ANI-MOVIES, *Slayers: The Motion Picture

Where as most anime movies based on a TV series act as either a midquel or sequel, the first(of five)Slayers movies was done as a prequel. This movie(known as Slayers Perfect in Japan)takes place during the time of Slayers Special which was all about a slightly younger and brown-haired Lina Inverse who tours around with the egotistical sorceress, Naga the Serpent(aka: Princess Amelia's missing older sister!). Although this film seems to take place sometime after the Slayers Excellent OVA series which showed how Lina and Naga first met up.

Lina runs into Naga again, and the two of them luck out by lifting some tickets from bandits to the resort island of Mipross, which sports some special hot springs(no, not like in Ranma 1/2!). Once there, they have to deal with one "strongest man on the island" after the other. They make their way to the hot springs which Naga exposes as a fake. It's proprietor takes retribution by using his water-bending magic to get back at them, but Lina & Naga's combined skills stop him. After taking him to the local king for a reward, they learn that the King and Queen have been plagued with dreams featuring an old mage. Lina herself has been pestered in her sleep by the same wizard, Rowdy Gabriev, who is really the ancestor of Lina's future-drinking buddy, Gourry. She and Naga investigate some old ruins where the King informs them that a powerful demon has been wreaking havoc, and the head of all the evil dicks that they've run into on the island. The demon is Joyrock, a reptilian monster that has gathered alot of mana over the centuries since he killed off a bunch of elves who lived on Mipross, and Rowdy became a mage since then trying to find a way altering time so that Joyrock never succeeded in the first place. After sacrificing himself, he manages to send Lina back in time, and she Dragonslaves Joyrock out of existance. Lina and Naga come back to find that the island is now very prosperous as if its dark past never happened, although the two of them remember everything that happened. Lina also gets short-changed with no reward to speak of, and Rowdy gyps her too with the promise of a "growth-enhancing" magical spring, which she hoped to use on her notoriously small cleavage.

This movie featured some improved animation than that of the TV series. Then again, alot of anime shows from the mid-90s were seriously lacking in good animation. It was directed by Hiroshi Watanabe who went on to do the rest of the Slayers Special anime titles. ADV Films released in the States, and it featured a different dub from the TV show. Cynthia Martinez made her anime debut as the American actress of Lina, and Kelly Manison pulls of a convincing Naga, laugh and all! On its own, this makes for a pretty decent movie, even if you've never seen any other Slayers material prior to it. The only thing that never comes up from this is Lina ever mentioning to Gourry in some of the later episodes of the TV series that she met his great-great-great-etc.-grandfather. Anyway, like most Slayers stories, it is a perfect stab at the entire RPG fan genre. Anyone who thinks D&D players take their "craft" way to seriously should strap them down and force them to watch this movie Clockwork Orange-style!