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The Slayers - DVD Collection Special Edition (Episodes 1-26)

The Slayers - DVD Collection Special Edition (Episodes 1-26)

List Price: $49.95
Your Price: $44.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I don't get it.
Review: It's just not funny. That's all I have to say about it. The series TRIES to be funny and fails miserably. It's japanese cartoon slapstick at it's worst, the whole things' humor revolves around facial distortion and being loud and rude. Kids and die-hard otakus will like it but between you and me, it's worse than Pokemon. At least I liked that AT ONE TIME.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Not your typical Heroine.
Review: Lina Inverse kills bandets, raids their pockets & forts, only works for money & treasure, is greedy with food, sassy, loud-mouthed, screams alot, lies, cheats, beats up her own friends, & she's the heroine! Imagine just how bad the villians must be to make her look good! This is the perfect Fantasy story for people looking beyond what's normal to find something great^__^

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Most amazing anime!
Review: My introduction to anime came thru my friend Tina, who got me into Ranma 1/2. I've skimmed several other titles before, but when I came across Slayers, everything else was left behind. This series has everything an anime fan could desire! Magic, swordfighting, lame gags, funny references, strange quests, and zany situations! Vain Lina, mentally-slow Ghourry, justice-minded Amelia and her huge pacifist father, and the much put-upon Zelgadis, keep you rooted to the spot. It is incredibly addicting and utterly hilarious! A must have--for all three series!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Slayers is Quite Possibly the most enthralling Anime EVER!
Review: Now, I know I may sound like some average teenager voicing their opinion, but Slayers is quite possibly the best anime ever, with only its own successors, Slayers NEXT and Slayers TRY surpassing them, and that's only because they have Xelloss in them ^_~ When Flat-chested bandit killer Lina Inverse sets out on a journey, she gets more than what she bargained for! When attacked by some vengeful bandits, she pretends to be all frightened and is "saved" by a nitwit blonde swordsman named Gourry. Together, she and Gourry go throughout the land, looking for bandits, treasure, and the next meal. On their journey the meet Rezo, the Red Priest, Zelgadis, a chimera with a personality problem or two, Ameilia, the champion of clutziness and justice, Sylphiel, the white priestess with a crush on Gourry, amidst a wide variety of fish men, werewolves, monsters, and mazoku (which software sculptors translates as monsters to make things confusing). Turns out someone wants to resurrect the dark lord of the world, Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu, the really hard to pronounce mazoku lord that was cut into seven pieces, but was still alive. If that happened, who knows what kind of chaos would ensue, so Lina and her newly formed gang team up with some serious magical firepower to see if they can stop him! Software sculptors, with a few doubts here and there, did a fairly good job on converting the series to english. However, there are some points I should bring up. The English Dub (the voices in english) sound horrible. Lina sounds 30, she's somewhere between 15 and 17 in the series. Gourry is played by Brock's (from pokemon) voice actor. Sylphiel's voice cracks me up every time I hear her get highly emotional (she's supposed to be sad, it's a very sad moment in japanese, why is it then that I always crack up when I hear it in the dub?) which accounts for why most people write of Sylphiel as a ditz, Ameilia sounds 25, she's only 14, and so on. Plus, the subtitles, which are there for your convinience, are highly screwed up when you compare it to what it's supposed to be translating- the japanese seiyuu. For example. Mazoku is a word in japanese meaning Race of Evil, which is the name of the most powerful evil things on this island of theirs. Software sculptors calls the mazoku "monsters" even though the monsters are defined in the official slayers books as slimes or vampires or those things in between. So if you don't mind small things like that, or some phrases that have been completely changed, you'll be perfectly happy. Overall, though, Software Sculptors did (I shudder to say it, but I will anyway) a fairly good job. All you have to do is listen to the japanese without the subtitles, and know japanese, and you'll be PERFECTLY content. If you don't know japanese, and aren't picky, watch it with the subtitles. but, if you really don't wanna read what's going on, listen to the dub. It's nice with the DVD that you can do all that and not have to pay for seperate versions. Thanks Software Sculptors, for finally coming out with it on DVD! GO SLAYERS! WHEE!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: After a great start the season ends with a whimper
Review: Okay, I'm a Slayers fan. I really like the characters and the first group of episodes leading up to the first big plot climax is highly entertaining. Also, several of the side episodes following the first plot climax are not only entertaining but laugh out loud funny. But then the last ten episodes or so are an almost complete repeat of the ones before them (and no I'm not just talking about the villan being eerily similar). Things got so repetitive that all dramatic tension was lost with only Amelia and Phil's antics to break up any of the monotony.

Fortunately Slayers Next (season two of this series) is an excellent step up and I suppose that most Slayers Next fans will want to see this. It's cetainly worth checking out but the final episodes really leave you with a bad taste in your mouth so it might be a good idea to rent this fist season rather then buying.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Excellent show, but with a massive audio bug
Review: Slayers is a lot of fun if you like crazy, over-the-top comedy in a fantasy setting.Some people complain that it's stupid, which is certainly true, but it gets a lot of humour from its slapstick stupidity. Think of Slayers as something along the lines of the Three Stooges meet Lord of the Rings.

However, CPM messed up massively on the Japanese audio. One track is phase-inverted. On a mono setup, you get basically no audio. Stereo systems sound "funny," lacking highs and lows and pretty much any sense of direction (in addition to being very quiet). ProLogic receivers will throw everything to the back speakers. This is the same set of problems that showed up with Rurouni Kenshin disc 1, except that, unlike Media Blasters, CPM is calling this a "non-issue" and not offering any fixes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the Best Anime out there!!!
Review: Slayers is about the infamous Lina Inverse! a young, cute looking, sorceress with a temper to match, she fights the bad guys, takes the treasure, eats three times her body weight, and casts spells that would even make DBZ jealous. This has to be one of the funniest anime I've seen in a while, with comedy from the likes of Lina Inverse, the slow-witted Gourry, Justice Freak Amelia and her Father the "Prince", and many many more.

Technically Slayers isn't as crisp as you would expect but its pretty good nonetheless, the subtitles are on key with the usual typo here and there. The voice acting is superb both Japanese and English voices sound great and fit thier characters perfectly. Also the music is just great, both opening and closing songs are catchy, and don't make you want to skip the credits (You may even look foward to seeing the credits). Technically the series is pretty solid.

All in all this is a superb series with action, comedy, adventure,good music, great characters (good guys and bad guys), easy to understand story that won't hurt your head, and to sum it up its just plain great entertainment. This was an excellent edition to my anime collection, and I'm sure it would be the same for any anime fan.



Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's good, but not the best of Slayers
Review: Slayers is my absolute favorite anime, but that doesn't mean I'm going to blindly rant on about how perfect it is, because that would be far from the truth. When watching Slayers for the first time, assuming you're starting from the beginning, you might find the first several episodes to be rather, dare I say, boring. You might end up thinking, "If THIS is what everyone's recommending, I'm not getting it."

But, keep watching, because slowly the show will grow on you. Once it gets to the middle of the series with the "filler episodes," you'll find yourself wanting more. The few non-plot episodes in the middle are a great break from the slightly heavier material that came before it. And then as soon as you start to wonder what happened to the main plot, it comes back. And it's great. Even though it's a tad cliche, part of this is because Slayers is a series that makes fun of the fantasy genre while seemingly ridiculing itself.

If you've watched the whole (first) series and STILL think you're missing something, you are. The second season, "Slayers Next" is, in my opinion, the best of Slayers and one of the best storylines in all of anime. But this review isn't about Next.

Now for the DVDs...

Even though the box states "remastered audio," Software Sculptors made a few mistakes correcting the problems. On some episodes on discs B and C, the Japanese audio track is inverted. This can cause varied effects depending on your audio setup. I've played them on two different TVs- on one of them the dialouge sounds perfectly normal, with the exception of sometimes the theme songs sound a bit muffled. On the other TV, the audio sounds like it's coming from behind instead of from in front. It's not really that big of an issue, to me at least. All the dialouge is still understandable and I can even go as far to say that it sounds a lot clearer than when it's in the proper format. However, you might not get the same results with your setup, so it's best to, when and if you buy the set, make sure that there is a sticker on the bottom of your box that says "REMASTERED AUDIO" with a picture of Lina on it. Or, like me, you can take your chances. If it sounds horrible, you can always exchange them through The Right Stuf. People I've heard from say that they received their replacements very soon after sending in their defective discs. If you have any questions about the program, I suggest e-mailing The Right Stuf, because when I talked to them, they were very prompt in replying to me, and they provided helpful information.

By the way, on my audio setup(s), I noticed that the English track was significantly quieter than the Japanese track, although this wasn't an issue or a glitch.

The video transfer was of very nice quality, much nicer than the Next DVDs and an improvement on the original set, I'm sure.

The extras really do nothing to enhance the series, so if you already own the series on VHS and are considering buying the DVDs because of these, don't. The interviews are with the main four voice actors (Lisa Ortiz, Eric Stuart, Crispin Freeman, Veronica Taylor) and they're only a couple of questions about them and their jobs. If you already own the Next DVDs (like I do), you might be disappointed to find out the interviews are not done by video like on that set.

The art gallery is basically screenshots and official art that you should have no trouble finding on any website with a fairly large image gallery.

The graphic novel pages are only a couple of pages from the book "Medival Mayhem," and the pages aren't big enough to read the wording, much less know what's going on. You're much better off just buying the book if you're that interested.

The only thing I really enjoyed in the extras was the sketch gallery. It was a lot larger than the one on the Next DVDs, and my only problem was that I couldn't print them onto paper so I could use them when drawing fanart!

I don't have a DVD-ROM, so I can't vouch for the quality of those extras. I wouldn't expect much, though.

So, overall, this is a very nice DVD set, if you ignore the slightly annoying audio glitch. The show itself is very solid entertainment and a classic favorite with anime fans. If you buy this set, I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I have.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Slayers, the Magic of Anime
Review: Slayers is one of the first anime that got me to where I am now. The Slayers is probably, to me, one of the greatest anime ever! (aside from Sailormoon and Shamanic Princess, see my reveiw on Shamanic Princess!) With a wicked on going storyline, funny and well fed characters, and awesome spells, this makes for one great thrill ride!! While my favorite of all the SLayers series is Slayers Try, I still beleive all the others are good too. You follow the story of Lina Inverse, a smart alec sorceress who is known across the land for being the number one bandit killer, who takes from the rich and....keeps it! She is also known for her lack of well... chest. But while she brags her beauty known far and wide, it really is her demonic attitude. She also has her friend Gourry, who is a blundering idiot, but great swordsman. Along with the two is Ameria Wil Tesla Serrune, Zelgaudis Graywards and the trickster, Xellos.
If you in any way are a fan of anime, this is for you. See it now, and enjoy the fun.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just As Good As Everyone Said It Was:
Review: Starting to get bored with my selections of Sailormoon and Gundam Wing DVD collections, I realized it was time to get a new anime. I browsed review after review. It came down to Fushigi Yugi and Slayers.

Despite what the person said about it having a terrible audio glitch, there was none in this. That would be why it is called the "Specil Remastered Edition". The picture on the top of this page are inaccurate. There is a small text imprint on the upper left that says, "Now With Remastered Audio". I don't really care for dubs, especially after Sailormoon, so I'm a sub only guy.

To start out with, the DVD menu's are really nice, no transition from page to page, but colorful. I had no audio problem with it at all, and that was my top concern.

Slayers starts out sort of weird, but progresses quite quickly into a blossoming series. With all the new extra features in the Special Edition (theres nothing else really different in it), its really worth it. I especially liked the Art Gallery and Interviews.

I don't know if they brought these reviews over from the old Slayers set, but the one that says DVD Collection Special Edition is the one you want. It has more to it than the old one, and has redone audio.

And if you look up the company's site, you'll soon learn that if you have a AUDIO DEFECTIVE problem, that they will replace it for free. (minus shipping, you just send in the discs) and they send a new set, so either way you're getting what you want.

If you want a great alternative, and one of the most comedic animes I've ever seen, try Slayers out, you'll love it.


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