Created by Hajime Kanzaka, Slayers started out as a series of light novels telling the adventures of a teen sorceress and her companions looking for riches and loot in a sword and sorcery medieval setting. Eventually, the novels were then adapted into an anime series released in 1995, followed by a second season titled Slayers Next (1996) and it then continued in Slayers Try (1997) and more recently Slayers REVOLUTION in 2008. Not only that but there were also prequel OVA's, movies, mangas, card games, videogames and more. Today we are simply gonna take a look at the first season of the show.
The first episode begins with Lina Inverse, our protagonist, a 15 year old magic user, employing her powers in order to attack and rob a gang of looters and thieves. She loves to retrieve valuable treasures for her own gain. The carefree and petite girl seems confident and overjoyed when unleashing her mighty abilities on the dirty thugs.
She is feared and respected by her defeated enemies, one even attempts to reclute her but she rejects his offer claiming she works alone and likes to take the rewards for herself. She gets ambushed but before she can use her powers she is “rescued” by a skilled swordsman named Gourry, who promptly defeats and humiliates the bandits. Lina then decides to team up with the man due to his talent with the sword.
There is initially a weird thing about hinting at a romance between the two. It's odd because it's quite clear that Lina is a teenager and Gourry is an adult. However, this gets swept away pretty fast in a comedic manner and no more risky jokes like that are done anymore after this episode.
There´s also humor relying on Lina's small and relatively “underdeveloped” body for a girl her age. While odd at first, it gives us another reason to like Lina, she´s assertive and nonchalant about her capabilities, she steals from robbers and summons majestic powers while never fearing for her life and with complete confidence, but she is also kind of a tiny loser who gets flustered and angry quite easily. Flawed enough to be interesting but with enough talent in a field to be admirable. She carries a lot of the show because of it.
Their first quest together involves the pair defeating a deadly black dragon that threatens the locals. Lina, of course, asks for more money in order to begin working on the mission. The giant beast is defeated but Lina's tremendous spells end up doing more damage after destroying the monster, so the townspeople get angry at the adventurers and chase them out of town.
This is simply a small sample of how most of the show goes. This first episode isn't lore or plot heavy but it's a good example of what the series has to offer, comedy is always at the forefront, it's mainly driven by the characters’ interactions and their motivations and there´s always a funny turn near the end that functions as an effective punchline. Not too dissimilar from a lot of the other anime shows of the time but it's very well executed and written, never too obvious or dense with it´s lore, never too serious but with a lot of heart, kind of like Lina herself.
This first season consists of 26 episodes and adapts volumes one and three from the novels. Here, Lina and Gourry must defeat the Lord of Nightmares along with their companions before she/it destroys the world.
They meet several other likable characters throughout the show like Zelgadiss (a mixed breed between mythical creatures and human who starts out as an antagonist but then becomes an ally), Amelia (princess of Saillune, who fights for justice but is a little bit of a knucklehead), we also have Sylphiel (the young daughter of the high priest of Sairaag who is integral to the plot but doesn't leave much of an impression).
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| Zelgadiss |
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| Amelia |
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| Sylphiel |
They all add one component to the group dynamic and they work really well off each other, Zelgadiss is a more straight and stoic character than the others, Amelia is a silly goof with the heart of gold and has nice comedic moments with Lina; and Sylphiel serves a good role as a more modest and timid lady and possible romantic interest for the airheaded Gourry.
Among the 26 episodes of the show we find some funny and inventive highlights, such as when Lina is cursed into feeling the pain she delivers to others forcing her to find ways to get around that, when Lina loses her magic because of her “time of the month,” or when Gourry ends up in drag in order to board a ship.
While we cant ignore the astoundingly animated later episodes that focus on battles and magical duels between powerful users, I certainly appreciate the less serious and more fun adventures these guys get into, the fantasy setting allows for a great number of imaginative gags and jokes as well.
The actual lore and exposition heavy moments might be a bit too much from time to time but it's all fairly coherent for a fantasy setting, which can get very convoluted quite easily. At the same time, the details and mythology we are told really enrich the worldbuilding without explaining how everything works in extensive detail. Other than that, the show is easily digestible and entertaining to the max, the light tone and enjoyable characters are at the core of the show.
With animation that goes from serviceable to very good, interesting storylines and engaging episodic narratives inside a longer arc, Slayers can be considered one of the gems of the nineties when it comes to popular anime, always entertaining and filled with humor. Top of the line.
