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 After quite a long break, it must be said, they're back - and apparently even hungrier than ever. Yes, Lina, Gourry and company are back to eat their way across continents, with the small matter of a revived demon lord to deal with along the way. Which is all sounding just a little familiar...
Pirates. Always on the lookout for an easy haul of treasure, and one particular group seem to have just hit the motherload with their latest raid. Unfortunately for them, their success has brought them to the attention of one Lina Inverse - and anyone familiar with the name will know just how unwise it is to tangle with her. Cue a swift and violent retribution. Watching from a nearby ship, meanwhile, Amelia and Zelgadis keep at a safe distance. They have a passenger on board who would like to have a word with Lina - and you just know that spells trouble...
I was going to start this review by saying that the thing I had to bear in mind with this release, was the gap between the first three Slayers TV shows and Revolution, which was long enough to mean that there was a good chance of new viewers coming to the series who hadn't seen the others. Then I remembered that we're in the UK, and only got releases of the other seasons this year any. Timely release schedule #fail. Still, a quick recap of who's who won't do any harm, as Revolution clearly expects you to know - the series takes no time to explain these things itself.
The anti-heroine of the piece is Lina Inverse: short, short-tempered, small-chested, and yet endowed with remarkable powers of both sorcery and appetite. Mess with her, and you're likely to find yourself at the epicenter of a Dragon Slave, a spell of awesome desructive power that can level entire towns - and that Lina uses at the drop of a hat. She's accompanied through most of this season by three friends: Gourry, a clueless blonde swordsman who's best decribed as Lina's boyfriend (although neither of them would ever admit that) and who is at least very handy in a fight - and at running up restaurant bills; Amelia, princess of the kingdom of Seyruun and weilder of clerical magic, whose belief in the forces of Truth!! and Justice!! is unshakeable (which makes you wonder why she hangs out with Lina, but that's another matter); and Zelgadis, who was once human, until a run-in with the Red Priest Rezo turned him into a stone-skinned Chimera. Together, no reward is too small to work for, or amount of damaged too large to cause.
Throughout the series you'll see cameo appearances by and references to other characters from the previous seasons, but the most notable "other" is our of "friend" Xellos, agent of the Mazoku - one of the few people that Lina knows not to take on, it's entirely impossible to figure out what his true intentions ever are, or whose side he's on - other than his own, of course.
Built around this merry lot is a plot that starts with a series of happenings in the kingdom of Ruvinagald that have been pinned on Lina - enough happenings that the simple act of "being Lina Inverse" is a criminal offence there now - and that leads us through the sleeping kingdom of Taforashia, laid low by plague, to Amelia's home country of Seyruun, where events come to a head with the resurrection of a powerful demon lord, Zanaffar. And guess whose job it is to put all this right..?
You got it. Lina's, with a mix of mayhem, comedy sidestories, attempts at heartwrenching moments, and a typically-Slayers final confrontation with the Big Beastie in the form of Zanaffar. If you've watched any of the previous incarnations of Lina's adventures, you'll know exactly how this season plays out - Slayers has A Formula™, and even ten years off the air hasn't been enough to prompt any changes to how it goes about things. For most people, that won't be a problem - if something is successful, as Slayers undoubtedly has been, don't change it. It does mean, though, that despite the added visual gloss that goes with this season - a happy side-effect of modern animation techniques - there's what's almost a constant feeling of deja-vu that accompanies you while you're watching, especially when old locations and characters, like Sairaag and Sylphiel, get brought into proceedings.
Still, as a long-time fan of the series I can't complain too much - Revolution is a reunion with old friends, where nothing much has changed, and where playing spot-the-reference to events and characters from past seasons could almost become a drinking game. For anyone coming new to the Slayers universe, though, I'm not so sure of the appeal. Fantasy anime is in short supply these days, so that works in the show's credit, but apart from that I'm not sure that there's enough about it that sticks out from the crowd these days to make it anything other than a curiosity. Your mileage may vary.
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