The Slayers Try Volume 3   Starring (voice): Hikaru Midorikawa, Masami Suzuki, Megumi Hayashibara and Yasunori Matsumoto MVM RRP: £15.99 MVD2268 Certificate: PG Available 09 November 2009

Lina Inverse is your average sorceress and bane of bandits, putting them down wherever she finds them. Okay, so she keeps a little of the loot rather than returning it - a girl’s got to make a living. Through her adventures, Lina has collected together a motley crew of friends to fight against the rising evil in the world. With their greatest battle behind them, a new era of exploration has opened when the magic barrier disappears from the kingdom opening up the outer lands for an enterprising sorceress and her motley crew...

Slayers Try: Volume 3 is the penultimate disc for this series and opens with episode sixty-six Lamentation Without End! which finishes off the tale from the last disc. Valgaav has finally acquired all the magical elements to open a hole to the Overworld and release Darkstar. Of course, Lina is having none of this and follows him for the final confrontation. For those who have followed the story it contains a satisfyingly climatic ending, or so you would think.

Having kicked some bad guys butt there is a price and in episode sixty-seven, This Place Is a Wonder Island!, Lina finds she is alone in a very peculiar world. It is not long before she discovers that she is, in fact, trapped between dimensions, with only a pig for a guide. Oh dear, we seem to be back in a story which separates the crew only to spend another three or four episodes getting them back together before the story returns to its original path. I can see why you would do this on a weekly show as it pads the season out, but it really is lazy writing.

In episode sixty-eight, Pandemonium!, Lina has started to put her crew back together having found Filia and Zelgadis, but there is no sign of the others. Worse still the world they find themselves on appears to consist of little more than islands. When they do find a boat they meet Captain Jarlov who offers Lina his treasure in return for her help in ridding him of some particularly troublesome spirits.

Episodes sixty-nine, Love is in the Tiny Differences!, and seventy Amelia in the Village of Justice!, moves the action over to what has been happening with Gourry and Amelia. The first story sees them being rescued by some fish people and ends up being little more than a thin excuse for a romantic comedy with Gourry indulging his predilection for cross dressing. The second episode is a pretty straight forward village in peril show and serves to unite the whole crew once more.

After this filler detour the story gets back on track with episode seventy-one, Where the Light Leads!, and seventy-two, A Hero’s Advent?, Lina heads back to the pillar of light to rejoin the fight. But if you think that this is the long awaited finale you’d be wrong as it is found that only possession of the fifth weapon of light will stop Darkstar, so we head off on another mini quest arc.

Slayers has never been the best looking show, but it does have strong character design on its side. The show has no extras but once again with the number of episodes on offer you can’t really complain. Audio setup is either the frenetic Japanese 2.0 original track or the slightly better English 2.0 dub, Subtitles are optional.

The show remains funny, if a little repetitive. It’s a shame that they feel the need to string out the central story with side quests, but it gives the show lots of opportunities for zany humour.

7

Charles Packer