スレイヤーズREVOLUTION Anime episode 08
Slayers REVOLUTION 08

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Lina, Gourry, Zelgadiss, Amelia, and Pokota find their path through a valley blocked by a large building which is not on the map. Inspector Wiser shows up on an upper level of the building, stating he’d build this structure with the sole purpose of arresting Lina for the mage-tank destruction. Lina grabs Pokota to show the real culprit of these crimes, which leads to an insult-laced argument between Lina and Pokota. Wiser laughs at this show they are putting on and disappears inside. Despite knowing it is a trap, Lina and Pokota are determined to pass through the building leaving the others with no choice but to follow.

Inside the structure, Wiser is with dog-mage Flan and the cat-something Zollan along with Xellos. Wiser is amazed that Lina would go for such a trap and is grateful for Xellos’s help. Since Xellos is working for Marquis Gioconda, Xellos has no problem helping Inspector Wiser. Wiser wonders why the marquis has a need for the Sword of Light, which Xellos says is a secret. Wiser understands, leading Xellos to question why Wiser is so desperate to arrest Lina. Wiser informs Xellos that if he captures Lina, it will make his standing among the ladies of the royal court go way up.

Lina and company are observed entering the building and arriving at a dead end, where Lina is unable to resist pushing the button marked, “do not push.” Her group falls through the floor, much to Lina’s chagrin, but they begin making their way up a passage as Xellos tells Wiser what to do in order to capture Lina and company. When Lina and company emerge through a door at the top of the passageway, they find themselves in a royal garden with Wiser dressed as a prince while Flan and Zollan are dressed as ladies. Wiser puts the moves on Lina, who seems to be getting flustered by Wiser’s advances. However, when Wiser takes Lina’s hand, she electrocutes him and moves on her way.

Xellos has a second strategy for Lina and after Pokota pushes the “do not push button,” the group finds themselves in a snowy field. This time, Wiser is dressed as a knight who’s fought long and hard and is injured. He is attended to by fellow knights Flan and Zollan. In the middle of his speech, Lina has heard enough and blasts him. So, Xellos has a third strategy. This time, Wiser dresses as a Japanese high school punk leader (banchou) with Flan and Zollan dressed as adoring Japanese high school girls. Wiser challenges Lina to a non-magical fight as men, leading him to get blasted again. Xellos remembers that Lina doesn’t like slimy things (like snails), so Wiser oils himself up real good like a competition body builder while Flan and Zollan dress up as snails. They get blasted again.

As Lina and company try to move through the structure again, Wiser, Flan, and Zollan try to recover from being blasted. Xellos, who’s been laughing his butt off, decides it is time to stop playing. The final “do not press” button is on the floor of the hallway Lina and company are in, so Lina stomps it, causing a piece of the floor to elevate them up to the final room where Wiser, Flan, and Zollan are. Flan and Zollan begin to hum as Wiser begins speaking of Lina’s family. When Wiser mentions siblings, Lina immediately thinks of her older sister (“neechan”) and freaks out. Wiser keeps up the verbal ramblings, leading Lina to submit and surrender tearfully. However, he forgot about Lina’s companions, who soon end this little party.

Xellos teleports in and Lina recovers. Knowing who was behind Wiser’s weird actions, Lina ends up sending some insults Xellos’s way. Xellos reminds her there are some things one shouldn’t say and tells Lina that he needs her to come with him quietly. If she refuses, he tells her (as he opens his eyes) that he will not hold back. Pokota asks Lina who exactly Xellos is. Zelgadiss explains that even their combined might could not defeat Xellos. Despite this, Lina states that the stronger the opponent, the more she wants to take them down.

With this, she launches a Fireball at Xellos, that he easily dispels. Lina has the others attack as well. Although Xellos had threatened to get serious, it is clear that he is toying with Lina’s group as the fight continues. While this is going on, Lina whispers something to Pokota. She then launches a Bomb Di Wind spell at Xellos, but seems to accidentally catch Pokota in the wake, which sends the critter through the wall of the room and out of the structure. Xellos has easily defeated everyone with only Lina not having really done anything to him. He asks her what her move will be. Amelia feels that Lina has a plan but is as shocked as the rest of Lina’s group when Lina states she surrenders.

On the prison wagon heading for Ruvinagald, Wiser thanks Xellos-dono for helping capture Lina and company even if they didn’t get the Sword of Light. Inside the wagon, the others look dejected, unable to believe that Lina surrendered. Lina looks confident and when asks for her reasons, she tells them that there was no way to defeat Xellos. However, she needed to get Pokota out of the building so that he would be free to rescue them later. Besides, since they needed to get to Ruvinagald anyway to face Marquis Gioconda, being held captive gets them to that goal.

Thoughts/Review:

You know, I’d begun to hate Wiser, but I have to say that his supposed real reason for wanting to arrest the notorious Lina Inverse made me laugh out loud. I couldn’t help but laugh at how Xellos used Wiser to create various scenarios for Lina to be trapped by. It is at times like this that I’m glad I’ve seen so many anime titles so as to be educated in many of the parody situations presented here.

As to Lina’s fear of her “neechan,” that too amused me. One of the few funny moments in Slayers Try was when Lina read the note from her older sister telling her to just “do it” (the job she was being asked to do) which caused Lina to react in a most unexpected way. Here, the reaction was expected, but still amusing. I’d love for the anime to explore Lina and her sister at some point.

Xellos. Yeah. I really liked how the writers handled him. A mazoku of his strength is not someone they will be able to defeat (at least, not without something like Giga Slave, which is too dangerous to cast and takes too long to incant, which means Xellos wouldn’t allow it to be cast anyway). I can certainly understand his desire to be entertained (and possibly fed too considering how mazoku feed on emotions) but when it came time to be more serious, the writers did things quite well.

Now, it seems to me that Xellos could have prevented Pokota from being ejected from the room by Lina’s Bomb Di Wind (cleverly made to appear to be an attack on Xellos which accidentally caught Pokota) spell and that he simply could have teleported out, grabbed the critter and his sword, and re-entered the building to take care of the rest. Xellos is likely up to something else though, which would mean that allowing Pokota to escape serves his purposes best.

It is interesting that Xellos is only known as a magic user to Wiser. I found it very interesting that Xellos seemed uncomfortable being addressed as “Xellos-dono.” Then again, this may be due to the fact that Wiser is using the honorific to express a great deal of respect to Xellos (above the “san” level), but not elevating Xellos above Wiser’s level (that’s one way the “dono” honorific is used). Of course, that makes Wiser’s later addressing Xellos as “Xellos-kun” more amusing. However, again I found it interesting that when Wiser shifts back to addressing Xellos as “Xellos-dono,” Xellos didn’t object.

Overall, a really fun episode. Wiser didn’t annoy me this time and Xellos showed a flash of his true self, so it is a win-win there. Plus, we are one step closer to advancing the plot a bit further.