Talking a bit about Slayers (by Hajime Kanzaka)

There was a time a couple of years ago when I had discovered this series. I was just bumming around and procrastinating when a game I was playing made a mention to it. Curious, I looked it up and started watching the first season. Now, It's one of my favorite series of all time. Volume 18 of the light novel when !! (Spoilers if you haven't watched or read Slayers. Well, not applicable if you aren't actually interested in the series. >.>)

As to why I like it, it's just fun? The fanwiki KanzakaDex describes it as a sword and sorcery, which I both agree and slightly disagree with. It certainly fits the bill, Lina Inverse herself has antihero(ine) traits and the series itself is very episodic. However, they still operate under overarching story arcs, and the series also has a mix of epic fantasy mixed in. I would personally describe it as a weird mix of S&S pacing but operating at the high world-at-stakes level of epic fantasy.

Is it any good? I mean, objectively it's like a 7. The magic system it has is simultaneously complex and vague. It works in that it calls on magical beings like spirits or gods to cast spells; magic in Slayers is just that everyone is a druid, warlock and/or cleric. But it's also pretty simple because there's only 4 classes

1. Shamanistic. Basically most of the spells, includes elemental (fire spirits, water spirits, y'know the deal) and astral (weird spirit realm that exists in parallel to the physical realm)

2. Black magic draws from mazoku (demons/evil/monster race), 

3. White magic's source is unknown but it can heal and stuff

4. Holy magic pulls from the shinzoku (holy/god race). 

Mazoku are evil demons that want to end the world by returning the entire world back to the "Sea of Chaos" while the Shinzoku want to stop that. Basically, their dynamic is CSGO terrorists vs. counter-terrorists. Very rudimentary

I do like how holy magic was extinct where Lina lives because they were walled off from the shinzoku by the mazoku in a massive barrier erected in an ancient war. The barrier dissolved at the end of the 2nd season of the anime (don't recall what volume of the light novel though) when one of the big wigs mazoku maintaining it dies. The 3rd season of the anime is an anime original (canonical? ambiguous, if i remember correctly) but they show a bit of holy magic there, while holy magic shows up as well a bit further in the light novels as well. But Lina herself never learns how to use holy magic, because the spell casting requires knowledge of elven/dragonic languages since said long lived races were the only ones who could preserve them. It's a neat thing, even if I think it's a bit lame that we don't see Lina pulling out a bit of holy magic here and there.

White magic's source being unknown or obscure feels weird though. Spirits and mazoku are a known thing by humans even inside the barrier, so it makes sense they could call onto them for magic. But, how can people call forth an ambiguous source..? I mean, it's because holy magic and its whole story wasn't conceptualized until a little bit later and white magic was probably meant to be black magic's counter part. But nevertheless, it would've been nice if there was an in universe explanation for this

It's a fun series for me. It's light and comedic but has a kinda neat magic system I can think about here and there. It's certainly no LOTR, but it really doesn't have to be. It's not horrendous like Naruto switching around what chakra is, and that's what counts. The characters make it more fun, and speaking of them;

I really like Lina's character. Her personality itself isn't too uncommon; smart and cunning, morally dubious but would never leave a friend, the works. I specifically like how this personality is portrayed. I felt as though her voice in the anime was non-standard for a female protagonist( I have no point of reference for this, but what I'm saying is that it's unique), it was almost goblin like, which fits her a lot. Her armor is simple and practical, if not a little goofy but that's just 90s anime for you. It just screams "battle mage" for me.

I could also go on about the other characters, but I'm feeling too lazy. Plus, I think you should give the series a try and check out the other characters.

One thing that saddens me is how difficult it is to find resources for it. It's no lost media, just that so many stuff is untranslated. What is lost media are the older fan resources from a couple of decades ago just disappearing. It's a bit of a dismay, but it's not the end of the world as long as I can (ideally in the near future when I learn a bit more Japanese) read the source material. A long ways to go, but it is what it is.

It's not like there aren't any fans of it today either. I still see the occasional Slayers fanart on Pixiv and whatnot, and it's always pretty good! I do wish I could read those old fanfics though, I need to see if AO3 has any of them since they apparently host old fanfics from now-defunct websites. 

A bit of a long winded blog that doesn't really mean much. Just wanted to post about a favorite series of mine.