The Show:
The good folks at ADV have been repackaging some of their back catalog
into series sets and releasing them in thinpak cases at a bargain price,
but without the extras that the original releases had. It's a great
idea that let's people save a bit of money, but also doesn't screw over
the people who originally supported the show since they still get the extras.
They haven't limited themselves to TV series though, and have now released
five Slayers movies in a nice boxed set. This time they've
even included the extras that were on the original releases, though there
were fairly minimal.
Slayers is the story of Lina Inverse, a young wild and ambitious
sorcerer who is constantly on the look out for gold, fame, and food.
She travels through the world occasionally stealing from unsavory crooks,
righting wrongs, and managing to get all sorts of demons and powerful people
totally pissed off at her. Lina's is brash, outspoken, easy to anger,
and pushy but she can also kick ass when the chips are down.
This is a comedy swords and sorcery series, with a lot of broad humor
and prat falls. If you are looking for subtle and quiet humor, just
move along.
These four of these five movies take place before the Slayers TV series,
(the single exception is the last film, Slayers Premium) so if you've
never seen the show, you should understand these without any problem.
If you have watched the three seasons, you'll be happy to get more Slayers
wackiness, but this time it's without Gourry, Amelia, and the rest of the
Slayers supporting cast.
The five movies included in this set are:
Slayers: The Motion Picture:
Lina Inverse and her buddy Naga the Serpent head off to Mipross Island
to visit the legendary hot springs there. These springs are only
reachable once a year, mysterious fog surrounds them the rest of the time.
In between trying to relax and getting into some minor scrapes, Lina has
a series of dreams where she sees a young boy falling in love with an elf
maiden. Unfortunately, the elf is killed by a demon Joyrock who destroys
the elf village where the girl lived.
It turns out that these weren't just dreams, but events that really
occurred in the past. Now Joyrock is back on Mipross Island and it's
up to Lina and Naga to stop his evil. The only problem is that he's
much more powerful than Lina is expecting.
This was a fun film, with a lot of funny jokes and gags. The show
does foreshadow things in Lina's future, which was fun if you've seen the
TV series, but is understandable if you haven't. The only real complain
was that things were rushed at the end, with a lot happening in the last
15 minutes.
Slayers: Return:
When a pair of would-be world conquerors deduce that a powerful elfin
artifact is buried near a village, they enslave the village and make the
townsfolk dig for the weapon. A plucky young girl, Salena, manages
to escape and convinces Lina and Naga to help her town. Of course
Nahga's just after the treasure, and Lina isn't so sure that there really
is a powerful artifact buried, but when it is unearthed and activated,
chaos ensues.
Not the best movie in this set. The plot was a little too simple
and there weren't as many laughs as the other films. Still worth
watching.
Slayers: Great:
Lina and Naga arrive in a new town and save a young girl from a rampaging
Golem, which is the town's main export. When the pair of adventurers
discover that the girl they've rescued is the daughter of a famous Golem
craftsman. With dollar signs dancing in their eyes hoping that they'll
be able to get a Golem to sell at a great profit, Kina and Naga go home
with the girl to discover that the master is fighting with his son, and
has lost his desire to make the creatures that have made him famous.
That is until he sees Lina. She inspires him to make a Golem in her
image, which irratates Naga to no end until the son creates one of the
Serpent mage. The two Golems end up fighting in an uproarious battle.
This was a really funny film, and has more laugh out loud moments than
any other Slayer film. The giant jiggly Naga Golem is great, and
so is the climactic battle. A fast moving plot with a lot of action
and laughs make this a great entry in the Slayers series.
Slayers Gorgeous:
While Lina and Naga are relaxing in a town, it is suddenly attacked
by a young lady and her red dragon. Fighting the woman off, they
discover that the town has been terrorized by dragons for a while, but
not for the reason you might expect. The lady is actually the princess,
and she's mad because her father won't raise her allowance! Lina
talks to her dad, while Naga follows the daughter to her stronghold.
As you might predict, both women end up joining opposite sides (for a price
of course) and it ends up with Lina and Naga fighting it out once again.
Slayers: Premium:
This show contains the cast from the TV series, but includes a cameo
by Naga as well.
Visiting a seaside village, Gourry eats some slices of octopus, the
local delicacy. It's too bad he was in such a hurry though, because
the chef was just about to warm him of the curse. Recently, anyone
who eats octopus ends up talking in their language. It's up to Lina
and Gourry to find a cure for the villagers and fight off a plot of revenge
that the octopuses have cooked up.
Running at just half an hour, this feels more like a high budget TV
show than a movie. It was nice to see Gourry along with Amelia and
Zelgadis who also appear, but I was hoping the plot would have a little
more meat to it. (No pun intended.) Still, even at half an
hour this was a fun episode with a fair amount of laughs.
These were all enjoyable shows. I really enjoyed the play between
Naga and Lina, it was always fun to watch and very different than the interplay
between her and Gourry. The only complaint I really have about that
set is that it's not complete. I really wish they had included the
other Slayers movie, Slayers: Excellent, as well as the OVA
disc, Slayers - The Book of Spells. ADV has released both
of these, and including them would have made this the perfect companion
to the series sets that CPM has released.
The DVD:
These five films come on five DVDs. Each disc is housed in a thinpak
case and the whole lot come in a sturdy slipcase. The only complaint
with the slipcase is that it features Lina and Gourry on both sides, though
Gourry is only in one movie (and the shortest one at that.) It would
have been more appropriate to have Naga prominently featured on the slipcase.
Audio:
All of these films come with the original Japanese audio track as well
as a stereo English dub. In addition, Slayers: The Motion Picture
also includes an English 5.1 track, and Slayers Premium includes
5.1 tracks in both English and Japanese though two channel dubs are omitted.
I screened these with both soundtracks, though I preferred the original
Japanese. One of the reasons for that is that Lisa Ortiz didn't preform
the part of Lina in the English dub, and I really enjoyed her acting in
the TV series.
There weren't any defects worth noting in the audio portion of these
discs. They all sounded nice and solid, and had a good amount of
range. The 5.1 tracks sounded more impressive of course, but the
stereo audio also suited the films well.
Video:
All of these films are presented in widescreen, with the exception of
Slayer Great which is presented full frame (its original aspect
ratio apparently.) Unfortunately, only Slayers Premium is
anamorphically enhanced, since anamorphic masters weren't available for
the other films. Though they were created over several years, these all
look very good. There was some minor aliasing in a few places, but
this was minor. The colors all look bright and the lines are tight.
A good looking set of discs.
Extras:
As far as bonus material goes, there's not a lot. The first movie
includes a commentary track by Cynthia Martinez (Lina), Kelly Manison (Naga)
and ADR director Matt Greenfield. This was a better than average
anime commentary, with the trio looking back on the production (they had
recorded the audio six years earlier) and relating some anecdotes about
the session and their feelings about the film and Slayers in general.
There are also a series of character bios.
The only other disc to have bonus material is Slayers Premium.
It has a commentary track with Cynthia Martinez (Lina) and Crispin Freeman
(Zelgadis), as well as a 20-minute behind the scenes interview with Crispin
Freeman which was interesting but ran on a little bit too long.
Final Thoughts:
These movies play a little differently than the TV series does.
Since there aren't extended story arcs they get right down to the comedy
and action which makes them a lot of fun. These basically distills
the TV show down to its essential elements. There are a lot of laugh
out loud moments and some really hilarious scenes. If you've never
seen the show, you won't be lost since four out of the five movies take
place before the TV show starts. An enjoyable set that it Recommended.
Buy: