Slayers Specials

Synopsis:

Episodes:

• Episode 1: The Scary Chimera Plan (Aired: 07/25/1996)
• Episode 2: Jeffrey's Knighthood (Aired: 01/25/1997)
• Episode 3: Mirror, Mirror (Aired: 05/25/1997)

Characters:

• Inverse, Lina (Main) - Voice Actors: Hayashibara, Megumi, Martinez, Cynthia, Pacotto, Emanuela, Schadt, Shandra
• Saillune, Gracia Ul Naga (Main) - Voice Actors: Manison, Kelly, Lee, Yong Sin, Kawamura, Maria, Silvestri, Marcella
• Diol (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Aono, Takeshi, MacAvery, Tristan, Zucca, Mario, Röbke, Willi
• Galda (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Ootomo, Ryuuzaburou, Lunde, Guil
• Goldias (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Shibata, Hidekatsu, Weaver, Brett, Balbi, Marco
• Josephine (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Yoshida, Rihoko, Rae, Marcy, Rochira, Caterina
• Lagan (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Ginga, Banjou, Bundy, Rob, O, In Seong, Rauscher, Thomas, Mezzabotta, Orlando
• Mailstar, Jeffrey (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Ishida, Akira, Weaver, Brett, Jeon, Gwang ju, Bauer, Florian, Carrassi, Ryan
• Vista (Supporting) - Voice Actors: Shiozawa, Kaneto, Bounds, Bryan, Yang, Seok jeong, Balzarotti, Marco

Staff:

• Kawasaki, Tomoko (Producer)
• Watanabe, Hiroshi (Director, Storyboard, Layout)
• Kobayashi, Katsuyoshi (Sound Director)
• Matsui, Hitoyuki (Episode Director)
• Yamazaki, Kazuo (Script, Storyboard)
• Hayashibara, Megumi (Theme Song Performance, Inserted Song Performance)
• Abiru, Tadashi (Key Animation)
• Fukuda, Michio (Layout)
• Hirasawa, Akihiro (Background Art)
• Ijima, Keiko (In-Between Animation)
• Ishikawa, Taketomo (Key Animation)
• Kanzaka, Hajime (Creator)
• Katou, Hiroto (Key Animation)
• Katsuki, Kunio (Key Animation)
• Kawada, Tsuyoshi (Key Animation)
• Maruyama, Mieko (Color Setting, Color Design)
• Masuda, Hirofumi (Key Animation)
• Matsukura, Yuuji (Production Manager)
• Miyamae, Shinichi (Key Animation)
• Miyata, Naomi (Key Animation)
• Nakamura, Satoru (Key Animation)
• Nakaya, Masaki (Key Animation)
• Sakurabi, Katsushi (Key Animation)
• Tamura, Kazuhiko (Key Animation)
• Tanaka, Ryou (Layout)
• Tsuji, Souichi (Publicity)
• Yasuda, Takeshi (Publicity)
• Yokoyama, Masakazu (Sound Effects)
• Yoshimatsu, Takahiro (Character Design)

Reviews:

• User Cryptic-senpai (Score: 7/10):
  The Slayers Special OVAs were released between July of 1996 and May of 1997. Three episodes were made in total. Overall, they are unrelated, short snippets into the lives and adventures of Lina Inverse and Naga the Serpent. Being a prequel to the previously released movie, Slayers Perfect, it is assumed the events disclosed occur, well, prior to the movie. An exact timeline is anyone's guess. The first episode starts off with Lina discussing a rather pressing matter with a sorcerer named Diol – specifically, turning Lina into a chimera. For unknown reasons, it seems that Lina breached the subject in the first place, butnow that she's seen what the man plans to do, she wants out. Naga enters the picture, and things grow a bit more complicated. Will Diol succeed in turning Lina into a chimera? Well, obviously not, but it's still amusing to see the events leading up to Lina being rescued by Naga, even if she did manage to completely misunderstand the situation. nnThe second OVA concerns Lina and Naga taking on the task of assisting Jeffrey Mailstar with “becoming a man”. No, not in the way you might think, thanks to Naga's rather questionable choice of dress, but to help him become a full-fledged knight. This naturally entails defeating heinous enemies. The catch is that Jeffrey makes a very ineffectual knight; indeed, he's the sort that you probably shouldn't trust to carry a plate, given how clumsy and absentminded he is. How on earth will our favourite sorceresses succeed in completing this task? It may very well be as daunting as saving the world. nnThe third and final episode introduces us to the legend of Shazal Rugandy, a magic user who supposedly created a mirror called the Shadow Reflector. Capable of making exact copies of anyone reflected in it, with the exception that they will have the opposite personality of the person replicated, Shazal sealed the mirror away, never to be found. Until recently, when clue of its whereabouts was discovered. A thief has stolen the information, however, and it is up to Lina and Naga to stop him from taking over the world with shadow copies – and they'll get a reward in the process. nnLina and Naga are, once again, the protagonists. Lina is much the same Lina we've come to know and love: feisty, cunning, and exasperated by her rival's antics. Despite first appearances, we actually do get some more depth from Naga, mostly due to increased screen time. I managed to grow attached to her over the course of watching the specials and I would definitely not be averse to learning more about her. As Naga herself puts it, she holds “a supreme sense of superiority and extreme self-confidence”, and those aspects make her rather endearing. nnAny side characters that dwell within the OVAs are memorable if only for their absurdity and hilarity. Most are defined by single, shallow character traits and used for laughs, whether they're getting their derrières proverbially handed…
• User angelsreview (Score: 4/10):
  This isn’t like the ones before. In fact, I’m not sure that this is even in the same dimention as the others. Lina is with a strange woman named Naga the Serpent who dresses rather… well… just look at her! (Kurai: “Um… is she a striper?” Angel: “Uggg… could very well be.”) I’m guessing that this is before she ever meets Gourry in fact because she doesn’t talk about him or even mention him. You don’t have to see the first two seasons’s to watch this one, though Naga seems to get a tiny bit of time on screen in them. In fact, the threeepisodes are not really repetitive and you can probably watch them in any order, though the first one does have the ‘first meeting’ (if you can call it that) of the two. It seems in the first episode that they have a small history between the two though the story never talks about what did happen, Naga seems to know Lina but Lina doesn’t really remember her. I hate when they do something like that because though the whole show, they never say what is really going on. They have a love/hate relationship between them, once in a while they will act like friends but more over then not, Naga always tries to out shine Lina and fight her.nnNaga is pretty much a fan service character, not really adding anything except someone who wants to fight Lina every single time and make her life almost hell. Her skimpy outfit reminds me of a hooker and I don’t think anyone can wear her outfit out on the streets without being called over by the police. I understand fan service and being bi, I can actually say I like a little of it but this does tend to gross me out. I am happy that they do not always pay much attention to her outfit, and they do say out ridicules it really is so I let them slide on that.nnLina on the other hand seems to be a bit more down to earth then the episodes before and I’m not sure why that is. She doesn’t feel like ‘our Lina’ but someone playing as her. This tends to throw me off slightly as I fell in love with her character from the TV shows.nnThe Animation is actually nice cell shaded, good for the time at least. It does show its age but again, it fits slightly with the others. It’s only a little bit more blured then the others, as seen in most OVA’s like that. They also end up getting off the character designs at times. You would think for an OVA, they wouldn’t do that.nnThere isn’t much background music except for the slap stick comedy sounds we will normally hear but these never overpower and sometimes are even non-existent throughout the show. When we do get epic music, sometimes its cut off to leave sort of a comical end. Lina sounds much younger then the…
• User ratchet573 (Score: 4/10):
  The Book of Spells is a three episode OVA series taking place either before the television series or in a separate universe (I’m still unclear about this and I’ve found no definitive answer as to the chronology). That means that we’re focusing on Lina and Naga, who pretty much ruined the first movie. I have no understanding why they kept going with Naga and Lina as companions considering how dull and lifeless the series becomes without some of the more developed characters we’ve come to love. Nonetheless, this OVA series has the animation of the first film, which means it looks brilliant, but retains allthe things that the film did wrong. I’m going to do this review a little different, looking at the episodes individually, as there is no overarching story, so we can get a better perspective on what is wrong and what is right.nnThe Scary Chimera PlannLina nearly takes a deal with a guy who wants to combine her with dragons and winds up blowing him up and destroying his castle after realizing that plan is really dumb. He returns a month later with clones, but not of Lina, of her companion Naga. The greatest weapon that these clones have: Naga’s annoying-ass laugh. But Naga soon joins forces with her clones to create a choir of awful and basically bring the entire world to its knees.nnTerrible episode overall and mostly because the main joke is not only annoying for the people within the show, but the viewer will seriously be leaving with a migraine. Naga’s laugh was annoying enough by itself but add ten tracks of that laugh being played over each other and the joke isn’t funny, nor are my ruptured ear drums.nnThe plot itself isn’t that great either, nor is there really anything comedic within. It’s an all-around terrible episode that you’d be much happier avoiding.nnJeffrey’s KnighthoodnLina and Naga are hired by an overprotective mother to help a young knight find his way to manhood. They take the pathetic young man on a quest, battling bandits and a black knight, all while the mother attacks anyone who talks bad about him.nnThis is an overall much more palatable experience than the first OVA, though it’s still not without issues. The humor is much funnier but the plot is still as paper thin as it gets. Naga gets one little piece of development (she’s scared of blood) but is otherwise still boobs. It’s an average episode that isn’t offensive, nor is it worthwhile.nnMirror, MirrornNaga and Lina are hired to take down a sorcerer with a mirror that can create an opposite version of the person. Of course, this means that the opposites of the ladies are sweet, loveable, nonviolent creatures.nnWorse than the last episode but not as bad as the first, this episode doesn’t add much of anything to the series. The cute versions of the two girls are probably the only reason to watch this episode, making me wish we focused on a sweet Naga rather than…
• ... and 3 more reviews

Forum Topics:

• Slayers Special Episode 3 Discussion
• Slayers Special Episode 1 Discussion
• Slayers Special Episode 2 Discussion
• What song is that?
• Slayers Special episode 2

External Links:

• AniDB
• ANN
• Wikipedia

Related Anime/Manga:

• Slayers Excellent (anime - Prequel)
• Slayers (anime - Sequel)
• Slayers: The Motion Picture (anime - Sequel)
• Slayers Special (manga - Adaptation)
• Slayers Special (manga - Adaptation)