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 Gorgeous (1998) Anime Movie Review

Slayers Gorgeous is a comedy fantasy anime film directed by Hiroshi Watanabe and written by Hajime Kanzaka. The cast includes Megumi Hayashibara, Maria Kawamura, Akira Kamiya, Kyoko Hikami and Junpei Takiguchi. Released on August 1st, 1998, on a double feature with Martian Successor Nadesico: The Motion Picture – Prince of Darkness, it was the very last Slayers prequel feature film to be released during this decade  and it was one of the last gasps of the franchise as it had been squeezed by executives ever since 1995.

Lina and Naga wander around a little town but they are surprised by the attack of a girl riding a gigantic dragon. Lina confronts her but she is stopped by one of the local guards. Turns out the girl riding the dragon is the King's daughter, Marlene, who decided to turn on her family and kingdom when her dad wouldn't give her enough money, using the kingdom's fleet of dragons to her advantage. Lina agrees to help the king stop her but Naga allies with the dragon princess looking to gain something out of it.

Instead of a sprawling adventure with a variety of environments and places we have a very self-contained story secluded to a few locations inside a small kingdom. This is fine as we get a tightly constructed script involving the royal family feud with the help of the girls on each side. Relying more on strategy and the cleverness of each side rather than discovering a mystery or something. Naga joining the villain's side is a bit too automatic though, taken for granted, but coherent if you already know the character. It doesn't even feel like a retreat of Slayers Great because there was more of a motivation there but it still works here as it never goes against what the characters are. It all makes sense.

The combat sequences are more focused and rely more heavily on the characters game plans and the construction of the motion and position of the characters rather than discontinuous shots of violence at a grand scale like other fantasy or action shows do when it comes to storyboarding and direction. In a similar fashion to Slayers Return, we have more intricate action sequences in which the animators can skillfully pull you into the set-piece without lazy bombasticness. Not only that, but the humour is solid enough and is incorporated into the animation with ease, as usual for the Slayers franchise, but because of the purity of the premise it stands out even more in this highly comedic plot that doesn't take itself seriously at all, making fun of itself at every chance.

The new characters are enjoyable and are the perfect comedy fodder that Slayers often takes full comedic advantage of. A spoiled brat like Marlene only could have worked in this series in a way that you both like her and find her brattiness funny and not annoying in any way. They accomplish this by both her well built characterization and her hilarious failures.

A very cool Slayers entry. The prequel movies go out with a bang in this funny and charming little film. Completely recommended.