Slayers Next

Original Title: スレイヤーズ NEXT
Romanized: Slayers Next
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

Everyone's favourite short-tempered sorceress and stone-headed swordsman are back, with more action, more comedy, more fireballs and more food! When she gets caught up in a dispute between Seyruun and the aggressive nation of Xoana, Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev meet up with a few old friends--namely young justice-worshipping princess Amelia and stone-skinned chimera Zelgadis. After "settling" the problem with Xoana, the foursome go off on another journey in search of the legendary Claire Bible, partly to help Zel regain his humanity, partly because Lina wants a gander at it! As they travel, spreading mayhem and destruction across the countryside, a third reason comes up--to find some protection from the Monsters whose schemes they find themselves caught up in. As soon as they are answered, new questions arise: Who is this mysterious roguish priest Xellos and what is he really after? Is there a safe place from the intrigues of the great Monster lords? Will this stupid Xoanan princess ever leave Lina in peace? Could Gourry really be that dense? What's for lunch? Things aren't going to work out peacefully so what can our heroes do? "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond blood that flows..." RUN!

Quick Review

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Reviewer: Arcane
Review Date: 2001-11-09

'The Slayers' is one of the most beloved fantasy action comedy franchises of all time and Slayers Next is the second TV series, containing episodes 27-52. Slayers has always been a rather simple formula--heavy doses of D&D-style fantasy mixed with equal amounts of deliciously silly comedy and garnished with a ludicrous number of fireballs--and fans will be delighted to know that Slayers Next has accomplished that most rare of achievements: being more of the same while still being new and improved. The way that the series manages to accomplish this is by taking all the things that made The Slayers great fun to watch--the running gags, the swordplay, the slapstick, the continuous stream pyromania from Lina--and give them a different narrative. The main reason that Slayers Next is better than its sublime predecessor is that it is everything The Slayers was and a bag of chips.

I laughed, I cheered, I laughed, I sat in awe, I laughed some more all the way through this series. If you like Slayers then this is essential. If you like fantasy comedy, this is essential. If you like fantasy of any sort, this is essential. If you like anime at all then this is probably essential to you as well. Well, what are you waiting for?

US DVD Review

The DVD set features the entire series on four discs with English and Japanese stereo audio, and an English subtitle track. Extras include video interviews with some of the dub cast, character sketches and an assortment of info. The fourth disc also has a variety of exciting extras (scripts, etc) if you pop it in the DVD drives in your computer.

Content Guide

This is technically rated "3 and up," by Software sculptors but that's probably a little lenient--more like 10-up.

Violence: 2 - About as nasty as Slayers gets, which isn't very nasty.

Nudity: 1 - There's a single bath scene in one episode. That's all.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Just some light romance.

Language: 1 - Nothing of any note.

Notes and Trivia

Part of the great Slayers continuity, consisting of three TV series--Next is the middle one--and the side stories of the OAVs and movies. The series features many, many classic Dungeons & Dragons in-jokes, as well as some anime parodies

Availability

Available in the US from US Manga Corps/Software Sculptors on a 4-disc box set, currently out of print. Was also available on 8 subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes, also out of print.

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