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

[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

[dqbunny]

I did notice that to a point, Lina had grown a bit mellower in the new series, but she never really came off as "cute" to me - not in the new sort of moe way that seems to be so popular. She comes off as being older to me instead, which does mean that she's not going to act exactly the way she did at 15-16 in the first couple of series

[hsiuism]

I can definitely see where you're coming from, and I think reading or not reading the novels does make a big difference. I've only read some of them, and only once, so while I know they contain a lot more sustained character development and world-building, I tend to focus almost exclusively on the anime canon. Doing a close read of this same subject in the novels would be interesting, though.

Your point about Lina's age progression is well taken, but since age is rarely discussed in the anime itself, I kinda feel like that's projecting continuity where it doesn't necessary exist. Lina states her age in the 1st season and, if I remember correctly, links it to either (or both?) her abilities or maidenly innocence. If she established her age at the beginning of every season and the viewer associated the events of a season with a specific age, I would buy the age-maturity argument.

But, she's grown as a person to the point where her heart does comes out and she knows that if she doesn't use that power right that poof, no more Lina

[dqbunny]

I think reading the novels and Knight of Aqualord makes a big difference, you're right. When the new anime was originally airing, there were a lot of folks who didn't quite get why the characters were acting differently from TRY and it was because the scripts are a lot closer to the novels than before. That's why revisiting Zanaffar didn't bother me so much and I was ecstatic over Zuuma. We finally got a proper adaptation of novels 5 and 6. I figured they were re-introducing the world with this series and had it continued, then we would have gone to the arc presented in novels 9-15.

Lina does make it a point to establish her age in the novels, which is where I'm drawing that knowledge off of. She mentions she's 15 in the first novel, 16 in the third novel when they're fighting Copy Rezo (she's yelling at Gourry and Lantz, telling them that she does grow older) and then 17 in the third arc of the novels.

For you, what's the difference in how she uses power in Revolution/Evolution-R compared to earlier series?You mentioned it

[hsiuism]

Edit: Sorry, italics @_@

Lina also has this way of turning Zel's attempts to rein Lina in to her own advantage in order to get him to work for her which is something I've always loved about her character.
Yeah, I love that about her too ^_^

You've definitely given me a lot to think about! Now I really want to reread the novels I have already and find some others. I've only read parts, like QP Diana's translations of the side stories, and I think that's why I avoid using them for character/plot analysis - my knowledge is too spotty.

She was extremely quick to yank it out in TRY against Valgaav, and that always bugged me given what happened in NEXT (I think it also bugged me that others didn't get onto her for that).I agree plot-wise it was questionable, but when applied to characters that's kind of what I like about the anime. To a certain degree each anime season "resets" - like taking three steps forward, two steps back, development-wise. So I think that's why I didn't like the new season as much; there was the same "reset

[ojuzu]

I haven't watched more than two episodes of Slayers, but I do have a quibble with naming Haruhi as an exception to the norm of female characters. I mean . . . she kind of is, but the entire premise of the series/novels is the other characters (and mostly Itsuki and Kyon, at that) conspiring to keep her unaware of this great agency she wields. Because they're scared she'll consciously do something with it, as opposed to the random, unconscious things she's already doing.

[hsiuism]

Thanks for pointing that out! I admit, I've only seen the series once and obviously need a refresher. I think of Haruhi as an exception - or, at least, as unusual - because she does possess great personal agency. She's a bored, talented teenager in a small town, which I think many people can relate to, and her personal mission is to find something interesting and worthy of her attention. The message I took away was that Kyon's mission is doomed and futile, since Haruhi's powers come out in such strange ways because she's bored and full of unfocused energy. To me, she is the personification of adolescent restlessness and self-centeredness.

Actually, I am a little puzzled by what a phenomenon the Haruhi franchise has become, but your comment makes me want to look up the series again :)

[ojuzu]

I agree with your analysis of Haruhi herself! I just hate the way the show treats her.

I'm pretty sure the reasons it's so popular are the same reasons I don't like it -- the misogyny under the guise of humour, the pandering to the fanboys, the complete lack of consent from everyone involved. D:

[anonymous]

I haven't seen the new seasons yet (I'm holding out until I buy the dub, whose voice actors I really like), but if it's as you say, it's a hell of a thing for them to do to such an awesome character. At various points in the old seasons Lina certainly PLAYED cute, and she CALLED herself a "beautiful sorcery genius", but nobody else could really see it. Wring a laugh from the audience and then Lina was back to being a bitch on wheels, rolling over a fair chunk of the Mazoku pantheon and everything else that gets in her way (except Xellos. I don't really like Xellos.). The two manly men of the group were very definitely following her lead, both the 'brains' Zelgadis and the 'brawn' Gourry. They did their own thing sometimes, took out the small fry... but the main action was always where Lina was at

[bevinbaka]

The first eight novels have been translated by Tokyopop, but sadly they didn't sell well enough for them to finish the other half of the series. I personally really enjoyed them and wish I had a way to get ahold of the others. y'know, in case I ever learn how to read kanji someday. Looks like you can find them on Amazon, some of them are even still in print.

[dqbunny]

Here is a ZIP file of the ninth novel, which was translated by Baka-Tsuki last year. I also have it formatted for Epub so I can read it on my iPad if you want that too. I think there's a rough translation of novel 10 out there, and bits and pieces of the later novels have been translated. catgabriev translated some of the final Lina/Gourry scenes in the series from the 15th novel. QP-Diana also translated Gourry's and Zel's side stories.

I managed to get the original run of the novels through a Yahoo!Japan auction and my husband got his set of the re-releases through an Ebay auction. You can also get them through Amazon Japan. I've started back into Japanese, and my eventual goal is to be able to read the other novels that haven't been translated.

[hsiuism]

Really? You are the first person I've met who likes the dub! I do like Gourry's English voice, but I wish they'd kept Cynthia Martinez for Lina (I liked how she made Lina sound super chilled out but youngish).

At various points in the old seasons Lina certainly PLAYED cute, and she CALLED herself a "beautiful sorcery genius", but nobody else could really see it.
Yes, exactly! She played the cute little girl card but it was funny because nobody believed the act and neither did she. It's just creepy when she does it for real.

Ohh, thanks for the reminder about the new manga. Is it a crossover with Lost Universe? Which site are you using to read it?