Slayers - Excellent

Rating:
Summary: A must-have for Slayers fans
Review: After three feature-length movies, we get back to short, half-hour O.A.V. episodes.

Finally, at long last, we get to see how Lina Inverse and Nahga The White Serpant first met. (In SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE, where Nahga made her first appearence, Lina and Nahga already knew each other from sometime back, and we were never told how they first came to meet.) We begin in the present, when Nahga destroys the inn Lina's staying at, and destroys the meal she was about to eat as well. This triggers a flashback to when Lina first met Nahga, who was determined to get a reputation as the world most powerful sorceress by defeating Lina. Later the two of them are hired by some village people to kill a vampire. (Yes, this is the only time in all of the Slayers anime where a vampire makes an appearence.)

Next, Lina is hired by a rich man to escort his teenage daughter Serena (spoken for by veteran actor Tiffany Grant) to their vacation villa. The problem is that Serena has a personality and laugh quite simular to Nahga, she splurges like crazy (she even refuses to wear the same set of clothing more than once and buys lots of suveners which she then expects Lina to carry,) and she slows them down greatly. Finally Lina gets sick of it so she actually hires some guys to kidnap Serena. But then Serena gets kidnapped by some different bandits, so Lina must save her with the help of Nahga.

Finally we get to see Lina's last adventure with Nahga ever. Lina comes to town and finds Nahga has a new cult of teenage girl followers (led by preppy valley girl-type Marti) who think her taste in clothing is really cool, and Lina is horrified by the idea of a future world where everyone dresses and acts like Nahga, so she joins up with a seemstress sorceress and her followers who want everyone to stick to formal attire to stop Nahga and Marti and the others.

The shows are funny, the animation is...well, excellent, and the voice actors are superb-particularly Kelly Manison, (who was born to play Nahga,) Cynthia Martinez, who had really grown into the role of Lina Inverse by the time she returned to play her in SLAYERS RETURN, and Tiffany Grant as Serena. Finally, there are the interviews mentioned in the other reviews with Miss Martinez and Miss Manison. They are almost as much fun to watch as the episodes themselves, since it's neat to see what the voice actors look like and see them speak as themselves and hear what they think of the shows and the characters. A great DVD to own.

Rating:
Summary: Best Slayers OVA yet!
Review: The name says it all on this one. This is probably the best non-TV-series Slayers release to come out so far. It's at least on par with the best of them: "Slayers the Motion Picture", "Book of Spells", and "Slayers Great" and a great introduction to those who haven't yet experienced the insanity and fun of this incredible anime series. This DVD compiles three separate episodes of Lina and Naga adventures, including the first meeting of the two in the first story, "Labyrinth". This is the strongest of the three and is worth the price of the whole DVD by itself. This one pits Lina and Naga first against each other, and then against a vampire. Lina's rant about the pretentious-sounding speech of vampires is an absolute riot. Second, we have "A Frightening Future" in which Lina is hired as a bodyguard for a spoiled (and well-endowed) rich girl whose laugh is just a little bit too much like Naga's for Lina to stand. Naga shows up (of course) to drive Lina even further to the brink of insanity and some brilliant S&M humor ensues. Lastly, there is the weakest and most over-the-top of the three stories, "Lina-Chan's Lovely Makeover Operation" which pits Lina and an extremely over-zealous formal wear fanatic against Naga and a snotty punk girl who designs unorthodox clothing. This one had a lot of potential, but fails to live up to it. Still, this is one Slayers DVD you must have. The only thing missing is a Dragon-Slave. Some may argue that a Slayers episode without a Dragon-Slave is like a day without sunshine, but I think we've all seen our fair share by now, haven't we? Anyhow, we also get a couple of tasty extras in this edition in the form of two interviews: one with the adorable Cynthia Martinez (who gives her best performance ever as Lina Inverse on this DVD), and another with Kelly Manison, Naga's english voice. All in all, a great collection for both the Slayers newcomer and the veteran otaku.

Rating:
Summary: Best Slayers OVA yet!
Review: The name says it all on this one. This is probably the best non-TV-series Slayers release to come out so far. It's at least on par with the best of them: "Slayers the Motion Picture", "Book of Spells", and "Slayers Great" and a great introduction to those who haven't yet experienced the insanity and fun of this incredible anime series. This DVD compiles three separate episodes of Lina and Naga adventures, including the first meeting of the two in the first story, "Labyrinth". This is the strongest of the three and is worth the price of the whole DVD by itself. This one pits Lina and Naga first against each other, and then against a vampire. Lina's rant about the pretentious-sounding speech of vampires is an absolute riot. Second, we have "A Frightening Future" in which Lina is hired as a bodyguard for a spoiled (and well-endowed) rich girl whose laugh is just a little bit too much like Naga's for Lina to stand. Naga shows up (of course) to drive Lina even further to the brink of insanity and some brilliant S&M humor ensues. Lastly, there is the weakest and most over-the-top of the three stories, "Lina-Chan's Lovely Makeover Operation" which pits Lina and an extremely over-zealous formal wear fanatic against Naga and a snotty punk girl who designs unorthodox clothing. This one had a lot of potential, but fails to live up to it. Still, this is one Slayers DVD you must have. The only thing missing is a Dragon-Slave. Some may argue that a Slayers episode without a Dragon-Slave is like a day without sunshine, but I think we've all seen our fair share by now, haven't we? Anyhow, we also get a couple of tasty extras in this edition in the form of two interviews: one with the adorable Cynthia Martinez (who gives her best performance ever as Lina Inverse on this DVD), and another with Kelly Manison, Naga's english voice. All in all, a great collection for both the Slayers newcomer and the veteran otaku.

Rating:
Summary: Slayers Excellent is NOT Excellent
Review: There are 3 episodes on this DVD. Only the first episode is passable. The other two were just terrible. The deterioration of the quality of these episodes reminds me of similar degradation of quality of the Ranma episodes as the seasons marched on. It seems that the people involved were not even trying anymore. The earlier Slayers movies while not the greatest animes made had at least some funny moments and the animation was at least done well. The episodes on this disk is neither funny nor well animated. The animation quaility is on par with TV episodes quality.

The first episode showed the first and a subsequent meeting of Naga and Lina. Of the three episodes this is the strongest. Naga is slightly out of character as she was clumsy and accident prone.

The second episode showed Lina being employed as a bodyguard for a girl who had similar personality as Naga. The gag in this episode was that she was into SM. No, I don't mean Sailor Moon.

The third episode showed dueling seamtresses. Yes, you have the usual wackiness and absurdity you come to expect from Slayers. Unfortunately, it was not funny.

One saving grace for this DVD is the extras. There were two interviews showing the NA VAs for Lina and Naga. We finally get to see what Cynthia Martinez and Kelly Manison look like.

Unless you are a diehard fan of Slayers, I suggest that you skip this disk.

Rating:
Summary: Slayers Excellent is NOT Excellent
Review: There are 3 episodes on this DVD. Only the first episode is passable. The other two were just terrible. The deterioration of the quality of these episodes reminds me of similar degradation of quality of the Ranma episodes as the seasons marched on. It seems that the people involved were not even trying anymore. The earlier Slayers movies while not the greatest animes made had at least some funny moments and the animation was at least done well. The episodes on this disk is neither funny nor well animated. The animation quaility is on par with TV episodes quality.

The first episode showed the first and a subsequent meeting of Naga and Lina. Of the three episodes this is the strongest. Naga is slightly out of character as she was clumsy and accident prone.

The second episode showed Lina being employed as a bodyguard for a girl who had similar personality as Naga. The gag in this episode was that she was into SM. No, I don't mean Sailor Moon.

The third episode showed dueling seamtresses. Yes, you have the usual wackiness and absurdity you come to expect from Slayers. Unfortunately, it was not funny.

One saving grace for this DVD is the extras. There were two interviews showing the NA VAs for Lina and Naga. We finally get to see what Cynthia Martinez and Kelly Manison look like.

Unless you are a diehard fan of Slayers, I suggest that you skip this disk.