Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Slayers Great

Slayers Great; animated fantasy comedy short, Japan, 1997: D: Kunihiko Yuyama, Hiroshi Watanabe, S: Megumi Hayashibara, Maria Kawamura, Kikuko Inoue

Sorceresses Lina Inverse and Naga arrive in a remote village and save a girl, Laia, from a Golem-bull. She brings them to her father, Galia, who is producing numerous Golem-robots for entertainment, and is in clash with his son Huey who only wants to build erotic Golem-women. Galia is approached by Lord Haizen and Granion, who want to rule the village between their two castles, because they want him to build a Golem-army in order to battle each other. Instead, Huey and Galia build a giant Golem of Naga and a giant Golem of Lina, and put them into those two in order to let them fight. The fight is ridiculous, and Haizen and Granion abandon their idea after Naga and Lina destroy the Golems.

The third anime movie based on the "Slayers" franchise, "Slayers Great" is sort of like an alloy of three very funny episodes of the series, without any further mediocre or lukewarm follow-up episodes which would potentially disrupt the high impression left on the viewers. Equipped with deliciously crispy animation, a fast pace, a cordial mood thanks to a wonderful setting of a picturesque village situated in a valley over which two castles reside, an auto-ironic jab at the 'mecha' genre in anime (in the finale, Lina pilots a giant Lina Golem, and Naga a giant Naga Golem), as well as one of the most irresistibly cute drawn anime characters ever, the pink haired Laia, "Great" is such a simple delight that some viewers felt betrayed for not getting anything more out of the storyline, yet nothing more is needed, anyway, when the jokes are so much fun. From the opening gag where Lina and Naga save the life of Laia, only to follow her across the village in order to "subtly" impose a guilt in her of giving them some sort of a reward, through the magic-duel between the two heroines at night interrupted by angry villagers who throw pots at them for not letting them sleep in peace, up to the silly Golem battle which mimics and spoofs "Gundam" and "Evangelion", this is a relaxed and childish short - but it is so much fun when the authors know how to find a right balance of the content.

Grade;+++

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