http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheSlayers.jpg

A sword-and-sorcery anime played with equal parts comedy and drama, based on a series of light novels. Has five TV seasons, six {{OVA}}s, five movies, six video games and a whole lot of manga made. Became extremely popular in the West, in part because of its quirk of having a female as the lead in a {{shounen}} series.

''Slayers'' ([[MarketBasedTitle marketed as]] ''The Slayers'' in the U.S.) started as a serialized novel in the Japanese "Dragon" Magazine (no relation to the American one of the same name). Originally it was supposed to follow the adventures of the Cephied Knight, a champion for good named Luna Inverse. However, when filling out her background the writer found her little sister Lina far more interesting.

Lina is a young and very powerful sorceress. She wanders the world looking for treasure to steal and magic to learn. Unfortunately (from her point of view), she tends to end up in situations where she's got to save the world instead of just make a fast buck. She will attempt to wring money out of most situations, such as once extorting gold from a town that was actively being ravaged by a dragon. She's also got an amazing temper, having destroyed both the dragon and the town she was protecting with one spell because the dragon embarrassed her by ''not'' stepping on her. She still expected to get paid too. She has earned the titles "Bandit Slayer" (it's not stealing if they've already stolen it!), "[[CulturalTranslation Dragon Spooker]]" and "Enemy Of All That Live" in a few short years.

Much to Lina's chagrin, she ends up with a [[{{nakama}} group of people]] following her around, usually because they're all trying not to get killed by something. In the {{OVA}}s, set before the TV show, this is the deranged sorceress Naga, who [[UnknownRival believes]] Lina is following ''her'' around as her [[TheRival rival]]. In the TV series this is the dumb-as-a-jellyfish swordsman Gourry Gabriev, the justice-obsessed princess Amelia, the taciturn chimera Zelgadis, the Mazoku (Monster) Xellos and occasionally the shrine maiden Sylphiel.

She eventually comes to like them, and is beginning to fall for Gourry by the end of ''Next''. She'll deny it if asked, and insists she's only after Gourry's [[ForgottenSuperWeapon sword]].

The series alternates between serious fights and quests to save the world and silly slapstick humor. There is one [[{{Crossdresser}} Cross Dressing]] episode per season, and they will sometimes take breaks in the middle of serious story arcs or fights for [[BreatherEpisode semi-plot-related silliness]]. It manages to find a nice balance, and is one of the must-see series for MedievalEuropeanFantasy. This show has the first two seasons up legally on [[http://www.hulu.com/slayers?c=Animation-and-Cartoons/Anime hulu]], [[http://www4.funimation.com/video/?page=show&b=89 Funimation's video portal]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/show?p=7B469gIRVcM YouTube]]

Not to be confused with the band {{Slayer}}.

Has a [[Characters/{{Slayers}} Character Sheet]].
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''Slayers'' provides examples of:

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The Lord of Nightmares usually appears as a slender woman with golden blond hair and a long black dress. When she's not possessing other bodies, this is.
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The Blast Sword is so sharp its effectively useless.
** Actually, it's very useful in the second arc of the novels, being capable of damaging Mazoku as well as physical beings, but it needs to be kept in a special sheath, because it's so sharp it literally cuts through everything else.
* ActionGirl: Lina, Amelia.
* AdaptationDecay and/or AdaptationDistillation: While they certainly have their share of jokes, the novels tend to be considerably darker in tone than the anime. For example, Xellos' perpetual grin, secretive nature, and extreme sociopathy come across as very creepy and unsettling in the novels; in the anime, these same traits make him one of the most hilarious characters in the series, even after he is revealed to be a Mazoku. Which version is better is largely a matter of taste.)
** It's also worth mentioning that much of the humor in the books come from Lina's worldview as its a first person narrative. The anime tends to fill in the blanks with more slapstick comedy.
* [[AloofBigBrother Aloof Big Sister]]: Luna Inverse hasn't even actually appeared in the series, yet just the implication of her is enough to strike mortal terror in Lina. In all fairness, [[AllThereInTheManual she brought it on herself]].
*AlternateContinuity: The manga and novels, but not the {{OVA}}s and Movies.
*AffablyEvil: Rezo is a bishonen who is unsettlingly calm and polite. Xellos, particularly the anime incarnation, is generally polite, well-mannered and charming... until he decides to remind the viewers that he's part of a race of {{Chaotic Evil}} {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s.
*AlwaysChaoticEvil: The Mazoku.
*AlwaysSaveTheGirl: In this case it's [[GenderFlip Always Save The ''Boy'']]. Lina uses a spell that might well destroy the world if cast incorrectly, simply because there's no other way to save Gourry.
* AncientKeeper: Auntie Aqua in ''Slayers Next.''
*AnimatedAdaptation: Originally a serialized set of novels.
* AnimatedArmor: Nama and the dullahan.
*AnimeThemeSong, sung by MegumiHayashibara
*{{Animorphism}}: Zelgadis the chimera.
*AntiMagic: The Spell "Flow Break" causes animation spells (such as armor and Golem) to stop working. There was also a MagiTek train in "Try" that ran on magic; the power source absorbed all magic, making attack spells [[ItGotWorse about as useful as throwing toy squibs]] and [[OhCrap defence spells almost as effective as a tin garbage-can lid]].
*ArsGoetia: The series borrows the symbols in the Ars Goetia for use to symbolize the higher level Mazoku: http://kanzaka.wikia.com/wiki/Ars_Goetia
*AudibleSharpness: Most of the swordsmen, especially Gourry and Zangulus.
*AutobotsRockOut: The whole cast in the end of Evolution-R fighting to the tune of "Give a Reason."
*AvengingTheVillain: Eris, Valgaav, [[spoiler:Jillas]]
*BetaBaddie: Copy Rezo.
* BerserkButton: Lina has ''lots'' of these. Particularly involving interrupting (or stealing) her meals, her appearance, her 1,001 nicknames, or her status as a {{Pettanko}}.
** Filia herself has a Xellos-shaped berserk button
*BigEater: Lina, Gourry, Amelia and Zelgadis at least. Amelia and Zelgadis are just politer about it.
*BitterSweetEnding: As of the ending of Evolution-R Pokota has [[spoiler: got his kingdom and father back, but he's still stuck as a stuffed toy, his real body destroyed in the fight against Shabranigdu]]
*BlackAndGrayMorality: The villains are more villainous than the heroes are heroic.
*BodyguardCrush: Gourry towards Lina, in the anime.
*BookOfShadows: The Claire Bible, though partially subverted in that their attempts to find it are as much a plot device as the information within it.
*BottleFairy: Naga the Serpent.
*BreathWeapon: Most dragons seem to have one. Golden Dragons in particular have ''laser'' breath, which they're shown to be able to use even in human form. (Filia's tendency to use hers when she's aggravated with Xellos is frequently played for comedic effect.)
*BrokenPedestal: Zelgadis once fought on Rezo's behalf, believing he was the generous healer most people believe (and also because Rezo is his guardian and grandfather or great-grandfather). This all changed when he found out how far Rezo was willing to cure his blindness, including experimenting on Zelgadis.
*BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: Literally, with [[spoiler:Amelia]] in Evolution-R breaking her arm trying to ''hold back one of the BigBad's attacks [[BadAss with her bare fists.]]''
*CallingYourAttacks: Every magic spell.
**Also subverted: Lina once called Fireball, causing her opponents to flee in terror, but cast only a simple Light spell.
***Actually justified in [[AllThereInTheManual non-anime material]]: mastery of magic in the Slayers setting is accomplished by skill with "Chaos Words", the incantations. The more powerful a sorcerer is, the less words they need; simply invoking the name is all the good wizards actually need to cast a spell. And if they use more Chaos Words then they actually need, the power of the spell is amplified further. This also means that only the very best wizards in the world can actually cast a spell without even speaking its name.
*CatchPhrase: Xellos's "Sore wa himitsu desu" or "That... is a secret".
*ChaoticNeutral: Lina is almost definitive as a CN ''hero''.
*CloningBlues: Copy Rezo.
*CrossDresser: The principal male cast, once a season, for one episode each season, which is episode 17 of almost any given season.
*ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Lampshaded; Amelia thinks things really works this way.
-->'''"Everyone knows the bad guy always wears black!"'''
*CreepyChild: Hellmaster Phibrizo in Slayers Next, and [[spoiler: Rezo-Shabranigdu in Pokota's human body]] in Evolution-R. Technically, neither of them are really children at all, but the fact that they take the forms of same makes everything they do that much creepier.
*CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Gourry. Normally he comes across as dimwitted and scatterbrained, sometimes to the point of seeming completely incompetent (although he was more competent in the novels, to be fair, and underwent more {{Flanderization}} in the anime than any other character did), and his memory is so bad that he frequently can't remember past enemies they've fought or even what happened a few days ago. However, when he senses a threat, his fighting skills push BadassNormal about as far as it can go in this series.
*CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Fan opinions vary on what each individual character's CMoA is, but it seems to be fan conensus that the climax of Slayers NEXT (particularly [[spoiler:the Lord of Nightmares possessing Lina's body to destroy Hellmaster Phibrizo, and Gourry chasing her through the sky and literally ''into another dimension'' in a last-ditch attempt to bring Lina back]]) is the show's as a whole.
*CrowningMusicOfAwesome: In the final episode of Slayers: Evolution-R, [[spoiler:Lina and Co. wage and all-out assault on Shabranigdo's ghost, and we get to see SIX Dragon Slaves in five minutes!, Not including the one Pokota used that set off the crowning music of awesome]] as the legendary second opening song "Give a Reason" plays.
*CursedWithAwesome: Why hello there, Zelgadis...
*DealWithTheDevil: Rezo.
*DestructiveSaviour: Lina
*DevilInPlainSight: Xellos, and it was [[IdiotHero designated-idiot]] Gourry who noticed; he didn't say anything because he thought it was so obvious.
*DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Lina is slowly murdering her way up the Mazoku hierarchy. Gourry also bribed the Lord of Nightmares into giving Lina back to him.
*DieForOurShip: Amelia used to be on the receiving end of this treatment a lot, in order to pair Zelgadis with Lina or Xellos, although her most rabid haters seem to have diminished in number or lost enthusiasm over the years.
*TheDitz: Gourry.
*DungeonsAndDragons: Sure, it's not a trope, but look me in the eye and tell me it isn't an example.
** Ok, it's not it's been adapted to the Japanese MAGIUS Role playing system which has a significantly different rule set that D&D in addition most published campaigns in D&D are set in a mid thirteen hundreds setting while Slayer's is set in a sixteen hundreds setting.
** But it was adapted from DnD, more or less.
*** It was also adapted to the BigEyesSmallMouth, first as part of the "Tri-Stat" umbrella, and then again as part of the "D20" umbrella... which uses the same mechanics and systems as the Revised 3rd Edition (more commonly called "3.5") DungeonsAndDragons. There's something oddly ironic about that, but this troper can't quite put his finger on it...
*** And some of the D&D rulebook writers, in turn, were so impressed with how the Slayers d20 creators tweaked the rules to create characters with power levels way past the D&D norm that those adjustments were used as a basis for "Advanced D20" rules.
*EmbarrassingMiddleName: well, technically an Embarrassing Title; ultra-destructive {{Black Magician Girl}} and {{Tsundere}} Lina Inverse's official title as a wizard? "Lina the Pink." Needless to say, she does her best to keep this a secret from her friends.
*EnsembleDarkhorse: Zelgadis, Xellos
*EpilepticTrees: Some fans theorize that the reason Lina's so powerful is because she contains one of the seven fragments of Ruby-Eye Shaburanigdo and is unconsciously drawing power from it. After all she's really good at casting Dragon Slave, which calls upon Ruby-Eye's power.
*EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses: Amelia, Martina
*EvilMinions: Subverted. Zelgadis's henchmen Zolf and Rodimus are actually good guys, as is Zel himself. VillainWithGoodPublicity Rezo misleads Lina into thinking they're evil.
*EvilSorcerer: Rezo
*EyesAlwaysShut: Xellos, to mark his MaskPower. Also Rezo, for completely different reasons, specifically [[spoiler:the shard of the greatest evil in the world sealed in his eyes]].
*FaceFault
*FakeBoss: Rezo and Shaburanigdo, Gaav.
*FantasticNuke: The Dragon Slave
*FantasyKitchenSink
*FantasyPantheon: The gods and dragons vs the demons and mazouku
*{{Fanon}}: less so than some series, but fairly well-entrenched. Among other things, fanon claims that Xellos's boss, the Mazoku Lord Beastmaster Zelas Metallium, is a good friend and drinking buddy of Luna Inverse... despite the fact that Luna Inverse is ({{Good Is Not Nice}} aside) a very powerful Paladin who houses a fragment of the chief god of the Slayers world in her soul, which means the two are natural enemies.
*FiveBadBand: The Mazoku Lords:
**Fibrizo -- BigBad
**Zelas -- TheDragon
**Grausherra -- EvilGenius
**Garv -- TheBrute
**Dolphin -- TheDarkChick
***And their bosses, local CosmicHorror Ruby-Eye Shabranigdu, and even Cosmic'er Horror, The Lord of Nightmares (aka Lady L).
*FiveManBand:
**Lina -- TheHero (sort of)
**Zelgadis -- TheLancer
**Gourry -- TheBigGuy
**Amelia -- ActionGirl
**Xellos -- TheSmartGuy (although Xellos isn't weak, he just doesn't bother to help -- Also doubles as a TokenEvilTeammate)
**[[GuestStarPartyMember Guest Star Party Members]]:
***Sylphiel and later Filia -- SixthRanger and TheChick
***Martina -- TheDarkChick and TokenEvilTeammate
***Pokota -- TagAlongKid
***Naga -- TheRival
*{{Flanderization}}: All the characters have suffered from a little of it over the years but it's gotten somewhat bad for Lina and Gourry, especially in Slayers Revolution. Lina's vindictiveness and temper have been played up to the point that she's on a hair trigger (although [[spoiler: it has to be granted that Pokota really does push all the wrong buttons with her]]) whereas in the first ever episode a comment about her bust only elicited a scowl, and at this point Gourry tends to act like such an IdiotSavant that you wonder how on earth he puts his armor on in the morning or remembers who Lina is (as opposed to the fairly competent, if rather ''tactless'', swordsman we see in the first episode).
**Considering how the first episode of the entire series ended when Lina blew up an entire town she was hired to protect from a dragon just because the dragon pissed her off, is it really that hard to imagine her going psychotic as the series progressed?
**Also keep in mind that Gourry's stupidity, while extreme, is mostly there in order to [[ParrotExposition explain things to the audience]]. Such as whenever a famous name or event is brought up, it is convenient for the writers to have Gourry there because he will surely need the event explained to him in full detail (even events that have happened to HIM in the past or famous events his ancestors spear-headed). However, when he is not forgetting names so the writers have an excuse to reintroduce characters, he merely appears slightly dim.
*FlyingBrick: Zelgadiss. Subverted in that's not his only powers, and being one makes his appearance weird (he looks like a freaky blue statue with hair of metal wire) and his attitude angsty.
*ForgetsToEat: In Slayers Try, Lina and the group decide to immediately set sail for adventure... only to remember later, after they're stranded at sea, that they forgot to bring food. Cue them pretending to be dead so they can [[DogFoodDiet catch seagulls]].
*FourTemperamentEnsemble: Zelgadis is Melancholic, Amelia is Sanguine, Gourry is Phlegmatic, and Lina is most certainly Choleric.
*FullNameBasis: Several villains, but especially [[TokenEvilTeammate Xelloss]] ''always'' states Lina Inverse's full name; like it's a title. Amelia's also introduces herself with her full (and ridiculously long) name when she wants to wow someone.
*FunctionalMagic
*GagBoobs: Naga
**And Amelia is catching up rather quickly in Hourglass of Falces
*GenkiGirl: Amelia.
*GenreBlindness: Lina is fairly free of it, as long as she doesn't lose her temper. Amelia, on the other hand, seems to actively cultivate it...at least in the first season.
**If anything, Lina is GenreSavvy at times, and especially during the first season hangs lampshades on the hoary fantasy tropes that Slayers parodies. This gets a bit less prominent later on (partially because Slayers begins to legitimately change fantasy up in its own way), but she still tends to get annoyed at particularly obvious ploys and the like.
*** As early as Season 1, Episode 3 she goes into a little expository monologue about Rezo and offhandedly mentions, "He's also the only one who has an [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast evil-sounding name]]." The silhouette of him accompanying her speech does a double-take.
** In the books Lina is even more genre Savvy, she often will make a comment putting her self in a good light, but then admitting the truth. This troper liked that version of the character. Amelia may actually be an example of WrongGenreSavvy, as she seems to act like she's in a magical girl show.
----> ''I'd pretty much put money on General Rashatt greeting me alone, [[LawfulStupidChaoticStupid revealing the fact that he was a Mazoku]], [[EvilLaugh laughting maniacally]] while [[JustBetweenYouAndMe rambling off anywhere from ten to one hundred percent of the demon's scheme]], and then [[BigDamnHeroes getting pounded when Gourry and the others arrived for no good reason]].''
*GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: Amelia does this a lot.
*GoKartingWithBowser: At least once a season Lina is usually forced into participating in some tedious competition either with or against someone who's spent much of the season trying to kill her. Also, Lina goes on whole adventures with Xelloss, who could, at any moment, turn around and kill her without a word... And she's okay with that.
*GoodIsDumb: Zelgadis and his two henchmen, Rodimus and Zolf (''especially'' Zolf, who attacks the demon Shabranigdu with a Dragon Slave spell, knowing full well that the demon is nearly immune to dark magic, and the Dragon Slave actually borrows power from Shabranigdu himself). He and Rodimus get KilledOffForReal when they try to escape the counterattack.
**Somehow subverted in the finale of Evolution-R, where [[spoiler:Pokota uses Dragon Slave against Shabranigdu's ghost. Amazingly enough, it works because it draws power from him. Literally. However, the somewhat strange status of this Shabranigdu is a bit of an excuse.]]
*GoodIsImpotent: In one OAV, Lina and Naga are on the trail of a villian searching for a McGuffin called the "Shadow Reflector" that creates copies which are the opposite of those who look into it. Predictably, they look into it, resulting in a hopelessly pacifistic and nice Lina and a painfully shy Naga. Cue horror from the villian realising what this makes the ''real'' Lina.
*GoodIsNotNice: With the debatable exception of Amelia, and the definite exception of secondary character Sylphiel, all of the main characters are fundamentally self-centred jerks. Xellos is perhaps a case of NiceIsNotGood taken to extremes. He's the most charming, affable and pleasant of the group... and also an elemental being of pure {{Chaotic Evil}} whose sole reason for existence is to annihilate everything.
*GlassCannon: [[TheMedic Mystical medic]] Sylphiel knows only two offensive spells one of which is the mighty Dragon Slave, which she casts better than Lina does. Unfortunately, she sucks at everything else she tires to do.
*GlowingEyesofDoom: Being a fantasy series, you'd expect a lot of these.
*GratuitousEnglish: Many spell names, though this is {{handwave}}d with a short explanation that the names had been corrupted over the years. Lina's most powerful attack used to be known as the "Dragon Slayer" before it became what it was.
* GuestStarPartyMember: Usually one or two per season: Sylphiel in The Slayers, Martina in NEXT, Filia in TRY, and Pokota in REVOLUTION and EVOLUTION-R.
**Sylphiel also turns up in NEXT and EVOLUTION.
* TheGunslinger: parodied with Jillas.
* HalfHumanHybrid: various humanoid animals, officially lumped together under the name "Beastmen" (or "Manbeasts", if one wants to insult them), are common enemies. The main villain of TRY is a hybrid of Ancient Dragon and Mazoku. Zelgadis is a human being who has been mystically merged with a blow demon and a golem.
*HandBehindHead: Gourry does ''this'' a lot.
*HeelFaceTurn: Zelgadis.
*HermeticMagic (actually a hybrid between Hermetic and somewhat Vancian-like models of magic, with summonings, enchantments and protections done with Hermetic-style magic circles, and fireballs thrown via vancian-esque spells).
*HeroicSociopath: Lina
*HeyItsThatVoice: A ton, given that the English dub was produced by [[{{Pokemon}} TAJ Productions]]. Special mention goes to Martina (Rachael Lillis using her Jessie voice... until she gets pissed off and suddenly it's Misty throwing a temper tantrum).
**And in the Japanese version, Lina's voice is MegumiHayashibara, who is also girl-type Ranma in ''[[RanmaOneHalf Ranma ½]]'', Nuku-Nuku in ''AllPurposeCulturalCatGirlNukuNuku'', Rei in ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'', and many, many others.
*** Not to mention she sings, like, half of the theme songs of the anime.
*HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Surprisingly for many people used to the anime's slapstick tone and tendency towards [[DisneyDeath Disney Deaths]] for minor characters, there's a certain amount of this, often in the form of BodyHorror, in the novels. (Two words: Raugnut Rushavna. If that doesn't make you shudder, you haven't read the second novel. Also notably, what happened to Copy Rezo in the third book is almost enough to make you feel genuinely sorry for him.)
*HolyHandGrenade: The Holy Magic of the Golden dragons.
*ICallItVera: Filia's mace is named "Mace-sama".
*IdiotHero: Gourry.
*IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming, coupled with ExcitedEpisodeTitle. The first and fourth seasons do so alphabetically!
*IdolSinger: Spoofed. Lina and Amelia put on skimpy dresses and sing, thinking it's an ancient spell. It turned out to just be costumes and a regular song.
*IHaveTheHighGround: Amelia does this several times, including during her introduction.
*ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Lina, Sylphiel, Eris, Martina, Naga, Gourry, and Naga again, just because.
*InTheNameOfTheMoon: Amelia.
*JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Lina, who'd probably pawn it if she could.
*LadyLand: [[spoiler:Played with in Slayers Next episode 17 where a city of only women, which does not allow men to even enter. It is shown to have many men crossdressing as women (presumably sons of women of the city who did not wish to part with their children) in order to stay within the walls.]]
*LaserBlade: Gourry's Sword of Light.
*{{Leitmotif}}: Rezo has a particularly impressive one.
*LickingTheBlade: The shopkeeper in Season 1, Episode 2 does this after he becomes possessed by a cursed knife Lina tries to sell to him.
*LiteralGenie: When Zelgadis first met Rezo, the latter put on an affable facade and agreed to grant Zelgadis' wish for power, promising to make him "completely different"- he gave him the power but transformed him into a monster.
*LongSpeechTeaTime: When Dilgear is ranting about punishing Zelgadis for his [[HeelFaceTurn treachery]] and the death of the fishman Noonsa, the other henchmonsters are eating Noonsa.
*LovableTraitor: Xellos is the contemporary epitome of this trope.
*LoveMakesYouEvil: Halcyform in Next, also Duclis in the manga version of Revolution.
*LordErrorProne: Amelia.
*LoveFreak: Amelia.
*MagnificentBastard - Xellos, naturally
*MartialPacifist: Parodied by Prince Phil, Amelia's father.
**Amelia herself, especially in the Hourglass of Falces.
*MaskPower: Xellos' eyes are almost always hidden by his hair or closed. If they ever open, bad things are happening.
*MedievalEuropeanFantasy
*MegumiHayashibara: Provides the voice of Lina, and also sings the theme song.
*MemeticBadass: Lina Inverse manages to play this straight and subvert it at the same time. Whenever she deliberately tries to use her reputation to her advantage, nobody recognizes her... but that's because she uses nicknames and titles that she created herself to feed her ego. Mention any of the dozens of names that stem from her bad attitude and misbehavior, such as Dragon Spooker, Bandit Killer, or Enemy Of All Who Live, and people will run for miles, as ''everyone'' seems to have heard of them. Considering that, in the fourth season of the anime, this is someone who was put on trial for the crime of ''being herself'', and that ''even her friends couldn't come up with an adequate defense'', that does explain things.
*ModelCouple- Lina/Gourry and Zelgadis/Amelia have similar clothes and hairstyles. Xellos and Filia, who are [[{{Foil}} foils]] (with some ShipTease), wear the complementary colors to each other.
*MoeMoe: While pretty active and go-getting, Amelia is the youngest of the four main cast members, also has the larger chest of the two girls, tends to be the cutest, and as noted below is sometimes used as a punching bag by the villains so that viewers will feel intensely protective of her. The term came into being some time after ''Slayers'' aired, but Amelia seems to have been a prototype of the trope alongside characters like [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Rei Ayanami]].
*MoralityPet: Gourry at times, especially useful for moments when Lina can act genuinely cutesy without it imposing on her badassness.
*MrViceGuy: Lina.
*{{Munchkin}}: All of the 'big five' (Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, and Naga) qualify as munchkins for any RPG system
*MundaneSolution
*MysteriousWatcher: Xellos.
*NaiveNewcomer: Gourry.
*NiceHat: Zangulus wears a cool old PointyHat that he never takes off, even for his wedding. Filia wears a helmet with gigantic Christmas ornaments stuck to the sides.
*NighInvulnerable: Zelgadis has the combined traits and resiliences of a demon and a stone golem, making him virtually indestructible amongst humans. Dragons, high-level Mazoku, and the higher levels of magic are the only things that can actually hurt him seriously. Mazoku also count; not only are they effectively {{Made of Iron}} and [[HealingFactor able to regenerate]], but their body is actually on a separate plane of existence, with their material form merely being a projection of their psyche. The higher ranked the Mazoku, the harder it is to kill it, which leads rather nicely into {{Authority Equals Asskicking}}.
*NobleDemon: Zelgadis.
*NoblewomansLaugh: '''Naga''', who emptied an entire town with it. Lina also does this in one of the final episodes of ''Slayers Try'', which scares Amelia.
*NoFourthWall: Well, not quite, but they break it on occasion, usually when the show has been serious for too long. Also, the ''Pretty Miss Lina's Magic Lessons'' segments.
*NoHuggingNoKissing: Hajime Kanzaka wrote the novels this way, explicitly saying that there would be no romance. [[OfficialCouple Official Couples]] Lina/Gourry and Zelgadis/Amelia are a product of the anime.
**Subverted with Lina and Gourry: he later admitted that, although he hadn't ''planned'' on romance, the characters wound up developing feelings for each other anyway.
*NonSerialMovie: of the five Slayers movies produced, the first four (which includes TheMovie for Slayers) are set some time before the series, during the "Lina and Naga" period, and the fifth one could be set after either the second or first season.
*NoPeriodsPeriod, subverted: Lina loses her magic powers for a brief period in Season 1, Episode 4, being able to only conjure a weak light spell. Gourry asks her whether it's "that time of the month", because the same thing happened to a fortuneteller he once knew.
** Played straight afterwards, as in 5 TV seasons, and a dozen movies and [=OVAs=], it hasn't come up again, ever.
* {{OAV}}: six of these were produced, each of them set before the events of the TV series and covering the adventures of Lina Inverse and a solitary companion, a [[GagBoobs ridiculously buxom]] and extremely flaky sorceress called "Naga the Serpent", who served more or less as a one-woman GoldfishPoopGang and UnknownRival to Lina.
*OddlyNamedSequel: ''Slayers'' was followed by ''Slayers Next'', ''Slayers Try'', ''Slayers Revolution'' and now ''Slayers Evolution-R''. The movies/[=OVAs=] are ''Slayers Perfect'' (or ''Slayers: The Motion Picture'') ''Slayers Return, Slayers Special'' (or ''Slayers: The Book of Spells''), ''Slayers Great, Slayers Gorgeous, Slayers Excellent'' and ''Slayers Premium''. Most of the movies had alternate titles of the form "The Motion Picture R/S/G/GO".
*{{Ojou}}: Sylphiel. Technically Amelia, too, but she doesn't have the personality, but her sister Gracia Ul Naga Seiryuun does.
*{{Offing The Offspring}}: [[spoiler:Zuuma]] and [[spoiler:Abel]] in ''Evolution-R''. The family that [[spoiler:dies]] together stays together?
** Averted in the original light novel version of this storyline, where [[spoiler:Abel actually ''succeeds'' in [[DyingAsYourself reaching his father's humanity long enough for Lina to finish him off]], and [[SchrodingersCat survives]] to eulogize him afterward]].
*OurHeroIsDead: Lina suffers what's supposed to be a [[NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow fatal wound that goes straight through her chest]] at the end of episode 24.
** {{Lampshaded}} by Lina herself: "How could this happen?! I'm the star of the show!"
*PaperThinDisguise: Gaav's chief servants in ''Next''. Less so with Filia in ''Try'' -- she has UnusualEars and her tail keeps slipping out.
** Also Josephine in an episode of the OVA. Josephine is a proud mother who has hired Lina and Naga to make her son a successful military leader. They're initially skeptical as Jeffrey is skinny, sickly, poorly trained, and hilariously overconfident. It turns out that these aren't problems, because the instant someone says something disparaging about him, Josephine comes charging onto the scene, wearing a mask, to smash them with an oversized warhammer. Jeffrey is the only one who sees nothing odd about this, and the only one who buys her claims that she's an anonymous tourist passing by (it happens to him that often).
*ParentalAbandonment: Amelia's mother is dead, Lina was raised by her older sister, and Zelgadis is at least estranged from his parents.
**Lina wasn't necessarily raised without her parents; she refers to them in some media. However, Luna ''did'' have a major role in her upbringing.
**Also, Zelgadis isn't estranged from his parents, [[spoiler: they were killed by his great-grandfather, who raised him and later turned him into a 1/3 human abomination. So it actually does fit the trope, but in a different way]]
*PartlyCloudyWithAChanceOfDeath: Copy Rezo's death scene.
* PerpetualPoverty: After Lina obliterates her kingdom, Martina sets off on a revenge quest but since she's now broke she's got to bankroll all her schemes by doing odd jobs. This continues even after she pulls a HeelFaceTurn and joins Lina.
*ThePesci: As stated above, Lina has so many [[BerserkButton Berserk Buttons]] it's hard to keep track of them.
*{{Pettanko}}: Lina's not exactly flat as a board, but spending so much time with Naga and Amelia has made her rather sensitive about the fact that she lacks the MostCommonSuperpower.
* PeekABangs: Gourry, Zelgadis, and Zangulus.
*PimpedOutDress: Amelia and Martina wear a couple.
*PlayboyBunny: A cafe in the first season had bunnies serving the food. The costumes were even Easter colored (pink and yellow), with [[PrettyInMink fur necklines]] the matched their bunny tails.
* PlayerArchetypes: All of the main four characters fit the Munchkin File 'four types of role players'
** TheRealMan: Gourry
** TheRealRoleplayer: Zelgadis
** TheLoonie: Amelia
** TheMunchkin: Lina
** TheWatcher: Xelloss
*PowerOfLove: This Troper can think of no other explanation for the ending of ''Next'', where running is faster than flying...''at going straight up''
**This Troper's Slayers D20 group just assume the following paragraph was accidentally left out of the description of the loyal feat: In certain situations (DM's discretion) this feat instead provides a bonus of Enough to Whatever You're Rolling. Examples include Jump checks to move faster than flight, attack and damage rolls to cleave a Huge boulder without breaking stride and [[spoiler:Diplomacy checks to convince a being otherwise powerful beyond stats to bring back your dead girlfriend.]]
***Although it was implied immediately thereafter that [[spoiler: L-Sama brought Lina back on a whim.]]
*PrecisionFStrike: Averted, as right when Amelia is about to say "piece of shit" in episode 11 of TRY, Lina cuts her off with a SoundEffectBleep illustrating how wrong it is for royalty to swear.
*PreExplosionGlow: And how!
*PreviouslyOn
*PrincessesPreferPink: Amelia's outfit has some pink touches, but she wore an actual pink dress in the first episode of ''Next''.
*PuppyDogEyes: Lina when she's trying to con someone, often Gourry.
*RedHeadedHero: Lina (though 'hero' is a bit strong of a word, and she starts off more of a brunette, her hair turning coppery as the anime progresses)
*TheReveal: Numerous instances where a character turns out to be a Mazoku or in cahoots with a Mazoku.
*ReverseFunnyAneurysm: Lina was once the postergirl for "flat-chested". Compared to many many characters [[{{Pettanko}} today]], she is quite ample.
*RoofHopping
* SchrodingersCat: The anime, in spite of its lighter tone, tends to be a lot more bloodthirsty than the novels where side characters are concerned. [[spoiler:Noonsa]], [[spoiler:Dilgear]], [[spoiler:Rubia]], [[spoiler:Abel]], to name a few. [[spoiler:Duclis]] from Revolution inverts this precedent, however, as [[spoiler:the original novel kills him off, but the anime lets him live]].
* [=~Screw This, I'm Outta Here~=]: In ''Slayers Gorgeous'' the dragon army flees from Lina after being ordered to attack.
*ScrewedByTheNetwork: Screwed by Tokyopop, which secured the rights to English translations of the original novels. The first six were released with minimal promotion and advertising, sold relatively poorly as a result, and Tokyopop canceled further translations, with two books left to go in the Hellmaster Phibrizzo plot arc. Overwhelming fan demand actually caused them to reverse their decision and release the last two in 2007, although with almost no announcement or promotion, once again. As of now, Tokyopop has no intention of releasing the other half of the novels, although bits and pieces of fan translations can be found floating around on the Internet.
*SealedEvilInACan: Shabranigdu, who is defeated by a power his sealer didn't have access to, and Zanafar, who was just re-sealed.
** To be fair, Lina and company never actually fight Shabranigdu at his full strength, just the fragments sealed in humans.
*ShoutOut: Amelia is at least in part a parody of SailorMoon, and Gourry's disguise in the first season's cross dressing episode has Usagi's distinctive hair style. Furthermore, an episode of NEXT has Amelia and Lina dressing up in what look like Sailor Senshi fuku for a humiliating musical number. Furthermore, most of Zel's initial appearances have him looking like Tuxedo Kamen's OTHER identity crisis, Moonlight Knight.
** Not to mention the magic doctor Lina goes to when her powers are sealed, who looks exactly like a slightly older Chibiusa, right down to the pink Odango hair.
** The aforementioned episode of NEXT also has a pair of SingleMindedTwins who look exactly like [[HotAmazon Shampoo]], from RanmaOneHalf.
*SortingAlgorithmOfEvil: Although most of that is because of the attention they get for offing the previous BigBad.
** Played straight in technicality, but somewhat subverts at the same time. The first big bag in the anime series is a shard of the ultimate dark lord of evil, but this shard is 1/7th of his power. The next big bad is is a slightly stronger complete monster, and then generals of the first dark lord who are 1/5th of his full power (but greater than the 1/7th shard).
*SoulJar: In ''Next'', the sorcerer Halcyform makes a pledge to the Mazoku (Monster Race) which makes him unkillable while the pledge stone is intact.
**Taken literally in Revolution and Evolution-R - [[spoiler: Rezo's getting another sequel by having his soul in an actual jar. ''Why'' his soul is in a jar is still a source of some confusion.]]
**Also from Evolution-R: [[spoiler: Naga got her soul literally trapped in a jar at some point while adventuring solo, then it somehow got stuck in a suit of armour and became "Nama"]]. Also, an episode of Try has a ghost ship captained by the spirit of Captain [[MeaningfulName Jarlov]], a drowned pottery fanatic whose spirit has been sealed inside a jar until someone breaks the curse keeping him from going to the afterlife.
*SphereOfDestruction: A lot of the most destructive spells in the series, including the Dragon Slave, work like this)
* StealthParody: Lina's group is rumored to be based on D&D campaigns; Zelgadis being a 'serious' player, Amelia an overdone LawfulGood type, while Gourry and Lina herself are powerhungry [[MinMaxing MinMaxers]] to explain their deficiencies elsewhere.
** It's been suggested that the classic '[[PlayerArchetypes Four kinds of Roleplayers]]' are present in ''Slayers'': Gourry is the [[TheRealMan 'Real Man']], Zelgadis is the [[TheRoleplayer 'Real Roleplayer']], Amelia is the [[TheLoonie 'Loonie']], and Lina is the '{{Munchkin}}'. It can be further argued that they are ''all'' Munchkins!
***Meanwhile, some D&D players may find an unsettling resemblance between Xellos and their DM.
*SternChase: Chasers: Zangulus and Vromagan in season 1, Gaav and his minions in Next.
*{{Stripperiffic}}: Naga is this trope ''personified.''
**And according to Amelia in Slayers: The Hourglass of Falces, their mother made it a tradition that the women of the royal family "are expected to wear a sort of dress that evokes a 'bondage' image when they reach a certain age." Therefore, she abandoned her regulation pants for a very-mini-skirt, so she would be used to that sort of exposure when the time came.
*StuffedIntoTheFridge: She's never actually ''killed'' ([[ContractualImmortality you can't have Slayers without her after all]]), but poor Amelia sure seems to get badly hurt a lot to emphasize how dangerous a particular villain is, due largely to [[TheWoobie how sympathetic she is when she gets hurt.]]
*StupidSexyFlanders: Poor Zelgadis and Gourry when Lina and Amelia have access to surplus women's clothing.
*SuperDeformed: In some of the NoFourthWall segments of the manga, and the mini-Gourrys and mini-Linas the cloning machine made in the anime.
*{{Squick}}: in the first season, Zelgadis claims that Rezo the Red Priest is [[IncestIsRelative both his grandfather and his great-grandfather]]. {{Word of God}} has since been passed on that this was a verbal mishap, and that not only was Zelgadis supposed to be unsure whether Rezo is two generations removed (grandfather) or three (great-grandfather), but he's truly Rezo's great-grandson.
*TakahashiCouple - brought to you by ShipTease courtesy of Filia and Xellos
*TakeOurWordForIt: Considering all the things Lina has faced, her sister Luna would have to be pretty tough to intimidate her.
*TalkingAnimal: Jillas in ''Try'' and Pokota in ''Revolution''.
*TheSweatDrop: In one memorable episode, Lina becomes more exasperated than usual with Gourry's antics and actually ''takes her sweatdrop and beats him with it''.
*TheTeamNormal: Gourry
*TeamShot
*TechnicalPacifist: Amelia and Prince Phil; ''especially'' Phil.
*TheyFightCrime: Parodied. If you have a bandit problem, [[ItGotWorse Lina will solve it]].
*TimeTravel: The second movie.
*TitleDrop: In the very last episode of ''Evolution-R,'' Xelloss comments after the latest bout of going BeyondTheImpossible that the heroes truly are "Slayers", having just [[spoiler:offed a god ''for the second time'']].
*TokenEvilTeammate: If ordered to, Xelloss would gladly kill Lina and her friends but still likes hanging around them because 1) they're endlessly amusing, and 2) Lina is a PersonOfMassDestruction and bloody mayhem is like crack to Mazoku.
*TooDumbToFool: Gourry, regarding Xelloss' nature.
*{{Tsundere}}: Lina generally avoids this trope by going only tsun-tsun... but she definitely has a few dere-dere moments. The reverse is Filia, ignorance-based holier-than-thou attitude aside, with her BerserkButton
*UnCancelled: The third season of the TV series (''Try'') aired in 1997, the fourth (''Revolution'') in 2008.
*UnknownRival: Naga thinks Lina is her rival. Lina tries her best to forget Naga exists.
*UnderwearOfPower: Lina wears what looks like yellow bra and panties over her tunic and leggings. Martina also wears a thong over leggings.
*VisibleSigh: Lina and Zelgadis do this most often, but Amelia, Filia, and even Gourry have been known to occasionally.
*TheWallAroundTheWorld: The magical barrier in season one and two.
*WalkingTheEarth
*TheWatson (Gourry)
*WeddingsInJapan
*WellIntentionedExtremist: Eris, sort of. She wants revenge for the death of her beloved and is willing to destroy the world to get it.
**[[spoiler: Valgaav from Slayers Try, after he merged with Darkstar (and apparently Volpheid),'']] wants to remake the world into a peaceful place where no one will get hurt or feel pain ever again. The problem is of course, that first everyone and everything has to be destroyed...
*WhatTheHellHero: Lina's actions sometimes go overboard in the eyes of one or more other characters.
*WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Lina is terrified of slugs. And her sister.
*TheWoobie: Your hometown gets destroyed ''twice'', and your main love interest doesn't even notice your affections, only to have him fall in love with the main heroine when the world is at stake. IsntItSad, Sylphiel?
**Amelia is also somewhat Woobified as noted above; you're supposed to feel terrible for her and give her a protective hug when a villain tears a great bloody hole in her back or tries to rip out her soul or what have you. Amelia herself, though, is [[{{Pollyanna}} too damn genki]] to be held back by any of this.
*TheWorldTree: Holy Flagoon which is Zanafar's prison.
*WorthyOpponent: Zangulus and Gourry.
*YaoiFangirl: Lina and Amelia seem to enjoy dressing Gourry in girls' clothing a little ''too'' much, don't you think?
*YouAndWhatArmy: in the first episode of ''Revolution'', Wizer brings a small army along to help him arrest Lina. [[spoiler: It's not enough.]]
*YouFailLogicForever: One example is that when Gourry asked Xelloss whether if the War of the Monsters Fall happened a long time ago. Xelloss calmly confirmed that as he mentioned on how it occurred 1012 years ago. So Gourry was pleasantly surprised on how he now believes that Xelloss is 1012 years old because of that, naturally nobody had any idea why he would say that.
*YouLookFamiliar: in Slayers Evolution-R, the latest season, the characters meet an enchanted armor whose looks and voice reminds Lina of someone she met before [[spoiler:and she's right: the enchanted armor is Naga!]]
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