The story has almost nothing to do with the previous storyline, although it kinda picks up after Slayers Next and replaces Slayers Try, but i found that quite enjoyable since this manga was also written in the spirit in which those two were conceived; the storyline revolves around a new male character which is introduced to the series, Lyos, and as always, Lina & co find themselves involved in [or responsible for] all the mess.
What i found particularly interesting was that meanwhile new and cool characters were introduced [mainly cocky big-breasted female characters, which was another thing that struck me as weird], old characters, like Zelgadis or Xellos[ though this one might turn up, ya never know] are missing. And, even though their involvement in the development of the story is quite justifiable, i can’t help but wonder if i haven’t accidentally tripped and fell into Bleach manga=))! My point: there are too many new characters for what you would expect from Slayers.
And, just as always, it’s the little things that catch my eye and make me want to keep reading: [SPOILERS] seeing Lina helpless and unable to use her black magic, which showed me a different side of her [no more Dragon Slaves>:), at least not in the beginning]; almost an entire volume of travelling without Gourry [which made me miss him and enjoy his reappearance even more]; the little bonding moments between them, way more obvious than in any of the animes [and though i know i seem such a dork for longing to see some moments like this, Slayers was the first anime i ever watched and i feel really deeply about the story]; the unspoken competition between Gourry and Lyos to find out whose stronger and so on…
Finally, i hope i didn’t give away too much or talked about my feeling too much. Hope you’ll find it useful!
Overall: 9/10 [don’t know why i liked it that much, i guess i just rate after how i feel watching/reading a story^^]
