* ActorAllusion: In a possible coincidence, the anime of Literature/LostUniverse, which takes place in one of the worlds that shares greater lore with Slayers, gives the Mazoku Lord Dark Star Duradigdu a human form that bears a striking resemblance to Gourry. Topping this coincidence is the fact that Gourry famously wields the Sword of Light, which eventually was revealed to be one of the weaponized subordinates of Dark Star. The two share the same Japanese voice actor, Creator/YasunoriMatsumoto.
* BadExportForYou: Subverted with Creator/CentralParkMedia's DVD box set releases; their downgrade in quality was their own doing. In the first season box set, the Japanese audio is phase-inverted, meaning that no sound would play if one was viewing an episode with a mono speaker setup. In the second season box set, the picture quality was exceptionally blurred, but this is due to a bad video transfer (off of a laserdisc) rather than imported low-quality masters. At the time, one would be better off buying the individual [=DVDs=] or even old videocassette tapes. Funimation fixed all of these problems in their re-releases, but for some reason, on the DVD angle for the English track [[note]] Funimation was still using alternate angles for their [=DVDs=] at this time, which no other anime distributor regularly did [[/note]], the masters in the first season are darker than CPM's (especially noticeable during the openings and endings [[note]] the Japanese angle however has the correct colors [[/note]].
* CelebrityVoiceActor: Creator/WilWheaton of all people voices Hans in the second episode of ''Evolution-R''.
* ChannelHop: The show was originally licensed in North America by Central Park Media, released to home video under its Software Sculptors label, and dubbed into English by [=TAJ=] Productions. Creator/FUNimation rescued the license after it expired, and it also picked up the belated fourth and fifth seasons when they were released. Creator/ADVFilms licensed the movies and [=OVAs=].
* CreatorBacklash: The creator of the ''Literature/{{Slayers}}'' franchise, Hajime Kanzaka, stated a few times in interviews that, despite working on it, he had come to dislike the third season (''TRY'') of the anime adaptation, which was one of the [[AlternateContinuity first divergences from the plot of the light novels]]. When the [[UnCancelled belated]] season 4 came out, a DiscontinuityNod noted this: on the plane chart that lists the numerous [[BigBad Big Bads]] of the verse, the two that were slain in season 2 were dented, noting their destruction, but one of the higher-level demon lord's spots on the chart was intact--this particular lord, Dark Star Dugradigdu, was slain in season 3.
** Conflicting information suggests that Dark-Star and Vorfeed were not killed but merely separated and then banished back to their own world, which would be a different reason for the intact nature of his seal.
** Plus the fact that Valgaav, who was introduced in TRY, went on to appear in the OP for Slayers Evolution-R
* CrossRegionalVoiceActing: The English dub for original three seasons was entirely recorded in New York, while the movies and [=OVAs=] were recorded in Houston, with Crispin Freeman traveling to reprise his role of Zelgadis for ''Slayers Premium''. When ''Revolution'' and ''Evolution-R'' were dubbed, Freeman had moved to Los Angeles, and recording was done both there and New York.
* ExecutiveMeddling:
** The fourth season rumored to follow ''TRY'' in 1998 was canned due to Music/MegumiHayashibara having scheduling conflicts.
** During the later 90's in the U.S. when anime was becoming more popular on the networks, Creator/FoxKids won a bid over Creator/CartoonNetwork to air the first season of the show, but ultimately decided not to due to the more mature content that would be nigh-impossible to gloss over.
* FlipFlopOfGod: Hajime Kanzaka is aggravatingly vague and indecisive about how his own work works.
* FranchiseKiller: The fourth and fifth seasons (''Revolution'' and ''Evolution-R'') had such a [[SeasonalRot poor reception]] upon release that they both would ultimately put the entire franchise on ice. As of 2021 (twelve years since the release of the fifth season), while another arc of the light novels has been announced, only time will tell whether another anime adaptation will ever be made.
* GodNeverSaidThat: ''Slayers'' fans have a long, storied history with this thanks to canon materials and interviews going untranslated for decades. If you see the words "Kanzaka said" without a source provided, then take it with a grain of salt.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** Central Park Media's original DVD releases of each season are, surprisingly, not too difficult to find. In this case, they are coveted for their [[{{Feelies}} extras]], which are lacking on the re-releases. The same can be said for the movies and OVA series, which are now harder to come by in stores (however, as long as you look for the single individual releases, not the boxsets, they can be found at decent prices used or new online).
** The books published by Tokyopop have long gone out of print, and have been replaced by the new translations done by J-Novel Club. The only way to read the Tokyopop books is by hunting down a copy of them.
* NoExportForYou: The anime is the only form of media that was released in its entirety in the states. As for everything else:
** The first six volumes of the original {{Light Novel|s}} series were released in 2004; Creator/{{Tokyopop}} stopped translating them after that due to poor sales. With a little persuasion, they released a limited amount of the 7th and 8th novels four years later, completing the first arc. The remaining seven novels (and none of the prequel novels for that matter) went out of print until 2021, when J-Novel Club announced plans to release 3 in 1 omnibus editions of the light novels.
** CPM’s manga department translated the ''Slayers' Medieval Mayhem'' manga, the ''Slayers: Super Explosive Demon Story'' manga, and the manga adaptation of ''Slayers Premium''. All of these are out of print, and the manga that began to diverge into more alternate continuities (such as ''The Hourglass of Falces'') were never translated.
** Since the tie-in video games bombed in Japan, they had no hopes of being exported.
* TheOtherDarrin: The American dub of the first series, produced by Central Park Media, had several cases of this.
** Partway through the series, CPM took a break from dubbing the series for about a year, and during that time period, lost contact with several of the voice actors. As a result, Creator/CrispinFreeman replaced Daniel Cronin as the voice of Zelgadis, while Creator/VeronicaTaylor replaced Joan Baker as the voice of Amelia. Other characters like Zangulus (Liam O'Malley to Creator/TedLewis) and Prince Philionel (Matt Black to Creator/JamesCarterCathcart) also changed as a result of the gap.
** ADV Films handled all the Movies and {{OVA}}s and used their talent pool. Cynthia Martinez replaced Creator/LisaOrtiz as Lina, and in Slayers Premium, Creator/ChrisPatton replaced Creator/EricStuart as Gourry, Creator/LuciChristian replaced Creator/VeronicaTaylor as Amelia, and Kurt Stoll replaced David Moo as Xellos; however, Crispin Freeman returned to play Zelgadis.
** Somewhat {{subverted}} with Funimation's dub of ''Revolution'' and ''Evolution-R'': Ortiz, Stuart, Taylor, and Freeman return to voice the four leads; however, most of the other returning characters have been recast, with the new cast including Creator/MichaelSinterniklaas as Xellos, David Brimmer as Phil, Eva Kaminsky as "Nama," Creator/StephanieSheh as Sylphiel, and Creator/LiamOBrien as Rezo. Sinterniklaas (who also ADR directed) claimed replacing Moo as Xellos was a creative choice to sound closer to Creator/AkiraIshida's performance, while James Carter Cathcart claimed he was never contacted to reprise Prince Phil.
* PlayingAgainstType: For those used to his heroic CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass roles like [[Anime/YuGiOh Joey Wheeler]] and [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 Michelangelo]], it can be surprising to see Creator/WayneGrayson playing a ruthless, sadistic monster like Phibrizzo.
* RealLifeRelative: In the Castilian Spanish dub of Slayers R, Lina and Gourry are dubbed by siblings Núria (also [[Franchise/StarWars Padme Amidala]] ,[[WesternAnimation/KimPossible Kim Possible]] or [[WesternAnimation/AdventureTime Princess Bubblegum]] between many other voices both in Castilian Spanish and Catalan ([[Manga/CaseClosed Ran Mouri]], [[Manga/CandyCandy Candy White]] or [[Manga/MazingerZ Sayaka Yumi]]) languages) and Albert Trifol Segarra ([[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Shinji Ikari]] in Catalan and previously also in Castilian Spanish) respectively.
* ReferencedBy: The cover art of 1st Edition ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' is Lina and Naga as fox and wolf girls, respectively. Yes, Naga is still dressed like a hooker.
* RoleReprise: Lisa Ortiz returns to voice Lina in the audiobooks.
* {{Rule Thirty Four Creator Reactions}}: Rui Araizumi draws erotic ''doujinshi'' once in a blue moon, so it's assumed that she doesn't hold any contempt towards ''Slayers'' {{Hentai}}. Weirdly, during the later halve of the TurnOfTheMillennium, Araizumi ''herself'' has supplied the majority of unofficial eroge for the series! It's creeped its way into actual published works, unfortunately; most of the artwork is overtly sexual and pinup-like in nature, especially of Lina, compared to older artwork that is actually fantasy-inspired and related to the story. For example, compare [[http://gallery.minitokyo.net/download/428670 this]] older artwork from the main novel line to [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130613210032/http://i.yai.bz/assets/36/832/l_p0018383236.jpg this]] recent ''Slayers Smash'' novel.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork:
** Tokyopop 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. Tokyopop never released the other half of the novels, although bits and pieces of fan translations can be found floating around on the Internet, and J-Novel Club has released official translations of them.
** The anime was screwed by Fox Kids, who bought the TV rights, along with ''Anime/MagicKnightRayearth'' and ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'', ''solely'' to keep them away from Toonami, who they saw as competition. Of the three shows, only ''Escaflowne'' saw broadcast, albeit in heavily [[{{Macekre}} bowdlerized]] form, and was canceled after only a handful of episodes. According to Lisa Ortiz, Fox ''was'' trying to make ''Slayers'' work, and they had her re-record the dragon slave chant to remove the reference to blood, but it was ultimately just too difficult to make the content work for a children's block on broadcast television.
* SequelGap:
** ''Revolution'', the anime's fourth season, came out 11 years after ''TRY''.
** There was an 18-year long gap between books #15 and #16.
* StarMakingRole:
** Lina Inverse was Lisa Ortiz's ''second'' big anime role, following her debut as Deedlit in ''Literature/RecordOfLodossWar'', but Lina is far more remembered today, and is really what got her serious attention among fans. However, the character ''was'' Cynthia Martinez's first voice role, and is what put her on the map in the anime community, even if her performance as the younger Lina in the movies/[=OVAs=] isn't as fondly remembered as Ortiz.
** Eric Stuart made his anime debut as Gourry, and that was his first big role before landing iconic characters like Brock and James in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' and Seto Kaiba in ''Manga/YuGiOh''.
** Crispin Freeman and Veronica Taylor had small roles in prior shows, but Zelgadis and Amelia were their breakout anime roles, and both are now among the most popular English voice actors in anime.
* StudioHop:
** The anime's first three seasons were animated by E&G Films. Beginning with ''Revolution'', Creator/JCStaff (who was also responsible for animating the first four films) handled the animation.
** At first, the anime's North American distribution rights were handled by Creator/CentralParkMedia, before switching to Creator/{{Funimation}}.
* ThrowItIn: The first season of the anime broke the fourth wall a lot; the second season onward doesn't do it at all, and the characters are no longer as self-aware as they were before. However, in the third anime series, they try to do it again in a {{Filler}} episode (Zelgadis addresses that the absurdity of the fillers had to end for the sake of the plot), but it's so poorly forced that it isn't believable.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Naga the Serpent was originally going to appear in the fourth light novel and join Lina and Gourry in the main series, so in context there would've been no secret to the fact that she was a princess of Seyruun. However, apparently Kanzaka was too lazy and under time constraints during writing it, so he gave her a little sister, Amelia, to replace her.
** The part of the ''Next'' opening where Lina holds up an oden skewer was originally going to have Lina FlippingTheBird, but the higher ups wouldn't allow it.
** Lisa Ortiz was supposed to reprise her role of Lina in ADV's dub of ''The Motion Picture'', but negotiations broke down at the last minute over demands from her agent.
** According to Jason [=DeMarco=], Toonami was very interested in broadcasting the series on Cartoon Network in the early 2000s before Fox Kids purchased the broadcast license (along with ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'', ''Manga/CaseClosed'', and ''Anime/MagicKnightRayearth'') almost solely to keep it away from Toonami, who they viewed as competition. They never ended up showing the series, despite Lisa Ortiz mentioning returning to re-record the Dragon Slave chant to remove the reference to blood. Enoki Films (who holds the North American rights) also confirmed at the time that they had a deal with Fox Kids to show the series.
** Funimation wanted to partially redub the first 13 episodes to bring them up to par with the rest of the series' dub and have Creator/CrispinFreeman and Creator/VeronicaTaylor replace Zelgadis and Amelia's first voice actors (similar to what was done with ''Anime/DragonBallZ'''s dub), but the proper materials to do this (such as the raw music & effects tracks and the dub's audio stems) were no longer available.
* WordOfGod: The creator has stated in official interviews that Gourry Gabriev is not half-elven, despite the implications of TheMovie, going on to suggest that Rowdy Gabriev left Mellyroon and found himself a human girl to marry, as he aged faster then she did. He has also stated that Gourry actually has the potential to be a sorcerer of power equal to Lina's; it's just his lack of interest and memory problems effectively cripple him, as he'd never be able to remember the incantations. Finally, he confirmed that [[spoiler: Naga really is Amelia's elder sister Gracia Ul Naga Saillune]], who went adventuring under a ''nom de guerre'' after the death of their mother.