Story:
The OVA is episodic in nature with three different stories. The first is about a magician who wants to create a powerful chimera with Lina as a component. Naturally, she is not happy with the idea and this results in shenanigans. In the second episode, a helicopter parent of a mother hires Lina & Naga to help her rather pathetic son gain status and knighthood. The final episode gives us a mage who's looking for a long forgotten magic mirror that can supposedly create copies of people that have all their skills and experience but opposite personalities.
The biggest issue is that the second episode doesn't give Lina and Naga that much to do. They kind of take a back seat to the family and their craziness. And, honestly, the family isn't nearly as interesting or funny as Lina & Naga are. A lot of the humour from them comes down to the mum's over-protectiveness and the son's over-inflated view of himself. Which is funny but does get a bit repetitive.
The OVA does have the benefit of the classic Slayers humour. Every episode has plenty of strong jokes. They're also well paced and move very smoothly with enough time to set up the jokes and develop what there is for a plot in the episode. The plot lines are very well constructed to offer a lot of comedic potential.
Characters:
Lina and Naga are both very funny characters with a good amount of complexity. Which leads to some really funny moments when they meet their mirror opposites. The two also have a strong dynamic for comedic interactions. The characters they encounter may not have the same degree of complexity, but they have more than enough character for them to have strong comedic moments. Which has always been one of The Slayers' strengths. Having memorable minor characters who have some really funny moments.
About the worst I can say for it is that the family that takes the focus in the second episode doesn't actually interact much with on another. The mother follows the son around and hits people for him, but they don't actually have any kind of conversation.
Art:
The OVA looks pretty good. The animation is smooth. The artwork is well done. There are some really strong visual gags. About the worst I can say for it is that there are a couple sequences with muted colouring that makes it a little difficult to see the action well.
Sound:
Hayashibara Megumi & Kawamura Maria are both fantastic in this. We also get some strong performances from the people voicing minor characters including Ishida Akira as Jeffrey. Which is interesting since he's also in the series proper as Xellos. The music is fantastic. Hayashibara Megumi sings the vocal songs including Within Unlimited Desires & Run All the Way. She really has an immaculate singing voice.
Ho-yay:
As is common with these anime, Lina and Naga have a dynamic that you could see becoming romantic with a small push but that pretty definitively is not there yet.
Areas of Improvement:
Brighter, more vibrant colours.
Let Lina and Naga have a more active role in the second episode.
If you're going to give the family such a prominent role in the second episode, at least have them interact. Let the son be there when his mum hires Lina & Naga and then have her pull them aside to give them the full situation. It would do wonders to actually see them exchange more than a couple lines when he doesn't even know it's her.
Final Thoughts:
This OVA is really solid. If you're a fan of the franchise, you're pretty much guaranteed to enjoy it. If you don't like the franchise, this isn't going to change your mind. Even if you don't like the Slayers, I'd still highly recommend looking up the music. For me, this is a franchise I like quite a lot. I pretty thoroughly enjoyed the gags and story ideas in the OVA. I'm going to give it an 8/10.
