Slayers Premium (2004) – DVD Review

Film:
DVD:

Based upon the novels by Hajime Kanzaka
Directed by Jyunichi Satoh

Features:

• Original trailer
• Voice actor interview
• Voice actor commentary

Dindrane’s Anime Warnings:

• Sorcery
• Linguistic cognitive dissonance
• Sushi fights back
• Heresy against the Guardian Octopi Deity

Released by: ADV
Region: 1
Rating: 15+
Anamorphic: Yes.

My Advice: Get it if you’re a fan.

[ad#longpost]Slayers Premium is a new OAV that returns us to the madcap world of Slayers TV and Slayers Next as Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev fight to save a village from certain doom â„¢ at the hands of a watery monster. Lina and Gourry have fled to the seaside to enjoy a much-deserved vacation and a boat full of sushi. However, some demon folk have cursed anyone in the town who eats octopi: their human language is replaced with Octopese, which sounds suspiciously like human language, only shuffled in amusing ways. Somehow the resulting confusion and rampant misunderstandings will release their octopus lord-god and bring great power to them all. Some of the funniest moments revolve around Zelgadis and Amelia, who also arrive in town to find Xellos, and of course Gourry and Lina. Soon, of course, everyone but the innocent little cleric Ruuma is afflicted with the terrible random-language disease, including sorcerers who depend upon their words to wield their magic.

The villains, cute little octopi in cloaks, will remind viewers a bit of the usual bad-guys from Sailor Moon with their impossibly complex plans for destroying humanity and fondness for absorbing and re-routing negative human emotional energies.

The art is nice enough, if not incredibly artistic along the lines of Last Exile or anything by Yu Watase. The colors are bright and clear, nicely cheerful as befits the show. Faces are oddly square, with angled cheeks as if they all have the mumps. The sound is also good, and both voice casts do a good job, though of course character interpretation is as much a matter of personal taste as it is representing the characters. The dubbed lines are oddly quite different than the original Japanese for some reason in places where such translation issues were not necessary for cultural understanding. Some things just don’t translate, but some things do just fine.

The extras include an interesting if fluffy commentary with the English voice actors Cynthia Martinez and Crispin Freeman (Lina and Zelgadis); it’s always nice to let them have their say. It’s interesting to hear them talking about “tentacle action,” and while they pick on various aspects of the show, they still have an obvious affection for it, which is even better. Another extra is a really rather lengthy interview of Crispin Freeman by producer/director Sandra Krasa, where he talks about finding his voice, understanding a character, becoming attached to Zelgadis, when to use CGI and when not to, and so forth. Finally, we get the original trailer.

Slayers Premium is more enjoyable than the hit-or-miss TV show, more on par with the generally amusing OAVs. It’s nice to see most of our favorite characters back together again, so no matter who your favorite character is, you should get some goodness from them. If you’re a fan of sword-and-sorcery comedy anime, then you should appreciate this. If you’re new to the franchise, and it sounds like fun, then definitely give it a look-see; it’s worth your time and money, if only to see Lina answer every problem with a fireball and Gourry go Spiral on some attacking octopi warriors. Fans of the franchise might be angered by the lack of absolute closure if this really is the final Slayers installment, ever.

Buy it from Amazon.