Slayers Excellent is a comedy fantasy anime OVA series directed by Hiroshi Watanabe and written by Keiko Watanabe, basing his scripts on light novels by Hajime Kanzaka. The cast includes Megumi Hayashibara, Maria Kawamura, Sho Hayami, Aya Hisakawa and Kumiko Watanabe. Released from October 25th 1998 to March 25th 1999, it was the very last Slayers prequel series during this time and it was one of the last gasps of the franchise as it was squeezed by executives ever since 1995.
With this one being a prequel the first episode, Laberynth, shows how Lina and Naga met. Naga interrupts Lina's meal at a diner by making it blow up in flames, revealing that the busty sorceress is obsessed with the little redhead and wants to forcefully become some sort of rival to her. The angry villagers want the girls to inspect some haunted ruins where a vampire lives. In the second episode, A Frightening Future, Lina becomes the bodyguard of a spoiled princess and stages a fake kidnapping to teach her a lesson but Naga ruins things by defeating the false bandits. In the third and final episode, Lina-chan's Lovely Makeover Operation, Lina and Naga face off once again after two rival fashion designers engage in warfare.
Excellent excels at the combination of goofy antics and fantasy-adventure quests and worldbuilding. The first episode is such a pitch perfect introduction to the entire Slayers franchise that it can actually be a good first impression if this is your first exposure to the show, even if it is one of the last classic entries. The interactions between Lina and Naga are better than ever, with every comedic moment revealing something about them and the nature of their relationship. The jokes all land since they also show us a facet of the characters and even expands upon what we already thought we knew about them, like seeing Naga with shoulder spikes that she would later remove for example.
The tightly written episodes, specially the first one, really wrap everything in a nice structure that lets the humorous factor infect every plot beat, but never actually becoming intrusive as the payoffs to these jokes are exactly what create the fabric of the world and tone of the franchise, so if a climactic battle has to be cut short for a laugh, then it's more than valid considering that the writers made sure the action department already did its job at building the tension only to be released in a comedic way, so it's relieving either way.
It kind of feels like they knew this one was gonna be the last one, certainly the last one in the mini-series because not only does the final scene encapsulate what is charming about these characters but also gives Lina a moment that ultimately conveys how much fun she has even though the antics can irritate her from time to time she always has a great time, and so do we.
This is a very nice "until next time" that the franchise did before going on a temporary hiatus and coming back later in the following decade. It's one of my favorite Slayers series and the one I first watched back when I got started in the franchise. I think that if you are new to Slayers it will charm you and make you a fan. Worked for me, at least. Highly recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment