Anime Geek: The Slayers Next

My review of the first season of The Slayers wasn’t exactly great, but I still continued on watching the second season, because I had hope that it would improve as it went on. I think it was slightly improved.

The animation was about the same. The artwork had not changed. It seemed that they did not use as many still shots or repetitive scenes that was a plus. It is still a far cry from today’s computer generated artwork.

The story bounces back and forth between serious and comedic. I’m alright with the occasional gag to break the tension, but I know a lot of people that would rather their anime to be serious.

The end of the story does become very serious. I was impressed with the amount of damage that was shown to happen to each of the characters. However, when someone has their arm blown off or a whole punched through their side there should have been a lot more blood. They probably went easy on the blood for the rating.

Not trying to give anything away about the ending, I was disappointed. There were opportunities for the characters to die, which I feel would have given greatly to the drama of the show. Instead the writers went for the happy ending for everyone.

Even though at the end of the first season the characters went their separate ways, they are all reunited in the first episode in the city of Xoana. A couple of new characters are also introduced, Martina who is primarily in the show for comic relief and Xellos who has his own agenda that pushes the story to its conclusion.

The story does tend to wind around a bit and go off track a few times. There are entire episodes dedicated to fishing for a rare dragon for a special meal, joining an entertainment troupe, killing off a sea monster that is blocking passage on the sea, and an homage to Sailor Moon. 

Once back on track the group is pitted against the  powerful demon Gaav that used to be controlled by Shabinigdo from the first season. Gaav wants to take control of the demons, but this is all a minor plot to the actual bad guy Hellmaster who wants total chaos and destruction for the world.

All in all it is good fun. Even though it really didn’t meet my expectations or standards, I still enjoyed it. I am looking forward to watching the third season which is titled The Slayers Try.