The hit Japanese animated series SLAYERS spun off its first movie back in 1995. The film is actually a prequel to the series, and reveals the pasts of some of the characters. Of course, if you are viewing SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE for the first time, you won’t pick up on these revelations. The popular SLAYERS series is a fantasy/comedy about the adventures of two rival sorceresses. One sorceress (the protagonist), Lina Inverse, carries with her a rather large insecurity complex. You see, though she is a powerful sorceress, she is very short and she has a flat chest. She can be easily manipulated if you mention her shortcomings, but be careful; she’s got an extremely hot temper and she’s libel to lay you out with her magic spells. Her rival (and sometimes ally) is a sorceress named Nahga the Snake. Nahga is a super-sexy, big-breasted, amazon woman who wears an unbelievably skimpy outfit. Nahga constantly makes life miserable for Lina by flaunting her large breasts in front of the flat-chested Lina. Lina and Nahga have fought together and against each other during the run of the three seasons of the SLAYERS series. For SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE, they are allied with one another against a supernatural menace. ADV Films, purveyors of fine Japanese animated series and films in the west, presents SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE uncut on DVD.

Lina and Nahga travel to the magical island of Mipross, to bath in hot springs, which are promised to be the best in the world. Long ago, Mipross Island used to be home to a race of elves. A wizard named Rowdy actually summoned Lina and Nahga to Mipross to do his bidding. Rowdy wants Nahga to fight a demon called Joyrock, but she is not interested. So Rowdy promises her a bath in the Fountain of Growth. A mystical hot spring similar to the Fountain of Youth, except it causes stimulated growth instead of the reversal of aging. And Lina wants nothing more than to add height to her frame, and grow larger breasts.

The hot springs actually turn out to be fake, and Nahga exposes the owners for the frauds they are. The owner turns out to be a wizard himself, and he summons a giant water dragon to kill Lina and Nahga. Nahga responds by creating a giant rock monster to dispatch the water dragon. Later the evil forces of Joyrock descend upon Lina and Nahga, and their leader succeeds in bewitching Lina. Nahga creates another giant monster composed of living rock—this time a giant stone dragon. However, Nahga made an error when she executed the spell that brought the stone dragon to life; the creature is wildly disproportionate, and cannot sustain it’s own body weight. It stumbles into a nearby kingdom, destroying much of the property.

Lina and Nahga come before the King and Queen of the island, who offer them forgiveness for destroying their property, if they fulfill a task. The task is to challenge the evil Joyrock. The wizard Rowdy is behind the monarch’s task. When Rowdy offers Lina the opportunity to bath in the Fountain of Growth, she agrees. But she has no idea how powerful the demon is. Lina and Nahga battle Joyrock and his minions, but Joyrock escapes the fray unharmed. You see, Joyrock has the ability to bend the fabric of reality and escape to another dimension. The combined powers of Lina and Nahga just can’t get the job done. The only way to defeat Joyrock is to travel back in time and beat his younger self. And Rowdy the wizard has the means to send Lina back in time. Lina must go back in time and change history if she is to save the world from the menace of Joyrock (and get her bigger boobs in the bargain).

SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE suffers from the problems common in any TV series to movie translation. For instance, even hard-core STAR TREK fans will tell you, though they love a certain series (such as THE NEXT GENERATION), the films usually disappoint. Weekly series have an advantage because the writers can make characters grow before the eyes of the audience, and there is plenty of time for character development. The main problems of SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE is an uneven, meandering script, and a plot with more holes than Swiss cheese. The secondary problem with SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE is character development. Perhaps the filmmakers figured the characters have already been explored in the series, but that is bad logic when creating a stand-alone feature film.

Ironically, the most well-defined character in SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE is Joyrock the demon. Though he doesn’t come into the film until the halfway point, the filmmakers show his strengths, weaknesses, powers, and nasty personality. Joyrock has shape-changing abilities, and exhibits great strength and resiliency. On top of that he can also slip into the fabric of reality, and bend it to suit his needs. He uses his reality-shaping powers to conjure up demonic monsters to do his evil bidding. In one startling scene (after Lina and Nahga think they have killed him), the two sorceress’ stop at a nearby town and ask the townspeople for some drinking water. The normal townspeople suddenly mutate into ghoulish walking corpses right out of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Joyrock has a flair for the theatrical, and makes for a truly memorable villain.

Though Lina and Nahga are rivals, they have a truly deep relationship, despite the bickering that goes on the surface. They know each other too well. Nahga knows what buttons to push when she wants to make her point with Lina. Lina appears to be the more powerful sorceress, and she keeps reminding Nahga of this fact. Much of the humor in the film comes from this interplay between them. Nahga the Snake is not a well-defined character in SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE, but its hard to resist her charms. She has a very snooty and bitchy demeanor, and the audience is not supposed to identify with her. But she is so beautifully designed and realistically animated, that she literally bursts off the screen and into your imagination. Nahga dresses in some truly provocative outfit that will have you reaching for the rewind button.

Though the plot and script of SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE won’t win any awards, the pacing and the presentation complement each other, and deliver an adventurous mix of Sword and Sorcery, Dungeons and Dragons, and Abbott and Costello. I love the in-jokes about breast size that constantly run throughout the film. The character and creature designs are inspired, and the filmmakers obviously put a lot of effort technically into SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE. I’m sure the filmmakers would be very happy with the treatment afforded their film by ADV Films.

There is an extras menu that contains character profiles (for Lina Inverse, Nahga the Serpent, Rowdy the Wizard, Joyrock the Demon, Juliano Jubibieno, Sorcerer A, and Lagos). There is a slideshow that consists of 11 cel drawings. Included are three different trailers for SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE. These trailers are differentiated as ‘mixes’ and are matched with Techno music. The Jelly’s Revenge Mix trailer is 1.85.1, DD 2.0, and is 1:30 long. The Latin Lingo Mix trailers is 1.85.1, DD 2.0, and runs 1:15. The Slayers OVA Mix is Full Frame, DD 2.0, and runs 1:40.

There is a menu option for English translation credits and voice cast. You can access ADVFilms Web site. The highlight of the extras is the ADV trailers menu. The trailers are all full frame with Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo: QUEEEN ESMERELDAS, SORCERER HUNTERS, THOSE WHO HUNT ELVES, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, LEGEND OF CRYSTANIA, BATTLE ANGEL, NINJA RESSURECTION, CITY HUNTER, SAKURA WARS, TEKKEN, SLAYERS: THE MOTION PICTURE, and DIRTY PAIR FLASH.

- Tony Mustafa