By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

At last, I have something to talk about. That is not a good thing. The Slayers novels are fast-paced, action-packed, have some interesting fantasy plotting, and Lina and Gourry are fun, but let’s face it, the reason this series is beloved is that the anime took the characters and fleshed them out, made them human. Character development and deep emotional pain is not something that Kanzaka specializes in or is good at. And that’s going to be a problem with this book, whose second half relies entirely on the death of a beloved character and said death driving another character to an extended murder spree, one that I suspect may continue in the next book. There’s just one problem. The emotional impact is taken as read. The author assumes we will be devastated when this character dies, but mostly we’re merely surprised at how fast and pointlessly it happened. And the roaring rampage of revenge is more of a mildly simmering rampage of revenge. Slayers runs on snark and fighting. When there isn’t either of those, it gets into trouble.

Lina and Gourry come to Selentia, a city where religion is the biggest mover and shaker. There’s a high priest as well as four other slightly lower priests. Unfortunately, the high priest has just burned to death in an “accident” that no one thinks is an accident. Lina and Gourry are hired by the Sorcerer’s Guild to investigate, and find that there’s a lot of motive but not a lot of evidence. That is until we get more killings happening. What’s more, Luke and Mileena are here again, being hired bodyguards for one of the priests. Can Lina and Gourry figure out what’s happening and stop it before the entire city turns into a blood-soaked canvas? Answer: no.

Kanzaka apologizes to readers in the afterword for Amelia and Zelgadis not being in this, but for the wrong reason. He states that if they’d been there, they could have healed the fatal wound and thus avoided everything that came after. That said, I think the bigger problem is: this should have been Zel and Amelia, not Luke and Mileena. After being introduced in Book 9, the two of them have had “replacement scrappy” written all over then, despite occasional attempts at depth. Frankly, if Kanzaka had simply used Amelia and Zel in Book 9-14, and had Amelia killed off and Zel go on a rampage, the impact would have been much greater because we actually care about them. And, see, I say that, but I can’t bring myself to believe that either. Because Mileena’s death is so fast, so lame, and so emotionally void that it took me a while to realize it had happened. Kanzaka cannot write depth. And that means this book winds up suffering terribly, because it’s where depth is needed the most.

This second “arc” in the S;layers series will end in the next volume, and I suspect will wrap up Luke’s plot as well. I hope it’s filled with cool action sequences and magical battles. Because really, why else would you read this?

By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

One thing that I don’t think I’ve talked about in these reviews of very short, action filled Slayers light novels is the way that, if you aren’t a major character in the book, your life expec–

“We’ve done that.”

Really?

“Yes.”

Erm… OK, well, I can mention the way that, despite being very short books, these still manage to have over half their content filled with battle seq–

“We’ve covered that as well.”

Ah. Erm… passionfruit?

“We’ve done the passionfruit.”

Sigh. Once again, I want to note that these are good books. I enjoy them, I want to read more of them, but… what the hell is there to review? Maybe if I was reading the omnibuses, OK, but I–

“You’ve actually whined about this before as well.”

SHUT UP! Look, let’s just go to the recap summary, OK?

After the events of the last book, our heroes join up with Milgazia, the ancient dragon, and Memphys, the arrogant elf, to discuss the events of the last few books, and how they’re all pointing to one thing: another Incarnation War is coming. Then, as with many, many other books in this series, some demons show up, try to kill Lina, and blow up the inn she’s staying at, leaving her to take the blame. Because let’s face it, while the books are more serious than the anime, that’s only by a bit. What’s worse is that they immediately have to return to the city they just left. Remember when I said that things ended a bit too well? Well, I was right. Turns out there’s a new Demon along the lines of Xellos in town, and Xellos is Mr. Not-Appearing-In-This-Book so can’t help out. Can Lina and Gourry join forces with the rest of their allies and find a way to survive this?

I think I may have talked about THIS as well in past reviews, but the Slayers books ran concurrently in Japan with a series called Slayers Special, which featured the adventures of Lina before she met Gourry, which is to say with Naga the Serpent. These also got made into several anime. They are highly unlikely to be licensed over here, and seem far more episodic than the main series. I mention this because it was nice to see Lina actually remember Naga, even though her name is very deliberately not said. The reason she comes up is that Memphys’ attitude is very familiar, as is Lina’s contempt for it. Turns out that our arrogant elf is actually covering up some shyness, adn the one who told her to act like a cut-rate Naga the Serpent was… well, was Naga the Serpent. Honestly, the best joke here is that anyone would take Naga’s advice at all.

So we’ve got two books left in this second arc, and I assume they will tie very closely together. As for this one, it feels like a prologue more than anything else. And oh, look, I’ve hit 500 words. Bye.

By Hajime Kanzaka and Rui Araizumi. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Elizabeth Ellis.

After the review of the last volume, I said that I hoped this one would be a bit lighter in tone. It is, but only a little bit. This is still a series where not being Lina or Gourry gives you a high chance of dying horribly or being turned into a horrible monster. Indeed, one of the surprises towards the end of this book is when some of the cast we’ve met along the way *isn’t* killed off. And we also have Luke and Mileena, who are back for this book but, let’s face it, are there to be off-brand Amelia and Zelgadis – indeed, a joke in the final pages has someone mention how much Lina’s companions have changed. But honestly… I don’t think Luke and Mileena have the plot armor that Lina and Gourry do. Still, the end of the arc is still three books away, so in the meantime we have “let’s look into bad things happening” on a more mild level.

After giving her report on the previous book’s events to a very disbelieving sorcerer’s council, Lina and Gourry are forced… erm, asked to investigate a bunch of lesser demon sightings. Much to their surprise, these turn out to have been taken care of by a “white giant” on the mountainside. then, as often happens with Lina and Gourry, they run into a corpse and the murderer of said corpse, who is rather doggedly trying to eliminate witnesses. The they run into Luke and Mileena, who are with a young man, Jade, trying to save his kingdom from a very familiar person who seems to be putting poison into the king’s ear. Can our heroes manage to solve things with a lower body count than usual? Who’s destroying lesser demons up on the mountain? And doesn’t the resolution of this book seem a bit too easy to be true?

I’ve talked before about the author’s total lack of romance in the series, which seems to stem more from an inability to write it well than anything else. This comes up near the middle of the book when Lina, in a rare moment that’s just her and Mileena, asks why Mileena is always traveling with Luke. Mileena’s response is “because I’m very awkward”, which may be the most romantic thing we’ve heard in the series to date. And that’s not saying much, as you can see. As for Lina and Gourry, all I can say is that when Mileena asks about their relationship, Lina likens her and Gourry to a sex worker and her “gigolo”, which made my jaw drop but I can see her thought process. Lina’s making all the money and Gourry is the “guardian”. It makes sense if you completely remove sex or romance from the equation, and it’s clear Lina has done that.

As noted above, our heroes win, but… they win pretty easily. Even Lina suspects something else is going on here. I’m sure we’ll find out more next time. Till then, hooray for me, who managed to write 500+ more words about some very short fantasy books that are mostly fights.