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Slayers
alt title(s): The Slayers

A sword-and-sorcery anime played with equal parts comedy and drama, based on a series of light novels. Has five TV seasons, six OVAs, 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 (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!), "Dragon Spooker" and "Enemy Of All That Live" in a few short years.

Much to Lina's chagrin, she ends up with a group of people following her around, usually because they're all trying not to get killed by something. In the OVAs, set before the TV show, this is the deranged sorceress Naga, who believes Lina is following her around as her 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 sword.

The series alternates between serious fights and quests to save the world and silly slapstick humor. There is one Cross Dressing episode per season, and they will sometimes take breaks in the middle of serious story arcs or fights for semi-plot-related silliness. It manages to find a nice balance, and is one of the must-see series for Medieval European Fantasy. This show has the first two seasons up legally on hulu, Funimation's video portal and YouTube

Not to be confused with the band Slayer or Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Has a Character Sheet.
Slayers provides examples of:

  • Above Good And Evil: The Golden Lord / Lord of Nightmares created for her worlds both good and evil high-ups, who in turn created vassal "good" and "evil" forces. When one of second-generation entities has a bright idea to use her power for his particular purpose, he was simply washed down the oblivion. After making world-destroyers and world-protectors she's mostly absent, but sometimes meddles anyway. If you note the consequences of the characters' nightmares and remember that Lina's two most destructive spells use power of The Lord of Nightmares, the picture pieced together is rather curious.
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: 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.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: 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.
  • Action Girl: Lina, Amelia.
  • Adaptation Decay and/or Adaptation Distillation: 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.
  • 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, she brought it on herself.
  • Alternate Continuity: The manga and novels, but not the OVAs and Movies.
  • Affably Evil: 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 Maniacs.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The Mazoku.
    Shabranigdu: The power of the Monster race flows from [...] terror, anger, sorrow, despair.
  • Always Save The Girl: In this case it's 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.
  • Ancient Keeper: Auntie Aqua in Slayers Next.
  • Animated Adaptation: Originally a serialized set of novels.
  • Animated Armor: Nama and the dullahan.
  • Anime Theme Song, sung by Megumi Hayashibara
  • Animorphism: Zelgadis the chimera.
  • Anti Magic: The Spell "Flow Break" causes animation spells (such as armor and Golem) to stop working. There was also a Magi Tek train in "Try" that ran on magic; the power source absorbed all magic, making attack spells about as useful as throwing toy squibs and defence spells almost as effective as a tin garbage-can lid.
  • Ars Goetia: The series borrows the symbols in the Ars Goetia for use to symbolize the higher level Mazoku: http://kanzaka.wikia.com/wiki/Ars_Goetia
  • Art Evolution: It's obvious there would be some of this, considering that the first anime season aired in 1995 and the most recent came out in 2009, but even watching the third season (Try) and going back to the first is pretty jarring. Gourry and Lina's character designs in particular have changed quite a bit over the years, to the point that Lina's hair has even changed color from reddish-brown to bright red over time.
  • Audible Sharpness: Most of the swordsmen, especially Gourry and Zangulus.
  • Autobots Rock Out: The whole cast in the end of Evolution-R fighting to the tune of "Give a Reason."
  • Avenging The Villain: Eris, Valgaav, Jillas
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension - brought to you by Ship Tease courtesy of Filia and Xellos
  • Beta Baddie: Copy Rezo.
  • Berserk Button: 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
  • Big Eater: Lina, Gourry, Amelia and Zelgadis at least. Amelia and Zelgadis are just politer about it.
  • Bitter Sweet Ending: As of the ending of Evolution-R Pokota has got his kingdom and father back, but he's still stuck as a stuffed toy, his real body destroyed in the fight against Shabranigdu
  • Black And Gray Morality: The villains are more villainous than the heroes are heroic.
  • Bodyguard Crush: Gourry towards Lina, in the anime.
  • Book Of Shadows: The Claire Bible, though partially subverted in that their attempts to find it are as much a plot device as the information within it.
  • Bottle Fairy: Naga the Serpent.
  • Breath Weapon: 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.)
  • Broken Pedestal: 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.
  • Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Literally, with Amelia in Evolution-R breaking her arm trying to hold back one of the Big Bad's attacks with her bare fists.
  • But Your Wings Are Beautiful: Zelgadis thinks he looks hideous; anyone else thinks he's just "unique".
  • Calling Your Attacks: 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 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.
  • Catch Phrase: Xellos's "Sore wa himitsu desu" or "That... is a secret".
  • Chaotic Neutral: Lina is almost definitive as a CN hero.
  • Cloning Blues: Vrumugun. Copy Rezo.
  • Cross Dresser: The principal male cast, once a season, for one episode each season, which is episode 17 of almost any given season.
  • Color Coded For Your Convenience: Lampshaded; Amelia thinks things really works this way.
    "Everyone knows the bad guy always wears black!"
  • Creepy Child: Hellmaster Phibrizo in Slayers Next, and 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.
  • Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: 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 Badass Normal about as far as it can go in this series.
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Fan opinions vary on what each individual character's C Mo A is, but it seems to be fan conensus that the climax of Slayers NEXT (particularly 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.
  • Crowning Momentof Funny: Too many to list. A lot of the filler episodes have at least one moment.
  • Crowning Music Of Awesome: In the final episode of Slayers: Evolution-R, 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.
    • And how can anyone forget the theme song for the first Slayers movie? The melody of "Midnight Blue" sounded very unique and haunting.
  • Cursed With Awesome: Why hello there, Zelgadis...
  • Deal With The Devil: Rezo.
  • Destructive Saviour: Lina
  • Devil In Plain Sight: Xellos, and it was designated-idiot Gourry who noticed; he didn't say anything because he thought it was so obvious.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu: Lina is slowly murdering her way up the Mazoku hierarchy. Gourry also bribed the Lord of Nightmares into giving Lina back to him.
    • With LoN there are at least other interpretations: either she answers questions and grant wishes to mortals just because she see no reasons not to, or she wanted to bring Lina back. Also, Xellos hinted—just in time—that there may be some law of balance...
  • Die For Our Ship: 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.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Rezo (but not his replica) and most Mazoku are quite calm or even mildly amused when fighting. Shaburanigdo even explained to the party why and how much Resistance Is Futile and almost rolled his eyes seeing how they just don't get it.
  • The Ditz: Gourry.
  • Dungeons And Dragons: 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 Dn D, more or less.
      • It was also adapted to the Big Eyes Small Mouth, 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") Dungeons And Dragons. 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.
  • Embarrassing Middle Name: 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.
  • Enemy Civil War: Dragon King vs. Hellmaster is the most obvious example. It's not like Gaav just allied with mortals, while Phibrizo plainly wants The End Of The World As We Know It. It also seems to be the main reason behind the actions of Xellos.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Zelgadis, Xellos
  • Epileptic Trees: 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.
  • Everythings Better With Princesses: Amelia, Martina
  • Evil Minions: Subverted. Zelgadis's henchmen Zolf and Rodimus are actually good guys, as is Zel himself. Villain With Good Publicity Rezo misleads Lina into thinking they're evil.
  • Evil Sorcerer: Rezo
  • Eyes Always Shut: Xellos, to mark his Mask Power. Also Rezo, for completely different reasons, specifically the shard of the greatest evil in the world sealed in his eyes.
  • Face Fault
  • Fake Boss: Rezo and Shaburanigdo, Gaav.
  • Fantastic Nuke: The Dragon Slave
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink
  • Fantasy Pantheon: 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.
  • Five Bad Band: The Mazoku Lords:
  • Five Man Band:
  • 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 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 Idiot Savant 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 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.
  • Flying Brick: 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.
  • Forgets To Eat: 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 catch seagulls.
  • Four Temperament Ensemble: Zelgadis is Melancholic, Amelia is Sanguine, Gourry is Phlegmatic, and Lina is most certainly Choleric.
  • Full Name Basis: Several villains, but especially 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.
  • Functional Magic
  • Gag Boobs: Naga
    • And Amelia is catching up rather quickly in Hourglass of Falces
  • Genki Girl: Amelia.
  • Genre Blindness: 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.
  • Giving Someone The Pointer Finger: Amelia does this a lot.
  • Go Karting With Bowser: 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.
  • Good Is Dumb: 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 Killed Off For Real when they try to escape the counterattack.
    • Somehow subverted in the finale of Evolution-R, where 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.
  • Good Is Impotent: In one OAV, Lina and Naga are on the trail of a villian searching for a Mc Guffin 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.
  • Good Is Not Nice: 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 Nice Is Not Good 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.
  • Glass Cannon: 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.
    • FLARE A-... Carrot?
    • Though she doesn't quite fit the "glass" part, what with being strongest at defensive spells in the whole party. Lina herself, however, got enough firepower to crush almost anything, but when attacked, she mostly dodged or countered an attack (contrast Nigh Invulnerable Rezo). And that's what Hellmaster wanted to exploit (he didn't rely on his non-instaneous sure death attack).
  • Glowing Eyesof Doom: Being a fantasy series, you'd expect a lot of these.
  • Gratuitous English: Many spell names, though this is handwaved 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.
  • Guest Star Party Member: 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.
  • The Gunslinger: parodied with Jillas.
  • Half Human Hybrid: 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.
  • Hand Behind Head: Gourry does this a lot.
  • Have You Tried Not Being A Monster: "It's not too late!", sure. A rare case when even Gourry is too astonished to facepalm.
  • Heel Face Turn: Zelgadis.
  • Hermetic Magic (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).
  • Heroic Sociopath: Lina
  • Hey Its That Voice: A ton, given that the English dub was produced by 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).
  • High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Surprisingly for many people used to the anime's slapstick tone and tendency towards Disney Deaths for minor characters, there's a certain amount of this, often in the form of Body Horror, 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.)
  • Holy Hand Grenade: The Holy Magic of the Golden dragons.
  • Ho Yay: Zelgadis and Rezo, before Rezo... well, you know. A flashback in season four of the anime shows Rezo putting a hand on human!Zel's cheek, making him do a Luminescent Blush. Made squickier when you realize that Rezo was either Zelgadis's grandfather or great grandfather. (This flashback was bizarre in other ways, too – apparently Zel used to be a very cheerful, cocky Rezo fanboy.)
  • Huge Guy Tiny Girl: Amelia and her father. Lina and Gourry to a lesser degree.
  • I Call It Vera: Filia's mace is named "Mace-sama".
  • Idiot Hero: Gourry.
  • Idiosyncratic Episode Naming, coupled with Excited Episode Title. The first and fourth seasons do so alphabetically!
  • Idol Singer: 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.
    • Not regular, this ritual truly got a spell woven in it. Which summoned pretty lights and a petals rain on a decent scale. Completely stunning everyone in the line of sight was obviously non-magical effect, though. If two present specialists were able to point out only after the routine that yes, the spell part was supposed to help the performance part and not vice versa, well, too bad.
  • I Have The High Ground: Amelia does this several times, including during her introduction.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Lina, Sylphiel, Eris, Martina, Naga, Gourry, and Naga again, just because.
  • In The Name Of The Moon: Amelia.
  • I Surrender Suckers: Zangulus wouldn't do that just to prevail over a man, but in such circumstances...
  • Jerk With A Heart Of Gold: Lina, who'd probably pawn it if she could.
  • Knight In Shining Armor / The White Prince: Parodied. Both Lina and Sylphiel has an image of a prince — noble, heroic, handsome, blond, clad in white, riding on a white charger. Then they meet Amelia's father, Philionel el di Seyruun. He's the Crown Prince. Very impressive looking and quite Bad Ass. Peace- and justice- loving. Merciful. Minor user of White Magic. He even sometimes rides on a white horse. Problems? He looks like a bandit who just climbed down the mountain, and is slightly nuts.
  • Konami Code: Played For Laughs, one of Amelia's famous finger pointing moments that she usually gives with her all-empowering support speeches actually prompts the code to activate on screen.
  • Lady Land: 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.
  • Laser Blade: Gourry's Sword of Light.
  • Leitmotif: Rezo has a particularly impressive one.
  • Licking The Blade: The shopkeeper in Season 1, Episode 2 does this after he becomes possessed by a cursed knife Lina tries to sell to him.
  • Literal Genie: 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.
  • Long Speech Tea Time: When Dilgear is ranting about punishing Zelgadis for his treachery and the death of the fishman Noonsa, the other henchmonsters are eating Noonsa.
  • Lovable Traitor: Xellos is the contemporary epitome of this trope.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Halcyform in Next, also Duclis in the manga version of Revolution.
  • Lord Error Prone: Amelia.
  • Love Freak: Amelia.
  • Magnificent Bastard - Xellos, naturally
  • Martial Pacifist: Parodied by Prince Phil, Amelia's father.
    • Amelia herself, especially in the Hourglass of Falces.
  • Mask Power: Xellos' eyes are almost always hidden by his hair or closed. If they ever open, bad things are happening.
  • Medieval European Fantasy
  • Megumi Hayashibara: Provides the voice of Lina, and also sings the theme song.
  • Memetic Badass: 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.
  • Model Couple- Lina/Gourry and Zelgadis/Amelia have similar clothes and hairstyles. Xellos and Filia, who are foils (with some Ship Tease), wear the complementary colors to each other.
  • Moe Moe: 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 Rei Ayanami.
  • Morality Pet: Gourry at times, especially useful for moments when Lina can act genuinely cutesy without it imposing on her badassness.
  • Mr Vice Guy: Lina.
  • Munchkin: All of the 'big five' (Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, and Naga) qualify as munchkins for any RPG system
  • Mundane Solution
  • Mysterious Watcher: Xellos.
  • Naive Newcomer: Gourry.
  • Nice Hat: Zangulus wears a cool old Pointy Hat that he never takes off, even for his wedding. Filia wears a helmet with gigantic Christmas ornaments stuck to the sides.
  • Nigh Invulnerable: 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 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.
  • Noble Demon: Zelgadis.
  • Noblewomans Laugh: Naga, who emptied an entire town with it. Lina also does this in one of the final episodes of Slayers Try, which scares Amelia.
  • No Fourth Wall: 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.
  • No Hugging No Kissing: Hajime Kanzaka wrote the novels this way, explicitly saying that there would be no romance. 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.
  • Non Serial Movie: of the five Slayers movies produced, the first four (which includes The Movie 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.
  • No Periods Period, 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 ridiculously buxom and extremely flaky sorceress called "Naga the Serpent", who served more or less as a one-woman Goldfish Poop Gang and Unknown Rival to Lina.
  • Oddly Named Sequel: 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: Zuuma and Abel in Evolution-R. The family that dies together stays together?
  • Our Hero Is Dead: Lina suffers what's supposed to be a 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!"
  • Paper Thin Disguise: Gaav's chief servants in Next. Less so with Filia in Try — she has Unusual Ears 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).
  • Parental Abandonment: 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, 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
  • Partly Cloudy With A Chance Of Death: Copy Rezo's death scene.
  • Perpetual Poverty: 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 Heel Face Turn and joins Lina.
  • The Pesci: As stated above, Lina has so many 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 Most Common Superpower.
  • Peek A Bangs: Gourry, Zelgadis, and Zangulus.
  • Pieces Of God
  • Pimped Out Dress: Amelia and Martina wear a couple.
  • Playboy Bunny: A cafe in the first season had bunnies serving the food. The costumes were even Easter colored (pink and yellow), with fur necklines the matched their bunny tails.
  • Player Archetypes: All of the main four characters fit the Munchkin File 'four types of role players'
  • Power Of Love: 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 Diplomacy checks to convince a being otherwise powerful beyond stats to bring back your dead girlfriend.
      • Although it was implied immediately thereafter that L-Sama brought Lina back on a whim.
    • It was on a border of the Sea of Chaos, or wherever course of L-Sama led. In the end he apparently moved just by willing to move. Then again, if his recipe of speed was "want it that badly", we're back to the Power Of Love.
  • Precision F Strike: Averted, as right when Amelia is about to say "piece of shit" in episode 11 of TRY, Lina cuts her off with a Sound Effect Bleep illustrating how wrong it is for royalty to swear.
  • Pre Explosion Glow: And how!
  • Previously On
  • Princesses Prefer Pink: Amelia's outfit has some pink touches, but she wore an actual pink dress in the first episode of Next.
  • Puppy Dog Eyes: Lina when she's trying to con someone, often Gourry.
  • Red Headed Hero: 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)
  • The Reveal: Numerous instances where a character turns out to be a Mazoku or in cahoots with a Mazoku.
    • The Lord of Nightmares' attitude and her statement that her power is inseparable from her personal attention and even presence. Which shows her relationship with Lina in a new light, especially when you remember the consequences nightmares of Zelgadis and Amelia has.
  • Reverse Funny Aneurysm: Lina was once the postergirl for "flat-chested". Compared to many many characters today, she is quite ample.
  • Roof Hopping
  • Schrodingers Cat: The anime, in spite of its lighter tone, tends to be a lot more bloodthirsty than the novels where side characters are concerned. Noonsa, Dilgear, Rubia, Abel, to name a few. Duclis from Revolution inverts this precedent, however, as 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.
  • Screwed By The Network: 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.
  • Sealed Evil In A Can: 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.
  • Shout Out: Amelia is at least in part a parody of Sailor Moon, 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 Single Minded Twins who look exactly like Shampoo, from Ranma One Half.
  • Sorting Algorithm Of Evil: Although most of that is because of the attention they get for offing the previous Big Bad.
    • 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).
  • Soul Jar: 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 - 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: 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 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.
  • Sphere Of Destruction: A lot of the most destructive spells in the series, including the Dragon Slave, work like this)
  • Spirited Competitor: Zangulus followed Gourry just to test who's the best swordsman.
  • Stealth Parody: Lina's group is rumored to be based on D&D campaigns; Zelgadis being a 'serious' player, Amelia an overdone Lawful Good type, while Gourry and Lina herself are powerhungry MinMaxers to explain their deficiencies elsewhere.
    • It's been suggested that the classic 'Four kinds of Roleplayers' are present in Slayers: Gourry is the 'Real Man', Zelgadis is the 'Real Roleplayer', Amelia is the '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.
  • Stern Chase: 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.
  • Stuffed Into The Fridge: She's never actually killed (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 how sympathetic she is when she gets hurt.
  • Stupid Sexy Flanders: Poor Zelgadis and Gourry when Lina and Amelia have access to surplus women's clothing.
  • Super Deformed: In some of the No Fourth Wall 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 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.
  • Take Our Word For It: Considering all the things Lina has faced, her sister Luna would have to be pretty tough to intimidate her.
  • Talking Animal: Jillas in Try and Pokota in Revolution.
  • The Sweat Drop: In one memorable episode, Lina becomes more exasperated than usual with Gourry's antics and actually takes her sweatdrop and beats him with it.
  • The Team Normal: Gourry
  • Team Shot
  • Technical Pacifist: Amelia and Prince Phil; especially Phil.
  • Theme Naming / Punny Name: Rowdy Gabriev, Gourry Gabriev.
    • Please Elaborate: How is that themed naming? They just share the same last name, because they're related.
  • They Fight Crime: Parodied. If you have a bandit problem, Lina will solve it.
  • Through His Stomach: Sylphiel is quite happy to hear "Gourry dear" really likes her cooking. Though, being Gourry, he fails to notice her demure but obvious advances.
  • Time Travel: The second movie.
  • Title Drop: In the very last episode of Evolution-R, Xelloss comments after the latest bout of going Beyond The Impossible that the heroes truly are "Slayers", having just offed a god for the second time.
  • Token Evil Teammate: 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 Person Of Mass Destruction and bloody mayhem is like crack to Mazoku.
    • It looks like he's not a glutton and is satisfied with suffering humans cause to themselves, what with his fancy for sports, pranks and Martina.
  • Tomboy And Girly Girl: Lina and Sylphiel.
  • Too Dumb To Fool: 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 Berserk Button
  • Un Cancelled: The third season of the TV series (Try) aired in 1997, the fourth (Revolution) in 2008.
  • Unknown Rival: Naga thinks Lina is her rival. Lina tries her best to forget Naga exists.
  • Underwear Of Power: Lina wears what looks like yellow bra and panties over her tunic and leggings. Martina also wears a thong over leggings.
  • The Unfunny: Zelgadis, poor guy.
  • Villain Teleportation
  • Visible Sigh: Lina and Zelgadis do this most often, but Amelia, Filia, and even Gourry have been known to occasionally.
  • The Wall Around The World: The magical barrier in season one and two.
  • Walking The Earth
  • The Watson (Gourry)
  • Weddings In Japan
  • Well Intentioned Extremist: Eris, sort of. She wants revenge for the death of her beloved and is willing to destroy the world to get it.
    • 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...
  • What The Hell Hero: Lina's actions sometimes go overboard in the eyes of one or more other characters.
  • Why Did It Have To Be Snakes: Lina is terrified of slugs. And her sister.
  • Wild Card: Xelloss. He switches from helpful to bullying and from saving the heroes butts to crossing them and back without as much as blinking, when it advances his plans. He's also loyal only to his creator and instrumental in the demise of two other Dark Lords, without participating directly.
  • The Woobie: 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. And even then it's not like they at least stay together and are happy. Isnt It Sad, 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 too damn genki to be held back by any of this.
  • Word Of God: the creator has stated in official interviews that Gourry Gabriev is not half-elven, despite the implications of The Movie, 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.
  • The World Tree: Holy Flagoon which is Zanafar's prison.
  • Worthy Opponent: Zangulus and Gourry.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy: Amelia, the self-proclaimed hero of justice in a show full of otherwise morally ambiguous characters. She's usually convinced her group are the good guys, even when they're clearly only in it to turn a profit, and often marks others as villains simply because they oppose her.
    • In one episode, she can't decide which side are the heroes: either Lina, or a pair of bounty hunters out to arrest her. Confused about who to help, she sits on the sidelines of the battle agonizing over it until she has an epiphany: "Of course! Justice always triumphs! So whoever loses will be the bad guy!" She then attacks BOTH groups at once, figuring whoever crawls out of the rubble was the hero.
  • Yaoi Fangirl: Lina and Amelia seem to enjoy dressing Gourry in girls' clothing a little too much, don't you think?
    • Peace... They just didn't play with dolls enough in more appropriate age and it sort of stuck.
  • You And What Army: in the first episode of Revolution, Wizer brings a small army along to help him arrest Lina. It's not enough.
  • You Fail Logic Forever: 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.
    • Well, at that point, the secret was already out and Xellos was already known by the party to have participated in the War. So when Xellos mentions how long ago the War took place, Gourry naturally concludes that he must be at least that old. Why this even mattered is still unknown, though.
  • You Look Familiar: in Slayers Evolution-R, the latest season, the characters meet an enchanted armor whose looks and voice reminds Lina of someone she met before and she's right: the enchanted armor is Naga!

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