much potential. The battle with Zuma, Zelgadis finally confronting the truth of his body, and the part with the talking armour, and the identity of the soul trapped in it.
But all the strengths it builds vanishes at the end. Especially Xellos. They always want him to be on the "good' side. in Try, it made sense, and in Next. But for him to fight with Lina and the others in the final battle of this series was pathetic at best. First of all, Xellos would not sacrifice himself unless ordered to, and I don't care what excuse you use, he wouldn't fight against his lord, even if it was a ghost or whatever. And the line where he compliments them is pathetic as well. Yes, he respects their power, but that was a bit much.
As much as I love Xellos, the series would have been better if he wasn't in the final battle, or around much at all. And at the very end, when Lina uses that power, it is as if everything she learnt in the last two seasons was meaningless.

Overall, if you love slayers, DO NOT subject yourself to these newest seasons, you'll only be greeted with disappointment and sadness.. read more