
	Format VHS Released in North America by ADV Length 60 minutes English Dubbed version reviewed
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Slayers: Dragon Slave

slayers review

Slayers has been a great source of comedy in the world of anime over the years, and their OAVs with Naga and Lina teamed up have been fantastic. Dragon Slave continues their slapstick exploits with two episodes that are very solid, with a steady stream of hilarious moments to keep viewers’ attention through their entirety.

The first episode, called The Scary Chimera Plan, is about a mad scientist type fellow who wants to create the ultimate chimera, the only problem is that he wants to use Lina’s head as the centerpiece. Naga thinks that it would be a great idea, making for a magnificently designed beast. However Lina is less than impressed, throws one of her trademark temper tantrums and storms off. This doesn’t stop the scientist, as the rest of the story follows his efforts to try and capture Lina, then his having to deal with the aftermath. The second episode, Jeffrey’s Knighthood, involves Lina and Naga being hired by a wealthy noblewoman to train her son so that he may become a knight in the royal guard. Of course the boy is a skinny, uncoordinated, hapless twit, that doesn’t have a hope of becoming a knight, but Lina and Naga have very little choice but to train him. A masked woman appears out of nowhere every time Jeffrey gets into trouble and saves the day; she also cracks people over the head with her warhammer every time they say something bad about him.

The two episodes are absolutely hilarious. The Scary Chimera Plan has a lot of one liners worthy of a chuckle, but the clever part about this episode is how it pokes fun at Naga’s incredibly annoying laugh. The villagers run and cry like children every time she lets out a chortle. The second episode is easily the funnier of the two though.

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The way the mysterious woman always shows up when Jeffrey is in trouble will have viewers rubbing their hands together with glee waiting for that moment. Jeffrey and his delusions of grandeur are also quite funny. By and large the stories, while shallow, provide a lot of non-stop entertainment and laughs.

Even the quality of the artwork is quite good. The images are crisp and vibrant, there’s detail a plenty and everyone has

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a lot of life drawn into them. There are enough settings to keep things interesting, and it’s always fun to what Lina loose her cool and blast someone with Explosion Array.

The voice acting is quite good for an English dubbed title. While not Oscar material, it is certainly of a higher caliber than that of your average Saturday morning cartoon. The only draw back is that Naga’s laugh is so bloody annoying. So, seeing as The Scary Chimera Plan’s running gag is Naga’s laugh, those who absolutely cannot stand it, may want to think twice about checking out this title.

Overall though, Slayers: Dragon Slave is a very good piece of anime. It provides a lot of laughs and doesn’t slow down for a minute. The jokes don’t get old quick either, so viewers can watch it multiple times and still enjoy it, unlike a lot of other comedies. Dragon Slave is a great little romp worth taking a look at.

Reviewed by Mr. Nash