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.

These books came out in the early 1990s, but they got a recent re-release to prepare Japan for new volumes after a long break. As a result, the afterwords from the author that we see here are new. In this one, the author talks about the struggle to make Slayers into a series… as he points out, when you defeat the demon lord in book one, where do you go from there? The answer is that awkward second book, very similar to that awkward second album. Last time I pointed out the anime skipped it, but I’d forgotten that they did circle back round to its events in Slayers Next, a full season later. It’s not hard to see why they skipped it – there’s no regulars other than Lina and Gourry, there’s less humor and more horror than you’d expect from a series like Slayers, and the pacing also feels very odd, ambling along for 2/3 of the book before realizing that it actually has to come to a conclusion.

Lina and Gourry, on vacation in the city of Atlas, are doing the usual (Lina inciting bar fights by punching out creepers, Gourry snarking at her) when they’re hired by one of the local sorcerers to be his bodyguard. The head of the sorcerer’s guild has vanished, so there’s a bit of a power vacuum going on at the moment, and protection from the other side is needed. Lina is, frankly, not all that interested, but she gets more so when they’re attacked by two demons with masks. Fighting ensues… then, when Lina and Gourry go to investigate the competition, they find, buried at the bottom of an underground lake in a crystal prison, the missing head of the sorcerer’s guild. What follows is amazing to Lina and Gourry but not to the reader, who probably guessed what was going on about Page 40. The main surprise is when one of the characters involved DOESN’T die.

It has to be said, the most annoying aspect of this book is how it handles Lina. Gourry is supposed to be the big dumb muscle, though the anime exaggerates that to the poi not of parody. Lina, though, is supposed to be the one who gets what’s really going on. Unfortunately, here she’s got to be unable to make sense of the actual power struggle among the sorcerers in order for the plot to function, and you sort of slap your head a bit when she lets the cheerful obvious bad guy out of his prison and then walks away. She’s clueless. There’s also a lot more grotesque horror than I’d expect in a Slayers book here, with graphic descriptions of body mutations and diabolical experiments. And even then, the obvious payoff – the evil sorcerer is killed in a murder-suicide by his creation – doesn’t actually happen. (The anime fixed this.)

So yeah, overall a disappointment, although Lina’s narrative voice is still a lot of fun. That said, I know the series picks up again soon, and am definitely looking forward to more.

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.

Slayers has had a very long history, both in Japan and North America. In Japan the first novel, this one, came out in 1990. It ran for ten years, then stopped, but recently put out two more novels a couple years ago. These are the ones with Lina and Gourry as the stars. In addition, there are well over 30 novels called Slayers Special (unlicensed, and probably unlikely to be), which started in 1991, and star Lina and Naga. They take place before the main series, and are lighter in tone. Not that the main series is all that dark. This is one of the earliest fantasy comedies out there, and signs of its humor are present throughout this first volume – sometimes to the book’s detriment. And then there’s the anime (based on these novels), which started in 1995, spawned several sequels, and was most old-school fans’ first exposure to the series. Oh yes, and the Slayers OAVs, which started in 1996, also brought out over here. Tokyopop licensed the light novels in the pre-light novel boom, and released about half of them before cancelling the series. Now we have these new books, with a new translation.

Light novels were shorter back in the day, and that shows with this first volume, which barely makes it above 125 pages. Given that the anime spread this out over the first ten episodes, those who saw the anime first may be startled by the fast pace of the books. They may also be startled by Lina Inverse’s first-person narration. For those who are not intimately familiar with the series, a North American anime fandom touchstone, Lina is a powerful teenage mage wandering the land, who quickly meets up with Gourry, a buff blonde swordsman who becomes her protector/punching bag/love interest. Together, they get into trouble. In this first book, that trouble is Zelgadis, a chimera who is searching for a way to turn himself human again, and his minions; and Rezo the Red Priest, a very suspicious and smiling priest (but not THAT very suspicious and smiling priest). Throughout it all, Lina deals with all of this with her magic powers and knowledge, her cunning, and Gourry’s sword, which she really, really wants for herself.

Lina’s narration is great, and really gives the novels a different feel from the anime. Her ego is huge, and she’s constantly praising herself, but she makes sure to subtly puncture it throughout. Fans of Gourry will be surprised at what they see here – Gourry is not a genius, and constantly has to have basic information explained to him, but he’s not a dimbulb either, and he definitely feels more mature than Lina. And, for that matter, more mature than Zelgadis, who may be the fandom’s most beloved character, but boy, does he get off to a bad start here, kidnapping Lina and then telling his goons to rape her. Now, the main reason he does this is so that the writer can make a dumb joke about the way fish people have sex, but it certainly reads like a joke from a different era these days. And then there’s the fights, which are well handled but which the anime, obviously, would make a much bigger deal out of.

Despite a few hiccups, I’m delighted to see the novels back in print in North America. If you didn’t read Tokyopop’s version when it first came out, be aware the 2nd novel was not adapted to the anime, so it’ll be new material to you. Enjoy one of the classic comedic fantasies.