i expected an essay about lina inverse to be happier

[hsiuism]

Recently I finally got around to finishing the last five or six episodes of Slayers Evolution-R. Evolution-R, and its companion series, Revolution, were strong entries in the Slayers anime canon, with a good premise and solid ending. One thing that kept bothering me, though, that I didn't notice until coming back to these last few episodes, was

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[bevinbaka]

Oh Slayers, my first ever anime love. Lina Inverse is far and away one of the best female characters in anything ever. And you know, I watched Revolution and Evolution-R back when they were first fansubbed (I couldn't wait), and it didn't consciously occur to me, but I think I had this residual feeling of Lina not being quite as awesome as she used to be as they progressed. There were some cool points, of course, and I liked getting more of a glimpse at Rezo as a character, but really by the end of the series I was left with a feeling of redundancy. Wasn't the end of that season basically a re-hash of a bunch of stuff from the first three seasons? why did we need to go over it again? There are, what, like 17 novels they could have used plot from but for some reason they never do. It's like they didn't want to go anywhere new so they pulled a Hollywood and made a remake of their previous ideas, only they tossed in a "cute" little mascot to boot.

Overall, I found it pretty forgettable. Zuuma was cool and I was really happy to see someone from the novels finally freaking show up, but he wasn't around that long, all things told. When I think of Slayers I remember the earlier seasons and the novels (I never got into the manga either).

Oh, and one thing I wanted to mention about gender and sacrifice for the sake of romance: in the course of chasing after Lina at the end of Next, Gourry does actually give up the only thing of substance he cares about, the Sword of Light. Of course for some inexplicable reason it gets returned to him later (this doesn't happen in the novels), but still, him tossing the Sword of Light like that, his family heirloom, hell his family heritage, that's about the biggest sacrifice he can make at that point. I always liked that.

Edit: Oh yeah, I can't remember if I ever linked to it, but I actually wrote a very brief piece on Slayers for my blog, dealing with feminism

Edit again: Also! This problem you're talking about bugs me a lot too, especially because it's such a pervasive mindset amongst even the fanbase. I got ANOTHER person making a comment about Nami being a bitch (in a bad way) on my Deviant Art account today and it's like... what in my gallery leads you to believe I'm going to agree with you? I have more pictures of Nami in there than probably any other single character. I have pictures of her dedicated specifically to telling people who don't like her to suck it. I'm beginning to feel like a broken record. But yeah.

[dqbunny]

Oh, and one thing I wanted to mention about gender and sacrifice for the sake of romance: in the course of chasing after Lina at the end of Next, Gourry does actually give up the only thing of substance he cares about, the Sword of Light. Of course for some inexplicable reason it gets returned to him later (this doesn't happen in the novels), but still, him tossing the Sword of Light like that, his family heirloom, hell his family heritage, that's about the biggest sacrifice he can make at that point. I always liked that.

This is why I absolutely loved one of the final moments of Evolution-R, when Gourry throws away the hilt to the replica Sword of Light. It feels like he's throwing away the past, including all the ghosts associated with his stealing the original sword and leaving home.

[bevinbaka]

I like your point and I'd actually forgotten he'd done that. That's one thing I've been so disappointed with in terms of the later Slayers series is the lack of much thought or concern the writers seemed to have with Gourry. Of everyone in the series, he's the one we know the least amount about, and yet for some reason very few people seem to be curious about him. I was really hoping to have at least a little bit of exploration done with him in the new series, but they never did. Zelgadiss a little bit toward the end which I ate up with a spoon (since after Lina he's always been my favorite), but Gourry never gets any attention except when he's being stupid.

[dqbunny]

Gourry is my favorite character along with Lina, and I understand how you feel. At least Revolution treats him far better than TRY, where he was rendered useless. He winds up saving the day on several occasions in Revolution, and a lot more emphasis is given to his reactions - especially to Zuuma. I admit to having a huge fangirl moment the first time I saw the new opening and he's fighting Zuuma (it looks even better on the DVDs because they finished animating that spot.)

The fansub translation was also harsher toward Gourry in the later Revolution episodes than the official subs. Going by the fansubs, Lina treats Gourry very cruelly when he's without his sword and completely dismisses him, but on the official subs, Lina's a lot more sympathetic and is acting cheerful so he doesn't worry. Listening to the track without subs, I think FUNi's sub is by far more accurate (as well as it should be). It does make a difference in some of the scenes starting around episode 9 and going to the end. Still, the Lina/Gourry pairing as partners as a whole is treated so much better here than in TRY. (They're my OTP if you hadn't guessed. ^_~)

Have you ever read Gourry's side story? It's really good and explains more about where Gourry is coming from since it's set right before he meets Lina. There's also a fantastic twist to the story if you figure out who the person Gourry is interacting with is.

[hsiuism]

Thanks for pointing to your Slayers essay! You did a great assessment of Naga - I love her for all the reasons you describe (and for some reason I LOVE Martina, even though at times she grates on my nerves almost as much as she does Lina's).

Now that you mention it, the new seasons were really weird! I think I was initially seduced by the shiny, pretty animation and the crack. "Redundant" is a good way to describe it, and I, for one, was super disappointed that Rezo/Shabranigdo was the final boss, because it is difficult for me to take either of them seriously. I didn't exactly get the feeling that Lina wasn't as awesome, in terms of guts or crankiness, but definitely mis-developed and not given a worthy adversary. I wanted a showdown between her and Beastmaster :/

On the other hand, I like Xelloss a lot more than I did before!

in the course of chasing after Lina at the end of Next, Gourry does actually give up the only thing of substance he cares about, the Sword of Light.
Actually, I think it's more like it's taken from him (YouTube video), but your point still stands. He seems to accept the loss extremely well. I almost expect L-sama to make an exchange out of it (the Sword of Light for Lina), which would have been conventional, but she really does seem to be beyond all of that stuff.

To be honest, I do not understand why fans are hostile toward certain types of female characters. Have people really never met someone like Nami in real life before? Or is it that they're upset because they read manga to get away from those mean, nasty feminazis ruining their lives yet here Nami is, talking back to Luffy and Zoro like she has rights or something.

Oh, the fanbase.