Slayers REVOLUTION – 11

「Keep out しのびよる魔獣！」 (Keep out. Shinobiyoru Majuu)
“Keep out. The Evil Beast Draws Near!”

Episode at a Glance:
With Zanaffar fully resurrected after absorbing Gioconda, Lina and the others find out that the silver beast obtained all her knowledge and experiences too, allowing it to speak. While Ducuris finds such a punishment befitting of Gioconda, the others refuse to sit idly while Zanaffar is revived. When all regular spells fail, Lina unleashes a Dragon Slave, which destroys the entire town, but leaves Zanaffar unscathed due to its inherit anti-magic characteristic. Pokota however suspects that Zanaffar’s soul is hidden in the Astral plane and attempts to attack with the beast’s only weakness—the Sword of Light. Unfortunately, the replica blade runs out of power momentarily, allowing Zanaffar to attack back before deciding to leave.

Ducuris then leaves as well, and is surprised that Xellos has decided to accompany him. Claiming that the Mazoku have an interest in Zanaffar as well, Xellos adds that they don’t want to see the beast spawn more of its kind. Hearing this, Ducuris tells Xellos to do as he pleases, but in return, to allow him to do so as well. Meanwhile, Lina and the others are feasting on a meal and recall a legendary story about Zanaffar being killed by the Sword of Light after it destroyed the magical city of Sairaag. Pokota however says that’s just how the story was passed down and that Zanaffar was only sealed away, before pointing out that they only have a replica here. Feeling that’s all they have to go on, Lina decides to let the replica Sword of Light recover its power before fighting Zanaffar again, which Weiser adds is their responsibility anyway after killing Gioconda. Naturally, Lina’s not happy about being blamed for it, but can’t say much when Weiser reminds her of the town she just leveled with her Dragon Slave.

That night, Pokota has a nightmare about the epidemic, making him wonder when Ducuris went astray from their efforts to save Taforashia. At another city Zanaffar just destroyed, Ducuris points out how the silver beast absorbs humans and continues to grow, prompting Xellos to explain that destruction and massacre are its true nature. Hearing this, Ducuris is reminded of the epidemic and feels that this is retribution he was hoping for. The next morning, word of Brocora’s destruction reaches Weiser, Lina et al., making them suspect that it was Zanaffar. Meanwhile, Ducuris approaches Zanaffar explaining that he was the one that revived the beast and proposes a deal with it. In exchange for helping him destroy cities and letting people experience the same despair that Taforashia did, Ducuris agrees to help Zanaffar find more humans to absorb and spawn more of its kind. Xellos however mentions that this is exactly what he wanted to avoid, but allows Ducuris to do as he pleases.

The destruction of neighboring countries soon commences, with Xellos wondering why Ducuris is going to lengths to spread despair when Gioconda was the one that seized Taforashia’s relief supplies. Ducuris however feels it’s the same thing because none of them confirmed that the supplies arrived, not even the self-proclaimed Kingdom of Justice, Seyruun. Chasing after Zanaffar, Lina and the others note how three cities have already been destroyed in a matter of days, after which Zelgadis notices that the beast has grown. With everyone realizing that they won’t be able to stop Zanaffar even if they catch up to it, Lina thinks that Weiser has a plan, but soon finds out that he doesn’t have the slightest idea. Camped out for the night, Pokota tries to slip away unnoticed to avoid dragging the others into this any further, but Lina stops him wondering why he’s worrying about this now. As prince of Taforashia, she suggests that he use the best means to try and defeat Zanaffar, so Pokota kindly asks everyone for their help, which they gladly agree to. However, Lina says they’re going to leave Ducuris up to him.

Talking things over, Pokota explains how the relief supplies never arrived and how Ducuris despises the other countries for this. While Zelgadis brings up that this was Gioconda’s doing, Weiser points out that the other countries didn’t do anything even after realizing that, and only sent relief supplies once to uphold their countries’ prestige. Feeling that Taforashia was abandoned, Amelia is shocked to find out that Seyruun was also one of the countries that did the same thing, so she apologizes to Pokota. Weiser says he bears responsibility as well, and swears on his reputation as an inspector to put a stop to Ducuris. With everyone motivated, they’re still at a loss for where Zanaffar is headed, but the Sword of Light starts reacting and emits a beam of light in Seyruun’s direction.

Next Episode:
「Legacy 決戦セイルーン！」 (Legacy. Kessen Seiruun!)
“Legacy. Decisive Battle at Seyruun!”

Impressions:
Incoming Dragon Slave! GTFO! So I thought Ducuris came around last episode, but that seems to be far from the case. In retrospect, it would’ve left us without any real antagonists except a rampaging silver beast, so I guess it only makes sense that things continue on this way. In any case, it seems like everything’s resting on the Sword of Light now, especially when the Dragon Slave has no effect against Zanaffar, so it’s kind of a shame that Gourry’s lost the original. I’m still hoping to see Gourry obtain a new sword sometime in this series (e.g. the legendary Blast Sword), but it doesn’t seem like we’ll be getting around to that anytime soon with the way the story is going now.

The rest of the episode pretty much speaks for itself, as there aren’t really any new twists or sub-plots worth mentioning. That’s not to say that the series is becoming dull or anything though; it’s just that the series is continuing on with the premise that they’ve completely laid out. While this may seem a bit overly simplistic, it makes the series pretty easy to watch since there aren’t any open-ended bits that they’ve introduced but never explained. Because of this, there really isn’t much else to do but sit back and enjoy the show for now, especially when the next episode focuses on Seyruun being attacked. It’ll be interesting to see how Amelia handles this and we might even see Phil as well, even though he wasn’t shown in the preview. We did see Sylphiel though, which longtime fans of the series (and Touma Yumi) should appreciate.

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)
– Xellos (ゼロス) / Ishida Akira (石田 彰)
– Weiser (ワイザー) / Ootsuka Akio (大塚 明夫)
– Ducuris (デュクリス) / Matsuyama Takashi (松山 鷹志)
– Zanaffar (ザナッファー) / Ishii Kouji (石井 康嗣)
– Fran (フラン) / Takewaka Takuma (竹若 拓磨)
– Zoran (ゾラン) / Taniko Mirei (谷古 美玲)
– Girl A (少女A) / Nabatame Hitomi (生天目 仁美)
– Girl B (少女B) / Oki Kanae (沖 佳苗)
– Boy A (男児A) / Itou Asuka (伊藤 あすか)
– Woman (おばさん) / Konno Mahiru (近野 真昼)
– Taforashia citizen A (タフォーラシア国民A) / Sugisaki Ryou (杉崎 亮)
– Taforashia citizen B (タフォーラシア国民B) / Nagamatsu Hiroshi (長松 博史)
– Taforashia citizen C (タフォーラシア国民C) / Suzuki Yuuto (鈴木 裕斗)