>It was officially announced in the latest July 2019 issue of KADOKAWA'S Dragon Magazine released today on May 17 that the long-awaited third arc of Hajime Kanzaka's internationally popular fantasy light novel series Slayers is set to launch in near future.
>The author commented on the third arc in the issue, "Rather than an official history, the third arc is going to be more like one of the possibilities, a parallel existence to the TRY TV anime and the Water Dragon King manga, I guess." Further details such as story and release schedule will be provided at a later date.
Cool. Started reading Kino's Journey and since then have wanted to read some more LNs and Slayers was at the top of my list. Do people who read them think they're more or less consistently good?
Julian Rivera
It reads like general fan-fiction, not that it's necessarily a bad thing. The LNs have tighter pacing compared to the anime, and while Lina can't comically blow buildings up since the setting is much more grounded, Hajime is still able to convey her general snarky attitude and how she abuses her diminutive appearance to get what she wants.
Of course the only reason I'm suggesting using an epub instead of actually buying the LNs is because they're out-of-print, and good-fucking-luck buying a collection. None of the money you'd spend on them would end up going to Hajime, I believe.
>Parallel Universe to Try and Aqua Knight So basically, Slayers time goes to NEXT, then splits into Try and Aqua Knight, and the Dynast Arc and third arc.
Jordan Jenkins
It would probably be healthier to just presume that while they have similar stories and characters, they aren't directly bound to each other. It's like a chessboard with pieces on it with the same players on either side; even though they have the same play style and react to each other the same way, the games aren't going to be the same after they've started.
That's what I've been doing. It's not that they're difficult reads, I just want to be on top of the story if things are going to continuing from the "AROUND ELVES WATCH YOURSELVES" event Volume 16 handed to us last October.
Creating a new season is far more expensive than printing copies of a book. Besides, didn't the last one already use an insert song from one of the older seasons? That's usually a sign that things have been wrapped up and done in that sector.
There is still material from the later novels, no to mention that this is specifically going to be brand new material that is supposed to retcon everything in slayers post-Phibrizzo.
Aaron Hall
Yeah, but the light novels already vastly differ from the anime. Revolution and Evolution use events from Volumes 4 and 5, while Next used events from mainly Volumes 7 and 8. If anything the last two seasons have shown that rather than trying to pull and rework stories from the light novels the anime should be its own thing, and that's tricky to do in a saturated market.
Just forget the Japanese market, Slayers should not be designed for it. Not anymore.
Carter Jenkins
>retcon everything in slayers post-Phibrizzo Wait, what.
Caleb Ortiz
I completely agree that most of Japan has shit-taste, but we certainly can't trust the infected American market. Do you really want a Lina that doesn't have hard nipples in every shot?
>later novels You mean the second half, right? kek The anime only adapted 8 out of 15 volumes, and even skipped some stories between them *khm 2nd vol *khm*
Aaron Cruz
reminder that we also have a new Orphen season next semester
Kanzaka said in this interview that this so-called "series" 3 means that in his view, everything he wrote after novel 8 is series 1, everything that is an adaptation of his novels from the manga, the SNES game and the anime after Slayers Next (which adapted novel 8) is series 2, and now what he's going to write is supposed to supplant all of that, or at least won't take that stuff into account.
The "infected" American market so far has given us Netflix-original anime, which so far have been spectacular. Devilman Crybaby was the biggest anime of last year fer chrissake; that would have been unfeasable in the traditional market.
Jordan Scott
We're bringing back the things you liked in the past so we can subvert them
Like I said, it was the biggest anime of 2018. It had mainstream entertainment outlets writing thinkpieces about it. That should be all anyone needs to know about how good it was.
>Lina: I never cared about eating a lot of food, treasure, freedom, and Gourry anyway
Connor Morris
She'll make comments about returning stolen treasure to innocent civilians, she'll tell Gourry to fuck off every episode but he'll follow her like a puppy because he's a chauvinist pig who doesn't think a woman can be strong and independent, she's still eats the same amount but isn't stick-thin anymore to have a proper representation of real-life women (she still has small breasts, though), she'll have dyed hair to reflect her exuberant personality, and she'll teach Amelia that the priesthood is a lie and start up a lesbian relationship with her. Zelgadis doesn't exist, by the way.
>Like I said, it was the biggest anime of 2018. It had mainstream entertainment outlets writing thinkpieces about it. That should be all anyone needs to know about how good it was.
It's funny how you can write that and people can come to totally opposite conclusions.
People can write thinkpieces about literally anything. It's five minutes of fame because in the world of the internet we don't have the patience for fifteen minutes. I won't even get into the dubious integrity of the entertainment industry - remember when Madoka Rebellion was considered for the Oscars but didn't get a nomination because literally none of the judges watched it?
The annoying thing is I don't even advocate indie shit, but mainstream outlets writing about you probably means you're at the top - of the bell curve.
Isaac Cruz
Where's the best place to get my news, then? I can't have my finger on the pulse of international news every second of every day, you know.
It's called watching a series and deciding for yourself. You can also watch video analysis on youtube - the commentators will be annoying somethings and over-reach ALL the time but at least the format has you, you know, SEE the show they're talking about.
I think it's a shame too, a lot of folks with at least good ideas find themselves delegated to reviewing shit because of the medium. That or webcomics. Or esoteric magic cults but they better stay the fuck away from me
Nathan Moore
I'm trying to be generous. The alternative is Zel exists, and he's a turbo-homo lusting after Gourry.
Amelia would like you to know that punching things and having faith is a lot more reliable than being a weeb nerd.
Carson Wood
Did you know that esoteric traditions emphasized the pattern of breath used to channel spiritual energies, and recognized that physical fitness was necessary to properly open the body's passages and capitalize on the power of the breath?
In Slayers, Lina uses magic because it's a world where magic is a common way of life.
What would Lina do in our world? I don't think she'd be into the Occult because those guys are weirdos
Ryan Fisher
She would be adapted to Hajime's original vision of her, where instead of being infatuated with magic she's infatuated with gadgets and inventions. She's basically be fawning over da Vinci's dick and making trade deals with Orientals for tech secrets.
Aren't they all jobbers? Every big fight they're all just stalling for time so Lina can cast her nuke spell.
Chase Morris
In the anime, yes. In the novels Lina regularly falls unconscious mid-fight or near the end of the fight and has to be rescued by the rest of the team, specifically because the bad guys don't want her actually fighting them at full-strength.
Kinda hard to beat summoning literally God to beat your enemies really.
Jack James
The novels deal with Lina's power quite well. For example, when she's fighting one mazoku in the books, she can't solo the guy because he keeps sending strings into her leg muscles, distracting her concentration with acute pain while also pinning her to one location. Gourry has to step in to try and protect her because she can't stand and can't focus on magic, so instead of standing on the sidelines he gets to have some fun.
After this fight, when they're pitted against regular bandits, he asks Lina to save one for him to fight because she dispatches them all so easily. Consistency is key, yeah?
Well yeah but in the anime they still barely hold their own and Lina ends up doing everything. Makes me wonder if the gang is underpowered or the enemies are just overpowered.
Bentley Diaz
If someone on here is to be believed, Gourry's penalized by the "warriors level linearly" DnD mechanic (opposed to Lina's "mages level exponentially"), while Zel and Amelia are hybrids, automatically making them worse than a pure class.
Death Stranding is about the strands which tie Kojima's fans together, and taking his games to the logical conclusion, he's probably the bad guy
But what of us fans of Kanzaka? With our livejournal and ancient texts(fanfics from the 90s)
Can we stop Kojima's memes of subversions and shitty twists? Can we, dare I say it, redeem him by having him make games that are fun again, rather than terrifying or pretentious?
Depends, really. Lina said many times that she never saw a better swordsman than Gourry. And she is right. Even Zel needed to use magic against him because he couldn't have won with his sword skills alone.
Zel has knowledge in nealry all field of magic (shamanic, dark and white) and has a greater variety of spells and more experience than Lina.
Amelia is good at close combat and quite experienced in white magic. Later on starts to learn astral shamanisitic magic and becomes better in it than Lina herself (the above mentioned Ra Tilt is one of the most OP spell of shamanisitc magic and comes in handy against mazoku).
So it's really just the anime shows that Lina is too OP compared to them. In the novels their powers are nearly balanced thanks to the cons and pros. Also, Lina has the upper hand in fights because her enemies always look down on her (and when they don't, the others need to rescue her)
I just presume that using the OP from Next at the end of the season was supposed to be a sign of wrapping up. It would be like if Cha-la Head Cha-la were used in the last episode of Super.
So what about this new series? The characters at least get older? Does Lina's boobs grow at least minimally?
Kevin Ramirez
I remember watching the first season of the anime a few years ago, it was pretty good but I got busy with university and kinda forgot about it.
Are the LNs the main stuff? What about the mangas?
William Ward
Basically the gist of it is that it's a sequel, featuring new journey with Lina and Gourry taking them to a new country we haven't seen yet. More than likely, it will be Zephilia, Lina's home country where her parents and older sister, Luna, the Knight of Ceifeed (God), live, as well as the Eternal Queen, a living aspect of Ragradia, the Water Dragon Lord. Plus, there's something about "new magic" at play. More than likely, it's the elvish magic featured in Volume 16.
The LNs came first, and are what the anime are adapted from. Since they were written directly by Hajime, you can consider them the "primary canon", but that doesn't invalidate any of the other sources. However, there's also Slayers Special / Smash, stories that talk about Lina's adventures with Naga before the main series. You could see some of them adapted into the OVAs.
The manga, meanwhile, were either adapted to the movies, or adapted from the original LNs and the last two seasons of the anime. What's important to note is that the manga also features the Knight of the Aqualord, an original story, and Hourglass of Falces, which is another original story that's also technically an ecchi. (Pic related)
Oh well, certainly that was the intent at the time. But there's no guarantee they won't change their minds later. Especially if there are new novels to promote. I wouldn't bet on it or anything, but its not unthinkable.
Lincoln Anderson
I guess my perspective is that I don't want to get my hopes up too much. I've been doing that a lot lately and it's ended up costing me a lot of my personal life, so I'm trying to stay hyped without going off the deep end like the last time.
it's depressing on one hand, but also makes sense which is why I say fair. On the other hand it's still comforting to consider a relationship like this, characters I don't insert myself as depicted in this peaceful way.
>moe Moe is not a genre, literally any character from any series can be moe under the right conditions. I get so fucking tired of explaining this. It's like talking to a bunch of monkeys.
Matthew Smith
What's the term for "filled with nothing but super-deformed underage girls making kawaii uguu~ sounds playing in a sandbox" anime and manga? I don't want to appear ill-informed to those of refined taste.
That's really overblown. She only does it once, and never again after learning the Ragna Blade. IIRC she even uses a "plain" but souped-up Dragon Slave as the finisher in the last volume of the third arc.
It's not as exciting as people think, though. Granted the West didn't get half of the LNs, but a simple search lets everyone know that it's not Metallium in the pic, just Dilgear that Luna forcibly adopted and renamed.
