The evilness of Hajime Kanzaka and the terrible curse of Tokyopop

[pip25]

No, this is not a Tokyopop-bashing entry. On the contrary, actually. A few days ago, I've been put into a situation that reminded me quite a bit of what they must have faced when trying to localize the Slayers novels.

Comments

[dqbunny]

Geeez. And here I was thinking she was experimenting and did this. This is so ... Lina.

[pip25]

I have to agree. XD Reckless or not, I guess this can be quite expected of the Lina in Slayers Special.
Still, dear Lord, good thing she didn't accidentally miscast it in her anger. That would've been sad. XP

[ichiban_victory]

I don't understand what's wrong here. Keeping in mind that Lina was downright reckless in her younger years (not saying she's exactly cautious now, but she shows some restraint nowadays), I'm not at all surprised by this scene. And really, if Hajime Kanzaka wrote out every minute detail about the Giga Slave, it would make for a long and depressing read. Something Slayers Special is not.

(That said, I've never had any interest in the Special novels. I liked the more serious tone of the regular novels.)

[pip25]

Did you check the original unchanged scene hlrespect translated at the community? We're not talking about minute detail here: the whole casting of the Giga Slave is 2 (two!) lines.
That's, at least, a missed opportunity, or at worst, bad writing. There, I said it. It's not about how serious the scene was (the changes I made above aren't all that serious either), it's that Kanzaka simply dropped the ball here. If this Special story would've been a fanfic... well, I don't think it would've gotten very good reviews.

[ichiban_victory]

I didn't find anything wrong with it, personally. I like detail as well as the next person, but sometimes it can bog down if not downright kill the flow of a story. Plus, leaving out detail is a normal thing in Japanese culture. I've run in to this for novels, manga, video games, and even anime. I don't know why, but Japan just doesn't seem to want to know everything like us Western folk. ^_-;;

On another level, it's interesting to see Lina here, where she's more than willing to cast an untested spell to vent her anger to her later self, where she has to really be in a dire situation to even consider casting untested spells. It may be very well why she's survived so far... Makes me wonder what she would be like in her post-teen years.

[gruic]

Sorry but I still like it.

[pip25]

Sure. It's a free country and all. ;)

[pip25]

Well, it's never elaborated upon, but I would say that she had no idea how powerful it was before she used it for the first time here. That's the only explanation which at least makes some sense.

(As far as I know, the Sword of Light is helpful to keep it under control, but it isn't necessary.)

[pip25]

Well, chronologically Slayers Special 13 was written in 1998, when the first main novel arc was already over and Fibrizo was dead. Even the NEXT anime was finished by then.
So he wrote this while fully knowing what the Giga Slave was and what implications it had on the plot of the stories which took place later on.

[shansito]

Well, I do seem to remember that Lina casted the Giga Slave in almost the same fashion as in that SP chapter, in the Slayers Premium Drama =3 and you know, there she used it agaisnt Naga xD and that time, she perfectly knew what could happen, so... more fun =D

A detailed version would be great for us (we wouldn't be participating in a Wikia if we didn't like details xD), but that's exactly the point of the SP chapters, they're all just senseless fun, it's like watching Bobobobobo Bobobo, SpongeBob SquarePants or series like that

[shansito]

True, but at the same time, although that was the first Giga Slave use chronologically speaking in the Slayers timeline, readers could already know (mostly japanese readers, of course) what was that spell about since either 1990 (first novel, "first" use), 1993 (7th novel, Claire Bible explanation), 1994 (8th novel, L-sama Herself), 1995 (1st series), 1996 (NEXT) and 1997 (TRY), while that novel chapter was written by the end of 1997. The spell has been introduced and explained already many times to readers and audience, so it could just be that Kanzaka thought it would be pointless to give, again, information about the spell, specially taken into account the light character of the SP chapters. What's more, he even doesn't write almost anything about other new spells that may appear in the Special saga, or others not-so-new but almost-not-used in the main series.

Anyway, I would be jumping all over the house if he would have given more info about that particular scene, of course xD

[pip25]

I guess it's partly that the special series usually has very little to do with the main novels. Some arcs, like the men in black in novel 9-10 and Wizer are connected, but mostly, the two have next to nothing in common, so the very different tone and detail-level does not bother you... except, well, here.