Lina Inverse is the epitome of 'I support women's wrongs!' Girl bossing and Girl Failing simultaneously. Love to see this retrospective as it's been a decade since I last watched this anime
How much Gourry's stupidness is real and how much it's an act in the first three seasons is certainly up for debate. He's the only person that knew that Xellos was a mazoku and didn't say anything because he figured it was so obvious that clearly everyone else had to know. He certainly must have lost half his brain by Revolution though.
Gourry always has been stupid, a yoghurt brain as Lina aptly put it, but he has very very sharp instincts. He knew Xellos was a demon not because he deduced it with reasoning or knowledge, he just felt it. Also, Hajime Kanzaka said himself, Grourry is at least in part stupid and doesn't know anything, because it makes for a very convenient tool to explain history, how magic works and anything else lore related that the characters are supposed to know, but the reader doesn't.
It's the Zorro effect. The price of being the cool strong sword guy is that you pay for it directly through a perpetually increasing gag until it consumes any Vanier of competence.
I always thought his case was more ADD than stupidity. He finds the topics of demonology, history, and magic just way too boring to comprehend, and the topic of swords and bodybuilding much more interesting.
I will point out, Martina put an actual working curse on Lina at one point, calling on an imaginary monster. Meaning by just sheer willpower she casted actual, dangerous magic! If she ever gets her life together, she could become the most powerful sorceress in that universe. And I love that the only thing that's stopping her is her being her. My headcanon at least XD
IIRC, most of the characters had a kind of magic they were sorta bonkers at. Lina's just got a huge capacity for magic casting. She's best at black magic, but mostly just uses raw power. Martina's raw talent for curses and black magic are actually miles above Lina's abilities, she's just not very good at magic. Amelia's also a Shamanism expert, with a focus on Astral (anti-demon) type Shamanism spells. (Her white magic is like B-tier, but she uses it to punch the shit out of demons and that is apparently hard for them to deal with.) Naga is a goddamn moron but considering who her family is that's unsurprising. She's also basically the most powerful white magician on the planet, but explicitly uses summoning magic to hide her identity - and she sucks at it. Zelgadiss is an Earth and Spirit shamanism expert, which isn't special, but he's basically the brains of the party. Gourry is dumb as a rock so he can't use magic. But if he weren't, he'd probably be as powerful as Lina, if not moreso. He just can't remember spells.
@@sweatygoblin2335 Kanzaka actually confirms that Lina and Naga are the greatest spellcasters in the world of Cephied- he also stated that Naga has a higher pool capactiy than Lina, but Lina knows more forbidden magic such as the Ragna Blade and Giga Slave. This lis largely why when Naga made an apperance as "Nama," in Slayers Evolution-R, Lina was the only person who could actually contest with her crazy spellcasting. Martina isn't actually a character that exists outside the anime, and we really can't contextualize her actual magical abilities because just like her deity, they're made up. Her "curses," are non-canonical and don't operate using the structure of spellcasting Kanzaka developed (which require some combination of power words, chaos words, and mana). They're there simply for comedy. I wouldn't think too much into it. They're literally only there for a laugh :) On a side note- Kanzaka also did make a passing comment that Gourry's pool and bucket capacity is larger than Lina's - but as you say: his INT stat is like -5. Lmfao.
Stumbling upon Slayers with my sister is a really nostlagic memory for me. I had no idea what to expect but we ended up loving it. To this day Lina is my favorite female character in anime. Period. I've only seen snippets of the English dub, but from what I have seen Lisa Oritz kills it. I also love how this is probably the only anime where every opening/ending is sung by the leading character and also delivers every single time. The openings are SO good! Glad to see someone give it the praise it deserves.
No no no! Have you taken your dose of litrpg Isekai slop for today? With thoughts like these perhaps you might even need some animal girl slave harem to clear that head of yours.
Kamehameha, as I understand it (never actually watched DB, though I might do sometime this year), has multiple power settings, from "knock you all down" to "obliterate everything in sight." Dragon Slave only has one setting, and it's EVERYTHING EXPLODES.
@@ingonyama70 Kamehameha just scales in power with the user/series. In the early series Goku was weak enough he could fire it at the ground and maybe destroy an arena. By Cell saga that move could destroy Earth and always had to be aimed away.
This video came up on my recommendeds, and I'm so happy more and more people are finding one of my favorite series. I remember when it was releasing, waiting for every new VHS to come out back in 1996 here in the US. Lina remains one of my favorite characters. Lina was one of my biggest inspirations as a shy, quiet people pleaser to learn how to be loud, aggressive, and occasionally selfish with my own goals. Something I don't see mentioned here (or in the comments) is that the world building and magic system were so well thought out, there was actually a d20 game system developed and officially produced as well! Difficult to find nowadays, but it's probably out there in PDF form now. Also fun fact, the light novel series is STILL ongoing with a new one that was released recently in 2019 (and translated to US release last year 2023). The movies are a blast for the majority of them being pre-series, and one mid-series (Premium) and I would recommend them if you ever want some fun side-content and Gourry lore. I'm thrilled more and more people are finding this series in this day and age of run of the mill isekai fantasies.
Fun Fact: Shes actually playable in a Tales game. She appears as a fully playable character available for free in Tales of the Rays! She can even cast Dragon Slave if shes not interrupted. It takes....as long as you think it does to cast...
The OVAs and Movies are worth checking out. They're Lina & Naga instead of the usual crew but they're designed to be stand alone. I don't think anything captures the spirit of Slayers like any of Slayers Return/Great or Gorgeous and they're basically one shot campaigns that people would run with their friends with recurring characters. No Lisa Ortiz in them but Cynthia Martinez still did a great job as a younger, more inexperienced Lina.
Cynthia is MY Lina. I watched that movie so many times before I started the series and I could never get used to Lisa's voice or her version of the Dragon Slave.
@@jerfuhrer2581 ''lisa'' 's my lina... even though i heard her ages ago when i saw the song ''otome no inori'' in english on youtube a long time ago, i guess i never forgot :> but what i heard of ''cynthia'' lina isn't all bad, i guess.... i just have to see the ovas & movies in full, i guess :3
I love Slayers! It was one of my first animes growing up! The anime's 2nd season op is my favorite. Also same Lisa Ortiz will always be my Lina Inverse.
This was a great watch. Slayers is my all time favourite anime and that is very unlikely to change. Made so many friends through it and I just love chanting the spells when someone irritates me. Great video that was a lot of fun to watch :3
This made me so happy. Every time you mentioned Lisa Ortiz in Winx, I was always thinking "okay but Lina tho..." And here we are, to my unending delight. I've not seen a lot of anime; it's a small handful compared to most (One Piece, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, the original FMA, Utena, and some other essential-to-mid-famous shows). However, Slayers is my absolute favorite. And the English dub cast is 99% of that. Sylphiel sounds slightly stoned off her gourd, it's true, and I am completely with you on OG Zel and Amelia, but everyone else is pure talent, especially for a 90s dub cast. *_* Even when the anniversary series had to change some voices, the new voices are just as fun as they were before. I like the Revolution-R Xelloss just as much as I liked David Moo, just in a different way. The incantations are amazing, and I too have had Dragon Slave memorized for roughly a decade and change :p Thank you for touching on this wonderful, legendary, hilarious piece of media. I am eagerly looking forward to your deeper dive when it comes! ^_^ P.S. Lina would not be a Swiftie, she'd likely feel called out by songs like Bad Blood and Blank Space. Zelgadis is the closet fan (he is FAR too Shadow the Hedgehog to admit it), while Amelia enjoys Taylor's music on a purely superficial level and gets mentally scarred if she looks too deep into the Swift abyss. Gourry will jam out to her music and remembers every lyric by heart, but then forget who sang it as soon as the song is over. Like...IMMEDIATELY.
God this tickled my nostalgia itch just right. This series meant the world to me and its sad to see it doesnt get as much love these days. Thank you! Side note, any old school hardcore slayers fans out there remember when there was a slayers fan comic where they were trying to stage a hamlet play?
Omg! Hamlet: The Manga is one of my favorite fanworks of all time. This comment tickled my nostalgia, and I did a search. The website is still up! You have no idea how much joy that gave me. Although, now I feel sad thinking about my own unfinished Slayers fanfic. Lol
I’ll be honest. I don’t care that she’s a short queen. Lina Inverse showed me that the ability and wild abandon to destroy an entire city is one of the most attractive qualities a person can possess.
I saw one of your avatar videos, clicked into your channel, saw the thumbnail for this video and instantly followed....this is such a core influence and to this day one of my favorite series. I'll have to comment again once I actually have time to finish watching the video but just seeing it made me so happy XD
The moment Lina was like "I should play the part of an innocent maiden since this guy's being a noble knight type", I was 100% in love with the character. This is ABSOLUTELY something I'd do with a character and joke about because it's just really fun to do. ... Actually, come to think of it, they're a cold greedy bastard, too........ ................... Is Lina JUST my D&D character, but as a Warlock.........?????
Literally just saw your Hazbin video where you compared Alastor to Xellos and got excited about Slayers content. I subscribe and then find THIS. I am absolutely READY to watch this. I don’t know many people who love Slayers (Zelgadis first anime crush when I was like 12)
I actually discovered this anime about a year ago when some of my friends on Twitter were fans of this anime so I checked out the first season and I was instantly hooked. I then checked out NEXT and TRY and loved them both. I am planning on watching the rest of the series some time this year.
I'm doing a full Slayers rewatch right now and I implore you to watch the films! They're so silly and fun and Martinez does a wonderful job of playing young Lina!
Netflix released a DOTA: Dragon's Blood series where a character called Lina makes an appearance. It's pretty clear after a bit that it's THAT Lina. My immediate thought was they didn't get Lisa Ortiz to voice her. Missed opportunity.
IIRC, DOTA's Lina was originally a Jaina Proudmoore model recolored red and gold. All of her abilities were ripped right from Lina Inverse - including her ult being literally Dragon Slave.
@@sweatygoblin2335 Nope. Lina's original model was always elven sorceress or whatever the unit was called. And yeah, she was a tribute to Lina Inverse - her name, her spells.
Honestly I've been into anime since I was a kid, and was always introduced to new ones via ads or related websites. However, I've noted there's a big writing-quality issue in a lot of shonen anime (rushed/underdeveloped concepts, mixed messages, etc.). I'd love for you to cover that.
In my experience, I think recent shonen anime I've seen either follows the Ash Ketchum/Naruto/Goku/Luffy "genki dumbass" blueprint, or tends to forget to make their main characters characters, and instead leaves them as blank slates for the audience to project themselves into. Lina is KIND of a "genki dumbass," but she's different in that she's also incredibly intelligent when she's not losing her temper or stuffing her face, which is not true of any others I'm aware of besides Edward Elric. (they'd get along great and despise each other if they ever crossed over, I'd LOVE to see it)
@@ingonyama70 I think that's why I love Yugi, Midoriya, Asta, and Ciel a lot: Yugi and Midoriya are kind and intelligent characters while Asta is kind and respecrful and Ciel is clever and practical. But I also meant writing as in story arcs. "Naruto" underuses a lot of it's phenomenal cast, and the random villain at the end was so weird. Not to mention sharingan is too OP and as time goes on (around Part 2) we never learn about other genjutsu. Or how Demon Slayer is kinda repetitive and doesn't really flesh out the characters (imo), with the Hashira having one brief flashback and only getting to star in one arc per person, as well as some of the demons not getting backstories while others do (not sure why).
@@OpticalSorcererthat's Battle Shonen for you. It's really meant to appeal to teenagers and they like sex and violence. So the main focus is on violence with the occasional fan service.
I remember stumbling onto Slayers when I was in high school and I loved it, for pretty much all the reasons you pointed out. Try is also my fav but yes Next is peak Slayers. I've always kinda considered Lina to be one of the best anime heroines, she was hyper intelligent and shrewd but she wasn't perfect and she had her flaws too, such as navigating her feelings towards Gourry which my teenage self 100% could relate to. Anyway, this anime will always have a special place in my heart, thank you for this wonderful video.
This anime lives in my soul rent free. I'm so happy I found someone talking about it. Its phenomenal- such an important part of me and i can never convince people to watch it
One minor lore correction for you: the conflict between the gods and monsters isn't simply good vs evil, there's a deeper layer to it -- order and stasis vs chaos and change. The Lord of Nightmares / the Mother of All Things created the four universes / "worlds" of the Slayers cosmos by shattering her own form (consequentially giving rise to the Sea of Chaos in the process) and then, with her remaining power, crafted a Dark Lord and a God for each universe. In the main universe where Slayers takes place our Dark Lord is of course Shabranigdo, and the God was Ceiphied. Both of these being were her "children" but represented polar opposites of her nature, and consequentially had very opposed priorities. Ceiphied saw the world that their creator had made and believed their purpose was to protect it, preserving it as it was to the fullest extent possible -- standard "protector god" stuff. But what's interesting is the motivations of Shabranigdo weren't just destruction for destruction's sake... he believed, as Hellmaster Fibrizo later would, that destroying the world would release a portion of the Lord of Nightmares back into the Sea of Chaos, and that if all worlds were destroyed then she would be remade. He viewed the world as a prison, and his "mother" as the prisoner, and so he sought to break her chains so they could be reunited. In other words, the monsters ("mazoku" in the original Japanese) original desire was freedom and liberation, and they stumbled from that path into mindless destruction as they became infatuated with how the suffering from their battles caused their power to swell. Why did the Lord of Nightmares put two diametrically opposed superbeings on a planet at the dawn of creation? Was it just to see a gods vs demons cage match, or maybe it was to try and understand her own chaotic, conflicted nature? We're not sure, but there's plenty of room to speculate. Also, fun fact: the Lord of Nightmares (sometimes just called "L-sama") would make frequent appearances in the manga as a woman with long blond hair and, of all things, a shovel, often to banter with the artist after each story segment wrapped up. Slayers is CRAZY, in the best sort of way!
Man I miss this series. It was one of the first anime I ever watched, and I owned the VHS boxed sets of both NEXT and TRY. The magic system is really fucking good if you look into it. So is the worldbuilding. Also the openings are all fire, and I miss Megumi Hayashibara singing the OP for every anime ever.
52:31 THAT face. I just love how even the big bad demon lord can be goofy. I started re-watching this series and my son decided he likes it too. So now I have something to bond over with my kid.
Yooo, I legitimately grew up on Slayers, like. Sailor Moon, into Pokemon and DBZ, then into Slayers when I was like 8 or 9 xD I have all the light novels and have re watched this series, (aside from the anniversary seasons) so many times, my old youtube page was even Slayers themed, you did such justice by this video and I appreciate it so much! Th is has just brought back a flood of memories. Happy note: I actually met Lisa Ortiz at a comic con like 2 years ago and got her to sign a Lina Inverse poster! had 0 idea she would be there xD I may have been panik at the time xDDD
Slayers TRY is, I think, probably my favorite season of the animated series. I really enjoy Filia as a character; she was one of the first times we ever got a dragon as an actual protagonist and not a monster or, at best, some random sagely NPC - this was before the glut of bad isekai and underwhelming dragon-girl characters. She has a genuinely interesting character dynamic, despite the fact she and Zelgadis can be considered to both fit the "straight man" comedic archetype, her character is funny, her art is great, and her story is genuinely tragic. It's such a shame the Slayers' creator (who wasn't really involved in TRY) absolutely hates the season in general and Filia in particular and has declared them non-canon.
Thank you for making a Slayers Video ❤️ My first memories about Slayers come rushing back. My big brother had the first two seasons plus the Ova's. While I (6-7 years old) was sick and stuck at home, he let me watch olny the first season, but I watched Next in secret. I instantly fell in love with the show. You can bet I cried the last episodes of season one when I first saw it! When I got older with access to the internet I watched Try, Revolution and Revolution-R . Slayers is very close to my heart I love the characters, especially Lina.( my brother always compared me to her, mostly for my temper ^^') I love the humor, the storytelling and how the characters grow (Season 1-3).
This is one of the finest video essays I've ever seen. Inmediately subscribing. Slayers is a really cool series and I love many of the characters, Xellos and Lina in particular, as well as the worldbuilding. It's a great example of how to make a world inspired by classic fantasy feel super interesting and not too generic. It simply has a really nice flavour to it which is enhanced by the gorgeous 90s animation. I love both Next and Try, while I'm more mixed about tbe first season. I really didn't like the Rezo copy plotline that much, since it just felt like we got the first arc of the show rehashed right after it with mothing else in between. I'm really curious about the other demon lords, specially Deep Sea Dolphin, since I like her design and Greater Beast Zelas Metallium, since she seems to have an interesting relationship with Xellos. Should I read the light novels or is the manga a better option?
I love how I found your channel. I love your retrospective on my favorite fantasy anime of all time. I hope that you look into my own fiction series as badass ladies is a huge aspect of it(Larger in the coming finale of the series) and I want to look into your fiction series myself or even pick your brain on storytelling and worldbuilding as an art because we indie writers are... I would say we are rare on the ground, but it is more that we are the freshly planted grass now that everyone is ripping up the astroturf of the media monopolies.
randomly stumbled across this video cause im on my "yearly" Slayers binge and i feel this series is just never talked about I really enjoyed your video, gave me a great laugh and appreciated the lore section cause Slayers worldbuilding is perfection A thing a love in the magic system actually is after Gaav is killed, the gang never uses Gaav Flare again as they physically can't like that is so smart However while weaker i still find Revolution-EvoR to be enjoyable...to get Slayers nearly 10 years later with the main cast is just a treat. Zelgadiss flashback episode in EvoR is forever one of my favorite episodes...and while she's not in her original form its the only time we had Naga in the anime (The movies also such a masterclass)
Slayers is among the first anime I watched as a kid, and to this day, is among my favorite anime of all time. Thank you for reigniting my love for this series!
I honestly preferred the movies/OVAs, probably cause I first got introduced to this franchise (and anime overall!) via The Motion Picture and the dynamic between Lina and Naga amuses me more. A series just featuring those two would just be so much more fun than the constant will they/won't they of Lina and Gourry.
Is there any will they/won't they? To me it was just 'they're not..oh wait, I guess they are but it's nbd so let's move on!" and didn't change their original dynamic at all. Honestly, I found Naga insufferable, though that was arguably the point.
@@ingonyama70 Naga is trauma masking hard. It's actually pretty obvious once you go back and look for it - she's really not very confident in anything she does and it's sad. :(
Wonderful video! I was just (again) in Slayers hyperfixation! Also I was searching for fantasy novel that could remind me of the Slayers universe so I think I will read your novel! :D
This joint was influential to my own stories as a kid. That era when episodes were uploaded onto RUclips was unbeatable. If you're looking for something just as goofy, there's another comedy anime called Gokudo.
Slayers inspired me so much in my own worldbuilding and character creation. I love the variety of vibrant and unique characters it has even if its a 90s dub it was really good for its time for the most part. The spells are my favorite of the entire series and I get chills when Lina casts the giga slave or the dragon slave. I wish there were more series like this...and its sad its not more well known as a anime itself.
I have to second the opinion that the movies and OVAs are totally worth it. [minor spoilers ahead] . . . . It also is strongly implied that Naga (not that much of a spoiler: Amelia's missing older sister) is the talking armor Nama in Slayers EVOLUTION-R. There also is a scene in Slayers Try where Amelia mentions her missing sister when the topic of siblings is brought up. Knowing Naga really adds to such moments (and her dynamic with Lina is unique).
I have loved Slayers since watching it back when it was first released. The Motion Picture was really cool with a fantastic incantation of the Dragon Slave. The series is something i go back to all the time
I believe it's actually canon that Gourry being (increasingly?) dumb is Lina's fault. There's a movie where she has to do a specific thing and gets time-looped. Lina being Lina, she barely tries and keeps screwing it up. I think it's word of god that something about the time-reversal magic caused minor defects in the timeline, focused on Gourry's ancestor. Wouldn't have been a problem if it didn't happen _dozens_ of times. It's a very Slayers thing to happen.
The writer MUST have been a (long-suffering) DM with how deep-cut the main party dynamic is: Lina: The party "that-guy/girl" who is incredibly difficult to play with because of how she behaves at the table, but also that meta-gamer who has read the rulebook cover to cover and knows the game better than the DM. Goury: Int 8 Fighter played by a player who never pays attention and always has to ask for recaps of what's going on in the plot at the start of every session and must re-learn how rolls are supposed to work. Amelia: The Lawful Dumb Paladin/Monk who is forced to suffer through Lina's shenanigans but will railroad the party with her Lawful Goodness at the drop of a hat. Zelgadis: The Edgelord who really tried to play a 3edgy5me bad-boy type at the beginning of the campaign but is normal by comparison to everybody else.
OMG My first anime ever alongside Ranma 1/2 and the Wanderers of El Hazard! When I was a little kid, I used to pretend to be 5 different characters: Sailor Venus, Ran from GALS!, Starfire from Teen Titans, Kiara from the Lion King 2 (I wasnt a horse girl or wolf girl or even a warrior cats girl...I was a lion girl *cringes*) and finally...Lina Inverse! 7 or 8 year-old me had the entire Dragon Slave and Ragna Blade chant memorized lmao. Next and Try I had the full DVD set and were the only ones I watched to completion, but my dad had some VHS tapes of the one with Naga in it. I remember so many days rewatching so many scenes and bringing my friend over and the two of us would run around pretending to be Lina and Filia until dinnertime. I miss those times. Simpler, just escaping to another world in my head.
I remember the first time I watched this anime this year in one of the videos that show the history of anime until 1995 with the appearance of Slayers. This was very special and I decided to watch the song and it was the best song I have ever heard in my life The song was a masterpiece, let alone the anime. I watched some scenes randomly, and what made me watch it was the great comedy. I watched the first season and it was so great that I stayed up late to finish the episode (I have school tomorrow🙏😭) After completing this anime, I said that this anime is the best anime I have watched in my life, and although the topic has been completed for seven months, I still remember watching this great anime.
Fun Fact, the DotA Hero "Slayer" is named Lina and casts powerful magic, which is not an accident and is relevant. I believe one of the abilities was called Dragon Slave? There are probably a lot of other direct references. The original DotA, which was a mod for Warcraft 3, actually had the name "Lina Inverse" for the Slayer Hero, since it was just an unmonetized project and they didn't care about infringement. This is the only reason I clicked on this video. I've been wondering about that name for like 14 fucking years, lol.
Excellent video and you have a very good understanding of the series but you could have talked a little about Naga, because she is a great character and very charismatic despite only appearing in the specials. By the way, you could have commented on the special episodes too, they are wonderful.
Its so interesting how things like this can unite people who dont and probably wont ever know each other... This series was on peruvian TV for a little while ( it was a flop there, though the dub in LA spanish was incredible aswell ): I felt I was the only person I knew watching it! I always wondered why did so poorly back then -probably was too soon for fantasy genre in context- The series made an impact on my memory, and as soon as I got internet on my teenage years I found it online and watched Next and eventually Try. And yet... nobody talked about this series. I reached University... Watched Revolution... and couldnt find anybody in person who actually watched it. Thanks for the video! It feels so Nice to be validated on my feelings that this series was indeed great! At 16 I made an statement : "Slayers Next is the best second season of anything I have seen" . Water has passed under the river, and I doubt that has aged completely undisputed... I guess its a good excuse to rewatch! PS: I remember skipping the first half of season 1 when rewatching years ago... I wonder if it was a matter of me being impatient or a pacing issue.🤨
One of the fun things about 'The Lord of Nightmares', is that her name is 'Laguna' (Lagoon-a), or 'L-Sama' as the original author referenced her in his post-story snippets in the books (She's the one reminding him he had deadlines to keep). Japanese, does not have a distinct L or R syllable by itself, and instead has a combo, so you get this rolling R-L which leads to many a western fan arguing over such names as to whether it's an L, or an R. 'Ragna', is what you get when an American hears a Japanese person mash the word 'Laguna' down into Japanese phonetics: "(LR)ag'na" There's that rolling LR or RL, and the dropping of the hard U. So you get something that if pronounced more accurately, almost sounds Spanish. _Rragna!_ Given the other naming hints, there is an island and treasure theme going on with the monsters. Either way, Laguna Blade is very much asking L-sama to PLEASE cut this opponent with her fingernail.
My favourite joke in Slayers (which I wished they used a lot more) is when there's a bunch of debris violently smashing against Zel while he just stands there nonchalant, talking to the others. I would have loved if he was even more invulnerable and if the party used him for that more.
Lisas screaming about Linas sister killed me. I first heard it and repeated it multiple times and i still laugh so hard i cant breath and feel like im gonna vomit my stomach hurts so much.
It’s been about 15 years since I watched Slayers. This was such a wonderful video, and now I need to go rewatch the whole thing. Watching this I had a weirdly emotional reaction to the dragon slave incantation, starting to tear up every time a snippet of it was played. Really unsure what’s going on in my brain to cause that 😂
I love Slayers. I checked it out because of the dub having quite a few voice actors from the 4Kids Pokemon dub. The characters are really fun, have solid chemistry, the humor is great and the action is good. The way it can blend such goofy comedy in one episode and then jump right into some high stakes dark battles is pretty impressive too. Next is by far my favorite series. It has the best character development for the cast, the group chemistry is solid, the humor is terrific and the romance between Lina and Gourry is really sweet. Even though they go back to the status quo at the end, it never felt like it really affected their relationship. It's quite obvious that they have feelings for each other and Gourry basically already confessed by saying that he'll protect Lina for the rest of his life. The music for every series is terrific too, especially Give A Reason. They knew exactly what they were doing when using that for an insert song during Evolution-R. I haven't seen much defense or praise for Try. I always thought that people didn't like it because it was anime-only content. I like a lot of the new characters introduced, especially Filia and Valgarv, and the story was still engaging, but the humor wasn't as good as the first two series. According to Wikipedia, there were plans for a fourth Slayers series after Try, but the plans fell through so it never happened, which is a shame. It would have been nice to get more Slayers series and I did enjoy Try, so making more anime-only seasons with the creator's involvement could have been interesting. But at the same time, it might have been for the best to take a break after Try given its reception. It's been awhile since I saw Revolution and Evolution-R. I was happy that we finally got new Slayers series and Funimation got most of the original dub cast back together, which was awesome. The new art style looked nice, but I agree that there's just something charming and appealing with how the animation looked in the first three series. The new music was pretty solid too. They basically felt like two halves of the same series as opposed to two different series like I think the marketing was trying to make them out to be at the time. Pokota was pretty annoying, but I think he got a bit better over time. I wasn't too fond of them bringing back Rezo again, even it was supposed to be an anniversary series. I'd have to rewatch them to fairly judge them, but I kind of wish that we gotten more series afterwards or maybe just more adaptations of the light novels. Part of that is because I'd want to have the dub cast reunite again, but it would also just be cool to see more of this world. More adventures with Lina, Gourry, Zelgadiss and Amelia just sounds like a fun time. I'll be excited to see your breakdowns of each series down the road. It's been awhile since I've rewatch any of them, but I I still have fond memories of popping in the DVDs to watch each series for the first time.
slayers is my favorite anime all of time, i remember when i first saw it on aniplex/ animax at the TV and since then it has stuck in my mind, I remember that then I had only seen very little of Try, my luck was with the internet and technology that allowed me to watch my favorite Anime head to tail. thanks for the video, maybe you have nothing left but I would like more clips about Slayers. I'm sorry that many people don't even want to give this anime a chance, mostly because of the old graphics and because of kimetsu no yaiba which is directly looking for demon slayers, thats make my mad bad. thanks again for the clip, have fun.
I find it interesting that the Dragon Slave incantation that is now used is not the OG. The original is: "Darkness beyond twilight. Crimson beyond blood that flows; buried in the flow of time. In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness. Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess. Dragon slave!" Even now, some 20 years later, I still cannot imagine anyone else besides Lisa Ortiz as Lina's English VA.
I discovered Slayers when I was in middle school back in the late 2000s when I was at my local F.Y.E store and I noticed a box set of the first season in the anime section. I bought it, took it home and loved it. The worldbuilding, the sense of wonder, the combination of humor and drama. All of it was great. Also yea I might've lowkey had a crush on Lina when I was a kid. Don't laugh XD
Fun fact; there is a spell in Dungeons & Dragons very similar to the Ragna Blade called the Black Blade of Disaster, which creates a sword-shaped "planar rift" that the wizard can then use to cut down their enemies. It's a 9th level Evocation spell, making it one of the most powerful spells in the game, and even has a HP-draining effect on the caster in its original form. But considering that D&D struggled to find much of an audience in Japan (not helped by TSR foolishly turning down an offer to license Lodoss from the *hugely* popular Record of Lodoss War as an official campaign setting, causing the creators to market their own RPG systems of Lodoss RPG and Sword World RPG instead and take D&D's place), and that the first appearance of the Black Blade of Disaster was in 1991's "Drow of the Underdark" sourcebook, it's probably purely coincidental. But man, talk about coincidence!
as a fan of classic anime it's nice to see someone talk about a forgotten gem like this Hey thomas i have a question have you seen any of the precure series if you have which one is your favorite the original series holds a special place in my heart yeah i'm a guy who loves magical girl anime and shows Winx club was one of them but i dropped out of the series by season 5 and seeing season 8 and fate i was like yeah i'm sticking with the classics Also what's your thoughts on Huntik it was a good series but sadly didn't catch on
The Slayers are one of the top 10 in my list of anime, its so funny how Lina is the heroine even when she destroyed most of the place she see, even her bad reputation make her the best.
I do recommend the first movie (Slayers: The Motion Picture) as it’s got good comedy, awesome action scenes, a wonderful score, a well made dub via ADV (rip one of the best English dubbing anime companies), a villain you want to punch in the face, the film’s duo (Lina and Naga) work off each other decently and the credit song Midnight Blue is just chef’s kiss. One of these best anime songs around and one of va/singer queen Megumi Hayashibara’s best work. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve listened to it.
Slayers is one of my favorites, a girl who i knew in high school had some of the episodes -found more at a local rental shop -all of try and bits of the original but took me years to find the entire series on dvd. when if finally became easier to get those. But i loved this series really happy the books got reprinted and the audio version is now up to the second book and is voice by Lisa Oritz -I love hearing her voice Lina again. I even recently got the Va for Amilia's autograph and I already had my favorite character from that series Xellos. I just wish they would do more with this series, a new adaptation that follows the book plot more closely maybe?
Hahaha oh wow what a blast from the past. I'm a bit older than you. As a teen in the 90s, Slayers was indeed a Big Thing back then. Unfortunately I never got into it, as it never aired in English, and I was funneling all my allowance into Sailor Moon and Escaflowne fansubs lol. Btw if you haven't seen Escaflowne, you'd probably love it! Plus have you seen Iria: Zeiram the Animation? Another classic from the 90s! Project A-Ko is a parody of 80s anime tropes and is full of chaotic hilarity. And I'd be remiss if I did not mention Cowboy Bebop, a masterpiece in storytelling. Since you appreciated all the amazing storytelling in ATLA you would love Cowboy Bebop. Great dub too. Check them out!
1:14:47 What do you mean no one cares about Lost Universe?! Them's fighting words! But seriously while Lost Universe was not as popular as Slayers, it's worth checking out. I do think that one reason why it's unpopular is its ending, which, owing to its uncertain nature, was unpopular with Western audience. But that ending is also very Japanese. It's poignant. And damn I get teary-eyed at Millie's closing line.
Two things that will get you flash-cooked in a hurry. 1: Insult Lina's bust. 2: Cheat Lina in a deal. 3: Steal Lina's food. "But that's three things!" "Do you want to try correcting Lina on this?" "... That's fair."
I encourage you to watch the latin American dub of the main cast, it is also a masterpiece. I grew up with this series and is my favorite of all time and Lina Inverse the GOAT!!!! Loved to find a great retrospective here
The whole thing about Zanaffar in Revolution is that they forgot they fought him because they didn't fight him in the Light Novels. That was something they kinda haphazardly added into the anime, but yeah they kinda forgot that's how they did it.
Im sure glad i bought the 3 season box set a few years ago. thanks to Kyoto video. Plus hearing the 4Kids Pokemon cast is always a joy. Eric Stuart being my favorite.
Ah, Slayers brings me such nostalgia. I love all of it, even the weaker seasons, and Slayers try is too, my favorite. I saw classic way back when before I was 10. Yes I was a kiddo in single digits when I watched this and I latched onto it hard. Lina was obviously my favorite character, and when Try rolled around, Valgaav was my first favorite anime villain. Heck, I didn't even know what anime was at the time. I just thought it was a cartoon. How I first saw it was basically when my parents got it and watched it in the living room and they deemed it okay for me to watch. You'd think seeing scary things such as monsters and Lina getting shot would terrify lil' ol me, but nah. Death of my fav character, although made me worry, I was confident she'd come back kickin' like she always does. Because it's fuckin' Lina Inverse, of course she would. To this day, I still adore this show and it is a very big inspiration for the stories I'm writing. Heck, the two man characters of my story- SkyLight are kind of similar/inverses of Lina and Gourry, named Ikah Torvelt and Galtorihe. While Lina inverse is a wise cracking all powerful sorceress, Ikah is a talented, confident, yet eccentric merc. Both are really out for themselves most of the time, like in it for money and adventure. Galtorihe is the exact opposite of Gourry in the fact he's arrogant and demeans Ikah, yet can't be rid of her because he's a weapon-spirit and she wields his blade. Due to this conflict, many shenanigins like the ones seen in slayers shall ensue, although more chaotic. Inspirations aside, I wish Slayers had more attention like this and that more anime adapted the same dynamic the show portrays. This fun, witty, comedic adventure with the occasional dark plot to keep people coming back for more. Slayers isn't afraid to express itself, be proud for what it is, and I will always be here for it. I can't wait to see what other videos you have of Slayers.
Lisa Ortiz was great, but I still think that Megumi Hayashibara did it better {though that may be in part due to how much better the sound mixing of the voices was in the original dub was).
It's also kinda funny that both Amelia's voice actress and Zelgadis's voice actor changed out halfway through The Slayers. Never really did know why that happened, but after that the cast was set...right up until they didn't take David Moo back as Xellos for Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R, which was a huge mistake.
Without watching the video - I miss Slayers, it's one of my favourite childhood shows, I especially loved the whole cast of characters. I'm a bit sad that not many people remember/know about it, it's like with Sailor Moon which of course has it's reboot but it didn't really hit that hard I guess. :/ I wished there was more of Lina again v.v
Lina Inverse is the epitome of 'I support women's wrongs!' Girl bossing and Girl Failing simultaneously.
Love to see this retrospective as it's been a decade since I last watched this anime
How much Gourry's stupidness is real and how much it's an act in the first three seasons is certainly up for debate. He's the only person that knew that Xellos was a mazoku and didn't say anything because he figured it was so obvious that clearly everyone else had to know.
He certainly must have lost half his brain by Revolution though.
Gourry always has been stupid, a yoghurt brain as Lina aptly put it, but he has very very sharp instincts. He knew Xellos was a demon not because he deduced it with reasoning or knowledge, he just felt it.
Also, Hajime Kanzaka said himself, Grourry is at least in part stupid and doesn't know anything, because it makes for a very convenient tool to explain history, how magic works and anything else lore related that the characters are supposed to know, but the reader doesn't.
It's the Zorro effect. The price of being the cool strong sword guy is that you pay for it directly through a perpetually increasing gag until it consumes any Vanier of competence.
@@dracocrusher It's simpler than that. INT is Guorry's Dump Stat.
I always thought his case was more ADD than stupidity. He finds the topics of demonology, history, and magic just way too boring to comprehend, and the topic of swords and bodybuilding much more interesting.
I will point out, Martina put an actual working curse on Lina at one point, calling on an imaginary monster. Meaning by just sheer willpower she casted actual, dangerous magic! If she ever gets her life together, she could become the most powerful sorceress in that universe. And I love that the only thing that's stopping her is her being her.
My headcanon at least XD
IIRC, most of the characters had a kind of magic they were sorta bonkers at.
Lina's just got a huge capacity for magic casting. She's best at black magic, but mostly just uses raw power.
Martina's raw talent for curses and black magic are actually miles above Lina's abilities, she's just not very good at magic.
Amelia's also a Shamanism expert, with a focus on Astral (anti-demon) type Shamanism spells. (Her white magic is like B-tier, but she uses it to punch the shit out of demons and that is apparently hard for them to deal with.)
Naga is a goddamn moron but considering who her family is that's unsurprising. She's also basically the most powerful white magician on the planet, but explicitly uses summoning magic to hide her identity - and she sucks at it.
Zelgadiss is an Earth and Spirit shamanism expert, which isn't special, but he's basically the brains of the party.
Gourry is dumb as a rock so he can't use magic. But if he weren't, he'd probably be as powerful as Lina, if not moreso. He just can't remember spells.
She fought Gaarv and survived just for her sheer crazyness. Respect
@@sweatygoblin2335 Kanzaka actually confirms that Lina and Naga are the greatest spellcasters in the world of Cephied- he also stated that Naga has a higher pool capactiy than Lina, but Lina knows more forbidden magic such as the Ragna Blade and Giga Slave. This lis largely why when Naga made an apperance as "Nama," in Slayers Evolution-R, Lina was the only person who could actually contest with her crazy spellcasting. Martina isn't actually a character that exists outside the anime, and we really can't contextualize her actual magical abilities because just like her deity, they're made up. Her "curses," are non-canonical and don't operate using the structure of spellcasting Kanzaka developed (which require some combination of power words, chaos words, and mana). They're there simply for comedy. I wouldn't think too much into it. They're literally only there for a laugh :)
On a side note- Kanzaka also did make a passing comment that Gourry's pool and bucket capacity is larger than Lina's - but as you say: his INT stat is like -5. Lmfao.
Demon Lord Zomulgustar! lol
Record of Lodoss War is the D&D party everyone imagines, but Slayers is the D&D party they always devolve into.
Stumbling upon Slayers with my sister is a really nostlagic memory for me. I had no idea what to expect but we ended up loving it. To this day Lina is my favorite female character in anime. Period. I've only seen snippets of the English dub, but from what I have seen Lisa Oritz kills it. I also love how this is probably the only anime where every opening/ending is sung by the leading character and also delivers every single time. The openings are SO good! Glad to see someone give it the praise it deserves.
Slayers is such a classic and I'd so love to see more modern anime in this vein.
Konosuba is probably the closest thing to slayers now lol
@@kaokong7226unfortunately they don’t have Lina inverse
No no no! Have you taken your dose of litrpg Isekai slop for today? With thoughts like these perhaps you might even need some animal girl slave harem to clear that head of yours.
I can't hear Lina Inverse without Lisa Ortiz! Also, the Dragon Slave is the Kamehameha of the Magic World and no one can tell me otherwise!
Kamehameha, as I understand it (never actually watched DB, though I might do sometime this year), has multiple power settings, from "knock you all down" to "obliterate everything in sight." Dragon Slave only has one setting, and it's EVERYTHING EXPLODES.
@@ingonyama70 Kamehameha just scales in power with the user/series. In the early series Goku was weak enough he could fire it at the ground and maybe destroy an arena. By Cell saga that move could destroy Earth and always had to be aimed away.
even years later every so often I can still hear her "Keep fighting, Lina! Never say die, Lina!"
Dragon Slave is better
I also love how Brock/James from Pokemon is just Gourry lol
This video came up on my recommendeds, and I'm so happy more and more people are finding one of my favorite series. I remember when it was releasing, waiting for every new VHS to come out back in 1996 here in the US. Lina remains one of my favorite characters. Lina was one of my biggest inspirations as a shy, quiet people pleaser to learn how to be loud, aggressive, and occasionally selfish with my own goals.
Something I don't see mentioned here (or in the comments) is that the world building and magic system were so well thought out, there was actually a d20 game system developed and officially produced as well! Difficult to find nowadays, but it's probably out there in PDF form now. Also fun fact, the light novel series is STILL ongoing with a new one that was released recently in 2019 (and translated to US release last year 2023).
The movies are a blast for the majority of them being pre-series, and one mid-series (Premium) and I would recommend them if you ever want some fun side-content and Gourry lore.
I'm thrilled more and more people are finding this series in this day and age of run of the mill isekai fantasies.
Fun Fact: Shes actually playable in a Tales game. She appears as a fully playable character available for free in Tales of the Rays!
She can even cast Dragon Slave if shes not interrupted. It takes....as long as you think it does to cast...
Having Lina in a Tales of game just makes me think of: "Blah blah blah... Dragon Slave!"
The OVAs and Movies are worth checking out. They're Lina & Naga instead of the usual crew but they're designed to be stand alone. I don't think anything captures the spirit of Slayers like any of Slayers Return/Great or Gorgeous and they're basically one shot campaigns that people would run with their friends with recurring characters.
No Lisa Ortiz in them but Cynthia Martinez still did a great job as a younger, more inexperienced Lina.
Cynthia is MY Lina. I watched that movie so many times before I started the series and I could never get used to Lisa's voice or her version of the Dragon Slave.
My headccanon is that Linas voice became so raspy in the TV series because she spent so much time screaming at Naga in the OVA.
@@SteinarrBattlefist that could be true! :o
@@jerfuhrer2581 ''lisa'' 's my lina... even though i heard her ages ago when i saw the song ''otome no inori'' in english on youtube a long time ago, i guess i never forgot :>
but what i heard of ''cynthia'' lina isn't all bad, i guess.... i just have to see the ovas & movies in full, i guess :3
I love Slayers! It was one of my first animes growing up! The anime's 2nd season op is my favorite. Also same Lisa Ortiz will always be my Lina Inverse.
This was a great watch. Slayers is my all time favourite anime and that is very unlikely to change. Made so many friends through it and I just love chanting the spells when someone irritates me. Great video that was a lot of fun to watch :3
This made me so happy. Every time you mentioned Lisa Ortiz in Winx, I was always thinking "okay but Lina tho..."
And here we are, to my unending delight. I've not seen a lot of anime; it's a small handful compared to most (One Piece, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, the original FMA, Utena, and some other essential-to-mid-famous shows). However, Slayers is my absolute favorite. And the English dub cast is 99% of that. Sylphiel sounds slightly stoned off her gourd, it's true, and I am completely with you on OG Zel and Amelia, but everyone else is pure talent, especially for a 90s dub cast. *_*
Even when the anniversary series had to change some voices, the new voices are just as fun as they were before. I like the Revolution-R Xelloss just as much as I liked David Moo, just in a different way.
The incantations are amazing, and I too have had Dragon Slave memorized for roughly a decade and change :p
Thank you for touching on this wonderful, legendary, hilarious piece of media. I am eagerly looking forward to your deeper dive when it comes! ^_^
P.S. Lina would not be a Swiftie, she'd likely feel called out by songs like Bad Blood and Blank Space. Zelgadis is the closet fan (he is FAR too Shadow the Hedgehog to admit it), while Amelia enjoys Taylor's music on a purely superficial level and gets mentally scarred if she looks too deep into the Swift abyss. Gourry will jam out to her music and remembers every lyric by heart, but then forget who sang it as soon as the song is over. Like...IMMEDIATELY.
You have no idea how happy I am to see someone else being equally obsessed with Slayers as I am. Maaan, I love this show! Lina is the BE(A)ST 😈😈
Also like the show and the books
God this tickled my nostalgia itch just right. This series meant the world to me and its sad to see it doesnt get as much love these days. Thank you! Side note, any old school hardcore slayers fans out there remember when there was a slayers fan comic where they were trying to stage a hamlet play?
Yeah I remember that too bad they never finished it
I do remember that! 😂
Omg! Hamlet: The Manga is one of my favorite fanworks of all time. This comment tickled my nostalgia, and I did a search. The website is still up! You have no idea how much joy that gave me. Although, now I feel sad thinking about my own unfinished Slayers fanfic. Lol
I’ll be honest. I don’t care that she’s a short queen. Lina Inverse showed me that the ability and wild abandon to destroy an entire city is one of the most attractive qualities a person can possess.
Next's opening theme is really good, still a staple on my playlists after all this time.
Unicorn of War putting out a Slayers video as I'm rewatching Slayers?? I'm so happy
I saw one of your avatar videos, clicked into your channel, saw the thumbnail for this video and instantly followed....this is such a core influence and to this day one of my favorite series. I'll have to comment again once I actually have time to finish watching the video but just seeing it made me so happy XD
The moment Lina was like "I should play the part of an innocent maiden since this guy's being a noble knight type", I was 100% in love with the character. This is ABSOLUTELY something I'd do with a character and joke about because it's just really fun to do.
... Actually, come to think of it, they're a cold greedy bastard, too........
................... Is Lina JUST my D&D character, but as a Warlock.........?????
Literally just saw your Hazbin video where you compared Alastor to Xellos and got excited about Slayers content. I subscribe and then find THIS. I am absolutely READY to watch this. I don’t know many people who love Slayers (Zelgadis first anime crush when I was like 12)
I actually discovered this anime about a year ago when some of my friends on Twitter were fans of this anime so I checked out the first season and I was instantly hooked. I then checked out NEXT and TRY and loved them both. I am planning on watching the rest of the series some time this year.
I'm doing a full Slayers rewatch right now and I implore you to watch the films! They're so silly and fun and Martinez does a wonderful job of playing young Lina!
Netflix released a DOTA: Dragon's Blood series where a character called Lina makes an appearance. It's pretty clear after a bit that it's THAT Lina. My immediate thought was they didn't get Lisa Ortiz to voice her. Missed opportunity.
WELL WHAT WAS EVEN POINT THEN! it's like having a spike spiegel and not having Blum voice him.
IIRC, DOTA's Lina was originally a Jaina Proudmoore model recolored red and gold. All of her abilities were ripped right from Lina Inverse - including her ult being literally Dragon Slave.
@@sweatygoblin2335 Nope. Lina's original model was always elven sorceress or whatever the unit was called.
And yeah, she was a tribute to Lina Inverse - her name, her spells.
I watched this show on RUclips when I was 12 years old. I would love to rewatch it again one day.
Honestly I've been into anime since I was a kid, and was always introduced to new ones via ads or related websites. However, I've noted there's a big writing-quality issue in a lot of shonen anime (rushed/underdeveloped concepts, mixed messages, etc.). I'd love for you to cover that.
In my experience, I think recent shonen anime I've seen either follows the Ash Ketchum/Naruto/Goku/Luffy "genki dumbass" blueprint, or tends to forget to make their main characters characters, and instead leaves them as blank slates for the audience to project themselves into.
Lina is KIND of a "genki dumbass," but she's different in that she's also incredibly intelligent when she's not losing her temper or stuffing her face, which is not true of any others I'm aware of besides Edward Elric. (they'd get along great and despise each other if they ever crossed over, I'd LOVE to see it)
@@ingonyama70 I think that's why I love Yugi, Midoriya, Asta, and Ciel a lot: Yugi and Midoriya are kind and intelligent characters while Asta is kind and respecrful and Ciel is clever and practical.
But I also meant writing as in story arcs. "Naruto" underuses a lot of it's phenomenal cast, and the random villain at the end was so weird. Not to mention sharingan is too OP and as time goes on (around Part 2) we never learn about other genjutsu. Or how Demon Slayer is kinda repetitive and doesn't really flesh out the characters (imo), with the Hashira having one brief flashback and only getting to star in one arc per person, as well as some of the demons not getting backstories while others do (not sure why).
@@OpticalSorcererthat's Battle Shonen for you. It's really meant to appeal to teenagers and they like sex and violence. So the main focus is on violence with the occasional fan service.
I remember stumbling onto Slayers when I was in high school and I loved it, for pretty much all the reasons you pointed out. Try is also my fav but yes Next is peak Slayers. I've always kinda considered Lina to be one of the best anime heroines, she was hyper intelligent and shrewd but she wasn't perfect and she had her flaws too, such as navigating her feelings towards Gourry which my teenage self 100% could relate to. Anyway, this anime will always have a special place in my heart, thank you for this wonderful video.
Lisa Ortiz did a good job sounding like an English version of Megumi Hayashibara's rendition of Lina.
This anime lives in my soul rent free. I'm so happy I found someone talking about it. Its phenomenal- such an important part of me and i can never convince people to watch it
One minor lore correction for you: the conflict between the gods and monsters isn't simply good vs evil, there's a deeper layer to it -- order and stasis vs chaos and change.
The Lord of Nightmares / the Mother of All Things created the four universes / "worlds" of the Slayers cosmos by shattering her own form (consequentially giving rise to the Sea of Chaos in the process) and then, with her remaining power, crafted a Dark Lord and a God for each universe. In the main universe where Slayers takes place our Dark Lord is of course Shabranigdo, and the God was Ceiphied. Both of these being were her "children" but represented polar opposites of her nature, and consequentially had very opposed priorities. Ceiphied saw the world that their creator had made and believed their purpose was to protect it, preserving it as it was to the fullest extent possible -- standard "protector god" stuff. But what's interesting is the motivations of Shabranigdo weren't just destruction for destruction's sake... he believed, as Hellmaster Fibrizo later would, that destroying the world would release a portion of the Lord of Nightmares back into the Sea of Chaos, and that if all worlds were destroyed then she would be remade. He viewed the world as a prison, and his "mother" as the prisoner, and so he sought to break her chains so they could be reunited.
In other words, the monsters ("mazoku" in the original Japanese) original desire was freedom and liberation, and they stumbled from that path into mindless destruction as they became infatuated with how the suffering from their battles caused their power to swell.
Why did the Lord of Nightmares put two diametrically opposed superbeings on a planet at the dawn of creation? Was it just to see a gods vs demons cage match, or maybe it was to try and understand her own chaotic, conflicted nature? We're not sure, but there's plenty of room to speculate. Also, fun fact: the Lord of Nightmares (sometimes just called "L-sama") would make frequent appearances in the manga as a woman with long blond hair and, of all things, a shovel, often to banter with the artist after each story segment wrapped up. Slayers is CRAZY, in the best sort of way!
Man I miss this series. It was one of the first anime I ever watched, and I owned the VHS boxed sets of both NEXT and TRY.
The magic system is really fucking good if you look into it. So is the worldbuilding. Also the openings are all fire, and I miss Megumi Hayashibara singing the OP for every anime ever.
52:31 THAT face. I just love how even the big bad demon lord can be goofy.
I started re-watching this series and my son decided he likes it too. So now I have something to bond over with my kid.
Yooo, I legitimately grew up on Slayers, like. Sailor Moon, into Pokemon and DBZ, then into Slayers when I was like 8 or 9 xD
I have all the light novels and have re watched this series, (aside from the anniversary seasons) so many times, my old youtube page was even Slayers themed, you did such justice by this video and I appreciate it so much! Th is has just brought back a flood of memories.
Happy note: I actually met Lisa Ortiz at a comic con like 2 years ago and got her to sign a Lina Inverse poster! had 0 idea she would be there xD I may have been panik at the time xDDD
Slayers TRY is, I think, probably my favorite season of the animated series. I really enjoy Filia as a character; she was one of the first times we ever got a dragon as an actual protagonist and not a monster or, at best, some random sagely NPC - this was before the glut of bad isekai and underwhelming dragon-girl characters. She has a genuinely interesting character dynamic, despite the fact she and Zelgadis can be considered to both fit the "straight man" comedic archetype, her character is funny, her art is great, and her story is genuinely tragic. It's such a shame the Slayers' creator (who wasn't really involved in TRY) absolutely hates the season in general and Filia in particular and has declared them non-canon.
Excuse me he feels HOW ABOUT MY FAVORITE DRAGON GIRL???
Final some talks about this incredible classic
Thank you for making a Slayers Video ❤️
My first memories about Slayers come rushing back. My big brother had the first two seasons plus the Ova's. While I (6-7 years old) was sick and stuck at home, he let me watch olny the first season, but I watched Next in secret. I instantly fell in love with the show. You can bet I cried the last episodes of season one when I first saw it! When I got older with access to the internet I watched Try, Revolution and Revolution-R .
Slayers is very close to my heart I love the characters, especially Lina.( my brother always compared me to her, mostly for my temper ^^')
I love the humor, the storytelling and how the characters grow (Season 1-3).
This is one of the finest video essays I've ever seen. Inmediately subscribing.
Slayers is a really cool series and I love many of the characters, Xellos and Lina in particular, as well as the worldbuilding. It's a great example of how to make a world inspired by classic fantasy feel super interesting and not too generic. It simply has a really nice flavour to it which is enhanced by the gorgeous 90s animation.
I love both Next and Try, while I'm more mixed about tbe first season. I really didn't like the Rezo copy plotline that much, since it just felt like we got the first arc of the show rehashed right after it with mothing else in between.
I'm really curious about the other demon lords, specially Deep Sea Dolphin, since I like her design and Greater Beast Zelas Metallium, since she seems to have an interesting relationship with Xellos.
Should I read the light novels or is the manga a better option?
I love how I found your channel. I love your retrospective on my favorite fantasy anime of all time. I hope that you look into my own fiction series as badass ladies is a huge aspect of it(Larger in the coming finale of the series) and I want to look into your fiction series myself or even pick your brain on storytelling and worldbuilding as an art because we indie writers are... I would say we are rare on the ground, but it is more that we are the freshly planted grass now that everyone is ripping up the astroturf of the media monopolies.
randomly stumbled across this video cause im on my "yearly" Slayers binge and i feel this series is just never talked about
I really enjoyed your video, gave me a great laugh and appreciated the lore section cause Slayers worldbuilding is perfection
A thing a love in the magic system actually is after Gaav is killed, the gang never uses Gaav Flare again as they physically can't like that is so smart
However while weaker i still find Revolution-EvoR to be enjoyable...to get Slayers nearly 10 years later with the main cast is just a treat. Zelgadiss flashback episode in EvoR is forever one of my favorite episodes...and while she's not in her original form its the only time we had Naga in the anime (The movies also such a masterclass)
Slayers is among the first anime I watched as a kid, and to this day, is among my favorite anime of all time. Thank you for reigniting my love for this series!
I honestly preferred the movies/OVAs, probably cause I first got introduced to this franchise (and anime overall!) via The Motion Picture and the dynamic between Lina and Naga amuses me more. A series just featuring those two would just be so much more fun than the constant will they/won't they of Lina and Gourry.
I was introduced to the series through the light novels, which I can't find in english now for the life of me.
Is there any will they/won't they? To me it was just 'they're not..oh wait, I guess they are but it's nbd so let's move on!" and didn't change their original dynamic at all.
Honestly, I found Naga insufferable, though that was arguably the point.
@@ingonyama70 Naga is trauma masking hard. It's actually pretty obvious once you go back and look for it - she's really not very confident in anything she does and it's sad. :(
Wonderful video! I was just (again) in Slayers hyperfixation! Also I was searching for fantasy novel that could remind me of the Slayers universe so I think I will read your novel! :D
This joint was influential to my own stories as a kid. That era when episodes were uploaded onto RUclips was unbeatable.
If you're looking for something just as goofy, there's another comedy anime called Gokudo.
Slayers inspired me so much in my own worldbuilding and character creation. I love the variety of vibrant and unique characters it has even if its a 90s dub it was really good for its time for the most part. The spells are my favorite of the entire series and I get chills when Lina casts the giga slave or the dragon slave. I wish there were more series like this...and its sad its not more well known as a anime itself.
"Possibly the most Chickenist Chicken I ever did see"
Dead lololol
I have to second the opinion that the movies and OVAs are totally worth it.
[minor spoilers ahead]
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It also is strongly implied that Naga (not that much of a spoiler: Amelia's missing older sister) is the talking armor Nama in Slayers EVOLUTION-R. There also is a scene in Slayers Try where Amelia mentions her missing sister when the topic of siblings is brought up. Knowing Naga really adds to such moments (and her dynamic with Lina is unique).
I have loved Slayers since watching it back when it was first released. The Motion Picture was really cool with a fantastic incantation of the Dragon Slave. The series is something i go back to all the time
I believe it's actually canon that Gourry being (increasingly?) dumb is Lina's fault. There's a movie where she has to do a specific thing and gets time-looped. Lina being Lina, she barely tries and keeps screwing it up. I think it's word of god that something about the time-reversal magic caused minor defects in the timeline, focused on Gourry's ancestor. Wouldn't have been a problem if it didn't happen _dozens_ of times.
It's a very Slayers thing to happen.
The writer MUST have been a (long-suffering) DM with how deep-cut the main party dynamic is:
Lina: The party "that-guy/girl" who is incredibly difficult to play with because of how she behaves at the table, but also that meta-gamer who has read the rulebook cover to cover and knows the game better than the DM.
Goury: Int 8 Fighter played by a player who never pays attention and always has to ask for recaps of what's going on in the plot at the start of every session and must re-learn how rolls are supposed to work.
Amelia: The Lawful Dumb Paladin/Monk who is forced to suffer through Lina's shenanigans but will railroad the party with her Lawful Goodness at the drop of a hat.
Zelgadis: The Edgelord who really tried to play a 3edgy5me bad-boy type at the beginning of the campaign but is normal by comparison to everybody else.
OMG My first anime ever alongside Ranma 1/2 and the Wanderers of El Hazard! When I was a little kid, I used to pretend to be 5 different characters: Sailor Venus, Ran from GALS!, Starfire from Teen Titans, Kiara from the Lion King 2 (I wasnt a horse girl or wolf girl or even a warrior cats girl...I was a lion girl *cringes*) and finally...Lina Inverse! 7 or 8 year-old me had the entire Dragon Slave and Ragna Blade chant memorized lmao.
Next and Try I had the full DVD set and were the only ones I watched to completion, but my dad had some VHS tapes of the one with Naga in it. I remember so many days rewatching so many scenes and bringing my friend over and the two of us would run around pretending to be Lina and Filia until dinnertime.
I miss those times. Simpler, just escaping to another world in my head.
Try is also my favorite season, and yes, Jillas is definitely one of its highlights thanks for the shout out for that funky little guy XD
Maddie Blaustein nailed it as Jillas.
@@dwainsimmons3447YOU ARE SO RIGHT THOUGH! She really did! Absolutely legendary woman!
I remember the first time I watched this anime this year in one of the videos that show the history of anime until 1995 with the appearance of Slayers. This was very special and I decided to watch the song and it was the best song I have ever heard in my life The song was a masterpiece, let alone the anime. I watched some scenes randomly, and what made me watch it was the great comedy. I watched the first season and it was so great that I stayed up late to finish the episode (I have school tomorrow🙏😭) After completing this anime, I said that this anime is the best anime I have watched in my life, and although the topic has been completed for seven months, I still remember watching this great anime.
I actually never heard of this before but this will definitely be the next Anime that I will watch, thank you
Slayers is definitely one of my favorite anime franchises. Glad its getting more attention. Lisa Ortiz is a legend!
Thank you! This is my all time favorite anime!!!!
Fun Fact, the DotA Hero "Slayer" is named Lina and casts powerful magic, which is not an accident and is relevant. I believe one of the abilities was called Dragon Slave? There are probably a lot of other direct references.
The original DotA, which was a mod for Warcraft 3, actually had the name "Lina Inverse" for the Slayer Hero, since it was just an unmonetized project and they didn't care about infringement.
This is the only reason I clicked on this video. I've been wondering about that name for like 14 fucking years, lol.
The Slayers is truly a Magnum Opus, and I'll love to see it return!
Excellent video and you have a very good understanding of the series but you could have talked a little about Naga, because she is a great character and very charismatic despite only appearing in the specials. By the way, you could have commented on the special episodes too, they are wonderful.
Thumbs up! A great summation
Its so interesting how things like this can unite people who dont and probably wont ever know each other...
This series was on peruvian TV for a little while ( it was a flop there, though the dub in LA spanish was incredible aswell ): I felt I was the only person I knew watching it! I always wondered why did so poorly back then -probably was too soon for fantasy genre in context-
The series made an impact on my memory, and as soon as I got internet on my teenage years I found it online and watched Next and eventually Try. And yet... nobody talked about this series. I reached University... Watched Revolution... and couldnt find anybody in person who actually watched it.
Thanks for the video! It feels so Nice to be validated on my feelings that this series was indeed great!
At 16 I made an statement : "Slayers Next is the best second season of anything I have seen" . Water has passed under the river, and I doubt that has aged completely undisputed... I guess its a good excuse to rewatch!
PS: I remember skipping the first half of season 1 when rewatching years ago... I wonder if it was a matter of me being impatient or a pacing issue.🤨
Hot damn, I found this channel yesterday and you've already triggered a Core Memory Unlocked! moment XD
One of the fun things about 'The Lord of Nightmares', is that her name is 'Laguna' (Lagoon-a), or 'L-Sama' as the original author referenced her in his post-story snippets in the books (She's the one reminding him he had deadlines to keep). Japanese, does not have a distinct L or R syllable by itself, and instead has a combo, so you get this rolling R-L which leads to many a western fan arguing over such names as to whether it's an L, or an R. 'Ragna', is what you get when an American hears a Japanese person mash the word 'Laguna' down into Japanese phonetics: "(LR)ag'na" There's that rolling LR or RL, and the dropping of the hard U. So you get something that if pronounced more accurately, almost sounds Spanish. _Rragna!_
Given the other naming hints, there is an island and treasure theme going on with the monsters.
Either way, Laguna Blade is very much asking L-sama to PLEASE cut this opponent with her fingernail.
Oo classic Slayers! It's really great to find more people talking about it!
Ah Jillas, such a great part. RIP Maddie Blaustein, what an icon
My favourite joke in Slayers (which I wished they used a lot more) is when there's a bunch of debris violently smashing against Zel while he just stands there nonchalant, talking to the others. I would have loved if he was even more invulnerable and if the party used him for that more.
Lisas screaming about Linas sister killed me. I first heard it and repeated it multiple times and i still laugh so hard i cant breath and feel like im gonna vomit my stomach hurts so much.
It’s been about 15 years since I watched Slayers. This was such a wonderful video, and now I need to go rewatch the whole thing.
Watching this I had a weirdly emotional reaction to the dragon slave incantation, starting to tear up every time a snippet of it was played. Really unsure what’s going on in my brain to cause that 😂
Insta Sub!! Love this show from the first explosion!! Thankyou for your work!
I love Slayers. I checked it out because of the dub having quite a few voice actors from the 4Kids Pokemon dub. The characters are really fun, have solid chemistry, the humor is great and the action is good. The way it can blend such goofy comedy in one episode and then jump right into some high stakes dark battles is pretty impressive too. Next is by far my favorite series. It has the best character development for the cast, the group chemistry is solid, the humor is terrific and the romance between Lina and Gourry is really sweet. Even though they go back to the status quo at the end, it never felt like it really affected their relationship. It's quite obvious that they have feelings for each other and Gourry basically already confessed by saying that he'll protect Lina for the rest of his life. The music for every series is terrific too, especially Give A Reason. They knew exactly what they were doing when using that for an insert song during Evolution-R.
I haven't seen much defense or praise for Try. I always thought that people didn't like it because it was anime-only content. I like a lot of the new characters introduced, especially Filia and Valgarv, and the story was still engaging, but the humor wasn't as good as the first two series. According to Wikipedia, there were plans for a fourth Slayers series after Try, but the plans fell through so it never happened, which is a shame. It would have been nice to get more Slayers series and I did enjoy Try, so making more anime-only seasons with the creator's involvement could have been interesting. But at the same time, it might have been for the best to take a break after Try given its reception.
It's been awhile since I saw Revolution and Evolution-R. I was happy that we finally got new Slayers series and Funimation got most of the original dub cast back together, which was awesome. The new art style looked nice, but I agree that there's just something charming and appealing with how the animation looked in the first three series. The new music was pretty solid too. They basically felt like two halves of the same series as opposed to two different series like I think the marketing was trying to make them out to be at the time. Pokota was pretty annoying, but I think he got a bit better over time. I wasn't too fond of them bringing back Rezo again, even it was supposed to be an anniversary series. I'd have to rewatch them to fairly judge them, but I kind of wish that we gotten more series afterwards or maybe just more adaptations of the light novels. Part of that is because I'd want to have the dub cast reunite again, but it would also just be cool to see more of this world. More adventures with Lina, Gourry, Zelgadiss and Amelia just sounds like a fun time.
I'll be excited to see your breakdowns of each series down the road. It's been awhile since I've rewatch any of them, but I I still have fond memories of popping in the DVDs to watch each series for the first time.
The soundtrack to Slayers absolutely slaps. It's some of my favorite anime music.
slayers is my favorite anime all of time, i remember when i first saw it on aniplex/ animax at the TV and since then it has stuck in my mind, I remember that then I had only seen very little of Try, my luck was with the internet and technology that allowed me to watch my favorite Anime head to tail. thanks for the video, maybe you have nothing left but I would like more clips about Slayers. I'm sorry that many people don't even want to give this anime a chance, mostly because of the old graphics and because of kimetsu no yaiba which is directly looking for demon slayers, thats make my mad bad. thanks again for the clip, have fun.
I find it interesting that the Dragon Slave incantation that is now used is not the OG. The original is: "Darkness beyond twilight. Crimson beyond blood that flows; buried in the flow of time. In thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness. Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess. Dragon slave!"
Even now, some 20 years later, I still cannot imagine anyone else besides Lisa Ortiz as Lina's English VA.
I discovered Slayers when I was in middle school back in the late 2000s when I was at my local F.Y.E store and I noticed a box set of the first season in the anime section. I bought it, took it home and loved it. The worldbuilding, the sense of wonder, the combination of humor and drama. All of it was great.
Also yea I might've lowkey had a crush on Lina when I was a kid. Don't laugh XD
38:49 " Join my outline , or DIE! " I thought this was so funny I had to Google what MLM meant to keep up 😅
Fun fact; there is a spell in Dungeons & Dragons very similar to the Ragna Blade called the Black Blade of Disaster, which creates a sword-shaped "planar rift" that the wizard can then use to cut down their enemies. It's a 9th level Evocation spell, making it one of the most powerful spells in the game, and even has a HP-draining effect on the caster in its original form. But considering that D&D struggled to find much of an audience in Japan (not helped by TSR foolishly turning down an offer to license Lodoss from the *hugely* popular Record of Lodoss War as an official campaign setting, causing the creators to market their own RPG systems of Lodoss RPG and Sword World RPG instead and take D&D's place), and that the first appearance of the Black Blade of Disaster was in 1991's "Drow of the Underdark" sourcebook, it's probably purely coincidental. But man, talk about coincidence!
as a fan of classic anime it's nice to see someone talk about a forgotten gem like this
Hey thomas i have a question have you seen any of the precure series if you have which one is your favorite the original series holds a special place in my heart yeah i'm a guy who loves magical girl anime and shows Winx club was one of them but i dropped out of the series by season 5 and seeing season 8 and fate i was like yeah i'm sticking with the classics
Also what's your thoughts on Huntik it was a good series but sadly didn't catch on
God the spells from this show were so fucking good. I loved these shows so much. Lina was such a fun protagonist. It was a super pivotal anime for me.
The Slayers are one of the top 10 in my list of anime, its so funny how Lina is the heroine even when she destroyed most of the place she see, even her bad reputation make her the best.
The Slayers, Slayers Next, Slayers Try...my favorite 90s animes. Just the right mix of comedy, serious, and epic.
I do recommend the first movie (Slayers: The Motion Picture) as it’s got good comedy, awesome action scenes, a wonderful score, a well made dub via ADV (rip one of the best English dubbing anime companies), a villain you want to punch in the face, the film’s duo (Lina and Naga) work off each other decently and the credit song Midnight Blue is just chef’s kiss. One of these best anime songs around and one of va/singer queen Megumi Hayashibara’s best work. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve listened to it.
Can't believe you are doing a video of my favorite anime an character of them all 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
Huzzah! More Slayers fans!
Slayers is one of my favorites, a girl who i knew in high school had some of the episodes -found more at a local rental shop -all of try and bits of the original but took me years to find the entire series on dvd. when if finally became easier to get those. But i loved this series really happy the books got reprinted and the audio version is now up to the second book and is voice by Lisa Oritz -I love hearing her voice Lina again. I even recently got the Va for Amilia's autograph and I already had my favorite character from that series Xellos. I just wish they would do more with this series, a new adaptation that follows the book plot more closely maybe?
Hahaha oh wow what a blast from the past. I'm a bit older than you. As a teen in the 90s, Slayers was indeed a Big Thing back then. Unfortunately I never got into it, as it never aired in English, and I was funneling all my allowance into Sailor Moon and Escaflowne fansubs lol. Btw if you haven't seen Escaflowne, you'd probably love it! Plus have you seen Iria: Zeiram the Animation? Another classic from the 90s! Project A-Ko is a parody of 80s anime tropes and is full of chaotic hilarity. And I'd be remiss if I did not mention Cowboy Bebop, a masterpiece in storytelling. Since you appreciated all the amazing storytelling in ATLA you would love Cowboy Bebop. Great dub too. Check them out!
1:14:47 What do you mean no one cares about Lost Universe?! Them's fighting words! But seriously while Lost Universe was not as popular as Slayers, it's worth checking out. I do think that one reason why it's unpopular is its ending, which, owing to its uncertain nature, was unpopular with Western audience. But that ending is also very Japanese. It's poignant. And damn I get teary-eyed at Millie's closing line.
lets not forget Cynthia Martinez, who voiced lina in the OVAs and movies. my personal favorite.
Two things that will get you flash-cooked in a hurry.
1: Insult Lina's bust.
2: Cheat Lina in a deal.
3: Steal Lina's food.
"But that's three things!"
"Do you want to try correcting Lina on this?"
"... That's fair."
Make Sly Cooper content, we all would love that
You are inside my soul rn
I encourage you to watch the latin American dub of the main cast, it is also a masterpiece. I grew up with this series and is my favorite of all time and Lina Inverse the GOAT!!!! Loved to find a great retrospective here
The whole thing about Zanaffar in Revolution is that they forgot they fought him because they didn't fight him in the Light Novels. That was something they kinda haphazardly added into the anime, but yeah they kinda forgot that's how they did it.
Love from a MothersBasement and Vaush fan!
Im sure glad i bought the 3 season box set a few years ago. thanks to Kyoto video. Plus hearing the 4Kids Pokemon cast is always a joy. Eric Stuart being my favorite.
Ah, Slayers brings me such nostalgia. I love all of it, even the weaker seasons, and Slayers try is too, my favorite. I saw classic way back when before I was 10. Yes I was a kiddo in single digits when I watched this and I latched onto it hard. Lina was obviously my favorite character, and when Try rolled around, Valgaav was my first favorite anime villain. Heck, I didn't even know what anime was at the time. I just thought it was a cartoon. How I first saw it was basically when my parents got it and watched it in the living room and they deemed it okay for me to watch.
You'd think seeing scary things such as monsters and Lina getting shot would terrify lil' ol me, but nah. Death of my fav character, although made me worry, I was confident she'd come back kickin' like she always does. Because it's fuckin' Lina Inverse, of course she would.
To this day, I still adore this show and it is a very big inspiration for the stories I'm writing. Heck, the two man characters of my story- SkyLight are kind of similar/inverses of Lina and Gourry, named Ikah Torvelt and Galtorihe. While Lina inverse is a wise cracking all powerful sorceress, Ikah is a talented, confident, yet eccentric merc. Both are really out for themselves most of the time, like in it for money and adventure. Galtorihe is the exact opposite of Gourry in the fact he's arrogant and demeans Ikah, yet can't be rid of her because he's a weapon-spirit and she wields his blade. Due to this conflict, many shenanigins like the ones seen in slayers shall ensue, although more chaotic.
Inspirations aside, I wish Slayers had more attention like this and that more anime adapted the same dynamic the show portrays. This fun, witty, comedic adventure with the occasional dark plot to keep people coming back for more. Slayers isn't afraid to express itself, be proud for what it is, and I will always be here for it.
I can't wait to see what other videos you have of Slayers.
Lisa Ortiz was great, but I still think that Megumi Hayashibara did it better {though that may be in part due to how much better the sound mixing of the voices was in the original dub was).
YOOOOOOO THIS ONE IS MY SHIIIIITTTT!!! AWESOME!!!!
The slayers dub is amazing ! ok around 5:00 ... I got goosebumps !
Need more Redhead Magical Girls? Magic Knight Rayearth! ^___^
It's also kinda funny that both Amelia's voice actress and Zelgadis's voice actor changed out halfway through The Slayers. Never really did know why that happened, but after that the cast was set...right up until they didn't take David Moo back as Xellos for Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R, which was a huge mistake.
Without watching the video - I miss Slayers, it's one of my favourite childhood shows, I especially loved the whole cast of characters. I'm a bit sad that not many people remember/know about it, it's like with Sailor Moon which of course has it's reboot but it didn't really hit that hard I guess. :/
I wished there was more of Lina again v.v