スレイヤーズREVOLUTION Ep. 11
Slayers REVOLUTION Episode 11

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

With Zanaffar having been born after consuming Gioconda, Lina and company attack it without success. Lina decides the old tried-and-true Amplified Dragon Slave on the beast. The beast is unharmed at all and Pokota figures Zanaffar’s body is actually contained on the Astral Plane. His faux Sword of Light has no energy, so to the surprise of Lina’s party, Zanaffar speaks to them, having obtained the knowledge and ability of Gioconda when it was born. Zanaffar gives them a warning to stay out of its way and then burrows into the ground.

Duclis and Xellos take off, causing Duclis to wonder why Xellos is following him. Xellos states that the mazoku have an interest in Zanaffar. Further, his “superiors” would not be happy with him if he didn’t keep an eye on Duclis and the situation since the mazoku do not want Zanaffar to be mass-produced as this would be a problem for them. Duclis agrees, providing Xellos doesn’t interfere. Xellos has no problem with that.

Lina and party have traveled to a nearby inn where Lina and Gourry proceed to perform their normal chow-down ritual. Inspector Wiser is not pleased by this and demands to know what they are doing. Lina tells Wiser that they can’t fight on an empty stomach as she and Gourry call for more food, stating it is going on Wiser’s tab. After the food orgy has concluded, the topic of discussion turns to Zanaffar, where the legend of how the Sword of Light was what was required to defeat the dark beast is discussed. Since Pokota’s faux Sword of Light needs to recharge, there’s nothing they can do but stay at the inn.

That night, Zanaffar destroys the city of Brohkol, consuming the population (which causes him to grow) as Duclis and Xellos watch. Xellos seems quietly excited to hear Duclis talk of death, destruction and revenge at the hands of Zanaffar. Meanwhile back at the inn, Pokota has a memory-dream in which he and Duclis first see the disease that started plaguing their people. They tried healing people with no success.

That morning, Wiser hears of Brohkol’s destruction and rouses the others so that they can investigate. Back with Zanaffar, the beast is drinking water when Duclis decides to have a chat with it. Zanaffar agrees to destroy the countries Dulcis wants but in exchange, Zanaffar wants more of its kind to be made. Duclis appears to agree to Zanaffar’s wish, which is observed by Xellos who notes to himself that this is the problem with mass-production of Zanaffar. Xellos asks Duclis why he’s so bent on revenge seeing as how it was Gioconda who stole the relief money. Duclis states that the aid was only for these countries to retain honor while doing nothing, thus they are guilty.

Zanaffar’s destruction continues with Lina’s party always coming on the scene too late. Zelgadiss realizes that Zanaffar is growing as it consumes the populations of these cities. Zelgadiss and Wiser state that they need to get ahead of Zanaffar if they are going to stop its destruction. That night, Pokota decides to leave the camp to face Zanaffar on his own, but is stopped by Lina. As the Prince of Taforashia, Pokota needs direct his energies into a better way of stopping Zanaffar rather than go on a suicide mission. As such, Lina’s party will handle Zanaffar while Pokota handles Duclis.

As the group tries to figure out where Zanaffar might go next, Pokota reveals that he understands Duclis’s thinking and as such, Duclis is going to destroy every country that didn’t physically help them despite the monetary aid these countries sent. Amelia is upset when she learns that the various countries could have done more but didn’t for political reasons, but her anger turns to depression when she learns her own Saillune is one of the countries in question. After getting Amelia to accept that she’s not responsible, Pokota’s Sword of Light activates and a beam from it points to Zanaffar’s location, which is in the direction of Saillune.

Thoughts/Review:

I’m a little disappointed that Lina didn’t appear to know how Zanaffar is truly supposed to be, but since this is the anime adaptation and the previous incarnation of Zanaffar was something totally different, I suppose that can be excused. I just like it best when Lina is on her game in smarts and the like when it comes to the serious aspects of the story (as we are in now). Don’t get me wrong, she shows some of that here, but her book knowledge from trying to learn all that can be learned magic-wise is what I miss.

On a related topic, in Slayers, they go over the legend of Zanaffar there. Considering this is a new anime series, I’ve no problem with having the legend retold. However, I guess I expected Lina to go off on Gourry for claiming not to know about the legend when as the prior owner of the original Sword of Light, that legend went along with the sword. I want to say that even Gourry remembered it back then, but considering it has been a while since I saw Slayers, I could be wrong about that.

Since the franchise has established a pattern of “if we can’t beat this thing right away, we retreat, recharge, and attack again” (think back to Slayers and the fight with Ruby Eye Shabranigdu), I had no problems with the comedic interlude showing Lina and company scarfing. It does seem an odd thing to do though, doesn’t it? *lol* I guess that’s because of how the moment is played for comedy effect in addition to being a moment for the writers to inject some exposition.

As to Zanaffar himself, I do like how the writers are playing him, which is very much in keeping with how I remember him being in the novels. So, Xellos wants Duclis to create one true Zanaffar to create chaos and destruction all around. That makes sense because (1) Zanaffar wouldn’t be a threat to the mazoku as a whole and (2) that much negative emotion around would cause the mazoku to gain strength. Indeed, Xellos seemed very excited to hear about Duclis’s desire for death and destruction in the name of vengeance. However, Xellos was very much against producing more Zanaffar beasts, which I found interesting. I wonder if having multiple Zanaffar beasts consuming humans, elves, dwarfs, and even low-level mazoku might make them a threat to the high-level mazoku. I doubt Duclis gets the chance to make more, assuming his promise to Zanaffar was earnest.

With Saillune in the line of destruction and the miko Sylphiel slated to return according to the previews, I’m actually pretty excited about episode 12’s arrival. I hope Prince Phil shows up as well. ^_^