Slayers Excellent (1998-1999) Anime OVA Series Review

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.

Slayers Try (1997) Anime Series Review

Slayers Try is a 1997 fantasy anime TV series and is the third one in the Slayers franchise created by Hajime Kanzaka. We talked about the previous seasons here but Try is different in the sense that it's the first Slayers show that doesn't pull from the original light novels to craft its main storyline. In fact, this series is 100% original material by Kanzaka. It's also directed by series regular Takashi Watanabe, with fundamental contributions by artists like Rui Araizumi and Katsumi Hasegawa. This season isn't often as mentioned and remembered as the previous one but it has its fair share of nice moments. 

Lina and company meet a strange woman named Filia who wants to hire the team. She puts them to the test and turns into a golden dragon, Lina's powerful spell she summoned to destroy the golden dragon ends up creating a huge tsunami that annihilates the port they sailed from. Filia comes back to tell Lina that her sister has a very important mission to accomplish: stop the possible destruction of their world. So they decide to embark to the outer world outside of their realm.

Making one of the means of transportation a ship, this change from land to sea, was a very obvious and kind of cheap trick to do something innovative but it works wonders and helps to change things up a bit, giving us also more variety in settings than before since we are now able to witness a wider variety of locations and places by going outside the main group's known land. Lina and friends encounter fantasy creatures, more powerful magicians, kingdoms at war and many other obstacles since now they are even more out of their element.

The hilarious slapstick antics and shenanigans also reappear with precise execution, the animation is a bit slicker and the overall technical quality either stays the same or improves in this season. The structure of the episodes and the overall macro structure of the season is practically the same as always, with enough balance between somewhat self-conclusive episodes that have a very particular set up and payoff, usually comedic, and the multi-part story heavy episodes that require more amounts of exposition of lore but never going overboard with it. While everything seems more streamlined and there's less room for side-quests, there are a few of those that are very reminiscent of the previous seasons like the Alice in Wonderland episode, the Super Sentai parody or the romantic one with the fish people. 

During the more intense fights and magical combats the show keeps itself firmly serious and a bit sober, but since these episodes abound in this season they try to space them out and give us some tonal variety with some of the other characters while the main action goes on or during certain intervals featuring comedic moments. It’s all helped by a brisk pace and a good balance of dramatic elements around 26 episodes and very little filler. 

Filia adds more to the character dynamics by keeping the group in check and also with her rivalry with Xelloss. She is kind of like the opposite of Martina from Next, in that she helps the team and supports them and guides them but ultimately has some friction and conflicts with them on occasion, setting up some very funny jokes along the way. This makes her a different companion and alters the dynamic between the group. So she is a nice new addition. 

Overall, I would totally recommend Try to anyone who had a good time with Next and the original series since it continues what was presented in those shows leaving the core intact but with enough refreshing components to make it feel like an advancement instead of a step back.