Review(s) #52: Slayers OVA/Movies

Final (Aggregate) Score – 8/10

At over 100 episodes combined together as an overall series, and with a production run that spanned from the mid-90’s all the way to 2009, Slayers is one of anime’s largest franchises, as well as one of the longest fantasy series around. It should come as no real surprise that over the years, Slayers has spawned more than just seasons of TV shows. Along with all the manga, light novels, and radio drama the series has built around, Slayers has had more than its share of movies and OVA. Starting in 1995 with “Slayers: The Motion Picture”, the series spawned a total of 5 movies and 2 OVA’s. Each movie runs about an hour, with the exception of the last (Slayers Premium) which only runs a half hour. Each of the OVA runs for 3 episodes at the standard 30 minutes each. Each movie, and really each OVA episode, stands on its own, without tying together any plots or villains from the others. They also don’t pull anything from the TV show, excepting once again Slayers Premium.

The movies and OVA are as follows;
1995 – Slayers: The Motion Picture (Movie)1996 – Slayers: The Book of Spells (OVA)
1996 – Slayers: Return (Movie)
1997 – Slayers: Great (Movie)
1998 – Slayers: Excellent (OVA)
1998 – Slayers: Gorgeous (Movie)
2001 – Slayers: Premium (Movie)

Each of the Slayer movies and OVA follow the main character from the TV show, Lina Inverse, as she travels around the world, helping people out as a sorceress for hire. Premium features the main cast from the TV show in a short 30 minute movie that doesn’t tie to the plot at all, with Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zellgadis, and Xellos all showing up. I sort of wish it was just packaged up in the North American Slayers releases with one of the main TV show series since it goes with that rather than any of the OVA or other movies. It’s not a bad little plot, involving octopi trying to take over a town, but it’s so short that it’s hardly worth going out of your way for.

All the rest of the movies and the OVA ditch the main cast in favor of Lina traveling with a woman named Naga the Serpent, who is only hinted at in the later TV seasons in passing. Set in the time before the first TV season, Naga meets Lina while she’s still a young famous traveling sorceress, before she got caught up in saving the world. A powerful sorceress like Lina, Naga is a tall buxom woman that dresses in tight, revealing clothing, physically the opposite of Lina (a fact she constantly reminds Lina of, much to Lina’s distress). Like Lina, Naga has a great love of food and money, though the two are as often at each others throats as working together. Where Lina frequently laments her troubles and gets depressed about her life going wrong, Naga always bounces back from adversity with a persistence born of a willful stupidity.

As previously stated, none of the movies or OVA episodes tie together, so each really does feel just like a TV episode, albeit twice the length of one for the movies. Each revolves around Lina and Naga getting into the middle of some local problem, sometimes starting off together and other times meeting up after the beginning. None of the plots end up being too serious, and all of the villains end up being either incompetent, weak, or have a glaring weakness. Lina never seems to be pushed to her limit, and no one gets more than singed by a fire spell. That remains in the vein of the TV series, though obviously with less stakes for the shorter time. This ends up making for an even more comedic experience, and with the small time frame and high production value, you end up getting a visually lovely laugh from a longer episode, so to speak.

Between both OVA and the four movies that count, you get enough exposure to Naga to make her character feel a part of the Slayers universe, and at 7 hours total between them all, it’s a good bit of time for Naga and Lina to develop a working relationship between them, even taking time to have a flashback to how they met. The scattered nature of the individual movies/OVA episodes means that none of the characters get any development, just as the short nature of all of them means no single plot gains a lot of time to develop either. Taken as a series of comedic one off episodes though, the Slayers movies and OVA’s work quite well. It’d pay off to watch them separate from the TV show, rather than watch them all chronologically, since the voice actress for Lina changed between the TV and movies, as well as the main cast. Watch them all before you ever watch Slayers in fact; it gives you a general idea of Lina without feeling revealing, and you get to see Lina’s past. Besides, the other way around is slightly anti-climactic; watching the short comedic films after the “final battle” of Slayers Evolution-R is a real shift in tone and can make the movies feel like a let down.

 

(Mini) Review #51: Puni Puni Poemy

 

Final Score – 2/10

Puni Puni Poemy (3P) is from the creator of Excel Saga, something that we’re reminded of constantly not only in this anime (that once again has Nabushin as a self insert character), but it was also advertized in Excel Saga itself. In a way it’s like the ties that Genshiken has to Kujibiki Unbalance, though Genshiken doesn’t have an author insert promoting Kujibiki, nor does Kujibiki ever reference Genshiken in its own series. 3P is sold separately from Excel Saga, which is sort of a shame, since it only runs 2 episodes and easily could have been packaged in on an extra’s disc like an OVA.

It’s even MORE disappointing because 3P really isn’t any good on its own. The hour long story barely gets past introducing characters, of which there are a lot for so short an anime. The title character, Poemi, is basically Excel except younger, taking all her character traits from her longer series cousin (hyper speech, boundless energy, stupid but relentless). The Hyatt insert is Poemi’s classmate, Futaba, though she lacks Hyatt’s sickness, only keeping her purple hair, reverence for Poemi, and gentle voice. Poemi’s parents in 3P are Nabushin and Kumi-Kumi, the director insert and the woman he married at the end of Excel Saga. After they supposedly die, Poemi moves in with Futaba’s family, the Aasu, who are a family of sisters that protect Earth. There are also villains of a sort, including aliens with hanging balls, as well as a family of octopod aliens posing as humans.

3P is a series that’s hard to be indifferent about, and there’s definitely a side I can see that would really like it. The randomness of the humor, the fan service, the constant action, all the things that made parts of Excel iconic are all here. In a way it even surpasses Excel Saga in its hyperactivity. On the other hand, that makes for even less focus, less development. One can easily say an OVA like 3P doesn’t want focus, nor should it, but the parts I loved most about Excel Saga were that so much of the randomness came together in a strange harmony at times, and especially by the end.3P is too short for that, instead resting purely on quick sight gags and throw away anime references.

If you enjoyed Excel Saga so much that you want more, there’s a chance you’ll like 3P. If you love randomness, fan service, and want an hour to pass with a few laughs, you could do a lot worse. You could do a lot better though, and if you WANT something with more meat to it, you’ll be left sorely disappointed.

• Languages – Japanese/English
• Episodes – 2
• Published – 01 (JP) 07 (US)