First Impressions / Slayers

「Gorgeous 狙われた豪華客船！？」 (Gorgeous. Nerawareta Gouka Kyakusen!?)
“Gorgeous. The Targeted Extravagant Cruise Ship!?”

Episode at a Glance:
Claiming that it’s the fastest way to Gioconda, Lina boards a cruise liner with everyone at Amelia’s expense. On board, they find themselves targeted by what they believe to be the crew, so Pokota decides to levitate away. However, he gets shot down by an arrow, with a message threatening to kill all the passengers if they leave the ship. After reading that the culprit is after the Sword of Light, Lina decides to stage a fight against Pokota to draw the culprit out, only to realize that everyone on board was asked by Gioconda to get the Sword of Light. With all the other passengers swimming after Pokota and the Sword of Light that Lina tossed overboard, Zuuma suddenly appears behind her, saying that he’s here to kill her. Meanwhile, Pokota has lured all the passengers to where Amelia and Zelgadis are lying in wait. While the sheer number of people surprises them, Zelgadis decides to electrocute them all and finds out about Zuuma from one of them. Realizing that Zuuma is an assassin amongst assassins, the three of them rush back to the ship, where Lina is already engaged in a fight with him. When Zuuma finds an opening on Lina, Gourry comes in to save her, so Zuuma releases a black fog that hides his presence and suppresses magic. With Gourry grunting in pain, Pokota uses his Sword of Light to disperse the black fog, and the four of them manage to force Zuuma to retreat, who swears to make up this blunder before vanishing. Afterward, Lina thanks Pokota for saving Gourry, but then takes out her anger on him for insulting her too much during their staged fight.

 

Next Episode:
「Hurry up つっこめっ！いや，つっこむな？」 (Hurry up. Tsukkome! Iya, Tsukkomu na?)
“Hurry up. Plunge In! Wait, Don’t Plunge In?”

Impressions:
Based on the preview from last time, I felt that this was going to be a toss-up episode, but luckily Zuuma made his appearance and saved it from being potentially another write-off. This episode had it’s fair share of classic Slayers comedy that wasn’t really different than last week’s, which makes me wonder why they didn’t just skip the previous episode altogether. In all likelihood, it was probably a filler last week, but I guess we should be grateful that they’ve decided to spread those episodes out rather than having a complete arc on them. While his appearance was fairly brief this time, Zuuma did establish his presence here and gives me something to look forward to when Lina and others run into Gionconda, Ducuris, and Ozel again. Before that happens though, it looks like we’ll see Weiser again, who hopefully isn’t still trying to arrest Lina. More importantly, Xellos is back, and his intentions are beginning to look quite sinister already.

 

Cast:
– Lina Inverse (リナ・インバース) / Hayashibara Megumi (林原 めぐみ)
– Gourry (ガウリイ) / Matsumoto Yasunori (松本 保典)
– Amelia (アメリア) / Suzuki Masami (鈴木 真仁)
– Zelgadis (ゼルガディス) / Midorikawa Hikaru (緑川 光)
– Pokota (ポコタ) / Kobayashi Yumiko (小林 由美子)
– Zuuma (ズーマ) / Tobita Nobuo (飛田 展男)
– Massage therapist (マッサージ師) / Sugisaki Ryou (杉崎 亮)
– Purser (パーサー) / Chijiwa Ryuusaku (千々和 竜策)
– Waitress (ウェイトレス) / Morisawa Fumi (森沢 芙美)
– Porter (ポーター) / Fujii Keisuke (藤井 啓輔)
– Female guest A (女子客A) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Female guest B (女子客B) / Hashida Izumi (橋田 いずみ)
– Female guest C (女子客C) / Takamoto Megumi (高本 めぐみ)
– Woman A (女A) / Oda Mayumi (小田 真由美)
– Boy A (男の子A) / Kobayashi Kei (小林 希唯)
– Child A (子供A) / Houki Katsuhisa (宝亀 克寿)

17 Comments

  3. i wonder when gaurry will recive his own sword of light (i prefer the original one =P), i wonder if zeros will retrieve the original sword of light and give it to gourry again

    Trejon
    Reply

  8. I’m sure there will be further chances for fanservice later on, so don’t fret. Besides, other than Naga, Slayers has never really required fanservice to catch on viewers anyway.

    OverMaster
    Reply

  10. I never looked at Naga as fanservice, but more as an eternal shipwreck of physical humor (which she is, more or less). That and her “oooohohohoho” laugh made her one of the most ridiculous gag characters possible, at least in the world of Slayers. Just why is people so eager to see fanservice out of Slayers anyway? It’s humor has always been slap-stick based, and even the fanservice-y episodes like the cosplay singing in Slayers NEXT was primarily for comedic value… Although I suppose seeing Gaav in a sailor-fuku style uniform (via eyecatch in TRY) can be called “fanservice,” I suppose. lol.

    How long will Zuuma last in the anime? I wonder.

    tau-tau
    Reply

  12. The purple blob at the diner table reminds me of one of the fights from the novels, it was actually during the Alfred/Mazenda/Kanzel arc. But I’m glad to see Zuuma. He’s cool in the books. As far as fanservice goes, I always thought it was a cheap gimmick to try to make up for emptiness in the story line, character development, or character design categories. Thus I’m glad Slayers doesn’t rely on it.

    Ally
    Reply

  13. As far as fanservice goes, I always thought it was a cheap gimmick to try to make up for emptiness in the story line, character development, or character design categories. Thus I’m glad Slayers doesn’t rely on it.

    Seconding this – glad Revolution’s keeping it classy.

    merom
    Reply

  14. it seemed that Zuuma is totally unrelated to the novel version this time. Originally, it was Zuuma that killed the queen of Seiryuun, i.e. Amelia’s mom., along with a bunch of other assassinations. Amelia among all people SHOULD know Zuuma originally. (Amelia and her “big sis” seen their mom get killed right in front of their eyes, all bloody and stuff. And thus why both don’t use bladed weapons and hates blood in general)

    drzero7
    Reply

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