 Lina Inverse and the gang are back for another dose of magic & mayhem. Evildoers and tavern owners, beware, as you'll both soon be out of business. This time around, power-tripping princess Martina and her self-made god Zoamelgustar are trying to cause the problems, but aren't managing too well...
The gang have gone their separate ways since their battle with Rezo - apart from Lina and Gourry, of course - but circumstances bring Amelia back into the mix when she finds herself in the same city as the pair, Xoana, while on a diplomatic mission for her father. Her mission's not going to be easy, and for obvious reasons she's keen to keep Lina as far away from things diplomatic as possible - but unbeknownst to her, the King she's visiting has plans to kidnap her before attacking Seyruun. Not to mention his daughter Martina's plans to revive the powerful demon Zoamelgustar. To make things worse, they've hired Zelgadis to do their dirty work - and he's not doing Amelia any favours. Fortunately, Lina's nosey enough to know when a rescue is required...
So. If you're reading this, you've probably seen and hopefully enjoyed the first season of Slayers. If not, then don't worry too much about it, as to be honest, Slayers is an easy enough series to jump into. For the first two episodes, there's the potential for the series to do something different – Amelia has moved on to doing diplomatic work for her daddy, while Zelgadis has gone back to being a mercenary – but come the beginning of the third episode in the season, it's all as you were, with the gang back together and on a quest to find a powerful magical tome. So far, so more of the same. There are two small differences, though. First of them is the arrival of "priest" Xellos, who is well into "mysterious" territory and who fairly clearly tends more towards the dark side than most. He latches on to the gang and, when it suits them, joins in their travels. Personally, I like him – you know he's going to turn out to be a problem at some point (never trust a character who never opens his eyes), but his general attitude and habit of just appearing and disappearing according to his whims make him quite enjoyable to watch.
The other new character is Martina, who's really pure comic relief. Her devotion to custom demon Zoamelgustar is completely misplaced, and she's on roughly the same level of clumsiness as Amelia. Her chance of causing any real problems to Lina and co? Probably just about zero. Her chance of making you laugh? Probably better than anyone else in the series – although her being a fresh character probably helps in that regard.
The thing with NEXT is that you know what you're getting – if you've seen the first season, this is more of the same, just with different villains. In one way, that's its strength – in another, it's the season's greatest weakness: apart from Martina and Xellos, there's nothing really fresh or new about the series.
As ever, the season is split into two main arcs, with the first reaching its climax around the mid-point of the season. This time out, that arc revolves around the apparent death of Amelia's father, Prince Phil - keyword there being 'apparent' - and the efforts of Lina and the others to root out the conspirators in the royal court. That Phil wasn't really dead is no surprise (or spoiler, really), but his hopes of rooting out the conspirators that way don't exactly come to fruition. Finding the conspirators isn't that easy, and even once Monsters are uncovered to have played a role it quickly becomes clear that they're not simply after the Seyruun throne – they have far grander plans, plans that would work so much better if they could just persuade Lina to join them. As ever, though, coming into contact with Lina is just about the worst thing possible for any plan, and the story soon turns into an almost running battle between the forces of good and evil. The Monsters are powerful sorcerors themselves, more than a match for Lina on a level playing field, so while you know that our heroes are never going to actually lose, there are some tense moments when things don't quite go their way, with a few tactical retreats having to be made.
Between arcs, there's the usual dose of filler episodes. Some people hate the filler in Slayers, but I find that most of them are able to produce at least a few giggles along the way, with cosplay Lina and cross-dressing Zelgadis & Gourry being the highlights here. The cross-dressing episode is a Slayers tradition of sorts – cheap laughs and simple gags, but entertaining nonetheless – while having Lina and Amelia strut their stuff on the stage is enough of a change from the usual action that you can't help but enjoy it. The other two aren't quite so notable, but still enjoyable enough as far as these things go.
Once the filler is out of the way, though, we get onto the real business. Lord Gaav, the Monster who was ultimately behind the power grab in the opening arc, has broken ranks with the rest of the Monster race and is now more concerned with his own power than anything else – something which means that the world's other Monsters are very keen to get their hands on him. While Lina may have defeated Shabranigdo, the most powerful Monster in existence, she now knows that the Giga Slave spell she used to do that is one that she would be monumentally stupid to use again – and so she has a dilemma on her hands, as Gaav seems to be powerful enough that nothing else is capable of dealing with him. Scary, isn't he?
Not half as scary at the aptlynamed Hellmaster turns out to be, though – with Gaav very much appearing to be the Big Bad of the piece, Hellmaster kind of sneaks unobstrusively onto the scene, before making his move and turning things on their heads as the season heads towards its conclusion. Gaav never comes across as more than a big bully, but Hellmaster, on the other hand – now here's a villain who knows how to be evil. He's got the power, the plans, and the destructive nature that all Monsters possess by nature – and he's going to use them, in the way that's as entertaining (for him) as possible. All while having the appearance of someone who wouldn't hurt a fly.
Problem is, the more serious side of Slayers is what the show clearly thinks is the "important" stuff – you wouldn't get half of each season devoted to building up to the Big Battle otherwise – but it's a side of the show that has never worked as well for me as the comedy does. Lina & Gourry having fun and getting on each other's nerves is fun, in reasonable doses; but seeing them agonising over spell choices, playing hit-and-run with Monsters and eventually winning the day tends to be more tedious than enjoyable – partly because you know what's going to happen, and partly because they take so long to do it. It's the part of the series where you want to marathon the episodes, but only so you get them out of the way more quickly, rather than from a burning desire to speed through them, and that's not quite what you're looking for.
Along the way, there's the return of some familiar faces, as a return to the city of Sairaag brings Gourry's long-time rival Zangulus into the fight, along with Sylphiel, newly powered-up with a Dragon Slave of her own. Who says Lina gets all the fun. The citizens of Sairaag will be rueing the day they ever heard of Lina Inverse, though, as that's two seasons where the city has played host to the final battle between good and evil, and suffered heavily as a result – but it's always nice to see old minor characters come back into play, as it shows the series does try to keep some continuity between seasons.
In amongst the fighting, there's a decent amount of comic relief, mostly provided by Martina. She somehow manages to attach herself to Xellos, who she sees as a gallant priest and almost comes to idolise. The girl really doesn't have a clue at the best of times, and there's some fun to be had both from seeing her try to suck up to the ever-smiling one, and from her continuing attempts to get "revenge" on Lina for all the perceived slights of the past. In some ways it's a shame we don't get to see more of Martina, as she's definitely one of the highlights of this season of Slayers.
Still, this is Slayers, which is nothing if not consistent. If you've seen any of the TV series before, you'll know exactly what you're getting with this release, and whether it's likely to appeal to you or not. The best way to describe the series is as a decent mix of comedy, action and general silliness - and with TRY managing an ending that's probably better than season one's, it's well worth checking out if you enjoy your fantasy shows.
For full episode summaries and screenshots, check out the reviews of the individual releases:
» Volume 1
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» Volume 3
» Volume 4
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