Cartoon Corner- Slayers Excellent

Originally posted at the DL December 2015

ED-E (Never Die)- Such a low key song.  It's bloody weird, because I strongly associate Slayers vocals with bombast as suited to Megami singing more or less in-character as Lina.  within that it's pretty enjoyable, but doesn't stand out at all.  Probably the weakest vocal so far.



Labyrinth- Our 'serious' offering for the set.  One of the many bits of Slayers that you forget you love until it comes back around is Lina's ability to completely take apart the evil plots of villains and make fun of how predictable and stupid they are.  It struck me watching this particular instance that of course the series itself escalates so damn quickly to Always Chaotic Evil Devils bent on nothing less than the utter obliteration of the cosmos; nothing else would dare mess with Lina Inverse.  She doesn't just kill lesser evils, she utterly humiliates them.  I admit I was sorta disappointed they didn't go full epic but eh, despite the obviously increased animation budgets I get the sense that the OVAs specifically wanted to avoid too much epic.

Sub-rating- 7/10.

A Frightening Future- In the grim darkness of the future there is only boingaboinga.
See, Scary.

An odd one in general.  It fits the general shape of Slayers filler, but the way it derails is distinctly in character for Naga stories.  I'm not sure how better to explain it.

Sub-rating- 5/10

Lina-chan's Lovely Makeover Operation- And then Lina was a kogal.
Not really.  Just everyone else.
So this one is in full on parody mode, which I actually don't think happens elsewhere in Slayers that I'm familiar with.  It's a nice one-off kinda thing.  The odd part being that it actually directly references the previous piece despite both of them being otherwise completely detached from the usual reality of the show (or seemingly being so.)

Sub-rating- 6/10

So Excellent makes sense as a set in a way Special didn't.  Sure, it tangents off into nonsense, but each story is distinctly about Naga, rather than Naga just being a character who happens to be around.  It ultimately gives the impression that the two OVAs should have been the other way around, and perhaps the material they were adapted from was, but I kinda doubt it.  I don't think any one episode in this set is super strong, but I do have to give it a nudge for feeling like a coherent though I think.

Group Rating- 6/10.