Back to Linaeris's Profile Linaeris's Profile

Have you ever played a RPG or Dungeons & Dragons? You know where a group of adventurers gathers in a tavern to plan an attack on a nearby bandits hideout to retrieve a stolen treasure, treasure that may perhaps be desired by many influential - not necessary - people. Or maybe to rescue the damsel in distress that was kidnapped. Or to free a small, oppressed village from the clutches of an evil monster. Or would it be perhaps slaying a dragon that terrorizes the kingdom. Yes, that would be the world of Slayers.
A perfect, balanced group of adventurers, a team consisting of a mighty ... warrior unrivaled in swordsmanship, supported by a noble, righteous priestess to cast healing and protection spells, with a skillful rogue hiding in the shadows ready to backstab any potential troublemaker and a beautiful in both body and mind sorceress to throw a fireball or two if needed. Yes, that would be the characters, our heroes...

...but only for those who have just heard of this series without actually seeing it. Anyone who have seen the first season of Slayers would add:
- our mighty warrior is indeed mighty and smart like a retarded ogre
- our noble, righteous priestess is indeed noble and righteous to the extent that her "love and justice praising" speeches would make a devil vomit a rainbow
- our skillful rogue is indeed skillful and is skillfully hiding in the shadows just beacuse he is afraid that someone would think he looks like some kind of chimera or a guinea pig of an incompetent alchemist
- our beautiful in both body and mind sorceress is short-tempered, flat-chested, greed-possessed... I mean indeed powerful.

With the basics covered lets move further. Slayers Next is a fantasy comedy. A second season of Slayers. It is better in every aspect in comparison to its predecessor. I am not only talking about a technical issues which is natural but also: story, characters and atmosphere. It is better thought out and balanced. Balance - that's the keyword here. The amount of funny moments, action, serious stuff, character development, suspense, plot twists even romance is perfectly dosed. All this happening in a beautiful medieval fantasy world.

Story:
The story of Slayers Next is revealed step by step as the events happen. It's not a sort of thing when you know at the start that "he is a bad guy, we have to kill him, end of story". It is well thought out, but not very complicated. There are a few lesser stories which in most cases are tied to the main plot. Sometimes our group of heroes may: lose the track / have a short break / be misleaded which - taking into consideration characteristics of our heroes with special emphasis on our sorceress - guarantees a lot fun.
Don't worry there are plot twists, surprising turns of events, and epic moments.

Art and animation:
It is significantly better than in first season. Animations, spell casting, backgrounds, characters and locations look good. Maybe not very detailed but just enough. Everything is rather bright and colorful but not to extend to make your eyes or head hurt, of course that doesn't apply whenever the action takes place: at night, in a dungeon, dark room, under the ground, etc.
It may seem a little rusty-dusty now but I think it suits the series better this way. Even if there are some very minor faults it is nothing disturbing.

Music and seiyuus:
Music and sounds are overall relevant to the events happening. We won't experience any sensations or eargasms but a very solid craftsmanship. In case of voice acting it's great, it really is. If someone prefers the English dub I would say it's quite good too. Japanese version is better, but generally English isn't bad.

Characters:
Besides our epic main four we have quite a few others most of them which we haven't seen in the first season. Some of them are friends, some are foes, some are episodic, some will live long enough to tell the tale.
Although we should focus the attention on main heroes for obvious reasons, I would like to point out that secondary characters are also very intriguing.
Characters are likable, original and have their own personalities.

Enjoyment:
Criterion which - in case of a great work - is not affected by time, while in the same time, the time being a criterion of a great work. In my opinion Slayers Next is an example of such a work.

Overall:
It is a well balanced fantasy comedy set in a typical RPG world with characters that are not your usual superheroes and a nice story that isn't very complicated nor simplistic. I think it even was supposed to be a parody of fantasy series like Record of Lodoss War. Give it a chance although I guess it doesn't look very appealing in the world of blu-rays and super high definitions...

...but there are some things in life that you simply like to get back to. They don't have to be perfect, they may have flaws that you are aware of, but when you get back to it you know that all of them will disappear.