Sunday, October 27, 2002

Slayers Movie 1: Slayers Perfect



Genre: Comedy / Fantasy
General Audience
1995 Hajime Kanzaka and Rei Araizumi (creators). SoftX. TV Tokyo.




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Cover Description:
Enveloped in mists, the island of Mipross has been shrouded in mystery since the dawn of time! Now, two mighty sorceresses will attempt to pierce the veil of secrecy and silence that has hidden the horrible truth about Mipross from the eyes of men for hundreds of years!

Join the short-statured and even shorter tempered master mage Lina Inverse and her over-endowed associate Nahga the Serpent as they find themselves ensnared in a deadly web of intrigue and danger in the wildest, most incredible SLAYERS adventure of them all!

Get to the point! >>> by skysenshi
I'm not exactly a Naga fan, so I didn't expect much-other than occasional boredom and extreme irritation-of this first Slayers movie. Like the OAV, Slayers Perfect is a prequel to the TV series. And like the OAV, it chronicles Lina Inverse's earlier (mis)adventures before she met the team mates that made Slayers quite a formidable anime when it comes to fan base. What the heck where the creators sniffing when they thought Naga could easily replace Gourry, Xellos, Zelgadis and Filia?

This movie could have been a part of the OAV, since the summary that you have read above this writing actually just comprises about 1/3 of the story. The rest.well, if you're fond of plotlines that meander a lot, this would probably be good for you. It still has the trademark humor only forgivable in Slayers, but there are many scenes that we could actually do without; these have no relation whatsoever to the main synopsis. Like for instance, I do not see the point of having Lina challenged by a bunch of idiotic muscle men, except to produce a bit of action that results in the mass production of jellyfish and sea cucumber. A scene that brings to mind a lot of hentai thoughts, no doubt. If they planned to give us an insight to Lina's personality, well, I thought they already did that in the very first scene where Lina was ganged upon by a different bunch of crooks. All I can see here is that the creators were being redundant. This habit of repetition goes on until the sage behind the secret of Mipross finally takes pity on the viewers and decides to show himself.

Naga improves a tad in my eyes, though. She surprisingly shows more than just her cleavage (I do not mean that in a hentai way) by spouting facts drawn from her stored knowledge that Lina herself finds useful. Still-and I have made this opinion clear in my review of the OAV-she's one character whose stupidity isn't nearly as cute as Gourry's and I don't think the movie had anything to lose had they chosen to keep her from it.

For all my disappointments and complaints, Slayers Perfect isn't all that bad. For one, you have better art and animation here than in the TV series. And second, though Gourry isn't present in this feature, you'd feel him in the form of young Rowdy. Rowdy is another light sword bearer and he's supposed to be the key that unlocks the secret of Mipross. Pay close attention because you might pick up a bit of Gourry's history in here. Of course, you can't help but wonder if Lina's performance in Prefect actually paved the way for Gourry's existence. So with that in mind, I think I might be able to give Perfect a fair rating after all.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 7; Story 3; Characters 6; Sounds 7

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