Slayers: Next - Volume 4

Introduction

We're still barrelling along at full speed through the Slayers franchise. With this eighth release from MVM, we come to the conclusion of Slayers Next, the second series. It's been quite the surprise for me, especially after my indifference to the first. This has been a better-written and more cohesive package, and I've enjoyed every minute of it thus far. Or it could be that an overdose of Slayers has simply just battered me into submission. Either way, I have been looking forward to this conclusion, as the Monsters' plans continue to unfold, and with everyone's favourite flat-chested, red-haired, gluttonous sorceress caught in the middle.

Lina Inverse is a powerful sorceress in a pint-sized package. She's into wealth redistribution. She takes on the toughest of bandits, the meanest of monsters, with an arsenal of powerful and destructive spells, and then liberates them from their gold, gems and magical artefacts, redistributing it into her own pocket. Somehow though, she's become one of a group of adventurers, working together to fight evil, defeat monsters, and make enough money to fill their stomachs. After all, fighting the Dark sorcerer Rezo, and the resurrected Shabranigdo tends to unite people against adversity. Gourry Gabriev is the heroic figure, who is a dab hand with a sword, if not too bright of intellect. Zelgadis is a powerful warrior/magic user, who in the pursuit of more power was cursed so that his skin turned to stone, and is now looking for a cure. Amelia is a trainee sorceress, and heir to the throne of Seyruun, who has an unwavering belief in goodness and justice, and who as an apprentice, continually manages to rub Lina the wrong way. Their adventures continue in the second series, Slayers Next.


This time, it's personal, as the heroes search for a copy of the Claire Bible, a tome that promises to hold the cure to Zelgadis' curse, leaving him with a skin problem no amount of exfoliating can solve.

The final six episodes of Slayers Next are presented here on this disc from MVM, although the episode numbering counts the episodes in the first series as well.

47. The Traitorous! Demon Dragon King
While Lina and Milgasia search for the Clare Bible in the astral plane (tailed by Martina), battle rages outside the mountain, as Xellos and Saygram go head to head. The two of them vanish and take their combat to another dimension, but Gourry and the others aren't safe, as Saygram leaves them a pair of lethal spheres to play with. Then Gaav himself shows up.


48. The End! Of the Demon Dragon King
What is it with spoilers in episode titles? Anyway, battle has resumed outside the mountain, and Lina has perfected the Ragna Blade and is ready to unleash it on the monsters. She isn't prepared for how much it will cost her though. Despite their best efforts, it looks as if all is lost for our heroes. Meanwhile, the sneaky little pickpocket from the previous volume watches on with a suspicious grin on his face.

49. Menacing Swordsman! A Journey of Reunion
The Hellmaster Phibrizzo kidnaps Gourry, and demands that Lina comes to Sairaag, where to free him, she must use her powers to grant the Monsters' one true wish. Against her better judgement, Lina and the others set forth to Sairaag, and on the way they meet Sylphiel who is visiting her old home to investigate some strange rumours. Phibrizzo and a masked man, who wields Gourry's Sword of Light, confront them on the path. It looks as if Phibrizzo wants to get things over and done with. The Monsters wish for the end of the universe, but will Lina use the Giga Slave to save Gourry?


50. Sinister Trap! The Mysterious City of Ghosts
Round 2 of their confrontation will be in Sairaag, the city that was destroyed by Copy Rezo at the end of the first series. But Sairaag is back, as if it had never perished, and to Sylphiel's distress, so are the people, including her dead father. But this isn't a miracle; it's a nightmare. Sairaag is now a ghost city, where Phibrizzo enslaves the souls within. The grand tree of Flagoon is gone, and in its place an impenetrable wall holds the temple of Phibrizzo. Lina will have to penetrate that wall if she is to rescue Gourry.

51. The Souls of the Dead! Lina's Final Decision
In the temple, Lina finally meets Phibrizzo, and to her shock, finds a giant crystal holding captive the souls of the long dead denizens of Sairaag. In another crystal lies Gourry, his life force slowly fading. If Lina wants to save them all, she'll have to cast the ultimately destructive Giga Slave spell, and just to give her added motivation, Phibrizzo starts killing her friends, one by one. But no one is truly prepared for what occurs when the Giga Slave spirals out of control, least of all Phibrizzo.

52. Go to Next! And Then Again
The conclusion.

Picture

Slayers Next is an anime from the mid-nineties, so there's no pixel perfect CGI perfection. This is traditional, hand painted, cel acetate animation with all the inconsistencies and flaws that implies. It looks pretty good for all that, with a decent transfer of a good clean source. There's no sign of age or print damage here, and the animation may be comparatively rough and ready, but it still has all the vibrancy and imagination that I have come to expect from anime. It isn't all that flash or high budget, but the character designs are memorable and the world design does what it needs to, to get the story across. It does seem a little more fluid and brighter than Slayers though. However, I've recently seen the trailer for Funimation's US re-release of Slayers Next, which has been digitally remastered. It looks a whole lot brighter, colourful and sharper, and it's a shame that version couldn't be sourced for the UK.

Sound

You have a choice between DD 2.0 English and Japanese, along with optional English subtitles (except for the credit reels, where the subs are burnt in). My instinct as always was to go for the Japanese language option, and I wasn't disappointed. I was dreading the English track though, the mid-nineties wasn't a period known for its excellence in dubs, but I was pleasantly surprised by the English audio in Slayers Next. For one thing it's quieter than the Japanese track, and not just in terms of audio levels. For once, a dub cast plays comedy for the jokes, rather than the misapprehension that by screaming a line they make it funnier. Also, there are some occasional choice diversions from the Japanese script, responding to the onscreen action, that are actually funnier than the original dialogue. It may be sacrilege to some purists, but I think in this case it works. The sad thing is that this dub is from the old days, where technology wasn't as good as today, and the English dub feels layered on top of the anime, rather than an integral part of it. There are also a couple more nice themes to get the toes tapping, from Japanese voice of Lina, Megumi Hayashibara.

Extras

We get extras this time around, beyond the simple trailers for Desert Punk and Solty Rei. There is a cover art gallery with 6 images to enjoy, and there are the Actor Interviews, 14½ minutes of them. In this featurette, Lisa Ortiz (Lina), Veronica Taylor (Amelia), and a very baby-faced Crispin Freeman (Zelgadis) talk about the show, the characters and the ADR process.

Conclusion

Slayers Next gets a rousing conclusion with this final volume, and makes the anticipation for Slayers Try all the sweeter. That's in marked contrast to where I was with the final volume of the original Slayers series four months ago, a show that I was far more ambivalent about. I've already said several times in previous reviews, that The Slayers was a somewhat piecemeal series, where the comedy stood apart from the drama and the action, and while the chuckles were entertaining enough, when the show got serious, I started drifting off. Not so with Slayers Next, which is very much a cohesive whole. This final volume sees the attention shift from the outright comedy episodes to the serious matter of the series conclusion, and the resolution of the Monsters situation. It is a more serious and weighty affair, but the jokes aren't forgotten completely, and there are more than a couple of twists and turns along the way.


The Monsters storyline does come to a head in this volume, but surprisingly it's not Gaav that is the major villain, after being touted as such throughout the latter half of the series. Instead, as the first reversal, it's the being that he is trying to depose, Phibrizzo who turns out to be Lina's ultimate challenge. What makes him most effective as a villain is that instead of appearing as the ultimate big bad, all demonic and bristling with horns, he takes the form of a small child, ostensibly to play with people's perceptions, but most of all because, as we all know, small children are fundamentally the most evil beings in the universe. It also makes him far easier as an audience to relate to than some strange alien thing bristling with tentacles.


But where Slayers Next really excels, and surpasses its predecessor is in the continuity and the character development. There was some in the first Slayers series, but this second series really takes that and builds on it. At this point in time, I had become acquainted with the characters, and versed with the back-story to a degree that I never managed in the first series. Seeing them in peril, or attempting to rescue friends, or mourning fallen comrades was far more affecting and personal than it ever was in Slayers. A masterstroke was setting the conclusion in Sairaag, and reintroducing Sylphiel as a potential rival for Lina. When she was first introduced at the end of the first series, we had a couple of episodes in Sairaag with her, and we got to know her father, before the city was destroyed by Copy Rezo, taking the inhabitants with it. At that time it felt like a cold and distant event, really just prolonging a rather dull conclusion. But somehow in Slayers Next, the characters are better developed, more involving, and seeing Sylphiel's distress at seeing Sairaag brought back, with its inhabitants resurrected as golems under Phibrizzo's control, is much more personal and immediate.


Of course the major development that we don't talk about is Lina and Gourry's relationship, and just where it isn't going. The two started off as rather abrasive travellers, heading in the same direction, then came a rather unconventional friendship and rivalry in eating restaurant food, and it's slowly been developing in will they/won't they directions. In the last volume, we've seen Gourry begin to face his feelings for Lina when she was facing mortal peril, and in this volume, Lina has to come to terms with how she feels about Gourry when Phibrizzo takes him. And Slayers Next manages to somehow have its cake and eat it. If you're invested in the Lina Gourry relationship, Slayers Next gives you just what you have been waiting for, and then takes it away again, knowing full well that there is Slayers Try to come next, and we can't be having a 'happily ever after' just yet. Actually we do have a happy ending for one couple, just not the couple you were expecting. Just to put a little perspective in, Slayers Next is a comedy RPG series, with an emphasis on the zany and slapstick, when the heroes aren't fighting demons and casting WMD spells. And I'm worried about who is pairing off with whom? This is either a very good series, or I have too much time on my hands, and I suspect it is the former. Slayers Next is everything that Slayers was, and a lot that it wasn't. It's a fine series that I don't hesitate to recommend. With any luck, Slayers Try will be just as good. Only a month till we find out.