Slayers

I know that Slayers is an older anime/manga/novel series... but I can't help but love it.

I bought the manga (Medieval Mayhem in the US) and loved it. Then I bought the Motion picture... I didn't know at the time that there were two timelines (Naga/Gourry) and was confused that many of the characters that I seen (and had driven me to purchase the series) where absent. I eventually saved up and shelled out the money for the first DVD boxset (Japanese audio problems and all *sighs* oh well I only had a mono TV so it didn't matter anyways). The animation was dated (even for its time, just a year prior to good, ol' beautiful Eva), but I loved every bit of it. I eventually bought NEXT and TRY... then the OVA and movies... then the manga.

Then TokyoPop released the original novels that started the whole thing... and I thought they were even greater. Its really neat to see events from Lina's satirical and cynical perspective. It was also great to read new stories with Lina, Gourry, Zel, Amelia, Xellos, etc.

I'm so dissapointed that they only released 6 volumes (out of the original 15... which doesn't count the 20 some odd Special series with Naga). I'm not sure if the series is on hiatus or what exactly is going on, but I signed this anyways...
Slayers Novel Pention

I know that internet pentions have little power, but its better than nothing at all, right?

I was wondering if there was anyone else who liked Slayers. I mean its got great characters, an interesting and in depth world/setting, and its one of the funiest anime I've seen... and the novels are even funnier.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I'm sorry, by timeline I just meant that there is one part that follows Lina and Naga exclusively (Slayers Special series: which includes the movies (aside from Premium) the 2 OVA's, and the Special set of novels and manga) and there is the other part with Lina and Gourry (TV series, regular novels, and other manga).

The novels came first... the first one is ©1990. Apparently he is still writing the Slayers Special series in Japan though... I wonder how much he can fit in the short time span before she meets Gourry.

OK from what I know about Slayers... the novels are the basis for the rest of the series... and by novels I mean text (aside from maybe 6 pictures in the book itself) not graphic novels, heh... in case that was confusing you.

I know that after NEXT (Vol. 8 of the novels), the storylines go in all sorts of directions...

The novels abandon Zelgadiss and Amelia (sadly) and go onto involve Dynast (one of Shabranigdo's mazoku lords). There is a new manga called Knight of Aqualord (which I'd love to be able to read) which abandons Zelgadiss and Xelloss (from what I heard) and involves Deep Sea Dolphin (another of Shabranigdo's Mazoku lords)... The Super Nintendo game I read goes into Zelas Metallium (yet another of the Mazoku lords), Xelloss, and another resurrected piece of Shabranigdo... and finally there is the anime's TRY, which involves the Demon lord of Lost Universe's world; Dark Star.

So yeah... from what I know the last part is what isn't continuous... otherwise Lina and company really go on a Mazoku hunting spree, heh.

Since I can only read at year-one Japanese level (thats as much as I was able to take in college so far) my understanding of the games is fairly limited. I do have Royal for the Saturn... and iso's of Royal, Royal 2, and Wonderful for the Playstation. I'm not sure how they fit into the grand scheme of things.

Inverse.org used to have translations of the first 2 novels and part of the 3rd), but they were removed when TokyoPop licensed it.

And, www.sega.co.jp, the basic gist of Slayers is that its about genius sorceress Lina Inverse. She is infamous for being an over-reactive, bandit-hunting, flat-chested, dragon-spooking teenager. She's greedy and perpetually hungy... She meets up with a dumb, but kind hearted swordsman, Gourry who "saves" her from a few bandits (that she had killed the majority of and stole anything of value from the night before)... Thinking that Lina is a defenseless little girl, he vows to be her gaurdian. The beginning story line involves a group of people led by Zelgadiss, a chimera (human mixed with demon and golem) trying to reclaim an item that the bandits had stolen and is now in Lina's possession. Thats how it starts, but a lot changes as time goes by...

Sorry for the lengthy post, heh... >^o^<

There's nowhere I can't reach.