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NEWS: Slayers Novels Get Sequel After 18 Years


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Dessa



Joined: 14 Jul 2004
Posts: 4438
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:09 pm Reply with quote
I wish Yen would rescue the license. I've been wanting to read past volume 8.
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:31 pm Reply with quote
As much as I love the Slayers anime, I could never get past the spoiler["Lina almost gets raped but Gourry saves her by convincing the would-be rapist that she has an STD"] scene at the beginning of the third light novel, and as a result, the rest of the English-language editions (I bought most of the series all in one go) ended up sitting on my shelf unread for years before I eventually put them in storage to make room for more manga. Sad
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:54 pm Reply with quote
Super excited about this news. I'd also love a new anime, but whatever.
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
Posts: 898
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 8:54 pm Reply with quote
Really excited for this, but also kind of sad, because the post-Phibrizzo LN material was really good, but also really depressing. I'd still like to see them try to adapt it to promote the new series, but with a different creative staff because it's just so different from the 90s adventure series that it deserves a fresh perspective.
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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1168
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:21 pm Reply with quote
Funny timing, some friends of mine decided to start watching all the anime from the start and so it's been on the mind again.

I remain curious if we'll ever get the original novels back, since if we can get Record of Lodoss War and Tenchi, surely they're a consideration. Never did start what we got since they're unfinished. Interesting hearing about the tone of the unadapted material, it did strike me that something was up when Revolution/Evolution-R opted to make stuff up again.
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DQBunny



Joined: 18 Aug 2009
Posts: 63
Location: Mechanicsburg, PA
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 10:16 pm Reply with quote
Kicksville wrote:
I remain curious if we'll ever get the original novels back, since if we can get Record of Lodoss War and Tenchi, surely they're a consideration. Never did start what we got since they're unfinished.


You can read novels 1-8 and get a complete story, if that's any help. Granted, knowing novels 9-15 are out there make you twitch.

Quote:
Interesting hearing about the tone of the unadapted material, it did strike me that something was up when Revolution/Evolution-R opted to make stuff up again.


There are some things from novels 9-15 that made it into Revolution/Evolution-R, including the basic plot of one of the novels (I think it's the 10th novel, but I'd have to dig deep into my old LiveJournal to make sure). The first episode of Revolution has a plot gag involving Gourry that's from the 9th novel. The spirit of the 15th novel, I feel, ends Evolution-R because spoiler[they wind up fighting another piece of Shabranigdu]. Ironically, Revolution features a pretty good adaption of the 5th novel.

If the anime were to adapt those novels, however, they literally couldn't use Amelia and Zelgadiss in place of new characters Luke and Millina, spoiler[because those two die, and can you imagine the riot that would take place if Amelia and Zel were killed off? I also think it goes against the overall non-dark spirit of the anime to introduce two new main characters only to have them die. Even Slayers TRY avoids this with Valgaav's rebirth.]

I wish the anime would adapt the Knight of Aqualord manga series, which was originally supposed to be a video game. It would be perfect for an anime.
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ZeetherKID77



Joined: 17 Jun 2007
Posts: 980
PostPosted: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:49 pm Reply with quote
I put in a word on Seven Seas' manga survey about the novels, maybe they'll pick them up...
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:05 am Reply with quote
While I have not read the light novels, it would be nice if the Lina/Gourry and Amelia/Zel shippings resulted in respective marriages.
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 4:14 am Reply with quote
Kicksville wrote:
Interesting hearing about the tone of the unadapted material, it did strike me that something was up when Revolution/Evolution-R opted to make stuff up again.


There were some dark moments in the first part too though. I got the feeling it has more to do with Zel and Amelia not being in the rest of the story at all that caused those to be original story lines.

I really liked the final novels, but I'd happily take a new anime with an original story line. I'm not sure how popular R-Ev anime were with the majority of Slayer's fans, but I enjoyed them a lot.
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Rosiero



Joined: 05 Jun 2013
Posts: 114
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 6:59 am Reply with quote
I never really liked the Revolution/Evolution-R anime because the characters got too flanderized and annoying... I don't know if the novels are any different in that regard, but so far in my experience reading the original novels an anime is based on has given me an overall better experience. Razz
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wolf10



Joined: 23 Jan 2016
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:24 am Reply with quote
Rosiero wrote:
I never really liked the Revolution/Evolution-R anime because the characters got too flanderized and annoying... I don't know if the novels are any different in that regard, but so far in my experience reading the original novels an anime is based on has given me an overall better experience. Razz
Lina in the novels is pretty much the same as Lina in the movies, which were penned by the original author and featured a different creative team from the TV series.

The latter arc, though, basically laid the tonal groundwork for Akame ga KILL. There's still some comedy, but party member switches happen for much more upsetting reasons (which were, ironically, only made possible to begin with by Amelia's departure). Akame's final monologue in the manga is even basically paraphrased from Lina's final monologue in volume 15.
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Wrangler



Joined: 11 Nov 2007
Posts: 1346
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 8:34 am Reply with quote
I wonder how different the sequel will be humor wise. It's been nearly 2 decades since Slayers been around. I can't imagine the same style humor (i like) is click with modern tastes.
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Gonbawa



Joined: 28 Jun 2016
Posts: 53
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 10:20 am Reply with quote
But Slayers general tone IS dark.
Far before the story even starts, the gods lost the final battle against the demons/mazoku. The most powerfull omnipotent eternal beings in Slayers are evil. Evil in the way of H.P. Lovecraft beyond-understanding-unspeakable creatures : you can't fight them without risking your life, your sanity, even your soul.
Lina is not the ultimate herault of the Good vs Evil, but a pawn in a chess play of some big Evil against another big Evil. Well, a VERY recalcitrant, chaotic/neutral pawn, and this is where it gets fun.
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pip25



Joined: 22 Sep 2017
Posts: 145
PostPosted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 12:35 pm Reply with quote
Gonbawa wrote:
But Slayers general tone IS dark.
Far before the story even starts, the gods lost the final battle against the demons/mazoku. The most powerfull omnipotent eternal beings in Slayers are evil. (...)

That's... not really the case. The most powerful beings in the Slayers universe are the gods. The demons (including the Shabranigdu pieces) have to team up with each other to have a chance at taking one of them down. On the other hand, the gods are not really active when it comes to the matters of mere mortals, which is why the demons can appear to them as having the upper hand.
The novels are darker, especially the latter half, but they always retain Lina's witty, ultimately optimistic narrative style that keeps things from becoming too grim throughout most of the story.
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Polycell



Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2018 1:02 pm Reply with quote
Kadmos1 wrote:
While I have not read the light novels, it would be nice if the Lina/Gourry and Amelia/Zel shippings resulted in respective marriages.
If I remember right, the author said in an interview the romance between Lina and Gourry was completely unintentional. So no marriage for you.
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