Slayers Revolution: The Review

Well, it's here.

Happiness is a title screen and music by Megu.

And then it all went downhill...

Let's start at the beginning:
Lina, fresh upon a pack of bandits, presents herself as the infamous "bandit killer" and promptly destroys the lot when they lovingly refer to her as the "dragon spooker" instead. Flash to Slayers opening theme!

...Well okay, that may be too far early in the series. Let's just resume where we left off in the last series.
Spoilers and whatnot.

Gourry has left behind the Sword of Light to be protected. Then the team parts ways, Amelia and Zelgadis back to Seyrrun, and Lina and Gourry off to kill bandits and plates of meat.
Though most of the series have ended with the team parting ways, rarely has it been without the key weapon of the series.

So the next series starts... with a drawn out bandit... or I should say, pirate beating spree, brought on by none other than our heroine, Lina. The stunt double for Jack Sparrow takes it for a while until he finds out the Lina is THE Lina Inverse and cowers away. This opening scene, lasting until midway through the first episode acts as an important character introduction as we reintroduce the fab four team especially to a new generation of otaku who have not seen the first seireses. Thought it seems like the whole setup could have been more to the point.

Alas, with season four, we've come to find our characters are getting set in their stereotypical ways. Lina is the tempered, flat-chested little girl. Gourry is the idiot... and swordsman... I guess. Amelia, the justice freak. And, by comparison, Zelgadas plays the quiet, straight man, pretty normal compared to the rest of the motley ensemble. The worst part is that these stereotypes shined through more than the awesome violence did, and comedy definitely took the foreground this time around to the action. And that's a bad thing. I guess there really are only so many times you can watch the same incantations and reoccurring jokes.

The whole feel of the series this time around is too cartooney. The characters are all caricatures of themselves, plus, there appears to be a pikachu that will be joining the team.

Why have a fourth season just to jump the shark? I'd have been happier with spontaneous OVAs à la Lupin style, like they had been doing. One thing is for sure, this series has the same feel as the final OVA, Slayers Premium, with a 9:1 comedy to action ratio and cutesy baddies. They must have used the OVA to test the waters for this series.

Alas, I shall watch this travesty. I only hope it gets better from here. It is SLAYERS after all!

UPDATE: I'm told pikachu here is actually a rip of another monster-