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Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Oh yeah, forgot about that. I guess that explains the telekinesis, and teleporting I’ll allow.

A detail that I liked and I’m genuinely unsure if was intentional, or was just a happy accident as a result of the show having a kind of clunky dub is that the prayer Rail uses to disable Dark Star isn’t quite the invocation for the Giga Slave, but it is something thematically similar.
 

Egarwaen

(He/Him)
A detail that I liked and I’m genuinely unsure if was intentional, or was just a happy accident as a result of the show having a kind of clunky dub is that the prayer Rail uses to disable Dark Star isn’t quite the invocation for the Giga Slave, but it is something thematically similar.

It's true in the Japanese version as well; they both invoke the Lord of Nightmares.

It's definitely much shakier than Slayers; as much as I like Millie, I think that's partially because she's the only character the show bothers to flesh out. Kane never develops beyond Luke Skywalker fanfiction, Canal just makes a lot of explosions, and everyone else basically does whatever the plot requires of them. I think it's got many of the same weaknesses as Slayers Next, but they loom larger due to a combination of the production delays and the absence of all the footwork Slayers did to establish the characters and world.
 

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Yup, that was a finale.

Sure feels like there was meant to be more but plans for additional season(s) were cancelled and thus we get that kinda rushed ending where it cuts to however many months later and Kane returns but we don't actually SEE him or Canal and anything else that happens is left up to the imagination.

They REALLY didn't know what to do with Rail and Nina, huh? It's like they were 'OK this is a Slayers offshoot so we need the voice actors of Zelgadis and Amelia to do something, any ideas? None? We'll play it by ear then.'

I wonder what this show was like in the universe where it wasn't plagued with production issues?
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Nah I’ve said my goodbyes. And now it’s time to say my hellos! To the fourth (and fifth) and final (and penultimate) season of Slayers; Slayers Revolution

AMAZING! The Astonishing Dragon Slave
BECAUSE! You’re Lina Inverse, that’s why!


I’m all jazzed for this one! Which is partly why I’m doing this post a day early! And partly because I’m about to watch the first episode and I have the list in front of me, so why not!
 

Egarwaen

(He/Him)
I'd watched these when they first came out and I think I dropped them a couple episodes in. In retrospect that's obviously because I was mistaken about having actually watched all of Slayers Try; I think I somehow saw, like, the first couple episodes and the ending and nothing else?

Anyway, so far it's really interesting. It feels much more like the original Slayers than any of the other series we've watched in this group; while there's some of the heightened slapstick comedy from Next and Try, overall the style of the story is a much more grounded fantasy. The direction gives me the same strong "sense of place" that Slayers managed and Next and Try kinda dropped; scenes take place in concrete locations (a ship, a pub, the main street of the town) and while the characters race around at a breakneck pace, the specifics of the locations matter. The action scenes are particularly well-done - the fight with the army takes good advantage of the urban environment, and Lina's brawl with Pokona incorporates the wilderness setting to good effect.
 

John

(he/him)
I'm going to jump back into this, now that I've given my knee enough rest. The sci-fi sidestory of Lost Universe "lost" my interest halfway through, and I wasn't going to push through the pain for a mediocre 90's anime. We'll see if the modern ones are good enough to get my exercise routine back on track.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Yeah, if I’m being honest, if not for this thread, I would have dropped Lost like a hot potato midway though
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
I love so much about just this first episode; the fact that Lina is conscientiously giving the bandit population a chance to rebuild after hunting them to near extinction, then realizing that Pirates are *technically* Bandits so might as well give them a try.

The creators realizing that the one element missing from Slayers is Zenigata, and tossing him in there

Linas outrage that someone else stole her episode one schtick

The party deciding on their legal course of action for when Lina is accused of being Lina Inverse

Being Lina Inverse being considered a crime in and of itself

Just rock solid stuff all up and down.

I legit do not recall any of the villains in the intro except for Tiger Guy.
 

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Ahh, this is more like it. This is not just about Lost Universe, though the poor series didn't have much of a chance with everything going against it, but Slayers Try as well. Already these first two episodes feel more return to form than even the best stuff in Try. I never saw the entire season though, it came out back when I pretty much stopped getting my animes through... illicit means but still too poor to buy DVD sets. Looking forward to finally finishing my Slayers education!

First off, as always. Opening theme song by Megumi Hayashibara. Absolute banger once more:


AMAZING: Really good first episode, hits all the same notes first episodes usually do but doesn't waste time lingering on characters we all already know. Lina tries to have a crossover with One Piece, but winds up getting dragged back to her own story. Amelia and Zel unwittingly bring an inspector who wants to arrest her, and the crime is... being herself. Well, can't argue with that ironclad logic. Lina tries to Dragon Slave her problems away like all first episodes but her thunder is stolen by the seasons new annoying mascot character, which were all the rage back then.

BECAUSE: This episode feels like it's treading some water a bit, covering some of the same beats as episode 1, but that's mostly to establish that A) Wizer is REALLY persistent, and B) He probably doesn't actually believe in the charges he's bringing to Lina but is up to something else. Lina and annoying animal mascot, named Pokota, have a fight and when Pokota pushes Lina too far (sadly, the show hasn't given up on the 'hur hur Lina is a flatty' jokes) he frantically pulls out the goshdanged SWORD OF LIGHT to absorb her powered up Dragon Slave. He casually mentions it's just a replica, but the sword seems to feature prominently in the end of the opening so maybe not?

I returned to the dub here to see if the time away improved the original dub cast anyway. Ortiz, of course, didn't need improvement but she seems more Lina-y than ever here, way more hyper and rabid. Gourry is probably the most improved, no longer sounding like a 4kids dub production, Amelia is quite a lot better as well. Zel is still Crispin Freeman and thus still really good, but still less rough around the edges like he was previously. Good stuff. Especially looking forward to hearing the new Xellos (spoilers Xellos gets a new english voice actor, who technically premiered in Slayers Premium, the OAV/movie/slightly longer than usual episode starring the TV cast that is apparently impossible to find legitimately now). But even better, the incidental characters are now good, which was one of the biggest weaknesses of the original dub. The one-off characters had the worst performances, but so far they're faring much better.

Oh and I'm not sure how major or minor he'll wind up being but Wizer is apparently voiced by Dan Green, Yami Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh among others, in case you couldn't quite place him.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
If I had any complaints with Revolution based on the first two episodes, it’s that they went right back to jokes where the punchline is Linas Body Image Issues. Still not a great joke, guys.

Also they changed the appearance of the Dragon Slave, and that bugs me because I loved the animation flourish they used for it in Next and Try.

Conversely I love that they added a Digimon to the main cast, and everyone hates him. Just hate him so much.

Potato ranks just below the genocidal death god and double Cthulhu in Linas ranking of all known associates.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Hey! Why don’t we kick off the weekend with two episodes of Slayers Revolution. Off the top of my heads let’s say

CHASE! The Endless Pursuit
DRIFTER! Who’s Chasing Who?


Sounds like there’s a lot of chasing in these two episodes. I hope nobody gets caught!
 

Egarwaen

(He/Him)
This week’s episodes continued to be really good! I mean I’m a total sucker for the Gourry jellyfish gag so having an entire episode basically dedicated to it was a dream. But chase also helped flesh out Zenigata a bit, and made fun of rich people, and had some great battle sequences. The handcuffs gag continued to involve and is incredible.

Drifter continues to reinforce my belief about the distinction between Lina and Amelia. Lina will break out some absurd ultra-violence on a whim, but if she sits down to plan she’s actually pretty reasonable and effective. Amelia is way more terrifying because she’ll impulsively decide something like “I’m going to help this puppet destroy the stolen magic tanks for justice” and then evolve a no-holds-barred anything goes plan to achieve that. Lina and Gourry making a tank out of wood and cardboard that’s actually almost effective was hilarious and casual devastation always gets a laugh.

But more seriously Pomona seems to have no idea at all why he’s doing this. I’m sure that’s not in any way significant and doesn’t indicate the existence of some other mastermind manipulating events from behind the scenes!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Zel going full on Wile E Coyote for a minute trying to catch Potato was a delight and I was crushed that it was only for the sake of a couple of quick gags.

The animation quality in Drifter May have exceeded anything in the first three episodes.

Zenigata is rapidly establishing himself in the topmost tier of Slayers characters, alongside Lina and Xellos.

Man, I love Revolution
 

Egarwaen

(He/Him)
Zel going full on Wile E Coyote for a minute trying to catch Potato was a delight and I was crushed that it was only for the sake of a couple of quick gags.

“Are you a villain?”

Yes thank you for remembering! He was! Also it turns out he’s still way more effective than anyone else in the cast!
 

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
This continues to be a dang good season, and really my only major gripe is that we have yet to see Xellos. Spoilers: He's in the preview for the next episode. Hooray!

Wizer honestly makes a great Martina, I don't know if he sticks around for the whole season but I hope so. I want to see the final battle be interrupted by him popping in to try and arrest the big bad.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Setting aside my general affection for Revolution, the show is definitely showing it’s work for showing its work for acknowledging obscure bits of canon; the fact that casting magic burns a lot of calories is brought up, and someone using it on the same level that Lina does means they could eat an entire banquet all by themselves; which is how Amelia and Zel caught Potato
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Put on your anime-watching hats, kids, we’ve got;

ETERNAL! The Ever Sleeping Forest
FALL ON! Strange Festival? Bizarre Festival.


That second one is… grammatically challenging
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
So we’ve got an exposition episode, and a filler episode, and like everything else in Revolution, they’re both really good!

Eternal finally explains Potato’s whole deal, while still leaving some important stuff out to keep you coming back. And it also establishes Revolutions whole deal as a season of Tv; they’re doing season 1 again, but backwards and with enough details changed that it doesn’t feel redundant. He’s from a really advanced, long destroyed magical kingdom that was wiped out by a disease decades ago and saved at the last minute by Rezo (them not picking up on him being obviously secretly evil, and offering suggestions he got from a guy named Hellmaster), and While theres a cure for the disease, they can’t break the seal on the town without Rezo; and he’s apparently not actually dead. Furthermore, those bad guys from the intro show up, Artistocratic Lady was pillaging Potatos village in order to find weapons of mass destruction so she can invade other countries, and Tiger Guy is her muscle and apparently wearing Zannifar like a magic-proof shirt.

Also Xellos shows up (with a new VA) and everyone assumes he’s just going to be generally unhelpful, but technically on their side like usual, but nope he’s helping out the marquess this time because she’s the one inadvertently helping the forces of evil (she isn’t aware that Xellos isnt overtly helpful).

Then Fall On is a filler episode where the party stumbles on a town that’s really obsessed with rolling boulders. It largely exists to offer parity for all the under dressed busty ladies by offering some greased up hunky men, and it introduces us to this seasons joke villains; a dog wizard and a cat rogue. They ain’t Martina or Jillas, so heck with them.

The dog one kind of looks like McGruff, except Gandalfier
 

Egarwaen

(He/Him)
Revo has definitely learned from the mistakes of … uh both Next and Lost Universe … and introduces a group of villains early on, and unambiguously makes it clear that they’re up to no good. And that they’re both powerful and have weaknesses, and want things that Lina’s party care about and can contest.

It’s a pretty good setup!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Well why didn’t anyone tell me yesterday was Thursday? I look like an oaf now!

GORGEOUS! The Targeted Luxury Liner
HURRY UP! Run Through! No, Don’t!


Some of this seasons episode titles are a bit convoluted
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
Not gonna lie; Revolution has some of the best pacing I’ve ever seen in an anime; it’s all killer no filler, BUT ALSO it knows that the filler is the fun stuff so about half of each episode is dedicated to shenanigans, and it all moves so briskly.

TO THAT END!

Gorgeous looks like it’s another pure filler episode, with the party taking a cruise ship to Rugenavale so they can confront Giaconda sooner, only to be met by the schemes of an assassin trying to kill them. And then more assassins. And then it’s revealed that Giaconda is phenomenally wealthy so she paid literally everybody on board to kill Lina and company. Than the ninja guy from the OP shows up, and he’s I guess a Competent Zangulus, so… y’know a fight happens

Hurry Up brings back Revolutions MVP, Inspector Wizer, who apparently spent the last couple of episodes constructing an elaborate trap-filled puzzle dungeon in the middle of the road, with Xellos consulting, with the hope of capturing Lina since if there’s anyone who knows how she thinks, it’s the guy who spent two years following her and manipulating the party into furthering his goals.

And it works so well that even Gourry calls her out on falling for obvious traps.

And after an entire episode spent between Wizer drastically overestimating his own abilities to apprehend Lina, and Lina still managing to fall for it every time, Xellos reveals that he was mainly just playing around with Wizer because he IS Xellos after all, and then reminds everyone that 1. He’s an Overt Bad Guy this season and 2. He is vastly more powerful than he looks, by beating the absolute stuffing out of the party…

Except that this was all Linas plan to cut down on travel time because Wizer wanted to take them all to Giaconda anyway so she just threw the fight so it wouldn’t look suspicious as if she’d just given up.

And to sell it she had to blast Potato through a wall which I’m sure she also enjoyed a great deal.
 

SpoonyBard

Threat Rhyme
(He/Him)
Oh shoot, did I not comment on last week?

Great to see Xellos again, even better to hear him with that new voice, which is pretty much exactly as he should have always sounded in English (lol at the party initially referring to it as high pitched though). It's honestly a bit jarring since I was recently watching raocow's LP of Mega Man Legends and when he got to the end and faced the very Xellos-like Mega Man Juno I thought "see THIS is how Xellos should sound" and wouldn't you know it he pops back up in Revolutions sounding an awful lot like Mega Man Juno did.

The ball rolling episode was as close to pure filler as we've had so far (and even then it was in service of introducing the comic relief duo) but aside from that, yeah, pacing is top notch thus far.

Gorgeous: Honestly Zuma is probably the weakest new character thus far. He's almost like someone's OC, he looks like he was designed by a 12 year old Naruto fan, and of course he's super famous and Zelgadis has heard of him (Lina hasn't) and thinks he's super duper dangerous but he just kind of leaves. It's implied he tortures Gourry I guess? I dunno, he's all over the place.

The gag that the Marquess hired EVERYONE ELSE on the boat to assassinate the others and steal the Sword of Light, but none of them were in on it together, was worth it though.

Hurry Up!: Wizer! I missed that guy. At least his absence has a perfectly in-character and ridiculous explanation. Him and Xellos palling around is the best, and I honestly think he realizes Xellos is playing him. But I also think he is totally working against the Marquess and is bringing Lina to her to quicken her downfall, maybe I just have too much faith in the Investispector?

Xellos getting a moment to be super threatening is a treat (he also brushes off Lina's 'garbage' comment, but it's a nice nod to Try. I guess it's just not the same coming from anyone else but Filia), it's important to remember that aside from Shabby's remaining lieutenants he's probably the most powerful Monster around.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
This week, I feel it’s important to talk about;

INSIDER The One Who Knows the Truth
JUDGEMENT The Silver Beast Looms


Looks like things are already getting Final Boss-y, and we’re only kind of half done what may be the final-ish season!
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
The problem with the end of Slayers being two 13 episode seasons instead of one 26 episode season is that it kind of messes up the pacing a bit, and a lot of stuff that needed some time to breath does not get it. On the other hand, BOY is it a zippy series and here we have another Exposition episode and a big ol’ punch em up.

in Insider we see that Linas plan to get captured then have Potato rescue the party was a mixed success; since Potato has never been in the castle before and has no idea where the dungeons are, and he just gets lost trying. Fortunately, he stumbles on a secret sinister lab where it appears that Duclis, the tiger man, has been conducting some pretty horrific life trials trying to create a new suit of Zannifar Armor.

Also, Wizer fully transitions from being Zenigata to being Colombo and implies that his dogged pursuit of Lina was just in service of finding evidence that Giaconda is up to some sneaky schemes so she can be tried in an open court.

Meanwhile, Lina and all get sprung by Giacondas maid, Ozul, who reveals she isn’t human and that she’s under orders to Get the party out of jail and leads them to a big arena underground, where Giaconda and Zumba are waiting for them for a big ol’ secret colosseum execution Smackdown.

And Judgement is that smackdown, just a big ol’ 22 minute anime fight; Potato fights Duclis; revealing their relationship back when they were human and before Rezo cursed their kingdom, until Wizer shows up and let’s it slip that besides being an arms dealer cultivating an arms race, Giaconda is also the reason Topparacia received no financial or medical aid when it needed it; so they put their fight on hold and redirect it to her instead.

Giaconda and Gourry fight because they’re respectively the non magic ones, and he’s surprised at how preposterously tough this middle aged aristocrat is.

Zuma and Lina fight, and he mentions that his obsession with studying Lina is what lead him down the path of murdering people with magical shadows. Then he gets his arms hacked off And runs away.

And Ozul holds her own against Zemo and Amelia until she winds up getting a Ragna Blade in the gut by accident and dies. It’s kind of implied that she’s a Monster Xellos hired, but i don’t think they ever confirm that one way or the other.

Eventually the good guys win, thanks largely to Potato arriving and giving his replica Sword of Light to Gourry, as he’s clearly the one who can make the best use of it, and Giaconda is defeated and going to be hauled off to the hang for her numerous crimes against humanity… but that’s not good enough for Duclis, who has his dander up (literally) and hacks a big chunk out of her torso; revealing she herself had a full set of Zannifar Armor; explaining why she was able to beat Gourry in a straight fight.

And that she never bothered to ask why it had that name; the Zannifar Armor contains the spirit of season 1s final boss, Zannifar; and by cracking it open, Zannifar soul is released, devours Giacondas body and resurrects the Demon Beast in full.

UH OH!
 

Egarwaen

(He/Him)
This season has done a fantastic job of handling Gourry. The running gag about him trying to find a new sword after burning the Sword of Light to beat Darkstar yielded a lot of good visual gags and hitting it about once per episode was exactly the right amount of repetition. The big finale episode finally gives Gourry back a usable weapon, gives him a worthy opponent to fight, then upgrades him again and lets him take out one of the big bads. It’s a very effective “why does Lina keep this goof around? This is why!” moment.
 
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