About Mazoku.org
Mazoku.org is a collective of people with high-quality sites dedicated to Slayers, a series of Japanese novels by Hajime Kanzaka that were eventually turned into an extremely popular anime and manga series. Mazoku.org is not an “elite” collective, but every member values quality in their sites, and as such, they’re always a pleasure to visit. If you have a Slayers shrine, approved fanlisting, clique, or other Slayers website and would like to join Mazoku.org, please send us an email through the contact page!
About Slayers
The anime is a series of animated episodes that appeared on Japanese television. The anime series is composed of three different seasons: Slayers, Slayers NEXT and Slayers TRY, each airing from April to September for three consecutive years. The first episode of Slayers aired on April 7, 1995 and the final episode of Slayers TRY aired on September 26, 1997.
The story that the anime tells is based on that of the honpen novels. There are many differences between the two but the story, for the most part, stays the same. The only exception to this is the entire Slayers TRY season. These stories were created specifically for the anime series and do not appear in the original novels at all.
In 1996, Central Park Media gained the licensing rights to Slayers. They renamed it to The Slayers because of a copyright infringement (there was already something using the original title) and began releasing the series on eight individual VHS cassettes under the company name "Software Sculptors." Fans were given the option to either purchase the series in the original Japanese language format with English subtitles or a dubbed version featuring an English language format. Once the entire series was released, they continued with Slayers NEXT and later with Slayers TRY.
Once DVDs became mainstream, all three seasons were re-released in individual boxed sets. Each of the three boxed sets contain twenty-six episodes on four DVD discs. Bonus features were also included on the DVDs and both English dub and Japanese sub are included together.
The anime remains to be the most popular medium in which to get the Slayers story in North America and most other English-speaking countries. Most fans are familiar with the seventy-two episode series as it has been the easiest to access. ^^ Below are very brief summaries in what takes place during the three seasons:
Slayers TV The first season primarily focuses on the story of Aka Houshi Rezo. Lina meets the blonde swordsman Gourry Gabriev and the enigmatic chimera Zelgadiss Greywords for the first time and the three of them team up to fight Rezo who is working to resurrect the dark lord Ruby Eye Shabranigdu. This story arc takes up the first ten episodes of the season. The rest of the season focuses on the story of Copii Rezo and Zanafar. Lina, Gourry and Zelgadiss meet Amelia Wil Tesla Saillune and Sylphiel Nels Lahda and the five of them learn that Rezo had been "copied" and this Copii Rezo has decided that in order to prove that he is not just a copy, he must do what the original Rezo could not -- kill Lina Inverse!
Slayers NEXT The second season in the series focuses primarily on the story of the Clair Bible. Lina, Gourry, Zelgadiss and Amelia travel the world in an attempt to find the legendary Clair Bible manuscripts. Along the way they meet Xelloss, a priest with mysterious abilities and Martina, the accident-prone, melodramatic princess of Xoana (a kingdom in which Lina coincidentally destroys). After dealing with an assassination plot against Amelia's father, Philionel, Lina discovers that she is being hunted down by one of the five mazoku lords: Maryuu-oh Gaav! He wants her dead, but his reasons are not discovered until the end of the series, when Hellmaster Phibrizo makes the scene...
Slayers TRY The third and final series is unlike the two before it. It focuses on the concept of good and evil, and questions who the bad guy really is. It's a much darker series (although it too has it's fun parts), taking place in the new world and introduces the character of Filia Ul Copt, who is sent to ask Lina and her friends to help save the world. Along the way they encounter Valgarv, who is hell-bent on killing Lina, who, with her friends, works quickly to figure out the meaning behind the Dragon Lord Karyuu-oh's prophecy of the world's demise but things become very complicated.
