Sureiyâzu

I've been an anime fan for six years now, and had never seen "The Slayers" in any shape or form before this movie. I had always meant to though, since I'd learned from other fans that it was a great series. Last week, I noticed this tape was available for rent at the video store. I eagerly picked it up........

And was VERY disappointed. I thought that this movie was just plain awful. It was neither funny nor containing any shred of an interesting plot. On top of my list of problems with this movie:

-I found the dialogue to be irritating (though the humor found in the Slayers series might rely on campiness, so I might have missed the point);

-the characters annoying, with personality traits that are barely interesting;

-a rather dumb plot (why exactly DO Lina and Naga team up, anyway?). I will admit that the 'breast enlargement' sub-plot made me smirk (as did the breast-bouncing bit in the castle midway through the flick), but a quest for a bigger bust does NOT make for a good movie when that's all that's going for it;

-and the battle scenes almost put me to sleep. Lina and Naga just fire off spell after spell after spell - whoopee ding. There was no sense of challenge or suspense/danger of the protagonists losing the magic fights.

Sorry to those who enjoyed this (though I'll be darned if I can figure out how you did), but this movie wasn't worth the free rental coupon I used to get it. 'Slayers: The Motion Picture' wasn't as bad as the first 'Sorcerer Hunters' video, or that loathsome 'Battle Arena Toshinden' movie, but it wasn't too far behind in my book.

I won't be giving up on the 'Slayers' series - maybe 'Next' or 'Try' or the originals will float my boat. But it'll be a cold day in hell before this turkey winds up in my anime collection.

Try the Project A-Ko series instead.

Slayers is one of those things that's been on the list of "something I should probably watch one day" given it was one of those cornerstone 90's anime that all my friends love. The opportunity presented itself for me to watch this today, and I took it, making it the first piece of Slayers media I've ever seen.

And it's fun! But also kind of weird, in the way movies based on series tend to be, where the first half of this movie is basically just all these little vignettes where villains queue up one by one to get destroyed by Lina and Naga in a single hit. It's breezy and it's funny, don't get me wrong, but it does feel like it goes on a little too long for a bunch of dudes that are ultimately inconsequential.

When the movie finally starts moving on its central plot, it almost feels begrudgingly so. But at least it's well-established that Lina and Naga are basically unstoppable, so that when a credible threat emerges, it's that much more impressive.

The glue that holds all of this together is the animation, which is A+ prime 90's anime gold. The monsters, the spell effects, all of it is gorgeous, and there's something about the hand-painted cels on real film stock that makes it feel that much sharper and more colorful than a lot of modern digitally-produced anime. This era of anime at its peak in terms of look and style.

Also, count me among the many who are amazed that Naga, a pretty iconic Slayers character, only ever appears in these movies and is not from the actual Slayers series at all. Weird!

I'm just new to SLAYERS, so I decided that The Motion Picture would be my first animated encounter with Lina and Naga. Boy, did I enjoy it. I got lost on the plot once, but I just ignored it and picked up from there on. Out of the two mages, Lina has to be my favourite. There's something about her... I think it's probably her short temper. My favourite scene is just after when Naga literally bounces onto the screen and admonishes Lina for her diminuative stature. Lina cooly points at Naga and uses a fireball to roast her. I also liked the Midnight Blue song at the end. Oh, Naga! I forgot her. Um, well, just looking at her says it all. The best scene with Naga has to be the jellyfish/sea cucumber battle. That was just an odd spell, as was the one with the dragon made of rock (a massive head and tiny body). One problem, though: I think there wasn't enough of Lina's Dragon Slave.

But on the whole, an excellent piece of viewing for newcomers.

The English dubbed version of the Japanese 'Slayers - Gorgeous'. Although some of the dubbing was really badly done (ex. Dill Brand = Explosion Array, Dragon Slave spell was mixed up), and Lina's Seiyuu (voice actress) got kinda annoying after a while, it was overall a solid effort and was another great success in a great series... Slayers!

Lisa Ortz (Lina's regular Seiyuu) was off recording Record Of Lodoss War - Chronicles of the Heroic Knight when this was being dubbed, so they had to get someone else. Naga's Seiyuu was, however, a true tribute to her Japanese voice!

If your looking for a good time with a couple of smart-ass gals who like to blow stuff up, welcome to Slayers!

Had never seen any of the series before, so this was my trial run...

Damn, that was funny. I love the way the Nahga and Lina play off each other (and how everyone feels the need to point out the obvious physical differences between them). The battles are well done, and often to comedic ends (look at the whole battle at the docks).

A well done, simple anime flick.

I highly recommended the DVD... original Japanese dialog with subtitles always strikes me as better than dub.