The Slayers Group Watch Thread

[Egarwaen]

I don’t think there’s actually much to say about the finale. The fights continue to be well-choreographed and staged, the pacing is good… And victory essentially consists of Lina reminding everyone else that the Sword of Light isn’t just a lightsaber it’s a magic amplifier. It’s frustrating that they don’t really do anything with Rezo’s ability to triple cast, it’s fun to see Prince Phil again, that’s it.

I’m totally up for continuing on to Next!

 

[Octopus Prime]

NEXT IT IS!

So on Friday we can commence with
The Terror of the Monstrous Zoamelgustar
The Roguish Priest! His name is Xellos

these titles are less punchy!

Lets say ACOLYTE and BEMUSED

 

[Purple]

Oh right I forgot to talk about the last two episodes. People pretty much covered everything else so uh... Phil's horse fleeing amuses me. Explaining why Monsters take extra astral damage is rad nerdy, and Lina briefly just having an overpowered magical sword in each hand and going eh, this one today is amusing.

Anyway time to just continue on to Next now and uh... oh right. Hulu only has the first season.
Well! I can just switch over to Amazon Prime which... has it but dubbed only. Yeah no dubbed Xellos ain't gonna fly.
Fortunately I have this DVD set... which oh right is a weird region zero one that doesn't work in my player.
And of course I have my VHS tapes... at my mother's house.
Anyway, time to put "Slayers Next episode 1 into a search and hope the first site I hit isn't too sketchy looking... OK cool we're on!

Kind of a crime how little screentime Eris' very good look gets next to Martina's... personal sense of style. But, yeah, our guest slot for the season basically goes to Evil Amelia here. You can tell she's important because she's featured as heavily as she is in the intro, just like all these other characters we're definitely going to see a lot of. Zoamelgustar looks great though. ORIGINAL DARK GOD. DO NOT STEAL.

Meanwhile, Zelgadis is briefly off the wagon on the whole evil right hand guy front, presumably chasing after that high of having his own team of cool quirky goons again. It's not worth it, man. I mean even Gourry's throwin' shade here.

And we're properly establishing here that when we say "golem" in Slayers 90% of the time we really mean giant robot.

Moving on to our other episode this week, Amelia kinda gets the line of the season, pointing out that Zelgadis turning back into just a boring normal human would suck and be lame and nobody wants that. Congratulations Amelia on correctly identifying why this season's quest is doomed to fail. Oh and we also have this new character. A priest, with purple hair, who generally always keeps his eyes closed, and is blatantly trying to manipulate our heroes to help on a Macguffin hunt for this Claire Bible thing. Seems extremely legit. Especially with that catch phrase!

Oh and we've also got flexing muscle men and bad disguises.

And I totally forgot this season had the thing with the totally baffling eyecatches. Good times.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Interestingly, Linda sister appears in every episode this season, and still probably has less than one seconds worth of screen time.

I think they’ve changed animation studios since season 1, it’s not drastic or moving either up or down in quality (maybe a touch better, could just be these two episodes), but it is different enough to notice, especially coming in hot after season 1.

I love that, still, nobody respects or even remembers Zels tragic backstory. His transformation Into comic relief is complete.

Martina is a serious contender for being my favourite joke villain of the series; she loves being evil princess and loves her fan fiction monster god even more. She is to Amelia as Zangulous was to Gourry.

Xellos’ dub voice isn’t as grating as i remember. Not *good*, but less bad. The new intro does nothing to hide his alignment, but neither does Xellos himself. My headcanon is that he’s never actually needed to deceive anyone before, so he’s just incredibly bad at it

 

[Purple]

I mean yeah. Why would a kindly priest ever need to manipulate people beyond a rare special emergency?

 

[John]

ACOLYTE: 4/5ths of the gang's all here, in fairly short order, too. Yet another quest for magical items that may or may not (will not) do what the people want them to do. The intro showed off two new potential big bads, but they're not gonna come out and play this early, so a little regroup episode is fine. The intro showed that Sylphiel's still around somewhere, so possibly she'll come back in the back half of the season, like she did in the first one.

They really dialed up the gags and fan service in this one, didn't they? Martina looks like she inspired the boob physics in Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball, and even Lina's got some butt shots that weren't emphasized last season. The gags are similarly on the level of Phil's Horse running away in the last episode. It's not a bad thing, just shifting from jokes and groans to sight gags. I chuckled at Gourry pulling off his scalp so Lina could taste his yogurt brains.

The intro spoiled that Martina'll be joining the party at some point, so maybe someone will find her some pants and a shirt before they go off on adventures!

 

[John]

Anyway time to just continue on to Next now and uh... oh right. Hulu only has the first season.
Well! I can just switch over to Amazon Prime which... has it but dubbed only. Yeah no dubbed Xellos ain't gonna fly.
Fortunately I have this DVD set... which oh right is a weird region zero one that doesn't work in my player.
And of course I have my VHS tapes... at my mother's house.
Anyway, time to put "Slayers Next episode 1 into a search and hope the first site I hit isn't too sketchy looking... OK cool we're on!

If people don't mind watching some ads, Funimation's free account has all these, and it's $6-8USD a month to get rid of ads. A little safer than trawling the great unknown, depending on your searches.

https://www.funimation.com/shows/the-slayers/

 

[SpoonyBard]

My bootleg totally legit DVDs seem to be missing a line here and there on the sub track. Not the end of the world, but I am a little tempted to just give FUNi some money. I'll see how it goes, if we're going to jump straight into Try after this then it might be just as well...

Anyway.

ACOLYTE: I quite like these Octo-branded episode titles, keep it up.

We don't get a timeline for how long this takes place after the first season, but some amount of time has clearly passed. The party split up after dealing with that unknown crisis in Seyruun at the end of Season 1, Lina and Gourry went adventuring, Amelia stayed behind to do Princess things, Zelgadis went off to do wannabe brooding things, and Sylphiel.... well I assume someone paid for a carriage ride back to the ruins of Sairaag for her? It's fine. She's fine.

Before I go any further, can I take a moment to highlight this absolute banger of an anime opening? One of the all time greats, f'real.

No there will be no skipping the intro for me this season.

Anyway, the episode doesn't waste a whole lot of time setting the stage, reminding us of Lina and Gourry's chemistry, and bringing the gang back together. Right out the gate the second season is stronger because we don't have to wait so long to see the full party interacting. (sure Zelgadis has like half a minute where he pretends to be aloof and evil but Lina's got his number)

I saw these two episodes before I saw any of season 1 so my nostalgia is at its strongest here. But I can better appreciate all of it now. Did anyone else catch that the statue Lina briefly brings to life (which she can do apparently?????) was of Rezo?

The episode also cuts to the chase with Martina, the unstable anti-Amelia. I feel like she's Eris done right, she has the similar outfit, hell even her laugh is kinda similar. (speaking of, I love the moment when her and the King start laughing maniacally, pause for a moment to make sure the other is also doing it, then resume laughing even harder) And the big punchline about Martina's fanatical devotion to a dark lord she herself made up is tells you everything you need to know about her.

Amelia having a plan for evacuating a city in case of Dragon Slave is also a hoot, you just know she has this done up in a binder like organizations do for fire alarms. Speaking of the Dragon Slave, first one of the new season! We'll pretty much always get one in episode 1. It is a little weird that Lina basically seems to blast Martina in the face with it (maybe it was just the spinning camera angle? that whole moment was weird) but she's totally fine. It's fine. Everything's fine.

BEMUSED: And introducing the reason I will not be watching any episodes of Next dubbed, Xellos! Sorry to any David Moo fans, I guess, but his Xellos just sounds wrong on every level. If he were a one off I could live with it, but he's basically part of the main cast for all intents and purposes so dropping the ball with him is a critical error.

I like how this episode also finally abandons any pretense that Zelgadis is anything more than someone to dunk on. He really, really wants to be this brooding badass loner but it just isn't in him, and he works best with a team and it just so happens to be THIS team who cannot help but keep poking him. He'll never return to that hot minute in the first season where he seemed to be The Bad Guy, that Zelgadis is gone forever. Long live Perpetual Buttmonkey Zelgadis!

Xellos's intro, along with his iconic theme music and catchphrase, only gives you a hint of his true nature. Sure he seems untrustworthy, but just how bad could he be, really? That is a secret!

The bandits that communicate via flexing are a fun little diversion, and the poor acting by the party to sneak in is funny. But the whole point of the raid is.... uh.... what WAS the point exactly? Xellos shows up and pilfers the supposed manuscript, but ultimately walks away with a shrug saying it's of no use to him or Zelgadis and leaves the party with more questions than answers.

Including how Zelgadis even found them there, which the show brushes off with a callback to Xellos's catchphrase, which I interpret as the writers not wanting to explain how he could have possibly known where to be.

Meanwhile Martina is not having a great time. She's gone from Princess to Pauper in record time, but I guess she's not at all used to actually traveling, especially by herself, and likely set off after Lina with nothing but determination and the shirt (?) on her back. Probably should have at least packed a snack.


Anyway. The animation quality has taken a noticeable step up from the first season, Try more or less looks similar to Next but this is a significant jump. But there's still some mild animation jank, in a cozy 90s sort of way. I feel like the size of all the girls' eyes have increased by like 25%, which was the style at the time. And a lot of the gags have definitely become more visual with a lot of nonsequiters. The aforementioned Yogurt-brained Gourry is a good example, and that moment early in episode 2 where he briefly transforms into a floating... something is another. It's definitely a shift in comedic direction from the first season, which I largely prefer. I don't so much prefer how the series tends to get a bit more casually skeevy here and there with Lina and Amelia. Nothing so blatant like 'lol periods' from Season 1, but a lot more comments about her chest to come. (though admittedly her desire to flex her pecs like the bandits was kind of funny)

 

[Purple]

Before I go any further, can I take a moment to highlight this absolute banger of an anime opening? One of the all time greats, f'real.

I agree. It's like... I dunno, the 3rd best Slayers theme? Which sounds like I'm damning with faint praise but they're all really good and I mean there's ending themes and movies and OAVs in the mix. Try's and Revolution's are just also really amazing is all.

And a lot of the gags have definitely become more visual with a lot of nonsequiters. The aforementioned Yogurt-brained Gourry is a good example, and that moment early in episode 2 where he briefly transforms into a floating... something is another. It's definitely a shift in comedic direction from the first season, which I largely prefer.

There's another blink and you'll miss it bit when she's interrogating bandits and her face just turns into this scary animalistic muzzle, which makes the cover art on that one RPG book all the more egregious.

 

[John]

BEMUSED: A pretty standard (for Slayers) episode. Here's a MacGuffin, go get it, and totally trust the person who describes himself as "the mysterious priest". The show's now even more self aware, almost too much. I could see it degrading down to self parody, just repeating the same story beats, consciously aping for laughs. I'm pretty sure this same exact scenario happened at least once in Season 1.

Watching the intro for the last episode, I had totally pegged Xellos as a woman, kinda like a villain Inverse (oh ho) of Sylphiel, since they both have blue/purple and bowl bang cuts. That was about the only surprising thing about his introduction here.

Still fun, and I was glad to see that Martina got some clothes!

 

[Egarwaen]

Wow the change in tone, animation, and direction from the end of Slayers to the start of Next is way more dramatic than I remembered. The relatively complex staging and framing is gone; scenes seem to generally focus on characters in a more straightforward manner. There is, as noted, a lot more slapstick. On the other hand, Hayashibara and Matsumoto still have incredible chemistry, so as long as they're bouncing off each other, it's still fun!

I really like how the second episode showcases Zelgadis' discomfort with his chimera body, and how one weakness of the group is that their motivations don't really align at all. It was also fun that Lina's basic idea about how to turn up some copies of the Claire Bible winds up being more or less accurate, she just picks the wrong group to start stomping. Xellos is also a super-fun antagonist - he's not outright villainous, but he's a total jackass.

 

[Zef]

It's amazing how Slayers Next can simultaneously have a MUCH larger budget than Slayers Vanilla, while still having charmingly low-budget scenes. The second episode was a blast, though, as if the director forbade the animators from having more than a second of idle frames and insisted on slapstick and eccentric reactions at the most random times (that scene of Lina shaking the bandit leader, my god.)

I definitely didn't remember Xel being so villainous in his intro; I thought he'd be a little more neutral and misleading rather than a direct antagonist. I'm also confused by his actions here--IIRC, his mission is to destroy all copies of the Claire Bible, and while he does incinerate those few pages, he also says "they're not what he was looking for." So I may have forgotten the finer details of his mission.

Also: bad, bad director! Cramming early ship bait with Lina so soon after his introduction! Don't you know the terabytes of fanworks this relationship would inspire in the 25+ years since?

Before I go any further, can I take a moment to highlight this absolute banger of an anime opening? One of the all time greats, f'real.

No there will be no skipping the intro for me this season.

"Give a Reason" was, honestly, the very first Hayashibara song I ever ran into--even before any of her (much fewer) Ranma image songs. And, being the starry-eyed otaku I was back then, it made me hunt down pretty much all of her albums up to that point... and I still have them around, and added her most recent ones ("Fifty-Fifty" et al) in the last couple of years

But also thanks to the previous OP, "Get Along", I did mistake Masami Okui for her plenty of times. You wouldn't believe how long I thought Hayashibara must have had a part in Utena because I could swear that was her singing its OP.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Get ready for Friday, kids as we’ve got

A Wonderful Buisness: Being a Bodyguard isn’t Easy
An Ancient Pledge: One Who Seeks Immortality

Let’s go with CONFLICT! And DEATHLESS!

 

[Octopus Prime]

And we’re off to the races.

CONFLICT looks like it’s going to be another light hearted goof-em-up episode (and until the very end, it is) with the party being unknowingly split up when they go to different restaraunts and are hired by rival politicians to stop one another’s campaigns. Nothing heavy, and some solid gags (Zel is so pleased that someone finally takes him seriously) then at the very end we see that their rivalry was actually caused by a spooky masked figure from the intro.

And in Deathless we get proper context for that and also meet the first arcs big villain! Rezo again Halciform, a mage who made a pact with a demon to be fully immortal in exchange for his soul, so he could experiment on a means to raise the dead. He’s so far down the list of Slayers villains I legit forgot he existed (still better than Rodimus); but at least he presents a nice clear danger and the episode is again full of solid gags. The dub cast has really improved from the first season for delivering goofs.

Also, while the song is catchier and the animation is nicer, I still prefer the tone of the first seasons intro; it was more of a jaunty “Goin’ on an adventure, Magic Lady gonna bust some fools” kind of energy about itself. Nexts intro is more of an “Ohcrapohcrapohcrapwe’reallgonnadie” vibe.

But it’s where you get 99% of Linas sisters appearances throughout the franchise

 

[John]

CONFLICT: A real nice Comedy you've got there, would be a shame if someone threw in some Errors. I chuckled at Amelia's response to someone bricking a house up in ice is to graffiti it, wonder what the spell name is for that? Also there was a possible penis shape thrown on there, which had to be unintentional, because Amelia has never seen anyone naked before. A fun predictable farce, with a nice Plot Drop at the end.

 

[SpoonyBard]

CONFLICT: I mostly forgot about this episode, or at least I forgot about all the details. I DID remember the incredibly silly argument at the beginning and that there would be an episode early on where the party split up due to said silly argument, but everything else had to come back to me.

One thing I like as the series progresses is that each season adds a bunch of new music (such as this theme played during said silly argument which will become a nice staple conversational BGM) but we still get recognizable tracks from previous seasons, like this classic.

Anyway, shenanigans are afoot, the split party winds up working for two equally shady people vying for the same position in the Sorcerer's Guild, and a teased throwdown between Lina/Gourry and Amelia/Zelgadis doesn't actually happen because some Slimes Draw Near. The episode ends with a rather ominious looking figure looming over the city, who I am sure will never actually be important.

Oh also, this episode finally has us arrive at the proverbial Fireworks Factory. After being teased since Episode 1 that Atlas City was Lina's destination, then again at the end of Episode 10 that this was where Lina and Gourry were heading to post-Shabranigdo and then completely forgotten about after, we finally get to see Atlas City.

It sure is a city.

DEATHLESS: Ok listen, Tarimu and Demia, if there's a super dangerous sorcerer that the two of you screwed over who would really want to get revenge on you then maybe lead with that when you're screaming about your innocence. Only adding it when talking to some mercs you hired but then never actually telling the city guards was kind of a dumb move on your parts, so you both had being partially petrified coming.

(How... how IS Demia still alive, anyway, besides for the silliness of it?)

Anyway, Lina and co figure out that this Halcyform fellow, whose name sounds like he belongs in a line of chemical cleaning products, set up Tarimu and Demia and go after him, only to find out he's basically immortal because he made a deal with a monster, the aforementioned looming figure from the last episode, Seygram.

Oh and Halcyform is basically Mr. Freeze from Batman who just wants to bring his almost-dead wife back to life, if Mr. Freeze was also a science wizard.

Lina evidentally gets some inspiration from Halcyform's obvious origins and briefly traps him in ice while they figure out what to do. I love that Xellos pops in with the intent of giving them a hand but Lina's all 'nah brah I already know the score' so now Xellos is left just awkwardly standing around while Zelgadis shoots daggers at him with his glare.

Oh and I really dig Halcyform's BGM. This won't be exclusive to him, we'll hear this track elsewhere, but it's still a nice creepy piece.

 

[Purple]

I appreciate the little bit where they're all getting indignant about how they've been described to each other and then Zelgadis is just "So I'm the heartlessless magic-using swordsman?" and kinda just silently goes "yeah, I totally win the reputation game" to himself.

And yeah, Xellos is kind of doomed to this role of really wanting to be the super mysterious exposition dumper with a hidden agenda that everyone ends up trusting more than they should and really never actually managing any of that in practice.

Also it's really nice how seemlessly we segue here from wacky funtime goof'em-ups into actual serious plot stuff starting to kinda get into gear. Also some real nice food porn and background paintings.

It really is hitting me on this rewatch in general that while "really likes to eat" is kind of the most common anime protagoonist personality trait, Slayers really delivers it way way better than anything else.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Fridays soon coming and that means

Staying Behind for the Sake of Love
The Return of the Obsessive Martina

Let’s go with ETERNITY! and FIXATION!

 

[John]

Wrapping up last week's episodes, after a pesky injury kept me away from exercising. Only a day late!

DEATHLESS - The Sorcerer's Guild in this city must be hard up for talent, if these two bozos were the only two candidates for the leader. Also, being a Guild member must pay extremely well if all three of them live in extravagant mansions while the general populous has the standard fantasy trappings. How did the new guy's mansion stay unoccupied after he was banished? Maybe when you sign up for a guild, all your possessions become part of a general Sorcerer's Estate, or that everything is actually owned by the Guild, like a government building. Now I want to see their bylaws.

I like that the gang has found a restaurant with open seating, though it's hard to tell if it's one of the two that they were bickering over last episode. It gives them a chance to reuse some backgrounds while making it seem different than the standard pub interiors they're used to, with less chance of the buildings getting demolished when the ne'er-do-wells eventually track them down.

I didn't quite get Lina's reasoning with the glass trapping Halcyform in ice. Coincidence, or was there something missing in the dub or my interpretation? It was just out of the blue, she sees some broken glass, and decides to wrap him in ice. It conveniently works, in time for Xellos to do his mansplaining.

 

[SpoonyBard]

ETERNITY: The whole three-episode Halcyform/Atlas City arc probably could have been a bit longer, but I appreciate that they condensed it with only so many episodes per season. Halcyfalcy could have been a contender for mid-season villain, but his arc is so straightforward and obvious he just ends up being an even less interesting Rezo.

We do learn some interesting Monster Race stuff, and Say Grammar's offer to Lina is a bit of a curveball. (though right before that, the Slug scene was absolutely fantastic, we've never seen Lina absolutely lose it before, and I don't think we ever do again. I guess everyone has a phobia) The dinner with Graham Cracker really interrupts the flow of the episode (much like how Lina interrupts the illusion with a Flow Break) but hey, she had to play at being interested to get a free meal some information from Mummy Man 2.

In the end Hal 9000 is thwarted by the same sort of bad decision making a lot of low level anime baddies have: letting a hero go on with their gambit because they think it's 'interesting'. Lina's obvious trap obviously works, Gourry shatters Seygram's mask with the hilt of his sword (...ok? The blade is RIGHT THERE Gourry) and after spending two episodes giving a rather sedated performance Halcyform decides to absolutely chew the scenery for a few seconds as he gets de-immortaled.

Then Rubia's rebirth has the most obvious result ever and everything explodes. The gang leaves Tarimu and Demia partially petrified because seriously who cares about those jerks anyway? I'm amazed the animators even thought to show us that they got out.

FIXATION!: Episode starts with ANOTHER gag about the gang going to a restaurant (how any All You Can Eat restaurant can survive in a world with Lina Inverse is a mystery) but then Lina is distracted by a stranger offering her a shiny thing. Oh hey it's Martina, remember her? Lina doesn't!

There's a whole bunch of shenanigans as Martina keeps trying to get one of Lina's possessions and along the way she ends up falling in love with Gourry. Also, there's a whole lot of sight gags with a chibi Martina, and I think this is the only episode where that happens? It's a weird choice. But in the end she succeeds in swiping Lina's bandana and put her under Zoamel Gustav's curse. Which, in case you've forgotten, is a made-up demon lord.

But the curse sticks! And Lina now experiences any pain she inflicts upon others which is a very very big problem for her because it's something she loves doing. She inflicts pain on her friends as a sign of affection! Xellos spills the beans on how the curse works (in a very, very unforgettable way) and Martina shows herself.

I love that Lina has to be reminded of who she is, and is even all 'What's up! How's life?' at first before realizing she's responsible for the curse. That Lina Inverse, she might explode your entire kingdom but she'll still be friendly!

Anyway, Martina learns Gourry is an absolute moron and is no longer interested in him. I sure hope that's the last time we have a 'Martina has an unrequited romance' plot! Then she winds up cursing herself because she's a klutz and realizes she can't uncurse herself without also uncursing Lina. And then the absolute stupidest fight in history happens, Lina just decides to blow them both up and deal with the pain, and something something everything's fine. We never actually see the curse come off, but I guess the explosion destroyed the dagger? Whatevs, the gang relax back at the hot springs (also this was the hot springs episode, and the less said about the attention paid to Lina and Amelia's boobs the better) and Martina swears revenge once more before being unceremoniously crushed by a rock, never to be seen again. Farewell Martina!

Side note: I meant to mention this for the first episode, but that fansub I first saw of Slayers Next way back in the day had her name spelled as 'Malchina', which works in a sort of early fansubby way. I don't think those subs ever even settled on a consistent spelling of Seyruun either.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I think a different animation team worked on Eternity; characters went off model a lot (everyone has much fuller lips than usual) and Hal seemed to age about fifty years between shots even before he ages 50 years between shots.

Nit really a gag as it were, but I appreciated at the start of the episode Zel smashes a copy of the Orihalcon Statue that kicked off the story assuming that it was important before, it must be important now.

Also didn’t realize it before, but I like how the OP has some legit major spoilers in it, but they’re the kind of spoilers where you have no possible way of knowing what they’re spoiling without advance knowledge. And also a bunch of fake-out spoilers too.

Deftly done, Slayers Next Production Staff

 

[Octopus Prime]

FIXATION is a kind of platonic ideal for goofy filler episodes of Slayers; lots of Xellos being completely up-front about being unhelpful, Gourry being utterly clueless about everything, Martina being convinced she's MUCH MORE than a joke villain and Lina wanting treasure and hurting others in order to prove a point.

And also Zels bath-time routine!

 

[Egarwaen]

Goodness the staging and framing in this series is much, much worse. Locales are rarely anything but big featureless spaces for scenes to transpire in, and the backgrounds are comparatively lifeless and dull.

I did like that during the bathhouse scenes, Gourry and Zel are having a super classy experience, complete with floating wine trays.

 

[Purple]

Gourry shatters Seygram's mask with the hilt of his sword (...ok? The blade is RIGHT THERE Gourry)

Hey don't question Gourry on Fighter Crap. Sunder rules are weird, especially when this was back in like the 2e days. Gotta have blunt damage sometimes.

Anyway I'm really glad they don't drag out the whole "stone mask=pledge stone" thing because I mean it... really isn't hard to guess. Granted I've seen this season like 4 times previously but still. Anyway, we've also got some real good Obsessed Villain Faces going on here, some very good invertebrates, and the genuinely disquieting sight of Lina and Gourry sitting down to enjoy a nice meal with proper table manners. What the hell?

Moving on to our other episode... Martina doing a little voice for Zoamelgustar is freakin' great. Also appreciate the hot springs episode getting the "maybe ship Gourry and Zel?" eyecatch. Also she totally just quoted Cutey Honey there when removing her disguise. Pretty sure I caught the exact same sound sample in here as Smash Bros.' home run bat somewhere.

Meanwhile Xellos just continues to be the... mysterious shadowy figure who really does seem to have just completely forgotten to put any points at all in his bluff skill, just full on admitting to just... yeah tailing everyone from just off camera and/or while invisible maybe for really the whole season for... reasons.

I feel like he'd be very bad at one of those werewolf/mafia type games is all I'm saying.

 

[John]

ETERNITY: I liked the tragedy of the main storyline, even though it was completely obvious. There sure were some awkward long still shots as they panned for time, though. Lina being squicked by slugs was fun, but when she summoned a jellyfish to wrap up Hally, I didn't quite get the reference to "Just don't ask me where I learned it from". Was that a callback to something in season one I've forgotten, or a foreshadow?

I choose to think that the pink goo that Zel/Amelia were dunked into while in their "comas" was the liquid oxygen that they dunked the rat into in The Abyss. Halcy didn't want to kill people per se, just suck their life energy, as shown when he spared Lina/Gourry instead of following the monster's orders. You can't suck life energy if the victims aren't alive.

I also choose to think the material the sorcerer's were encased of was just a super hard but permeable substance, which is why the one who's entire top half is covered hasn't asphyxiated yet. I'm thinking a magic Floam, the old less slimy form of Gak from Nickelodeon.

 

[SpoonyBard]

It's been awhile since I've seen it but I'm pretty sure the jellyfish thing is a reference to the first movie where Naga summons a jellyfish?

 

[Octopus Prime]

Fairly certain, but I don't want to dig out that movie and rewatch it to confirm.

 

[Egarwaen]

It’s a Naga joke, yeah. There’s also a couple of gags in these episodes about Lina’s entire family being terrifyingly powerful.

 

[John]

You're all pretty derisive towards the movies/OVAs, so I take it I'm not missing anything by not seeing those. I don't see them on any of the streaming services I've got, so I'd have to pirate/look for old releases.

FIXATION: I really like Martina, in a Team Rocket toothless villain sort of way. Would be nice if she had pants, but at least she's not overtly sexualized, just passively like anime characters do. This was a good comedy episode, boobs aside. I would've thought Martina could overlook a little thing like Gourry being clueless, but turns out she does have some standards. Really gross of Xellos to contribute to groping as a joke, but Wacky 90's Anime. I liked the gag that the Curse Battle was just so epic that they couldn't show it, and not because they didn't have the budget/want to fit it in.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Full disclosure, I'm basing these episode titles off what the DVD menu says, so you can blame all the errors on formatting problems.

Anyway, this is what Friday is going to look like;

Follow the Phantom Dragon
Be Eternal! The Day Prince Phil Died

Oh nooooooooo
Let’s go with GOURMET! And HEAVENLY!