Slayers

The Slayers franchise is a long-time running series consisting of 52 light novels, 5 anime seasons, 5 movies, 2 OVA's, and various video games, manga series, and radio dramas. The light novel series first began in 1989, with the first season of the anime series released in 1995. In 1996 and 1997 two subsequent seasons followed season one: Slayers Next and Slayers Try (left) respectively. In 2008, the Slayers franchise added a new installment to its then dormant anime series, Slayers Revolution, which took advantage of new animation techniques, including cell-shading, that were not around during the creation of the series' first three seasons. A 5th season, Slayers Evolution-R, was produced in 2009. Currently in the U.S, Slayers Revolution and Slayers Evolution-R are being aired on the Funimation Channel-- Funimation having dubbed all 5 of the series' seasons in English.

I could describe the Slayers franchise as a fantasy-magical-world version Dragonball Z. The series follows Lina Inverse and her unlikely gang of friends as they defeat...evil. Pretty much. In terms of plot, the series is certainly no Code Geass but in its own right it is very entertaining. I find that the English dub is a bit more geared towards teenagers than say, the Dragonball series dub, both being produced around the same time. In general, the series is mostly comedy-action. In fact, it entirely is, but like say, One Piece, the uniqueness of the characters make for an interesting and fun story to follow. Please excuse the excessive references; this is the only way I know how to describe this series. Haha.

The first season introduces the main cast of characters, and it has a rather straightforward plot. Lina and her gang have to find Rezo the Red Priest and defeat the dark lord Shabranigdo. The next season and the third season dawn a more intense plot but keeping with the basic action-comedy theme. The newest installments introduce a new interesting character, and bring back some old characters from the original three seasons. I've been watching Slayers Evolution-R (right, showing the new cell shading) recently and I'm quite enjoying it having watched the earlier seasons. All in all the series is enjoyable if you're looking for a more straight forward action-filled and fun plot.

The theme songs are excellent. The first seasons' opening and ending are performed by Megumi Hayashibara, who voices Lina Inverse, and major anison singer Masami Okui. The subsequent seasons' openings are all performed by Megumi Hayashibara, including their endings excluding the ending of Slayers Next which was performed once again by Masami Okui.

Overall, the series gets a 7 out of 10 (7/10)
The theme songs get a 10 out of 10 (10/10). Freakin' awesome XD

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