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| Written by | Hajime Kanzaka | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Illustrated by | Rui Araizumi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Published by | Fujimi Shobo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Imprint | Fujimi Fantasia Bunko | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Magazine | Dragon Magazine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Original run | 1989 – present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Volumes | 17(List of volumes) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Directed by | Takashi Watanabe | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Original run | April 7, 1995 (1995-04-07) – April 6, 2009 (2009-04-06) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Episodes | 104(List of episodes) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Slayers (Japanese:スレイヤーズ,Hepburn:Sureiyāzu) is a Japaneselight novel series written byHajime Kanzaka and illustrated by Rui Araizumi. The novels have been serialized inDragon Magazine since 1989, before being published into individual volumes. They follow the adventures of teenage sorceressLina Inverse and her companions as they journey through their world.[4][5] Using powerful magic and swordsmanship they battle overreaching wizards, demons seeking to destroy the world, and an occasional hapless gang of bandits.
Slayers inspired several spin-off novel series and has been adapted into numerousmanga titles,anime television series, anime films,OVA series, role-playing video games, and other media. Including the spin-off series and digital copies, the novels have sold over 22 million copies. The anime series is considered to be one of the most popular of the 1990s.[6]
In theSlayers universe, the ultimate being is theLord of Nightmares, the creator of at least four parallel worlds. An artifact known as the Claire Bible contains information about the Lord of Nightmares' task to regain its "true form",[7] which is only attainable by destroying these worlds and returning them to the chaos (sea of darkness) that it itself is. For unexplained reasons, though, the Lord of Nightmares has not acted upon this desire by itself so far. On each of these worlds are gods (親族,shinzoku; lit. "godly race") and demons (魔族,mazoku; lit. "demon race"), fighting without end. Should the gods win the war in a world, that world will be at peace. Should the monsters win, the world will be destroyed and returned to the Sea of Chaos.
In the world where theSlayers takes place,Flare Dragon Ceifeed and theRuby-Eye Shabranigdu are, respectively, the supreme god and demon. Long ago, their war ended more or less in a stalemate, when Ceifeed was able to split Shabranigdu's existence into seven pieces in order to prevent him from coming back to life, then seal them within human souls. As the souls are reincarnated, the individual fragments would wear down until Shabranigdu himself would be destroyed. However, Ceifeed was so exhausted by this that he himself sank into the Sea of Chaos, leaving behind four parts of himself in the world. A millennium before the events inSlayers, one of Ruby-Eye's fragments (which was sealed in the body of Lei Magnus, a very powerful sorcerer) revived and began the Resurrection War (降魔戦争,Kōma-sensō; alternately "War of Demon Conquering") against one of the parts of Ceifeed, the Water Dragon King, also known as Aqualord Ragradia. Ultimately, the piece of Shabranigdu won, but Aqualord, using the last remnants of her power, sealed him into a block of magical ice within the Kataart Mountains. Nevertheless, Shabranigdu's lieutenants remained at liberty, sealing a part of the world within a magical barrier, through which only demons could pass.[8]
There are four types of magic within theSlayers universe: Black, White, Shamanistic, and Holy. Black magic spells, such as the famous Dragon Slave, call directly on the powers of the demons and are capable of causing enormous damage. White magic spells are of an obscure origin and are used for healing or protection. Shamanistic magic is focused on manipulation and alteration of the basic elements of the natural world (earth, wind, fire, water and spirit) and contains spells for both offense and convenience, such as Lei Wing, Fireball, or Elemekia Lance. Holy magic uses the power of the gods, but the aforementioned barrier made its usage impossible for anyone inside before the death of the demon Hellmaster Phibrizzo. As a rule, demons can only be harmed by astral shamanistic magic, holy magic, or black magic which draws power from another demon with greater might than the target.
Above all other magic, however, are the immensely destructive spells drawing power from the Lord of Nightmares. The two spells of this class are the Ragna Blade, capable of cutting through any obstacle or being, and the Giga Slave, which can kill any opponent, but which could also destroy the world itself if the spell is miscast. Some have claimed that these terrible spells, drawing their power directly from the Lord of Nightmares, constitute a fifth form of magic: Chaos magic.
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The protagonist ofSlayers isLina Inverse, a teenage wandering genius sorceress with many nicknames and much infamy attached to her that she refuses to acknowledge. Lina narrates (within the novels) the history of her various adventures, ranging from whimsical and silly to dramatic to even outright world-threatening crises, in which she becomes involved along with her traveling companions everywhere she goes.
The firstSlayers light novel was written byHajime Kanzaka for entrance intoFujimi Fantasia Bunko's first annualFantasia Chōhen Shōsetsu Awards [ja] in 1989.[9] After it won, the new author was asked to create a follow-up. Kanzaka initially thought this was an impossible task as the characters had already defeated the Dark Lord. He called the second book a turning point for him and said it was initially very difficult to write. However, as soon as he added the "spike-wolves and stuff", from his love ofyōkai andkaiju, the "words just flew off the page". Kanzaka set the second book in a city so that Lina could not solve the story by simply casting one big spell. He said that this taught him how using circumstances and setting could change the "flavor" of a story. The author also said that the second book is intentionally "heavier" than the first.[9]
Kanzaka described his writing process as like trying to put together puzzle pieces that have been scattered about, figuring stuff out as he goes instead of following an outline written beforehand.[9] As a new author, he said he was not good at submitting plot summaries to his supervisor, who wanted them before he started writing. When the supervisor passively accepted the plot summary of the thirdSlayers novel, but was then ecstatic with the finished book, he stopped asking for plot summaries. Kanzaka assumed that he had finally realized that the finished story was always going to widely diverge from the initial summary. The first three books were written as the author thought up stories, but volume four on tell a grander epic. Because the first novel was written as a one-off before evolving into a series, there are some inconsistencies with the later installments. A few of these inconsistencies were corrected in the 2008 reprints.[9]
Kanzaka stated the reason Zelgadis and Amelia do not appear in "part 2" is because of the plot point concerning a character's death. Although he speculated he could have written around the healing spells, it would have taken a lot of extra steps to get there and dragged everything out a lot longer than necessary.[10] In the afterward of the fifteenth novel, the original final installment of the series, Kanzaka said he wanted to end the story in an open-ended way in order to allow readers to imagine what happens next to Lina and Gourry. He also described theSlayers video games, television shows, and comics as "parallel part 3 stories".[10]
Kanzaka makes references to people and events not depicted in the novels, such as Lina's older sister andGourry Gabriev's first visit to Sairaag, which he referred to as "flavor" to stimulate the reader's imagination and clarified that they are notforeshadowing.[9] He explained that the fictional world would feel smaller if everything that appears in the story is explained; something he learned from a teacher's comment in design school. Although some of these he has not even thought about, like Gourry's visit to Sairaag, others he has created a backstory to, such as Lina's sister. Zuma's backstory was omitted because the novels are told from Lina'sfirst-person perspective, but Kanzaka gave some of the material to the staff ofSlayers Revolution so it could be included in the anime.[9]
Slayers began serialization inDragon Magazine in 1989 as a short story series written by Hajime Kanzaka and with artwork by Rui Araizumi.[6] The chapters were then published aslight novels under theFujimi Fantasia Bunko imprint across 15 volumes from January 17, 1990, to May 10, 2000.[11][12] Although the original story ended with the 15th volume in 2000, Kanzaka began a new arc 18 years later in the May 2018 issue ofDragon Magazine, which was published in March 2018, to celebrate the magazine and Fujimi Fantasia Bunko's 30th anniversary.[13] He described it as "kind of a reunion" and said he had not decided to relaunch the series yet.[14] Volume 16 was published on October 20, 2018.[15] A third story arc began in the November 2019 issue of the magazine, released in September 2019.[14] The author described this as "Rather than an official history, the third arc is going to be more like one of the possibilities, a parallel existence to the TRY TV anime and the Water Dragon King manga, I guess."[16] Volume 17 was published on October 19, 2019.[14]
On September 7, 2004,Tokyopop began publishing the novels in English,[17] ending with the release of volume 8 on January 2, 2008.[18] On July 3, 2020,J-Novel Club announced their rescue license of the series atAnime Expo Lite. They first release the novels digitally, with the first chapter uploaded to their website that day.[19] Their physical release ofSlayers began in July 2021 and is a 3-1 hardcover omnibus edition based on Japan's 2008 revised edition that featured new illustrations and covers.[20][21]
Between July 26, 2008, and March 2009, a new manga series entitledSlayers Light Magic (スレイヤーズ ライト・マジック) was serialised inKadokawa Shoten'sKerokero Ace. The series was written by Yoshijirō Muramatsu and illustrated Shin Sasaki, and set in a technological world instead of a fantasy world.[24][25]
In July 1998,Central Park Media announced they had licensed the manga for distribution in North America.[26] On June 15, 1999,Slayers: Medieval Mayhem was released.[27] The four-volume seriesSlayers Special was published between October 12, 2002, and June 25, 2003.[28][29] A seven-volume seriesSuper-Explosive Demon Story followed between July 9, 2002, and December 1, 2004.[30][31] Finally,Slayers Premium was published in North America on July 5, 2005.[32]
The self-titled first season of the anime adapts volumes 1 and 3 of the light novels. The second season,Slayers Next, adapts volumes 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8 of the light novels.The third season,Slayers Try, is an original story. However, a fourth season,Slayers AGAIN, was rumored following the success ofTry, but early scheduling conflicts caused interest in the project to dissipate.[33]
A fourth anime series,Slayers Revolution, premiered in Japan on July 2, 2008.[34]Megumi Hayashibara, the voice actress for main character Lina Inverse, performed both the opening and ending theme songs.[35] The new plot is told across two 13-episode arcs and follows an original storyline that has subplots based on events in the novels, with series directorTakashi Watanabe and production studio J.C.Staff reprising their duties from the three original TV series.[36] A fifthSlayers series titledSlayers Evolution-R is the second 13-episode arc ofSlayers Revolution and was aired onAT-X starting on January 12, 2009, in Japan.[37]
Central Park Media licensed and distributed the anime in North America under the Software Sculptors label onVHS andLaserdisc between 1996 and 1998, collected in eight volumes.[38] It was a commercial success for Central Park, which led them to licenseSlayers Next andSlayers Try;Next was first shipped from April 1999 in a similar format;[39] a box set of the first four volumes was released in July of that same year, and a box set of the second four volumes in October.[40][41]Slayers Try was released later in 2000. The first three seasons were subsequently re-released on DVD (in season box sets). Months before Central Park's license for the anime properties expired,Funimation Entertainment was able to obtain the license and it aired as part of the new owner's programming block on CoLours TV, as well as theFunimation Channel.[42] The first bilingual DVD box set after Funimation's rescue of the license was released on August 21, 2007, retaining the Software Sculptors-produced English dub.[43] A boxset ofSlayers,Next andTry was released by Funimation on August 4, 2009.[44]
Fox Kids won the rights to broadcastSlayers but eventually did not air the anime since it would be too heavy to edit it for content. The first North American television broadcast ofThe Slayers was February 17, 2002 on theInternational Channel.[45] In 2009,MVM Films began releasing the series in the United Kingdom on a monthly basis. The first series was released on four DVDs between January 5, and April 6, 2009. The first volume ofSlayers Next was released on May 11, 2009.[46] Episodes have also been made available on the streaming video sitesHulu,YouTube,Crackle,Anime News Network,Netflix, and Funimation's website.[47]
Funimation licensed bothSlayers Revolution andSlayers Evolution-R for American release; the episodes in Japanese with English subtitles were uploaded to YouTube, as well as Funimation's website in July 2009.[48] Funimation contractedNYAV Post to produce the English version of the series, with dialogue being recorded in both New York City and Los Angeles. NYAV Post was able to reunite most of the original Central Park Media main character cast for the new season. However,Michael Sinterniklaas replacedDavid Moo asXellos.[49] Other notable characters, such as Sylphiel, Prince Phil, and Naga the Serpent were also recast with new voice actors. Funimation released the firstSlayers Revolution boxset on March 16, 2010.[50] Funimation released the first four English-dubbed episodes ofSlayers Revolution to YouTube on January 19, 2010.[51] They have also uploaded the first two English-dubbed episodes ofEvolution-R to YouTube and releasedEvolution-R on DVD in June 2010. Funimation released bothSlayers Revolution andEvolution-R onBlu-ray on October 26, 2010.[52][53] BothRevolution andEvolution-R made their North American television debut when they began airing on the Funimation Channel on September 6, 2010.[54]
In North America,Slayers Special was initially sold as two separate titles,Slayers: Dragon Slave andSlayers: Explosion Array on VHS by licenseeADV Films.[6][56][57] All three episodes were later compiled intoSlayers: The Book of Spells, shipped on November 21, 2000.[58]
Most of the films were produced by J.C.Staff and licensed for home video release in North America by ADV Films.Slayers Premium was animated byHal Film Maker.
The series was adapted for two role-playing games (RPGs):
Acollectible card game (CCG),Slayers Fight (スレイヤーズふぁいと), was developed by ORG and published by Kadokawa Shoten between 1999 and 2001.
A series of fiveSlayers role-playing video games were released exclusively in Japan between 1994 and 1998. Two different 16-bit games titled simplySlayers (includingthe one for the Super Famicom) were released in 1994. Three 32-bit / CD-ROM games followed in the late 1990s:Slayers Royal in 1997 andSlayers Royal 2 andSlayers Wonderful in 1998. In addition, Lina and otherSlayers main characters have been featured in several other video games in crossover and guest appearances, in particular in mobile games since the late 2010s.
Including the spin-off series, theSlayers novels had 18 million copies in print by 2015.[62] This number had grown to over 20 million copies by 2018.[13] In January 2025, it was announced that the franchise had sold over 22 million copies, including digital sales.[63] Writing in 2020, Iyane Agossah from DualShockers opinedSlayers "is still rarely equaled 30 years later, with an incredible mix of comedy and tragedy, an intricate amount of world-building, great story developments and iconic characters."[64]
Of the various media which make up theSlayers franchise, the anime has by far reached the largest audience and is considered to be one of the most popular series of the 1990s, both in Japan and abroad.[6] As it is a parody of thehigh fantasy genre, the series' driving force lies in comic scenarios alluding to other specific anime, or more general genretropes andclichés. Its focus on humor and entertainment and "old school" anime feel make it a nostalgic classic to many.[65] According toAnime News Network's Daryl Surat, 1996 was the best year ofSlayers anime with the releases ofNext andReturn.[66]Slayers Next took the third place as the overall best anime of 1996 in theAnime Grand Prix '97 awards (in addition to winning in the category best female character), while the next year's seriesSlayers Try placed second but technically also third (the first place was a tie between the filmsMononoke Hime andThe End of Evangelion) in 1998.
Slayers was sometimes compared withRecord of Lodoss War, another hit Japanese fantasy franchise that began around the same time. InAnime Essentials: Every Thing a Fan Needs to Know,Gilles Poitras wrote: "More humorous and less serious looking than the characters in theLodoss War series, the stars ofSlayers provide action and laughs."[67] InThe Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917,Helen McCarthy similarly called it "the antidote to the deadly seriousRecord of Lodoss War, with a cynical cast modeled on argumentative role-players. (...) Ridiculing its own shortcomings,Slayers has successfully kept a strong following that watches for what some might call biting satire, and others bad workmen blaming their tools."[68] Joseph Luster ofOtaku USA called it "the very definition of an all-encompassing media franchise. (...)Slayers certainly has that in its memorable lineup, and they'll likely cast some sort of spell on you, regardless of age."[69] Paul Thomas Chapman from the same magazine voiced a more reserved opinion on the "franchise whose remarkable longevity and popularity is matched only by its remarkable averageness," especially regarding various aspects of the TV series, to which nevertheless he returned for "light entertainment".[70]
