Slayers Premium

The entire purpose of "Slayers - Premium" is to reunite the bickering, food-mad, highly-destructive little fantasy team, and send them on another bizarre quest du jour. There's not much more substance to this frothy little tale of octopus rebellion and mixed-up language (and Xellos is there just to... be there), but overall it's a fun little diversion with plenty of "Slayers" charm.

Lina and Gourry are dining at a village famed for its octopus... only to learn that the octopus is tainted by evil demonic power, which makes Gourry spout gibberish Octopese. And when Amelia and a very reluctant Zelgadis arrive, they are quickly infected by the disease -- and though there's a spell that can cure them, the local sorcerer can't say the words!

So Lina and her incoherent pals venture down into the depths, and discover a hyperintelligent octopus who plans to resurrect their sea god, and take horrible revenge on all of humankind. And unfortunately, Lina has also become infected with the Octopese-disease... just in time for her Dragonslave to putter out. Will the octopus god destroy the afflicted town? And just what is Gourry saying when he says, "I love you!"?

"Slayers Premium" is basically like watching a slightly long, rather fluffy episode of the anime series (despite a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo by Naga during the climax). And it's basically packed with all the required gags that "Slayers" has always had -- Lina's savage beatings and flat chest, squabbles over food, Amelia's dramatic speeches, and the occasional Dragon Slave.

Beyond that, the plot is a pretty fluffy affair -- the whole idea is that octopi are enraged by humans hunting them, and their foppish hyperintelligent leader is planning to unleash a terrible threat on land-based life. So it has plenty of sword fights, magical attacks, Gourry fighting with "bullet time," and plenty of humor derived from the Octopese language (including all Lina's friends moaning, "FLAT CHESTED!" in unison, to express their dismay).

And the handling of the characters is mixed -- Lina is wonderfully bombastic and short-fused, while the hapless Gourry babbles when he isn't swinging the Sword of Light, and the much-abused Zelgadis is dragged on a culinary adventure he wants no part in ("Octopus is NASTY!"). Unfortunately, Amelia is portrayed as rather too oblivious and hypersensitive (she bursts into tears because Zel tells her to walk ahead?), and Xellos is basically there to tell Zel what's going on. Really, that's all.

It's worth noting that the voice actors in this movie are not the same as in the TV series, save for the excellent Crispin Freeman. The other range from good (Lina and Gourry's voice actors) to bad (Xellos sounds like a ten-year-old boy, and the "That is a secret!" lacks mockery).

"Slayers Premium" is not premium by any stretch of the imagination, but it's a cutesy little adventure story that entertains for a half hour. Amusing, if rather stretched out of shape.

I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to this one. The old tv gang meets Naga? Sweet! Unfortunately, the result instead of a full-length epic adventure incorporating everything there is to love about Slayers into one huge production we get one television episodes worth of what amounts to little more than a series of cameos. Shame, shame, shame. It's an entertaining episode, but it feels as though it's missing the 25 other episodes of a great Slayers season. It's nuthin' but a freakin' teaser! A bad way to end an all-time great anime series. I was going to give this DVD 2 stars before I decided to watch it again with commentary by the legendary Crispin Freeman and the delightful Cynthia Martinez. Their commentary was so hilarious (more entertaining than the actual feature, in fact) that I had to bump up the rating a star for the inclusion of such a great special feature. Between voicing Lina Inverse and Puni Puni Poemy, Cynthia Martinez has become a truly great voice actress. Unfortunately, this is her last turn as Lina for now. This DVD is only for the Slayers completist as it features very little of what made it such an enjoyable series to begin with. If you are unfamiliar with Slayers, go get a season of the tv series or one of the OVA's (Slayers Great, Excellent, or the Motion Picture are highly recommended) first.

I was hoping that this movie would have the great action/adventure/comedy that was present in the original Slayers TV show and Slayers Next.

This is somewhere between one of the Naga shows and Slayers Try. In other words its silly slapstick comedy with none of the real heroic adventure aspects of Slayers. In my opinion Slayers Try wasn't as good as Next or the original and the Naga episodes are way below it.

And it doesn't have Lisa Ortiz as Lina. The other voice actress just does carry off Lina's psychotic joie de vivre.

It does have a mildly interesting interview with the guy who voice acts Zelgadis.