Finished the Seyruun arc of Slayers NEXT. When my 6 year old saw Xellos with Martina she became very confused about whether or not Xellos is a bad guy. “He was with the good guys, now he’s with the bad guy so I have no idea if he’s good or if he’s bad.” It melted her brain a little. I don’t know how she’s going to handle the big reveal.
On that note, she absolutely loved his Blast Bomb and slaying of that one Mazoku. I don’t think she realized how powerful Xellos was until then.
Other notes:
She said correctly called Rezo and not Zel as being the bad guy early on in Prime.
She says that Lina, Gourry, Zel, Amelia and Sylphiel are all her favorite characters.
She does not like Martina.
She correctly realized it was Prince Phil standing outside Amelia’s window when they thought he’d died.
For some reason, she decided to call Kanzeil a chicken head.
When I asked if she thought Alfred was a good guy or a bad guy she said she thought he was good. So she’s called one, missed one, and is very confused about Xellos.
Nostalgia Trip: My Story of Watching The Slayers, Day 25
yDay 25: How did your feelings about Amelia evolve through the series?
At first, I hated Amelia. Admittedly, my friends predisposed me to dislike her because when they were talking about how awesome Lina was they were also talking about how annoying Amelia was. But I think I would have been annoyed regardless. As Slayers was my first anime I didn’t understand the tropes she was honoring and was wondering what on earth she was on. She also interrupted the adventures of Lina and Gourry vibe of Prime that I enjoyed and really pushed her way into their duo even though neither or them were that keen on letting her join their party, and I was resentful of that a bit. With Shabranigdo destroyed I was hoping for Lina and Gourry to travel on their own for a bit, but in came Amelia! And I didn’t feel as though she added much to the group.
What made this worse was the English dub. There are things I like about the dub, but Joani Baker’s portrayal of Amelia was not one of them. Her voice somehow managed to be this hideous mixture of old crone and sickly sweet little girl and every time she spoke I cringed. I absolutely hated her.
Keep in mind, her first 3 introductory episodes were all I saw of her for the longest time before we got additional box sets in, and I watched those tapes over and over again, so it was a lasting first impression.
We eventually got the rest of Prime, and Veronica Taylor took over voicing for Amelia, and it was a marked improvement because I would no longer cringe every time she talked. But given that Amelia was the character who was in over her head and needed help and protecting, it didn’t do much to change my opinions on her. It wasn’t until I saw NEXT and saw that she was maturing, becoming a stronger fighter, and saw the friendship moments that she had with Lina that I started to like her. The episode with the hot springs where Martina returns was a huge turning point.
At that time, there was a lot of vitriol in fandom directed towards her. While I understood where it was coming from given that I did hate her at first, given how her character did mature and grow I felt it was undeserved. So I fell into a pro-Amelia camp as a result of it and swung in this direction of how awesome she was and shipped Zel and Amelia, but not as strongly as I did Lina and Gourry.
With time, the fandom settled down and the haters went on to other things, and the novels were translated, and between the fact that I’m no longer defending her and some of the insights from the novels, my feelings about her have changed again to a sort of, meh. I’m at this point now where I think some of the contradictions of her character are interesting, such as how she clings so fiercely to a concept like justice given what happened to her mother. I mean, if there’s one person in the world who should know that justice doesn’t always triumph it should be someone whose mother was assassinated. I also appreciate her strengths and her friendship with Lina, but I also realize that if I knew her in real life she would likely drive me up the wall. There’s a firm wall between realizing this and still appreciating her as a character even if she’s not high on my list of favorite character anymore, pretty much because I think she’s gotten enough hate to last a lifetime. And given how strongly I relate to Zel, this has sort of dampened my enthusiasm for Zel and Amelia as a ship. (Note, I’ve never been a a one of those fans who had a crush on Zel type thing, it would have felt narcissistic to do so since I always related to him in a platonic, kindred spirit type way, so it’s this genuine I can’t see Zel and Amelia working out thing now, not a jealousy towards her character that some fans had type thing. Of course, these things aren’t always logical and rational so I could be very wrong here).
So Amelia is the character who I’ve had the most topsy turvey relationship with. From absolutely hating her to absolutely adoring her, to a sort of mellowing sort of, “she’s ok” type thing. Only one thing has remained consistent. While re-watching the first season with my daughter I was so glad to be done with her three intro episodes so I wouldn’t have to hear Joani Baker anymore! I usually watch those episodes with Japanese audio now, but my 6 year old’s reading skills aren’t good enough yet for subtitles, so I had to suck it up. They really need to re-dub those episodes with Veronica Taylor!
1. How did you start watching The Slayers?
2. How easy was it for you to collect the series to watch it?
3. What stage of your life were you in when you watched The Slayers?
4. Have you met anyone involved in any way with the creation of the show? Hajime Kanzaka, a voice actor be they Japanese, American, Spanish, Elvin, etc? A janitor who worked in the animation studio? What were they like?
5. Do you have a precious collectible from the show? What is it, and how did you get it?
6. What inside jokes do you have about The Slayers with friends/family you watched it with?
7. What lengths did you go to to get access to Slayers VHS/DVSs/fansubs, etc?
8. This one favors our English speaking fans, but it’s too great a story in the history of watching Slayers to leave out. Do you remember the Great Slayers Disc Exchange (I think that’s what it was called)? Do you have a story involving your participation in it? And are you still mad at Software Sculptors? If English isn’t your first language, what stories do you have about the studios bungling the release of Slayers DVDs in your primary language?
9. What is your memory of experiencing your favorite funny moment in The Slayers?
10. What is your memory of experiencing your favorite moment of your favorite Slayers character?
11. What moment in The Slayers surprised you the most?
12. When did The Slayers exceed your expectations?
13. When did The Slayers disappoint you?
14. What do you remember about experiencing the moment when Phibrizzo kidnapped Gourry?
15. What was your memory of experiencing your favorite moment of your favorite Slayers ship?
16. What is your memory of watching your favorite dramatic Slayers moment?
17. What is your favorite memory of watching The Slayers?
18. What was your strangest memory of something that happened when you were watching The Slayers?
19. Which character dying at the hands of Phibrizzo affected you the most?
20. What was your reaction to the end of Slayers NEXT?
21. What was your experience with tracking down the novels?
22. When did you fall in love with Lina? Or if you didn’t fall in love with her, how did your feelings about her evolve through the series?
23. How did your feelings about Gourry evolve through the series?
24. How did your feelings about Zelgadis evolve through the series?
25. How did your feelings about Amelia evolve through the series?
26. How did your feelings about Sylphiel evolve through the series?
27. How did your feelings about Xellos evolve through the series?
28. What moments from the show do you use to motivate you?
29. What impact has the show had on your life?
30. Why do you believe this show has had such a lasting impact in people’s hearts?
OK, I noticed during this re-watch that when Sairaag was destroyed there was no footage of Sylphiel’s father dying, which I thought was strange because I remember seeing it in NEXT during the flashback scene, in the original series style and with her father being thin, and not fat like he somehow is in NEXT. Was glad to see this confirmed on KanzakaDex. Was this cut footage that was originally supposed to air but not used?
The Mastery of the Battle with Gaav in Slayers NEXT
I just finished covering the events of Gaav’s Challenge in Something Wild AKA Gunginiel Knight and I started thinking about what a wonderful job the anime did adapting an already tense fight to the screen. And I think to truly appreciate what they did I have to rat on Slayers Prime a bit. I think the most brilliant thing they did during the fight scene with Gaav was that at some point all of them had been gravely injured and could not fight.
In Prime when fighting Copy Rezo and Eris is putting Rezo’s legacy in it’s place they encountered a problem with too many characters and not enough to do. Literally Sylphiel and Amelia just spend a lot of time during the fight scene standing there (and in Sylphiel’s case annoyingly screaming for someone to stop Eris). I wonder if a lack of budget to animate something to keep them occupied played a factor but it annoys me when I re-watch it (Gourry being ruby mind controlled just doesn’t account for why all of them were kept busy with him).
Slayers NEXT got around this problem by having all of them gravely injured and incapacitated at some point. Every character gets a turn so regardless of who your favorite it at some point everyone watching gets a tug at the heart strings and the brutality of the fight is so engaging. One of the many reasons the NEXT is the best season and storytelling at it’s finest.
