Okay, end review.
But here’s more review in case you wanted it:
The first season of The Slayers introduced us to a mostly likeable cast of morons who together formed one of the most memorable parties in anime. They fought some empathetic villains, engaged in generally hilarious antics, and this was all within a very 90’s package.
The second season keeps pretty much all of those aspects intact. We follow Lina, the impulsive, rude, and some might say evil lead whose goal this time is to get a Claire Bible manuscript. Following her are Gourry, the moronic swordsman and Amelia, the hero of justice. Zelgadis also joins the fray, hoping to find a way to cure himself of being a chimera.
Not much has changed with these guys from before so let’s instead take a look at the new characters.
First we have a princess named Martina who is the frienemy/stalker of the series. She’s a lot like Team Rocket in Pokemon in that she randomly shows up to cause trouble but is mostly harmless. She submits herself to a made-up deity and has it out for Lina after the sorceress destroyed Martina’s kingdom. As the comic relief she’s actually really funny. I wasn’t annoyed at all by her antics and felt that having someone so like Lina as the silly antagonist worked well.
slayers_martina007Xellows on the other hand I found to be weak and boring. He’s another character who follows the party around but he’s only there as the clue giver. Later on it’s revealed why, but that doesn’t excuse his flimsy, boring personality. He’s about as dull as Sylphiel.
And speaking of her, she makes a random appearance toward the end of the season along with Zangalus. If it had been earlier in, I wouldn’t have felt so put off by their presence, but as it stands it’s shoehorned fan service.
So we have a lot going on here but we’re still focusing our attention on Lina. Lina is meant to be slightly unlikeable. She’s greedy and power hungry, much like RPG main characters can be. Rather than have a complete goody-goody at the helm, we get someone who could be a villain in anything else. it’s a prudent point that people with power who fight for “good” can still be assholes.
And all the other characters are spoofs of Dungeons and Dragons players and the characters that show up in fantasy anime. Gourry as the tank is a moron who only thinks with a sword. Amelia is the goody goody who can’t shut up about being good. The point of the series is to spoof the genre and Slayers always does a pretty entertaining job at doing so.
We have to take into account that the characters are spoofs when discussing them because it’s unfair to take them seriously. And it’s hard to anyway. But nonetheless we can take Lina seriously because she’s the one we’re supposed to root for. Which is so strange to me. I feel that if she were a singular character going on adventures, the show would fall apart and nobody would be able to stand it. It’s her interactions with Gourry (her obvious love interest) and the other members of her group that make the show bearable. And I think it’s commendable that a show can make a pretty unlikeable bitch into a decent main character.
The story of this season is much more overarching than the previous but has the same structure overall. The first arc is an introductory arc getting everything set up. This arc runs into what I’d say is the second arc, concerning the Seyruun royal family and a power struggle within. This is followed, at basically the same time as the first season, by a handful of filler episodes. I never mentioned these in the last review because they actually fit in despite being obvious filler. In fact, these are (and were in the first season) the funniest episodes in the series so definitely detract nothing.
The final act is where The Slayers fell apart, stretching out a battle that wasn’t that exciting and exchanging the comedy aspect for a more serious tone. Thankfully the last arc of this season manages both the humor and the serious action pretty well, and also throws in a few tugs of the heartstrings for good measure.
The bad guys of this season, though, aren’t as memorable as the first season’s. Something I loved about the first season was how likeable the baddies were and Next’s pickings are slim. They’re bad guys intent on world domination and destruction who have little personality aside from being evil. It’s why including Martina as a rival is so welcome. It brings back the humanity of the people we’re supposed to want to see defeated (or more accurately, shown the light). Martina isn’t really a bad guy, nor is she very harmless. She’s just another misguided moron. I felt bad every time Lina beat her up pointlessly. Compared to Lina, Martina has nothing. It shows how spiteful Lina is and makes Martina, despite being such an idiot, kind of empathetic.
On the technical front, the animation is slightly better than the first season with a lot less imperfections scattered throughout. The eyes can get really derpy and the shadow effects on faces are downright strange at times, but it’s overall a pleasant show to look at.
The music I was so fond of in the first season returns, at least, within the show. Next’s opening is nowhere near as good as the first season’s, nor is the ending that great either.
In conclusion, Slayers Next is a worthy follow up to the first season and manages to do a lot of things just the same or better, though falls short in others areas. In fact, it’s pretty much the same quality of everything (and the few complaints are outweighed by what was done right).
Next is definitely deserving of a viewing
