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「Misty 振り下ろされる刃！」 (Misty. Furiorosareru Yaiba!)
“Misty. The Blade Comes Swinging Down!”
Episode at a Glance:
Using the Sword of Light, Gourry is able to inflict some damage on Zanaffar, but Pokota reminds him that the sword’s a replica and they’re finished if it dies out. Meanwhile, Ducuris explains that a dark magic user such as Lina wasn’t expected in his plans, thinking that Pokota and his replica Sword of Light would be the only threat to Zanaffar. Surprised that Ducuris knows about her forbidden spells, Lina learns that the information came from Ozel, making her wonder what else the doll knows. With Ducuris refraining from talking more about Ozel, Lina retorts how his actions are contradictory on two fronts—Zanaffar absorbing all humans will leave it nothing left to eat, and Ducuris attempting to kill her out of fear of the powers the beast would obtain if she were absorbed. During this time, Zanaffar hides itself underground and tells Zelgadis and the others how it’ll show them fear and despair.
Claiming that he doesn’t know whether humans are on a path of self destruction or have hope, Ducuris declares that he’s entrusted everything to fate, including how people overlooked Taforashia’s epidemic, Gioconda’s treachery, and Zanaffar’s revival, adding that if fate wants the world destroyed, then so be it. Back in the underground coliseum, Ozel awakens and rhetorically questions Rezo if this is fate, before revealing that the Red Priest has entrusted “it” to those who have the power to break free from fate. After Lina and Sylphiel exchange a few blows with Ducuris, Zanaffar appears and attacks his supposedly ally, revealing that it wants to speed up his transformation into Zanaffar—a fate distilled on him as soon as he put on the armor. With Lina and the others trying to fight fate, Pokota runs off to check on Ducuris, who has already accepted his impending transformation.
Having evacuated all the civilians, Phil orders an all out attack on Zanaffar and tells everyone not to hold back because the town can be rebuilt. Meanwhile, Pokota learns that Ducuris’ consciousness is already being taken over by Zanaffar and that his excitement at the thought of humans dying rising; however, Ducuris reveals he still can’t forgot the abandoned people of Taforashia. Looking on at the carnage that Zanaffar is causing, Weiser runs into Xellos and neither have any intent on getting involved, with the latter claiming his job is unrelated to the beast. On the other end, Lina and everyone else continue their struggle with Zanaffar, who finds an opportunity to explain how he was created by the proud and magically-powerful inhabitants of Sairaag. A supposed perfect fusion of magic power and absorption power, Zanaffar was created as the invincible weapon that could go up against the gods and Mazoku themselves; however, the creation went berserk in its incomplete state and destroyed the city. With Zanaffar thinking that it’s complete now, it reveals its ambitions to potentially rule the world. Hearing this, Lina figures that the beast is trying to take the place of the gods, but proclaims that the only one that rules over her is Lina Inverse.
Lina then leads the attack and calls for Sylphiel to create a rain shower like they planned. With Zelgadis, Amelia, and all the other Seyruun mages casting ice spells to freeze Zanaffar, the beast finds itself trapped from being overconfident about its immunity. Gourry then tries to go in for a killing blow, but the Sword of Light suddenly loses power, so Lina starts casting her Ragna Blade. Zanaffar starts to break free though, making Lina realize that she doesn’t have enough time to complete the incantation, but Ducuris comes along and attacks Zanaffar’s eyes to buy time. Using a combined Ragna Blade/Sword of Light attack, Lina and Gourry are able to severely injure the beast, after which Lina finishes it off with a Dragon Slave. With the corpse of Zanaffar still giving off its consciousness, Phil decides to block off the area while Pokota plants a Fragun seed from Taforashia to help absorb the beast’s influence.
Ducuris then suddenly reappears and attacks everyone head-on, but Pokota protects him having realized that he’s still human. Not quite sure why he’s still able to retain his normal self, Ducuris wonders if it’s because of the body’s he in. He then asks Pokota to cast judgment on him as prince of Taforashia, claiming that this is his last lesson to him. However, Pokota finds that he’s unable to kill Ducuris, so Phil steps in explaining that Pokota was able to carve his duty as a royalty in his heart. Questioning who can cast a perfect judgment anyway, Phil then proposes to give Ducuris a more difficult fate—living on with the burden of the lives he’s taken. The prince of Seyruun also asks that Ducuris come back to them if they’ve made a mistake in letting him go, but the half-transformed Zanaffar wonders if he’s even capable of that. Leaving Taforashia in Pokota’s hands, Ducuris leaves and bids farewell to him.
With Seyruun rebuilding, Pokota reflects on his arrogance and inability to do anything, vowing he’ll never forget his mistakes. With everyone shifting their focus to Taforashia, Lina’s left wondering about the situation with Rezo.
ED Sequence:
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Impressions:
Seeing as Lina hadn’t used her Ragna Blade or Dragon Slave on Zanaffar yet, I was left wondering exactly how effective they would be. Well to put those questions to rest, we were treated to a “little” Ragna Blade/Sword of Light combination slash followed up by a Dragon Slave.
Anyway, there sure was a lot of talk about fate/destiny in this episode, with Ducuris trying to prove that everything (especially misfortune) happens because of it. Since he was willing to use Zanaffar to help ascertain this, saying he wasn’t dealing with Taforashia’s fate “well” is putting it ever so lightly. Despite how together he appeared all this time, I’m inclined to say that he had already gone mad deep down inside. Case in point, it was pretty contradictory of him to want to kill Lina so that Zanaffar can’t absorb her and obtain her darkness magic, simply because he feared it would make the beast ridiculously overpowered. However, he did sort of redeem himself at the end, helping Lina and the others out and asking Pokota to kill him, but lo and behold our little prince couldn’t do it, making me wonder what’s going to happen with a semi-transformed Zanaffar running a muck. While Phil has stipulated that Ducuris come to them later on if they’ve made a mistake about letting him go, I question how that will even be possible when his consciousness is consumed by Zanaffar’s. Needless to say though, this probably isn’t the last we’ve seen of Ducuris, but the ending sequence hints at more of Zuuma‘s involvement in the second half of the series.
So as it turns out, Zanaffar was created by Sairaag in an attempt to have the perfect weapon that can go up against the gods and the Mazoku themselves, but went berserk and destroyed the city due to flaws in its design. Naturally, created beings never like to think they’re incomplete, thus explaining the beast’s path of destruction to establish itself as an existence above the gods and the Mazoku. This subsequently explains why Xellos has been hanging around and why the Mazoku don’t want to see Zanaffars multiplying to the point where they could possibly challenge them. Aside from that, they broke out “Plenty of grit” again during the epic fight at the end, which gave me goosebumps while watching it. I’m not sure what it is about seeing a bunch of people band together for a seemingly hopeless fight and succeeding against all odds that tugs on my emotional strings so much, but it seems like it works every time. During that scene, I was cheering for Lina and Gourry in my mind as they pulled out the Ragna Blade/Sword of Light attack on the frozen Zanaffar, before Lina obliterated it with a Dragon Slave. While I realize that this is only halfway through the series, this made for an awesome finale for the first half.
Since the series is scheduled to continue after a break with Slayers GLORY (tentative title), I’ll reserve any final impressions for now. I still haven’t heard exactly when the second half will air, but the earliest date will obviously be in January 2009. With that said, I never expected to complete my coverage of Slayers this season after Omni dropped it, but managed to do so somehow with it as the ninth show I was covering. As such, I hope everyone enjoyed it. =)
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)
– Prince Phil (フィル王子) / Inaba Minoru (稲葉 実)
– Sylphiel (シルフィール) / Touma Yumi (冬馬 由美)
– 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)
– Ozel (オゼル) / Oomura Haruka (大村 はるか)
– Zuuma (ズーマ) / Tobita Nobuo (飛田 展男)
– Gunner A (砲兵A) / Miyake Kenta (三宅 健太)
– Soldier B (兵士B) / Sugisaki Ryou (杉崎 亮)
– Soldier C (兵士C) / Nakanishi Toshiharu (中西 としはる)
– Girl (女の子) / Takagaki Ayahi (高垣 彩陽)
At Last, It is now finished already, the end of “Slayers Revolution”, Zanafar is dead, using Ragna Blade at Dragon Slave…
Yap. I’m enjoying it. Thanks, Divine and Omni.
By the way, does this look more like a carrot than an arrow – https://randomc.net/image/Slayers/Slayers%20REVOLUTION%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2010.jpg
Well, at least she improved…
oo finished. im at episode 10 for this, but still reading the stuff here. seems like it will a good mid season ender so ill catch up soon…
nice fighting scenes…
anyway where’s bleach >>…
Espada:
Unless I’m mistaken, there is no Bleach this week.
Yep, enjoyed the blogs.^_^
Helps me know what’s going on before having to watch it myself.
Not so happy about the break though. Only after 13 eps, why in the world do they need a break?
Out of subject but Code Geass R2 OST “memory museum” suddenly reminded me of one of the Slayers BGM..
It ended pretty nicely (the first arc, that is). I must say Ducuris + his half-berserk Z-armor looks quite…ridiculous, but that’s that. JC Staff sure looks throwing in easter eggs from previous seasons, and I’m quite happy they are doing so! (e.g., Sylphiel’s “carrot arrow”) 😀
I’m supposing the second arc will pick up after ToraDora will finish (since that appears to be the show replacing Slayer’s timeslot beginning next week.
awww thx divine kinda looking forward for the new op… xD anyway again i think this is the best fight scene for this season…
Hi guys! I’m girl from Poland and I’ am otaku, if you know what I mean Specially, I like Slayers! My favourite character is Zelgadis – of course! ^^ I’m very excited about this new season of Slayers. It’s not like first seasons but it’s still quite good ;] When Pokota and Lina quarrel it’s the best xD I like your article and it’s amazing because I understand it! xD I haven’t seen a 13 episode because in Poland we have 11 now ;P I hope it will be a long revolution ^^
so it will take a another couple of hundred years and after lina is gone for some new wizard to come in and take the zanaffar’s power and restart all the destructions again
it’s over already??
Omni, i got one question for you. WHy do you always choose to blog the corny BORING animes instead of the good ones??? I never understood that, especially how one can sit and watch a whole episode of Slayers.
what exactly would you consider quality anime? some nobody kid suddenly gets a harem of women after him?
MoneyM:
Well, if you’re referring to Slayers in particular, Omni dropped it like I mentioned in my post. Now if you’re asking how I can sit through a season of Slayers, it’s because I was a fan of the series since the early 90s when I first saw it. I guess for younger fans, they may not see the appeal in series that people like me grew up with. Therefore, they may find it “boring”, but I definitely don’t see it that way.
Also, Hayashibara Megumi rarely stars in anything nowadays (probably because they have to pay her big bucks to do so) and she’s one of the veteran amongst veterans in terms of anime seiyuus and anime songs. I’ll pretty much consider watching anything she stars in.
You did a wonderful job, thank you very much. 🙂
fire carrot/flare carrot lol, why dont she uses dragon slave instead :p double DS(maybe too similar to 2nd slayers)
GOOD JOB DIVINE!!, ur A TROOPER. WE SALUTE YOU!!
*salutes*
I feel like a kid again, I haven’t seen such quality animes since the 90s. Nowadays, people only like the animes what SDDS said “some nobody kid suddenly gets a harem of women after him.” Slayers will always be the classic anime.
someone found the video yet?? i cannot find it anywhere, i only found veoh videos >_<, (im the fucking block list)
Well I was initially put off by this season. They failed at the comedic episodes in comparison to the first three seasons, and they tried too hard with the characters. However in the end the story was done very well considering they were basing this off the fifth novel and it seems that the sixth novel is the base for the second half. Also, Zuuma is easily the coolest villain in the first half of the novels so I really hope the next thirteen episodes live up to the character. Expect very dark fights with Zuuma. ^_^
As for Slayers as a franchise: there’s nothing bad to say about this series. This season was a little too kid oriented to be honest. But what makes this series the best anime series to date in my opinion are the characters. While REVOLUTION might not show this very well, anyone who’s watched the the first three seasons understand how amazing the energy between the main characters are.
All-in-all I really hope the second half mimics the earlier seasons more. =P
It was a great half season. The inclusion of Pokota and its focus on his story certainly took us old fans a bit off, but the run was very enjoyable. Since the story here was closer to the novels I can understand their focus, but it did seem rather unplanned or weird that they chose to omit most references or details to the Copy-Zero saga. In all fairness, they did omit it completely in Next as well when Fibrizo destroyed Sairagg and Flagoon.
We’ll have to sit tight and wait to see how the plan to resolve this new “Rezo’s vase/soul” development. When the season started, I had hoped that they could have brought the Dynast story of the novels, since I find that story to be particularly awesome, but maybe we can get a hint of that on the next season or even a following season (please ^.^ )
Anyway, Kudos to you Divine for giving it such a great follow up. Since there were so few bloggers on this series, I was disappointed when Omni dropped it; but thanks a lot for coming in to the rescue.
Thanks Divine, for stepping up to the plate.
I’m not expecting everyone to understand the prominence
of the Slayer franchise no more than I can understand
what my father sees in shows on TV Land like the Andy
Griffith Show but it would’ve been a crying shame to
have Slayers dropped from the blogs here. It deserves
better class than that and like the Joker in The Dark
Knight, you gave it to ’em.
@v1cious: It’s not over yet!! =D
Like the song says: “You’d better be ready for it!”
@Yukiruchan: It’s a trend that’s common amongst a lot of anime
series these days. To date 3 series I’ve been watching have followed
this formula.
Vampire Knight
Slayers REVOLUTION
and
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (which just resumed yesterday, October 5th, for
it’s second season and I’m about to check it out in moments.)
Quite frankly, I wish these longer shonen-oriented meta-series like
Naruto (which I don’t personally care much for nor watch) and Bleach
would follow suite and take breaks as well instead of giving us shitty
mediocre filler episodes and arcs.
But that’s my opinion.
Anyways, looking forward to the next half, evidently titled “Slayers GLORY”?
~See you next time.
@Divine: Oh yeah, I’ve neglected to give you kudos on the Megu-chan statement.
I agree with you!!
Especially, in the case of Slayers. I think that at least half of the people
who watched Slayers REVOLUTION would’ve dropped it immediately, if Hayashibara
Megumi didn’t reprise her role as Lina. In fact, I say that it would’ve hurt
the viewer ratings to a degree in the same retrospect when applied to the other
original recurring characters; Gourry, Xellos, Zelgaldis, Amelia, Sylphiel, etc.
Everyone wanted this to be as close to classic Slayers as possible and say what
you will about the series as a whole…or rather “so far” in this case since
we’re not necessarily “done” with it…but at least they got the cast part right
with everyone reprising their roles from the original three series except Phil
to a degree.
It would’ve been like putting cough syrup on your ice cream and expecting it
to taste good.
I’m happy to see that I’m not the only old fogie still watching Slayers. I understand that a lot of this season is based on the novels, and that’s fine, but in doing so I really feel like they lost some of the connection between the main characters. After just watching NEXT and TRY back-to-back, these guys are CLOSE FRIENDS! Especially Lina with Gourry and Amelia with Zelgadis. Some might even say they’re more than friends. So, seeing as how this takes place after TRY, I miss their relationships with each other. I don’t mean necessarily romantic, but it seems like they’re all just dumb and silly now, and never went through all that heavy stuff with each other. I don’t know, maybe I’m the only one who feels this way. I mean, Amelia PUNCHED Zelgadis. Not only is that a bit weird for her to do, she would have BROKEN HER HAND. Yet that wasn’t the case. So a guy who used to be able to stop bullets and cannonballs gets hurt by being punched in the face by a tiny girl? She didn’t even cast Visfrank on her hands! But now I’m just being a nitpicky nerd.