I haven't watched this series in quite some time and going back to it now was a trip. Seeing that cell animation and 90s anime styles again was nice, and I think I still prefer it to the modern stuff, weird subtle movements and all (seriously just watch the english credits, keep your eye on the text, and you'll see the background image moving about ever so slightly).
After watching the sub exclusively until now I decided to go ahead and watch at least these first two episodes dubbed, and I gotta say.... not as terrible as I remember? Maybe that's unfair, but I do remember disliking the dub on an almost visceral level, but this time I found a lot to like. Just about ALL of it was Lisa Oritz's performance, she might not be Megumi Hayashibara but she does make a great Lina. The other voices though, they didn't fare as well. Gourry's alright, but not particularly standout, and he doesn't come off like the lovable moron he is compared to his JP voice. Zelgadis just sounds kinda bored, but he's only had a few lines so far so we'll see.
Every other voice though? Competent to awful. From what I remember the dub really had issues with minor characters that only show up briefly, and there are a few stinkers here. The worst might be the shop owner's wife in the second episode (I'm not even sure if that was a woman voicing her or a man doing an annoying wife bit), and the other incidental characters might not be as bad but none of em are particularly good. Though the absolute worst dubbed voice I remember comes from a minor character in the second season, I guess we'll get there when we get there.
(oh and a weird bit with the intro, the dubbed track has Lina's opening monologue before the song starts dubbed, but the music accompanying that part is totally different, it's not like any other music is replaced and they clearly got those BGMs to mix into their dub track so why was that one part different?)
One thing that honestly felt like coming home was the stock footage. Oh Slayers and its stock footage. You'll see Lina throw that Fireball dozens of times, Gourry will draw his sword in that manner so often, and don't even mention the Dragon Slave. I remember the stock footage use being most egregious in the first season, though Next and Try still fall back on it from time to time. Honestly I find it kind of charming?
One thing I STILL can't find a good explanation for, though, is what 'Dragon Spooker' really means? 'Step Past Out Of Clear Revulsion' is a clever acronym, I guess. The Japanese term is 'doramata', sometimes called dra-mata online, but I can't find an explanation.